Murdertown

Sitting face-to-face with survivors of violent and abusive crime, in brand new podcast series Unbreakable Nina Aouilk creates a safe space for frank, emotional and often harrowing testimony. A life coach and survivor of childhood abuse, Nina’s valuable insight delivers a clear perspective on the dynamics of the crime and the climate of fear endured. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

It was late on a Sunday night in January, 1993. A couple was driving around a quiet bend of the A550 by Tinkers Dale Wood in North Wales when they noticed a red Mini Metro which had crashed over a small embankment hitting a tree. The side window and windscreen were shattered, the driver’s door was ajar and the vehicle was empty. It looked like the driver had hit the windscreen on impact and h...

Winding north out of West Rainton, Marks Lane is a secluded country road used by dog walkers who want to avoid the busier streets of the town. Always unlit, on this particular night Mark’s Lane was only lit up as a vehicle passed. Just after 7.30pm, a passenger in a car noticed something on the verge. Lying in a pool of blood, a man lay on the side, appearing to have suffered serious head injuries...

On the north shore of Loch Duich, just outside the small village of Inverinate, sits a small B&B called The Grianan Guest House . It’s beautifully unassuming, with the most affecting views of the loch onto the rugged Ratagan Pass across the water.  Behind the guesthouse, hills roll for miles. It’s a walker’s dream, and was a favourite spot for Scottish hill walker, Helen Fiona Torbet. She...

As the year 2000 approached, two strangers met through a local Surrey ‘Lonely Hearts’ advertisement. Within two years, Tina and Martin Baker were married, and Tina’s lifelong dream of owning her own farm was realised when they bought Brookfield Farm just outside the village of Chobham in Surrey’s northwest corner… Tina and Martin Baker’s relationship, however, was short lived and within two years...

It was around five in the morning on January 31st, 1978, when a scream echoed through the rooms of ‘The Nook Rest Home ’ on Blackpool’s South Shore.  A scream or a cry in the night wasn’t uncommon at The Nook, which catered for the elderly, the sick, and older people with physical disabilities. And so in the early hours when a fellow resident heard it, they assumed someone was having a nightm...

On January 10, 1986, David Howden woke around 8am and went downstairs to make some tea.  Tessa was usually the first out of bed. She had started a job at the local 'Croydon Advertiser' in promotions, so when David noticed she wasn't up, he went upstairs to check on her. He saw she wasn't in bed, but it was dark. So he made his way downstairs, but at the bottom, David realised something wasn't...

Every November, the winding roads through Clocaenog Forest are closed off for the Wales Rally GB. The roads near Cerrigydrudion are two of the rally's most challenging driving stages.  On Saturday, November 14th, 2015, two brothers— there for the rally, set up camp in the woods just off a crest in the road near Llyn Brenig Reservoir. As they went to set up a fire and have a few beers, on...

In August 2009, the body of David Lace was exhumed from Kingston Cemetery in Portsmouth more than twenty years after he had died. Residents peered out from behind curtains as police stood guard. A blue and white tent covered the empty grave, and hessian sacks hid the names of nearby headstones. There were rumours that Hampshire police were about to solve a case that had long haunted the nearb...

As the frost began to thaw on the morning of January 30th, 1992 in Wallington by Croydon, South London, Nimal Samarasinha and his family prepared for work and school. He left the house to warm the car up, and soon his daughter ran out to meet him, only when she got to the pavement, her father was lying on the ground - one forceful blow of a knife in his heart. Watch Murdertown exclusively on Crime...

Six miles west of the Seaport town of Grimsby in Lincolnshire, is the tiny rural village of Irby upon Humber. On the evening of July 10th, 1991, Humberside Police were called to the home of a well known local family, the Newton’s, where shots had been fired. The owner of the house, Forty-five-year-old Clifford Newton was the eldest son and business partner of Grimsby millionaire nightclub and...

It was an ordinary evening in the January of 1994 when a knock came on the door of Catherine and Terry Maidens’ family home in Whitestone, Nuneaton. Through the window, Catherine Maidens could see there was a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, just like a pizza delivery guy, only the Maiden’s hadn’t ordered any pizza.  Watch Murdertown exclusively on Crime+Investigation in the UK, and then list...

In October 2016, police knocked on the door of a large cottage six miles southwest of Greenock, in the small Clyde Coast village of Inverkip, Scotland. They were looking for Margaret Fleming; a thirty-six year old woman who had been on long-term disability benefits. Only, Margaret’s carers said she had left their care years ago and would drop in when she wanted money. When detectives did some digg...

On October 30th 1998, twenty-two year-old Jenny King left Chasers Nightclub in Bristol with a fiver that her brother had given her to get a taxi home. The following day, Jenny’s loved ones would realise she never made the mile to her family home in Warmley. Over the coming weeks, the residents of Bristol would question the shocking similarities between Jenny’s disappearance and that of Melani...

The 3rd of August was the hottest day 1990 and County Durham had seen so far. That Friday would end up being the hottest day ever recorded in England at the time. So, when it came time for Peter Heron to come home for lunch to the fairly rural property on the outskirts of Darlington that he shared with his wife Ann, he was not surprised to find that she has been sunbathing in the yard. He would le...

At 8:20pm on the evening of May 14th, 2018, thirty-seven-year-old pharmacist Mitesh Patel phoned the Cleveland police in Middlesbrough, panicked and breathless. After returning from collecting a pizza and visiting his pharmacy, he had found his house burgled and his wife Jessica non-responsive on the living room floor, her wrists and ankles bound with duct tape. His voice was shrill as he told the...

On Saturday June 16th 1990, fifty-two-year-old Trevaline Evans locked up the antique shop she owned in Llangollen, North Wales. Like many other days running a local business, she popped out to do a few things, leaving her customers a note on the door that read: “Back in two minutes.” Trevaline then purchased an apple and a banana up the road, and was seen two hours later, walking back towards her...

On the 9th of December 1986, the half naked body of Linda Cook was found in the grass and scrub of a pathway in Buckland, Portsmouth. She had been repeatedly kicked in the face, head and body after being raped. The only clue the Hampshire Constabulary had to go on was a footprint left on her abdomen, a mens trainer with a unique tread — the word “FLASH” imprinted on the sole. The killer would be d...

On a cool evening in April,1973, a cargo ship came into Shoreham Harbour, near Brighton, West Sussex. Sailors watched the murky water below as the ship got closer to port, and in the water, close to the side of the ship, they noticed something bobbing around on the surface. Hauling it out, they found a bloated body, still wearing a jacket and trousers. There were no feet attached, and sticking out...

In 1955, the small Tyne-On-Wear village of Windy Nook was like many other towns trying to build themselves back up to former glory days. Mary and John Knowles had lived in their cottage since they first married. When John died of suspected Tuberculosis at 76, no one thought twice. Mary would find comfort in someone close to her, a man who could fill the void of John, but it would be short lived as...

In May 1996, ninety-four year old Dorothy Wood said goodnight to her care worker who had come by to get her ready for bed. Profoundly deaf and crippled by arthritis, Dorothy struggled to complete even the most simplest of household tasks, but she was adamant she would keep her independence. The following morning when family friends arrived to help her out of bed and get her breakfast, they found t...

Early one February morning in 2010, local Watford refuse worker Gary Bennett was woken up just before 5 am with a nudge from his mum. He put on his work gear and walked out the door. Later that morning two schoolboys found Gary’s savagely beaten body in a local park. But how had Gary gotten there? He had not ridden his bike as he usually did, It wasn’t even on his route to work. Over the next few...

In 1951, headmistress of the Burton-On-Trent High School, Winifred Mulley had dismissed six hundred girls for the Summer. Winifred lived in a house on the grounds of the school. She was signing off on a new home she had just purchased in Burton and was preparing to leave for her Summer holiday. She wasn’t feeling very well and so rather than leave that day for her trip; she decided to postpone it...

When Harry and Megan Tooze’s neighbours heard two gunshots coming from the couple’s farm in Llanharry, South Wales they didn’t think twice. Harry had always had trouble with rabbits and they assumed he was shooting them out of his cabbages again. Watch Murdertown exclusively on Crime+Investigation in the UK, and then listen here as Benjamin Fitton from They Walk Among Us unpicks a new case from ea...

On a quiet Sunday morning in 1974, father of five Michael Taylor was found naked in the street in Ossett, Yorkshire, covered in what was thought to be red paint. As Police Constable Ian Walker approached him, he realised it was not red paint at all— it was blood. When Michael Taylor began screaming that it was the blood of Satan, backup was called in and what unfolded would change the town forever...