After the death on Monday of the private detective hired to find Madeleine McCann, a colleague has revealed how he probably died.
The body of 56-year-old Kevin Halligen was discovered at his private mansion in Surrey with the death being treated as ‘unexplained’ by the police.
Halligen took Gerry and Kate McCann’s case back in 2008 and since then he has been accused of conning the parentes out of £300,000 in service fees.
Unable to come up with any substantial evidence, it is believed that he took the money before his contract was terminated so he could afford to live a lavish lifestyle.
Now with the sudden announcement of his death, the police have launched a formal investigation into how he died.
A press statement from Surrey Police confirmed that they:
…were called to an address in Cobbett Hill Road, Normandy, Guildford, on Monday following a report of a man in his 50s having been taken unwell, who subsequently died.
The death is being treated as unexplained and a file will be passed to the coroner’s office in due course.
Adrian Gatton, a TV director and investigative journalist, was Halligen’s colleague making a documentary with the investigator for Channel 5 in 2014 called The McCanns and the Conman.
As reported by The Independent, he confirmed to the Press Association that Halligen was addicted to alcohol and believes that his death was caused by this.
He said:
Although his death is certainly not foul play, as has been suggested, there are certainly a lot of people who wished him ill. But he was also unique.
I knew chapter and verse about his life and career, but my interest was really to try and get to the bottom of why he did what he did.
My understanding is that he was found dead on Monday night. There was blood around the house, probably caused by previous falls when he was either drunk or blacking out.
Halligen was increasingly shambolic and these blood stains hadn’t been cleared up.
His house was full of empty drink bottles. A lot of people wished him ill but his death is almost certainly related to alcoholism.
Madeleine McCann, nicknamed Maddie, was only three years old when she went missing while on holiday 11 years ago.
Her parents Kate and Gerry McCann left her and her two younger siblings in their holiday apartment so they could go eat dinner in a restaurant that fateful evening.
It’s believed the McCanns hired Halligen back in 2008 after being impressed by his CV, however, they soon became frustrated with his method of investigation.
Using his firm for around six months, the McCanns terminated the contract without paying the full fees because Halligen had failed to fulfil certain agreements.
Extradited to the US in 2012 to face charges over an unrelated con worth £1.3 million, he soon returned to the UK after pleading guilty.
He denies that he misused the money he was paid by the McCanns to find their daughter.
