A MAN feared to have killed himself by setting his body on fire at one of Scotland's most famous golf links suddenly quit his job as a manager with a mental health charity seven months ago, it was revealed yesterday.
Bob Higgins, 51, who had spent 12 years working as an area manager for the Richmond Fellowship Scotland, resigned in February without giving a reason.
He is understood to have been out of work since, and had been living alone at his home in Barry
, Tayside, only a short distance from the links at Carnoustie where shocked greenkeepers discovered his burning corpse early on Wednesday morning.
Yesterday, as Tayside detectives continued to try to piece together Mr Higgins's final movements, a senior executive at the mental welfare charity paid tribute to its former employee.
George Welsh, regional director of the Richmond Fellowship, a charity which provides a range of services to people with mental health and learning disabilities, said: "Bob was our local manager for the Dundee and Angus area from 1996 to 2008. He left in February.
"He wasn't sacked. He just left. He chose to go. We didn't know the reasons."
Mr Welsh continued: "He was a well respected member of staff and a popular guy and we are all saddened and stunned by the nature of his death."
Tayside detectives have still to confirm how Mr Higgins died before his body was found on fire, close to the 11th tee on the Buddon Links course at Carnoustie. They are officially continuing to treat his death as "suspicious" while further forensic tests are carried out.
The full article contains 278 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
