Two charged with 1991 double murder

A man and woman were charged with the murder of a couple whose deaths 20 years ago were originally treated as suicide.

Policeman Trevor Buchanan, 31, and dentist’s wife Lesley Howell, 30, were found dead in a fume-filled car parked in the garage of a house in the seaside town of Castlerock, Co Derry in 1991. At the time police said they died in a suicide pact.

The murder charges against the 50-year-old man and 45-year-old woman come after police re-opened the investigation this week.

The man now charged contacted officers on Thursday. He was taken into custody and the woman was arrested later.

Mother-of-four Mrs Howell’s body was discovered in the back seat of the car in May 1991.

She was wearing Walkman earphones and clasping photographs of her children. Mr Buchanan, a father of two, was in a front seat.

Police had said a hosepipe led from the exhaust into the car and no crime was suspected.

An inquest hearing at a Coroner’s Court later ruled they committed suicide.

The co-accused are due to appear in court in Coleraine tomorrow morning.