Evil Anthony Fox (Nicholas Day) died in January in Emmerdale and was buried in a remote spot in the woods. At least, that’s what we believe.

The vile abuser met his end after being attacked by almost everyone in the village. First Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) hit him over the head after Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) thought he was preying on her daughter Angelica (Rebecca Bakes).

Then Caleb Miligan (William Ash) confronted him at gunpoint in tense scenes. Anthony ran off, but was later confronted by Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) in a dramatic showdown in which Aaron tried to make Anthony face up to the abuse he’d inflicted on Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly).

After Aaron left Anthony apparently lifeless on the floor of the depot Ruby found him there badly wounded – and ended his life by smothering him.

John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), fearing that his partner Aaron would be jailed for Anthony’s murder, disposed of the body, later telling the family that he’d buried Anthony in a makeshift grave in the woods.

All of the people involved in Anthony’s death and the disposal of the body have formed a pact of silence to protect each other from any repercussions.

The police seem satisfied that Anthony simply left the village of his own accord.

One person who remains suspicious, though, is Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson), who has been far too interested in why his bosses Caleb and Steph have been acting suspiciously.

‘Caleb is really wary of him. If he starts digging he might find something about Anthony and about Ruby and all the rest of it, and about Anthony being Steph’s dad’ William Ash explained.

‘He could blow it wide open. So he’s wary of Jai.’

It’s Jai’s actions which lead to Steph panicking in upcoming episodes as he sends her some flowers which she believes are from Anthony. She becomes convinced Anthony is still alive.

Will continued: ‘Steph makes them realise there might not be anybody buried there

‘They start to question the logic of what you would have to do to dig into this ground, and you’d need a mechanical digger. Certainly John hasn’t got access to a mechanical digger. So some suspicions start to arise.

‘John has been so brilliant so far with the family and helping them, so they take it at face value – and why wouldn’t they, really?’

Jai admits he sent the flowers and Ruby is forced to tell him about Anthony’s abuse in order to make him back off from his amateur sleuthing into Anthony’s disappearance.

Steph, however, is still massively distressed and when she goes missing the family find her in the woods, trying to dig up Anthony’s grave.

They make a shocking discovery. The ground that John told them held Anthony’s body hasn’t been disturbed in a long time and there’s no evidence of any prior digging there. It seems that Anthony isn’t buried in that spot after all.

The family have some serious questions for John. Why did he tell them that Anthony was buried in the woods? What did he do with the body if he didn’t bury it there?