Double death probe: man named

The man was found tied to Beverley Payne's Mercedes

Police investigating a possible link between a murder and another death in south Wales have named a man whose body was recovered from Swansea marina.

Divorced mother-of-two Beverley Payne, 21, was found stabbed to death in Priory Court, Bryncoch,near Neath, on Wednesday.

Beverley Payne had been stabbed in the chest

The discovery came hours after a man drove her car into the Prince of Wales dock at Swansea marina.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales's Good Morning Wales on Thursday, the man leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Wynne Phillips, named the driver as 33-year-old Nicholas Davies, from Gorseinon.

A team of 20 detectives is working on the murder hunt at an incident room in Port Talbot.

The dead woman's boyfriend - the registered owner of the silver SLK Coupé - was flying back from a business trip to South America on Thursday to be with the couple's two children, who were unharmed.

Steering wheel

Witnesses said the man in the car tied himself to the steering wheel and accelerated off the quayside at 0800hrs BST on Wednesday.

Four hours later, a caller at the house in Bryncoch was answered by Beverley Payne's three-year-old son and shown his mother's body, which had stab wounds to the chest.

He and his 11-month-old sister had been alone with the body for several hours.

The children are now being cared for by relatives.

As police continued to make house-to-house inquiries in the area, Det Supt Phillips said: "There is a possible link between this incident and the earlier incident in Swansea.

'Possible link'

"The investigation is still in the early stages and we would welcome any further information."

The family moved in to their home in Priory Court during Easter and the death of Beverley Payne has shocked neighbours.

Neighbour Sharon Johns, 34, said: "This has shocked everyone here.

"It's just a tragedy. They seemed like a very nice family with everything going for them.

"They had a new baby, a lovely little boy, a new house, and a very nice car. We cannot understand what went on there."