Naman Shrestha
A pregnant young woman, with her entire life ahead of her, was found covered in her own blood in her apartment in 2005. Showcasing the dark side of a love affair and jealousy, the episode titled ‘A Deadly Devotion’ of ‘Deadliest Lovers’ chronicles the tragic murder of 23-year-old Hayley Richards and the investigation that followed. The tragedy sent shockwaves to the entire community, especially the victims’ loved ones, who couldn’t believe Hayley was no more.
How Did Hayley Richards Die?
Brought into the world by Christina Richards in the early 1980s, Hayley Richards seemingly grew up in a loving household, along with her two brothers — Paul and David Richards. Not only was she immensely loved and cared for by her large and close-knit family, but every other acquaintance of hers had nice words for her as she was a lovely and free-spirited person. Since she lived alone, away from her family, in a flat in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, she had to find a way to support herself and her education. Thus, she started working as a server at a bar.
In 2005, Hayley got pregnant and was excited to bring one of her own into the world. But just after three months into her pregnancy, her dreams of becoming a mother shattered as she was stabbed thrice and her throat was found slit with a craft knife while she lay in the pool of her own blood at her house in June 2005. When the authorities arrived at the crime scene, they looked for any sort of evidence and interrogated the victim’s neighbors and family members to find a lead or suspect.
Who Killed Hayley Richards?
Upon their thorough investigation, the investigators got to know about Hayley Richards’ ex-partner, Hugo Quintas, who was already wanted by the police because of an alleged attack on the victim at her Trowbridge home less than a week before she was murdered. On June 5, 2005, Hayley called the police and reported that she had been attacked by Quintas and that she was scared of his volatile and jealous behavior. During that fight, she reportedly got bruised and was taken to a local hospital for a check-up as she was pregnant at the time.
After missing out on the opportunity to arrest Quintas that day, the authorities missed another opportunity on June 10, just a day before Hayley’s murder. He was stopped by some Trowbridge officers as he was driving a car with a broken rear light. Instead of taking some action against him, considering the fact that he was wanted for attacking Hayley a few days earlier, he was only issued a ticket and allowed to pass. Then, on June 11, 2005, Quintas took his chance and stabbed his girlfriend of 10 months, and later, slit her throat with a craft knife at her own house in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Fleeing the scene, Quintas reportedly headed straight to his nearby home to pack his bags and flew away to Portugal the same day. After that, he took a trip to Spain, where he was found and arrested the same month on suspicion of Hayley’s murder. He was then transferred to England for interrogation, where he admitted to killing Hayley but claimed that she was the one who lunged in with a knife during an argument and he ended up stabbing her. He even claimed that the murdered bar worker taunted him and confessed that she cheated on him.
Where is Hugo Quintas Now?
Despite all the evidence presented by the prosecutor in the court of law, Hugo Quintas maintained his innocence. During one of the news conferences, Hayley’s brothers, Paul and Richard, spoke about their sister. Paul stated, “We are a large and close-knit family and what has happened to Hayley has devastated us. It has broken our mum’s heart. She was our beautiful baby sister and will always be precious to us and we will always miss her.” In March 2006, the jury decided to overlook the perpetrator’s version of events and returned with a guilty verdict. Hugo Quintas was given a life sentence and was supposed to spend a minimum of 18 years in prison for the murder of his pregnant ex Hayley Richards.
However, he managed to get deported to Portugal in 2014 with a conditional release after three years in accordance with the Portuguese justice system. As soon as the Portuguese justice let Hugo Quintas go in 2017, he ended up getting charged with the murder of yet another woman, this time in the Netherlands in 2021. The Dutch police tracked the perpetrator down and put him behind bars yet again. As of now, Hugo Quintas, who is guilty of killing Hayley Richards, is supposedly serving his sentence behind bars at one of the many correctional facilities.
