Chelsea millionaire, 76, strangles wife before drowning himself in swimming pool of holiday home

A  British millionaire strangled his wife to death before drowning himself in the swimming pool of their French holiday home.

After a furious argument, Jon Ortuzar, 76, grabbed a hammer and pummelled his wife Carlotta across the face with it, police believe.

The pensioner then strangled his 60-year-old wife in her bedroom with a cable.

Mr Ortuzar, who is from a wealthy shipping family, is understood to have written a note in Spanish explaining his actions before killing himself.

Part of the note said: 'I’m very sorry for the terrible thing that I’ve done.'

A cleaner made the gruesome discovery on Tuesday morning when she arrived at the couple's five-bedroom villa on the outskirts of Urrugne in the French Basque country in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

She found Mr Carlotta at the bottom of the swimming pool with sports bags filled with weights tightly bound to his ankles.

His wife was discovered in her bedroom with bruises on her face and a cord around her neck. A hammer was found lying next to her.

A police source said: 'It was a horrific scene, with both Mr Ortuzar and his wife dead when we arrived. Everything points to a furious argument which got completely out of hand.

'Mrs Ortuzar's face was covered in bruises, which suggests that a struggle took place. Other injuries and marks on her neck were consistent with her having been strangled to death.'

The couple, who were both British and Spanish nationals, owned a pair of two-bedroom apartments in a leafy private complex in Chelsea, South-West London. The flats are worth approximately £1.5million in total.

Mr Ortuzar came from a family of Basque nationalists who had fled to Britain from Franco's Spain after the civil war. He married his wife in Kensington in 1979 and is thought to have spent much of his professional life in London.

In recent years, the couple spent the majority of their time in Madrid, but would regularly make trips to their holiday villa.

They only returned to London 'once in a blue moon', according to a source at their Chelsea apartment block.

'The couple were well known in Urrugne, having holidayed in the village many times in the past,' a police source said. 'Urrugne is a very small community, so this naturally comes as a terrible shock.

'The couple were well liked. Nobody else is being sought in connection with the crime.'

Mrs Ortuzar was believed to have a history of depression and frequently argued with her husband, according to her medical records.

Autopsies have been carried out on the couple and the results support the police's belief that Mr Ortuzar murdered his wife before killing himself.

Odil de Coral, the mayor of the town, said the community was shocked by the deaths.

'I went to the house straight away to offer my support to the brother of Mr Ortuzar and the nephews of the victims, who have also made Urrugne their second home.

'Jon and Carlotta came very often to the Basque country, where they bought this house just after the war.'

Urrugne, which has a population of 7,000, is close to the Atlantic coast. The couple's holiday home is on the outskirts of the town in isolated countryside.

Daniel Poulou, a friend of the couple, said: 'They were charming people, who loved having guests round and knew how to treat them.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said they had not been informed of the deaths, but added that this was often the case where people had dual nationality.