After working as a presenter for Midlands Today and a continuity announcer for Granada Television, Lithgow moved to London as a newsreader for the national BBC News in 1988.
[citation needed] Lithgow was murdered, along with her 83-year-old mother, Maggie Lee, and her British brother-in-law, John Cropper, at the family home in Port of Spain.
A detective who spoke anonymously due to a rule forbidding police from contacting the media during an investigation said "I have visited a number of scenes in my career, but I never see anything as brutal or grisly as that.
"[2] While earlier reports stated that a "group of bandits" had ambushed the home, only two men were arrested and charged for their involvement in the crime: Lester Pittman and Daniel Agard.
[3] After several appeals, both Pittman and Agard had their sentences overturned in March 2010 due to a law prohibiting the executions of prisoners who had spent more than five years on death row.