Former PC dies after inquiry into missing wife is reopened

Former PC dies after inquiry into missing wife is reopened

A former policeman who was being investigated over his wife's disappearance 26 years ago has died after suffering a heart attack at his home in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire.

Michael Johnson, 52, a former police constable, was arrested last week by detectives who had reopened the investigation into the disappearance of his wife, Caroline, in 1971. Caroline, a cook and dietician, was 25 when she vanished from the family home. Mr Johnson, who claimed that he and she had had a row and that she walked out, leaving him with their two daughters, aged two and four, was questioned for 24 hours last week while forensic experts searched his home and garden. Officers said they reopened the case after advances in scientific search techniques.

Mr Johnson, who left the police in 1974, had the heart attack early yesterday. His current wife, Angela, called emergency services but he was dead on arrival at Southampton General Hospital.