UK New Year's Day murder suspect jumps from seventh floor window

January 10, 2005

The primary suspect in the murder of student Sarah Gleeson apparently set himself on fire, then threw himself from a seventh floor window of the Corus Hotel early on Saturday morning, January 8.

Police indicated they were seeking to question the suspect, David Atkinson, prior to his death. Atkinson was a Lance-Corporal in the British Army. He had been present in Cambridge on New Year's Eve, but failed to report for duty to his barracks in Waterbeach on January 4.

Sarah Gleeson disappeared in Cambridge on New Year's Eve, and her body was discovered on January 8, shortly after Atkinson's apparent suicide. Investigators are working to determine more details about the circumstances and cause of both deaths.

Atkinson had been charged with kidnap and assault in a separate case involving a Polish woman, although the Ministry of Defence stated that he had been cleared of those charges in 1998.