Murder of Valerie Graves

Valerie Graves (25 December 1958 – 29/30 December 2013) was an artist and grandmother with two adult children. She had previously owned a gallery and craft studio in Roxburghshire, having lived in Scotland for around ten years, before moving to Bracklesham Bay shortly before her death to care for her then 87-year-old mother, Eileen.

Over the Christmas period of 2013, Eileen, Valerie, Valerie's sister Janet, and Janet's partner Nigel were housesitting on Smugglers Lane in Bosham, West Sussex, for friends who were abroad at the time. Family and friends visited during this period, marking both Christmas celebrations and Valerie's birthday, which fell on Christmas Day.

On the morning of 30 December 2013, Janet found Graves's body in her bedroom. She had suffered severe head and facial injuries. A patio door leading from the bedroom directly outside to the rear of the property was found unlocked.

A few days after the murder, police found a hammer at the entrance to the driveway of Harts' Farm on Hoe Lane, roughly 600 metres from the scene; it was later confirmed as the murder weapon. A local man was arrested on 14 January 2014 and questioned, but was bailed and subsequently released without further action. In November 2014, investigators obtained a partial DNA profile linked to the suspect. In January 2015, Sussex Police launched a voluntary mass DNA screening programme in Bosham, inviting men aged 17 and over to give samples. By that stage, officers had interviewed 9,500 people, a £20,000 reward had been offered, and the case had featured on the television programme Crimewatch.

In July 2019, Cristian Sabău was arrested at his home in Dej, Romania, under a European Arrest Warrant, and Sussex Police sought his extradition. He appeared in court in Cluj-Napoca before being extradited to the UK. He was scheduled to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on 20 July 2019, was remanded in custody, and had a further court date on 30 September 2019.

In November 2019, Sabău was convicted of Graves's murder after pleading guilty. The prosecution stated that he had entered the house intending to burgle it, believing it would be empty, after being told that a safe inside contained a large amount of cash and gold ingots. He had previously carried out odd jobs for the property's owners. When he encountered Valerie Graves, he attacked her with a hammer, inflicting injuries that prosecutors compared to those seen in traffic accidents. Judge Christine Laing sentenced him to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years and 272 days.

The case was later featured in the Sky documentary series Killer in My Village (Season 4, Episode 8) and in the series Donald MacIntyre: Unsolved.