Millionaire mistress dies after helping lover murder disabled wife
- Rory Cassidy
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
A millionaire mistress who helped her lover cover up the murder of his disabled wife has died, it has emerged.
Rita Heyster was jailed over the murder of Carol Jarvis, who was murdered by her husband, fraudster and embezzler Harry Jarvis.
But Heyster, who was heiress to the Jus-Rol pastry brand and said to have inherited £2.5million, has since passed away.
Her death is revealed in a new true crime show about Carol's murder.
The mini documentary The Murdering Monster and The Millionaire Mistress reveals she died in 2023.
The film, released yesterday, Friday, August 28, 2026, tells how Heyster, originally of Peebles, in the Borders, passed away at the age of 68 and that her death was registered in Livingston.
The 10-minute show is available on the @ScotlightNews YouTube channel, and on Spotify.
Heyster had been having an affair with Grimsby-born Harry after he and Carol, of London, moved to Bathgate, West Lothian.
She moved into the shed at the Jarvis family home and slept on a dingy mattress next to a garden table parasol.
Carol's health had began to deteriorate when she developed a degenerative muscle condition at the age of 38.
She ended up spending years suffering from complicated medical problems and was forced to use a wheelchair, becoming essentially bedbound.
Harry was the one who gave her her medication, and gave her so many sleeping tablets she'd sleep most of the day.
Carol's health deteriorating, womaniser Harry struck up a relationship with Heyster.
Their neighbour, Jacqueline Stewart, described herself as Carol's best friend at Harry's murder trial.
She said Harry had spoken about killing Carol on a number of occasions, claiming he could do it by "snapping her neck" and then disposing of her body in a wheelie bin or in woods.
She also said Carol was "naive" and had never discussed kinky games such as "sexual strangulation."
Harry claimed that Carol had died after suffering a fit in the early hours of September 12, 2009, after she asked him to strangle her during sex.
He later claimed she had died in their bed after having a fit and that he had tried to give her drugs to stop the tremors.
Rita helped him hide her body under the floorboards in the basement.
Police found Carol wrapped in a blanket and covered in parcel tape after being called in by her concerned children when she vanished.
Because of how decomposed Carol's body was, her exact cause of death could not be confirmed.
The police probe revealed love letters Harry had written Rita where he spoke of drugging Carol by poisoning her food.
Harry was jailed for life, being ordered to serve at least 15 years before he could apply for parole.
Rita was jailed for four and half years for her part in the cover-up.
Harry had lied about his relationship with Rita in court, claiming they were just friends, but their romance was actually as strong as ever.
Rita continued to visit him in West Lothian's Addiewell prison after she was released from her own jail term, and the couple planned to marry while he was still behind bars.
But their 2015 nuptials never went ahead as Rita called off the wedding.
Harry died of heart failure in Addiewell Prison aged 67 in 2017.
You can watch the documentary on YouTube here or listen to it on Spotify here.
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