LOVESTRUCK Helen Bailey believed she would get her happily ever after when she met her "Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower".
She had lost her husband of 15 years John Sinfield in a tragic accident in Barbados in February 2011.
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Ian Stewart murdered his partner Helen Bailey Credit: SWNS 8
Diane Stewart died at the family home in Cambridgeshire
Helen, who had made millions from her Crazy World of Electra Brown series of children's books, was -in her own words - left "shell-shocked".
But the fog of grief began to lift when she started speaking to Ian Stewart in an online Facebook bereavement group.
Helen had joined to cope with her heartbreak but Stewart was using the death of his first wife Diane to hunt for his next victim.
Diane had been found by Stewart collapsed on the patio of the couple's home in 2010.
Her "sudden, unexpected" death was ruled as being caused by her epilepsy but the sinister truth emerged almost a decade later.
Stewart was today convicted of murdering Diane and handed a whole life tariff - meaning he will die behind bars.
Believing they were kindred spirits joined together by grief, Helen heaped praise on her "GGHW - the Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower" in a new book.
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Chillingly, she was unaware Stewart was now planning to kill her to get his hands on her ￡3.3million fortune.
The monster had "love bombed" the successful writer by showering her with compliments.
The Cambridge-educated software engineer proposed to Helen, who didn't know their relationship had been orchestrated from the very beginning.
As she excitedly planned their wedding, Stewart hatched a devious plot straight from a fiction novel.
The ending he had in mind was cruelly juxtaposed against the finale Helen had hoped for in her final book: "And they all lived happily ever after".
Stewart started to secretly ply his besotted lover with sleeping pills for three months - sneaking them into the scrambled eggs he made her in the morning.
Helen stopped recognising her own hands and even left her beloved pooch, dachshund Boris, on a beach in the height of her sedation.
She started to realise something was wrong and began trawling the internet to find out why she was struggling to stay awake.
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Helen hoped she would live happily ever after
Calculating Stewart knew it would only be a matter of time before she went to her GP with her concerns and a blood test would reveal Zopiclone in her system.
It was never prescribed to Helen - but it had been to her fiance and main beneficiary to her will.
On April 11, 2016, Stewart smothered Helen and dragged her body in a duvet to the garage of the ￡1.5million home in Royston, Herts, she owned.
He then chucked her and Boris in a cesspit full of human excrement and reprised his fake role of grieving partner.
Chillingly, Helen may still have been alive at the time.
Stewart broke down as he told police she was staying at her second home in Broadstairs, Kent.
For three agonising weeks, officers searched the area and checked her final movements online but there was no sign of her.
Clues had started to pile up though that indicated Stewart may be involved in her disappearance.
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She was found in a cesspit with dog Boris 8
Her body had been dumped in the garage of her home Credit: PA:Press Association
As officers arrived on his doorstep at the crack of dawn, Stewart noted "the garage door is open" before being informed he was under arrest.
Dressed just in a dressing gown, he weakly gasped "you're joking".
Police checked the cesspit four days later and found Helen's arm sticking out of the excrement.
While awaiting trial, Stewart spun a ludicrous story that Helen had been kidnapped by thugs who then dumped the body at the house to frame him.
But jurors saw through his lies and in 2017 he was jailed for life after being convicted of murder.
As Stewart rotted in prison, it appeared the grisly tale had reached its ending.
That was until 2018 when he was arrested and questioned on suspicion of first wife Diane's murder.
Police had begun re-examining her death after Stewart's conviction as her family revealed they harboured concerns about him.
An inquest found she suffered a “sudden unexpected death in epilepsy” when she collapsed in the back garden.
Just like from his second lover's death, the fiend stood to inherit money from Diane's passing.
This time, he received a total of ￡96,607.37 from her bank accounts and ￡28,500.21 from a life insurance policy.
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Diane pictured with sons Jamie and Oliver and Ian
But in a "stroke of luck", Diane had donated her brain for medical research and brain tissue was also kept.
Scientists were able to use this to find her chances of dying from epilepsy were more than one in 100,000.
Despite Stewart's claims his wife was plagued by the condition, she had not suffered a seizure for 18 years and it was an "extremely low" chance her "mild" epilepsy killed her.
Even more sinister, a pathologist found the death was most likely caused by "a prolonged restriction of her breathing from an outside source".
The oxygen to her brain had been "substantially reduced" in the hour before her collapse - leading experts to believe she had been either suffocated or strangled in a chilling echo of Helen's killing.
As the prosecution said during trial, the author's murder was significant in catching Stewart.
And just like her tragic predecessor, Diane had been devoted to Stewart.
The pair got together after meeting at Salford University and went on to have two sons, Jamie and Oliver.
On the surface, the couple seemed happy and friends and family revealed they hardly ever argued.
Diane doted on jobless Stewart, who pocketed 90p a week as "sick pay" from his salary.
After her death, Stewart went out to buy a flashy sports car and began embarking on new relationships.
His behaviour was "hard to square with the conduct of a grieving husband".
It was that behaviour though that allowed him to become the Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower Helen had met at her lowest ebb.
But in a cruel plot twist, she was unaware her happy ever after would prove to be more of a Black Widower.
How you can get help
Women's Aid has this advice for victims and their families:
Always keep your phone nearby. Get in touch with charities for help, including the Women’s Aid live chat helpline and services such as SupportLine. If you are in danger, call 999. Familiarise yourself with the Silent Solution, reporting abuse without speaking down the phone, instead dialing “55”. Always keep some money on you, including change for a pay phone or bus fare. If you suspect your partner is about to attack you, try to go to a lower-risk area of the house – for example, where there is a way out and access to a telephone. Avoid the kitchen and garage, where there are likely to be knives or other weapons. Avoid rooms where you might become trapped, such as the bathroom, or where you might be shut into a cupboard or other small space.
If you are a -victim of domestic abuse, SupportLine is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 6pm to 8pm on 01708 765200. The charity’s email support -service is open weekdays and weekends during the crisis – messageinfo@supportline.org.uk.
Women’s Aid provides a live chat service - available weekdays from 8am-6pm and weekends 10am-6pm.
You can also call the freephone 24-hour -National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.
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This is the creepy moment double murderer Ian Stewart simply shrugged a shoulder as he was asked about the death of his wife Diane 8
Stewart was found guilty of murder