Colchester: Widow reveals disease despair (From Gazette)

Colchester: Widow reveals disease despair

11:50am Tuesday 19th September 2006 in Search By Richard Goss

The grieving widow of university lecturer Dr Alasdair Crockett today spoke of her loss.

She revealed she has also got the disease which caused her husband's depression.

Police were alerted last Thursday after the Essex University lecturer went missing from his family home, and his wife, Frances, received a "suicidal" letter from him in the post.

Dr Crockett was found dead on Saturday in Thicks Wood, near Alresford Creek.

He had been suffering from depression caused by Lyme disease, which he believed he had caught during his time spent studying hill farming in Northumberland.

Lyme disease, caught by a bite from a tick infected by bacteria, can be passed between humans through blood. Frances Crockett believes this is how she caught the disease.