Husband murdered new wife before stealing her money for round-the-world trip

A Nottingham man has been sentenced to serve at least 30 years in prison after admitting to murdering his wife, before stealing her money and spending two-and-a-half years travelling the world.

Jamie and Debbie Starbuck married in in April 2010, and Mrs Starbuck was last seen alive six days later. Although her body has never been found, Mr Starbuck is believed to have killed her and dismembered her body, before burning her remains at their home.

The Daily Mail reports that there were no concerns about Debbie Starbuck's whereabouts until two years after the wedding, when one of her friends contacted the police.

This is because friends and family believed that she was enjoying her overseas trip, as Mr Starbuck had been sending email updates to his wife's family from her email account.

However police soon discovered that Mrs Starbuck's passport had expired and that money had been transferred from her account to her husband's.

Mr Starbuck was arrested at Heathrow Airport in January, after flying in from Brazil. He had two of his wife's bank cards in his wallet and his laptop contained a written confession in which he admitted to his wife's murder.

The Mirror reports that Mrs Starbuck had inherited £150,000 after the death of her mother and evidence revealed that Mr Starbuck had spent £65,000 of it funding his round-the-world trip.

Mrs Starbuck's sister, Beth, paid tribute to her sister and said: "There are so many things about this that are almost impossible to bear. The unbelievable and shocking fact that she is dead, has been dead for so long and we didn't even know.

"For nearly three years we thought we were communicating with her until, with the slow unravelling of the threads, we knew she could no longer be with us. We had no opportunity to say goodbye and no opportunity to grieve. We were living with the illusion that she was alive and happy and travelling around the world with Jamie."

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