Lady in Lake husband is re-arrested

Three-times-married Gordon Park, 59, was being questioned by Cumbria Police, who are following up new leads into the death of the 30-year-old primary school teacher.

Her scantily-clad body was found in Coniston Water, in the Lake District, in 1997 - 21 years after she disappeared from her home.

The year before she went missing, 30-year-old Mrs Park left Sunningdale School, Easterside, Middlesbrough, after only two terms and without working her three-month period of notice.

Sources close to the investigation told to The Northern Echo yesterday that the man arrested and taken into custody was retired teacher Gordon Park.

At the time of Mrs Park's disappearance, her husband maintained he had left her feeling ill in bed at their home in Leece, Barrow-in-Furness, to take their three children, Vanessa, then aged eight, Jeremy, six, and Rachel, five, on a day trip to Blackpool.

He claimed he returned to find the house empty and his wife's wedding and engagement rings lying on the bedside table.

Scuba divers found Mrs Park's body in 75ft of water. She was wearing a blue baby doll nightdress and was wrapped in bin liners and weighed down.

She became known as The Lady in the Lake after the Raymond Chandler thriller of the same name.

Mr Park was charged with her murder in 1997 but the case was dropped because of a lack of evidence.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said: "Further to the finding of Carol Park in Coniston Water on August 15, 1997, police arrested a 59-year-old man at a house in Barrow on suspicion of murder.''

Allegations of Mrs Park having extra marital affairs surfaced during the initial murder inquiry. Her brother, retired shipyard worker Ivor Price, 64, said two years before his sister vanished she introduced him to a man she was having an affair with.

Last night, he said: "I hope this latest development is at last the breakthrough we have all been waiting for.''

Cumbria Police are expected to apply today for more time to question Mr Park.