Eric Isaiah Kusi Boateng, formerly Eric Adusi, was the chief suspect in the murder of his Scottish wife Charmain Speirs who had travelled to Ghana on a quest to uncover his true identity, following mounting suspicions her prophet husband had another family in Ghana.

Ms Speirs was found dead in her hotel bath tub during a trip to Ghana where she sought to unearth background information of her allegedly abusive prophet husband, Mr Adusi, who now goes by Eric Isaiah Kusi Boateng and has moved on with his life in the U.S. He was the pastor of Global Light Revival Church.

Fingers pointed at Mr Boateng as the culprit given his wife had confided in some close friends about her marital troubles and suspicion that the prophet was not who he portrayed himself to be.

Ms Speirs found that her husband had another name, family, other women and was far older than he claimed, witnesses told the British police in a statement. 

“She sat me down and she told me, ‘ I have got to tell you something.  He is not who he says he is,” said Anne-Marie Bond, Ms Speirs’ friend.

The duo had met on a Christian dating site in spring 2014 and married in September of the same year.

Having had her share of relationship woes, Ms Speirs instantly fell for Mr Boateng, whom she thought to be a ‘man of God’. What their  family and friends could not understand, however, was the “urgency” to tie the knot.

“There seemed to be a lot of urgency to get married,” said Elma Adams, 80, who described herself as Mr Boateng’s good friend and “Scottish mum”.

Ms Adams believed the Ghanaian pastor used her and Ms Speirs to climb the social ladder and advance his ministry in the UK.

Contrast to the urgency for marriage, Ms Adams said the couple did not appear to be in love and that the Scottish wife only seemed like an acquired “stage prop” whose pictures were used to promote church programmes.

“What struck me was that they didn’t impress me as a romantic couple,” The BBC cited ber as saying. “It was more like she was an acquisition rather than a beloved romantic partner, more like a stage prop than anything else.”

Immediately after the wedding, the couple became the faces of the ministry, as their pictures graced many church publicity ads. Congregants began to call Ms Speirs the “First Lady” in honour of her union to the church shepherd.

But all was not well behind closed doors as the Scottish wife often voiced her concerns to Ms Adams and other confidants whose story accounts were later used in the prosecution case against Mr Boateng. The Ghanaian pastor was acquitted due to lack of evidence. 

“She, from time to time, would phone me or leave me a text and she would be quite distressed, angry, emotional, resentful,” Ms Adams said. “She had little or no extra money at all. She was dependent on support from Eric.”

The new wife, according to Ms Adams, said Mr Boateng had become verbally abusive and extremely controlling to the point where he selected her outfits.

The BBC spoke to other persons who claimed to have seen the signs that the Scottiah woman “was being coercive controlled after her marriage.”.

The Scottish woman had a seven-year-old son who also claimed to have witnessed incidents of physical abuse, the BBC said.

Ms Speirs’s friend, Anne-Marie, who visited the couple in Essex, said the Scottish woman was in the middle of executing her “exit strategy” from the marriage when she was mysteriously killed in Ghana.

A part of Ms Speirs could not completely let go of her marriage as she hoped that Mr Boateng was still her God-intended spouse.

“She still had that little bit of faith in her, that little belief that this was possibly the man that she’s supposed to be with – because of God,” Ms Bond said.

Similarly, Ms Adams said the Scottish woman was intent on unearthing her husband’s past life.

“She was adamant, she wanted to find out more about him,” said the 80-year-old.

“She was very resentful at the end, and she was angry enough to go on what I say was a bit of a mission to find out what it was really all about.”

A member of the Global Light Revival Church who had been in contact with Ms Speirs after arriving in Ghana, said the Scottish woman found out about Mr Boateng’s Ghanaian wife and other family.

A church member who sought anonymity from the BBC said Ms Speirs also discovered that her prophet husband had another name.

Ms Speirs, according to the church membwr, decided to check into a hotel with Mr Boateng and confront him about her findings.

That evening, the witness said she got a call from Ms Speirs and she could hear the couple arguing loudly in the background.

According to the witness’s account, she heard Mr Boateng yelling at his wife and “banging a table” just before the call ended abruptly. 

That was the last she heard off Ms Spwira until her body was found in the hotel bath tub.

10 years after the case, BBC Disclosure Investigation exposed loopholes in the pastor’s account of the events that led to his discovery of his wife’s corpse.

In his statement to the police, he said he took a trip to Accra after midnight for a meeting scheduled for 6:00 a.m. with a reverend. The meeting was the last thing on his itinerary before returning to the UK on a scheduled flight.

The reverend. who Mr Boateng claimed he was meeting after midnight, did not corroborate his narration.

Mr Boateng further failed to disclose that three men had gone to his hotelroom carrying a briefcase and that they spent at least one hour there before loading the prophet’s vehicle with bags.

When BBC tracked the men, they told the paper that they were praying in the hotel room.

Mr Boateng did not respond to BBC’s request for comments on the story, particularly allegations of domestic abuse, overbearing and controlling character.

It is unclear if the omissions are sufficient to reopen the case for prosecution.

Mr Boateng, who changed his name from Eric Adusah, relocated to the U.S.