A ‘jealous’ man stabbed his waitress fiancé to death after learning that she was having an affair – before dying in a high-speed police chase as he tried to evade justice, an inquest heard.
How He Killed His Fiancé
Ben Crosby, 46, knifed Becci Rees-Hughes to death and bludgeoned her with a baseball bat at their family home in Beverley, East Yorks., before ringing his parents.
He Said Goodbye And Fled The Scene
When they arrived at the house on the morning of July 25, 2022, they found 37-year-old Becci’s bloodied body slumped on a sofa.
Crosby then came into the house and asked his father what he was going to do.
When his father told him he was going to call the police, Crosby responded: ‘I’m gone’ and walked out the back door.
His mother ran out after him and Crosby walked back in, gave them a hug and said he was sorry before he sped off in his VW Polo, sparking a police manhunt.
He Died in High-speed Police Chase
Crosby reached speeds of up to 84mph before he rounded a bend and crashed head-on with a van, leaving the driver – an electrician on his way to work – with life-changing injuries.
The jury at Hull Coroners Court took three hours to return a verdict of accidental death.
In a statement, the electrician said it looked like Crosby ‘purposely turned onto my side of the road’.
READ ALSO: Anya Taylor-Joy is accused of ‘promoting starvation’ as she POSES topless in a waist-cinching corset
He added: ‘I assumed the vehicle would correct its path but it continued towards me’.His account was backed by two police officers, one of whom stated that Crosby didn’t brake and seemed to deliberately ram the van coming in the opposite direction.
Forensic collision investigator Nicholas Brady-Smith said while the van driver tried to take evasive measures ‘no such attempt was made by the Polo’.
The jury concluded by a majority of eight to two that Crosby died accidentally after he negotiated the bend ‘on the opposite carriageway and collided with a Ford Transit van’.
