Police investigating the death of a Hove pensioner have released her husband without charge.

Fred Saunders had been arrested on suspicion of murdering his 75-year-old wife Mary but last night police confirmed the 85-year-old had been “formally released from arrest”.

He was interviewed on Saturday under caution at his bedside at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where he had been since being arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday, November 29.

It followed the discovery of Mrs Saunders’ body in the bedroom of the flat they shared in King George VI Mansions, off Court Farm Road, Hove.

Police are investigating whether Mrs Saunders died in a mercy killing.

A post-mortem examination carried out on Mrs Saunders, who was disabled and walked with a cane, has proved inconclusive.

Further forensic tests will take place over the next few days.

A Sussex Police spokesman yesterday (December 3) said: “The death is still being treated as murder.”

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