Neighbours of a Portchester woman who died suddenly share their shock after murder arrest

Police were called to an address in The Crossway, Portchester at 9.58am on Monday following the death of a 45-year-old woman. Officers arrested a 43-year-old man from Somerset on suspicion of murder. He has since been bailed with conditions until July 17. A post-mortem examination has been carried out to determine the cause of death, the details of which have not yet been released.

Residents of the Portchester street spoke to The News.

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Julia Verrier, who has lived in The Crossway for 20 years, said: ‘When I heard about it, I was shocked. We didn’t expect anything like this around here.’

Julia’s husband John Verrier added: ‘I’ve just heard about it this morning. I was shocked - nothing like that seems to happen down this road but it has now. These things happen every day - it’s the way of the world.’

Thomas Smith heard about the incident on Tuesday evening. Thomas said: ‘My neighbour informed my wife that someone had died on the road, which is a very quiet residential street. It's a bit of a concern but also quite a surprise and a shock. Later, I was told that it was a murder which was doubly shocking. Hopefully it’s an isolated incident because it’s not an area where that type of event would take place. Obviously, my initial thoughts and concerns were with the individual that lost their life and their family - how distressing it would be for them.’

One resident described the victim as a ‘very nice lady’, and believed that she was suffering from an illness.

Another resident said: ‘Portchester has changed – everywhere is changing. You wouldn’t think something like that would happen along here. The police cars were in the drive all night.’

One man said: ‘All I saw was a couple of days ago there was a police car strangely parked half-way in and half-way out of somebody’s driveway entrance, which I found unusual. As it was none of my business, I didn’t take any notice of it.’

Another resident, who reported hearing that neighbours spotted forensic investigators, added: ‘I came back from dropping my son of at nursery at around half nine and I saw an ambulance parked just outside our house and a couple more ambulances further down and I thought “that’s strange, someone must be really ill.”

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One neighbour who lives near the house in question said: ‘I saw someone go into the back of the police van – which I take it is probably the person who was arrested – but he was not familiar to me. Like most people, you wouldn’t expect it on your doorstep. They keep themselves to themselves, the people that live there.

One woman who lives in the area expressed that the police ‘do a wonderful job’ . She added: ‘Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.’