Paramedics are said to have been called to the banker's house early afternoon Friday, after reports that a person was taken unwell. Katie Ellerbeck, a housewife described by neighbours as 'slim', 'pretty', but 'loud', was pronounced dead at the scene . According to Sky TV, a post mortem revealed that she died of asphyxiation and manual compression of the neck.

Mr Ellerbeck, 45, was taken into custody soon after police arrived at the house. The couple's two young children, aged 10 and 13, were fortunately not thought to have been at home during the altercation. HSBC has denied reports that the banker had recently lost his job.

What's interesting about this case is that it's usually the banker that gets it. There have been three stories in the recent past that illustrate this point:

Hong Kong - Nancy Kissel was found guilty of the murder of her husband Robert, who was murdered in 2003. Kissel, then 40, was head of Merrill Lynch's principal finance business for Asia-Pac. She was accused of drugging her husband with a sedative-laced milkshake, before beating him about the head with a metal ornament. Three days after the bankers death, Mrs Kissel asked maintenance workers to come to her apartment complex and take out a thick carpet, which was apparently very heavy, to the storage area. Maintenance workers said that the carpet smelled like 'rotting fish'. Mrs Kissel, who eventually led police to the body, recently lost her appeal against against life in prison.

New Jersey - The body of Maria Cruz, an analyst at Barclays Capital who had been missing for 10 months, was discovered in 2003, buried at the former home of a bogus doctor, Dean Faiello. Police discovered Ms Cruz's body in a suitcase buried under a new section of crudely built concrete steps in the basement area of the house. She is believed to have gone to the 'doctor' for treatment for a condition called black tongue, from which she did not survive. This condition is a painless black growth on the tongue, which can be a side effect of antibiotics. Faiello later pleaded guilty to first degree assault in exchange for a 20-year jail term.

And finally, Zurich - 50 year-old Edouard Stern, a former Managing Director at Lazard Freres and (in 2005) the 38th richest man in France was found dead in his Geneva penthouse 3 years ago. His girlfriend, a former call girl, later pleaded guilty to his murder. Stern was discovered wearing a condom-like flesh-coloured latex bodysuit, having been shot twice by his girlfriend, who is believed to sometimes have played the part of a leather-clad dominatrix and shared the banker's passion for sadomasochistic s.x games. The banker's murder is believed to have followed an argument over a $1m sum Stern is said to have promised to give his partner. He was executed Clockwork Orange-style, with two bullets to the head, one to the chest and one to the base of the back.

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