Five days after the murder, no cause of death has been made public and it is not known whether the suspect was known to Ms Widdecombe.
Yet a police cordon around the village, which seems mainly to be aimed at keeping the media out, was in place yesterday and likely to remain for several days.
Over the weekend, the police were reported to be seeking a driver who was said to be ‘behaving suspiciously’ near Ms Widdecombe’s home in the hours before her death. A manager of a garage in Haytor said he had alerted police after his colleague noticed ‘something out of the ordinary’ at about 9am on Wednesday β a dark VW Golf Mk4 parked in what he described as a ‘strange place’.
The car was reported to police shortly before Nigel Farage visited the scene of the murder. Was this the car the Reform leader himself claimed had been on Ms Widdecombe’s driveway?
Whatever the case, not all the residents were entirely happy with the conduct of the investigation. Villager Andrew Hill told the Daily Mail he tried to inform police about two shirtless workmen drinking cans of cider and lager in Haytor around the time Ms Widdecombe was murdered β including one from South Yorkshire β but felt his report was dismissed.
He said he saw them outside the Rock Inn at Haytor on what is believed to be Wednesday evening this week.
The 64-year-old recalled: ‘I said to them what a lovely spot it was. I said we even have local celebrities like Ann Widdecombe living around the corner and one of them replied ‘oh f*** her’.
‘I was a bit alarmed by that and later went to tell three police officers at a road block to have a five-minute chat with them. But I was told to just phone the information in. This pair were staying locally but working miles away in Taunton.
Given that the sighting would have been after the murder, it seemed unlikely these men were linked, but the geographical coincidence was intriguing.
There’s no doubt the killing has been a convulsive shock for a hamlet where people were happy to leave their houses and cars unlocked, without fear. Now they can’t move without seeing police and their vehicles in a grim reminder of what occurred in their midst.
With little information forthcoming from detectives, the internet has been rife with speculation about whether the murder was political or not. One Reddit user simply asked: ‘Why do I feel like something about the Ann Widdecombe murder doesn’t add up?’ which opened the floodgates for others to speculate about who might have been involved without a shred of evidence.
And despite the police protestations that the killing did not appear to be politically motivated, the procession of Reform UK leading lights did nothing to quell that suspicion.
Not surprisingly, given the difficulty which has beset Mr Farage over a Β£5million gift which he initially claimed was to bankroll his own security, Ms Widdecombe’s death was an occasion for Reform to press home their point about the scale of threats.
Asked about Mr Farage’s claim that the attack was premeditated, Mr Tice said: ‘We have to let the police crack on with their job, and hopefully they can give us some information as soon as possible.
‘Initially you assume she’s had a terrible stroke, or whatever, and then the further news comes out. Separately, there are some very serious issues around the safety of MPs that need sorting out.’
A Haytor resident reflected on the quiet community which must now attempt to return to its peaceful existence once the police and media have departed.
‘There are a lot of very well-off middle-class people as well as celebrities around the Dartmoor area like Annie Lennox, Jennifer Saunders and Ade Edmondson.
‘There are much wealthier and bigger houses that burglars might want to target. So people are wondering whether this was an attack on Ann Widdecombe because she was an elderly woman living alone.’
Haytor may be remote, but surely it is not a community immune from crime?
Resident Carole Wykes-Dart said the police were hardly a common sight in the village, but she added: ‘There is a problem with rural crime. Farm vehicles like tractors and quad bikes get stolen as well as animals. And we are affected by county lines drug-dealing in these rural areas too.
‘But Ann never shut the gates to her driveway leading to her bungalow. And her garden and pool are overlooked from the lane.’
Sir Christian Sweeting, a businessman who was friends with Ms Widdecombe for more than 30 years, said he had urged her to get an electronic gate for extra security but was rebuffed.
The truth is that Ms Widdecombe fitted happily into village life and never wanted to seem aloof from it.
Mr Tice summed up his old friend and political ally best, when he said: ‘We have lost an absolute colossus. A legend in our lifetime. Ann Widdecombe was unique. She was adored by millions.
‘Ann is with her parents, her brother. She’s with her maker. Rest in Peace.’
Meanwhile, the nation awaits any clue as to what might have been behind her death.
