Murder Most Florid

by Mark A. Spencer

  Sophie and I then move up and down the length of the hedgerows bordering the stream. During our examination we locate the earlier signs of the PolSA team’s excavations. One or two additional mounds of earth are obviously associated with badger and fox activity. These are also checked. By this time, I have finished my work on this section and I have a little spare time. I write up my notes on the morning’s work. When my notes are finished, I start chatting to one of the PolSAs over a brew. He’s ex-forces and has seen active service. For some reason our conversation wanders onto restraint techniques. He happily shows me how he can rapidly immobilise me with one or two deft manoeuvres. It’s quite fun and interesting. He gently shows me on my body how much they can hurt. They bloody well do. Obviously satisfied by my response he offers to show me more. I tell him to sod off and he laughs. Coffee break over. Sophie catches up with me from her examinations along the edge of the stream or hedgerow. She’s rather muddy from having been working on her hands and knees and has found nothing.

  By now, it’s getting dark and it’s time to call it a day. There is one area that we’ll need to examine more carefully. It’s near the culvert that takes the stream under the road and there’s a largish bank of bare silt that would be easy to dig into. On the way back to the hotel Sophie and I talk about the day’s efforts and lament the lack of a breakthrough.

  The hotel is out of town and rather isolated on a very drab main road, so there will be no mooching for me tonight. We inform the receptionist that we’ll be staying for dinner. There are five of us, as we have been joined by some of the PolSA team who are too far away from home to travel back easily the following morning. I find the evening rather fun, as it gives me an opportunity to learn more about life working for the police. There is a fair amount of sharing tales of past cases they’ve worked on and I get to blather on a bit about plants and how they can be used in crime-scene work. After dinner, the laptops come out and we ensconce ourselves in a quiet corner of the bar and talk more about the case and the scene we are working on. We review our actions from the day and discuss how to proceed.

  One thing is certain: a sub-aqua team will need to search the culvert under the road, since it is very long and dark and probably quite dangerous. A couple of pints of beer are consumed and we chat and get to know each other a bit more. Even through I’ve been out for many years, I always have a sense of anticipation at these moments. Being stuck in an isolated hotel with a homophobe is not my idea of fun. Luckily, no one gurns when I mention my partner and the evening passes nicely. The PolSAs gradually share more with me about the toughness of their lives, the long hours, the violence and the difficulty of maintaining family relations. This could easily descend into a bit of a boozy session; so luckily we all decide it is time to head to bed.

  The following morning is very brisk indeed; there has been quite hard frost and the sky bubbles with heavy grey clouds. No doubt more sleet and rain is to come. I have a very nice piece of light silk that I use as a scarf and sometimes when it’s really cold, I wrap it around my midriff. I’m very fond of it and I’ve had it for years. I used to work in the now defunct and greatly missed London Lesbian and Gay Centre. One of the weekly highlights was the marvellous South Asian Shakti disco. My scarf was left behind by one of the drag queens and I laid claim to it. I gain a little quiet pleasure that I’m bringing some South Asian glamour to a roadside verge in the north of England.

  The first task of the day is to examine the fields. The police have already done some work on exploring potential burials in the grass. They are a little vague on where they’ve been working, and it takes us a while to find every location. Clandestine burials in grassland can be quite tricky to work with. If the person digging knows what they’re doing, signs of disturbance in grassland can fade very quickly. The police have commissioned an aerial survey of the fields using a drone equipped with specialist radar-like equipment that can penetrate the ground and detect anomalies. We stare at the maps trying to decide which of the coloured patches are the most likely locations for a clandestine burial. Some appear too small to be a burial site. There is no information to suggest that the perpetrator dismembered the body, therefore we are looking for a fairly large area of disturbance. But, we cannot rule out that the suspect has accomplished something unexpected.

  Even though the police and forensic anthropologists have a great deal of experience in predicting human behaviour, sometimes the unexpected can happen. A fellow forensics specialist once told me the extraordinary story of a man who killed a rival. The police were confident that he had done it, but they were unable to locate the body. The absence of a body does not prevent a trial going ahead but a person’s remains often holds a lot of evidence about how the crime was committed. This sort of information can be vital not only in securing a conviction, but it is also of great importance at sentencing. When the judge is sentencing, they will take into consideration evidence presented to the court about the severity of injuries sustained by the victim and the best way to understand this is from an examination of the body. The police searched the area where they believed the man had disposed of his rival but were unable to find disturbed ground anywhere that was sufficiently large for an adult body. However, there was one small area, approximately the size of a large manhole cover, that appeared to have been dug. Having little expectation of finding anything, they reluctantly agreed to let a forensic anthropologist examine it. After half an hour or so a shallow pit had been excavated and there was no sign that they had reached undisturbed ground. The pit continued to go downwards and ended up being several feet deep. There was nothing to be seen. The anthropologist then noticed that the soil was loose on one side of the pit. There was a small cavity going sideways. Inside, the remains of the victim were found, folded into a foetal position. Amazingly, witness evidence suggested that the perpetrator had dug the hole in less than 2 hours. The whole effort required not only great skill but considerable strength.

  Small excavations are sometimes also used to bury personal artefacts or blood-soaked clothing. We will need to check every single anomaly identified by the aerial survey. I start my own assessment of the whole field while Sophie and the PolSA team concentrate on an area near the road that the police feel is a likely contender. I scour the hedge lines looking for signs of disturbance. The leaves have largely fallen off the trees and bushes and in many areas the ground cannot be seen. The crime occurred several months earlier and the delay in examining the area does not help. Reading the vegetation for signs of disturbance gets harder and harder as time progresses.

  It takes me a couple of hours just to walk around the field perimeter, which is several-hundred yards long. Much of the field margin is largely impenetrable, as years of neglect have resulted in large patches of developing bramble and hawthorn scrub. Around them are tall stands of vegetation dominated by nettle and rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium). I can see that none have been disturbed by people since at least the beginning of the year, as there are no tell-tale signs of previous damage and regrowth. A person lugging a dead weight through this in the middle of the night would leave quite a trail.

  I start to concentrate on the shorter grass in the centre of the field and the anomalies that the aerial survey picked up on. Some of the anomalies are deep within the scrub. They are certainly not recent, they are most likely ghosts of long passed agricultural activity such as the position of water troughs for animals. I note the anomalies and my observations on my sketch map and in my notes. Much of the field is dominated by ankle to thigh-high grass, sedges and rushes − grass-like plants that are often associated with damp ground. Some of the anomalies in this area turn out to be pieces of agricultural or domestic debris. One is a pile of thick grassy material that looks like it is the remnant of the previous year’s mowing. The field is now largely only used by dog walkers, and someone has been trying to keep an open path. Overall, I’m left with about two or three locations that look interesting, but I’m not hopeful. They just don’t l
ook right.

  As an early, chilly dusk falls, we have completed all our examinations and found nothing. We retire to the hotel and the very basic menu. Garlic mushrooms again for me. The work does not stop. After a quick shower we meet in the hotel to discuss the day’s progress and revisit elements of the case that might be of relevance during the following days. And John Smith’s beer − I hate the stuff but it’s that or Foster’s. It’s fair to say that we are all beginning to feel a little despondent. The further we move away from the layby the less likely it is that we will find anything.

  The following day will require a slightly different approach. We will be working in the plantation, where it’s not possible to use aerial surveys or radar effectively. The branches of the trees block the view and the roots of trees create such a complex pattern that it is very hard to identify anomalies. It will be entirely down to the botany and the experience of Sophie. During the evening we learn that one of the PolSA team has been chatting to a local farmer, who is willing to rent the police his small digger to assist in the search. My inner sarcastic voice whispers, ‘How kind. That’s a nice little earner for the farmer!’. We sense that this time we are not going to win the argument, the digger will be on site soon.

  Botanically speaking, the plantation is a dull affair. Most of the ground is covered with ivy (Hedera spp.). There are a few signs of spring flowers, mainly bluebells, doubtless non-native hybrids (Hyacinthoides× massartiana; the × indicates the plant is a hybrid) which often occur as a garden escape near towns and villages. Their now dead, pale-straw-coloured stems are at least six months old. Under the trees, there are few other plants: nettles, brambles and the occasional wood avens (Geum urbanum). I’m not going to get any botanical thrills here.

  It is necessary to do a more thorough mapping of the woodland than we did withthe field. Mapping woodlands can be tricky, as it’s quite hard to keep sight of fixed points. These are locations from which all measurements and sketches are taken. They should be a large and permanent structure in the landscape, such as a big, mature tree or a telegraph pole. Even so, keeping track of a fixed point in a wood can be hard. Like the layby, we divide the plantation up into 10-metre squares and there are over 40 of them.

  We concentrate on the areas nearest the road and the field boundary. There has been a lot of human activity, and my mapping soon becomes very complex. The shyer travellers from the main road have used the woodland margins as a more decorous latrine than the layby itself. In other areas, less socially conscious members of the nearby housing estate have used the wood as a dumping ground. It always amazes me that some gardeners, who we would expect to want to beautify the world, are quite happy to dump their rubbish all over the countryside. And it’s not just gardeners; it’s another popular spot for fly-tippers with more builders’ rubble and domestic white goods. All of these will have to be documented and searched.

  My mapping takes hours and I’m quietly chuffed with the result. Over the graph paper’s 1-millimetre lines, I have drawn an intricate patchwork of circles, cross hatching and shading to depict the areas of disturbance and the surrounding vegetation. I’ve ended up with over 40 locations which need to be examined. We may not have enough flags. Each one of these needs to be photographed before we can proceed with examining them. Luckily, we are able to examine and exclude nearly all of them very quickly. In most cases, the dumped rubbish is lying on the surface and it very easy to confirm that no digging has taken place and only a few of the piles of brash are large enough to hide a body under.

  Surprisingly, we are finished as the light fades. We’ve been on site for three days and have found nothing. We collect our bags from the hotel and head for home. There is disappointment at not being successful, because it would have been wonderful to know that the family and friends of the woman would be able to say goodbye properly. On returning to our offices, we will have to complete writing up our notes and our mapping will be collated and archived, along with the photography, as they may be important in the future. They are a record of what we have done and how we have done it. If, by some misfortune, we overlooked the victim’s remains, there will be a record of how that came to pass.

  7

  Grave Searches, Canines and Cadaverine

  Our three days at the layby were part of a much larger ongoing investigation. I visited the area several times afterwards to search other parts of the site and to assess further locations along the main road. The case is the longest and most complex case I have worked on. The police were there much longer. Several days at a crime scene is like doing two hard weeks work. Luckily, I can step away from the intensity of the experience; unlike the police, who are obliged to do this constantly. Searching for the dead is one of the more difficult and painstaking tasks for people investigating crime. Shortly after our first visit, the police used the digger to scrape the surface of part of the field that we had searched. Disappointingly for them and the family of the deceased, nothing was found. Quietly and rather selfishly, I was relieved. It would have been professionally embarrassing if I had overlooked something.

  The police’s use of the digger does reveal a little of what I feel is rather a boys-with-toys urge. The police don’t overtly or even consciously distrust environmental forensic examination using disciplines like botany or soil science but there appears to be an ingrained urge to do something dynamic using large pieces of equipment. ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘nut’ springs to mind. While I was working on a different case, this urge resulted in a degree of farce and was potentially dangerous. Like the layby case, we were searching for a murder victim but, in this case, they had been missing for almost a decade. A witness statement suggested that the burial occurred in one of several low-lying fields next to the very boggy source of a small stream. The ground surrounding the stream was like a giant blancmange − even walking on it was very tricky. Despite our concerns, the police enlisted the help of a local farmer who was obviously fascinated by the proceedings and wanted to impress. The farmer brought on a small digger which promptly got stuck and almost tipped over into the swamp. This then required extracting, so a small tractor was deployed to pull it free, that too got stuck. We ended up with the rather ludicrous sight of three vehicles tied to one another in a long chain being used to extract the digger. By the time this was done, much of the site was churned into a mud-spattered mess. I’m recalling this not to lampoon those involved, although they probably deserve it a bit, but to highlight the unfortunate human tendency to seek complex solutions to simple problems. Some wellies and a little patience would have sufficed.

  The police use confidential techniques developed to unpick the thinking of those who seek to hide contraband such as drugs or illegal arms. These techniques are based around studying how people behave in the landscape when they are attempting to conceal their acts. Investigators will take into account features in the landscape such as water bodies, trees, the profile of the land and light sources as a means of assessing the locations of likely clandestine burials. Not surprisingly, they are not keen on the details of this knowledge and experience being shared, and most search planning work is done by the police forces using their own resources.

  It is now several years since I first worked on the layby case and the police continue to search. Thankfully, the murderer is now behind bars, because his crime was truly awful. As I mentioned earlier, this investigation was highly reliant on witness statements. Despite their best efforts, witnesses can easily forget some information when they’re under stress. We tend to forget that committing serious crimes like murder is very stressful. The mind of the perpetrator is racing to find solutions to the predicament they are in. Without knowing it, they will focus and remember certain details, while others will be lost or transformed. Also, in many cases, the suspect may come to believe that it is not in their best interests for the victim to be found, or they derive a sense of power or pleasure in misleading. The potential unreliability of witness information can lead to the search being conducted in th
e wrong place.

  I think about the layby murder victim quite a lot. It saddens me that she is still out there alone and that the family can never properly grieve. I feel we tried our best; each section of verge and layby considered to be a likely location for her remains has been documented, searched and, where necessary, excavated. Hopefully, one day some turn of events may help the police succeed, and I dearly hope that I am there to see it.

  Criminals often resort to using burial grounds as a means of hiding their activities. Graves and their associated monuments are sometimes seen as ideal spots to sequester stolen goods, guns, drugs or murder victims. Graveyards are convenient, as virtually every habitation with more than a few houses has at least one. Imagine you have just killed someone. It is two o’clock in the morning and you need to hide your victim quickly. The local graveyard is likely to be a good contender. Not only do most graveyards have an abundance of trees to provide cover, they are generally poorly lit and don’t have many (living) people in them after dusk. Also, they usually don’t have too many windows overlooking them, as most people have an aversion to looking over graveyards. The abundance and diversity of stone tombs and ornaments also provide plentiful opportunities to hide from view and to dispose of your victim.

  There is also a belief that, because of the plenitude of dead bodies, it is harder for cadaver dogs to locate victims in graveyards. Cadaver dogs are used widely, and not just for murder investigations. They are used for locating missing persons who are believed dead, especially in natural disasters such as tsunamis or earthquakes and in atrocities such as terrorist attacks. The dogs, usually Alsatians or Labradors, learn to recognise the scent of decaying humans, in a training process that takes up to two years. This can be done using a variety of scent sources: some are artificial, others are of natural origin such as donated human bones or placenta.