{"id":3925,"date":"2026-07-11T23:36:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2026-07-11T23:36:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:36:47","slug":"suspect-in-widdecombe-killing-released-search-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3925","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in Widdecombe killing released, search continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/ph\/st\/th\/3281783789372\/2026\/upi_com\/5b2652fbcf67ebd69e67d4972b3a5f8a\/v1.5\/Suspect-in-Widdecombe-killing-released-search-continues.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ann Widdecombe was slain in her home on Wednesday. A man was arrested Friday, but on Saturday police announced he had been released and is no longer a suspect. File Photo by Vickie Flores\/EPA<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"story_dl\">July 11 (UPI) &#8212;<\/span> A man arrested in the attack and killing of British former Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe has been released, and police announced she had been attacked a full day before she was found dead in her home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our murder inquiry is in its early stages but moving at a significant pace. We are deploying all of the necessary resources to find out exactly what has happened,&#8221; Devon and Cornwall Assistant Chief <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cgjx912wxw3o\" target=\"_blank\">Constable Matt Longman<\/a> said.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said Widdecombe, 78, <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/07\/ann-widdecombe-death-homicide-1236979243\/\" target=\"_blank\">had been attacked<\/a> about 24 hours before she was found dead on Thursday. Someone became concerned when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/world\/uk-police-release-man-arrested-over-killing-of-former-politician-ann-widdecombe\" target=\"_blank\">she didn&#8217;t show up<\/a> for a scheduled TV interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Longman said police had arrested a white, British man, 26, on suspicion of the attack. On Saturday, they said he&#8217;s no longer a suspect.<\/p>\n<p>Widdecombe was a Conservative member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010 for the Kent constituency of Maidstone, later Maidstone and the Weald. She joined the Brexit party in 2019 and served as a member of the European Parliament, representing South West England, between 2019 and 2020. She was also a member of Brexit&#8217;s successor, Reform UK.\n<\/p>\n<p>Former MP and leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage said he was &#8220;deeply, deeply upset&#8221; by the nature of her death, and that Britain was &#8220;a much, much poorer place without her,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/crime\/ann-widdecombe-death-what-happened-murder-suspect-b3013111.html\" target=\"_blank\">The Independent reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Reform UK is certainly a much worse place without her. I was expecting to see her in Clacton over the course of the next few days. Sadly, that is not going to happen,&#8221; Farage said.<\/p>\n<p>Anton Du Beke, her partner on the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing, has said he was &#8220;devastated&#8221; to hear that Widdecombe had died. They had danced together on the show in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She became a real friend,&#8221; Du Beke said. &#8220;She was fun. She was upbeat. She was positive. She was supportive. We had an incredible time together and we stayed firm friends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ann Widdecombe was slain in her home on Wednesday. A man was arrested Friday, but on Saturday police announced he had been released and is no longer a suspect. File Photo by Vickie Flores\/EPA July 11 (UPI) &#8212; A man arrested in the attack and killing of British former Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdnph.upi.com\/sv\/ph\/og\/upi_com\/3281783789372\/2026\/1\/5b2652fbcf67ebd69e67d4972b3a5f8a\/v1.5\/Suspect-in-Widdecombe-killing-released-search-continues.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}