Police confirm double death link

The man was found tied to Beverley Payne's Mercedes

Detectives investigating the murder of a young mother and the discovery of a man's body in Swansea docks have confirmed that the two deaths are definitely linked.

The man leading the inquiry, Detective Chief Superintendent Wynne Phillips, has also told BBC Wales that Beverley Payne and the dead man - her gardener Nicholas Mark Davies - were having a close relationship.

Beverley Payne had been stabbed in the chest

Mother of two Beverley Payne was found stabbed to death in the bedroom of her home in Bryncoch, near Neath, south Wales, on Wednesday afternoon.

Her toddler son raised the alarm.

The divorced aerobics instructor was found at her home hours after Mr Davies was pulled out of the Swansea's Prince of Wales dock in a silver Mercedes sports car which belonged to her partner.

Ms Payne's two children, aged three and 11 months, were in the house when she died.

Their father had been abroad on a business trip and was flying back on Thursday to be with them.

We are all shocked and horrified by what happened, it is so quiet around here

Neighbour Tegwen Davies

Det Ch Supt Phillips said police were still carrying out inquiries to determine how the two people who died were connected.

"He is not her long-term partner - who is due back today - but there is information that they were associates and he visited the house on quite a number of occasions," he said.

Police said there were "unanswered questions" as to why Mr Davies was in the car and described his lifestyle as "a matter of concern."

Police praised Ms Payne's three-year-old son, who raised the alarm when a neighbour called at the house.

'Brave lad'

The boy and his baby sister had spent hours alone with their mother's body.

Mr Phillips said: "The little boy concerned here was remarkable, of that I have no doubt.

"At three years of age to have been able to answer the door, to have told this caller what he did, and to have directed operations at that house at that time, what a brave little lad and what a sad passage in his life."

Neighbour Tegwen Davies, 39, said: "We are all shocked and horrified by what happened, it is so quiet around here.

Expensive cars

"There are a lot of small children on this estate and the thought of what the two children went through shocked everybody.

"She was certainly very attractive looking and seemed to have everything. Two nice children, a new house and beautiful cars."

Another neighbour, Gary John, 34, said the family had only moved to the area around Easter time and had stuck out because of the number of expensive cars outside the property - including the silver Mercedes.

"There was a top-of-the-range Range Rover and a Chrysler Voyager and a silver Mercedes regularly parked outside. I did wonder how they could afford them," he said.