AMANDA MURDER INQUIRY: KILLER Ian Cortis probably hanged himself on Friday morning after hearing a news bulletins speculating a body thought to be missing nursery assistant Amanda Edwards had been found, police believe.
Just hours earlier detectives had released the 48-year-old body builder from custody.
Instead of returning to his own home in Lineacre Close, Grange Park, Swindon, he went instead to the house owned by his parents in-law in Calne.
His wife Vilette and their two children Tyler, five, and Gabriel, one, had gone there a week earlier on April 2 after a huge row.
Cortis would have arrived at the modern semi-detached house in Woodsage Way, Calne, some time after midnight on Friday.
The next morning radio and TV reports put out information, not released by the police, that a body had been found in Malmesbury.
Cortis' body was discovered by his mother-in-law on Friday lunchtime.
An inquest into his death is due to be opened in Trowbridge at 10am today.
It is understood that evidence found on the body discovered buried under four feet of rubble on the building site at The Knoll housing development in Malmesbury would have been sufficient to convict Cortis of the murder.
The plasterer, who in 1988 had been convicted of two charges of rape at Bodmin Crown Court in Cornwall, is thought to have realised it would be just a short time until he was re-arrested and charged by police and decided to take his own life.
It is believed his 26-year-old wife, who had become friendly with Miss Edwards through her work at Little Foxes Nursery in Brinkworth, knew about his rape convictions.
Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett said: "Until we found the body I wasn't 100 per cent convinced he was the right man.
"What we found made it totally clear we didn't need to be looking for anyone else. I hadn't been that worried about letting him go as I knew that if we found something new we would have been able to re-arrest him and have a whole new 96 hours in which to question him.
"But we did not take the decision lightly and the recovery of Amanda's body only happened minutes before the 96 hour maximum detention time was due to expire.
"Everything we did we did completely by the book and all the decisions I took are written down in a log that can be examined.
"We had to make sure that nothing we did would destroy the evidence and it would have been stupid to have gone blundering in and unearthed the body when the experts could be with us the next day.''
It is not thought that Miss Edwards and Cortis were particularly friendly. She been a babysitter for Cortis and his wife but it is understood she was frightened of the burly bodybuilder.
She went missing on Thursday two weeks ago after dropping her boyfriend David Board, 19, at his home in Bremhill, near Calne, at 11.30am.
She was then seen on CCTV in Wootton Bassett at 11.55am on the same day, alone in her car.
It is believed that she and Cortis exchanged mobile telephone calls around this time but what happened next is unclear.
Forensic teams have taken Cortis' home in Grange Park apart room by room but nothing substantial has been found.
His van has also been sent to a police laboratory for examination.
On Thursday last week, after Cortis had been in custody for three days, specialist dog units from Wales and Yorkshire were called in.
The dogs were used at Cortis' home in Grange Park, other sites in Swindon that he was known to have visited and most importantly at The Knoll in Malmesbury. One of the dogs, Eddie, became interested in a particular area of ground on the site which made his handler believe he could have found something of interest.
The site was covered with a tent and expert forensic archaeologists from the University of Birmingham were contacted to ensure no evidence would be destroyed during the recovery of the body. Earth was meticulously removed and bagged and as the search progressed, the dog's reaction made it clear they were at the right location.
Eventually a body wrapped in many layers of parceling was recovered but at this stage police could still not be certain it was Amanda's body.
A separate package, later found to contain her handbag and other personal goods, was also found and it was through these that detectives knew it was the body of the missing woman.
The packaging used is thought to tie Cortis in with Miss Edwards' death.
Det Ch Supt Howlett said: "The dogs we used are specially trained and were used in the Soham case. One of them showed a partial indication over a particular location at around tea time on Thursday.That means it was showing quite a lot of interest but not going totally berserk about it. But at this stage we could not be certain. I decided to call in the forensic archaeologists who are an academic team more used to digging up ancient skeletons and are totally professional.
"Even when the body was excavated we could not be sure it was Amanda because of the amount of wrapping and packaging. The body had to be taken to the mortuary when in a controlled environment the packaging could be removed.
Miss Edward's family were accompanied to the site by family liaison officers on Sunday.
An inquest into Miss Edwards' death is due to open at 10am today.
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