Teacher kills her man and buries him in the garden

Primary school teacher Fiona Beal murdered her partner, who was also a teacher. She buried the body in the garden.

After the crime, she lied that they had broken up and the man had cheated on her and run away with another woman.

Beal, 50, admitted killing Nicholas Billingham, 42, whose partially mummified remains were discovered four and a half months after he was last seen. The body was found in a makeshift grave after police discovered the woman's diaries.

A primary school teacher murdered her partner

Billingham was a Year 6 teacher. The couple had been dating for a long time. Beal was a respected teacher, and after the man's disappearance, she pretended to those around her that she had been abandoned for another woman.

Moreover, the investigation revealed that she had been sending text messages to her family and friends, continuing the lie for months that the man had moved to another city. The prosecutor, Hugh Davies, said the teacher had plotted the murder in advance.

She tied him to the bed

"Everything indicates that Mr Billingham was stabbed in the neck while he was in their bedroom wearing a mask. He was also tied up, although it is not forensically possible to determine whether this was before or after his death," Hugh is quoted by Daily Mirror.

The body was discovered on March 19, 2022. However, the man died a few months earlier. On November 1, the woman sent messages to family and friends in which she wrote that she and Nicholas had contracted the coronavirus and had to self-isolate.

However, there is no evidence to confirm that the woman actually had COVID-19 because she did not take the test.

On November 8, the teacher sent messages to her relatives informing them that she had separated from her partner. She returned to work "fully fulfilling her duties as a teacher of Year 6 students" and receiving a "kind response" from people who had heard about her split.

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She left and rented a house

In December she rented a cottage in Cumbria and sent messages to family members that left them very concerned.

Fearing that something bad was happening to Fiona, the family notified the police. At the scene, officers found diaries "written in her hand" that showed "a completely different side of her personality."

"She planned and killed him in cold blood. A few days earlier, she had bought a utility knife with a forged handle. She had a chisel and zip ties. Promising sex after a bath, she stabbed him in the neck while he was wearing a sleeping mask and was probably tied to the bed," said Davies.

The teacher described the crime in her diary

"I am still haunted by my actions. Sometimes I have to remember what I did and then remember my story - neither of which seems convincing," she wrote in her diary. She also described all the details of the crime.

"It was harder than I thought it would be. Hiding the body was wrong. Moving the body is much harder than it looks on TV," the diary entry reads.

Beal pleaded guilty. A sentencing hearing will be held on May 29. She faces life imprisonment for murder.

This article was originally published on Onet Woman.