Doctor on Royal On-Call List Found Dead Near Sandringham; Husband Charged

A doctor who was regularly on call for the British royal family was found dead at her home near Sandringham. Police have charged her husband with murder.

The victim was provisionally identified as 45-year-old Hannah Cain, known to patients as Dr. Hannah Terry. Formal identification has not yet taken place, police said. She was a mother of three, according to The Telegraph.

Her body was discovered on Sunday, Oct. 4, at an address in Fern Hill in Dersingham, a village in Norfolk in eastern England. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The court heard she had been bludgeoned and strangled, The Telegraph reported.

She had been hosting a sleepover for her children's friends when she died. That detail was first reported in British press accounts of the initial police response.

Dr. Terry worked as a family doctor, known in Britain as a GP, at Grimston Medical Centre. She also served in a pool of local doctors regularly on call for the royal family, according to Town & Country. Sandringham Estate is the king's private country home in Norfolk, used by the royal family in winter and for Christmas.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were informed of her death, the same report said. Buckingham Palace, the king's London headquarters, has not issued a public statement.

Her husband, 45-year-old Mark Cain of Fern Hill, Dersingham, was charged with murder on Tuesday, Oct. 6, according to People. He appeared before Norwich Magistrates' Court, a lower court that handles first hearings, on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 7.

He was remanded in custody. He is due to appear at King's Lynn Crown Court, the higher criminal court that tries serious cases, on Thursday, Oct. 8.