00:00:06
NARRATOR: The date,
July 28, 1996. The place, 60 feet beneath
the English Channel
00:00:15
off the coast of Devon, England. A fisherman was about
to haul in his nets. His catch of the day would
unearth of gruesome secret.
00:00:26
Buried among the
sea bass and crabs was a very large
catch, a dead man with no apparent identification.
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The nets had disturbed
a watery grave, revealing a mystery that
would cross an ocean.
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[music playing] NARRATOR: When John Copik,
a fisherman of 30 years, pulled a dead body on board,
he had a decision to make.
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A floater is a bad omen. JOHN COPIK: I can do
one of two things here. I can pull this, cut line,
and he goes back over the side
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and we go on fishing. Or we take him in, in which
case the fish is going to be condemned, your going
to lose a day's wages.
00:01:39
Brixham Coast Guard, this is
a fishing vessel "Malcary." I've just hauled my gear six
miles east of Teignmouth,
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and I've got a body
in the [inaudible]. -This is Brixham Coastguard. Could you please
stay at your position
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and we'll send somebody out. NARRATOR: The victim
was an unidentified male between the ages of 40 and 50.
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From the amount
of decomposition, the pathologist
determined that the body had been in the water
for less than a week.
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The victim was wearing a blue
and white checkered shirt, leather belt, and green corduroy
trousers with the pockets
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pulled inside out. GYAN FERNANDO: When I
first examined the body, I noticed a tattoo on
the back of the hand.
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I thought it was a
cluster of stars, and that's what I said
in my original report.
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And in any case I'd
never seen a tattoo like that, not in
British subjects. NARRATOR: There were several
injuries noted on the body.
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Bruises on his left hip and
lower leg, and the four inch gash on the back of the head.
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Most likely the head injury
caused unconsciousness, but the actual cause of
death was never in question.
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GYAN FERNANDO: The lungs
are the best organs to look for drowning,
and the lung showed evidence of drowning.
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So the cause of death
was not difficult, but why he got into the
water and why he drowned
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was the difficult part. NARRATOR: The only item
of note on the victim, was an expensive wrist watch.
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It was a Swiss made Rolex brand
Oyster Perpetual Chronometer, which had stopped on
the 22nd of the month.
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Every Rolex watch has a story. BILL SCHILLER: Rolex keeps
extraordinary records on their watches worldwide.
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Every Rolex watch comes
with a serial number. It's hidden on the watch. But detailed records
are kept for everyone
00:03:31
who owns that watch forever,
and all the servicing records. NARRATOR: The Rolex
company identified
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the watch owner
as Ronald J Platt. The victim's next of
kin were contacted. His brother positively
identified Ronald Platt's body
00:03:48
by the tattoo on his hand,
a Canadian maple leaf. Ronald Platt was a
50-year-old television
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repairman who was divorced. He hadn't been in
regular contact with his family which is why he
hadn't been reported missing.
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Platt had been living
in Essex County, over 300 miles from Devon
where his body was discovered.
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On his application for
his last apartment rental, he listed a man named
David Davis as a reference.
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CONSTABLE IAN CLENEHAN:
I phoned David Davis up on his mobile phone
number and, unfortunately,
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I told him about the fact
that we'd recovered a body from the sea which we believed
to be his friend, Ronald Platt.
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NARRATOR: Davis told police
that he and Ronald Platt had been friends,
but he hadn't seen
00:04:36
Platt in over three months. David Davis was a 50-year-old
retired financial adviser
00:04:42
from Canada, who was
living in England with his 21-year-old wife
Noel and their two daughters.
00:04:50
Davis and his family
lived in the small village of Woodham Walter
in a cul-de-sac
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at the end of
Little London Lane. When police went to
interview Davis in person,
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they made the mistake of
knocking on the wrong door. BILL SCHILLER: The elderly
gentleman replies, no, no, no.
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This isn't Little London farm. That, he says,
pointing next door. That is Little London farm.
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So Redmond then asks, well is
that where David Davis lives? And the elderly gentleman
says no, no, no.
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That's not where
David Davis lives. There's no David Davis, there. That's where Ronald Platt lives.
00:05:28
That's where Ronald Platt
lives with his lovely wife, and their two little children.
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CONSTABLE IAN CLENEHAN:
I couldn't believe what he was telling me,
you know, it was bizarre.
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The guy that I had thought was
dead, and had been identified as dead to me, was in fact
alive and well and living
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in Woodham Walter. NARRATOR: But why
was David Davis now posing as Ronald Platt?
DET.
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PHIL SINCOCK: There's
clearly something wrong here. And we had to put David
Davis under a microscope.
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Find out who he was, why was
he using this false identity. Was there something
more sinister involved?
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NARRATOR: For reasons that
were not at all clear, David Davis, a Canadian
citizen living in England,
00:06:11
had been posing as Ronald
Platt, the name of the man found at the bottom of
the English Channel.
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An investigation into
Davis's background revealed some
troubling information. For the last three years,
all of Davis's bills
00:06:28
were paid for with checks and
credit cards signed by Ronald Platt, some signed after Platt's
body was pulled from the sea.
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Davis met the real Ronald Platt
through Platt's girlfriend, Elaine Boyes, who
worked for David Davis
00:06:44
in a small investment
company Davis ran in London. Police also discovered that
David Davis owned a sailboat
00:06:53
that was moored in Devin,
only a few miles from where Ronald Platt's body
was discovered.
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Police searched through
David Davis' mobile telephone records, which showed calls
made from the same area
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where Platt's body was found. And the calls were made during
the same time period in July
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that the medical examiner
said Ronald Platt drowned. Davis claimed he hadn't seen his
friend Ronald Platt in months,
00:07:22
but police found witnesses who
saw them together in the Devin area shortly before
Platt's death.
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DET. PHIL SINCOCK: He was
clearly lying to us as well as using
Ronald Platt's identity
00:07:33
and that changed the
complexion of things. So I contacted Essex and told
them to change the charge
00:07:39
that they were
going to arrest him for from check fraud to murder. NARRATOR: On Halloween
morning, in 1996,
00:07:47
an armed English
Response Team waited to arrest Davis at his home at
the end of Little London Lane.
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A taxi unexpectedly
drove down the lane in the middle of
the police raid. Davis made a dash from the
house to the taxi, which
00:08:05
quickly took off
to get past police. BILL SCHILLER: Finally the
main police car catches up,
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pushes the taxi cab drive--
driver over to the shoulder. A policeman with a very big
gun drawn moves out of the car,
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points it directly through
the window at Davis's head. NARRATOR: David
Davis was arrested
00:08:29
on suspicion of the
murder of Ronald Platt. In the house was Davis's
21-year-old wife Noel
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and the couple's
two little girls, three-year-old
Emily, and Lillian, who was just six months old.
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Police allowed Noel
to pack a diaper bag with items for the children.
DET. PHIL SINCOCK: One
of the officers
00:08:50
there was a little suspicious
however, about its weight, and searched the
bag and inside found
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that she'd slipped
inside the baby clothes 4,000 pounds in cash
and five gold bars.
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NARRATOR: At police
headquarters, Noel's purse contained a
treasure trove of incriminating
00:09:07
evidence, documents in
the name of Ronald Platt and Platt's girlfriend,
Elaine Boyes,
00:09:14
and the children's birth
certificates which listed Ronald Platt and Elaine
Boyes as the parents.
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DET. PHIL SINCOCK: She gave no real
explanation for that other than to say that when
she got pregnant,
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she needed medical attention
and had actually used Elaine Boyes's identity cards to
get that medical treatment.
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BILL SCHILLER: The police are
mystified by the gap in ages. In fact, it seems like
about a 30 year gap.
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She barely looks 20. He looks to be about 50. What's going on? They decide that they're
going to bear down
00:09:50
on her in questioning, see
if they could make her crack. And in fact they do. And they find out something
that surprises even
00:09:56
them, namely, she blurts
out, he's my father. NARRATOR: Noel
refused to identify
00:10:04
the father of the children. David Davis' home on
Little London Lane held a wealth of evidence.
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Envelopes stuffed with Swiss
francs, British pounds, American dollars, keys
to storage lockers,
00:10:23
gold bars, expensive paintings. And in a mountain of
documents a tiny scrap of paper that would be a turning
point in the investigation.
00:10:36
BILL SCHILLER: And they found a
receipt with seven items listed on it, bought from a shop called
Sport Nautique in Dartmouth,
00:10:44
on the water. And in those seven items, there
was something that was noted, it was a 10 pound plow anchor.
00:10:52
NARRATOR: The police went
back to question John Copik, the fisherman who pulled
Platt's body out of the sea
00:10:58
in his nets. JOHN COPIK: I didn't notice the
anchor till we actually got, physically got the
gear on board--
00:11:03
until we got the
trawler on board. And I didn't connect
the two together until the following day.
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NARRATOR: The 10 pound zinc
galvanized plow anchor found in the fishing nets with
Ronald Platt's body,
00:11:16
may have been used to anchor
Platt's body at the bottom of the English
Channel and came loose
00:11:22
when he was dragged to the
surface by fishing nets. When Dr. Fernando laid the
anchor next to the injuries
00:11:30
on Platt's leg, he discovered
the cause of the wounds. GYAN FERNANDO: The
bruise on the hip
00:11:36
was caused by the
low end of the anchor and the bruise on
the thigh was caused by the other the
end of the anchor.
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So the anchor had been hooked to
his waist band or to his belt. NARRATOR: It was becoming
evident how Ron Platt died.
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The anchor and
Platt's belt were sent to the forensics
lab for analysis. On Platt's leather belt
was a translucent deposit.
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Police asked a
forensic metallurgist to determine what made the mark. ALEXANDER GRANT: I worked
with a sample from the belt
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in the area of the
mark and a sample from the surface of the anchor. NARRATOR: The mark
on Platt's belt
00:12:18
was analyzed with a scanning
electron microscope, and the material on the
belt was identified.
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ALEXANDER GRANT: Basically
the mark on the belt was predominantly zinc, as
was the surface of the anchor.
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NARRATOR: Still unanswered was
how Ron Platt's body got six miles out into the
English Channel.
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Dr. Bob Allen, a
hydraulic engineer, analyzed the
location of the body and studied the water
currents during the week
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Platt was in the
English Channel. BOB ALLEN: They told me
where the body was recovered
00:12:54
and what they were
concerned about was where the body
had entered the water. We determined what the
currents were in the area,
00:13:04
but what we weren't able to say
was whether those currents were strong enough to move the body
without some further work.
00:13:14
NARRATOR: Dr. Alan conducted
a unique experiment to simulate a
drowned man anchored
00:13:21
to the bottom of
the English Channel. He attached a 10 pound anchor
to his belt, expelled the air
00:13:28
from his lungs, and sank to the
bottom of an artificial channel which recreated the cold sea
water and the same currents
00:13:37
that were present when
Platt's body was dumped. The anchor held the
body firm, meaning
00:13:43
it was dumped in the same
location where it was found. BOB ALLEN: And we knew
then that the body
00:13:49
had not moved anywhere. That it was found
where it was dumped. NARRATOR: Davis's
sailboat, the Lady Jane,
00:13:57
was brought into the forensics
lab for an inspection. Inside the cabin,
a small hair sample
00:14:05
was discovered on
the seat cushion and there was a
plastic Sports Nautique bag from the same store where
Davis purchased the anchor.
00:14:14
Both were sent for
forensic testing. To fingerprint smooth, non
porous material, like the Sport
00:14:21
Nautique bag,
forensic experts put the bag in a sealed cabinet. Inside, super glue is heated and
fumes adhere to the finger oils
00:14:33
on the bag, which can be
visualized when the bag is dipped in a yellow
fluorescent dye
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which adheres to finger oils. The fingerprint on
the Sport Nautique bag was that of Ronald Platt.
00:14:49
DNA testing of the hair
found on the boat cushion revealed the hair was
also that of Ronald Platt.
00:14:56
Finally, police examined the
ship's navigational device called a GPS, Global Positioning
System, which records signals
00:15:06
from three satellites
triangulating the boat's position
on the earth. A GPS stores the
time and location
00:15:15
of the boat when it
is last turned off. The GPS from Davis's boat
indicated that he shut off
00:15:22
the navigational device
just 3.8 nautical miles from the spot where
the body resurfaced.
00:15:29
The date was July 20. The Rolex watch
found on Ronald Platt was self winding, which
means it runs for 40 hours
00:15:39
after it stops moving. The watch stopped on July 22. 40 hours earlier made
the date July 20.
00:15:48
The same date recorded by
the GPS on the Lady Jane. Police knew that David Davis
wasn't this man's real name.
00:15:58
But just who was he? A man living with his
daughter as husband and wife with two small children
whose paternity was unclear.
00:16:09
And what was his motive
to murder Ronald Platt? A retired businessman,
David Davis
00:16:21
was a suspect in the murder
of his friend Ronald Platt. But investigators wanted
to know his true identity.
00:16:29
When they compared
Davis's fingerprints to those of wanted fugitives
from around the world,
00:16:36
the prints matched a man who had
been on the run for six years. DET.
PHIL SINCOCK: We had a hit.
00:16:42
David Davis came back identified
in Canada as being their most wanted man, called
Albert Johnson Walker.
00:16:51
So this was the
first time that we actually know who this guy was. NARRATOR: Albert J Walker,
from Ontario, Canada,
00:16:59
had been married for 22
years and had four children. He became one of the 10 most
wanted criminals in the world
00:17:07
after embezzling over $4 million
from investors in Canada. BILL SCHILLER: He was on
the verge of being caught
00:17:15
so he decided to
flee to Canada and he took his 15-year-old
daughter Sheena with him
00:17:21
and disappeared,
completely, or almost. NARRATOR: Walker
and his daughter, Sheena, lived
together in England
00:17:30
as David and Noel
Davis, man and wife. BILL SCHILLER: One of the
Canadian police decided
00:17:36
to phone Walker's wife, Barbara. And it was very simple,
very straightforward. We found Albert and we
found your daughter Sheena.
00:17:46
And by the way congratulations,
you're a grandmother. NARRATOR: When Walker
fled to England,
00:17:53
he began working the
same investment scams as he did in Canada
and hired Elaine Boyes as an executive assistant.
00:18:01
When Walker no longer needed
Elaine Boyes's services he paid for Elaine and her
boyfriend, Ronald Platt,
00:18:08
to move to Canada to
start a new life together. With Platt gone, Walker
assumed his identity.
00:18:18
But three years later,
Elaine Boyes and Ronald Platt returned to England, which
threatened Walker's plans.
00:18:26
DET. PHIL SINCOCK: And now we're
two Ronald Platt's and was one too many for Albert Walker.
00:18:32
He had to get rid
of this friend. NARRATOR: Albert Walker
put his plan into motion
00:18:40
when he purchased a new 10 pound
anchor, not for his sailboat, but for Ronald Platt.
00:18:48
On July 20, 1996 Walker
invited Platt out on the Lady Jane for
a day of sailing.
00:18:56
With a blunt instrument, Walker
knocked Platt unconscious with a blow to the
back of his head.
00:19:03
Blood and hair spattered
onto the plastic bag. Walker then pulled
Platt to the upper deck
00:19:16
where he slipped the
anchor under Platt's belt and heaved him overboard. Among the mistakes
Walker made that day,
00:19:29
was failing to remove
Platt's wrist watch with the serial number
and using his boats
00:19:35
global positioning
system, which captured the location, date,
and time of the murder.
00:19:42
Albert Walker went
on trial for murder. In a rare courtroom
occurrence, Walker's daughter
00:19:50
testified against
her own father. BILL SCHILLER: At this
stage in the trial, it came out in the courtroom
that, obviously, Mr. Walker
00:20:03
and Sheena were
father and daughter, and yet two children were
found on the premises
00:20:09
when the police made their raid. Well the jury was
just struck dumb. NARRATOR: On July 6, 1998 it
took the jury just two hours
00:20:20
to find Albert Walker guilty
of first-degree murder. He was sentenced
to life in prison.
00:20:27
DET. PHIL SINCOCK: He
make one big mistake and that was that he forgot
to take off that Rolex watch.
00:20:32
And it was really
that Rolex watch that led us to the
identity of Ronald Platt and started the whole chain
of events which ended up
00:20:40
with Walker getting a
life sentence for murder. Sheena Walker is
now living quietly
00:20:47
with her children in Canada. She would not agree
to a paternity test on her two little girls.
00:20:54
BILL SCHILLER: I think Mr.
Walker is, without a doubt, probably the most
fascinating character
00:21:00
I've ever come across. He was a consummate actor. Even as we speak, this man
is still plotting his way out
00:21:10
of prison and I think that's--
I think it's chilling really. DET. PHIL SINCOCK: Ronald Platt,
the victim, is often forgotten.
00:21:19
It was Ronald Platt, the one in
a million shot of him actually returning from his watery
grave six miles out at sea
00:21:26
when he was caught
in those nets. The injuries on his body showing
us exactly how he was killed
00:21:32
and how the anchor was
used to weigh him down. The piece of paper he
wrote out for his reference
00:21:37
where he put David Davis,
the name of his killer. And his cell phone number,
which led us to Davis.
00:21:43
Everything really came
from Ronald Platt. His head hair that
was found on the boat,
00:21:50
his fingerprints
on the plastic bag. He was showing us that
he'd been on that boat,
00:21:55
and that that boat had
been used to murder him. It was really Ronald Platt
who solved this case.
00:22:00
And when he emerged
from his watery grave, pointed his tattooed
hand directly at his murderer,
Albert Johnson Walker.
00:22:08
[music playing]