2:14pm Monday 23rd November 2009
Just before she was killed, Claire Howarth had become a Police Constable on the Rochdale division after working as a student officer for two years.
Claire and Martin Forshaw met in July 2007 and by November 2007 were in a relationship. By the summer of 2008 they had moved into their house in Tottington. They got engaged and were due to marry at a resort in St Lucia on May 12.
On Wednesday May 6, Claire was making last minute preparations for the trip and had picked up the tickets from the Trafford Centre.
She got home sometime between 10.30pm and 11pm and posted two messages on her Facebook page. The first was posted at 00.14am and stated: "Claire Howarth realises it gone midnight and thought what the hell, I'm on the vino, he he." The second was posted at 00.49am and read: "Me and Alex are so excited we can't sleep we're disco dancing to Ministry of Sound CD around the house."
At some point during the next hour or so, Claire and Forshaw had an argument. During interview, Forshaw claimed that due to recent difficulties in their relationship, he told Claire he wanted to call the wedding off. This resulted in a huge argument and a struggle over a metal lump hammer. Exactly what happened is unclear, but Claire sustained between three and five heavy blows to the right side of her skull. Forshaw also told detectives she was slumped against the bedroom wall and bleeding profusely, causing him to panic.
He carried Claire down the stairs and put her in the front passenger seat of Claire's silver BMW, and the weapon in the boot. He then drove the car along country roads towards Bolton.
After attacking Claire again when he stopped the car and realised she was dying, Forshaw then put Claire in the car a second time and drove the car a further 400m down Tottington Road where he stopped the car, put Claire in the driver's seat, stretched his right leg onto the accelerator pedal and pushed down hard, causing the car to travel at speed before veering across the road and crashing the car.
Forshaw then got out of car, opened the boot and threw the mallet into a field on the opposite side of the road. This was later recovered.
At 2.26am he called 999 and asked for an ambulance.
Police officers also attended and saw Claire slumped in the driver's seat with a severe head injury and the car itself was covered in blood. The car had collided with shrubbery and was resting on a grass verge. However, there was hardly any damage to the car and the airbag had not deployed, which is uncommon as air bags are generally activated upon collision with speeds of more than 20mph.
Forshaw initially told officers Claire was driving and was looking for a CD when she hit something, causing the car to swerve and crash. But when the Collision Reconstruction Unit attended, they concluded Forshaw's account could not be true.
Officers then attended at the couple's home and saw blood in the downstairs front room and the upstairs front bedroom. Forshaw, who had just been discharged from the Royal Bolton Hospital, was then arrested on suspicion of murder.
In November 2008, a member of the public wrote to Greater Manchester Police's internal newspaper Brief to thank Claire for helping her 12-year-old daughter deal with school bullies. The letter praised Claire for being a "total credit to your Force and we feel privileged to have people like her out there looking after us."
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/trade_directory/