Always True Crime

What does nearly 40 years of investigating serious crime teach you about murder? Tom Wood has spent almost four decades on the inside of Scottish policing, working as a detective on some of the country's most notorious cases before eventually becoming a senior-ranking police officer. Now a bestselling true crime writer, Tom joins me on British Murders to talk about the investigations, people a...

A building project that went badly wrong would lead to a lengthy and costly legal dispute between builder Michael Chudley and his customer, Christopher Sear. As the court case dragged on for years, the consequences for Chudley and his partner became increasingly serious, with both of them losing their homes. As the financial and personal pressures mounted, Chudley began looking for someone to blam...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond. It’s the world’s largest uncut diamond and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, h...

True Crime Catch Up is back! I'm delighted to say that True Crime Catch Up is back with a brand-new episode, as I sit down with Stuart Blues, for episode one of our new monthly series. If you haven't listened before, it's a chance for the two of us to get together and chat about different aspects of true crime, from individual cases to our own experiences of researching and presenting...

Some true crime cases stay with you long after you've finished researching them. Maybe it's the unanswered questions, the sheer brutality of what happened, the mistakes made during an investigation, or simply the feeling that there’s something about the case you just can't shake. In this returning episode of True Crime Catch Up , Stuart Blues of British Murders and Adam Lloyd of UK Tru...

Sixteen-year-old Ruth Wilson disappeared after travelling by taxi to Box Hill in Surrey. She had skipped school and, after being dropped off, was last seen standing alone in the rain on a quiet bridleway as darkness was falling. Ruth had been experiencing difficulties in her personal life, having recently discovered the truth about her biological mother's death, something that reportedly had a...

It is great to be back for a brand new series of The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, and I begin Series 11 with at first, a case that I covered before the podcast was even a podcast, when it was a simple blog. Back in 1987, the Kent town of Tunbridge Wells was gripped by fear, with the murders of two young women, five months apart. They were crimes that for many years remained cold cases, until for...

On Monday the 26th of April 2021 at 12:15pm, 63-year-old retired Police Constable, Clive Porter approached Lock 14 at Broughton on the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union Canal. As a License Enforcement Officer, he placed a notice on an unlicensed boat... and then was brutally murdered by NOT the owner of that boat. But why? And what secrets was his killer hiding?  Location:  Lock 14, Broug...

In March 2014, 33-year-old James Attfield was found brutally murdered in Castle Park in Colchester, Essex. Just a few months later, 31-year-old Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea was attacked and killed while walking along a secluded footpath on her way to the University of Essex. The two murders appeared to have little in common, but detectives soon began asking whether they could have be commit...

This is episode one of Rough Diamond, the new investigative series from Always True Crime. It starts in the 1960s, when London was in the grips of a crime spree…rare diamonds are being stolen. The latest is the Colenso diamond - the world’s largest uncut diamond, and one of the Natural History Museum’s most important pieces. When a young window cleaner is arrested a few months after the theft, his...

Carol Jarvis was a woman whose life was shaped by her family and, later, by a degenerative illness which left her increasingly dependent on others. As her health deteriorated, her husband took on the role of her carer, looking after her at home as she became less able to care for herself. But behind the closed doors of the family home, things were not quite as they appeared. Carol’s children began...

In January 1993, 37-year-old Madallin Jones was found dead beside a stream near Hawarden, North Wales, after what initially appeared to be a terrible road accident. But as detectives examined the scene and began looking more closely at the circumstances surrounding her death, they quickly realised that something wasn't quite right. Madallin's husband, Steven Jones, was a serving police ser...

Note: This epiosde was originally released in February 2022. High Wycombe isn't somewhere you would necessarily associate with violent crime, but in this case an apparently ordinary churchyard became the setting for a brutal and completely unnecessary murder. Lee Gillespie found himself caught up in a complicated situation involving jealousy, relationships and misplaced loyalty. What began as...

A weekend of music, mountain biking and entertainment at the impressive surroundings of Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. But for one 18-year-old man with everything to live for, the weekend would end in tragedy. What happened during those final hours, and how did a celebration turn into a devastating event. This is the story of Alex Pilkington. I release new episodes of the UK True Crime Podcast e...

From Saturday 20th of March 2004 to Friday 15th of May 2004, in numerous lakes and rivers, across several countries, the head, hands, thighs, lower legs and feet, but not the arms, torso and pelvis of 63 year-old Ian Halls was found. He wasn't a criminal and hadn't double crossed anyone, so why was he brutally murdered and dismembered?  Location:  1 Tower Mill Road, Ipswich, Suffolk...

In the summer of 2012, 23-year-old Natalie Jarvis was enjoying life in Swanley, Kent. Outgoing, funny and hugely sociable, Natalie had a close family, a large circle of friends and a job she loved, but behind the scenes, she had become involved with a young man she had known for several years, and what Natalie believed was a relationship would eventually take a far darker turn. In the weeks that f...

The story today is from Cheshire, when two childhood friends visit a family property, Boarded Barn, unaware that their lives are about to be caught up in a terrifying chain of events. This is a case involving mistaken identity, an extraordinary sequence of events and a murder investigation that would eventually uncover the truth. It’s a story that raises some difficult questions about chance, circ...

In 2005, Jim Phillips co-founded a marketing company with his best friend. The business grew quickly, securing major contracts and working with high-profile international clients. But behind the success, Jim began to notice increasingly strange behaviour from his business partner. What followed was an extraordinary web of deception involving fake contracts, impersonated bank officials, claims of c...

She spent more than 100 hours with the man she believed she loved - but she never saw his face. Kye Fortune was, to the woman at the centre of this case, a real person. They had built a relationship online and eventually met in person, but only on the condition that she wore a blindfold. What followed would lead to one of the strangest criminal cases in the UK, involving deception, identity, trust...

Sunday the 7th of February 1988 was a typical day for Samantha, Colin and their family, residents of Kingsley Way in Tring, Hertfordshire. They went to church, they had dinner, they went to bed, and by the morning, Colin had brutally murdered his wife, cut up her body and hid it in the freezer and the back garden, But why?  Location: Kingsley Way, Tring, Hertfordshire Date:  Monday 8th o...

In the summer of 2009, 15-year-old Lorraine Thorpe was living a life far removed from the childhood most people would recognise. Growing up around alcohol, drugs, homelessness and violence in Ipswich, Suffolk, Thorpe had become deeply involved with a group of vulnerable adults, including her dad, Desmond, man whose health had deteriorated to the point where his teenage daughter had taken on the ro...

Rachel Thacker was just 21, with a new job, a new car and a future that seemed full of possibilities. A caring, outgoing and popular young woman, she had recently graduated with a degree in occupational therapy and was looking forward to beginning her career. After travelling to Manchester to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday, Rachel spent the evening with friends before deciding it was time to h...

In February 2003, Amarjit Chohan and his family appeared to vanish without a trace. Amarjit was a successful businessman living in west London with his wife Nancy, their two young sons, Devinder and Ravinder, and Nancy’s mum, Charanjit Kaur, but when the entire family disappeared, leaving behind almost everything they would have needed for a life abroad, serious questions quickly began to emerge a...

What would it be like to lose your identical twin to murder? In this episode, I talk to Nick Dawson, whose identical twin, Simon, was murdered in the most dreadful attack in 1998. I found this conversation incredibly moving and, at times, very emotional. Nick takes us back to his brother’s childhood and talks about the man Simon was before his life was so brutally taken away. We also discuss the m...

Dawn Rhodes was a 38-year-old mum whose attempt to leave an unhappy marriage ended in tragedy. After her murder, a disturbing version of events emerged in which Dawn was portrayed as a violent woman who had attacked her own child. But behind that story was a lie which would have devastating consequences for those left behind. The episode today explores the murder of Dawn Rhodes, the story created...