Wife snared Valerie Graves’ murderer using his children’s DNA

The wife of a man who bludgeoned a grandmother to death handed him in to police nearly six years later after discovering his horrific crime.

Adina Marian caught her husband Cristian Sabou searching Google about the savage killing of Valerie Graves in Bosham, West Sussex, and decided to turn him in, The Sun reports.

Sabou pleaded guilty to the 2013 murder on Monday and was jailed for life at Lewes Crown Court.

Ms Marian told The Sun: “I didn’t do anything for a while because I was afraid of him and what this might to do our little girls.

“But I decided to do it because it’s the right thing to do.”

She provided Sussex Police – who had never given up on solving the murder – with DNA from his daughters in an effort to bring him to justice.

The crucial intelligence led police to track down Sabou in Romania in July this year.

He was arrested and a sample of his DNA confirmed a match with samples taken from the murder weapon and the door to the bedroom Ms Graves had been sleeping in.

Ms Marian, 26, explained her decision to turn in her husband, saying: “I could not live with myself knowing that a cold-blooded murderer was walking the streets free.”

“I saw on the Google history ‘murder in Bosham’ and ‘hammer’.

“I showed him the phone and asked him, ‘What is this all about?’ There was a picture of a hammer on there and I asked him, ‘Isn’t this the hammer you had in England?’ I knew it, I’d seen it there.

“He said, ‘Don’t break up with me – and keep your mouth shut’. I told him I would not break up with him, and waited until he left to return to England.

“I kept pressing the police, sending emails, asking, ‘How long is this going to take?'”

Judge Christine Laing QC praised Ms Marian for having the “decency and courage” to come forward, adding the murder would have “remained unsolved” if she had not.

Ms Marian, who has returned to Romania, told The Sun: “I feel sorry for Valerie’s family and ashamed that my husband caused them so much pain. I hope that this verdict will bring them some comfort.”

Sabou was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years and 272 days.