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Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight

November 17, 2022 / 44:26

This episode discusses the tragic case of India Chipchase, a 20-year-old paramedic student who was murdered in Northampton. Key topics include her disappearance, the police investigation, and the subsequent trial of Edward Tenniswood, the man convicted of her murder.

India Chipchase was last seen on January 30, 2016, after a night out with friends. Her family reported her missing when she failed to return home, prompting a police investigation that quickly escalated to a high-risk missing person case.

Police discovered CCTV footage showing India with an older man, Edward Tenniswood, who was later identified as a person of interest. Tenniswood had a history of troubling behavior and was arrested shortly after India's body was found in his home.

The investigation revealed that India had been murdered, with evidence of struggle and sexual assault. Tenniswood was charged and ultimately convicted, receiving a life sentence.

The episode concludes with reflections from India's family and the establishment of a charity in her name aimed at protecting vulnerable individuals in nightlife settings.

TLDR

The episode covers the murder of India Chipchase and the investigation leading to Edward Tenniswood's conviction.

Episode

44:26
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[MUSIC PLAYING] JEFF EDWARDS: India was a marvelous young woman. She was very smart, she had lots of friends.
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She was just on the cusp of her career as a paramedic. She was just 20. STEPHEN WOLITER: We're in Bridge Street in Northampton,
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this was the place where India went on that evening. [MUSIC PLAYING] JEFF EDWARDS: When she didn't come home,
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that wasn't in her character. To all intents and purposes, she disappeared off the face of the Earth early that morning.
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STEVE HALL: We've heard that something was going on. And it wasn't until afterwards that I
00:00:44
found out that it was India. At that point, everyone was just so desperate that she
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would be found alive and well. JEREMY CHIPCHASE: Whatever happened that night, whatever stories are told, the fact
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is my daughter was murdered. STEPHEN WOLITER: We clearly viewed this as being a stranger attack.
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PARM SANDHU: What happened is every parent's nightmare. Even after 30 years in policing, I
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was absolutely horrified about what happened to this young girl. [MUSIC PLAYING]
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STEPHEN WOLITER: India was a kind, caring person that loved being with people. She was very bubbly.
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And India had all of her life to live ahead of her. JEFF EDWARDS: India came from a very loving family.
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She'd never been in any trouble. She was a sensible girl. She knew how to take care of herself.
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She was a perfect daughter in lots of ways. All the children got on very well together.
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They all loved each other. Yeah, it was a very happy family. A happy and stable family that she came from.
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KERRY DAYNES: India Chipchase had just turned 20. And she had trained as a health care worker
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and spent some time working at St. Andrews Hospital, but she really wanted to train as a paramedic.
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Now, she's a young girl, so she was still trying to figure out where she fit in life, and what she really wanted to do,
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and what passions were. And she was working part time in a bar in the evenings. She was a lively girl, had a fantastic smile, very pretty
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girl as well. And she was very popular. She had lots of friends and a boyfriend of just three weeks.
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STEPHEN WOLITER: So Northampton has a vibrant student population. And students like to come out and socialize and drink.
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So on a typical Friday and Saturday night, this road here, Bridge Street, you'll find a lot of students
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here eating and drinking in the clubs. India was a waitress at the Culinary Public House in Northampton.
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Her shift finished on that Friday at 8:00 PM. And she stayed there and she had some drinks with friends.
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A little while later, the friends and India decided to go into Northampton town center.
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On the 30th of January, India is meant to show up for a shift at the pub where she works and she doesn't.
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Now, this is unusual. It's very unusual for her. She's reliable, she's punctual.
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So her mother and her siblings are really worried about her. And at 4:00 PM, they report her missing to police.
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STEPHEN WOLITER: India's mother said that she was concerned for her daughter's welfare.
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India had gone out with friends that evening. And she'd spoken to those friends,
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and nobody knew where India was. And that's why she reported her missing to the police.
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PARM SANDHU: India would have been classed as medium risk because she hasn't got any actual vulnerabilities, as in,
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she doesn't need medication. But the fact that this is out of character, that would have been a concern.
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And so they would have started to act on that straight away. STEPHEN WOLITER: Uniformed officers dealt with it.
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And they did the basic inquiries that they needed to do, such as speaking to India's friends and the family.
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From the inquiries that Northamptonshire made, it looked like India had gone out drinking,
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first of all, with her boyfriend and then with another group of friends. So they'd gone to a couple of pubs first
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and then ended up at NB's, which is a cocktail bar which is almost like a nightclub because it's
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open until the early hours of the morning. STEPHEN WOLITER: So India and her friends
00:04:51
arrived here at 11:30. She was with three friends and they've got a taxi. And the taxi pulled up outside here and all of them
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went into the club. They all appear to be quite happy and just looking forward to a nice social evening out.
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Unfortunately, India became separated from her friends. They were at the bar and they bought further drinks.
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And when one of the friends turned round, India was gone. [MUSIC PLAYING] PARM SANDHU: Her friends actually
00:05:27
thought that she'd either gone home or met up with other friends, so they weren't concerned on the night.
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There was nothing suspicious on the actual night that alerted her friends. India's friends last saw her just before 1:00 AM on Saturday
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morning. JEFF EDWARDS: The first alarms really went off early in the morning of the Saturday morning.
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And it started really with her brother and sister. STEPHEN WOLITER: When India didn't return home,
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they managed to try and track India's phone on Find My Phone. And they did this and they established
00:06:05
that India's handset was in the area of Stanley Road, Northampton. JEFF EDWARDS: Of course, they did all the usual things
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that you would expect the young people to do these days. They reached out on Facebook, they
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were Whatsapping various friends that they knew she had, and so forth. STEPHEN WOLITER: From all of the inquiries that we undertook,
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it was clear that India had never gone off with random people before. India had spent the night away from home on occasions,
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but with friends. And she'd always told her parents where she was going to stay.
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So it was highly unusual that India hadn't made any contact at all with her brother or sisters
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or anybody in the family. At that point, India had been missing for around 27 hours,
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the control room Inspector had some concerns that perhaps it was more serious than we first thought.
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And it's at that point that the control room inspector escalated from a medium risk to a high risk.
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When CID resources began work at 8 o'clock on the Sunday morning, they then took that investigation
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and led a high risk missing person investigation. BRYANNA FOX: It was pretty clear that India
00:07:21
was absolutely missing. She had not turned up for work, she had not come home. This was extremely unusual.
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And for the police, this also raises red flags because every hour that somebody is missing,
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the odds of something bad happen to them goes up. Additionally, the search radius expands.
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While somebody may be still in the same town or village within an hour or two of being missing, by the time a day
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or two goes by, they could be anywhere in the country, if not anywhere in the world.
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STEPHEN WOLITER: When a missing person investigation is upgraded to a high risk category,
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investigative resources are brought in to make some further inquiries. Those inquiries will include telecom work
00:08:07
to try and establish where India's handset is currently. The police investigation went through a number
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of different avenues. The first one was that we made some house-to-house inquiries
00:08:21
in and around the area of Stanley Road because that's where the family had told us that India's
00:08:26
phone had last been reported. We had undertaken our own telecom work as well and we'd establish that India's phone
00:08:34
was in and around that area as well. From our analysis of the phone data, it would appear that India's phone disconnected
00:08:44
from the network shortly after 2 o'clock in the morning on Saturday. We also went back to NB's nightclub
00:08:56
and we spoke to the door staff there. What we subsequently know is that one of the door staff
00:09:02
had seen India looking upset. She said to the doorman that she wanted just to go home.
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So the doorman waved her in a taxi here and put India into that taxi. The member of door staff established
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that India had sufficient money to pay for the taxi ride home and he told the taxi driver that.
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The reason why the taxi driver didn't take India home is because he said that India wouldn't pay the money upfront.
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So she left the taxi and she came back out to the front of NB's. What we then know is that India went over to the front of NB's
00:09:39
to try and get back into the club, but the club wouldn't let her back in. There were several door supervisors
00:09:48
who confirmed to the police later that they remembered seeing her. And in fact, she sat on the steps
00:09:53
or sat on the ground outside for a while. And she was clearly pondering what to do next.
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She couldn't find her friends. There's some evidence to suggest that she started
00:10:03
to try and send out some text messages to locate friends, also to try and locate this young man
00:10:10
that she'd been seeing. They'd had a conversation earlier in the evening, but gone their own ways.
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STEPHEN WOLITER: What we wanted to get from NB's was the CCTV. And we met some problems and resistance from that
00:10:25
because the club didn't have anybody that could burn the CCTV off for us. So on the Sunday, when the police officers went back
00:10:35
to the club, they used their own body worn video to record the video. PARM SANDHU: Northamptonshire Police
00:10:41
would have looked at the CCTV at the nightclub or at the surrounding venues just
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to work out, who was she with? Who is she talking to? Did she leave with anybody or did she leave alone?
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And how did she leave? Did she live in a cab or did she walk off? Because that would help actually pinpoint
00:10:58
an area to look for her. STEPHEN WOLITER: So this is the entrance to NB's. On that particular evening, India was by these parked cars.
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You could see on the CCTV that she was upset. And then at one point, she comes across and stands by the wall.
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When the officers looked at that footage, they could see that an older male was with India.
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And it looked as though that person was speaking to India in quite a controlling and coercive way.
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The male that we saw approaching India was white, probably around about 50, quite stocky, not terribly tall, but with a balding head,
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and he was carrying a rucksack. He didn't look particularly intimidating, but what we could see from the video was as soon as he's seen
00:11:49
India, he's very much in her face touching, and inches away from her face when he's speaking to her, which just seemed quite unnatural.
00:12:02
We could see the man talking very intently to India for 10 minutes. And then after that 10 minutes, you
00:12:09
can see that he then escorts India away from this location by the arm off Bridge Street.
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He's looking around-- he's looking around for a taxi to flag down. He's looking for a way to take India
00:12:24
away from the town center. [MUSIC PLAYING] PARM SANDHU: If I was going to describe the scene to you,
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I'd be describing a very attractive young 20-year-old girl who's being approached
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by a middle-aged man who, for all intents and purposes, the way that he approaches her,
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it appears that he knows her. She is vulnerable, she's on her own, she has had a drink,
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and her judgment may have been impaired. And in this case, it was impaired. So he's actually honed in.
00:13:01
He's picked on a vulnerable victim, a vulnerable girl who didn't have a family and friends
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supporting her at that point. And then he's just targeted her and taken her away.
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STEPHEN WOLITER: As they're walking, it looks as though India is going away compliantly.
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It appears to us that the conversation outside of NB's has convinced her to leave this location with him,
00:13:27
presumably to tell her that he was going to take her home. KERRY DAYNES: Immediately, this is no longer a missing persons
00:13:38
investigation. It's a potential abduction. STEPHEN WOLITER: At the point that we got this CCTV image,
00:13:45
we didn't know whether India had been kidnapped by this person. We didn't know whether India was alive or dead.
00:13:51
[MUSIC PLAYING] JEFF EDWARDS: By Sunday, the police were able to view the CCTV from the nightclub.
00:14:04
And when they did that, they quickly saw something that really, really raised the hairs on the back
00:14:09
of their neck, which was, they saw India in conversation with a much older man who seemed to be trying
00:14:17
to persuade her to go with him. PARM SANDHU: I think at that point, everyone was just so desperate that she
00:14:25
would be found alive and well. [MUSIC PLAYING] STEPHEN WOLITER: From all the investigations
00:14:33
that we conducted with family and friends, everybody said that India was a lovely person,
00:14:40
bright, and bubbly with plans for the future. She had hopes of training to become a paramedic.
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India's family were one of the nicest families that I've ever had contact with. They were really wholesome and were desperately, desperately
00:14:56
concerned for India's safety. STEVE HALL: I've been a door supervisor in the town for over 20 years.
00:15:04
I was working at a Michener and Butlers in town, which is a company that India worked for anyway.
00:15:11
And we'd heard that something was going on because it always comes over the CCTV.
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Later on in the night, I spoke to a police officer and he told me that something had going on,
00:15:21
but he didn't really know the details, who were involved, what happened, et cetera, et cetera.
00:15:28
But just knowing that someone that you worked with or you know as a colleague that this terrible thing has
00:15:36
happened to, it was a shock for everybody. And the circumstances, it was a shock, a terrible shock.
00:15:48
PARM SANDHU: Looking at that CCTV, it would have appeared that this middle-aged man was
00:15:53
the last person that India spoke to. That was a last sighting of her. So he would have been a person of interest.
00:15:59
And Northamptonshire Police would have done everything they could to try and identify him,
00:16:04
to either say he's got nothing to do with it or he is the last point of contact.
00:16:09
So that would have been one of their most urgent tasks, to identify who this individual was.
00:16:15
STEPHEN WOLITER: We could see that he had taken India to about this point in Bridge Street.
00:16:21
And they managed to flag a taxi down just around a bit here. And that's where the taxi stopped
00:16:26
and that's when they got into the vehicle. The CCTV camera there is the [INAUDIBLE] CCTV camera,
00:16:35
and that was part of the imagery that we've got to look at the back of the tax. It's trying to identify which tax it was.
00:16:42
But back in 2016, that imagery wasn't clear enough to identify the registration number or index number.
00:16:51
So the taxi driver did come forward. And he was a little bit unclear in his recollection
00:16:56
as to what has happened. He seems to remember somebody asking him to take him to a McDonald's, but he said that India
00:17:04
sat in the back of the car on her phone and didn't speak at all. Didn't engage in conversation.
00:17:11
There were three telephone calls that India made, they were a minute apart. And there were three consecutive phone calls from India's phone
00:17:19
to her boyfriend. Having obtained this granny still video footage of India, it was a real challenging decision
00:17:31
as to where we use that image to try and establish where India was and who this person was.
00:17:39
KERRY DAYNES: To find India, they have to find this man. And the urgency of this is--
00:17:45
well, it's incredibly urgent because they want to find India alive. And they know that as time ticks down, the chances of that
00:17:53
become less and less. So they are hoping and praying that India is with him hopefully by choice.
00:18:02
It's unlikely though, isn't it? Or at least she's alive. STEPHEN WOLITER: I was concerned that if we were
00:18:09
to show this image to family members, it may cause them undue upset and harm. So the decision was to post that image, that still image,
00:18:21
on the police internet site. And that image was only accessible by police officers and police staff.
00:18:27
That was our first protocol. PARM SANDHU: Fortunately, an individual, a police officer
00:18:35
was able to identify him. And it was a very, very poor image, very granny, but he was able to say who this man was.
00:18:43
STEPHEN WOLITER: The police officer looked at the CCTV image and recognized the person
00:18:48
there as Edward Tenniswood. PARM SANDHU: The officer was able to say that he had
00:18:57
actually had dealings with him, and those dealings were that Tenniswood had been arrested two days before
00:19:03
for drunk and disorderly. He'd also been arrested 10 days before for an unrelated matter.
00:19:11
STEPHEN WOLITER: He was arrested for historic sexual offenses. What that was that he was associating
00:19:17
with 14-year-old girls as a grown adult, but it was a case that was 10 years previous.
00:19:25
PARM SANDHU: The strange thing about Tenniswood was that he had no previous convictions of any type.
00:19:31
Although he had come to notice in the last couple of weeks, there were no previous convictions
00:19:37
for this middle-aged man who had been identified as Edward Tenniswood. STEPHEN WOLITER: Once we established that it was
00:19:44
Tenniswood on the granny CCTV image, we then did some background checks and realized that Tenniswood lived in Stanley Road.
00:19:54
JEFF EDWARDS: And this, of course, now really, really became concerning, because India's own family had
00:20:02
already given the information that they'd trapped her phone to the Stanley Road area of Northampton.
00:20:09
So there was a convergence of information gleaned by both the family and by the police,
00:20:14
and things were now starting to look very sinister. PARM SANDHU: India had been missing for such a long time.
00:20:23
Northamptonshire Police would have been very, very concerned about her safety. Also if India was at that location, because she could
00:20:31
still be at that location safe and well, and it was important to work out if she needed help,
00:20:36
medical attention in any way. So that would have been their utmost priority, to get
00:20:41
to that address really quickly. STEPHEN WOLITER: Police officers went to Tenniswood's home
00:20:46
address just before 4:00 PM on the Sunday, forced entry into the scene as quickly as they could.
00:20:56
Police officers went through the ground floor and some officers went up the stairs
00:21:00
and checked the upstairs rooms quite quickly. Those police officers were able to establish
00:21:06
that India was in the front bedroom lying on a mattress on the floor. It was clear that India was dead.
00:21:14
There was no need for us to call paramedics to the scene. [MUSIC PLAYING] As soon as we found India's body,
00:21:26
my first fast track action was to get somebody to India's parents' house straight away.
00:21:32
We got there incredibly quickly, within minutes, but it also turned into a manhunt.
00:21:37
I needed to establish whether one or more persons had escaped and we needed to locate them.
00:21:48
India's family we're clearly devastated and there was very little that I could do to take their pain away.
00:21:55
But one of the things that I could do was to arrest the perpetrator for India's murder
00:22:01
and bring them to justice. [MUSIC PLAYING] Terribly sad. When anybody goes missing, it's our desperate hope
00:22:26
that we find them alive. And it's always really, really sad from a homicide investigator's perspective to be brought
00:22:33
in because you know that that death has ripped lives apart. The police officer that found India's body
00:22:43
would say that she's tightly wrapped in a sheet. And at the top of that sheet, he thought was fur.
00:22:50
It was subsequently found out that that was India's hair. And the police officer that found India
00:22:55
said that that was almost like a halo. BRYANNA FOX: There are a few different reasons why offenders
00:23:01
will stage crime scenes. One is because that's the memory that they want to have in their minds when they think about that person.
00:23:08
It's going to bring them some level of joy, or arousal, or just they want to have a positive memory of it.
00:23:15
They want to send a message and they want to be able to have that message be to memory they have
00:23:21
the person as their last interaction with them when they committed that offense.
00:23:28
STEPHEN WOLITER: The next step is that I arrived at the scene very quickly. I took command of that scene by ensuring that there was
00:23:36
an immediate inner cordon and an outer cordon further up Stanley Road. I then called my crime scene manager to the scene.
00:23:45
And between us, we established what we needed to protect forensically. When the police officer discovered India's body,
00:23:53
the only injury that they could see was a small cut to the back of the right ear that
00:23:58
had bled onto the bed sheet. When I entered the property, it was apparent that it
00:24:05
was a very strange premise. There was newspaper all over the floor. There was no carpet at all.
00:24:12
When I went up the stairs, there was thick dust in the recesses of each step as you walked up.
00:24:19
And the other thing that I found was really odd was that a lot of items there were covered
00:24:25
in cling film such as computer keyboards, desks, monitors, and everything else that was there
00:24:33
was just covered by white sheets. KERRY DAYNES: His home was incredibly sparse. It didn't have an awful lot in it, but what he did
00:24:45
have was covered with cling film. And this was apparently because he didn't like to touch dirt.
00:24:52
Now there was a lot of dirt in his home. It's not that he didn't like dirt and therefore cleaned excessively,
00:25:00
he didn't like dirt so he would cover it. So there were bowls of rotting food that were covered with plates in his kitchen
00:25:08
and his carpets were either taken up or they were overlaid with newspaper. So this is somebody who is clearly outside of the norm.
00:25:24
STEPHEN WOLITER: Our inquiry showed that India had no association with Tenniswood at all.
00:25:29
We went through all of our computer systems and there was literally nothing that associated
00:25:33
those two individuals together. We clearly viewed this as being a stranger attack.
00:25:39
PARM SANDHU: As soon as the police officers found the body of India and they realized that she had been murdered,
00:25:45
Tenniswood would have been their priority. He had to be found not just because he's involved
00:25:51
in the murder of India, but also because he could be a danger to other women. STEPHEN WOLITER: Very quickly, we made some house
00:26:01
to house inquiries in Stanley Road to try and establish who Tenniswood was, what made him the person that he was,
00:26:09
and more importantly, where he was. Tenniswood was a tenant at that premises and that he'd been there for around about seven years.
00:26:17
We were also able to establish that Tenniswood was a recluse, he very rarely went out, and he would never answer the door
00:26:24
to anybody that knocked. Tenniswood didn't have a vehicle. But what we were able to do is establish that Tenniswood's
00:26:31
phone was pinging in Northampton town center, but we didn't know where specifically.
00:26:38
JEFF EDWARDS: It's now Sunday and lots of places are closed, but they think, well, he's a drinker.
00:26:44
We've already arrested him once recently for drunk and disorderly. So they think, well, let's start combing
00:26:50
the pubs, and wine bars, and anywhere that's licensed premises. STEPHEN WOLITER: So we had around about 30 police
00:26:58
officers that were in the town center trying to find Tenniswood. India's body was discovered just before 4:00 PM
00:27:06
and we managed to establish that Tenniswood was in the Ibis Hotel shortly before 7:00 PM
00:27:11
the same evening. Tenniswood, when we saw him in reception, was sober. He was very calm and was very collected.
00:27:24
And he was almost complacent in saying to the police officers, you've clearly been to the house.
00:27:30
You found something and I'm surprised you found me so quickly. Police officers arrested him for India's murder.
00:27:42
Upon arrest, we found out that it got a rucksack and inside the rucksack, he was carrying a large knife together
00:27:49
with plastic, latex gloves. PARM SANDHU: The one thing that was really odd, he was sitting
00:27:55
in front of a computer, following the searches for India, showing an unhealthy interest in what
00:28:03
was happening with India. BRYANNA FOX: For many offenders, the real allure is not just the crime itself, but the notoriety
00:28:13
that comes along with it. You can commit one horrific act and be on the news and be on TV.
00:28:18
And for him, even though it was for such a horrific reason, he felt like that level of notoriety was achieved.
00:28:24
[MUSIC PLAYING] STEPHEN WOLITER: So Tenniswood was interviewed over India's murder over a number of days
00:28:35
and he made no comment whatsoever. PARM SANDHU: One of the most frustrating things
00:28:40
that can happen as a police officer is having a suspect who responds with no comment.
00:28:45
It is the most awful things to have to deal with. Because throughout the interview,
00:28:51
you still have to put the questions to them. You still have to give them the opportunity to answer.
00:28:56
Because if-- for example, if I asked a question and the person goes no comment and says, I'm going
00:29:02
to do a no comment interview, but then I don't put a relevant question to them. And later on in court they say, I
00:29:08
was never asked about that, that would go against the investigation and against that police officer.
00:29:13
So having that no comment interview would have been extremely disturbing and frustrating for the police
00:29:18
officers involved. STEPHEN WOLITER: He was then charged and remanded in custody.
00:29:24
It was vital that we remanded Tenniswood to prison to make sure that no of that vulnerable people were
00:29:31
harmed by him. On the Monday morning of the investigation, I had over 70 detectives at my disposal
00:29:41
to investigate India's homicide. We would also undertake some forensic tests of Tenniswood's clothing.
00:29:49
During the search of Tenniswood's home address we found India's mobile phone together
00:29:55
with a pair of latex gloves with India's blood on the outside. Tenniswood's DNA was on the inside of those clothes.
00:30:04
Edward Tenniswood is known to have somewhat of a fetish, certainly a sexual preference for women with long,
00:30:13
dark hair like India's. And there are various photographs around his home of women who matched that description.
00:30:22
STEPHEN WOLITER: The postmortem established that India had sustained a number of injuries to her body.
00:30:28
There are over 30 injuries. There were injuries to her neck, to her tongue, to her cheeks,
00:30:36
and to an ear as well. And we know that India had been killed by compression to the neck.
00:30:43
BRYANNA FOX: Police were able to clearly determine that she was strangled and had multiple injuries
00:30:49
all over her body. Later investigations showed that she actually had skin from Edward Tenniswood
00:30:56
underneath her fingernails. This supported the idea that she was not just having consensual sex with him,
00:31:02
but she was actually struggling. Even though she had been intoxicated, she did not just submit to this, which was something she was
00:31:08
fighting for her life to avoid. STEPHEN WOLITER: We harvested a significant number
00:31:18
of exhibits that required forensic analysis. We prioritized those. And as part of that prioritization list,
00:31:27
the internal swabs were sent away. It was probably around three months into the investigation
00:31:33
that we established that India had indeed been raped. PARM SANDHU: Police officers were
00:31:41
able to build up a picture of what happened to India on that night. They worked out that two people had seen her getting
00:31:48
into the cab with Tenniswood. They were a couple who were waiting for a cab themselves
00:31:53
and Tenniswood almost reassured them by saying, it's OK. It's OK. I'll get her home.
00:31:58
So they believe that Tenniswood knew her. JEFF EDWARDS: He was a predator. He was a sexual predator.
00:32:05
And whether he'd gone there that night with a plan to abduct a young woman or whether she just presented
00:32:11
herself as a likely target, she was young, she was drunk, she was on her own, by definition,
00:32:21
she was extremely vulnerable. PARM SANDHU: And for that reason, she was easy to maneuver, manipulate, or steer
00:32:29
into a situation where she would normally never have allowed herself to be in. What has happened to her is down to the predator,
00:32:36
that individual who's targeted her because of her vulnerability. And it's absolutely not her fault.
00:32:42
[MUSIC PLAYING] STEVE HALL: I did the security for her for the week after the funeral.
00:33:04
And the amount of people that were there, the amount of people that-- obviously,
00:33:08
her family are very upset. Everyone was upset. [INAUDIBLE] young people that was there that knew as well.
00:33:13
It was tragic to see all them-- all those people there. So they all come to celebrate her life, which
00:33:20
really brought it home as well. A young life had just been ended needlessly. It's very tragic.
00:33:29
[MUSIC PLAYING] STEPHEN WOLITER: So the trial started on Monday, the 18th of July 2016.
00:33:41
It lasted just under three weeks of Birmingham Crown Court. And it's one of the few trials that I've been to,
00:33:47
where every single seat that's allocated to the media was full every day of the trial.
00:33:54
The media were reporting in real time what each witness said. Tenniswood was clearly enjoying the media attention.
00:34:05
When Tenniswood voluntarily took the witness stand, it was again like he was showboating.
00:34:12
It's like he was on stage and enjoying every minute of it. Tenniswood portrayed himself as being a victim.
00:34:22
Making comments along the lines of, "it's really distressing to have to dress a dead body."
00:34:29
There was no remorse from Tenniswood at all. There was no acknowledgment to the family or the grief
00:34:36
that they went through. The only person that Tenniswood was interested in was himself.
00:34:43
Tenniswood said that India went voluntarily in the taxi and back to his home address to carry on drinking
00:34:49
and because Tenniswood wanted to give her the grand tour of his home address. Tenniswood said that when they got back to his home,
00:34:59
they laughed and joked, drank red wine. JEFF EDWARDS: It was an absurd and ridiculous suggestion.
00:35:07
And it was quite insulting to the prosecution and it was really insulting to the whole court.
00:35:12
And it was extremely upsetting for her family. BRYANNA FOX: Tenniswood ultimately
00:35:18
pled not guilty to the charges against him, which is pretty astonishing considering the amount
00:35:23
of evidence that police had. However, in his mind, that's not the case. He's very grandiose and narcissistic.
00:35:31
He's not taking responsibility for his actions. He's thinking in his mind he's still
00:35:35
going to get away with it. That he's better than police. That he's going to outsmart them.
00:35:40
That they don't actually have as much against him as they think that they do. So he was able to essentially try to play his hands,
00:35:48
but really underestimate the power of the evidence that police had against him. STEPHEN WOLITER: It's the level of violence inflicted
00:35:55
against India and the fact that we knew she was significantly intoxicated, the defense injuries that Tenniswood had,
00:36:03
the lifestyle that Tenniswood exhibited, compared against the wonderful qualities that India had in loving life,
00:36:15
compared to somebody that's a reclusive alcoholic. KERRY DAYNES: After Tenniswood killed India,
00:36:21
it was quite clear that he spent some time playing with her hair. And also he says that he cuddled up to the body,
00:36:29
whether that's true or not, I don't know. But certainly, there was a period of time
00:36:34
when he was reveling in possession, if you like, of India's body and being able to arrange it
00:36:42
and do what he wanted with her. And it's unpleasant to think that he spent that time with her doing that.
00:36:51
He is somebody who is deeply, deeply inadequate and he compensates for that by fantasizing about girlfriends
00:37:02
and fantasizing that he is competent with women, that women desire him. Because, of course, the opposite is true.
00:37:11
JEFF EDWARDS: And what's really interesting is when the police looked at the CCTV from the NB's nightclub,
00:37:19
they were able to spool back over several weeks. Guess what? Two weeks prior to India being abducted
00:37:26
from outside that club, who's hanging around outside of that club in the small hours of the morning
00:37:32
when there are frankly drunk and females are coming out? There's Tenniswood hanging about.
00:37:39
He was a man on a mission. And my contention is that this was a premeditated act.
00:37:45
This didn't happen randomly. That's what he set out to do. STEPHEN WOLITER: Tenniswood is an absolute fantasist.
00:37:55
I'm sure he believes. The accounts that he gave in court, we managed to disprove the majority of it.
00:38:02
And ultimately, the jury took two hours, which is incredibly short in their deliberations,
00:38:10
to prove that he was guilty. So Tenniswood was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 30 years for the murder
00:38:22
and 12 years for the rape. That was to run consecutively. PARM SANDHU: It doesn't bring India back.
00:38:31
Her family have got a sentence, which is for life. They are never going to forget her.
00:38:36
Her friends are never going to forget. The family-- the whole community will never forget
00:38:41
what happened on that night. JEREMY CHIPCHASE: We love her now and we will always love her.
00:38:49
Even though we will never experience a smile, her laughter, her caring again, her photographs will adorn our walls,
00:38:56
the memories of her 20 years will live on, and her spirit will always be in our hearts.
00:39:01
Whatever happened that night, whatever stories are told, the fact is my daughter was murdered.
00:39:09
Speaking from a father's perspective, I did not want any other father to hear that her daughter's
00:39:14
gone missing like I did, and then for them to hear she's been found dead. I'm sure that I and other family members
00:39:26
will continue to have moments of pain, anguish emotion until we take the loss. STEPHEN WOLITER: It feels very sad being back here today
00:39:40
that this is the location that India was last seen alive and well. [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:39:54
PARM SANDHU: I think one of the positives that has come to light after the murder of India Chipchase
00:40:02
was the charity that was set up in her name and as a result of what happened to her.
00:40:08
KERRY DAYNES: They called themselves Northampton Guardians. And they act as guardian angels for people
00:40:14
who are out and about clubbing and partying and maybe need a bit of help to get home safely.
00:40:22
SHANE: My name is Shane. I've been part of The Guardians now since it started in December last year.
00:40:29
We were founded by a lovely lady called Sue Chipchase. And it's a memory of her daughter.
00:40:35
And the main thing we're here for is just to really is to try to look after the vulnerable people that we see
00:40:41
walking around, mainly females, but we do a lot of males as well. But we do deal with many females.
00:40:48
It's a safe meeting place for anyone that's vulnerable. So even it's just a female who's lost her friends,
00:40:53
they know they can come to the van and have a safe place to stay and wait for their friends
00:40:57
to come and meet them. They can phone their friends, I'm at the van. I'm safe. I know where I am.
00:41:01
Or again, if someone's lost-- well, if someone can't get home, they can come to the van.
00:41:06
It's a safe place. They can phone their parents. They can phone someone to come pick them up.
00:41:09
They don't have to stand in the middle of town if it's pouring rain or freezing cold.
00:41:12
Or if it's just a female by herself late at night, they don't have to be out in the cold.
00:41:15
They can sit with us. It's just somewhere safe for them. CLAIRE ARCHER: Since India's passing,
00:41:19
they came on the scene to try and help people in town like walking around town, looking
00:41:24
at the vulnerable people. If you look at their logo, it's the love, heart with the wings
00:41:29
and it's got India's name in the middle. STEVE HALL: It's India's legacy. It's something good that's come out
00:41:35
of a terrible, terrible thing that happened. And if it can help people and not make that situation happen again, then to me
00:41:46
it's a wonderful thing. They're wonderful people. It's a wonderful legacy to have.
00:41:53
India's death was a tragic waste, but something good's come out of it. PARM SANDHU: I was truly shocked, truly
00:42:07
shocked about what happened to this young girl. And I can only send out my sympathies
00:42:12
to the family and the friends and all the individuals involved in this case. Because that lasting damage will be there forever.
00:42:20
And I was-- even after 30 years in policing, I was absolutely horrified about what
00:42:25
happened to this young girl. JEFF EDWARDS: The loss of a child is the worst thing that can happen to any parent.
00:42:32
The loss of a child in such unnecessary, dreadful, selfish circumstances must be beyond comprehension.
00:42:41
How can you-- how can anybody bear that pain? I mean, she had her whole life ahead of her.
00:42:47
She wasn't even 21. [MUSIC PLAYING] JEREMY CHIPCHASE: I sincerely hope that there is no possibility that any other woman ever
00:42:58
suffers at the hands of my daughter's murderer. No other father will therefore have to see the devastation
00:43:04
that I have seen. No other father will have to touch the coffin and say, love you, Ind, and then see the curtain
00:43:16
closed at a crematorium. And no other father will be hit with a wave of emotion at a wedding as I was on realizing that I would never
00:43:30
walk India down the aisle. I therefore reiterate, I do not want there to be other victims at the hands of India's murderer,
00:43:40
and therefore, no other families to experience what we have. [MUSIC PLAYING]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 95
    Most heartbreaking
  • 90
    Most emotional
  • 85
    Most shocking
  • 85
    Best performance

Episode Highlights

  • The Disappearance of India Chipchase
    India Chipchase, a bright young woman, goes missing after a night out with friends.
    “When she didn't come home, that wasn't in her character.”
    @ 00m 28s
    November 17, 2022
  • CCTV Footage Raises Alarms
    Police review CCTV footage showing India with an older man, raising concerns for her safety.
    “They saw India in conversation with a much older man who seemed to be trying to persuade her to go with him.”
    @ 14m 01s
    November 17, 2022
  • Tragic Discovery
    Police find India's body in a home, confirming the worst fears of her family.
    “It was clear that India was dead.”
    @ 21m 13s
    November 17, 2022
  • Tenniswood's Arrest
    Edward Tenniswood was arrested with a knife and gloves, raising suspicions of premeditated murder.
    “He was carrying a large knife together with plastic, latex gloves.”
    @ 27m 45s
    November 17, 2022
  • Community Response
    In memory of India, the Northampton Guardians were established to protect vulnerable individuals.
    “It's India's legacy. It's something good that's come out of a terrible, terrible thing.”
    @ 41m 39s
    November 17, 2022
  • India's Tragic Murder
    India Chipchase's murder reveals a chilling tale of violence and vulnerability.
    “The loss of a child is the worst thing that can happen to any parent.”
    @ 42m 29s
    November 17, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • India was a kind, caring person that loved being with people.
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight
  • This is no longer a missing persons investigation. It's a potential abduction.
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight
  • It's absolutely not her fault.
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight
  • A young life had just been ended needlessly.
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight
  • It's a wonderful legacy to have.
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight
  • How can you-- how can anybody bear that pain?
    Text Me When You Get Home: The Murder of India Chipchase | Murdered at First Sight

Key Moments

  • Missing Person Report03:37
  • CCTV Investigation10:22
  • Tragic Discovery21:13
  • Crime Scene Discovery23:50
  • Strange Home Conditions24:01
  • Tenniswood's Complacency27:24
  • Trial Begins33:37
  • Community Legacy40:02

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown