Husband found wife's body in daily search

Barbara Robinson, aged 52, was last seen alive by husband Keith, 74, when he dropped her off for a weekly prayer meeting at Christ Church in Stannington on September 28.

The meeting was cancelled and she never returned home.

Despite extensive police searches around Stannington, involving sniffer dogs and a helicopter, Barbara's body lay undiscovered until Keith and another relative spotted her.

They were searching woods off Riggs High Road, on the outskirts of the village, on Saturday. Her body was lying at the foot of a bank leading down from the main road.

A post mortem examination proved inconclusive, so further tests have been ordered to try to establish the exact cause of death.

Barbara, a senior matron at a hospice near Manchester, worked as a nurse in all Sheffield's major hospitals over the years.

Her disappearance led to her family issuing a number of appeals for information on her whereabouts, and last Friday they admitted that they were beginning to 'fear the worst'. Her disappearance was totally out of character and they were desperate for news.

Det Insp Sean McMahon, who oversaw the post mortem, said there was nothing suspicious about her death: "There was no third party involvement in her death, nothing suspicious, no foul play.

"Mrs Robinson was discovered when her husband and his son were out searching, which they have done every day.

"She was discovered around threequarters of a mile outside Stannington. There is a fence and stile which we believe she used to get off the road. From this point there is a long steep slope, and it was at the bottom of this that her body was found.

"I can only imagine what Mr Robinson is going through after having his wife missing for that length of time and then he himself finding her."

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