The aristocrat leaves her fortune to the housing charity after cutting out her family

Lady Veronica Lucan, wife of Lord Lucan who vanished more than 40 years ago, has left her fortune to homeless charity Shelter.

The Dowager Countess of Lucan took her own life in September after being misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

Lucan had been the only known witness to the events in 1974 that led to the murder of her children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett, 29, at the family home in Belgravia, central London.

Lord Lucan vanished after the murder, and his borrowed car was found abandoned and blood-spattered, with a section of bandaged lead piping in the boot, at the cross-Channel port of Newhaven, East Sussex.

A year later an inquest jury declared that the wealthy peer had killed Rivett.

Lady Lucan had three children, Frances, Camilla and George, now the eighth Earl of Lucan, but had severed relations with her family in the 1980s, and continued to decline contact with them right up until her death.

A spokeswoman for the housing charity confirmed that the proceeds from Lucan’s estate had been donated to it.

She said: “At a time when over 300,000 people in Britain are without a home, we are incredibly grateful for the support we receive. The proceeds from Lady Lucan’s estate will help Shelter to continue fighting bad housing and homelessness.”