A welder who disguised herself with a goatee beard, a wig and glasses before killing her half-sister with a chicken-shaped ceramic pot was today convicted of her murder.
Yvonne Caylor, 53, went to a fancy dress shop to make herself look like a man before barging into Nicki Collingbourne's flat and launching the attack.
The 26-year-old was found dead in her underwear lying in a pool of blood in Ivel Court, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, by members of her family the following evening.
CCTV showed Caylor wearing a hi-vis jacket before she walked into the building and knocked at Ms Collingbourne's door.
Yvonne Caylor (left) was convicted of murdering her half-sister Nicki Collingbourne (right)
Caylor (right) went to a fancy dress shop to make herself look like a man before attacking Ms Collingbourne (left)
When it was opened it is believed she recognised her older sister beneath the disguise and tried to shut the door.
But Caylor - who worked as a welder before suffering a back injury - forced her way in and carried out the attack.
She spent over three hours after the killing clearing up the flat and making her half-sister's death appear like suicide.
Luton Crown Court heard she was due to face trial for burgling Ms Collingbourne's flat and perverting the course of justice.
The case was due to start sometime in the eight weeks after Monday May 23, the day of the murder.
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ShareThe charges arose after Ms Collingbourne had evicted Caylor from her flat on the night of October 3 to 4 last year.
Caylor complained to the police that she had been assaulted and when police questioned Nicki, the prosecution said she burgled the flat.
No action was taken against Ms Collingbourne, but Caylor herself was arrested.
Following the killing, Caylor made plans to flee the country.
Computer searches revealed she was planning to drive to Spain and then fly to the United States where she had lived with her husband until the summer of 2015.
On the evening of the incident, Caylor had a Facebook conversation with her husband Philip in which she said: 'Pray for Nicki, as I will.'
Caylor went to a fancy dress shop to make herself look like a man before barging into Nicki Collingbourne's flat (pictured)
Caylor (pictured), from Grove Road, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, denied murder on Monday, May 23
The junior prosecuting barrister Alan Blake told the jury, in his closing speech: 'That was disingenuous, distasteful deceit by the woman who had entered Ivel Court that morning and murdered her sister.'
Caylor, from Grove Road, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, denied murder on Monday May 23, but was convicted by a jury.
During at six-week trial they heard that there was a substantial age discrepancy between the two women, who shared the same father.
The court heard two members of the family went into Ms Collingbourne's flat and discovered her body on May 24.
Prosecutor John Price QC said: 'They found Nicki Collingbourne. She was very obviously dead. She was lying on the floor of her kitchen.
'It was a horrible and very distressing scene. Nicki was lying on her back. Her feet were facing the door.
Officers attended the scene after Ms Collingbourne's was found in a pool of blood in Letchworth
'She was wearing only her underwear. There was a large amount of blood on the floor and it had pooled in the region where her head was lying.
'On the floor were a number of shattered or broken pieces of ceramic. They turned out to be the fragments of a ceramic kitchen pot that once it was put together it was in the shape of a chicken.'
Mr Price said the victim must have been struck on the back of the head with the pot. He said it had been picked up, wielded and brought down on her head with two hands.
He said her wrists bore similar, deep incised wounds, which he said were not self-inflicted.
Judge Michael Kay QC will be sentenced later.
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