On the evening of 7 November 1974, Sandra Rivett, the nanny of Lucan's children, was beaten to death in the basement of the Lucan family home. Lady Lucan was also attacked; she later said Lucan as her assailant. As the police began their homicide investigation, Lucan telephoned his mother, asking her to collect the children, and then drove a borrowed Ford Corsair to a friend's house in Uckfield, East Sussex. Hours later, he left the property and disappeared.