This is the epilogue to a gruesome crime. Darren McKie was found guilty of murdering his wife. How did this policeman come to kill her? The story is chilling, as the Manchester Evening News explains.
Discover our latest podcast
The perfect life
Darren, 43, was enjoying life with his wife Leanne and three children in a £430,000 villa in an upmarket area of Manchester, England. On social networks, several photos showed that the family could afford £4,300 a week holidays and expensive cars. Paradise? Not quite.
Loans galore
Darren McKie was lying in order to achieve all this. The 40-year-old had serious financial problems. He had to take out more and more bank loans in order to live this lavish lifestyle. He owed so much that at the end of the month the family had only £80 left to live on.
By playing with fire, Darren McKie ended up getting burnt: he was banned from banking. To be able to continue borrowing, he found a solution: use his wife's identity without telling her. This method worked until the day his wife discovered the deception when she opened a letter.
Leanne then decided to text him:
You're a liar. I just got a document for a loan in my name, with my passport. WTF?
A few hours later, she was found dead, 6 miles from the McKie home. It was Darren who had killed her, by strangulation, as he himself confessed at his trial.