Sadie Hartley Murder: UK Police eye love triangle angle on brutal slaying of Lancashire businesswoman

By Staff Writer | Jan 20, 2016 07:05 PM EST

A 60 year-old businesswoman was brutally murdered inside her house last Thursday evening. Investigators are looking into a love triangle angle as motive for her murder.

The Daily Mail confirms the victim's name as Sadie Harltey, a 60 year-old company director of her own business. She was killed last Thursday evening on her home in Helmshore, Lancashire in the United Kingdom.  

Police investigators are eyeing a possible love triangle as the motive for her murder.  Two women, aged 34 and 55, have been arrested on suspicion of murder and remain in custody while being subject to interrogation.

Ms. Harltey who runs a medical communications business was alone at the time of her death.  Her two grown-up children were not with her and her partner, Ian Johnston, was abroad on a skiing holiday in the Swiss Alps.

Police officers were called to the scene after panicked colleagues had not heard from the victim for hours. The police found her lifeless body in the hallway of her stone-brick house on Friday.

According to The Telegraph, the authorities believe she was dead for close to 24 hours before her body was found.  She suffered multiple stab and defensive wounds on her body.

Sniffer dogs were seen on Monday searching for any sign of the murder weapon.  The police were also seen conducting fingertip searches by wading through a stream running beside the victim's house.

The Mirror Online revealed that there was no forced entry nor was there anything taken from the victim's house indicating she knew her attacker and that robbery was not a motive.  And as such, the police think this was not a random break-in but a targeted attack from someone she knows.  

Authorities are trying to identify a person seen passing as he walked out of Sunny Bank Road on Thursday evening and an unknown person who walked into the cul-de-sac, leaving a few minutes later. They also want to trace the driver of an old style Renault Clio car which was seen arriving in Sunny Bank Road just before 8 p.m. on the same night and drove off moments later.

The murder weapon, as of press time, has not yet been recovered and the police are asking local residents to share any information that could shed light on the murder to come forward.

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