UPI : CIA joins probe of British spy slaying

CIA joins probe of British spy slaying

August 26, 2010

LONDON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The CIA was called in to help investigate the death of a British spy whose body was found decomposing in a sports bag in his bathtub, officials said Thursday.

Gareth Williams, a 31-year-old code breaker for the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service, supplying Britain with foreign intelligence, was often sent on secret missions to the United States. He returned to London from his last U.S. trip a few weeks before he was found dead, The Daily Mail reported.

His death in his upscale London townhouse apartment near MI6 headquarters -- said to have happened as much as two weeks ago but just discovered Monday -- has led to a flurry of speculation about how he died and why.

Security officials told the Mail they could not explain how someone holding his sensitive post could go missing for such a long time before police were called.

Detectives were said to be trying to determine if Williams was strangled or asphyxiated or if drugs or alcohol were present in his system. Police discounted lurid speculation he had been stabbed or even dismembered, the Mail said.

Williams was days from returning to Britain's eavesdropping Government Communications Headquarters intelligence agency in Cheltenham, 100 miles northwest of London, most British media outlets reported.

Despite the intrigue, Williams' death is being investigated by the Homicide and Serious Crime Command of London's Metropolitan Police, suggesting the death may be unrelated to espionage, The Guardian reported.

The newspaper said investigators suspected Williams may have known his killer.