Tomass Tilders' death no longer being treated as murder despite alleged assault in Northampton, police confirm

A death, which sparked the launch of a murder investigation in Northampton, is no longer being treated as murder, police confirm.

Tomass Tilders, aged 27, died in hospital on Sunday, July 16, having collapsed on Tuesday, July 11. He had previously told family that he had been assaulted in the town’s Racecourse area on July 4, which sparked witness appeals from police and later the launch of a murder investigation.

However, a forensic post-mortem was carried out on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 18, which revealed the provisional cause of death to be a serious head injury sustained when Tomass collapsed at a relative’s home.

Northamptonshire Police say the pathologist found no evidence to link Tomass’ collapse with the assault, and as a result, the murder investigation run by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit’s Major Crime Team has now been stood down.

Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury, who led the investigation, said: “From speaking to Tomass’ sister, who was with him when he collapsed, we can be confident that the head injury was caused by him falling onto a hard floor.

“As a result, we are closing our homicide investigation. I have updated Mr Tilders’ family and they are aware that we have found no causal link between the assault and his death.

“Since the assault was reported to the Force, we have been carrying out extensive enquiries, including viewing hundreds of hours of CCTV, to try to establish what happened on July 4.

“It is only right that an incident such as this is treated with the utmost seriousness, to make sure we have done all we can to understand what has happened, for the sake of Tomass and his family.

“Once again I want to express my sincere condolences to Tomass’ family, who have conducted themselves with immense dignity and bravery in providing so much assistance to us while going through the most devastating loss.”

Following the conclusion of the police investigation, a file will be prepared and handed over to the coroner’s office.