Cause of death unknown for mother of three who was killed by husband 24 years ago
How her husband, the pregnant mother of three, killed her, an inquest revealed after she was murdered by him more than 20 years ago.
Debbie Griggs may have been murdered by her husband Andrew in 1999 at her parents’ home in Deal, Kent, before being buried 170 miles away.
It wasn’t until October last year that her remains were discovered in her husband Andrew’s former garden in St Leonards, Dorset.
A short hearing yesterday at Kent’s Maidstone County Courthouse revealed that the exact circumstances of how Debbie died may never be known.
A post-mortem examination classified her death as of decomposition.
Debbie Griggs (left) was likely killed by her husband Andrew (right) at her parents’ home in 1999 before being buried 170 miles away.
A 34-year-old nurse by training disappeared from her home almost 24 years ago. Her murderer’s husband later claimed she had postpartum depression, which she didn’t.
She was pregnant at the time and already had three young sons aged 18, 4 and 6 months when she was reported missing.
Griggs was convicted of murder in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison after a cold case review by police.
Upon being informed, officers dug up the garden on the Dorset property and found a body containing a fragment of a tooth, matching Mrs Griggs.
board member After investigating Debbie’s whereabouts, they excavated the backyard of the house Andrew moved into in July 2001.
The couple’s three sons, and eventually Griggs’ second wife, also lived in the house, unaware that Debbie was buried under the patio.
Police found a human remains in the yard, including a fragment of a tooth. A post-mortem revealed that the teeth belonged to Debbie.
Sarah Clarke, the North Kent area coroner who formally opened the recent inquest into her death, said:
Griggs was convicted by a jury at the Canterbury Criminal Court in October 2019. The judge initially accused the fishermen and sailors of dumping Debbie’s body into the sea.
“She was identified by dental records.
“The situation is that she was reported missing from her home on May 6, 1999 and was last seen on May 5.
“In October 2019, her husband Andrew Griggs was convicted of her murder, but her body has never been found.
“Her death is believed to have been at her home address.”
A total of £250 in cash and her white Peugeot 309 were also missing when she first went missing.
It took her husband, Andrew, whom she married in 1990, 24 hours to call the police.
Griggs remarried and the couple lived in the house where his first wife’s body was buried
Afterwards, he told them that she had gone missing before and had returned, so he was sure she would return.
He said that after they rowed, this time she ran away with the car.
A public complaint was filed to find Debbie, and a few days after her disappearance, her car was found 1.3 miles from the family’s home.
Her blood was found in it, but no further trace of her was found.
After investigating Debbie’s whereabouts, police exhumed the backyard of the house in St. Leonards, Dorset, where the murderer’s husband, Andrew Griggs, had moved in in July 2001.
The police eventually begin to realize that Griggs, a fisherman, has a motive for killing Debbie.
She apparently found out that he had been having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl and made no attempt to hide him.
Twenty years later, a murder trial judge concluded that he groomed the child.
The couple ran a business together called the Griggs Freezer Center on South Street in Deal.
Her husband is believed to have feared he could lose half if he divorced over his involvement with the teenager.
In 2019, Griggs, who remarried and moved to Dorset with his sons, was charged in Debbie’s death following a review of the case.
He was put on trial and accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body.
A total of £250 in cash and Debbie’s white Peugeot 309 were also missing when she first went missing.
A Canterbury Criminal Court jury convicted him in October 2019 and sentenced him to life in prison for murder, with a minimum sentence of 20 years.
Griggs never disclosed the whereabouts of the body, and police never found any forensic material proving that he killed her or that she died.
However, during her sentencing for murder, the judge said she suspected Griggs, who was a fisherman, dumped her body into the waters of the English Channel.
Judge Robin Spencer, who sentenced Griggs, said, “Her body was never found. Only you know how you killed her and where you disposed of her body.
“You continued to lie in the witness box, just like when Debbie disappeared.”
In 2020, the former couple’s three sons, Jeremy, Jake and Luke, launched a social media page called ‘Find Mom’, believing she was still alive and her father innocent.
However, two years later, on October 17, 2022, Kent police revealed that Debbie’s body was found buried in a garden in Dorset.
This is the land Griggs moved to in 2001 with his second wife and sons, and officers said the new action was taken based on “information received.”
It is not known how or when Debbie ended up in the garden.
Coroner Miss Clark said a date for the resumption of the inquest has not yet been confirmed.
