Man who murdered midwife lover and buried her body jailed for life
A man who admitted murdering his midwife lover in a “rage” at her home has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years.
Samantha Eastwood’s body was discovered in a shallow grave at Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, wrapped in a duvet, with tape around her eyes and face, eight days after disappearing.
The midwife was reported missing by concerned colleagues on July 27 after she failed to show up for a night shift at Royal Stoke University Hospital.
Michael Stirling, 32, who is the brother-in-law of the victim’s former fiance John Peake, was jailed at Stafford Crown Court on Monday, as Miss Eastwood’s family watched from the public gallery.
Landscape gardener Stirling, of Gratton Road, Stoke, pleaded guilty to murdering the 28-year-old at a hearing in October.
His barrister Charles Miskin QC told the judge then that the killing had not been premeditated, but had followed a period of “growing tension” between the couple, leading to a row at her home in Greenside Avenue, Stoke.
Stirling flew into an “intense rage”, suffocating and strangling his victim, before “panicking” and burying Miss Eastwood’s body at a disused quarry.
He tried to cover his tracks by duping her family with text messages sent from Miss Eastwood’s phone and pretending to help in searches for her after the alarm was raised.
