Episode 125 - Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower
The Minds of Madness - True Crime Stories
themindsofmadness
4.5 • 6.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
She openly chronicled her journey following her loss - the ins and outs, the highs and lows, and eventually revealed that things were, indeed, getting better for her - she’d met someone: a man she called “The Gorgeous Grey-Haired Widower.”
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How to connect:
Website
Research & Writing:
Ryan Deininger
Editing:
Justin Hellstrom
Sources:
Death of an Author - Hilary Nettleton
When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis - Helen Bailey
Diane Stewart Obituary
Daily Mail #1
Daily Mail #2
Daily Mail #3
Daily Mail #4
Daily Mail #5
Daily Mail #6
Plainsmenpost #1
Plainsmenpost #2
BBC
Helen Bailey Wiki
Crown Sentencing Remarks
Diane 911 Call
ITV
What The Killer Did Next Documentary
Trial Testimony Twitter Thread
Cambridge News
Murdered by My Fiance Documentary
Helen Missing Persons Phone Call
Evening Standard
The Times
Express
The Sun
Huffington Post
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The opinions expressed in the following episode do not necessarily reflect those of the minds of madness podcast. |
| 0:07.0 | The listener discretion is advised. |
| 0:37.0 | In June 2011, UK author Helen Bailey began writing a blog after the death of her husband as a way to deal with their grief and to provide comfort and a voice to the bereaved. |
| 1:01.0 | She openly chronicled her journey following her loss, the ins and outs, the highs and lows, and eventually revealed that things were indeed getting better for her. |
| 1:11.0 | She'd met someone, a man she called, the gorgeous greyhared widower, and then one day, the blog posts suddenly stopped. |
| 1:21.0 | Join me now as we take a look at the mysterious disappearance of Helen Bailey. You'll hear how the three-month search for a popular author ended with a shocking and terrible discovery that uncovered a killer who'd been brought to justice from beyond the grave. |
| 1:48.0 | On Sunday, February 27, 2011, 65-year-old John Sinfield and his wife 46-year-old Helen Bailey were soaking up some Caribbean sun on the pristine beaches of Pains Beach and Barbados. |
| 2:03.0 | It had been more than four years since the workaholic couple had last taken a vacation. |
| 2:09.0 | As John headed out to the water for a swim, Helen called back to him, be careful. Just minutes later, the unimaginable happened. |
| 2:19.0 | Suddenly Helen spotted John waving and calling for help. He'd been caught in a deadly rip current. Helen watched in horror as beachgoers tried to rescue him, but John went under. |
| 2:32.0 | Eventually, a jet ski brought John's body to shore, but it was too late. John didn't survive. |
| 2:41.0 | Helen would later write about the tragedy, a wife at breakfast, but a widow by lunch. |
| 2:47.0 | At the time of her husband's death, Helen was already an accomplished author from the UK. |
| 2:53.0 | Best known for her Electro-Bram book series, she learned a reputation for uncanny ability to use humor and emotionally complex characters to relate to a teenage audience. |
| 3:05.0 | But after John's passing, she started an online blog called Planet Grief as a way to prove to herself she could still write, even through grief. |
| 3:15.0 | The blog tackled the subject of bereavement in her signature chatty style of writing. It was open, honest and raw. Some posts were nothing short of hilarious. |
| 3:26.0 | In other posts, you can almost hear her tears falling on the keyboard as she typed. |
| 3:34.0 | But what set Helen's writing apart was that she addressed the small things that daily struggles, that things no one ever tells you about death until you've experienced it, like the crazy amount of paperwork involved, not knowing your spouse's passwords, getting a body moved from Barbados to England, choosing funeral clothes, where to scatter the ashes. |
| 3:57.0 | Most of all, how to handle the infinite reminders in a day of your loss. The blog became a massive success, proving Helen could not only write, maybe even better than ever. |
| 4:10.0 | Eventually, she turned her blog posts into a successful memoir entitled, When Bad Things Happening Good Bequinis. |
| 4:19.0 | Planet Grief also dealt with other aspects of moving on after the death of a loved one, like dating, and how many bereaved widows tend to keep their new romantic relationships a secret, terrified that moving on might upset family or friends of the deceased, or might even cause jealousy among friends through grief support groups. |
| 4:40.0 | For Helen, that time came about eight months after John's passing. When she began seeing a man, she'd met him at Facebook bereavement group. |
... |
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