Two young girls go hiking on a school day that had been cancelled and record their adventure on Snapchat; in todays society with social media and forensic science growing at the huge rate it is, it’s difficult to understand when answers are unable to be produced. It’s now been over just a year and the case remains unsolved. This is the disappearance and murder of 13 year old Abigail Williams and 14 year old Liberty German.
The two girls were best friends in the 8th grade atDelphi Community Middle School in Delphi, Indiana – a small town consisting of just under 3,000 people; the city was known for it’s blue collared workers, hunters and fishers and the infamous Delphi Bacon Festival. They became friends through mutual interests and were inseparable ever since. They enjoyed hiking, fishing, camping and mud trucking. Abigail loved volleyball and was on the school team for 3 years running. Liberty had a passion for softball and seeing how much she enjoyed sports, Abigail invited Liberty to join the volleyball team. As well as sports, they dabbled in music playing the saxophone in the band at school. They also loved art and painting. Abigail knitted hats for babies at the local hospital and Liberty would bake for her family and to those she cherished deeply in her life. Their maturity reached far beyond their years. Even at 14, Liberty displayed an ambition to become a science teacher because she wanted to solve crimes.
However, everything changed on February 13, 2017 and the community where everyone knew each other suddenly turned into a state of suspicion and untrustworthiness; it’s never been the same since.
On Sunday, February 12 2017, Abigail had a sleepover at Liberty’s, who was in the custody of her grandparents, Mike and Betty Patty. The sleepover was due to school being cancelled the next day due to an unused snow day by the school. The girls spent their weekend painting, playing outside and staying up late. The following afternoon, they made a plan to go hiking at the Monon High Bridge – a common spot for teenagers to meet. Liberty’s granny gave them permission as long as they got their own lift home. Liberty’s older sister, Kelsi German dropped them at the spot on her way to work at 1:30pm and it was arranged that Liberty’s father, DerrickGerman, would pick them up after running errands.
As teenagers do, Liberty wanted to Snapchat their afternoon, posting their adventure first at 2:07pm, she posted a picture of Abigail smiling as the crossed the bridge; no-one could take from this image what events would transpire next. At around 3:11pm, Derrick texted Liberty and said he was on his way and for them to meet him. 3 minutes later he arrived in the parking area but the girls weren’t to be seen. He texted Liberty again and didn’t receive a reply; knowing this was uncharacteristic he called her, but she never answered.
He began to worry and decided to walk the trail to search for them. 15 minutes later without any luck he called his mother and told her about the unfolding situation. She attempted further contact with Liberty but failed, resulting in calling her husband. Her husband Mike took time off to join Derrick where they spent an hour searching the area; the sun however started to set and they contacted police to report the girls missing. Word spread quickly and social media was used to spread awareness of the sudden disappearance of the 2 girls. By 6:00pm, 100’s of concerned residents showed up with the State Patrol, County Sherriff and Fire Department, and Natural Resources. During the search, Liberty’s mobile phone was triangulated in an effort to get her last location but it proved a failure. Hours rolled on and despite people, drones and K-9 units, no-one was able to battle the terrain and they called off the search at midnight. To reassure the public, Carroll County Sherriff Toby Leazenby issued a statement saying there was “no reason to suspect foul play” at the time.
Once the sun came up, the search resumed and the FBI, diving teams, friends and family, and volunteers searched the dense woods and forest. Shortly before noon, everyone’s worst nightmares came true, a volunteer stumbled upon the bodies of 2 young girls near Deer Creek, a half mile away from the bridge.
The bodies were moved to the coroner’s office in Terre Haute, Indiana for immediate autopsy. Sgt Kim Riley of Indiana State Police and Delphi’s Police Chief Steve Mullins provided a statement saying “Based on the way the bodies were found, foul play is suspected.” They didn’t specify the victim’s names or reveal their cause of death but the community and family members already knew. On Wednesday, February 15 2017, Indiana State Police held a press conference. They confirmed the 2 bodies were those of Liberty German and Abigail Williams and that a murder investigation was underway. In the press conference, a photo of an unidentified male walking across the bridge at around the same day as the 2 girls was released. They didn’t classify him as a suspect but asked whoever it was to come forward for interview.
As funerals were being arranged, the community gathered around to support the cost. A benefit fundraiser was held on the 18th by local businesses, where all proceeds went to the families. Later that evening, visitations for Abigail and Liberty were held at the Delphi High School. The support was so huge that they had to extend the visiting time from 8:00pm to 10:30pm so people could pay their respects and say goodbye. After the visitation was over, 100’s of lanterns were released into the sky in honour of the girl’s memory. On Sunday, February 19 2017, Indiana state police declared the unidentified man in the photograph was the prime suspect. The picture had been taken by Liberty as she was recording Abigail during the hike. 3 days later, another vital piece of evidence was made known to the public when the police revealed a piece of audio of a male saying “Down the hill“ that was taken off a video from Liberty’s phone.
The police say they’re looking for a middle aged white man between 5’6 and 5’10 in height. Roughly 180-200lbs and possibly reddish-brown hair. He’s wearing a blue windbreaker or coat, denim blue jeans, brown shoes or boots and a brown item that may be clothing or a fanny pack. State Police said more evidence was taken from the crime scene but they didn’t elaborate in order to not hinder the potential of a future trial. They hailed Liberty as a hero for recording the suspect during a terrifying encounter that ultimately led to her death.
Over some days, a Murder Tip Line was connected. The phone calls were answered by the FBI’s Major Case Contract Centre in Washington D.C. Likewise, a nationwide campaign was launched for over 6,000 electronic billboards to be erected with information pertaining to their case. 2 weeks after the murders, Abigail’s mother, AnnaWilliams, created a movement called Light Up Delphi where she urged the town to install orange lights on their porch as a tribute to the girls. Not long after many businesses in Delphi were sold out of these bulbs. Afterwards, the 2 girls were laid to rest at 100F Memorial Gardens in Pittsburgh, Indiana.
In the following week, the girl’s families were met with huge support when over $200,000 was raised in fundraisers and donations from Indianapolis Colts team owner Jim Irsay and comedian Pat McAfee. Additionally, Abigail’s grandparents, Diane and Eric were given a tour of the new headquarters where the investigation into the murders was being done. They felt so grateful and only gave them more determination to help bring justice, they wrote: “Where are the police when you need them? I have uttered those words whenever a speeding or reckless driver nearly runs me or someone else off the road. Where are the police when you need them? They are here, in Delphi, with us. We pray for your protection, and we are forever grateful for your service.”
On Friday, March 16 2017, Sgt Tony Slocum said over 12 search warrants had been issued in relation to the murders, with the latest being executed at the property of 77 year old Ronald Logan, where Abigail and Liberty were found positioned down a steep incline behind his residence. The police made it apparent he was not considered a suspect and told the public not to jump to conclusions since search warrants are a routine part of the investigation. Nonetheless, media began swarming with questions and tried digging up information on Logan. It was discovered he had been on probation for drunk driving in 2014. Due to this, he wasn’t supposed to be driving but on the day of the girl’s death, he violated this to drive to the county dump site and later was reported to have drank alcohol. As a result of this violation, he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison which was later then lowered to home detention and monitoring by a GPS system. After this debacle, the investigation when slightly stagnant, but police remained adamant it hadn’t gone cold. Heartache only worsened when the family were unable to celebrate Abigail’s
After the debacle, the investigation went relatively stagnant, but the police remained adamant the case hadn’t gone cold. The heartache only deepened when friends and family were unable to celebrate what should have been Abigail’s 14th birthday on June 23. On July 17 2017, a sketch of the grainy photograph captured of the man was released by the Police Department. 100’s of new tips came from the public however the State Police had to reprimand the public on being armchair sleuths because many Facebook users were posting the sketch next to innocent members of the public.
Despite new information coming to light ever since the sketch, it wasn’t until September 2017 when law enforcement had enough and caught the break they needed. ISP received a call from El Paso County Police in Colorado saying they had apprehended 31 year old Daniel Nations who they thought was a viable suspect for the murders. Nations had connections to Indiana and was living a troubled and criminal lifestyle. At 17, he witnessed his Mum being stabbed to death by his uncle, who threw her body in the woods, covering her with leaves and sticks. This had an effect on Nations. From that point forward, he could never hold down a job and would continue taking part in criminal activity.
In 2007, he was arrested in South Carolina for indecent exposure and had to register as a sex offender. After, he had a hard time finding a respectable job and in 2015 more crime from Nations had started to come to the forefront. Between March and December, he would be arrested throughout several areas in Indiana. His charges ranged from possession of marijuana, driving with a suspended license, failure to appear in court, pleasuring himself in a woman’s bathroom in a Ricker’s Gas Station, and domestic battery on his wife, Katelyn, that resulted in her nose being broken.
In February 2017, things quietened down but Nations was still living in Indiana and was still checking in with the police department as a requirement due to his sex offender conviction. He was arrested again on February 24 and spent 4 days in jail after failing to appear in court. In April 2017, he lived in a motel and was arrested shortly after on suspicion of possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license. On May 12, Nations checked out of the motel, and a warrant was issued for his arrest when he once again failed to appear in court on July 19 2017.
Starting in February 2017, things were quieting down for Nations, but he was still residing in Indiana and was frequently checking in with law enforcement per requirement as a registered sex offender. He was arrested in Martinsville, Indiana on February 24 and spent four days in jail after failing to appear in court. In April 2017, he took up residence at a motel in Greenwood, Indiana, and was arrested shortly thereafter on the suspicion of possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license. On May 12, he checked out of the motel, and a warrant was issued for his arrest when he once again failed to appear in court on July 19, 2017.
I
n late August, reports were called into the El Paso County Sherriff’s Office claiming a man driving a red Chevrolet compact Sedan with Indiana license plates was threatening people with a hatchet on a Monument hiking trail in Woodland Park. An immediate search began but the man wasn’t found. 1 month later, police in Teller County, Colorado pulled over a man because of a broken taillight. The officers noted the man’s description met that of Nations; and they found indeed it was. In the car they found a hatchet and a .22 calibre rifle; Nations was again arrested on September 28 2017. Detectives from El Paso and Indiana travelled to Colorado to conduct a weekend-long interview of Nations, but to the upset of many, they announced on October 3rd that they “can’t specifically include or exclude Daniel Nations as a suspect in the Delphi murders.”
The end of October was difficult for the people of Delphi. Halloween was near and the town was on edge, with residents not wanting to let their children out to trick or treat. Family members of Abigail and Liberty were heartbroken knowing they weren’t going to be able to spend this Halloween with their daughters and enjoy their home-made costumes as they did every year. However, both families pushed through and did their best to keep the spirits of the community up.
On December 13 2017, 10 months after the girl’s disappearance, family members and Indiana State Superintendent Doug Cater appeared on Dr. Phil to keep the case in the spotlight. After the showing of the episode, the case hit a spike in awareness and over 270 new leads were called in that police are even still actively following. A few weeks later on December 27, Liberty would have been 15 years old; all her family wanted closure but that was to no avail. It’s now 2018 and the case still remains unsolved. In January, Daniel Nations was sentences to 3 years probation for his harassment in Colorado and in February the ISP announced he was no longer considered a person of interest in the murders.
Abigail Williams’ 15 birthday has passed and Liberty’s 16th is coming up, yet the pain and turmoil haven’t lessened. Both families are doing their best to keep the girls alive in the hearts of the residents of Delphi. A $1 million sports complex is being constructed in their memory and there will be 3 baseball fields, batting cages, an amphitheatre, and a plaque to commemorate the girls. Even to this day, orange light bulbs can be seen lighting up the homes of Delphi residents, reminding them that although the girls are gone they will never be forgotten.
(**WARNING** THIS POST CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF EXTREME CHILD ABUSE, PAEDOPHILIA, VIOLENCE, SOME SWEARING AND SOME SCENES THAT MIGHT MAKE YOU FEEL ILL. PLEASE, PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION.)
I’m not trying to take away from the topic of Peter Scully, we’ll get to that ‘thing’ in a second, but I was reading a news article from 2014 a while back, and it gave information that the Pope reported that 2% of Catholic Clergymen are paedophiles. However, if we put this statistic into normal society – the numbers are often harder to find, and why is this? Dr. James Cantor, a psychologist and sexual behavior scientist at the University of Toronto said “Because paedophilia is so secretive and so few people are willing to admit it, there is no meaningful way to get a reliable estimate.”
Dr Michael Seto, a clinical and forensic psychologist at the Royal Ottawa Healthcare group, however, decided to brave science and attempted an estimate. In 2008, he wrote a book in which he put paedophilia in the general population at 5%. This meant, that roughly, around 5% of males and females worldwide have paedophilic tendancies. The figure was based on surveys done in Germany, Norway and Finland whereby men and women were asked whether they ever had sexual thoughts or fantasies about children or engaged in sexual activity with children. But Dr. Seto stresses that 5% was an UPPER estimate and that studies were slightly limited in what they revealed.
“What those surveys don’t include are questions on the intensity of those thoughts and fantasies, whether they were repeated or not. Someone might say ‘yes’ because they once had a fantasy but our understanding of paedophilia would be that person recurringly had sexual thoughts and feelings about children.“
However, now in 2017, with more data and better methodology, Dr. Seto has brought that percentage down to 1% or the population but still makes clear this is an educated guess. One problem that still haunts Seto’s findings is that the term ‘paedophile’ means different things to different people. It’s common for men 18+ to be attracted to 18-20 year olds. It’s not unusual for a 16 year old to be attractive to many men and the younger down the field you go, less and less men are interested – but there’s always going to be a percentage still interested. Dr. Seto thinks that if we say a paedophile is someone attracted to those aged 14 and under, he estimated that the paedophile population could reach the 2% figure. However, if it’s classed as an attraction to pre-pubescent children, then it’s much lower than 1%. Despite this, as of 2015, Dr. Seto and his colleagues agree that a paedophile is someone who has a sexual interest in pre-pubescent children, so those under the age of 12.
But, back to the Pope and his estimate. How would he define a paedophile? No-one knows, but, there is a trail of clues. John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, carried out a well known study of Catholic Church child abusers. It went to each diocese in the US and found all plausible accounts of abuse involving clergy who served between 1950 and 2002 – and they found that 4.2% had been accused of child abuse including allegations of abusing teens as well as pre-pubescent children. This investigation is not perfect though as, for some reason, 40% of the allegations referred to abuse has said to have been carried out in a 6 year period between 1975–1980.
All I can say from my research is the figures are and will always have imperfections – both for the number of active paedophiles in the Church as well as in general population, they’re hard to find and always are going to be hard to compare.
Anyway, I’m done with my rant. This, is Peter Scully.
Peter Gerard Scully is an Australian who was born on the 13 January 1963. He’s a criminal, one of the worst types of criminal, charged with abduction, human trafficking, rape, torture and murder.
Background – In 2011, Scully fled from Melbourne, Australia to the Philippines before he could be charged with 117 counts of fraud and deception offences relating to his involvement with a crooked proerty scheme. From the Island of Mindanao, he is alleged to have then built up a lucrative paedophile ring that offered pay-per-view video streams of young children being tortured and sexually abused on the dark web. Among the victims was a 5 year old girl who was hung upside down whilst Scully and 2 accomplices raped and tortured her. Victims were chosen by Scully himself, he would promise their parents work, and told them he would educare their child by him or one of his 2 Filipino girlfriends, Carme Ann Alvarez and Liezyl Margallo – both of these women were featured in Scully’s videos.
One video involved the entrapment of 2 cousins, aged 9 and 12, who might have narrowly avoided being murdered. After Alvarez, a former child prostitute herself, had lured the 2 girls by offering food, Scully forced them to perform sex acts on each other, which he photographed and videoed. With Alvarez’s assistance, he sexually abused both girls. The girls were kept chained in dog collars, and after an attempt to flee, they were forced to dig what they were told were their graves. After 5 days of abuse, Alvarez pitied them and released them, letting them escape. The cousins went to police where after Alvarez was arrested and Scully went on the run.
On 4Chan, is where I initially heard about one of Scully’s most prolific film ‘Dafu Love‘, a snuff film that is one of the most horrific films ever made. According to second hand accounts I have read about, the video features a real Australian man living in the Philippines (Scully) torturing babies to death. Rumour is they use a hammer and chisel to break a baby’s skull. They also disembowel another baby before beating 2 babies together as although they’re having a pillow fight – this is until the impact finally kills them. I’ve looked for evidence this video existed, and found next to nothing concrete. It’s hard to find anyone who’s come across this video and given its abhorrent content, it’s no wonder no-one’s openly admitted to watching it. If anyone did say they’d watched it, they’d be confessing to a crime. According to Frank Kardasz, a former commander of the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, “We have in the past arrested ‘researchers’ who then unsuccessfully tried to invoke a free speech protection for their image collection.”
If this video does exist, it would be on the deep web – a study showed that 80% of the deep web is connected in someway to paedophilia. That follows a long trend of paedophiles using technology to gather collections of child pornography. Today, there are law enforcement teams focused solely on the deep web, “There are more difficult cases where the child abuse material is being hosted on the Deep Web, and much of it is taken down very quickly” said Detective Roy Calarese of the Chester County Computer Forensics Lab.
According to reports from the Australian media, Scully was paid over $10,000 AUD by those who wanted to see his most notorious film, “The Desctruction of Daisy“, which allegedly features the torture of a 2 year old baby. Made in 2012, the multi-part film is so extreme some regard it as an urban legend. It shows the torture and brutal rape of 3 girls, Liza (12), Cindy (11), and Daisy (2). Most of the abuse, and the worst of the abuse was carried out by one of Scully’s girlfriends Margallo. It seemed she was the sole hands-on victimiser of Daisy, the introduction to the film invites the viewer to watch Daisy’s ‘mental ruin’ as she learns how to ‘please her Mistress’.
Scully put this video on his production company ‘No Limits Fun‘, selling it to others. One of the people was one of the biggest purveyors of child pornography, fellow Australian Matthew David Graham. Arrested at age 22, he ran a series of ‘torture’ child porn sites. Graham said he purchased the video in order to get more people to visit his website. After the video had surfaced in Europe, Scully’s face was blurred out but his Australian accent gave investigators enough to try and find him in a worldwide search. When Scully was interviewed by 60 Minutes, his answers as to why he did what he did were vague and non-apologetic, it’s not that he lacks this remorse but he’s completely divorced from this situation.
[This video shows the 60 Seconds piece on Peter Scully – this will give some more information on Scully’s arrest and an interview with him.]
Arrest – Scully was gradually tracked down to Malaybalay City in the Philippines and on 20 February 2015, he was arrested. Investigators had 6 warrants for Scully’s arrest, all related to the abduction and sexual abuse of the 2 cousins. Investigators managed to uncover the fates of the 3 victims in Daisy’s Desctruction. Liza was alive, as was Daisy, but her treatment was so vicious she had lasting physical injuries. 11 year old Cindy had later been murdered by Scully and her bones were found buried under floor tiles in a house. She was subjected to rape and torture, and was made to dig her own grave before being strangled to death with a rope. According to Margallo, Scully video taped himself killing Cindy. Scully faces a total of 75 charges. Despite claiming he feels remorse, he has pleaded not guilty to them all, meaning victims will have to relive this ordeal in court. He’s on trial with others who assisted in this pornography production including 4 other men; German Christian Rouche, Filipinos Alexander Lao and Althea Chia and Brazilian Doctor Haniel Caetano de Oliveira. In October 2015, a fire severely damaged the evidence room containing Scully’s computer logs and videos, destroying key evidence. Some believe Scully bribed a police officer.
In 2017, Scully escaped the looming threat of the death sentence after Filipino politicians excused the crimes of rape, treason and plunder from a bill that reintroduced capital punishment in the country. Supporters of the Bill agreed to exclude these crimes from the list; the law passed by 216 votes to 54.
My Opinion – Anyone who’s ever read anything I’ve put out will realise I’m clearly not a criminologist or anyone with a particular insight – just a fact giver. But seeing as we’re at the end, (FINALLLLY!!! I’m sure you’re saying), I’m going to give you my opinion and theory on Peter Scully.
Scully isn’t just a paedophile, a rapist, a torturer or a monster – he’s a psychopath. Some tell tale signs are low levels of fear, poor impulse control and lack of empathy; sound familiar? But what made me tick was Scully’s claim he didn’t start behaving this way until he was in the Philippines. I believe this is bullshit as he has a past case of fraud and clearly had no morals or remorse for this and led him into a deeper hole of crime. He robbed people through property deals, this was his buzz, his adrenaline was pumping and since he fled this situation; he needed a new adrenaline rush in the Philippines.
Peter Scully is planning to release a book of memoirs. It will make fascinating reading but, whatever he rights, even if he gives facts, proof, time, dates, people, who, what, when, where and why; I won’t believe any word he’s written. You can never, ever trust a psychopath – they lie and manipulate for their own gain. How people like Peter Scully become whoever they are is a mystery (hence why I filed this under my mysteries section).
As you look into the eyes of this man, study his face, what do you see? An outsider? A shy man who’s succumbed to harmless geek like tendancies? A young innocent man? Richard Huckle was indeed an outsider, but he wasn’t a harmless geek, wasn’t innocent – Richard Huckle is a paedophile.
I recently watched a BBC documentary called The Gap Year Paedophile. I was aware of Huckle, vague about his crimes, but I was aware he was a dirty paedophile who took children’s lives for granted. After watching that documentary [link], I decided to write my own blog post on this person. I am considering this case as a mystery, as the whole thing has left me wondering how a human being can commit such despicable acts and feel like he could get away with it. Richard Huckle is, and will forever be, a monstorous paedophile who preyed on the poor and innocent. He is disgusting, inhumane and not worth the ground he stands on. I’m going to delve into this case as best as I can and provide some sources which will hopefully further expose this monster.
Background – Huckle was born into a well off, middle class family in Ashford, Kent on 14 May 1986. He went to the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone where he was described as “a bit of a loner, but nothing out of the ordinary” by friends. At the age of 16, he went on a trip to Namibia before leaving school to study at South Kent College. Huckle was also a regular worshipper at Ashford Baptist church where he was described as quiet. He was also a member of a church in London which he continued to attend up until his re-arrest in January 2015.
From 2005-2006, after leaving education, Huckle spent a gap year in Malaysia. He came back regularly throughout the years, helping at local churching and giving aid amongst poor, local communities. He permanantly moved there in 2010. He enrolled onto a short CELTA course (Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults) before starting work as a freelance photographer working in communities around Kuala Lumpur. He also enrolled onto an IT course with a local university, hoping to build his status within the community. Including Malaysia, where most of the crimes he was convicted of occured, and Cambodia, Huckle travelled around SE Asia to countries including Singapore, Laos and India. It was revealed in emails from Huckle’s email account that he persuaded a pastor in India to invite him to an orphanage in Bangalore to take photos and make videos with children, posing as a teacher (using his CELTA qualification) in order to gain trust.
Arrest – 9 years after Huckle started travelling, on 19 December 2014, following an earlier tip off from Task Force Argos, a highly specialised branch of Australia’s Queensland Police Service who investigate online child sex exploitation and abuse; Huckle was arrested by Police from Britain’s National Crime Agency at London’s Gatwick Airport and questioned on a suspicion of a number of offences against children. Initially, he refused to answer questions and was put on bail and house arrest; his cameras, laptop and hard drives were seized by police.
Task Force Argos were aware of a network of paedophiles operating on a dark web network called The Love Zone for some time. They noticed one member made posts using unusual greetings like “hiya” and had a noticable freckle on one of his fingers. Officers from the task force explored the Internet and social media pages, finally finding a Facebook page matching the profile of the person they were looking for; this person often used the greeting and had an identical freckle. The profile was, however, a fake but photos of a car led police to Shannon McCoole, a care worker from Adelaide. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Upon entering his house, police discovered that he was actually the owner and runner of this dark web site.
[Image of Shannon McCoole, owner of the sick paedophile site TLZ.]
Police ran the site, which has since been closed down, in an unusual move to snare other paedophiles. Whilst doing this, the task force rescued 85 children from ongoing abuse and arrested 100’s of paedophiles. One member that stuck out was Huckle, due to the number of children he had abused and the frequency of his posts on the website. After discovering Huckle’s real identity, and exploring the open Internet, the task force discovered Huckle was due to return to the UK to spend Christmas with his family. The task force immediately alerted the National Crime Agency who arrested him as soon as he arrived in the UK.
Huckle had no previous criminal record and was in no positions of responsibility concerning minors. Police, therefore, after interviewing him released him temporarily as it would take time to analyse and get evidence from his seized computers and cameras. Huckle was non-complacent with a “no comment” stance in his interview. When out on bail, he was confronted by his own parents about the allegations. He drunkenly admitted to these accusations and his parents kicked him out of the house, alerting the police.
After leaving his parent’s house, Huckle was re-arrested and charged with 91 counts, some of which I will detail here (Huckle did not admit guilt to 20 charges and pled guilty and was convicted of 71 counts). He was convicted of 71 counts of serious sexual assault against children ranging from 6 months to 12 years old. These charges include:
14 counts of rape of a child under the age of 12.
5 counts of digital penetration of a child under the age of 12.
31 counts of sexual assault against a child under the age of 12.
6 counts of grooming a child.
13 counts of taking/making indecent images of children (20,000 images on his laptop).
1 count of advertising indecent images of children.
1 count of arranging or facilitating child sex offences.
He was denied bail by police and remanded in court where his latest application for bail was also denied. Huckle was now in prison custody, first at HMP Lewes before, due to the seriousness of the charges, being moved to the notorious HMP Belmarsh to await trial. In January 2016, at an initial hearing, Huckle pleaded not guilty to all 91 charges, which took over an hour to read out in court. Prosecutors started to prepare 3 separate trials as they didn’t believe a jury could be subjected to all of the graphical evidence that would have to be presented in a single trial. In April 2016, Huckle pleaded guilty to 71/91 charges he was facing after a disturbing request to watch all the evidence against him in court. After his confession, prosecutors decided they weren’t going to pursue a prosecution against the remaining 20 charges and asked they lie on file, in order to spare the jury the horror of having to watch videos and view images of child abuse.
During the hearings, the full scale of the crimes became apparent for the first time. Prosecutors, led by Brian O’Neill QC, showed evidence of horrific crimes that started during Huckle’s gap year (pictured above) in 2006 and continued for 9 years until he was apprehended. They included rape of children under 12, possession and distribution of child porn, creation of child porn, child abuse, creating his own paedophile manual titled “Paedophiles and Poverty: Child Lover Guide“, digital penetration of a child under 12 and raising money for his trips through a crowd funding site. His victims were between 6 months and 12 years old, one even being abused while wearing a nappy. Another child was abused between the ages of 5-12 years old. Huckle belonged to The Love Zone website, where he shared photos and videos of his crimes with other paedophiles. He boasted, posting comments such as “Hit the jackpot, a 3 year old girl as loyal to be as my dog and nobody seemed to care” and “impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle class kids“. In total, prosecutors unveiled 29 victimes and over 20,000 photos and videos. However, they believe there could be up to 200 victimes all over SE Asia and 1000’s more photos in Huckle’s laptop, which he has refused to give the passwords to.
During the trials, the scale at which he went to find victims was revealed. Methods included taking children out on trips from orphanages and bringing them home from their own birthday parties to give them a ‘present’. Huckle had even talked about marrying one of his victims so he could set up a foster home and abuse “cycle of children” who would pass through his home; he wanted paedophilia as a full time job. Huckle also created a log of his abuses and gave himself ‘Paedo Points‘ depending on the age of the victim and the scale of the abuse inflicted on that victim; this log gave the indication that 200 children were abused however only records of 29 have been found.
The Trial – Richard Huckle was prosecuted under Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which allows British nationals to be tried and jailed for child sex crimes committed while overseas to prevent sex tourism, also known as extraterritorial jurisdiction. This section of the Act is very rarely used and it’s believed that Huckle is only the 7th person to be prosecuted under this Act.
The sentencing began at the Old Bailey on 1 June 2016 and lasted until 3 June 2016. At the start of the hearing, the judge stated that Huckle should expect to go to prison for a very long time as he was considering handing out multiple life sentences due to the severity of the offences committed. During the sentencing, Huckle’s lawyer, Philip Sapsford QC, read a statement from Huckle who blamed his crimes on an immature development and even ON THE CHILDREN.
“I really understand and acknowledge the true scale of damage it caused to the Malaysian community. I had hoped to escape this mundane life of solitude in the UK yet was overwhelmed by the attention I received in Malaysia. I completely misjudged the affections I received from these children. My low self esteem and lack of confidence with women was no excuse for me to use these children as an outlet. I am open and eager to rehabilitate from this offending behaviour. I don’t want to become a martyr to sex tourism in Malaysia. This was all my doing as a consequence of my immaturity and I’m truly remorseful.”
Philip Sapsford continued by asking the judge to take into consideration Huckle’s age, claims of remose and the fact he had no previous convictions. He also quoted a psychiatric report that said Huckle had limited sexual experience with women and suffered depression. He also stated that, despite the circumstances, this is the most extensive child abuse case he’s seen. It’s noted that during the hearing, in a statement made by the prosecution, how convictions were only sought against crimes for which there was complete pornographic evidence. It was noted how Huckle’s ledge contained details of 200 children that had been abused, but Huckle won’t give them computer passwords that would give them physical evidence to press more charges against him.
On 6 June 2016, Judge Peter Rook QC sentenced Huckle to live in prison on 22 counts with a minimum sentence of 25 years before being able to apply for parole. He will be eligible for parole in 2041, assuming good behaviour and a belief by the courts he no longer poses a risk to children and the public. However, he could be eligible in 2040 if time served on remand while awaiting trial is taken into account. Before giving Huckle his sentence, the judge stated he carried out a campaign of rape and was driven by his own, sick sexual gratification.
“You have pleaded guilty to as many as 71 sexual offences. It is very rare indeed that a judge has to sentence sexual offending by one person on such a scale as this. In my view, you may well harbour feelings of regret but there is no feeling of genuine remorse in this case.“
Aftermath – The NCA (National Crime Agency) received criticism from the Malaysian Government as well as a number of child protection charities, for their handling of teh case. Officers from the NCA travelled to Malaysia to engage in local charities, performing child protection workshops in the community where Huckle had lived, but they were kept in the dark about Huckle’s crimes. The Malaysian Government said they wanted further details on the victims so they can offer counselling. On 4 June 2016, the Attorney General of Malaysia, Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, stated he was in the process of contacting his UK counterpart in order to get information about the case, which would help his investigation into Huckle’s crimes.
The NCA responded to these comments, saying they revealed enough details to be able to help the charities but couldn’t provide full details i.e. names until the prosecution was complete. For the same reason, severe media restrictions were put in place which prevented anyone from reporting the story until the British Government had taken steps to make sure Huckle’s material had been taken down from the internet and steps had been taken to protect his victims from falling victim to future predators. On 6 June, the NCA referred itself to the police watchdog due to the fact they were aware of Huckle’s continued attendance at 2 churches in the UK up until his arrest but didn’t contact them until his sentencing had already begun.
The Malaysian Government set up a phone hotline for people to call if they have information about Huckle, other sex tourist paedophiles or if they were abused and need help. The Prime Minister, Najib Razak, said he was angered and sad by Huckle’s sexual violation of young Malaysian children and called for parties to ensure children aren’t exposed to these monsters. In August 2016, Najib Razak announced a special task force was set up to get investigate how Malaysia’s child protection laws could be redrafted to take on sex tourism.
While the media in the UK were largely supportive of Huckle’s sentencing, the Malaysian Government were critical that it was too lenient, with statements like “a thousand years is not enough“, “We are horrified that the sex fiend will be eligible to appear before a parole board after 23 years“, and “this monster could be out in 24 years“.
My Opinion – I think my opinion is one that many share. Huckle is a sickening human being and no sentence could ever justify his crimes – unless that sentence was death. I could tell you now if this happened in the US he would be sentenced straight to death or given a harsher sentence. Consistently in the cases I see coming from the UK, the sentences are far too lenient and unfortunately, I don’t think a majority of criminals here get the prison sentence they deserve.
Missing Person Description – William, at the time of his disappearance, was 3 years old. He was born on 26 June 2011 and went missing on 12 September 2014. He had hazel eyes and light brown hair, he was also approx 3 feet tall. He was last seen on Benaroon Drive, Kendall, New South Wales. He was wearing a Spiderman suit (as pictured above) at the time of his disappearance. He is believed to have been abducted.
The Case – On 11 September 2014, William, his foster parents and his 5 year old sister travelled 4 hours from Sydney to visit his foster Grandma in Kendall, NSW. His Grandma’s house on BenaroonDrive is directly across from bushland in the Kendall State Forest, about 22 miles south of Port Macquarie. Between 10am and 10:25am on 12 September, William and his sister were playing hide and seek in the front and back gardens while his mother and Grandma were sitting outside watching them. His mother went inside to make some tea, however, came back outside, worried, when she stopped hearing William’s laughs. She began searching the yard and inside the house. Shortly after this, William’s father returned after going to Lakewood on business and began searching the street and going door to door with neighbours. At 10:56am his mother phoned emergency services to report him missing and they arrived 10 minutes later. His mother’s last memory was that William was roaring like a tiger while running towards the side of the house, then there was silence. William had disappeared.
[Picture of William dressed in the outfit he disappeared in.]
100’s of police, members of State Emergency Services, Rural Fire Service and members of the local community searched day and night for William. Specialist Police, including the sex crimes squad from Strike Force were immediately informed. Motorcycles and helicopters were also brought to the search. 200 volunteers searched overnight, 100’s of people combed rugged terrain around the home and police divers searched the waterways and dams. The police searched every house in the estate several times and police detection dogs were brought in. They managed to detect William’s scent but only within the boundaries of the back garden. Strike Force Rosann was established with specially trained investigators from the State Crime Command who were experienced in young children disappearances. They supported the police, other emergency services workers and members of the public involved in the search. After 5 days, police said they were unable to come up with any leads.
The police later began an investigation into finding the drivers of 2 cars that were seen parked on the dead end road on the morning of William’s disappearance. The cars, described as a white station wagon and an older-style grey sedan, were parked between 2 driveways. They were seen with the driver’s side windows down and were unknown in the neighbourhood where locals were very close knit. The cars were also noticed by William’s mother and they haven’t been seen again since William disappeared. The police regard these cars with suspicion, as there seems to be no logical reason why they would be parked there – no-one knew who they were and no-one recognised these cars. Reportedly, at 9am, a green or grey sedan drove past the home while William and his sister were riding their bikes in the driveway. The car drove into the no through road, did a U-turn in a neighbour’s driveway and drove out of the street. Another 4WD was seen driving out of Benaroon at about 10:30am, about the time William disappeared; the vehicle was later seen speeding down another Kendall street. The police said they have known about these cars since the start of the investigation, however, as part of a strategy, the information was not released to the public about these cars until 12 months after William’s disappearance.
The police cleared William’s family of any involvement and later believed he was abducted by an opportunist who may have a connection with a paedophile ring. The police also believed William could be alive in the hands of a group of paedophiles, operating in a ring. The police have interviewed numerous convicted paedophiles and sex offenders however this turned up nothing. A Current Affair reported that about 20 registered sex offenders were living in the surrounding area where William was abducted from.
2 people of interest in the case, both convicted paedophiles, may have met up on the day William went missing. The family of one of the paedophiles, who had 90 convictions against his name including aggravated indecent assault of a minor,said he was going to visit another sex offender that day and returned home drunk that afternoon. But he told police he spent the day in the bush collecting scrap metal. It was reported that both men lived in the Kendall area and had been driving cars that matched the descriptions above. They were also members of an organisation called GAPA (Grandparents As Parents Again) and were friends. The 2 men have been questioned by police and they denied being friends or having any involvement in the disappearance of young William Tyrell. Another man who fixed a washing machine at William’s grandmother’s home the day before William disappeared is facing unrelated historical child sex charges in Victoria and was due to appear in court 4 July 2016. The police charged the man with multiple child sex offences including various counts of indecent assault and sexual intercourse with children between 1983 and 1985 in Victoria. The man previously posted a video online denying any involvement with William’s disappearance.
[William’s foster parents – Karlie and Brendan Tyrell.]
About 1,078 suspected sightings were reported to the investigation team in the 2 years after William’s disappearance. It includes a photo taken of a man, and a young boy from Queensland, who looked very similar to William. However, 24 hours later, the police received a phone call confirming it wasn’t William. In early 2015, 2 passengers and a member of a New Zealand bound flight thought they saw William on their airplane. The police met the plane at the airport and soon discovered it wasn’t him. Another photo came across to the police showing a young boy and a woman in McDonald’s in Central Queensland. The boy looked very similar to William and the woman who was with the boy looked like a grandmother figure. The police later confirmed this wasn’t William.
The Aftermath – On 16 September 2014, Strike Force Rosann was put together to investigate William’s disappearance. It consists of 14 detectives and analysts working full-time to solve teh case. The team are currently operating and are sifting through 1000’s of pieces of information. The investigation comes after a personal plea from William’s parents to the members of State Parliament, Deputy Premier and Minister for Justice at a private event in 2015. A family spokesperson said “They just wanted to reinforce that police believe he could still be alive and they’re asking members of the public not to give up on William.” The investigation is now the state’s largest, involving dozens of analysts, investigators and 2 strike forces including Rosann and Rosann 2.
On 12 September 2016, which was the 2nd anniversary of William’s disappearance, the NSW Government announced a 1 million dollar reward for information on William’s wherabouts. The police say the reward will be paid out as conditional on the arrest and conviction of the offender, but the recovery of William had been added as a condition of this reward. This is the largest ever reward offered to find a missing person in NSW’s history, double the amount for the 1999 case of murdered teenager Michelle Bright.
The case led to over 2,800 calls to Crime Stoppers alone since William disappeared. The police have interviewed more than 1,000 people in connection with the case. There have been 11,000 documents created and submitted by police. The search for William has gone as far as Europe and the US; Crime Stoppers websites in up to 26 countries have been asked by the Australian Federal Police to feature the case. The police have identified 690 persons of interest in their inquiry and have called in other specialist squads to investigate those they consider ‘low-priority’ while high-priority people are being questioned by Rosann.
William has a complicated family history, which prevented his foster parents from being named for legal reasons. The legal reasons, bound by the legislation, prevented them from being identified publicly and holding any press conferences for the purpose of appealing publicly for their missing son. on 24 August 2017, the NSW Supreme Court of Appeal ruled William’s status as a foster child and the fact he disappeared while in state care was one of legitimate public interest. His parents were then allowed to show their faces on a 60 Minutes interview, speaking for the first time. The father of murdered teenager Daniel Morcombe criticised the NSW Government’s refusal to do this as it was vital in helping generate information.
Despite numerous search efforts by the police and the forensic testing which failed to turn up any trace of William, police have yet to solve what actually happened to him. Chief Inspector Gary Jubelin commented that the investigation remains a priority for the NSW Police Force and said that investigators would treat teh case as though he was alive, until they had evidence proving otherwise. On 20 February 2016, a police spokesperson said that the case was one of the biggest being run by homicide and that they haven’t given up on William.
My Opinion – I believe that the people in those cars 100% abducted William in a moment of opportunity. However, seeing as no-one saw the license plates, or people inside the cars, it’s very unfortuate and these cars may never be found. I also believe that William unfortunately isn’t alive – it’s a massive case, and no-one would be as stupid as to leave this child alive when they know there’s a massive investigation searching for him. Wherever you are William – I hope you are safe, warm and in peace.
Missing Person Description – Born on 28 February 1969 and disappeared near her home in Belen, New Mexico on 28 September 1988. Her height was approximately 5’7 and she weighed about 120lbs. She has brown hair with a distinctive cowlick, green eyes and a large scar on the back of her right shoulder. She has a brown birthmark on the back of her right leg and a large scar on her calf.
The Case – On Tuesday, 20 September 1988, Tara (who was 19 years old at the time), left her home at around 9:30am to go on her daily bike ride along the New Mexico State Road 47. She cycled along that road almost every morning and was sometimes joined by her Mum, Patty Doel. However, her Mum stopped cycling with her after she felt she was being stalked by a motorist – she saw this motorist frequently and the motorist sometimes followed her all the way through her bike journey. She warned Tara about this and instructed her to carry pepper spray, but Tara rejected this idea, saying she’d be safe enough.
[Pictured above is the road that Tara Calico would usually cycle along.]
On the morning of Tara’s disappearance, she told her Mum to come and get her if she wasn’t home by midday as she had plans to go and play tennis with her boyfriend at 12:30pm. When Tara didn’t return home, Doel went searching for her along Tara’s usual cycling route, but couldn’t find her. This was then she contacted police. Pieces of Tara’s Sony Walkman and cassette tape were discovered along the road; Doel believes that Tara dropped them in an attempt to mark her trail or to indicate that she was in danger. Numerous people saw Tara riding her bicycle, which has never been found. No-one witnessed her presumed abduction, however, severeal witnesses saw a light-coloured pick up truck (possibly a 1953 Ford) with a camper shell following her.
[Missing poster released on television to raise awareness of Tara’s disappearance.]
On 15 June, 1989, a Polaroid photo of a young woman and a boy, both seemingly bound and gagged, was discovered in the car park of a supermarket in Port St. Joe, Florida. The woman who found the photo said that it was in the car park space where a white windowless Toyota cargo van had been parked when she arrived at the store. She said the van was being driven by a man with a moustache believed to be in his early 30’s. Police set up road blocks to intercept the vehicle but the man, nor car, have ever been found. According to Polaroid officials, the picture had to have been taken after May 1989 because the film used in the photograph wasn’t available until then.
[The polaroid that was found, pictured above.]
The photo was shown on A Current Affair in July of that year and Tara’s mother was contacted by friends who’d seen the show and said the woman resembled Tara. Relatives of Michael Henley, also from New Mexico, who disappeared in April 1988, saw the episode and believed that he was the boy in the photo. Tara and Michael’s parents met with investigators and examined the Polaroid. Tara’s mother said she was convinced it was her daughter after taking “time, growth and lack of make-up” into consideration. She also noted that a scar on the woman’s leg was identical to the one Tara had after a car accident.
[The picture above shows the scar that Tara’s mother identified.]
Also, a copy of V.C Andrews’ My Sweet Audrina, said to be one of Tara’s favourite books, can be seen sitting next to the woman. Scotland Yard analysed the photo and concluded that the woman was infact Tara Calico, however, a second analysis by the Los Alamos National Laboratory disagreed. An FBI analysis of the photo was deemed inconclusive. Michael Henley’s mother said she was “almost certain” it was Michael in the picture. The identification of the boy in the photograph as Henley is considered unlikely. His remains were discovered in June 1990 in the Zuni Mountains about 7 miles from his family’s campsite from which he had disappeared, and 75 miles from where Tara had disappeared. Police believe that Michael Henley wandered off and unfortunately died of exposure.
[Side by side comparison of the woman in the photo and Tara.]
20 years after the Polaroid photo was found, pictures of a boy were sent to the Port St. Joe police chief, David Barnes. He received 2 letters, postmarked 10 June and 10 August, 2009 from Albuquerque. One letter contained a photo, printed on paper of a young boy with sandy brown hair. Someone had drown a black band in ink on the photo, over the boys mouth, as if it was covered in tape as in the 1989 picture. The second letter contained an original image of the boy. On 12 August, The Star newspaper received a third letter depicting the same image of a boy with black marker drawn over his mouth. None of the letters had a return address or a note indicating the child’s identity, making the officials believe it may have something to do with the disappearance of Tara Calico.
The letters were sent around the same time that a psychic had called about Tara, saying she met a runaway in California with whom she worked with in a strip club, this girl was eventually murdered. The caller said she had dreams suggesting the runaway may have been Calico and that she may be buried in California. Searches didn’t lead to any discoveries. The photos were given to the FBI for further investigation in hopes of finding fingerprints or DNA evidence.
[Image that was contained in one of the letters with the gag drawn in black ink.]
2 other Polaroid photographs, possibly of Tara have come about over the years, but they have yet to be released to the public. The first was found near a construction site in Montecito, California and is a blurry photo of a girl’s face with tape covering her mouth and light blue striped fabric behind her, “similar to that on the pillow in the Toyota van photo.” It was taken on film that was not available until June 1989. The second shows “a woman loosely bound in gauze, her eyes covered with more gauze and large black-framed glasses“, with a male passenger beside her on an Amtrak train. The film used was not available until February 1990. Tara’s mother believed the first one was Tara, but the second one may have been a gag. Tara’s sister stated, “They had a striking, uncalming resemblance. As for me, I will not rule them out. But keep in mind our family has to identify many other photographs and all but those 3 were ruled out.”
The Aftermath –
20 years after Tara’s disappearance, Rene Rivera, the sheriff of Valencia County, claimed that he knew what had happened to Tara. According to Rivera, boys who knew her drove up behind her in a trunk and some form of accident followed. Calico later died and those responsible covered up the crime. Rivera said he knew the names of those involved but that, without a body, he couldn’t make a case. He didn’t release the evidence that led him to this conclusion. No arrests have been made and Tara’s case remains open. Tara’s stepfather, John Doel, disputed these claims of Riveras, saying that the sheriff shouldn’t have made these coments if he wasn’t willing to arrest anyone and that strong circumstantial evidence should be enough for conviction.
My Opinion – Rivera’s claims are bullshit. Unfortunately, if he strongly believed this circumstance and if he was willing to give Tara justice he would’ve arrested these individuals instead of making claims and giving the Doel’s false hope. I believe that Tara is the girl in that photo, and that maybe she was abducted and has since been trafficked by some monster. Hopefully one day Tara will break free from her chains and can finally come home.
Background – James Patrick Bulger was a young toddler from Merseyside in the UK. James was murdered when he was just 2 years old on the 12 February 1933. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by 2 10 year old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).
The Crime – On Friday, 12 February 1993, CCTV footage taken from the New Strand Shopping Centre showed Thompson and Venables looking at children, walking around the mall supposedly looking for a target, someone young and vulnerable they could easily lead away and later exploit, torture and kill. Both Thompson and Venables were bunking of school, something they usually did as neither of them were a big fan of school. As well as loitering, both of the boys were seen stealing items out of the various shops such as sweets, a Troll Doll, some batteries and a can of blue paint – some of these items were later found at the crime scene. Thompson later revealed in a police interview they were going to find a child to kidnap, lead the child to the busy road beside the mall and push the child into the oncoming traffic.
[Here is a video showing some CCTV footage that was taken from the mall the day Thompson and Venables kidnapped and murdered young James Bulger.]
The same afternoon, unfortunately, that Thompson and Venables were looking for a young victim, James Bulger and his mother Denise went to the mall to do some shopping. While inside A.R Tym’s butcher shop on the ground floor of the mall at around 3:40pm, Denise realised that her soon had disappeared, after having only been distracted for a mere few seconds. Thompson and Venables approached the young boy and lured him before taking him by the hand and leading him straight out of the shopping centre; this was captured on CCTV at around 3:42pm, just 2 minutes after Denise and James arrived at the shopping mall.
[Denise and her ex-husband Ralph pictured in a media interview soon after James’ disappearance.]
Both of the boys took James on a rough 2.5 mile walk across the city to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal where they dropped James on his head, causing injuries to his face; they also joked about pushing him into the canal. During the walk, the boys were seen by around 38 people; James had a bump on his head and was crying but most people did nothing, assuming that James was a younger brother of one of the boys. 2 people did challenge the boys but the boys recanted that same story that James was a younger brother, also telling one person that they found him and they were taking him to the police station. The boys eventually reached the village of Walton, leading James up a steep bank to a railway line where they began to torture him.
[Still from the CCTV footage showing Thompson and Venables leading James away.]
Later at the trial, it was at this point established that one of the boys threw blue Humbrol modelling paint, which they had stolen earlier, into James’ left eye. They kicked and stood on him, also throwing bricks and stones at him. Batteries were also forced into James’ mouth; police also believe some batteries may have been inserted into James’ anus however none were found there following the discovery of James’ body. When they finished their attack, a 10kg iron bar, described at the trial as a railway fishplate, was dropped on James. James suffered 10 skull fractures as a result of this striking his head. Dr. Alan Williams, the case pathologist, stated that James suffered so many injuries – 42 in total – that none could be isolated as the blow that killed him.
Police also suspected that there was a sexual motive to the crime since James’ shoes, socks, trousers and underwear had been removed. The pathologist’s report also read that James’ foreskin had been forcibly pushed back. When questioned about his aspect of the murder, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give any information, and they also rejected the claim that batteries were inserted into James’ anus. At his parole, Venable’s psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Bailey, reported that “visiting and revisiting the issue with Jon as a child, and now as an adolescent, he gives no account of any sexual element to the offence.”
[Picture of James and his father, Ralph Bulger.]
Before the boys left, they laid James across the railway tracks and covered his head with rubble as to weigh it down, hoping that the train would hit him and make his death appear as an accident. After they left the scene, James’ body was cut in half by a train. His body was discovered 2 days later on 14 February; later the pathologist determined that James had died before being struck by the train. After the discovery of James’ body, the railway embankment was flooded with 100’s of flowers and messages wishing the little boy to rest in peace and that his killers would be found.
The family of 1 boy, who was detained for questioning but released, had to flee Liverpool due to threats by vigilantes. The breakthrough came when a woman, who seen the images of the CCTV footage of the abduction, recognised Venables. She knew he usually played truant with Thompson and that they both had that day. She contacted police soon after and both boys were arrested.
The Arrest –
The fact these 2 suspects were so young was a huge shock to the police force, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby. Early media reports and police statements referred to James being seen with ‘two youths’, suggesting the killers were teenagers as the age of the boys was difficult to tell with the grainy CCTV images. Later, forensic testing confirmed the boys had the same blue paint on their clothes that was found on James’ body. Both boys had blood on their shoes, the blood on Thompson’s shoe was later matched to James’ through DNA testing. Bruising on James’ right cheek matched the upper part of Thompson’s shoe, indicating that he used a lot of force when kicking James in the face.
[Video showing the police interview of Thompson and Venables.]
The boys were charged with the murder of James Bulger on 20 February 1993 and appeared in South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993 where they were remanded in custody to await trial. After their arrest and through media campaigns, they were merely referred to as ‘Child A’ (Thompson) and ‘Child B’ (Venables). They were held in secure units where they would eventually be sentenced to be detained indefinitely.
At the day of the trial, up to 500 protesters gathered. The parents of the boys were moved to different parts of the country and were given new identities following death threats from vigilantes. The full trial of the boys took place on 1 November 1993 and was conducted as an adult trial with the boys in the dock away from their parents. The boys denied the charges of murder, abduction and attempted abduction; the attempted abduction charge related to an earlier incident where they tried to abduct another 2 year old boy before James, but were stopped by the boy’s mother. The boys were sat on raised chairs so they could see out of the dock and had 2 social workers each. Even though they were separated from their parents, they were in touching distance. The lead prosecution Richard Henriques QC successfully rebutted doli incapax, a principle that presumes that young children can’t be held legally responsible for their actions.
They were considered by the court to be capable of ‘mischievous direction’, meaning the ability to act with criminal intent as they were old enough to understand that what they were doing was wrong. Dr. Eileen Vizard, a child psychiatrist, who interviewed Thompson before the trial was asked whether he knew right from wrong. She was also asked did he know it was wrong to take a young child away from his mother, and was it wrong to cause injury to the child. Unequivocally, it was determined he knew the difference between right and wrong.
[Artist illustration of Thompson and Venables in court.]
The boys didn’t speak during the trial and the evidence against them was based on more than 20 hours of police interviews, which were played back in court. Thompson was determined to have took the leading role in the abduction, whereas it was Venables who brought up the idea of taking James to the railway line. Venables described James “liking” him, holding his hand and allowing him to pick him up during the journey to his death. The prosecution showed a number of items of evidence during the trial including a box of 27 bricks, a blood stained stone, James’ underwear and the rusty iron bar that was described as the fishplate. The pathologist spent 33 minutes outlining James’ injuries, many of those to his legs were inflicted after he was stripped down, brain damage was also extensive and included a haemorrhage.
On 24 November 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were found guilty of the murder of James Bulger, becoming the youngest convicted murderers in the 20th century. The judge, Mr Justice Morland, told they boys they had committed a crime of “unparalleled evil and barbarity… in my judgement, your conduct was both cunning and very wicked.” The judge recommended they should be kept in custody for a minimum term of 8 years. At the end of the trial, the judge lifted restrictions and allowed the names of the killers to be released – however Sir David Omand criticised this decision and outlined the difficulties caused by it in 2010. Laurence Lee, Venables solicitor during the trial, declared that Thompson was one of the most frightening children he’d ever met, comparing him to the Pied Piper.
[Image of some of the mob outside during the trial.]
Post Trial – After the trial, Lord Taylor of Gosforth recommended the boys serve a minimum of 10 years, making them eligible for release in February 2003, at the age of 20. The Sun newspaper created a petition with almost 280,000 signatures in a bid to increase the time spent by the boys in custody. The campaign was successful and in July 1994, Home Secretary Michael Howard announced they would be kept away for a minimum of 15 years.
Some UK papers claimed the attack was inspired by the film Child’s Play 3 and campaigned for the rules on violent movies and videos to be tighened. This came about as during the police investigation, it emerged that this movie was one of the movies that Venable’s father had rented in the months prior to the killing – however, it was never established that Venables ever watched it. One scene in the movie shows Chucky being splashed with blue paint. One Merseyside detective said, “We went through something like 200 titles rented by the Venables family. There were some you or I wouldn’t want to see, but nothing – no scene, or plot, or dialogue – where you could put your finger on the freeze button and say that influenced a boy to go out and commit murder.”
[Denise pictured holding one of the last photos taken of James.]
Thompson was held at the Barton Moss Secure Care Centre in Manchester whereas Venables was detained in Vardy House in Merseyside. These locations were not publicly known until after the boys were released. Details of how the boys lived, acted etc. were recorded twice a day and stored at units in Whitehall. They were taught to hide their real names as they were so infamous in the units. Venable’s parents visited their son, just as Thompson’s mother did, every 3 days. They received education and rehabilitation despite problems at the start. Venables was said to have been troubled at first but eventually made good progress, resulting in him being there for 8 years despite it being a short stay unit. Both boys were reported to have suffered PTSD and told of experiencing nightmares and flashbacks, Venable’s in particular.
The Release – In 1999, the boy’s lawyers appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, saying they should be released because they were too young to understand an adult trial – their case was dismissed. On 15 March 1999, the court voted 14 votes to 5 that Article 6 regarding a fair trial had been violated. In September 1999, James’ parents applied to the court, but failed to persuade the court that a victim of a crime has the right to be involved in determining the sentence of the criminal.
In June 2001, after a 6 month review, the parole board ruled the boys were no longer a threat to the public and could be released as their minimum sentence had expired in the February of that year. Home Secretary David Blunkett approved the decision and they were released a few weeks later on lifelong license after serving 8 years. Both men were given new identities and moved to secret locations in a witness protection style program. They were given new passports, National Insurance numbers, qualification certificates and medical records. Blunkett however insisted on being sent updates on every action the men took.
The terms of their release was that they weren’t allowe to contact each other or James’ family, they’re not allowed in the Merseyside region, curfews may be imposed if they’re seen to become risks again and they must report to a probation officer. Any attempt to flee or any other criminal charges would mean they’d be sent straight to prison. The media were also given an injunction, meaning they couldn’t report any further on their new secret identities.
Aftermath – In the months after the trial and after the birth of their second son, Denise and Ralph’s marriage broke down and they got a divorce in 1995; they have since both remarried and had more children. The Observer newspaper reported that both Venables and Thompson had passed their a-levels while sentenced. The newspaper also reported that Bulger family lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to create a report that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath, citing his lack of remorse during the trial and arrest. However, this report was dismissed. In a separate report in 2000 before Venables’ release, he was described as posing a trivial risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. His chances of successful rehabilitation were very high.
No vigilante action has since been taken against the boys, however, Denise told media in 2004 she received a tip off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. When she saw him, she was so “paralysed with hatred” she was unable to confront him.
On 14 March 2008, the Red Balloon Learner Centre was set up in Merseyside in memory of James by Denise, his mother, and Esther Rantzen. A memorial garden was created in Sacred Heart Primary School where James would’ve attended had he’d not been murdered.
In April 2010, a 19 year old man from the Isle of Man was given a 3 month suspended sentence for claiming in a Facebook message that one of his ex-co-workers was Robert Thompson. It was said the teenager had put that person at risk of serious harm by making the allegation. In March 2012, a 26 year old man from Lancashire was arrested after setting up a Facebook group titled “What happened to Jamie Bulger was fucking hilarious“. The mans computer was seized pending further investigation.
On 25 February 2013, the Attorney General’s Office announced it was taking court proceedings out on several people who’d published photos online showing Thompson and Venables as adults. On 26 April 2013, 2 men received a suspended sentence after admitting to contempt of court by publishing photos which they claimed to be Venables and Thompson on Twitter and Facebook. These posts were seen collectively by 24,000 people. On 14 July 2016, a woman from Kent was jailed for 3 years after sending Twitter messages to Denise where she posed as one of his killers and as James’ ghost.
Venables: Evil Unforgotten – On 2 March 2010, the Ministry of Justice revealed that Venables (pictured above as a child) was returned to prison for a violation of his release which were later revealed to be child pornography charges. Denise later said she was angry that the parole board didn’t inform her of the return to prison and called for his anonymity to be stripped if he’s charged. On 21 June 2010, Venables was charged with possession and distribution of indecent images of children. It was alleged he downloaded 57 images over a 12 month period and allowed other people to access this images through a P2P network. On 23 July, he appeared at a court hearing via video link, visible only to the judge during the hearing. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
At the hearing, it came out that he had posed in chat room as a 35 year old woman called Dawn Smith, married from Liverpool who boasted about abusing her 8 year old daughter in the hope of receiving further child pornography. Venables then contacted his parole officer in February 2010, fearing his identity was compromised as his place of work. When the officer came to Venables house, he was attempting to remove the hard drive from his computer with a knife and tin opener. The officer was suspicious and the computer was seized leading to the discovery of child pornography which included children as young as 2 being raped and the penetrative rape of 7/8 year olds.
The High Court also heard that Venables had been arrested on suspicion of affray (disturbance of peace) in September 2008 following a drunken street fight. Later in the same year he was cautioned for possession of cocaine.
After Venables was jailed in 2010, allegations were reported of his sexual encounters with a female member of staff in a secure unit where he served his original sentence. When Venables was 17, he was alleged to have had sex with a woman who worked at the Red Bank secure centre. The member of staff was accused of sexual misconduct and was suspended. A spokeswoman for St. Helen’s Borough Council denied the incident was covered up, saying “All allegations were thoroughly investigated by an independent team on the orders of the Home Office and chaired by Arthur de Frischling, a retired prison governer.”
In March 2002, when Venables began living alone, he began a relationship with a woman who had a 5 year old child. It’s not known whether at this time Venables was already downloading child porn, although at the time of dating the woman he said he never met the child. In 2005, when he was 23, he was seen to have had a 17 year old girlfriend. His string of ‘young girlfriends’ presumed that Venables was havng a delayed adolesence. During a period of reduced supervision, Venables began drinking hard, taking drugs, downloading child porn as well as visiting Merseyside (a bread of his probation). In 2008, a new probation officer noted he spent a lot of time on the internet. On 2 separate occasions, Venables revealed his true identity to a friend.
My Opinion – In my opinion, these two boys should have always been tried and treated as adults. From the time we’re babies, we’re told not to touch things, or not to say things. And so by the time we’re 10 years old, I think it’s pretty safe to say we know not to abduct and kill innocent children. Thompson and Venables are disgusting human beings. Although Thompson has recouperated and is apparently doing well, Venables should be locked away. You cannot blame the crimes he has committed since being released on ‘delayed adolesence’. Venables is a sick, twisted human being and should never have been set free from prison.
Background – Elisa Lam came from a family of Hong Kong immigrants who moved to the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, she was also a student at the University of British Colombia although she didn’t register here until the beginning of 2013. In January 2013 she planned a trip to tour the West Coast of the USA, beginning in South California which she called her “West Coast Tour” on her blog (Elisa’s Tumblr account which is mysteriously still active today.) She planned multiple stops in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
Elisa travelled alone, getting by on trains and city buses. She went to San Diego Zoo and posted the photos of this on her Facebook. On 26 January, she arrived in LA and after 2 days there checked into the Cecil Hotel near Skid Row. She was initially put into a shared room on the 5th floor of the hotel, however, her roommates started to complain about Elisa’s behaviour; the hotel’s lawyer later describing it as “certain odd behaviour“. She was then moved to a room of her own after 2 days.
[The Cecil Hotel would be Elisa Lam’s last check in.]
The Cecil Hotel was built in the 1920’s and operated as a business centred hotel, however the hotel fell on hard times in the Great Depression in the 1930s and never recaptured it’s original clientele. A number of LA’s most infamous murder cases have been linked to the hotel including; Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia murder who made the Cecil the last stop before her death. In 1964, Goldie Osgood, the “Pigeon Lady of Pershing Square” was raped and murdered in her room at the Cecil; this crime was never solved. Serial killers Jack Unterweger and Richard Ramirez both stayed at the hotel whilst they were actively murdering.
Elisa Lam was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression which she was prescribed 4 medications for; Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Seroquel and Effexor. According to her family she had no history of suicidal thoughts or attempts, although one report from a news media source stated she went missing for a brief period before returning home. In 2010, she began a blog named Ether Fields and over the next 2 years she would post pictures of models and accounts of her life, particularly about her mental illness. In 2012, Elisa wrote about a ‘relapse’ at the start of her school term and this forced her to drop numerous classes, meaning that she felt “so utterly directionless and lost.” She named the post “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.” She used this quote as a title for her blog. Sometime after 2 years of blogging, Elisa announced she would no longer be posting on the blog after she started a Tumblr blog in March 2011 (linked above). She posted again photos of models, about her life and several quotes.
The Disappearance – Every day, Elisa would give her parents a phone call while she was on her travels, however on 31 January 2013, the day she was meant to check out of the Cecil Hotel and leave to travel to Santa Cruz, her family did not hear from her. They found this alarming as Elisa would ring them every day and this was out of the ordinary for her not to call. They reported her as missing to the LA Police and the family flew to LA to help with the search for her.
[Missing poster of Elisa that was posted around the neighbourhood.]
Hotel staff who saw her that day claimed she was alone, and outside the hotel the manager of a local book shop recalled seeing her that day. “She was outgoing, very lively, very friendly” while getting souvenirs for her family, the manager told CNN. Police searched the hotel to every extent they legally could without having to get a warrant. They searched Elisa’s room and had sniffer dogs throughout the building, including the rooftop but they were unable to detect a scent pattern. “But we didn’t search every room. We could only do that if we had a probable cause to believe a crime had been committed.” Sargeant Rudy Lopez later told reporters. On 6 February, posters like the one above were posted over the streets and online which brought the public’s attention to the case.
[Video of Elisa Lam’s strange lift behaviour.]
On 14 February, another week after her disappearance, the LAPD released the video of the last sighting of Elisa taken by the CCTV inside the lift in the Cecil Hotel which was recorded on 1 February. In the CCTV footage shown above, the camera at one of the lift’s rear cabs corners looks down from the ceiling, showing a slight part of the hallway. It’s grainy footage and the lower timestamp is obscured; also at times, Elisa’s mouth is pixelised. Elisa enters the lift from the left and goes to the button panel. She seems to push the buttons for multiple floors and steps back into the corner. When the door fails to close seconds later, she steps up to it and looks out through the door in both directions before quickly stepping back in and backing up to the wall; the door stays open. She begins rubbing her forearms and waves her hands at her sides. This can be seen through the door which continues to remain open until she backs against the wall to the left which is when it shuts. Many people have found this video quite unsettling to watch. After this, Elisa Lam was seemingly never to be seen again.
[An image capture of Elisa, who appears to be hiding from someone in the hallway.]
Body Discovery – While the search for Elisa carried on, the hotel was still fully functional and still accepted guests. Soon after, however, guests started complaining that their water pressure was extremely low, even black and had a strange smell. After quite a number of complaints, the hotel staff started to investigate the source of the rotting water. On the morning of 19 February, a few employees went to the roof where four 1,000 fallon water tanks that provided water stood, providing water to the guest rooms, the hotel kitchen at the restaurant and the hotel coffee shop. 3 of the tanks were cleared for contamination, however, in one of the tanks Elisa’s body was found floating face up a foot below the water surface.
[Elisa Lam and an image of the water tanks her body was discovered in.]
Police responded to the scene and by the afternoon the hotel drained the tank so firefighters could cut the tank open and remove the body since the opening of the tank was too small. Soon after the discovery, all of the Cecil’s short term guests left, disgusted and repulsed that they were drinking and bathing in water contaminated by a decomposing body for 2 weeks. The hotel paid for some to relocate and required those who stayed to sign a waiver to say they were made aware of the health risks. One long term hotel guest also stated that there had been some flooding on an upper level room following Elisa’s disappearance.
Elisa was removed from the tank and her body was taken to the county coroner’s office for an autopsy. 2 pathologists, Jason Tovar and Yulai Wang, spent 4 hours examining her body and internal organs. On 21 February, the coroner’s office reported they had found her death to be accidental drowning and blamed her bipolar disorder as being a significant factor in this. Four months later, after several delays, their full report was released. In the report it stated that Elisa’s body had been found naked in the tank which was around 1/2 to 3/4 full. The clothing she was wearing was floating beside her and was coated with a “sand like particulate“. Her watch and room key were also found in the tank. Her body was moderately decomposed and bloated; mostly greenish with some marbling evident on the stomach area. Skin separation was also evident. The coroners had a rape and fingernail kit done on Elisa but no evidence of physical or sexual assault was evident. They found no evidence also to suggest she committed suicide. Toxicology tests were done on her blood however a full screening couldn’t be done as not enough of her blood was preserved. Some metabolites and traces of her prescription drugs were found, consistent with blister packs and loose pills of these drugs found in her belongings. A tiny amount of alcohol was also found, about 0.02g% but no other drugs were found in her system.
Elisa Was Murdered: Nobody has found evidence that she wasn’tmurdered. Elisa could have been murdered by a hotel worker or a guest. The footage in the lift could’ve been from a game of hide and seek she was playing – hide and seek with a murderer. A lot of people think this is the most plausible theory, and I’ll explain why. You need a key to access the roof, employees would hold these keys. You also need a special ladder to get into the water tank; all four tanks are 4×8 foot propped up on concrete blocks. The lids are also extremely heavy. Also, during the first 12-14 seconds of the video, the door tries to close but opens right away, was there someone on the other side causing this? Police dogs searched through the hotel for Elisa, even on the roof but never found any trace of her; although they didn’t search the area near the water tanks.
Elisa’s Tumblr also mentioned she was having problems with ‘creepers’ in the hotel (linked here), this suggested someone may have been stalking her. Strangely, her blog was also updated several times after her death. Most think this was because of a ‘queue’ option where you can choose when posts with be posted, but since her mobile phone was never found, some suspect the killer was posting for her.
[Elisa pictured with her family at her high school graduation.]
Elisa Was Assassinated: Okay, so this one may seem a little extreme but some people actually think Elisa may have been assassinated – with a bizarre link to cloaking devices. By using Google Maps you can see the hotel has been renamed as Stay on Main and you will also see something called the Invisible Light Agency which is based INSIDE the hotel. No-one knows what this ‘agency’ is and there has been no further information included about it. Some people have said that Elisa had links with military members and posted articles about cloaking technologies being used in the military (which have seen been deleted) on her Facebook. This occured before her LA trip; so perhaps this Invisible Light Agency was a special effects company? Perhaps her actions in the lift were an attempt to lose her ‘invisible’ chaser? It would have been extremely distressing running from an invisible person. When Elisa is pressing the lift buttons, some say she was doing this very deliberately, and some even believe she was following instructions. Also, if someone was testing cloaking, or invisible technology, there would be no better location than at a hotel where there was previous paranormal claims.
[Diagram showing how cloaking technology is used.]
The Paranormal: This theory is about the hotel itself. Since the hotel opened in the 1920’s, it’s been the host to murderers and the murdered as I have written about above. The hotel has a seedy and creepy reputation, possibly explaining that when Elisa was pressing the buttons at random she was posessed by a paranormal spirit urging her to commit suicide. The hotel was always rumoured to be haunted with some people claiming to having been choked by thin air; a woman also mysteriously died in the hotel by strangulation but her murderer was never found. The hotel itself is said to have terrible dark energies.
[Serial killers such as Richard Ramierez were previous guests at the hotel. Could one of their victims be haunting the hotel?]
Another paranormal explanation is that Elisa was playing ‘The Elevator Game‘ which involves using a lift to travel to another dimension. The instructions for this are below.
Instructions:
Enter your chosen building (at least 10 stories high) and get into the elevator at the first floor alone. Don’t proceed with the game if anyone else is with you.
Press the 4th floor button.
When you reach there, don’t get out. Stay in the elevator and press the button for the 2nd floor.
When you reach there, stay in the elevator and press the button for the 6th floor.
When you reach there, stay in the elevator and press the button for the 2nd floor.
When you reach there, stay in the elevator and press the button for the 10th floor.
When you reach there, stay in the elevator and press the button for the 5th floor.
When you reach there, a young woman will enter the elevator. Do not look at her, or speak to her. She’s not what she seems.
Press the button for the 1st floor. If the elevator begins ascending to the 10th floor instead of going to the first, proceed. If the elevator goes to the 1st floor, leave as soon as the doors open. Don’t look back and don’t speak.
If you reach the 10th floor, you may either get off or stay on it. If you get off, and if the woman entered the elevator on the 5th floor, she’ll ask you “Where are you going?” Do NOT answer her. Do NOT look at her.
You’ll know whether you’ve arrived in the Otherworld by one indication; the only person present is you.
Creepy, right? Other rules are should you reach the Otherworld, the floor you’ll emerge onto will look the same as the one from your own world except all the lights will be off and you’ll only be able to see a red cross in the distance. Electronic devices do not work in the Otherworld. Getting back to your own world is difficult; you may become disorientated and forget, be vigilant and keep your wits about you.
As I have stated above, warnings about this game suggest you become disorientated and confused. People have suggested Elisa became so disorientated that she wandered around and tried to find safety in the closed off water tank.
Elisa’s disappearance is very very similar to a horror movie called Dark Water. In the movie the residents of a tower block are complaining about black water leaks etc. and eventually find a body in the water tank at the top of the building.
Is this coincidence or was she trying to make a copycat of this horror flick?
Elisa Killed Herself: This is the theory that ties mostly in with reports given about her death: most think she drowned accidentally – she was experiencing a psychotic episode and was having hallucinations in the lift. Some also suggest the elevator was in service mode and you need to keep the close button down until the door closes, however, Elisa thinks someone is pressing the button to keep the door open, hence her peeking out.
The last conspiracy, if you will, around her death is chilling. After the discovery of Elisa’s body, a deadly outbreak of TB occured in Skid Row, where the Cecil Hotel was located. The name of the test kit used to test for TB? LAM-ELISA.
Personal Opinion – Elisa Lam was under distress with her bipolar disorder, and someone in the hotel who may have been stalking Elisa or had taken a liking to her was going to take advantage of this. She may have saw them following her in the past days and because she was in a state of confusion, they coerced her up to the roof where they then tried to to maybe sexually assault her, failed and then murdered her – dumping her body in the tank. I don’t think she killed herself, she was too excited about her trip and even under duress she would’ve phoned her parents to tell them she was scared.
I do believe she was killed, however, there’s just something about those paranormal theories that send shivers down my spine.
Missing Person Description: Female, born on the 12th of May 2003 in Leicester, UK. British national and English native speaker. 2’9 (at time of disappearance) with blonde hair and green/blue eyes, her right eye has a brown spot in the retina. She also has a small brown mark on the calf of her left leg. She was last seen in Praia da Luz, Portugal. She disappeared from the resort on Thursday 3 May, 2007. The image shown in the above missing persons poster is an age progression image of Madeleine where she would be 9 years old.
The Case: Madeleine Beth McCann was born on the 12 May 2003 to parents Gerald and Kate McCann. She disappeared on the evening of 3 May 2007 from her bed at a holiday resort named Praia da Luz in the Algarve region of Portugal. Her whereabouts remains unknown to this day. She was on holiday with her parents and also her two-year old twin siblings, Sean and Amelie.
[Pictured above: Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine and twins Sean and Amelie.]
Also on holiday were the infamously named Tapas Seven. This group included Fiona and David Payne, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield, Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner along with Fiona’s mother Dianne Webster. The Paynes took their 2 kids, the Oldfields were on holiday with their daughter and Russell and Jane had 2 children together.
The McCanns arrived on the 28 April 2007 for a 7 night holiday. They booked earlier in the year and were placed in 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, an apartment owned by a retired teacher from Liverpool. This was also one of the several privately owned properties that were rented by the resort. Apartment 5A was a 2 bedroom, ground floor apartment in the 5th block of a group of apartments known as Waterside Village. The Oldfields were next door in 5B, Tanner and O’Brien in 5D and the Paynes along with Webster were on the first floor. It’s important to note this was not a gated or secured community and was accessible to the public from both sides. Their patio doors could be access through a public street.
Madeline slept in a single bed next to the bedroom door, on the opposite side of the room from the window, while the twins were in travel cots in the middle of the room. There was also another, empty, single bed underneath the window.
[Pictured above are Sean, Amelie and Madeleine’s bedroom.]
Thursday the 3rd of May was the penultimate day of the holiday. During breakfast, Madeleine asked “Why didn’t you come when Sean and I cried last night?” After the disappearance, the McCanns wondered whether this meant someone had entered the bedroom (however, I think this was because Madeleine had woken up scared in the night and the McCanns were relaxing at dinner). Kate also noticed a large brown stain on Madeleine’s pyjama top. The children then went to the Kid’s Club, then after ate at their apartment before going to the pool. Kate took the last known photograph of Madeleine that day, sitting beside Gerry and her sister in the pool; this was at 2:29pm.
Kid’s Club finished at 6:00pm and Kate took the children to 5A while Gerry went on a tennis lesson. The children were put to sleep around 7:00pm and Madeleine was left sleeping in a pink and white Mark’s and Spencer’s Eeyore pyjamas next to her blanket and the infamous Cuddle Cat.
[The image above shows the same pyjamas that Madeleine was wearing on the night she disappeared.]
At around 8:30pm the McCann’s left the children in the apartment to eat with their friends at the Tapas restaurant, located on the other side of the pool. The restaurant was around 55 metres (160ft) from the apartment, but getting back to the apartment involved walking along a public street to reach the Ocean Club doors, then walking through the resort to the other side of the pool. This mean the actual walking distance was around 82 metres (295ft), a considerable difference. The top of the apartment was visible from the restaurant but not the patio doors. These doors could only be locked from the inside, so the McCanns left them closed but unlocked, curtains drawn.
[Distance to the apartment from Tapas Bar; notice obstacles they’d have to cross therefore increasing the length of the journey.]
The staff at the resort block-booked the table for the group at 8:30pm for the last 4 nights of the holiday. The message in the booking book said the group’s children were in the apartments – Kate McCann believes Madelines ‘abductor‘ may have seen the note. The group left the restaurant almost every half hour to check on the kids. Gerry McCann carried out the first check on 5A at around 21:05. He said the children were fast asleep, and he later recalled having left the bedroom door slightly open, now it stood wide open. He pulled it ajar again before returning to the tapas restaurant.
[This image shows the patio doors in the McCanns apartment.]
Another incident that occurred that night is the sighting by Jane Tanner of a man carrying a child. She left the restaurant just after 21:00 to check on her daughter, passing Gerry McCann on his way back from his check; he stopped to talk to a fellow tennis player but none of them recalled seeing Tanner. This fact confused Portuguese police given how small the street was – Tanner was later accused of making up the sighting. Tanner told police that around 21:15pm she saw a man carrying the child walking across the junction at the top of the street. He wasn’t far from apartment 5A and was heading east, away from the front of the apartment. The child in the man’s arms was wearing similar coloured pyjamas to Madeleine the night she disappeared. Tanner described the man as white, dark haired, 5’7 tall, Southern European or Mediterranean appearance, 35-40 years old wearing beige trousers, a dark jacket and said he didn’t look like a tourist. Madeleine’s Fund comissioned a forensic artist to create the image below which was released in October 2007.
However, in 2013, a British holidaymaker came forward as the man Tanner had seen, he was returning to his apartment after collecting his daughter from the Ocean Club night creche. Scotland Yard investigated, dressing the man up in similar clothing and standing in the same pose as the one Tanner reported. DCI Andy Redwood said they were “almost certain” Tanner’s sighting was not in relation to Madeleine’s disappearance.
The dismissal of Jane Tanner’s sighting allowed investigators to focus on another sighting of a man carrying a child that night as reported by Martin and Mary Smith on holiday from Ireland. They saw the man at around 22:00pm on Rua Escola Primária, 500 yards (457m) from the McCann’s apartment, walking away from the Ocean Club and to the beach. He was carrying a small girl. She had blonde hair and pale skin, wearing light coloured pyjamas and had bare feet. The man was mid-30s, 5’7-5’9, slim to normal build with short brown hair, wearing cream trousers. He didn’t look like a tourist and seemed uncomfortable carrying this child. E-fits were created based on the Smith’s testimony and were first created in 2008, published in 2013 by Scotland Yard on Crimewatch.
[E-fit of the man seen by the Smiths.]
Kate McCann intended to check on the kids at 21:30pm but Matthew Oldfield offered to do it when he checked on his own children in the apartment beside 5A. He saw the McCann’s children’s bedroom door was wide open, but after hearing no noise, he left without looking far enough into the room to see if Madeleine was there. He couldn’t recall whether the bedroom window and shutter was open at this point. Early on in the case, the police accused Oldfield of involvement because he had willingly volunteered to do the check, suggesting he handed Madeleine to someone through the bedroom window. Kate McCann made her own check around 22:00pm, she recalled entering through the unlocked patio doors and noticed the children’s bedroom door was wide open. When she tried to close the door, it slammed shut due to a draught which is when she saw the window and shutter were open. Madeleine’s Cuddle Cat and pink blanket were still on the bed, but she was gone. After a brief search of teh apartment, Kate ran towards the restaurant, screaming “Madeleine’s gone! Someone’s taken her!”
[Image above shows Madeleine’s toy, Cuddle Cat.]
The Aftermath: At around 22:10pm, Gerry McCann asked Oldfield to ask the resort’s reception desk to call the police, and at 22:30pm, the resort launched it’s own missing child protocol. Around 60 staff and guests searched until 4:30am, assuming Madeleine had just wandered off. One staff member reported to Channel 4’s Dispatches that from one end of Luz to the other you could hear people calling her name. At 23:30pm, two officers from the Guarda Nacional Republicana arrived from Lagos, 5 miles away. After midnight they alerted criminal police, the McCann’s claiming they arrived just after 1:00am. However, according to the GNR, they arrived at 12:10am. 2 patrol dogs were brought in at around 2:00am and 4 search and rescue dogs at 8:00am. Inspector Goncalo Amaral became the inquiry’s co-ordinator.
[Goncalo Amaral pictured above.]
Unfortunately for Madeleine, mistakes were made soon after her disappearance. Neither land nor marine police were given a description of what Madeleine looked like for 5-6 hours and no house searches took place. According to Kate, roadblocks were put in place at 10:00am the next morning. Police didn’t ask for pictures of vehicles leaving Praia da Luz. It also took Interpol five days to issue a global missing persons alert. Not everyone in the resort was interviewed; holidaymakers later confirmed no-one had spoken to them regarding the disappearance. The crime scene was not secured properly. Police took samples from Madeleine’s bedroom which were sent to 3 forensic labs in Portugal; it was then reported on June 1 2007 that DNA from one stranger had been found. But around 20 people had entered that apartment before it was closed off. According to Kate McCann, an officer placed tape across the doorway of the bedroom but left at 3:00am without securing the apartment. The Polícia Judiciária file, released in 2008 showed that the apartment lay empty for a month after Madeleine’s disappearance and was soon let out to tourists before being sealed in August 2007. A crowd had gathered soon after the disappearance next to the bedroom window, through which the ‘abductor’ may have entered or left – this was a complete contamination of possible evidence. An officer had dusted the bedrooms outside shutter for fingerprints however was not wearing gloves or other protective clothing.
[Madeleine McCann and the resort where she had disappeared from.]
Back in the UK it was agreed her home force, Leicestershire Police Force would co-ordinate the British side of the response even though the case remained a Portuguese enquiry. The Portuguese investigators gave the British team a room to work but insiders have claimed they resented them. The British police were used to feeding their findings onto an electronic system however in Portugal, the information was collected in boxes. This slowed the findings in the case down immensely.
Suspects –
[The first arguido, Robert Murat.]
In Portugal, suspects are referred to as arguidos. 12 days after Madeleine’s disappearance, Robert Murat, a 34 year old man became the first arguido. He lived in his mother’s house 150 yards (137m) from the apartment in the direction Jane Tanner saw the mystery man walking. 3 members of the Tapas 7 – Fiona Payne, Russell O’Brien and Rachael Oldfield – had said they’d seen Murat outside the apartment shortly after the appearance as did an Ocean Club nanny and 2 holidaymakers. However, his mother vouched for him, claiming he was home with her all evening. On May 15 2008 Murat’s home was searched, pool drained with his cars, computers, phones and video tapes examined; his garden was searched using ground radar and sniffer dogs and 2 of his associates were examined. Weirdly in March 2008 one of these associates had their car set alight with the Portuguese word “fala” meaning “speak” spraypainted on the road beside it. Ultimately, there was nothing to link Murat to the disappearance and his arguido status was lifted on 21 July 2008 when the case was archived.
On the 6 June 2007, a German reporter asked the McCanns during a Berlin press conference whether they were involved in the disappearance, their reaction provoked the start of a media frenzy, turning on the McCanns.
On 30 June 2007, an article titled “The Madeleine Case: A Pact of Silence” appeared in a Portuguese weekly newspaper, stating that the McCanns should be suspected, showing inconsistencies in their statements and blaming Tanner on inventing her sighting of the mysterious man. The Tapas 7’s mobile numbers were retrieved by the reporters and so it was apparent that this reporter found a leak in the story.
The Evidence –
One damning piece of evidence is concentrated around the bedroom shutter; the issue was whether the outside shutter over Madeleine’s bedroom window could be opened from the outside or solely from the inside. According to Danny Collins, a British journalist, the shutters were slotted blinds that were controlled by pulling on a strap. Once rolled down, the slots could only be raised by using the strap on the inside. Kate McCann said both the shutter and window were closed when Madeleine was in bed, but open when she was missing. Gerry McCann told the Portuguese investigators when he was told Madeleine was gone, he lowered the shutter then had gone outside, only to see it can be raised from the outside. Again, police and reporters determined the shutter couldn’t be raised from the outside; forcing the shutter would make a lot of noise and even with that, there was no sign of forced entry.
[Image of the shutters taken from outside of the McCanns apartment.]
[A video showing a tourist raising the shutters of the apartment in 5A; the noise would have woke up Madeleine as well as the twins. Also, the shutters don’t go all the way up – how would a grown man or woman fit through the small opening in the window.]
When Kate McCann realised that Madeleine was gone, she ran to the Tapas Bar, shouting “They’ve taken her!“, this was viewed with suspicion as though as she was paving the way for an abduction story. Who is they, Kate? And why on earth, after finding your oldest daughter was missing out of her bed, would you leave your baby twins still in the apartment? From August onward, suspicions increased that Madeleine may have died as the result of an accident, that she was sedated in her sleep and that her parents had hidden her body before retrieving it, driving it to an unknown place in their hire car they hired over 3 weeks AFTER the disappearance; most Portuguese investigators still believe this theory and I will explain it later on in my investigation.
Keela is a CSI dog trained to give her handler Martin Grime a ‘passive alert‘ to the scent of human blood by placing her nose at the spot then freezing. Eddie is an enhance victim recovery dog who gives ‘bark alerts‘ to the scent of human cadavers (dead bodies) even if the remains were buried, burnt or in water. He’s trained to bark only in response to this and not in any other situation. The dogs were taken to Praia da Luz on 31 July and were taken to the beaches, Robert Murat’s house and the Ocean Club apartments.
Despite letting the dogs extensively search, they only gave alerts in and around apartment 5A. They both alerted to the area behind the sofa in the living room, on and under the veranda in the bedroom where Kate and Gerry were staying. The Portuguese police obtained a warrant to search the apartment as well as their Renault Scenic hire car. The apartment was searched on August 2, the only alert that came from Eddie who encountered Cuddle Cat which was lying in the living room. Keela gave a scent alert in the wardrobe of the McCann’s master bedroom, indicating that at one time there was blood scent in this wardrobe.
[This image is of awful quality, I apologise, however, this does show Keela giving an alert in the wardrobe, this was after the infamous blue duffle bag was removed from the wardrobe.]
The police confiscated boxes of the McCanns clothes, cuddle cat, a pair of latex gloves, a notepad, 2 diaries (including one Kate started after the disappearance) and a friend’s Bible she borrowed. A passage marked was from 2 Samuel about the death of a child, this was copied into the police case. Items were taken to a separate location where Eddie alerted to one of the boxes of clothes.
[Coincidence?]
On 6 August, police siezed the hire car. Eddie and Keela were taken to an underground garage where 11 cars were parked 20-30 feet apart including the McCanns and Robert Murats. Eddie gave an alert outside the McCanns car and inside the boot. Keela alerted to the compartment in the driver’s door which contained the key and a key ring. When the key ring was hidden under a fire bucket, she alerted again. The bucket was moved and again Keela alerted to the key ring. Both dogs gave alerts to Cuddle Cat and the borrowed Bible. The McCanns lawyer however, claimed that if there was a scent of cadaver on Kate’s clothing it was because she was a family doctor and had come into contact with dead bodies in her work. Despite this, almost immediately, the Portuguese media began running stories Madeleine was killed by her parents.
[Image is of inside Kate and Gerry’s hire car, the markers are where the dogs detected scents.]
**Dogs are always disputed, and were disputed by the McCanns. But I thoroughly believe that dogs who have dedicated their life to training for this and HAVE OVER 200 SUCCESSFUL CASES are not wrong. Check out this article.**
Hair and fibres were collected from areas Eddie and Keela had given detection to and were sent to the Forensic Science Services in Birmingham, UK for DNA profiling. While this was going on, on August 8, Kate and Gerry McCann were asked to attend a meeting with the Portuguese investigators in Portimao where they were told this was a murder inquiry. Both of the McCanns were interrogated that day. The FSS used a technique known as Low Copy Number which is used when only a few cells or limited evidence is available. On September 3, John Lowe of the FSS told Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior of the Leicestershire police that a sample from the car boot contained 15/19 of Madeleine’s DNA components and claimed the result was “too complex for meaningful interpretation.”
Below is an official statement from the FSS on their findings.
A complex LCN DNA result which appeared to have originated from at least 3 people was obtained from cellular material recovered from the luggage compartment section (boot) … Within the DNA profile of Madeleine McCann there are 20 DNA components represented by 19 peaks on a chart … Of these 19 components 15 are present within the result from this item; there are 37 components in total. There are 37 because there are at least 3 contributers; but there could be up to 5. In my opinion therefore this result is too complex for meaningful interpretation/inclusion … [W]e cannot answer this question: Is the match genuine, or is it a chance match.
In the UK, Control Risks (a British security company) were paid by an anonymous donor to assist the McCanns. They took hair samples from the twins on 24 September with their parent’s permission. The twins had seemingly slept through the commotion after Madeleine went missing; Kate wrote in her book that she was concerned that the abductor gave them sedatives. According to the Portuguese police, Kate asked them to take samples but that was 3 months after the disappearance and they hadn’t done so. Control Risks took a sample from Kate also to see if she ingested or dealt with any medication during or after the disappearance – no traces of drugs were found.
Aftermath of the Evidencial Inquiries – The FSS email was translated into Portuguese on 4 September and the next day, according to Kate, the Portuguese police proposed that if she admitted Madeleine had died in the apartment and she had hidden the body, she would only receive a 2 year sentence. Gerry would not be charged and would be free to leave. Kate and Gerry McCann were made arguidos on 7 September and were advised by their lawyer not to answer questions.
The 48 questions Kate McCann refused to answer during an 11 hour interview were:
On May 3rd, 2007, around 22:00pm, when you entered the apartment, what did you see? What did you do? Where did you look? What did you touch?
Did you search inside the master bedroom wardrobe?
(Shown 2 photographs of her bedroom wardrobe) Can you describe its contents?
Why was the curtain by the sofa near the side window tampered with? Did someone go behind the sofa?
How long did your search of the apartment take after you detected Madeleine’s disappearance?
Why did you say Madeleine had been abducted?
Assuming Madeline was abducted, why did you leave the twins to go to the ‘Tapas’ and raise the alarm? The supposed abductor could still be in the apartment?
Why didn’t you ask the twins then what happened to their sister or why didn’t you ask them later on?
When you raised the alarm at the ‘Tapas’ what exactly did you say – what were your exact words?
What happened after you raised the alarm there?
Why did you go and warn your friends instead of shouting from the veranda? **(Note: the veranda (top of the apartment) was visible from the Tapas bar.)**
Who contacted the authorities?
Who took place in the searches?
Did anyone outside the group learn of her disappearance in those following minutes?
Did any neighbours offer help?
What does “we let her down” mean?
Did Jane Tanner tell you that night she’d seen a man with a child?
How were authorities contacted and which police force was alerted?
During the searches, with the police there, where did you search for Maddie, how and in what way?
Why did the twins not wake up during that search or when they were taken upstairs?
Who did you phone after the occurance?
Did you call Sky News?
Did you know the danger of calling the media, because it could influence the abductor?
Did you ask for a priest?
By what means did you divulge Madeleine’s features, by photographs or by any other means?
Is it true during the searches you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving?
What was your behaviour that night?
Did you manage to sleep?
Before travelling to Portugal, did you make any comment about a foreboding or bad feeling?
What was Madeleine’s behaviour like?
Did Maddie suffer from any illness or take any medication?
What was Madeline’s relationship like with her brother and sister?
What was Madeleine’s relationship like with her brother and sister, friends and school friends?
As for your personal life, in how many and which hospitals have you worked?
What is your medical speciality?
Have you ever done shift work in any emergency services or other services?
Did you work every day?
At a certain point you stopped working. Why?
Are the twins difficult to get to sleep? Are they restless and does that cause you uneasiness?
Is it true sometimes you despaired at your children’s behaviour and it left you feeling uneasy?
Is it true that in England you even considered handing over Madeleine’s custody to a relative?
In England, did you medicate your children? What type of medication?
In the case files, you were shown canine forensic testing films. After watching them, didn’t you say you couldn’t explain more than you already had?
When the sniffer dog also marked human blood behind the sofa, didn’t you say you couldn’t explain more than you already had?
When the sniffer dog marked the scent of corpse coming from the vehicle you hired a month after the disappearance, did you say you couldn’t explain more than you already had?
When human blood was marked in the boot of the vehicle, did you say you couldn’t explain more than you already had?
When confronted with the results of Maddie’s DNA, carried out in a British lab, collected from behind the sofa and the boot of the vehicle, didn’t you say you couldn’t explain any more than you already had?
Did you have any responsibility or intervention in your daughter’s disappearance?
[Image of the McCann’s returning home to the UK despite their status as arguidos: why would you return home Kate and Gerry? Why would you leave Madeleine?]
Despite their status as aguidos, the McCanns followed legal advice and returned home to England on 7 September. The following day, Chief Inspector Tavares de Almeida of the Portuguese police signed a 9 page report which concluded that Madeleine had died in the apartment as a result of an accident, that the meal at the restaurant and apparent regular checks on the McCann’s children were part of a cover-up, and that the Tapas 7 had helped lie to police. It was also said in the report that the McCanns hid the body and faked an abduction. On 11 September, public prosecutor, José Meneses, handed the 10 volume case file to a judge, Pedro Frias. Meneses applied for the seizure of Kate’s diary and Gerry’s laptop, police also wanted to trace the McCann’s and Tapas 7’s phone calls. As well as this there was also details about the number of suitcases the McCanns and their friends brought back to England.
**Now that the fact finding mission is over, I am going to be talking about ‘conspiracy’ theories, different situations that the public and media believe and also the witness statements taken from police files. If you are sensitive to peoples opinions – don’t read this.**
Witness Statements:
Witnesses described to the Portuguese police men behaving strangely near the apartment in the days leading up to Madeleine’s disappearance, as well as on the day itself. Police from Scotland Yard believe these men were part of a surveillence operation for an abduction or burglary. There had been a huge increase in local burglaries between January and May 2007, including 2 in the McCann’s block in the 17 days before the disappearance, where the burglars had entered through the windows.
Severeal witnesses reported men collecting for charity around the resort. On 20 April 2007, around 400 yards from the apartment, a homeless looking man asked a tourist in her apartment for money for an nearby orphanage. She said he was pushy and intimidating and that he made her feel very uncomfortable. It was concluded there were no orphanages nearby the resort. On the 25 or 26 of April, the tourist in the McCann’s apartment before them saw a man on their balcony who entered from the steps on the street; again he asked for money for a nearby orphanage except this time this man was clean, well dressed etc.
An “ugly”, blonde haired man was seen on 29 April in a nearby street and again on 2 May across the street from the apartment, seemingly watching it. On 30 April, the granddaughter saw the man leaning against a wall behind the apartments and again at the Tapas restaurant looking over at the apartment. She described him as Caucasian, mid 30s, short cropped blonde hair, ‘ugly’ with spots. On the day before the disappearance of Madeleine, there was the man seen staring at the apartment where a white van was parked.
On 3 May, the niece of the woman who lived above the McCanns apartment saw a man leave through the gate below; he was looking around before shutting the gate quietly with both hands. At 2:30pm, 2 blonde haired men were seen at 5C, 2 doors from 5A. At 6:00pm another blonde man was seen at the stairwell of 5A. At 11:00pm, after the disappearance, the 2 blonde haired men were seen in a street arguing; when they saw they were noticed, they lowered their voices and walked away.
Theories –
A Burglary Gone Wrong: DCI Andy Redwood, former head of the operation on the UK side has believed that Madeleine was kidnapped by burglars after she interrupted their operation at the apartment. Despite the witness testimonies I’ve written above, the Portuguese police have completely dismissed this theory.
Despite the dismissal, the burglary theory DID match an enquiry over a heroin addict named Euclides Monerio, a burglar who died in a tractor accident in 2009. He used to work as a waiter in the Ocean Club but was fired for stealing a year before Madeline went missing. He was working at a water plant half a mile away from the complex at the time of the disappearance. In 2014, police searched the water plant with sniffer dogs but nothing was found.
[Pictured is Euclides Monerio as well as the search of the water plant in 2014.]
Around the same time as the water plant search, 4 Portuguese men were made arguidos as detectives pursued that Madeleine was killed during a break-in and that her body was buried on wasteland near the resort; however, nothing was found and the arguido status of the 4 men was lifted. Met Police Ass. Commissioner Mark Rowley described the burglary theory as sensible which has not been entirely ruled out.
Child Trafficking: This theory was raised in late 2007 by private detectives who said there could’ve been child ‘spotters’ working in Praia da Luz. They believe that Madeleine was taken, hidden and then handed over to a child trafficker 2 days after and was taken to Morocco. Investigators have also said she was smuggled into Africa by slave traders who took her for a ‘wealthy family’ following reports of gangs operating in Mauritania, West Africa selling young slaves to rich Middle Eastern families.
[Depitcting the theory of child trafficking.]
A girl ‘identical’ to Madeleine was seen in Morocco, looking sad and asking the man with her; “Can we see Mummy soon?” in an English accent. Roadblocks in Praia da Luz were not put into place until the next day at 10:00am and the Spanish border patrols who were a 3 hour drive away weren’t informed of the disappearance until the next morning.
Paedophile Snatching: In 2014, British police believed a serial paedophile had targeted young girls in Algarve in the years before Madeleine went missing. They include a sexual assault on a 10 year old girl in Praia da Luz in 2005, 2 years before Madeline went missing. Convicted British paedophile Raymond Hewlett had been staying in a truck at a camping sight near Praia da Luz. He died of cancer aged 64 in Germany in 2010. Hewlett was jailed 3 times in the UK for sex crimes against young girls in the 70’s and 80’s but he went to his grave refusing to speak to police about Madeleine.
The McCann’s Killed Their Daughter:
Not to take away from the Madeleine case by discussing others, but parents can be evil. The McCanns come across as a happy family, because they are smiling they appear happy. It’s all too easy. Abusers or child killers are typically masters at keeping up appearances – just look at Ian Huntley, joining the search for Holly and Jessica, crying on camera yet he murdered those girls. Every year, 40 million children worldwide are subjected to abuse, almost always from a parent (biological, step or foster). In America alone, nearly 1,000 children are killed every year by a parent or parental figure – most of these cases will have shocked family members, friends and neighbours who say they were so nice, wouldn’t harm a fly and they loved their children.
[Justin Ross Harris and his son, Cooper.]
On a hot day in June 2014, Harris left 22 month old Cooper in his rear facing car seat inside his SUV for a little over 7 hours. Cooper endured an agonising death within those 7 hours. Harris was convicted of malice murder and a jury later decided his actions were deliberate and premeditated. Prosecutor Chuck Boring told jurors “It’s just that he loved himself and his other obsessions more than that little boy.”
[Diane Downs with her children; Christie, 8, Cheryl, 7 and Danny, 3.]
In May 1983, Downs took her 3 children for a drive late at night and claimed she was stopped and shot at by a stranger. She escaped with minor wounds, Christie and Danny were seriously injured and Cheryl died before medics could save her. Detectives found Downs’ story improbable and in 1984 Christie helped secure her mother’s conviction by testifying against her. A recent evaluation of Downs showed she has narcissistic personality disorder and shows she has very little remorse for what she has done despite all the evidence against her.
In April 2016, Sofina reported that her baby girl was taken from her pram in broad daylight by a “barefoot man of African appearance” who ran away before she had time to react. Sanaya was found dead in a ditch the next day. Sofina confessed to killing Sanaya shortly after.
[Susan and David Smith with their eldest son Michael.]
In October 1994, Smith claimed a carjacker had taken her car with both her young sons inside; Michael, 3 and Alex, 1. For 9 days she and David (David was completely innocent) made television appeals where Susan made statements such as “it hurts that I would even be accused of doing anything… as a mother it is a natural instinct to protect your children from any harm.” The family and community spread awareness about the boys with a yellow ribbon campaign. On 3 November 1994, Susan Smith confessed to police that she killed her sons by strapping them in her car and rolling it down a hill into a river.
The point with these cases, every parent can put on a facade and claim they have an amazing family life when in reality evil sleeps behind them. There was reports of Sean and Amelie not sleeping well and so Kate and Gerry brought Benadryl/Calpol. Could Madeleine’s earlier statement to Kate asking where she was when her and Sean were crying upset Kate and so Kate gave Madeleine medicine to sleep so she wouldn’t be upset again? Was the dosage maybe accidentally too much and Madeleine had a bad reaction and unfortunately died? Were Kate and Gerry too afraid of the concequences and so asked the Tapas 7 to aid them in getting rid of the body?
Personal Opinion – I am not going to offer my personal opinion in this missing person’s case. The above theories etc. are those of others I have read online and do not reflect my own opinion. Madeleine McCann’s case is truly one of the most puzzling cases I’ve come across over the years and I do believe that it will never be solved unless someone actively comes forward with solid evidence. I hope you enjoyed this post (even though it was a long read) and stay tuned for more missing people, mysteries and murders.
**THIS CASE CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ACTS AND MURDER.**
From the picture above, with their blonde hair and blue eyes, it’s extremely clear to see why Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo were called the Ken and Barbie Killers.
Background –
Paul Bernardo:
Paul Bernardo was born in Ontario, Canada in the district of Scarborough. His parent’s marriage was full of unhappiness, his father Kenneth was abusive to other members of the family and even molested Paul’s sister. His mother Marilyn was depressed and would leave the family to visit relatives in the weekend, when home, she would hide in the basement. Paul, despite this, was described as a happy child, but soon gained a compulsion to start fires soon after joining the Boy Scouts when he was 10 years old. When Paul was 16, his life was turned upside down. He was told that Kenneth wasn’t his biological father, that he was conceived between Marilyn and a man she had an affair with. Paul, repulsed dismissed his mother. Later, Paul’s first girlfriend Nadine left him for one of his friends, becoming tired of Bernardo’s controlling nature – Bernardo retaliated to the heartbreak by setting fire to the things Nadine gave him.
During Paul’s time at university, he developed dark sexual fantasies, one of which was building a ‘virgin farm’ where he would breed virgin girls via rape. He enjoyed forced anal sex and degrading his dates in public. In all cases, he was abusive and threatened to kill his girlfriends if they spoke to other people about his treatment; in 1986, 2 of these poor women were granted restraining orders against Bernardo for making obscene phone calls to them.
Karla Homolka:
Karla Homolka was born in Port Credit, Ontario to Karel Homolka and his Ontarian wife Dorothy Seger. She had 2 younger sisters, Lori and Tammy. Karla was a smart girl, good student and she was loved by her father, but due to his crippling alcoholism, he would insult both her mother and her during his drunk episodes. When her parent’s marriage started to fail, her father took on a mistress, however Dorothy, fearing a split in the family proposed to Karel that they make the relationship a threesome.
As Karla aged, she was described as stubborn and dominant, unable to compromise and willing to speak her true mind. She became depressed in high school, she would dress provocatively, cut herself and claim false suicide attempts to seek attention. She later started to take on sadistic fantasies. After high school, she became a veterinary technician at Thorold Clinic.
The Crime –
In May of 1987, after Bernardo graduated in the summer, he raped 2 women and then further attempted a rape in July of that year. In October, Bernardo and Homolka met at a restaurant, he was 23 and she was just 17. They were instantaneously attracted to each other and had sex that same night, with their friends present in the room. From then on Bernardo would drive to see her at her home twice a week, and slowly came to control her whole life. He controlled how she dressed, what she ate and her beliefs. Despite this, Homolka submitted to Bernardo’s sexual behaviour, writing his comments during sex on a ‘self-improvement list‘.
Despite being in a relationship with Homolka, Bernardo resumed the crime of rape in December of 1987. In March of 1988, local police set a task force to apprehend the infamous ‘Scarborough Rapist‘, but the investigation went nowhere despite heavy physical evidence and a composite sketch that wasn’t shown to the public. Homolka was aware of Bernardo’s crime spree, and there was even allegations from one victim that she was present when attacked, recording it, but this was ignored by the police. Finally, in May of 1990, the police released the sketch to the public and immediately friends and previous girlfriends of Bernardo tried contacting the police, but they were overwhelmed with other tips they were unable to fully follow-up. In November as part of a city-wide investigation, police took blood, saliva and hair samples from Bernardo – unfortunately, these wouldn’t be tested for 2 years.
[This was the imaged placed by Bernardo and Homolka into Tammy Homolka’s casket.]
Bernardo became increasingly obsessed with Karla’s 15 year old sister, Tammy. He spied on her and soon hatched a plan in 1990 to rape her with Karla’s assistance; Karla would also make sure that Tammy remained a virgin until then. On the 24th of July 1990, during a summer vacation, Bernardo made his first attempt. Karla would lace her sister’s dinner with Valium stolen from her veterinary but Tammy woke up before Bernardo had the chance. On December 23rd 1990, the second attempt happened in the Homolka family home following Christmas dinner; Karla’s present to Paul was he sister’s virginity. While Karla and Tammy’s parents slept, they spiked Tammy’s drink with sleeping pills and once she was unconscious they undressed her and Bernardo raped her while Karla held a Halothane (anaesthetic) soaked rag up to Tammy’s face. Tammy began to vomit and stopped breathing. After failing to revive her, the couple dressed her and moved her into her room to clean the evidence before calling 911. Although Tammy had a huge chemical burn on her face, the death was ruled accidental.
After Tammy’s death, Bernardo and Homolka moved to Port Dalhousie, where they filmed themselves roleplaying sexual acts between Bernardo and Tammy; Homolka played her sister and wore her clothing to make the fantasy ‘real’.
The death did not stop the monsters.
In June 1991, Homolka invited a co-worker (only referred to as Jane Doe during the trial) to their home. She passed out after having a spiked drink; Karla then told Paul she had a surprise gift for him and the two filmed themselves as they co-raped her. The victim awake the next day feeling ill, but left without realising she’d been raped. On June 15th, Bernardo met 14 year old Leslie Mahaffy. Mahaffy asked him for a cigarette, Bernardo then led her to his car where he blindfolded her, forced her inside and told Homolka of their new “playmate“. Once again, they filmed themselves raping her, and when Mahaffy’s blindfold fell off, they murdered her. They kept her body in the basement while they ate with Karla’s family upstairs, they later dismembered her body and threw the remains in Lake Gibson; her remains were found on June 29th, same day as Bernardo and Homolka’s wedding.
In August, Jane Doe was invited over once again. It was a direct mirror to Tammy’s death, she stopped breathing during the rape but was revived. Homolka, the 911 caller, phoned the emergency services back saying the crisis was resolved and the ambulance was then recalled. On April 16, 1992, Bernardo and Homolka abducted 15 year old Kristen French as she left her high school, leaving a number of witnesses. They raped her consistently for 3 days before strangling her to death with the same cord used to kill Leslie Mahaffy. French was never blindfolded and was forced to drink a lot of alcohol, watch Mahaffy’s rape and act submissively to Bernardo. A few days after her death, they washed the body and cut her hair before throwing it on the Burlington dumpster. Bernardo was interviewed a month after her murder, but they considered him an unlikely suspect despite him being interviewed previously in connection to the Scarborough rapes.
The Arrest –
[Picture of Karla Homolka taken at a local hospital after a beating from Bernardo.]
In December, Bernardo beat Homolka with a flashlight, leaving her with multiple bruises over her body and 2 swollen black eyes. Regardless, she returned to work on January 4, 1993 and tried to pass her injuries as those from a traffic accident. Her co-workers didn’t believe her and contacted her parents who took her to hospital. Homolka claimed to doctors she was a battered spouse and filed charges against Bernardo who was arrested. By coincidence, the samples he had given 2 years earlier were tested, identifying Paul Bernardo as the Scarborough Rapist. In February, Karla sought immunity for information in the case, but this was denied. Instead she was given 1 week to accept a 12 year sentence for manslaughter or face charges for all 3 murders. Homolka took the deal and testified against Bernardo at his trial which took place in 1995. On September 1 1995, Paul Bernardo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for at least 25 years. He was kept away from other prisoners due to threats against him and in one instance in 1999, 5 prisoners tried to storm his area and had to be dealt with via riot police. Because he is a heinous, monstrous human being – it’s unlikely he will ever look in the face of parole.
Homolka’s plea deal was considered a joke, especially after the tapes reconstructing the couples rapes were shown at the trial. Some prosecutors said that, had they known what was in those tapes, they would have never proposed her plea deal. Homolka was released from prison in 2005 after being denied parole. She moved to Guadeloupe and married Thierry Bordelais whom she had 3 children with – she later moved back to Canada where the family settled in Montreal.
[Karla Homolka in 2013 ignoring media before picking up her children from school.]
The Victims –
Scarborough Rapes
1987:
May 4: Unnamed 21 year old woman
May 14: Unnamed 19 year old woman
July 17: Unnamed woman (beat and attempted to rape: fled when she fought back)
September 29: Unnamed 15 year old girl (threatened with a knife, assaulted, bit her ear, attempted rape in her home, fled when mother intervened)
December 16: Unnamed 15 year old girl
December 23: Unnamed 17 year old girl (also sexually violated with a knife)
1988
April 18: Unnamed 17 year old girl
May 30: Unnamed 18 year old girl (raped in Mississauga instead of Scarborough)
October 4: Unnamed woman (stabbed twice in thigh and buttocks and attempted rape, fled when she fought back, survived her injuries)
November 16: Unnamed 18 year old girl
December 27: Unnamed girl (attempted to rape, fled when neighbour saw and ran after him)
1989
June 20: Unnamed woman (attempted rape, fled when victim fought back and screamed)
August 15: Unnamed 22 year old woman (stalked her since the previous night)
November 21: Unnamed 15 year old girl
December 22: Unnamed 19 year old woman
1990
May 26: Unnamed 19 year old woman
**Note: On May 25th 1988, Bernardo was intending to carry out another rape near a bus shelter however fled when he was spotted by a Metro Toronto investigator.**
My Opinion:
No-one should have an opinion on these heinous, stomach churning and vomit inducing crimes. These people are monsters, there is no other word for their behaviour. I hope they both rot in the deepest darkest pits of hell.
Missing Person Description: 5’9 inches tall and weighing approx. between 220-230lbs. He was of Caucasian descent with short brown hair and blue eyes. Lawson has various and multiple tattoos with a scar on his chin and left knee; one of his ears is pierced. At the time Lawson disappeared, he was last known to have worn a yellow shirt, camo-print shorts and 2013 white Nike Air Max.
The Case: Brandon Lawson was a hometown man – he was 26 years old from San Angelo, TX and was in a loving relationship with Ladessa Lofton. He was an oilfield worker and was a father to 4 beautiful children. He had a happy and satisfactory life and showed no cause for concern.
However, on August 8th, 2013, this was the last time Brandon was ever seen again in San Angelo, TX.
His girlfriend, Ladessa Lofton, and Brandon both had an argument which resulted in Brandon leaving their home at around 11:54pm, last telling Lofton he was going to his father’s house. Around 45 minutes later, Brandon called his brother Kyle to tell him that the gas had run out in his car. Following that phone call to his brother, something happened and Brandon called 911, telling the dispatcher he was “in a field” and needed help along with a cop. The dispatcher heard Brandon say “I ran into somebody” and in response said “Ahh, ran into them? Ok.”
The 911 call Brandon made can be listened to here.
Alternatively, here is the transcript of this call:
Another call was made to 911 by a passer-by regarding Brandon’s truck parked crooked on the side of the road – the passer-by was concerned as this was posing a hazard to all road users. Brandon’s brother Kyle, and his girlfriend Audrey went to bring gas out to Brandon in their car. Audrey called Ladessa (Brandon’s girlfriend) to tell her that Brandon ran out of gas and they needed their gas can; Ladessa told her she would leave the gas can on the porch so she could go shower and was considering heading to bed. Kyle, however, was lacking funds in his account so he had no money to get gas, and so figured if he could get to Brandon then they could drive together to their local Stripes Convenience Mart and Brandon could pay for the gas – Kyle would then drive him back out to the truck.
Brandon’s truck was located on U.S 227, 4 1/2 miles south of Bronte, TX and close to a rest stop. By the time Kyle arrived at around 1:10am on August 9th, there was no sign of Brandon. A Sheriff’s deputy had also arrived around the same time as Kyle and Audrey but had saw nothing entering the scene. There was no visible damage to the truck and Brandon’s keys and mobile phone were missing. The Deputy, nor Kyle, were aware that Brandon phoned 911 asking for a cop as well as stating “please, hurry!” A short while after arriving at his brother’s truck, Kyle got a phone call from Brandon, but the connection was so poor he was hard to understanding. Brandon claimed he was “10 minutes up the road.” He also mentioned he was bleeding, however, Kyle’s phone unfortunately died at this point and all that Kyle understood clearly from this call was “I’m in the field.” Kyle’s mind went to the warrant Brandon received 2 years ago and thought that’s why Brandon was in the field – so Kyle made no mention of this call from his brother to the Deputy. Kyle never knew Brandon phoned 911, and never assumed his brother may have been hiding because he was in danger.
Upon inspection of the truck, it was confirmed the gas tank was empty. Brandon’s mobile phone was a Motorola Droid Razr; there was an extensive search of the area which turned up no sign of this mobile phone – or indeed Brandon.
[Picture of Brandon’s truck as well as his license plate.]
Had Kyle known Brandon phoned 9-1-1 he would never have assumed his brother was “hiding.” Lawson’s family were unaware that he called 911 that night and only found out when they viewed his cellular phone records. It soon came out in a local newspaper that the 911 call was only stated as a “stranded motorist who ran out of gas.” There was no urgency to this report, especially as Brandon sounded so panicked.
Less than 10 minutes later at around 1:18am, Audrey, Kyle’s girlfriend, sent Brandon a text – “A cop is at your truck.” It’s assumed she did this as she wanted to warn him due to the warrant being out for his arrest. After some time when Brandon still hadn’t shown up, the Deputy (Deputy Neal) put emergency lights on, locked the truck and proceeded to leave the scene, arranging for a tow truck in the morning. According to reports, the Deputy drove up and down the road to see if he could see Brandon – unfortunately he didn’t. Kyle left the gas can in the bed of the truck, thinking if Brandon came back he would get gas himself from the before mentioned rest stop 10 minutes away from his truck. The following morning, there was still no sign of Brandon back at his home and no-one in his family, friend or work group had heard from him. Kyle lodged some money in his account and went back to the truck to fill it – Brandon was not there. Kyle now had become concerned and felt Brandon may have not been hiding and maybe fled because he was in genuine trouble.
There has been no activity from Brandon’s bank account or mobile phone since 8th of August.
Aftermath:
Brandon’s family doesn’t believe his warrant was connected to his disappearance and they believe he wouldn’t run from the police because of it.
From the start, there has not only been controversy surrounding Brandon’s disappearance as a whole, but also between the family and law enforcement. Ladessa started a Facebook page for Brandon called Help Find Brandon Lawson. People have offered prayers, support their help and even tips – however, there has also been intense criticism on the page of law enforcement and the speculation they’re not doing anything to help. Due to much conflict over this case, many major news programs in the US have declined to cover this story. Ladessa hired a search plane with her own money for an aerial search, while family and friends searched the ground for any clues, or indeed, Brandon. On August 16th, 2013, law enforcement conducted an aerial search with infrared cameras; none of the searches showed anything. On August 29th, law enforcement conducted a comprehensive search of over 2,500 acres surrounding the area where Brandon disappeared. The final, official search was held on October 24th. 6 cadaver dogs were brought in by Texas Search and Rescue to rule out the theory that Brandon had got lost and died of exposure or possible injuries. Nothing was found.
[Images of the area from the search.]
He worked as an oil worker at the time of his disappearance and left behind 4 kids, 3 with his girlfriend and one from a previous relationship. Investigators believe there is no evidence of foul play, however his family have said it’s not like Brandon to just leave and they’ve been consistently afraid for his safety. Since Brandon’s disappearance he has been classified as an involuntarily missing person and his case remains unsolved.
My Opinion –
I believe that at the time Brandon disappeared, he was definitely not alone as there are some unrecognised voices on the tape recording of his 911 call. Some theorists have concluded that the 911 call was edited prior to release due to the fact on the recording you don’t hear the 911 operator asking for his name or where he was – very important questions that emergency operators usually often ask first. The fact this element was missing and also because the call was so difficult to understand makes some people think that there was tampering. I, myself, am convinced that someone out there knows what happened to Brandon Lawson and I encourage you all to share this on social media to raise awareness on missing Brandon Lawson.
**If you have any information on this case, please call the Texas Department of Public Safety, MPC at 512-424-5074 – Case # M1308005**
Murders, Mysteries and Missing 