It was not supposed to end like this.

Eight years after Elizabeth Cadell arrived in Bermuda, Police rushed into the apartment she shared with her boyfriend of seven years to find her lifeless body on the floor.

Just a minute before, at 2.50 p.m. on May 31, 1997, then-boyfriend, P.c.

Saleem Tony Bukhari, had called the Police communications centre for assistance at their Harvey Road, Devonshire home.

They found Ms Cadell's lifeless body on the floor, drops of dried vomit nearby.

Two bottles of aspirin, one half full and the other empty, were in a kitchen trash bin.

Rolled up in that same bin was a letter to "Smurf'' which read: "I know I have let you down badly and I don't think there is any way that I can make it up to you.

"Perhaps it's just best if I disappeared. You deserve better than me anyway, you deserve the best. I love you, I always have, I always will. I am sorry that it had to end this way but I can't take the punishment any longer. I hope some day you'll be able to forgive me.'' The 33-year-old from Newbury, Berkshire arrived on the Island in 1989 and went to work as a reporter at the Bermuda Sun.

She later joined the Mid-Ocean News and then moved to the Royal Gazette a few years later. Supreme Court heard during the trial that Ms Cadell had confessed to Bukhari she had an affair with Royal Gazette sports editor Adrian Robson and Bukhari had called off a planned wedding. The court heard that the affair had ended some months earlier.

It was Bukhari's actions and comments outside the apartment that threw a cloud of suspicion over him.

Minutes after they had arrived, the officers were still looking into the circumstances of a sudden death and likely suicide.

Sgt. Nicholas Pedro told the court Bukhari asked him to retrieve a dictaphone recording machine from the apartment and Bukhari said he feared being "stitched up'' by fellow officers. Sent to console Bukhari, Sgt. Pedro -- then still a constable with just three years' experience -- became "alarmed and disturbed'' at Bukhari's "inappropriate'' actions.

When Sgt. Pedro asked him what had happened, Bukhari said "the stupid b***h swallowed pills'' and "I think her sister will think I did this''. Det. Con.

Terry Maxwell said Bukhari stopped him one day, while he was still not involved with the case, and told him "I admit I was negligent, but I didn't kill her''.

In his statement to Police, Bukhari said he arrived home shortly after 4.30 a.m., found the note, argued with Ms Cadell about it, then went to sleep. He said he was awakened after 11 a.m. by Ms Cadell who told him she had taken the aspirin overdose around 8.30 a.m.

He suggested she take salt water to induce vomiting and was repeatedly told she was fine. The couple then had sex before he went for a jog around 1 p.m.

Upon arriving home, well over an hour later, he found Ms Cadell and called Police.

Bukhari, 33, told investigators he did not remember three pages he received that morning between 12.51 a.m. and 2.46 a.m., nor did he remember calling his home in response.

"Perhaps'' was his answer when asked if the public, expecting an officer to protect life, would not think he had done his duty.

Bukhari called the suggestion that he did not offer "positive action'' to Ms Cadell because he might benefit from her will "utter rubbish''. When confronted with medical evidence -- repeated on the stand by expert witnesses Valerie Rao and James Johnston -- that Ms Cadell would have been dead for between six and twelve hours before a doctor saw her after 3 p.m., Bukhari said: "I stay 100 percent behind my statement.

"I'm willing to take a polygraph,'' he added. "He's (the medical examiner) trying to say I made love to a corpse. I was home by the time I state.'' Forensic toxicologist Will Hearn said Ms Cadell was found with 1,239 milligrammes of aspirin per litre of blood in her body, estimated to be equivalent to more than 75 pills.