An inquest in London has heard a retired dentist from Cornwall strangled his wife at her rented London flat and then returned to Cornwall to hang himself.
Mr Grant was found dead at his home in Cornwall
The coroner was told Peter Grant, who was 51, visited his wife in London the day before her body was found.
Lynn Grant, 50, was found by police in her London flat on 20 May this year.
The police in London then alerted their colleagues in Cornwall who found Peter Grant, hanging from a central beam in a barn at Blackberry Cottage, Feock.
At the time of the deaths the couple's marriage was breaking up and their £750,000 country house was being advertised for sale.
The coroner, Selena Lynch, recorded a verdict that Mrs Grant had been unlawfully killed and that Mr Grant had killed himself whilst his mind was unstable.
Pathologist Dr Robert Chapman said Mrs Grant had been manually strangled.
Mr Grant's GP, Dr Martin Falkner, told the court he had suffered from depression and had attempted to take his own life fearing the imminent breakdown of his marriage.
The Grants leave two children, a 24-year-old daughter who lives abroad with her husband and a 21-year-old son studying at university.