Halloween is supposed to be the creepiest time of the year; the nights draw in early, and scary stories are told. When it’s a true story, and the murder is unsolved, it's even more unsettling. The killer could be someone you know, a person in your family or a kindly neighbour. On October 31, 1963, the night sky was illuminated by a full moon. Two children noticed a woman peering out of a window in her home. They didn't know it would be the last time she was seen alive…
On October 7, 1987, in Bristol city centre, a young woman was sat in her car at Canon’s Marsh car park. She had left a party at a nearby public house. Before she started the engine, she noticed a man, who she did not know, slowly walking towards the car. He pried open the door and put a gun into his intended victim’s face. The dark-haired man told the woman that providing she did what he said, she would not get hurt. He motioned that she get into the passenger seat…
In a photograph of the couple on their wedding day, widely circulated in the press, Roselane can be seen looking into the camera with a broad natural smile on her face. The groom is staring to the side, teeth together with a strained smile. Sokol Drenova was hiding something…
Gordon and Derek finally managed to get into the house. They knew something strange was going on. The lights were off, and the curtains were drawn. Gordon’s finance wasn't the sort of person to just disappear nor was her father Matthew. In the darkness, searching for the light switch, Gordon and Derek noticed something strange on Matthew’s favourite armchair. It was a deep red stain. When they drew the curtains, and light flooded the room, it was then they began to question whether Matthew and Alison were still alive...
PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 13’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE.
Throughout the late evening of August 15, 2019, PC Andrew Harper and his colleague PC Andrew Shaw were working overtime. They answered the call of a suspected burglary. A gang of masked young men with weapons were trying to steal a quad bike. The two uniformed officers travelled to the scene in an unmarked BMW fitted with emergency lights and a police siren. They came head to head with the suspects’ vehicle at 11:28 pm in the dim light of an unlit narrow country lane (Part 2 of 2).
On July 1, 2020, accompanied by a judge and several barristers, a jury disembarked a coach in Berkshire after travelling from the Old Bailey in London. A mist of light rain fell, as several police officers, who spoke few words, watched on. The jury were not to be disturbed as they examined the reconstruction of a crime scene. Two vehicles were positioned facing each other on a narrow lane bordered by trees and high hedgerows that exited the village of Stanford Dingley (Part 1 of 2).
He was alarmed by the long trail of blood in the aisle. It reached at least twelve feet long. In the artificial light of the carriage, it almost looked black. As the train pulled away, with no emergency stop signal or no way of contacting the driver, it was twenty minutes before it ground to a halt at the next station. A second passenger boarded the carriage. In a state of shock, the two strangers conversed, deciding what to do at the next stop. Whoever had lost such a great deal of blood was severely injured or possibly dead, but there was no sign of them on the train.
When you choose a partner in life, you take on their family too. Ideally, you get on, and you live in harmony. Some people invite their in-laws into their homes with open arms, unaware that their new family member has left behind a murderous past.
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PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 5 - EPISODE 9’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE.
Ian Simms was in the dock at Liverpool Crown Court. He was accused of murdering Helen McCourt who vanished in February 1988. Her body was still missing. Despite the overwhelming forensic evidence, Simms insisted he was innocent (Part 2 of 2).
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A woman in her early twenties goes missing on a journey home from work. A few days pass, and some of her belongings are found, discarded just under 20 miles away. Police suspect foul play and a murder charge is laid. But why was she killed and where was her body? (Part 1 of 2).
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"We have seen cases where young people have been groomed online, but it is rare for it to culminate in such a dreadful and violent murder. The degree of planning and manipulation by Daynes is shocking, and when you consider the young ages of perpetrator and victim, it stands out as one of the most cruel, violent and unusual cases we have dealt with"
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old that went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007, has been widely covered by the media. Back in 1985, another three-year-old went missing while at a holiday park. This is the case of Leoni Keating.