A father who killed his pregnant wife and hid her body for over 20 years admitted today that he had asked his son to dig up her body in a bid to get out of jail.
Debbie Griggs, 34, was four months pregnant when she mysteriously disappeared from her home in Deal, Kent in the middle of the night on May 5, 1999.
Her husband Andrew, 62, tried to blame post-natal depression, claiming the auxiliary nurse had walked out on him and their three young children whom she adored, even though she was not suffering from the condition at the time.
In reality, the controlling businessman had been having an affair with a 15-year-old girl and told friends he wished his wife was dead.
In 2019 Griggs was convicted of her murder and jailed for life.
But the whereabouts of his wife’s body was unknown at the time, with the judge in the case saying he suspected the killer had dumped her body at sea.
The father-of-three has now admitted that he had asked one of his sons to help him dupe police into thinking she was still alive after he was jailed for the murder.
Canterbury Crown Court heard that the convicted killer made a request from prison between November 2019 and October 2022 that his son secretly dig up the remains and remove a sample of hair from his mother’s body.
Debbie Griggs, 34, )left) was four months pregnant when she mysteriously disappeared from her home in Deal, Kent in the middle of the night on May 5, 1999
Her husband Andrew Griggs (pictured) tried to blame post-natal depression, claiming the auxiliary nurse had walked out on him and their three young children whom she adored, even though she was not suffering from the condition at the time
In an elaborate ploy to establish his innocence, Griggs instructed his son to travel abroad and send the sample of hair and a letter professing to be from Debbie back to the UK in a bid to convince police she was still alive.
In the event, Debbie’s body was not found by police until 2022 when police acting on ‘new information’ dug up the back garden of a Dorset property Griggs moved into in 2001.
Today, Griggs admitted perverting the course of public justice at Canterbury Crown Court.
The killer appeared via video link at from HMP Isle of Wight where he is serving a life term for his wife’s murder.
Griggs is also accused of obstructing a coroner in the execution of their duty, but has not yet entered a plea to the charge.
Following Griggs’ conviction for murder, his sons continued to believe he was innocent, launching a Facebook page in 2020 appealing for help in tracing their mother whom they believed was still alive.
Mother-of-three Debbie Griggs was pregnant and already had three young sons – aged 18 months, four and six – at the time she was reported missing
Officers excavated the back garden of a home in St Leonards, Dorset, where her killer husband Andrew Griggs moved in July 2001, after the investigation into Debbie’s whereabouts closed
At the time, police had not found any trace of the victim, apart from a smear of blood in her car found abandoned a mile away from her home with the boot lining and carpet missing shortly after she vanished.
Following her disappearance, Griggs took his three sons to Dorset where he started a new life, marrying for a second time and starting a model ship business.
There he might have remained but for cold case officers who examined the evidence again in 2019.
Even after he was charged, his sons refused to believe their father could be capable of murder and offered to give evidence in his defence.
Griggs attempted to overturn his conviction, but his appeal was rejected in July 2022.
Just three months later, police found her body buried in the garden of the Dorset home where her three sons grew up.
At an inquest in March 2023, a coroner said the cause of death would likely never be determined due to decomposition.
Griggs is expected to be sentenced later this year for perverting the course of public justice.
