Lisa Smith shot dead at pub on Valentine's Day after 'trying to flee marriage'

A woman gunned down by her husband outside a pub on Valentine’s Day was attempting to leaving the relationship, an inquest has heard.

Tragic Lisa Smith, 43, was shot twice in the neck in the car park of The Three Horseshoes in Knockholt, Kent, on February 14 earlier this year. Edward Smith has tracked her down that evening before blocking her car in with his and firing four shots with a handgun, Kent and Medway Coroner’s Court was told.

She had informed her sister she was leaving her husband earlier that day, and had got on a train from their home in Slough, Berkshire, to stay with family in Kent. On Wednesday, Area Coroner Katrina Hepburn concluded Ms Smith died from unlawful killing and found “requisite intent from Edward Smith to kill her or cause her really serious harm”.

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After killing his wife, Mr Smith, also known as Edvard Stockings, sent voice notes to someone he called “Nana” saying “I’ve shot Lisa she’s dead” before he was seen to jump to his death from a bridge in Dartford later that evening, the court heard.

In one of the voice notes he said “hopefully I’m going to get into heaven with my wife” after alluding to suicide. Detective Sergeant James Dolby told the court that Ms Smith was picked up at Orpington station by her friends and sister shortly before they went to the Horseshoe Pub.

Just before 7pm, Ms Smith was in the passenger seat of her friend Nancy’s Seat in the pub car park when her husband arrived, having called her and her friends multiple times while looking for her. There was a “verbal altercation” between him and Ms Smith’s sister Laura who called him a “narcissist” inside the pub, he got back in his car and left.

Mr Dolby said: “At 18.59 Nancy reverses her Seat onto Harrow Road and stops to speak with Laura. Edward manoeuvres his vehicle to stop Nancy from exiting … Effectively Edward has blocked them in.” The first two shots from his handgun were fired from inside his own vehicle, the court heard.

The coroner said: “He pulled forward in the car and fired a second shot, he was seen to exit the vehicle with arms outstretched holding a handgun and firing a shot through the drivers side car window.”

It was this third shot that caused “fatal damage” to Ms Smith’s neck, before he came around to the passenger side and fired at her again from close range. “Four shots were fired, the first two from within his vehicle towards the Seat. There were no injuries consistent with the trajectory of those first two bullets,” said Ms Hepburn.

On Wednesday morning, Ms Smith’s father asked the detective why they had not driven away after the first two shots. “You’d have started up and gone, wouldn’t you?” he asked. “It happened very quickly,” Mr Dolby explained. Despite CPR from members of the public and emergency services, Ms Smith died from her injuries at 19.42.

Setting out her conclusion, the coroner said: “I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a short form conclusion of unlawful killing would be safe and appropriate to set out in this manner.

“There was intent to find Lisa Smith after she had left her home address and once she was found the car she was seated in was blocked preventing any exit.” An inquest into the death of Edward Smith will take place this afternoon.