Police in Wales say a murder plot that began as an affair unraveled the moment they found a fake suicide note—and the man who wrote it—hiding in the bushes. On Tuesday, Michelle Mills and her lover, Geraint Berry, were found guilty of conspiring to murder Mills’ husband, Christopher Mills, after a two-week trial in Swansea Crown Court.

A Brutal Attack And A Mysterious Note

The attack happened on the evening of September 20, 2024, at the couple’s mobile home in the small Welsh village of Clynderwen. Michelle called the police, claiming that two masked men had broken in and brutally assaulted her husband. When officers arrived, they found Christopher battered and bleeding, but alive. Investigators quickly caught up with two suspects—Berry, 46, and another man, Steven Thomas, 47—hiding in nearby undergrowth, and wearing gas masks. When officers searched them, they discovered a strange handwritten suicide note, allegedly from Christopher. The handwriting, it turned out, wasn’t his.

Digital Bread Crumbs Helped Crack The Case

“The plan was to murder Mr. Mills and stage his death as a suicide,” said Detective Inspector Sam Gregory of the Dyfed-Powys Police. “What they didn’t count on was his strength—and our ability to piece together the truth from their digital trail. The truth, police said, came down to the couple’s phones. Investigators uncovered weeks of text messages between Mills and Berry that revealed the two had been having an affair for months and had discussed several ways to kill Christopher. In the texts, Berry spoke darkly about “getting rid” of him, while Mills appeared to encourage the plan. According to court testimony, there had been two aborted attempts to carry out the killing before the night of the attack.

Mills Knew She Was Caught

When the latest plan went wrong and Berry and Thomas fled the scene, Mills texted Berry almost immediately: “Police have been called get away, delete all communications … please on both phones … I love you.” By then, the damage was done. Officers had already begun connecting the dots between her story, the staged note, and Berry’s presence nearby. When Mills herself was arrested, she reportedly asked one of the officers, “I’m going to prison for this, aren’t I?”

Mills Claims That Her Violent Texts Were Just Fantasy

Prosecutors argued that Mills and Berry had grown obsessed with one another and had convinced themselves that Christopher stood in their way. The fake note, they said, was a way to clear their conscience and frame the death as a tragedy rather than a crime. Mills claimed that her violent text exchanges with Berry were “just fantasy,” insisting she never thought he would act on them. But jurors didn’t buy it. “Mills and Berry plotted not one, not two, but three attempts to take Mr. Mills’ life,” Detective Inspector Gregory said after the verdict. “I have no doubt they would have continued to come up with new plans had they not been caught that night.”

Christopher Is Happy That Justice Is Served

Christopher Mills, who survived with head injuries, did not attend court but provided a statement expressing relief that “justice had been done.” Mills, Berry, and Thomas are due to be sentenced on December 19. For investigators, it’s the end of a story that might have looked like a domestic tragedy—if not for a single fake note and a trail of deleted texts that refused to disappear.