the times | Saturday April 30 2022 V2 21
News
A British marathon champion beat his
wife to death with a baseball bat and
strangled her before hanging himself in
an outhouse, local French police say —
but his family have dismissed the
murder-suicide theory.
The bodies of John Boyes, 63, and his
wife Kathryn, 65, were found last week
at their home in the Pyrenees. They
had been dead for some time.
The couple appeared to have a
pleasant life in France, where they ran
a retreat while Kathryn worked as an
artist. They enjoyed walking and
cycling in the mountains and had
friends in the community.
French officials claim that behind an
idyllic façade the couple, originally
from Bournemouth, were experiencing
financial difficulties, explained in a
suicide note written on a computer.
However, the murder-suicide claim
has been dismissed by Boyes’s brother,
Robert, 60, who said that they spoke
every Sunday. John had never men-
tioned problems with money or his
marriage, he said.
“When I first heard they had died I
assumed they were victims of a robbery
because their house is in a remote area,”
he added. “I want the police to carry out
a full investigation and not assume
John killed Kath.”
Boyes was a well-known long-dis-
tance runner in the 1980s. He com-
bined his Royal Mail job with a running
career that included wins in the Miami,
Maassluis and Glasgow marathons.
He met Kathryn, who worked at
Barclays bank in Southampton, during
a running camp on Lanzarote. They
moved to France in 2004 to run a
retreat specialising in activities for
runners and cyclists in Saint-Laurent-
de-Nest. Guests included Steve Wray,
the British 100km record-holder, and
Chris Boardman, the Olympic gold-
medal winning cyclist.
Robert Boyes said two years ago the
couple found maintaining the property,
which has five acres of grounds, too
strenuous so decided to retire. They
sold the retreat and bought a smaller
home ten miles away in Boudrac. He
dismissed reports they had run out ofFamily cast doubt on expat
couple’s ‘murder-suicide’
money converting the house into holi-
day accommodation, saying they were
simply refurbishing a guest room for
visiting friends and family. “They both
had work pensions and were not far off
claiming their state pensions,” he said.
“John never mentioned any money
problems. I can’t imagine John killing
Kath. They had a wonderful life in
France with many friends.”
He became worried when he had not
heard from his brother for two weeks.
Then last Sunday a friend who was due
to go cycling with Boyes found the
bodies. Robert said their three sisters
were devastated at the news.
Boyes’s account on the track site
Strava showed he completed a 3.6-mile
run on April 12. He described in the
book British Marathon Running Legends
of the 1980s how he began running aged
12 and became a cross-country cham-
pion while serving with the Royal
Signals. “I was getting up at 4.15am and
doing a hard physical day until 12pm. I
was either cycling or walking,” he told
the author Gabrielle Collison.
His wife had grown up in Barnsley,
South Yorkshire, before moving to the
south coast. In France she worked as an
artist, specialising in paintings of pets.
Christophe Amunzateguy, the local
prosecutor, said that Boyes had hit his
wife with a baseball bat, strangled her
and gone into an annexe and hanged
himself. A suicide note explained that
the couple had run up debts, he added.David Brown
Adam Sage Paris
French police say that John Boyes
killed his wife with a baseball batDARREN BURTON/SOLENT NEWS & PHOTO AGENCYFowl play One of three newly hatched goslings in Basingstoke, Hampshire