First picture of strangle victim
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by Alan
McGuinness and Jenni Horn
PICTURE EXCLUSIVE
This is the first picture of strangle victim Edite Titane
after her husband appeared in court charged with her murder.
Latvian national Agris Titans, 24, was remanded in custody when
he appeared before Medway magistrates on Saturday.
The body of his 22-year-old wife (pictured left) was found
by her younger sister in a downstairs bedroom at their home in
Cecil Road, Rochester.
A large-scale police operation was launched as detectives
attempted to trace Titans. He was arrested in front of Rochester
Cathedral 34 hours later on Wednesday night and charged with murder
on Friday evening.
Standing wide-eyed in the dock on Saturday morning, Titans was
flanked by two security guards and spoke only to confirm his
identity through an interpreter.
No application for bail was made and he will appear at Maidstone
Crown Court tomorrow (Tuesday).
A close friend of the couple, who had been married for three
years, told the Messenger he is stunned by Edite's death.
Speaking from Latvia, he said: "I am really shocked. Agris comes
from a big family, he has a lot of brothers and sisters. I met them
at a party three years ago in Riga. They were living there for
about three years."
He said Agris (pictured right) worked in a wood factory
before coming to the Towns, while Edite - also a Latvian
national - stayed at home to look after their daughter.
Edite moved to Medway in April to be closer to her family. She
lived in a white terraced house with Titans, her brother and sister
as well as another couple and an older man. They all worked as
fruit pickers in Rainham.
Her body was found when police were called to the property
shortly before 10am last Monday.
A murder investigation was launched and a post mortem
examination revealed Edite died from asphyxiation after compression
of the neck. An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned on
Thursday.
It is not known if the couple's three-year-old daughter
witnessed Edite's death, but she is being cared for by Edite's
mother, who also lives in Medway.
The couple spell their surnames differently for cultural
reasons.
Monday, August 08 2011
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