Man held over pensioner's cottage murder

A 31-year-old man has been arrested by police investigating the murder of a pensioner in her country cottage two years ago.

The suspect, from Eastleigh, Hampshire, was held at 5am yesterday on suspicion of killing 77-year-old Georgina Edmonds.

The pensioner was bludgeoned to death at her home in Brambridge, near Otterbourne, in January 2008.

Mrs Edmonds was found dead by her son Harry and a family friend after he came home from work.

She lived in the grounds of her son's home and it is believed she did not lock her doors during the day.

A post-mortem examination found she died from extensive head injuries.

A £30,000 reward was offered by police in the hope of finding her killer.

On the second anniversary of her murder in January, Hampshire Police said they had made a "significant breakthrough" as a result of forensic evidence recovered from the murder scene.

It followed months of painstaking forensic work using new testing techniques and police said they would be contacting a number of people identified from their inquiries.

They would be asked to take DNA mouth swabs to compare with the forensic evidence recovered from the scene to eliminate them.

Officers said at the time that they would be focusing their inquiries on people who lived, worked or were associated with the Eastleigh and Boyatt Wood areas in January 2008.

Police also appealed directly to the community of Eastleigh and Boyatt Wood as detectives believed the area was key to helping solve the killing.

A police spokesman said today: "Detectives from Hampshire Constabulary's major crime department have made an arrest in connection with the murder of Georgina Edmonds.

"A 31-year-old man from Eastleigh was arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody helping police with their inquiries.

"The arrest was made around 5am on Wednesday June 30."