Suspect freed in teacher's killing

BIRMINGHAM, England, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A man has been released on bail after being questioned in the killing of a retired teacher stabbed in her remote cottage, police in England said Saturday.

A spokesman for West Mercia police said the man does not live in the Bewdley area, where the body of Betty Yates, 77, was found Jan. 4, The Daily Telegraph reported. He was arrested Thursday at his home and interrogated at a Worcestershire police station.

"He has since been released on police bail pending further inquiries and the major police investigation is continuing this weekend," the spokesman said.

Yates had lived alone in the riverside cottage since her husband died seven years ago. Police said she was beaten with her own walking stick and then stabbed in the neck on Jan. 2.

Investigators have suggested the killer went to the house for burglary. But Yates' children say their mother may have known her attacker.

"To lose your mum like this, when you worry constantly about how frightened she might have been or what she might have felt during such a vicious attack, is like a nightmare," her daughter, Hazel Costello, said last week. "We don't know if it was a burglary or if there was any other reason. It is possible our mum knew who killed her and this only makes things worse."