Ann Widdecombe suddenly stopped responding to messages moments before she was due to appear on air for interview on Wednesday, the day before she was found at her dead at her Dartmoor home.
Ms Widdecombe, 78, was set to be a guest on 5 Daytime on Wednesday afternoon but stopped replying to the broadcaster and did not turn up for her slot, according to Channel 5 presenter Dan Walker.
“The team contacted her agent to ask them to check in on her. This information has been passed to police as it’s part of the investigation,” he said in a post on social media.
ITV News reports that the former Tory minister had been in contact with a Channel 5 researcher earlier on Wednesday afternoon to set up an interview for the Matt Allwright show at 1pm.
After the call, the pair were said to have exchanged messages, with Ms Widdecombe sending her last message at 12:19pm.
But when the researcher asked Widdecombe to join a Zoom link ahead of the interview, at 12:48pm, she did not reply. Follow up messages to ask if she was okay also went unanswered, ITV reports.
The team subsequently contacted Ms Widdecombe’s agent, reportedly finding it unusual that she – a regular on the show – would suddenly go quiet on them. They were said to have followed up on Thursday.
A source told The Sun: “They tried multiple times on the phone and on text, but she wasn’t reading messages or responding.
“Obviously there was not much they could do except tell her agent she had not appeared and was not picking up calls.”
Ms Widdecombe made her last public appearance earlier that day, speaking to Mark Dolan live on TalkTV.
Dolan told The Sun that her interview, which aired at 8am on Wednesday, was “like every other”.
“She had her usual energy, passion and good humour,” he said.
Ms Widdecombe was found dead at her home in Dartmoor on Thursday, having sustained “seriously injuries”, after police were called by the ambulance service at around 11:40am.
One neighbour said she thought Ms Widdecombe’s gardener, who arrived every Thursday morning, may have found the politician, who was pronounced dead, having allegedly suffered a head injury.
Others suggested her friend and carer, who is believed to have lived nearby, found her at home.
Her death was announced by her representative early on Friday morning.
By the afternoon, Devon and Cornwall police had announced they the arrest of a 26-year-old man, identified only as a white British national, on suspicion of her murder.
An update on Saturday morning said he had released the suspect and that he was no longer part of the investigation.
A cordon remained at the scene with a large police presence in the area into Saturday.
Timeline of Ann Widdecombe’s last known movements as murder probde launched:
08:00, Wednesday 8 July: Anne Widdecombe makes her final public appearance in an remote interview with TalkTV.
Early afternoon: Widdecombe is in contact with a researcher from Channel 5 ahead of a remote appearance on the Matt Allwright show at 1pm, per ITV.
12:19: The researcher, after an exchange of messages, receives a final message from Widdecombe, with 40 minutes until her interview.
12:48: The researcher messages again, asking Widdecombe to join a Zoom link. She does not reply. They try texting and calling again to no avail. The research team contacts her agent and follows up Thursday.
11:40, Thursday 9 July: Officers are called to Widdecombe’s home in Haytor by the ambulance service. There are reports she was found by a gardener or a carer earlier that morning.
The Sun reports somebody arrived at the house in hiking clothes “in the middle of the night”.
06:30, Friday 10 July: Sky News reports Widdecombe has died aged 78.
17:47: Devon & Cornwall police say a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. They identify him as a 26-year-old white British national, who they arrested in Newton Abbot, some nine miles away.
06:30, Saturday 11 July: Police say the man who was arrested on Friday has “since been released” from custody and is no longer part of their investigation.
