Police in Gambia continued to question Kate West, 26, yesterday in the capital of Banjul after she led them to the body of William West, 76, at the seaside village of Sanjang, where they owned a property. She denies murder.

Gambian detectives have been told Mr West was on the verge of ending his marriage to his wife, 50 years his junior, at the time he was killed.

They are considering whether he was poisoned before his body was burned, a theory which can only be confirmed by forensic tests.

The British high commission has told the Gambian authorities that the British forensic team will help with the identification; at the weekend British police officers entered Mr West's home in Hastings, East Sussex, to obtain samples of his DNA.

A friend of Mr West, David Jenkins, travelled to Gambia from the UK last week together with Mrs West. He said that he had worked with British police to ask her to return after she had arrived back in Hastings three weeks ago without her husband, known as Jar.

She had then told friends that her husband had gone missing when the couple went on a day trip to Senegal during a three-week holiday in Gambia.

Witness statements taken by local police include that of a nightwatchman at the couple's house, who said that he had only seen Mr West during the first week in early June; after that he was told he had returned to the UK.

Mr Jenkins, who is Mr West's accountant, said that Mrs West had been upset telling him about her husband's disappearance. "She just kept saying: 'I miss Jar, I want my husband back'."

In his quest to discover the fate of his friend, Mr Jenkins himself had paid for plane tickets, hotel rooms, and drivers in Gambia. He praised the speed with which local police investigated the disappearance.

Mr West, a widower born in Dublin, met his young wife in Gambia six years ago. Within a fortnight he had arranged to bring her to the UK. They married soon after in Scotland and Mrs West, originally from Ghana, obtained an Irish passport.

Mr Jenkins said that his friend had been bereft when his first wife, Doris, passed away eight years ago. "When he first met Kate he was much happier.

"They bought the place in Sanjang - but when he died they were in the process of selling it and his house in Hastings, to buy somewhere smaller in the UK and use the cash to live on."

When Mrs West returned to Gambia with Mr Jenkins, within 48 hours of her arrival she was arrested on suspicion of murder after identifying the location of her husband's remains.

A search of her bag revealed she was carrying her husband's will, dated July 2005, said local police. Mr Jenkins confirmed that the will stated Mr West wanted his estate, worth more than £750,000, to be left to his wife.

Gambian police said yesterday that they had arrested two further Nigerian men beside a man arrested on Thursday; all deny involvement.

Mrs West had not confessed to the murder, the local police said. "She maintains that five Nigerian men took Mr West from the house and then killed him. She told us that she had asked them they return the body to her because of the love she had for him."

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