Lowestoft Woman Charged with Murder After Death in Public Gardens

Amber Stebbings was standing in Sparrow's Nest Gardens when Suffolk Police arrived at 10:13 p.m. on March 20, 2026. Gary Grant, 54, lay unresponsive nearby. By the end of that night, Grant had been pronounced dead at the scene and Stebbings, 28, had been arrested where she stood.

Stebbings was subsequently charged with murder and remanded in custody. She appeared at Great Yarmouth Magistrates' Court on Monday, March 23, where her address was recorded as Spashett Road in Lowestoft, a detail that sat in tension with national reports listing her as of no fixed address. She later appeared via video link at Ipswich Crown Court, where her solicitors said she has mental health issues and asked that diminished responsibility be considered. She was remanded in custody ahead of a pre-trial plea hearing on May 20, 2026. A full trial is scheduled as a 10-day proceeding within a three-week window starting November 16, 2026, also at Ipswich Crown Court.

The cause of Grant's death has not been established. An initial post-mortem concluded the cause requires further investigation, and Suffolk Police confirmed a Home Office post-mortem would take place in due course. At the Crown Court hearing, the court was told there "could be three or four potential immediate causes of death," with a full pathologist report still pending.

Grant was a Lowestoft man. He was 54 years old and, according to local reporting, had lost his teenage daughter in 2017. Specialist officers were assigned to support his family following his death.

The day after the incident, on March 21, every entrance to Sparrow's Nest Gardens was cordoned off by police. The cordon has since been lifted. Detectives appealed for anyone with information or dashcam footage from the area to come forward.

Lowestoft Journal reporting added context about Stebbings herself: she had recently moved back to the Lowestoft area after living in Norwich, and as recently as February had posted on social media advertising a room to rent in the NR3 area of Norwich, with availability from March 1. The Daily Mail reported, without corroboration from other sources, that authorities were treating the death as an isolated incident and that the victim and the accused were known to one another.

The trial, if it proceeds as scheduled, will not begin until mid-November.