A British man has been charged with the murder of his wife, 58 year old Patricia Heard, who was reported missing in Olivia, Valencia in July 2006.63 year old Allen Heard appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton today charged with perverting the course of justice and was remanded to appear in Crown Court in Warwick on August 15.
British and Spanish police have been working together on the investigation. The couple had moved to Spain at the start of 2006.Allen Heard is accused of murdering his wife Pat, who disappeared two years ago.Heard, who used to live in The Raywoods, Nuneaton and also in Leicester Street, Bedworth, before emigrating with his wife to Spain, is also charged with perverting the course of justice. He appeared before magistrates in Nuneaton for the first time yesterday. The couple emigrated to Oliva, near Valencia, in 2004 and Mrs Heard was reported missing two years later. A massive public appeal was launched to find her but no trace was found.Now detectives in England and in Spain, who are working together on the case, believe her body may be buried in a shallow grave near Valencia.Allen Heard made a brief appearance at the Nuneaton Justice Centre yesterday afternoon.Heard, who returned to England from Spain recently, was arrested after voluntarily walking into a police station in Warwickshire.He faces charges of the murder of his 58-year-old wife Patricia on or before July 30, 2006, and perverting the course of justice by reporting her missing and concealing her body in a grave.He was remanded in custody to Blakenhurst Prison to appear again at Warwick Crown Court for a plea and direction hearing on August 15.
Heard, wearing a suit, spoke only to confirm his address in Spain and his date of birth.Neil Bannister, prosecuting, said he would oppose any application for bail.
He said: "The police still have a number of inquiries to make in England and Spain and now, of course, the most important one is to recover the body and repatriate it for a post-mortem examination. The police have a delicate and sensitive task to recover the body."No application for bail was made.Mrs Heard's disappearance in 2006 shocked her family and friends in the Coventry and Bedworth area.Before they moved abroad Mrs Heard had been popular at the Black Horse pub in Exhall where she was a member of the ladies' darts team.At the time of her disappearance in 2006, an appeal for information was posted on a website run by the UK charity Missing People. It read: "Her family and friends are extreme-ly worried for Patricia's welfare as her disappearance is completely out of character. They just want to know that Patricia is okay and urge her to make contact with someone to reassure them of her well-being."In a desperate attempt to find out what had happened, Mrs Heard's daughter Linda Jones, of Nuneaton, also spoke to the Telegraph. She described her mother as "confident and sociable". She said: "We just want to know she is safe. This is completely out of character... She has missed two grandchildren's birthdays - that's the bit I can't get over, I just can't see why she's done that.
"We've got in touch with everyone we know but there might be other friends we're not aware of. Someone may be talking to her not knowing she is missing - it's our last chance. We don't know what else to do."Today, murder squad detectives in Nuneaton were liaising with police in Valencia as a grim search for a body was continuing.
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