Wales police investigate links between two deaths

Detectives were today investigating links between the murder of a young mother and the death of a man found in a submerged car in a city marina.

Beverley Payne, 21, was found stabbed to death at her home in Priory Court, Neath, South Wales yesterday afternoon.

Her three­year­old son raised the alarm when a neighbour called at the house.

The boy and his baby sister had spent hours alone with their mother's body, South Wales Police revealed.

Hours earlier the body of a man was recovered from a silver Mercedes submerged in Swansea's Prince of Wales dock.

Detective Chief Superintendent Wynne Phillips, head of South Wales CID, said a link between the two deaths looked increasingly likely.

"At the moment we cannot connect the Mercedes with the deceased in Neath.

"Having said that enquiries are on­going and the early signs are that there could very well be a connection between them," he said.

Ms Payne's devastated partner was returning home to Britain today from a business trip in South America.

He will be reunited with the two children, who were taken into care after the discovery.

Mr Phillips said they were uninjured but had been on their own in the house with their mother's body, adding: "It is hoped they spent only hours in the house, it was certainly not days."

He said that there was no sign of forced entry at the house in Neath and the police were not ruling out the possibility that the murderer had simply been let in.

Twenty detectives are now working on the murder enquiry from an incident room at Port Talbot police station.

Mr Phillips appealed for anyone who has any information relating to either incident to contact the police.