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LONDON - A 51-year-old company director has been charged with the murder of his wife, who disappeared nine years ago, Scotland Yard said on Wednesday.
Martin Hale, from Thames Ditton in Surrey, will appear before Kingston magistrates on Thursday accused of killing his wife Maurine, last seen in June 1999.
Hale had told police that his wife, then 42, had left their home late in the evening without saying where she was going.
She took no personal possessions with her and her bank account has not been accessed since.
Police investigating the case have said her disappearance was completely out of character.
A mother of five, she had been planning to take her children to a concert and had been making arrangements for the 15th birthday of one of her daughters.
Hale was arrested in 1999 over the disappearance but was released without charge.
Despite extensive searches his wife's body has never been found.
- REUTERS
