Howard Ainsworth

Howard Ainsworth and Bea Ainsworth were found dead at their home in Wilmslow in 1996.

The case was initially considered a murder/suicide but it was later claimed in August 2020 that they could have been murdered.

It was thought that Howard Ainsworth had first stabbed Bea Ainsworth to death and then suffocated himself with a plastic bag over his head.

Notes were found in the house and the police thought that no one else was involved.

However, in 2020 it was reported that they could have been the victims of a serial killer that had been targeting pensioners.

It was noted that as well as their murders, another elderly couple were murdered in 1999, less than two miles away, and that their murders were also considered to have been a murder suicide at the time. However, in 2020 it was reported that following a review of the two cases using modern techniques, that both cases were likely to have been murders.