Missing author’s partner arrested after returning from two-week holiday as it emerges cash left her account AFTER she disappeared
Helen Bailey hadn't been seen for three months when Ian Stewart spent two weeks in Majorca
The partner of a missing author feared murdered had just returned from a sunshine holiday, it emerged yesterday.
Ian Stewart, 55, spent two weeks in Majorca after going ahead with a pre-booked break despite Helen Bailey not being seen for three months.
Police swooped on the £1.5 million home they shared on Monday and arrested him on suspicion of killing her.
Officers confirmed that money belonging to Miss Bailey was taken from her account after she vanished.
Yesterday a neighbour who lives close to their home in Royston, Hertfordshire, told The Sun: "Ian only got back from Spain a few days ago.
He was there for a fortnight.
"It had been booked with Helen months ago and he decided to go ahead with the break.
"I'm not sure if I would go away if my partner was missing but it has been three months and maybe he needed a break."
Another friend who asked not to be named said Helen and her partner had got engaged just before she disappeared and were due to get married.
She said:"No one can believe it. There was no indication of anything untoward and her and Ian were very happy together."
Yesterday police were carrying out a detailed search of the sprawling property using diggers and a tent was stood on the drive outside.
Aerial pictures showed officers standing close to a swimming pool in the garden of the detached property.
Eighty miles away in Broadstairs, Kent, a simultaneous search was being carried out at a holiday home Helen owned.
Hertfordshire cops said they had uncovered information which meant they were treating her disappearance as a murder investigation.
She had told her partner she was going to Broadstairs but left her car at home and Mr Stewart reported her missing after four days after arriving in Kent and finding no trace of her.
He has made several heart breaking appeals asking for her to return, saying her disappearance has "shattered" his life.
Mr Stewart was also being questioned over allegations of disposing of a body in a manner likely to obstruct the coroner and stealing Helen's money.
One neighbour told The Sun she kept a large amount of cash in a safe at her home and another that she had planned to leave Mr Stewart.
Widowed Helen, 51, was terrified of losing another partner after Mr Stewart was diagnosed with serious health problems.
The stress caused friction in the relationship with Helen supposedly writing to a friend the “TLC was getting thin”.
The popular teenager’s writer told other friends she was panicked over Mr Stewart’s health in the weeks before she vanished.
A friend said: “She told close friends a number of times that things were getting difficult. She wrote to one of them and said, ‘the TLC is wearing thin’.
“I think she was hugely worried about Ian’s health. After everything they had both been through I think it must have been too much.”
Helen’s disappearance came just two weeks after the anniversary of first husband John Sinfield. He drowned on holiday in Barbados, in 2011, after 21 years together.
Her Facebook account included her married name ‘Helen Sinfield’ and she has posted online about the difficulty of overcoming her loss.
Friends said the timing had put extra strain on her relationship. One pal said: “It was always hard at this time of year - but it must have been incredibly difficult with everything else going on. I think that’s why Helen told friends she could leave Ian.”
Helen had suffered depression following the death but at the time she went missing police insisted the disappearance was out of character.
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The couple met through a Facebook bereavement group seven months after her husband's death and after her new partner lost his wife in 2010.
Father of two Mr Stewart found his first wife Diane collapsed in the garden of their home after she suffered a fatal brain aneurysm.
Two years ago Helen, who penned teen fiction series 'Electra Brown' and 'Daisy Davenport', moved in with Mr Stewart and his two adult sons.
Last night Hertfordshire police said:"A 55 year old man from Royston who was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Author Helen Bailey from Royston, has this evening been released on police bail pending further inquiries"