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Subscribe to RSSFor nearly two years, investigators have been trying to determine what happened to a brilliant, 31-year-old British spy whose body was found in August 2010 stuffed in a padlocked duffel bag and placed inside his bathtub. After a 21-month investigation, a British coroner announced this was probably a criminal act, but there are no clear signs of who was behind it. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.
The death of a British spy -- whose body was found in a padlocked bag in a bathtub in his London apartment -- may never be explained but was likely a criminal act, the coroner investigating the case said Wednesday.
The coroner, Fiona Wilcox, said that it was a "legitimate line of inquiry" that other spies were involved in the death of Gareth Williams, 31, a member of the U.K.'s Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, according to a report in The Guardian newspaper.
Wilcox said the spy was likely killed either by suffocation or poisoning in a "criminally meditated act."
She also said she did not think Williams' passing interest in sexual bondage was behind his death, The Telegraph newspaper said.
Two years after a British spy died under unusual circumstances, police still don't know what led to his demise. NBC's Keir Simmons reports from London.
NBC News
The body of British spy Gareth Williams was found in a bag in his bathtub.
Wilcox said that if Williams, a math prodigy who worked as a code breaker, had got into the bag by himself, foot and fingerprints would have been found around the bath, the paper reported.
"It is unlikely this death will ever be satisfactorily explained," she said, according to the media reports.
Spy death inquiry looks at bondage link
The coroner also said the large number of women's clothes in the apartment did not show that Williams was a transvestite, The Telegraph noted. The case, she said, had produced in "endless speculation but little evidence."
However, she added that the circumstances of the death "immediately raised the possibility of foul play," according to the Guardian.
UK cops close to arrest over British spy found dead in a bag?
Williams' body was found in his apartment in Pimlico, London, in August 2010.
Metropolitan Police / Reuters
A combination of still photographs taken from video shows a man trying to lock himself in a holdall in this undated image received from the Metropolitan Police in London on April 27.
A forensic pathologist, Benjamin Swift, testified Monday that Williams probably suffocated or was poisoned, saying a precise cause of death could not be established because the body had decomposed. Williams died more than a week before his body was found.
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Other experts have said that it was highly likely that another person, or two, were involved.
The case has spawned any number of conspiracy theories that Williams may have been assassinated by foreign agents or terrorists.
MI6 has said it believes his death was nothing to do with his work.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Temperance Brennan could determine cause of death. Oh, wait! That's just a TV show. This is reality.
"Most likely it was criminal" DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a stupid story!
You mean he didn't put himslef in a padlocked bag? Wow, such great investigative journalism... MSBN should be so proud... Well, at least they didnt spin this to somwehow make Obama look like a hero...
Obama found the bag and is right on the heels of the killer, personally. He almost caught him but he had to stop and save 437 children from a burning orphanage.
Well, at least no one has tried to make this about US politics...
Yes, they really need to call Sherlocks Holmes in on this case! -- Unless there is any chance that he could in fact, zip close and then lock the bag from the inside himself (which was not made clear here) -- it has to be a criminal act --involving a least one other person. Don't know much about the dead guy -- but he ws no James Bond -- that's for sure!
Maybe he knew something about Breitbart's death too so the white house had him killed, like the coroner.
www.wnd.com/2012/04/breitbarts-coroner-poisoned-to-death/
You would think that if it was poison they would be able to tell that. A weeks worth of decomposition should not preclude such a determination. Bodies have been exhumed from graves to test to find out if the individual was poisoned. Maybe this was an internal job and M16 would prefer the facts not to be known.
I was thinking the same thing.
Even though this story is stupid.... I will say in response that there are some poisons that dissipate from the body very quickly thereby thwarting detection. I think cyanide is one.
BTW it is MI6 not M16(that's a gun)
Maybe it was a inside job ~of the spy game
OH sorry for the typo. I know the difference. Just don't have a lot of time to edit while working.
"Likely criminal"? WOW, where'd you get the clue, Sherlock? Naah, most likely it was little green men who were packaging him for snack food on the way back to Blufuscodi 14. Just had a star go nova and they left in a hurry and forgot the picnic basket.
Seriously, someone like this you can take any conspiracy theory and make a good case - knew too much and his own government did him in? Was getting too much accomplished and the opposition did him in? Boyfriend/girlfriend did him in? Take any line and you could make a good case.
My wife, before we married, was awoken in her apartment by a commotion. It turns out that the guy across the courtyard from her had accidentally hung himself in a sexual asphyxiation episode. So before saying he didn't do this himself... consider that there is somebody into just about anything you can imagine. And nowadays, there is a web site devoted to every kink. The fictional Sherlock Holmes famously said 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth'. In this case, just be sure you don't eliminate the improbable because it sounds too kinky.
Still wouldn't explain the padlock
He introduced himself as Bondage...James Bondage.
Well, this isn't knew up under the sun, but it depends on the circumstances when the body starts to smell. could be a few days or weeks.
Lets hope it's not Joe Biden. then all political humor will be lost
He was a spy, found dead IN A BAG, and there is speculation about foul play? Seriously?
Yea, he locked himself in a bag, all by himself.
Interestingly creepy.
Time to call in Bond. He'll figure it out.
Are you nuts!? ....bond is the one that did it. this guy was a double agent, so MI6 had to get rid of him. The reason for all the womens clothing is because of course Bond had to sleep with the guys girlfriend before he killed him. The guy walked in on bond going to town on his lady then there was a sweet fight scene, a poker game, a martini (shaken not stirred), an aston martin and BAM, guy winds up in a duffle bag for a week in his bathroom, all the while MI6 says he died because he was into BDSM and it was DEFFINATELY not work related..
Brings new meaning to "half-in the bag" -- But he was all in-and padded locked too!-- anyways... How could you suspect anything but "natural causes"???? ~ ; )
Wow thats so stupid you would think it happened in Washington.Yeah he commited suicide and just wanted to make it easier to carry him away.
lol.
Um, yeah, uh, sure. Nudge nudge wink wink.
i find it hard to believe they can't test for poison after just one week. i call BS.
It looks like he just got too, STRANGE. So naturally, M16, would take care of the matter, IN HOUSE, and then disavow any knowledge of him. Sort of like, Bond, James Bond. The English are so proper, "Corporal, take the bag to the van, if you please, there's a good fellow".
I'm pretty sure this was an accident. When I travel I only travel inside a duffle bag and I've almost died a few times!
OMG I was having a really crappy day ... thanks for the comments made me laugh ... I think he was practicing to be Chris Angel and fell asleep and forgot he wouldn't have enough air to breathe? ....lol
James Bond is the one that did it. this guy was a double agent, so MI6 had to get rid of him. The reason for all the womens clothing is because of course Bond had to sleep with the guys girlfriend before he killed him. The guy walked in on bond going to town on his lady then there was a sweet fight scene, a poker game, a martini (shaken not stirred), an aston martin and BAM, guy winds up in a duffle bag for a week in his bathroom, all the while MI6 says he died because he was into BDSM and it was DEFFINATELY not work related..
"It was LIKELY criminal." Well, of course it was criminal, you dumbasses! Unless this guy was aspiring to be the newest Houdini, a body stuffed into a padlocked bag means that someone killed him and put him there!
It was Blowfield from specter who did it....
the name is Bond, James Bond.
Shot 17 times in the head and back. Worst case of suicide I've ever seen!
A cross-dressing, math whiz , code-breaker who was zipped up in a duffel-bag in the tub... nope! No foul play...
Cirque du soleil here we come! This was terrible journalism (but worth a laugh!)
17 stab wounds to his back, shot three times in the chest from 25 feet away . ..and beheaded (we found the head in house the next door with a axe in it -- wrapped in a plastic shopping bag) --A clear case of suicide (MI6 style) -- don't you know!!
It's an inside job by all counts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the name is Bond, James Bond.
Seems like MI6 needed to lighten the payroll load to me. How does one come up with such a quick conclusion that, it isn't work related, unless you know how he died and who has done it. He was a spy! He was murdered and all his bosses know is....it isn't work related. Yeah Sure! I would suggest that their employees look elsewhere for employment, but they probably were the ones that (had) to kill him. Good luck with that, agent 86!