Local contacts helped the Advertiser Series in Surrey score an exclusive in the Abigail Witchalls case – when it revealed that a suspect had died in an apparent suicide.

The weekly newspaper, which has two editions covering Dorking and Leatherhead, beat the nationals to the story and managed to keep it under wraps for almost a week.

Reporter Mark Davison received a tip-off from a contact last Friday, who told him he had been interviewed by police about suspect Richard Cazaly.

The contact told police he had seen Richard shortly before the attack, and police informed him that the suspect had since died.

The paper also discovered the police had searched the dead man’s house, and reporters Vikki Thomas and John Williams began making local enquiries before contacting police.

News editor Beth McLoughlin said: “We went to police on Monday to see what they could confirm and they said he had been interviewed but wouldn’t use the term ‘suspect’.

“Just before our deadline on Wednesday they confirmed he was a suspect – which helped the subs as otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to use that word in the headline!”

Beth said it had been an agonising wait to break the story as police told them they were the only paper which knew about it.

She said: “It was a nerve-wracking few days. We are a Thursday paper but are out in some shops on Wednesday afternoon and we knew as soon as the paper was out the story would be out.

“It was more than we could have hoped for to get an exclusive in such a high profile case.

“It can be very difficult because we are only a weekly and the nationals have so many resources.

“The first arrest in the case was made just after our paper had hit the streets, which was frustrating, and you do feel sometimes that you are playing catch up.”