Crime Scene Investigator

by Paul Millen

  The post mortem had a number of priorities. One was to identify the deceased and confirm or otherwise if it was Maureen Foot. Others were to determine the time, cause and manner of her death if at all possible. This was obviously not a suicide (the body was in two halves in plastic bags). This was most likely a murder investigation from the very outset. The investigators would be looking for signs of violent or sexual assault, injuries and the presence of any material which could have come from her attacker or the person who had dismembered her body and placed her in the bags.

  The bags themselves would need careful examination. They were both large refuse sacks. They were bound with clear adhesive tape. A decision had to be made where to open them so that they could be examined later for finger marks and other evidence. They would have to be dried in a clean environment without causing a health hazard.

  The bags were carefully opened on a large plastic sheet on the floor and the two parts of the body photographed individually. They were searched for extraneous material and marks and injuries recorded. Then the parts were placed in line. They made the complete body of a female. No limbs or parts were missing. The description matched Maureen’s and there really was little doubt that it was her. But that would need confirmation.

  Each part of the body was examined in detail. When it came to move the lower part of the body on to the dissection table Dick Shepherd bent down and placed one arm under the buttocks. Placing his other arm under the knees he stood up and took a few paces towards the table. As he did so the outstretched legs sagged at the knee joint. The sight made my heart jump. In a flashback it reminded me of the times I would pick up my own daughters and carry them up to bed. The horror was that there was nothing above her waist.

  I had gone to the mortuary to keep an eye on the newer members of staff and I had found myself upset by what I had seen. It is important to maintain an emotional distance from the events in hand. But every once in a while a sight will touch every investigator, no matter how experienced. This was one of those times for me. Of course it is a sound human quality never to forget the victim. That is why we do what we do.

  Maureen had a heavy head wound and her skull was fractured. It was the cause or contributed to her death. Dick Shepherd stated that her body had been cut in two in by someone who ‘knew where to cut’.

  This information made Brian Woodfield’s ears prick up. One of the male occupants of the house at Hazel Avenue, Woolf, had worked in a slaughterhouse before becoming a bin man for the local council.

  Further enquiries narrowed down Woolf as the main and only suspect. He was arrested and remanded in custody.

  Over the next weeks and months the case against Woolf was built. The search of his room and the rest of the house had revealed a larger than normal number of bin bags with markings similar to those found with the body. Woolf had free access to them in his work. The same types of bags were also given freely to residents of the street. We needed to try and narrow things down. Once again we called on the evidence of the extrusion marks we had used in the Ross case. Detective Inspector Bill Harding, the deputy SIO, made extensive enquiries. There was a link between the bags in the house and those around the body but the process needed to be described so that it could be explained to the jury.

  The clear adhesive tape which had secured the bags around the body also revealed further clues. We had examined the tape for finger marks but none were found. What we did find were three human hairs. They did not match Maureen, but they were of a similar colour to Woolf’s sample. The bad news for us was that the hairs had no roots. So the main DNA profiling technology of the time (SGM+) would not work. For SGM+ DNA to work, DNA material would have to be extracted from cells present in the root. This result left me with a slight dilemma. There was another DNA technique called Mitochondrial DNA. The mitochondria are the source of power around cells but not within it. They are inherited only from the mother’s DNA. Brothers and sisters will have the same mitochondrial DNA as their mother and maternal grandmother. But it is statically low evidence. It also took a long time to undertake and was an expensive technique. The examination of the three hairs would cost £15,000. Although the inclusion of evidence, if found, would have been limited, there was always the possibility of eliminating Woolf as the source of the hairs. So, on this basis, I authorised the examination of the hairs to ensure the results were known before any forthcoming trial. If Woolf was not the source if the hairs we would have to ask who was. He may not have been excluded from the enquiry, but it would open the possibility of another offender or an accomplice. I also reasoned that any good defence lawyer would rightly pick up on this question if we did not answer it. Cost was no excuse. But that wasn’t going to help my budget situation.

  Two months later, Bill Harding received a surprise call from Woolf’s solicitors. Brian Woodfield wasn’t available, although he would have raced back if he knew what was about to transpire. Woolf had decided that he wanted to speak to the investigators. He wanted to change his plea to that of guilty and he wanted to tell the police all about it.

  He was brought to Guildford Police Station where he admitted he had attacked Maureen on the bed in her room. We already knew the attack had taken place there from the reconstruction of directional blood staining. He also described how he cut her body in two. Late one night he took it to the nearby pond and threw it in. He also told officers that he had wrapped the weapons he had used to kill and dismember her body in a black plastic bin bag and had hidden them under a fallen tree in woodlands ten minutes’ walk from his house. The bag, he said, contained an axe and a knife in a sheath.

  Once the interviews were completed, Woolf was taken back to the house and asked to retrace the route from the house to the tree where he had hidden the weapons. His steps were videoed as he – handcuffed to a prison officer – his solicitor and a small group of officers retraced his steps. The route led from the house, along the road, into a woodland path and then cut across to a fallen tree. When he got to the tree Woolf pointed to it. Jon Young stepped forward and recovered the package from under the tree. It was taken intact to Guildford Police Station where it was photographed, opened and examined. The process was itself videoed. The package contained exactly what Woolf said it would.

  As soon as I got the news I made an urgent call to the lab to hold the mitochondrial DNA examination of the hairs. A few days later, once it was clear that Woolf was going to plead guilty, I cancelled the extra work and saved £15,000 from the precious budget.

  Woolf pleaded guilty to the murder of Maureen Foot and remained silent as to why he murdered her. Missed by her brother, she had not been forgotten and doing things right from the very beginning, as the CSI team had done, paid off. Taking the easy route is not always an option when faced with suspicions which turn into serious allegations. It can cost time and money but there is really no other way. If you are going to investigate crime you must do it well from the very beginning.

  22. Murder in Mozambique

  The disappearance of a family member is a traumatic experience for any family. The feeling of hopelessness is all the more difficult when the loved one goes missing in a foreign country, and especially when that country does not have the resources to deal with it.

  In April 1997 Andrew and Caroline McGowan dropped two friends at the airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, before heading home through Mozambique. They had all been on a birdwatching and elephant safari. Leaving the airport, they made their way back along the Tete Corridor, a 460-mile track heading north to their home in neighbouring Malawi.

  Andrew was a former British Army officer who was using his own money to fund a Round Table project for the reforestation in Malawi. His wife was a technology teacher at the college in Lilongwe.

  They did not reach home and their family back in England heard about it and were worried. Not happy with the actions of the Mozambique authorities, Andrew’s brother flew to Harare to retrace their last known steps.

  Bandits were notorious in the area
and apparently white foreigners could be attacked for what possessions they had on them and their vehicles.

  It was a formidable task, but asking for sightings of his brother and sister-in-law paid off pretty quickly. In one village, the locals remembered the fairly unusual event of a white four-wheel drive vehicle passing through with a white man and white woman in it. Only a short time later the vehicle drove back at speed through the village, this time with three local men wearing army fatigues in it. Another village member remembered seeing the vehicle off the side of the road at the bottom of a hill.

  Andrew’s brother found the vehicle at the bottom of the hill. The vehicle was wrecked. There were no signs of Andrew or Caroline although their passports were still in the car. Also there amongst the broken glass was some blood and three sets of blood-stained battle-fatigue jackets.

  Wherever Andrew and Caroline had been left having been relieved of the vehicle was not far away so Andrew’s brother headed a little further north. It was not long before he found what he had been dreading. The decomposing bodies of his brother and sister-in-law were in bushes just off the road side. They had been there for a few weeks.

  The Mozambique authorities had little or no resources to deal with this matter. The persistence of Andrew’s and Caroline’s families brought it to the attention of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The bodies were returned to the UK and arrived in Surrey, where they were brought to the attention of the Surrey coroner, Michael Burgess. Any death of a British national overseas will automatically trigger an inquest by a UK coroner and certainly when the bodies of the deceased are returned to the UK for burial.

  The bodies had been returned in sealed caskets ready for burial, but as far as could be determined no post-mortem examinations had taken place. Even if they had, one would have also been carried out by a Home Office pathologist on behalf of the local UK coroner.

  Michael Burgess contacted Detective Superintendent Brian Woodfield at Surrey Police HQ to assist with the investigation. That is when I was called to provide crime scene and photographic personnel.

  The post-mortem examination revealed that Caroline had been shot twice and Andrew once. They had both been lying down when they were shot. The cause of death in both cases was gunshot wounds.

  There was still little interest from the Mozambique authorities who, although clearly concerned, had no resources to investigate the matter to the satisfaction of the families. Not wishing to embarrass the government of Mozambique, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) offered the assistance of the Surrey coroner and Surrey Police to help them with their investigation.

  Brian Woodfield being the senior investigating officer in the case was naturally going to go and he appointed a detective inspector as his assistant in the matter. The FCO were going to fund the additional expenses, above that of salaries for the investigators, which would be borne by Surrey Police.

  Brian and I discussed the case and identified potential areas of evidence. Examination of the vehicle was important and so was examining the site where the bodies were found. From all accounts it was an area of bush and trees, but it was most likely the murder scene.

  We thought about the potential evidence we could expect or hope to find and how we might deal with it, remembering, of course, that we were assisting the Mozambique authorities and would be dealing with the local police chief.

  Towards the end of the meeting with Brian, he asked me to arrange for a forensic examination kit to be put together so he could examine the scene when he was out there. I think he had in mind bottles and bags and the like. But I was not happy with that.

  ‘I wouldn’t let you examine a scene here in Surrey, so why should you do so in difficult conditions in a far off and foreign land?’ I said. ‘So you want a trip, do you?’ was his reply. ‘No, but I will get you the right person to go with you,’ I concluded.

  I put together a case for sending a scenes of crime officer with him and his assistant. It was a complex case and not one which he was capable of examining himself. Brian put the case to the chief constable who in turn put it to the FCO. After a little persuasion they saw the merits and agreed.

  Choosing the right person to go was a difficult decision. One of my deputies, a senior crime scene manager, was the natural choice. However, in Surrey at that time all our scenes of crime officers and managers were not routinely photographers of crime scenes, although it was part of their initial training. We had a highly specialised team who worked under the direction of the crime scene manager and head of forensic photography at major scenes. So my choice quickly went to Jon Young who had been trained as a scene photographer and had worked as one before joining Surrey from another force. He was young but mature and had a cool head. There was no doubt he was my first choice, much to the disappointment of his manager.

  I had appointed Jon to his post a few years before. He was a big man and knew his job well. I remember at his interview he answered all our questions with ease, so much so I thought he had been tipped off, although this had not been the case. Not only did he not know anyone in Surrey, some of the questions had only been finalised immediately before the interview.

  This was a difficult assignment. Although it was exciting it was not without its dangers. Andrew and Caroline McGowan had already been murdered and safety, although ‘guaranteed’, was not certain. The team was going to a remote part of Africa where there were little resources. They would have to work with the local police chief and try and ensure that any investigative leads were identified and followed through.

  I was quite prepared to go myself and I said this to Jon when I spoke to him. He had a young family and asked for a day to consider it and speak to his wife.

  Jon accepted the offer. I was pleased; he was the right person to go.

  Jon and I met with Brian Woodfield and his DI and once again went through the details of the case. The team got the necessary inoculations to travel and within a few days they were on their way.

  In preparing for the trip Jon had put together a kit specifically for the purpose, the usual examination bag and photographic kit. But it was made clear he would have to be able to carry it. I’m not sure if Brian and his DI ever offered to help but they would have their own luggage. So ‘only what you can carry’ was the order. Jon being a big guy could carry a lot and he would have to.

  As we discussed the equipment list, we identified that he would probably need a metal detector to try to locate spent gun cartridges at the scene. It was then that another aspect to the risk assessment became apparent: land mines. Mozambique was full of them, left over from years of war. The murder scene was off the road and even that was a track. If Jon thought of pulling out he didn’t show it. We made plans as to how he would deal with the situation and do his research. Above all he was to take no risk if there was any doubt or lack of information about the areas he was to examine.

  I arranged to make regular contact with him. The team was to stay with local British consular officials, who would also accompany them wherever possible. The consul would provide protection as the area contained armed bandits, as the McGowans had found out to their cost. They were going well and truly off the beaten track.

  The Surrey team arrived in Mozambique in June 1997. They met the local consular officials and were introduced to the local police chief. He occupied a rundown police station. The buildings were in disrepair and had little furniture. His team of a few officers was poorly equipped, but they had received some guidance. To the team’s surprise they were informed that the station had a laboratory. Opening the door to a near-empty room, they found an officer sat at a lonely desk displaying a box with a few sheets of fingerprints in it, their entire collection.

  They were introduced to the police chief’s driver who sat expectantly inside a room just off the front entrance to the rundown building. When it came to setting off to the scene it was suggested that the chief’s driver could lead until it was realised that he didn’t actually have a car.

&
nbsp; The McGowans’ vehicle had been found, albeit looted. The team first made their way to the scene where the bodies had been found. Any worries about land mines quickly evaporated.

  The scene was a grass area a few metres just off the main track. Within a few minutes two shell cases from a rifle were found in the grass.

  Jon’s examination of the vehicle revealed some finger marks and blood, along with samples of fibres and glass. He also took possession of the battle fatigues which had been found in the vehicle.

  The local police chief may not have had much in the way of resources but he had his sources of intelligence and very quickly three suspects were put forward. Left to his own devices he would have resorted to obtaining a confession by whatever means from the suspects, which clearly worried Brian and the team.

  A raid was made at the suspects’ known address. They were arrested and their home searched. An AK 47 rifle was recovered along with a photograph of the three suspects wearing battle-fatigue jackets.

  I made some enquiries with the forensic science laboratory here in the UK. We were hopeful that the pattern on the fatigues and the potential for it to be cut at random in production could make each jacket unique. This was dependent on obtaining information from the manufacturer, wherever that may be in the world. So we were hopeful that comparing the recovered jackets with these in the photographs could prove that the suspects had been wearing them in the past.

  As we were only assisting the Mozambique authorities we considered where a laboratory examination would take place. Of course we offered to arrange and pay for the work to be done in the UK. After consultation it was arranged that the items would be examined in nearby South Africa.

  The shell cases found at the scene were matched with the AK 47 found at the suspects’ address. The battle fatigues found in the vehicle matched those worn by the suspects in the photograph.