Police search mother's hotel room for clues to reason for children's death

LIANNE SMITH, the British woman suspected of murdering two of her children in a Spanish hotel room, returned to the family apartment…

LIANNE SMITH, the British woman suspected of murdering two of her children in a Spanish hotel room, returned to the family apartment in Barcelona yesterday with police searching for clues as to why she may have killed them.

A police spokesman explained that investigators were looking for links between the killings and the extradition to Britain on sexual abuse and child rape charges of her husband, Martin Smith.

Police also said they had now established that Mr Smith was the father to only one of the two children she had reportedly confessed to murdering.

“I can confirm that only one of the children is his,” the spokesman said. He did not say who the father of the other child was, nor whether Mr Smith was the father of Rebecca (5) or 11-month-old Daniel.

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Police draped a beige jacket across Ms Smith’s head as she was taken in handcuffs into the apartment block near Barcelona’s famous Sagrada Familia church. “She was perfectly calm,” the spokesman said.

Ms Smith, wearing blue jeans and white top, was taken from a police car into the apartment building, where the family had lived for the past six months.

They searched the apartment for an hour, taking away a blue binliner full of material. Ms Smith was then driven back to the police station at Blanes, where she will be held until a judge decides today whether to send her to prison, release her or send her to a psychiatric unit while the investigation continues.

The spokesman refused to confirm that a third man had been helping police with their inquiries.

He added that he had heard no report of Ms Smith trying to kill herself. He also could not confirm whether a letter from Mr Smith to his wife had been discovered in the family’s post box.

He also could not say whether Ms Smith had confessed to the crime. No charges have yet been brought. – (Guardian service)