ESSEX, U.K. — On Monday, Canadian Ashley Wadsworth, 19, updated her Facebook profile with a selfie of her and her British boyfriend Jack Sepple smiling in the sunshine.
The next day, following a “disturbance,” neighbours called police to his Chelmsford home, east of London, U.K., where they found her in bed, covered in blood, with Sepple alongside her on his phone, a court heard Thursday.
She’d been stabbed to death.
Wadsworth, who is from Vernon, B.C, met Sepple online and travelled to the U.K. in November to be with him. Social media posts show the couple visiting London landmarks and celebrating his birthday on Jan. 9.
CTV News understands she was meant to fly back to Canada on Thursday. Instead, Sepple appeared in Colchester Magistrates’ Court charged with a single count of murder. He wore a grey sweatshirt and red trousers and only confirmed his name, address and date of birth.
“I just can’t believe it,” said a woman who lives two doors down and preferred not to give her name. “Every time I shut my eyes I see her dead.”
She said Wadsworth had come to her distressed that morning. When the woman went to check up on her later, she said Sepple told her, “Give us five minutes.”
“I thought they were having adult time,” she told CTV Nexjmtzywws.
Visibly distressed, the woman didn’t want to get into detail about what she’d witnessed that day, but said: “my heart goes out to her family.”
Wadsworth was a Mormon and was thanked for “her faith and friendship” online by Daniel Seaman, one of the many people posting tributes on her Facebook page.
“I’m so sorry your trip turned out to be like this,” another person wrote on Facebook. “You deserved so much better.”
Others expressed their condolences to Wadsworth’s family.
Sepple will appear again in court Friday morning.
RELATED IMAGESview larger image
A police officer is seen at the scene of the crime in Essex. (Photo: Daniele Hamamdjian)
Flowers were laid in front of the home in Essex, England, after a young woman from B.C. was murdered. (Photo: Daniele Hamamdjian)
