Kidderminster gambler innocent of murder, says family

They think that Marcus Bebb-Jones, from Kidderminster, pleaded guilty to second degree murder to avoid the risk of a life sentence.

His son, Daniel, whose mother, Sabrina, was the victim of the murder, said: "I still think he is innocent. He's one of the kindest men I've ever known."

Daniel, now 19, was just three when his mother, then aged 31, disappeared in Colorado in September 1997.

Her skull was found in the Colorado National Park in 2004, after Bebb-Jones had returned to Kidderminster.

His mother, 69-year-old retired district nurse Pamela Weaver, spoke at his house in Merton Close, where she now lives with Daniel, after the admission by Bebb-Jones on Friday that he killed his wife.

She told the Express & Star: "I know he is innocent. It's a big shock to me that he has pleaded guilty. I haven't yet been able to speak to him or his lawyers but I think he has done it because if he was found guilty of first degree murder he would have got a life sentence.

"This way they say he could get 10 to 20 years."

Grey haired, bespectacled Mrs Weaver, who brought up her only child, Bebb-Jones, in the village of Chaddesley Corbett, near Kidderminster, added: "I won't talk about the details of the case – I have to think about Sabrina's family and their feelings. They think that Marcus did it – but I just know he didn't.

"Daniel and I will always believe in him and be there for him."

Bebb-Jones, now 49 and in Garfield County Jail awaiting sentencing on May 1, ran a hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado. He met Sabrina after going to America, originally staying with his aunt Jean in Philadelphia, during the 1980s. The couple married in 1993.

Mrs Weaver spoke of how her son, a former Wolverley High School pupil, told her he had been searching for his wife after her disappearance. She added: "The last few years had been like living in a film or book. It feels surreal – one day I will wake up and find it was a nightmare."