UK couple murdered in seaside villa

The bodies of Christopher and Jennifer Early were found after their car was used as a getaway vehicle and then abandoned.

Detectives say the couple, aged 69 and 62, were attacked at their secluded beachfront villa in Hibberdene, 60 miles south of Durban.

Police warrant officer Banie Pienaar said post-mortem examinations showed Mr Early had been hacked with a machete and his wife had been killed by a gunman.

He said: “They appear to have been the victim of a violent robbery. It seems that the gentleman was attacked outside their property in the driveway to their home. The post-mortem suggests that he was beaten to death with some sort of bush knife.

“It looks like his wife was attacked inside the property. She had a gunshot wound to her chest.

“It appears the bullet went straight through her heart so she would have died instantly.”

One of the Earlys’ neighbours reported hearing a gunshot at around 4pm on Thursday.

Police said Mr Early had moved to South Africa from the UK in 1970 and gained citizenship in 1989.

Officers were still searching through the ransacked house to uncover Mrs Early’s documents.

It is believed a pair of mobile phones belonging to the couple are missing and officers are compiling a list of stolen property. The couple, whose only daughter is flying in from her home in Pennsylvania, US, are thought to have lived for several years in the sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal province.

Their two-storey villa lies at the bottom of a quiet cul-de-sac and is separated from the Indian Ocean by a railway line.

The couple’s initials and surname are displayed on a sign nailed to a gatepost at the end of their private, tree-lined driveway.

Mr Pienaar said the bodies were discovered at 8pm on Thursday in their white Volvo saloon which had been abandoned by a quiet, gravel road a few miles away.

He said: “A passerby came across the vehicle in a ditch. When the person looked inside they noticed the bodies in the boot.”