Yahoo Sports U.S. Air Force Serviceman and Wife Caught up in Bizarre Double Murder That’s Stunned Britain: Report
A member of the U.S. Air Force was arrested and then released in connection with two fatal shootings in the U.K. this week, according to a report.
A Daily Mail story claimed that a 27-year-old serviceman from Ohio, believed to be a member of the U.S. Air Force stationed in Britain, was one of three people detained on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. The report also claimed that the serviceman’s wife and her father were the other two people arrested.
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A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police, the force handling the investigation, told The Daily Beast that they cannot confirm the identities of anyone arrested until they have been charged. The force has also yet to formally identify the victims of the two shootings.
But according to the British media reports, the victims were Joshua Dunmore, 32, and his father, Gary Dunmore. Joshua was found dead at a house in the Cambridgeshire village of Bluntisham on Wednesday evening, and his 57-year-old father was then found dead in a property around six miles away.
In a news release Friday, Cambridgeshire Police said that the arrested 27-year-old man had been released along with a 33-year-old woman “with no further action taken.” “A 66-year-old man, of no fixed abode, remains in custody,” the statement added.
The force said earlier in the week that officers were called to two locations after receiving reports of gunshots. Authorities have only confirmed the suspects’ ages during the investigation.
On Thursday, the force’s Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Hutchinson confirmed that the victims were father and son, but did not confirm their identities. “It’s been widely reported in the media that this may relate to a custody battle,” Hutchinson said of the killings. “I can confirm that is an active line of inquiry for us.” He added that the “primary line of investigation” was that the deaths were connected to a “familial issue.”
According to report in The Sun newspaper, Joshua Dunmore had won custody of his son shortly before he was killed. A “friend” of his told the tabloid that his ex’s new partner is American and had planned to take the child to the U.S. if Dunmore hadn’t won custody. “That’s why Josh had to push for full custody, to stop her taking him over there,” the unnamed friend said. “But what should have been the best day of his life ended up being his last, the day he was killed. It’s just horrendous.”
The report in The Sun described Joshua’s ex’s new partner as a United States Air Force airman.
Fatal shootings remain rare in the U.K. In the year ending March 2022, only 28 homicide victims in England and Wales were killed by shooting, according to Britain’s Office for National Statistics.
The relative lack of gun deaths may account for neighbors’ reported initial lack of alarm when they heard shots. Sarah lown, who lives where Gary Dunmore was allegedly found, said she heard three bangs shortly after 9 p.m. on Wednesday. “I thought something had blown over,” Lown, 38, told the Mail. “I didn’t think anything crazy had happened. Then I heard two more.”
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