On 28 June, the murder enquiry started in earnest. Dr Alan Usher, the Home Office pathologist, conducted a postmortem on Mrs Wood. The reports at the time noted that a commando squad was brought in, and other staff from Lincoln and Grimsby, as a search began. It did not take long for a search to be undertaken, and dogs were used in this also. The images of the time show a cluster of busy and concerned senior officers around the ordinary semi-detached house, and a sense of high drama.

At the hearing, held the day after, the coroner, Mr Alan Collins, adjourned the inquest. But some of the facts of the case came out at that time, such as that Sergeant John Cooper, the brother of the victim, identified Glenis, and it was at this point that her pregnancy was confirmed.

As the process went on, there were several adjournments and extensions of remand, but Wood finally went to trial at Leicester in November. The full events of the night of the killing then emerged. He had been having a relationship with a woman colleague, and they had talked about his obtaining a divorce from Glenis. On this night, he had been working the night shift in Ashby, to the south of Scunthorpe centre, and this had clearly been done so that he was near to where the ‘other woman’ in the case lived. He had left her a note stuck on his car after spending some time in the police club. They met later on, she driving to Ashby to collect him; he was then not seen by any other officer on the beat and he did not answer calls, later insisting that his radio had been faulty. Finally, he was found and collected to have some refreshments, by Messingham Road (close to Ashby High Street). When he took a lift home from PC Rogers, the latter noted that, on arrival, he had seen that some of the doors were open after he had been invited in for some tea, and he had asked about Mrs Wood, and whether she would like a drink. Shortly after this she was found, half out of bed, and after a doctor was called to attend, her death was certified and it was clear that she had been strangled. Wood had killed her as she slept.

After a long period of adjournments, the trial lasted only ten minutes and Wood pleaded guilty. Mr Justice Bristow had little to do that day but to listen and then pass sentence.

As with all small towns, there are stories in the quiet suburbs that shock the local people: this was a notable example of this type of crime. In the long stretch of suburbs from the central part of the town out to Riddings, the streets have known their share of killings: knifings in the peaceful crescents and wife-murder in the front rooms. But there was something especially alarming in the fact of a police officer committing such a terrible crime in a ‘police house’ and the aftermath is still there in the memories of older residents.

The conclusion of this tragic story has to be that, whatever the emotional entanglements and personal relationships that would be central to the story, the end is that a twenty-threeyear-old man was given a life sentence: a man who had clearly given the world the semblance of being a happy family man. Charles McCullough’s defence at the trial, put this succinctly and powerfully: he said that if he had not done this terrible thing, ‘he would now have a wife whom he loved, a daughter of two and a son aged six weeks. And he would still have been a police constable.’

It has been noted that the day after the murder, Wood wrote a letter to his colleagues in the force. That must have been a very hard thing to do.