00:00:03
[theme music] NARRATOR: A fatal
fall into a stream in a remote British
countryside.
00:00:14
ALISTAIR HARKER:
The police said there had been some sort of
an accident involving Natalie.
00:00:19
NARRATOR: A young woman's
life cut short in an instant. Was it just a tragic accident?
00:00:34
STEVE MENZIES: Andrew
Pearson gave an account, he'd gone for a walk
with Natalie,
00:00:37
and she'd fallen
and slipped into a stream. NARRATOR: Or murder? HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: All
the police have at this point
00:00:43
is suspicions. They've got questions. But that is not enough
to provide evidence of guilt.
00:00:50
[theme music] [melancholy music] AMBER HAQUE: Natalie Harker
was born in North Yorkshire.
00:01:15
She lived with her mom
and dad, John and Deborah, and her brother Alistair. ALISTAIR HARKER: Natalie
was a loving, caring sister.
00:01:24
When we were younger
we were inseparable. My uncle used to call us
the "gruesome twosome."
00:01:30
One day, me and Natalie were
out playing in the fields and the farm that we lived on.
00:01:35
And my sister dared me
to sit on an ant hive. So I did. And then evidently
got my ass bit.
00:01:42
This was typical of what me
and Natalie would get up to. We were like cats and dogs.
00:01:47
We were always scrapping,
but we were always close. A loving brother and sister.
00:01:53
- Natalie was described
as kind, hardworking, loved by all of her
friends and the community
00:01:59
that she lived in. - She was really popular. She could talk to anyone
about anything.
00:02:04
Everybody described her as a
bright, happy, bubbly character who would help anybody out.
00:02:11
NARRATOR: In early
2018, Natalie was living at home
with her mom and dad when she began dating
an older man named
00:02:18
Andrew Pearson, who she'd
met when they both worked at a local supermarket. - And a few months after
Andrew had quit his job,
00:02:27
he came back in the store and
asked her to be his girlfriend, and Natalie said yes.
00:02:31
Despite the 15 year
age gap, it was what would seem like
a fairy tale relationship.
00:02:38
Natalie would talk in length
about Andrew, that he was so kind and how amazing he was.
00:02:47
NARRATOR: By October
2019, 30-year-old Natalie had left her job
at the supermarket
00:02:53
and was working as a cleaner. - Natalie was a really
hard-working person. She worked two
separate cleaning
00:03:00
jobs, one in the morning
and one in the afternoon. - Natalie often worked
on sociable hours,
00:03:05
but she always was
really reliable and would turn up on time
every day for her shift.
00:03:11
[ominous music] NARRATOR: On October 9,
2019, Natalie left her parents' house at 4:30
AM to cycle to her
00:03:23
first cleaning job of the day. - Natalie told her parents that
she had a medical appointment
00:03:31
at 10:00 AM after she finished
work, and she said that she would be home after that.
00:03:37
NARRATOR: But by 1:00 PM,
there was no sign of Natalie. - Natalie's parents were
becoming increasingly
00:03:44
concerned at this point. They went out
into the back garden, they could see that her
bicycle wasn't there
00:03:50
and they called
her mobile phone, it went straight to voicemail. John and Deborah were
worried that maybe Natalie
00:03:58
had got into some
kind of accident, and they went
to where she was meant to have had her
appointment that day,
00:04:03
but Natalie had never shown. - At about 2:30 that day, I
got a phone call from my dad
00:04:10
saying Natalie
had gone missing, didn't know where she'd gone. And said, "you
need to come home."
00:04:15
- By this point, they thought
something was seriously wrong. They called 999
and within 10 minutes,
00:04:20
officers were at the house. [police siren wailing] NARRATOR: Detective
Inspector Steve Menzies
00:04:27
of North Yorkshire Police
was on duty that day. STEVE MENZIES:
So the first responders
00:04:33
arrived at Natalie's home. Those officers did
a risk assessment to find out what
Natalie's routines were,
00:04:39
who were her friends
and family were, and to find out whether she
was suffering any issues.
00:04:44
Natalie would normally finish
her work about o'clock AM in the morning. She would then
cycle back home and
00:04:49
rest before her second shift. It was established that
Natalie hadn't arrived at work
00:04:55
and she certainly
hadn't arrived home. AMBER HAQUE:
The police launched an urgent missing
persons inquiry,
00:05:02
and they asked
the family to share some recent pictures
of Natalie, which they then shared on social media.
00:05:09
To help with
their search, the police really needed to piece
together what Natalie
00:05:13
had done in the hours
before her disappearance, particularly the route
that she had taken to work.
00:05:19
STEVE MENZIES: Natalie would
normally use the main road. However, a few months before,
she'd fallen off her bike
00:05:25
and injured her ankle
and she was really scared that she might
fall into the road
00:05:29
where there might
be passing traffic. So she chose to use a cycle
route close by, which
00:05:34
bypassed much of the road. The cycle path is quite narrow,
and on an October morning
00:05:40
it was really, really dark. It was unlit, it was cold. It was wet and it was
shrouded by trees and bushes.
00:05:49
NARRATOR: As detectives
began to build a picture of Natalie's movements earlier
that morning, at 4:43 PM,
00:05:56
over 3 hours since Natalie's
parents had reported her missing, North Yorkshire
Police received a distressing
00:06:03
999 call from Andrew Pearson. Following Andrew's
999 call to report that Natalie had died after
falling into a stream,
00:07:55
officers arrived at the scene. - They found Andrew Pearson. He then directed them down
the cycle path to a gate,
00:08:03
where he pointed
across the field and said that Natalie's
body was in a tent
00:08:06
within the wooded area. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Natalie's family were still
frantically searching
00:08:12
for their missing loved one. - I said to my mom
and my dad, "I want to go out
00:08:17
and see if I can find her." Mom came with me. We drove around
for about 10, 15
00:08:23
minutes, looking
in all the places we thought she maybe was. And I said to mom
we'll go and see
00:08:28
if she's fallen off the bike. So we went down
to the lane where Natalie would sometimes go.
00:08:34
On the way back from work,
then walked down the lane, heard a load of sirens. Thought the police are coming.
00:08:40
So we ran out to be greeted
by Andrew Pearson and two police officers. The police said that
Andrew had called
00:08:52
and said that there had been
some sort of an accident involving Natalie. Andrew was jumping around
hysterically saying,
00:08:58
"this is the family,
this is the family." The police said, "stand
over there, please.
00:09:04
Andrew's found Natalie." In that moment, we had no
idea what was going on.
00:09:10
Both me and mom heard
the air ambulance coming over and thought she
was being saved.
00:09:16
NARRATOR: While Alistair
and his mom Deborah awaited news
on Natalie, officers followed Andrew's
directions into the woodland
00:09:23
where he claimed he
had been camping. STEVE MENZIES: Officers
came across a thicket
00:09:28
of wooded area, brambles,
bushes, overhanging trees and they scrambled down
that towards a stream.
00:09:35
Officers managed to get across
the stream but the other side, and they came across Andrew
Pearson's tent, which
00:09:41
was a highly camouflaged tent,
which was underneath a tree canopy, which made it
really difficult to be
00:09:47
found in the first instance. Inside the tent, Natalie's
naked body was found
00:09:52
underneath the sleeping bag. Officers could see
straight away that she had some severe bruising
towards her upper torso and
00:10:01
her neck area. ALISTAIR HARKER: When
the police came back from hunting
around for Natalie,
00:10:06
they told us to sit
in the back of a police car and wait for my father
to come down.
00:10:11
In that moment, we didn't
know what was going on. The police said nothing to us.
00:10:15
When my father arrived,
a police person came up and said,
"we found a body and we believe it's Natalie."
00:10:21
[tense music] NARRATOR: After North Yorkshire
Police discovered the body of 30-year-old Natalie Harker
inside a tent on October 9,
00:10:34
2019, they proceeded
to question Andrew Pearson, who had called
emergency services,
00:10:40
claiming his girlfriend's
death had been a tragic accident
after she'd slipped
00:10:45
and fallen into a stream. STEVE MENZIES: Andrew
Pearson gave an account they'd met on the cycle path.
00:10:52
He'd gone for a walk with
Natalie, and during that walk, she'd fallen and slipped
into a stream.
00:10:58
He then stated that he'd
pulled Natalie from the stream, given a CPR, and then
dragged her to a tent
00:11:04
that he'd pitched
nearby in some woods. Andrew told the officers
whilst in the tent,
00:11:08
she was awfully cold and wet,
so he took her clothes off to try and get her warm.
00:11:12
- Pearson says that
he fell unconscious from the pain of his back
injury, and when he woke,
00:11:18
he found Natalie dead. And he said that the only
thing that woke him up was a call from
a friend in America.
00:11:26
- This was some 12
hours after Natalie had cycled to work that morning. Her body was now
found naked in a tent
00:11:33
with some severe injuries. NARRATOR: Natalie's brother
Alistair and their parents
00:11:37
were waiting at the scene
when detectives confirmed they'd found Natalie. - Mom and dad both cried.
00:11:45
During this time,
we're very, very angry. I felt numb all day and every
day for about a week after.
00:11:54
Nothing added up in our heads. Why would Natalie
have gone down into the woods at 5:30 in the
morning with it being dark?
00:12:02
I thought it was very, very
strange behavior for Natalie. - It's, of course, going to be
very unusual for a family to be
00:12:08
live at the scene itself. The family stumbling across
the death of a loved one is going to be
so distressing, so confusing,
00:12:17
and there's not going
to be any answers to the millions
of questions that flood
00:12:21
their mind in that moment. NARRATOR: An investigation
into Natalie's death was immediately launched,
led by Detective
00:12:29
Inspector Steve
Menzies, who began to scrutinize Andrew's story. - But Andrew Pearson claimed
to have met Natalie down
00:12:37
this dark, dingy cycle path. In actual fact, the route
from her home address went down the main road and
there were several places where
00:12:47
Andrew Peterson could have met
Natalie in a well-lit area, but he chose to meet her
down this cycle path.
00:12:54
NARRATOR: As the investigation
got underway, it wasn't long before
his team uncovered
00:12:59
a crucial piece of evidence. - So when the forensic
examination took place with the tent, it was found
that Natalie's clothing was
00:13:06
folded neatly
in a zipped storage compartment within the tent. However, I would have expected
from Andrew Peterson's account
00:13:13
that had he taken Natalie's
clothing off to get her warm, that clothing would
have been in a bundle,
00:13:17
not stored in a storage
compartment neatly folded. NARRATOR: But that
wasn't the only discovery
00:13:23
that set off alarm bells. - A number of items were found
within Andrew Pearson's tent.
00:13:30
A lot of survival items,
dried food, axes, knives. But worryingly, what was
found was some gaffer tape,
00:13:36
which was very
suggestive of a gag having been used on Natalie. Officers immediately became
very suspicious of the account
00:13:43
that Andrew had given. Based upon that
information, officers determined that Andrew
Pearson should be arrested
00:13:51
on suspicion of murder. - You're under arrest
on suspicion of murder, OK? You understand?
00:13:57
All right. I'm just going to put some
cuffs on you at the moment, OK? - He is using a higher
pitched voice.
00:14:04
He is sort of trying to show
off some body language of being really quite timid.
00:14:09
And I have to question whether
that is his natural reaction or whether that's
quite intentional.
00:14:16
Pearson looks very distressed. He looks very shocked. None of that naturally
indicates guilt on its own.
00:14:23
What it could be
is that he stumbled across a really
awful scene, and he's distraught
at the loss of Natalie.
00:14:30
Or it could be a tactic to try
and garner some sympathy from those arresting him
00:14:36
NARRATOR: Following his
arrest, Andrew was taken to Harrogate Police Station. - I felt a lot
of anger towards Andrew
00:14:44
when I'd found out he'd been
arrested because I thought he was a kind, decent
person, and that he
00:14:50
wouldn't have hurt Natalie. It's hard to describe,
but it's sort of a numb feeling
in your head that you
00:14:58
just can't process anything. - The police now
just had 24 hours to either charge Andrew Pearson
or to let him walk free.
00:15:08
They were desperately
hoping he could expand on that first 999 call he made. STEVE MENZIES: I
would have thought
00:15:15
that, given Andrew Pearson's
original account that Natalie had fallen to this
stream and that this
00:15:19
was a complete accident
leading to her death, having then been arrested
on suspicion of murder,
00:15:24
that he would have
been very keen to give an account interview. However, in the police
interview,
00:15:30
Andrew almost disengaged
from the police officers and refused to answer
any questions.
00:15:34
That became really
suspicious for me as the senior
investigating officer. - It's a real contrast from
that first 999 call where
00:15:42
he is desperate for help to now
somebody that looks really disengaged with helping
the police understand
00:15:48
what's just
happened to somebody who he claims that he loves. - It's relatively common that
when someone has experienced
00:15:55
a significant trauma, that they
go through a period of shock and that can be an immediate
shock, or it can be prolonged.
00:16:01
And that can lead to displays
of various different behaviors, including a kind
of panic response
00:16:08
where actually they
entirely withdraw. You can also imagine if this
is a case of someone innocent
00:16:14
who's been arrested and is
being questioned as if they had something to do with
this death, that alone
00:16:21
would be really traumatizing. It can make you, you know,
totally withdraw into yourself.
00:16:26
It could really make you
question how safe you are. Whilst naturally
you might think
00:16:33
that if someone's girlfriend
has had an accident and died in front of them, that
they would be trying to provide
00:16:39
as much information
and context as possible to an investigation. But you also have to remember
that trauma can do really
00:16:47
unusual things to a person. There's even conditions
like selective mutism, where people struggle
to communicate at all verbally.
00:16:55
And so what Pearson
is doing here, whilst maybe looks
unusual, is not entirely unheard
of and cannot be enough
00:17:04
to evidence their guilt. NARRATOR: While police
struggled to get information from Andrew, a forensic
post-mortem was being
00:17:11
carried out on Natalie's body. STEVE MENZIES:
Natalie had suffered some external/internal
bruising to her upper torso
00:17:19
and to her neck, but Andrew
Pearson's account was that he had
given CPR to Natalie
00:17:24
at the point of taking her from
the stream and at the tent. So that could partially account
for some of the injuries
00:17:29
that Natalie had received. NARRATOR: Police would have to
wait for the post-mortem report
00:17:34
to find out if it would provide
further information about how Natalie died and whether she
had fallen into the stream,
00:17:41
as Andrew claimed, or if she
had been pushed to her death. HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: All
the police have at this point
00:17:47
is suspicions. They've got questions,
but that is not enough to provide
evidence of guilt.
00:17:53
And so they need
a lot more information before they can
start truly answering any of those questions.
00:17:59
They're going to be
looking for alibis. They're going to be
looking at the timelines.
00:18:03
They're going to be
looking at the crime scene. Things like phone
records, anything
00:18:07
that can indicate where Andrew
was before and during the event of Natalie's death.
00:18:12
NARRATOR: With Andrew
Pearson still in custody, police decided to look
into his cell phone, which
00:18:17
had been seized
during his arrest, to see if it could provide any
clues as to how Natalie died.
00:18:24
[curious music] - Andrew Pearson was
asked for his PIN number to access that phone.
00:18:31
He refused to give that PIN
number, even though he was told it could be an offense and he
could be prosecuted for not
00:18:36
providing the PIN number. Again, that raised
even more suspicion as to why Andrew Pearson
wasn't assisting the police.
00:18:42
I believed at that point that
that phone could be really key to our investigation.
00:18:48
It was really key that
that phone forensically examined as soon as possible to
try and provide some evidence
00:18:53
to support the investigation. NARRATOR: While Andrew
was still in custody, the post-mortem
results came in.
00:19:01
- At this stage
of the investigation, the Crown Prosecution
Service would have asked for a cause of death.
00:19:07
Unfortunately,
the forensic post-mortem was inconclusive at that time. NARRATOR: The initial
post-mortem examination
00:19:14
confirmed that Natalie
had several broken ribs, consistent with
Andrews account,
00:19:19
that he administered CPR,
but was not able to confirm a definitive cause of death.
00:19:26
STEVE MENZIES:
The forensic pathologist needed some more
investigations conducted,
00:19:30
which included histology,
toxicology, and also to check
for isotopes that may have been in Natalie's body.
00:19:38
Isotopes are unique
to different bodies of water, and obviously, if Natalie
had been in the stream,
00:19:43
I would expect isotopes
from the stream to be Natalie's system. NARRATOR: The police
were still no closer
00:19:50
to discovering if this had
been a terrible accident, and Natalie had fallen into
the stream, as Andrew claimed,
00:19:56
or if she had been pushed. STEVE MENZIES: I was left
in a very difficult position.
00:20:01
Andrew Pearson's
account was partly supported by the forensic
pathology report.
00:20:06
However, more
investigation needed doing. Those investigations
were going to take
00:20:11
days, weeks, and months. For myself
and the investigation team, it was really frustrating
that we were not
00:20:17
in a position to charge Andrew
Pearson with Natalie's murder. We were now left
in a position where
00:20:21
I had to bail him with
safeguarding conditions until those investigations
could take place.
00:20:27
[tense music] NARRATOR: In October
2019, Andrew Pearson was arrested for the suspected
murder of his girlfriend,
00:20:40
Natalie Harker. - You're under arrest
on suspicion of murder, OK? You understand?
00:20:46
I'm just going to put some
cuffs on you at the moment. NARRATOR: But when
questioned, he wouldn't talk.
00:20:50
And with no clear
cause of death, police were forced
to release him on bail. Behind the scenes, detectives
raced to uncover the truth.
00:21:00
Had Natalie slipped
and fallen into the stream, as Pearson claimed, or had
Andrew pushed her to her death?
00:21:08
- It was a really tense time
for the investigation team and for myself as a senior
investigating officer.
00:21:12
We knew that we'd potentially
had a really dangerous man on bail, albeit with
safeguarding conditions,
00:21:18
that we had to work really
hard to get back into custody. - At this point, all
the police had to go
00:21:23
on where their suspicions. But of course,
that is not enough. They needed hard
evidence and they
00:21:28
wanted to try and piece
together a timeline, really, from locations, phone records
as a way of trying to establish
00:21:35
the facts of what happened. - We all felt a lot
of anger when we found out that the police
had released him,
00:21:41
because we all had a feeling
that he'd maybe done it. We were all worried
as to how or
00:21:47
what Andrew was going
to do when he was released from police custody. NARRATOR: While police awaited
further postmortem tests and
00:21:55
the forensic results
from Andrew's cell phone, detectives began
digging into Natalie
00:22:00
and Andrew's relationship. - What we discovered was
that within a few weeks or
00:22:07
months of Andrew Pearson,
Natalie Harker becoming involved in a relationship,
Andrew lost his job
00:22:12
and he spent most of his time
gaming on games consoles, and he became more and more
dependent on Natalie.
00:22:18
While Natalie was securing
the finances with two jobs, she would pester him
to try and get a job,
00:22:24
but he refused
to do so and even told a friend that
he wouldn't be told by Natalie to get a job.
00:22:31
- Natalie got sick
and tired of always having to pay for the cinema,
meals out, days out,
00:22:37
and things like that
as he never had any money. NARRATOR: As police continue
to question friends and
00:22:43
family about
their relationship, some concerning
information came to light. - We found out that
Andrew Pearson started
00:22:51
to separate Natalie from
her friends and family, and he became very
controlling over Natalie.
00:22:55
He determined
when she could see people who she
could see and really controlled a lot of her life.
00:23:02
- Natalie's friends definitely
noticed a change in her. They said that she changed
her personality the way
00:23:08
that she dressed,
and just became a lot more disengaged from
her social life, her church,
00:23:14
which she had been
really heavily involved with in the community. - During the course
of the relationship,
00:23:19
Pearson becomes increasingly
reliant on Natalie financially, emotionally, and then
on top of that,
00:23:26
he starts restricting
her freedom of movement. And you often see
that in relationships
00:23:31
that involve coercive
control, people do this to isolate
their partner intentionally so they can have
greater control over them.
00:23:40
Pearson is clearly
insecure about the fact that he's not bringing
anything to this relationship.
00:23:46
And so by coercively
controlling, by manipulating her, he's
able to feel some power when
00:23:51
he's actually probably
feeling quite powerless in the rest of his life. NARRATOR: 18 months
into her relationship
00:23:57
with Andrew, Natalie had turned
to her family for advice. - Natalie had come
to me, mom, and dad,
00:24:05
and spoken to us about
she wasn't feeling happy in the relationship, so
the three of us and Natalie all
00:24:12
decided if she wasn't happy in
her marriage to call it quits. - She text Pearson
saying the relationship
00:24:19
was over, to not get
in contact with her again, and it had taken a lot
for her to get to this point.
00:24:25
She was really optimistic,
looking forward to a fresh start in life. - At the start, we thought
that Andrew had taken
00:24:32
the break up really well. It was only afterwards we
discovered that he hadn't.
00:24:38
- Pearson bombarded Natalie's
phone with text messages. He refused to accept
her decision
00:24:45
and he wasn't going
to take no for an answer. - He would get friends
and family to message her.
00:24:51
He would send her
messages on social media and actually bump into her
to and from her workplace.
00:24:57
- Natalie is understandably
trying to fully disengage at this point. She's not responding
to any of the messages,
00:25:04
and you can understand
why this needs to sort of be a cut and dry moment. People normally go through
high emotional stress periods,
00:25:12
and then it sort of just
starts to fade out. That's the normal
way of a breakup.
00:25:17
But in the case
of Andrew Pearson, this does the opposite
because this isn't so much about the breakup
or the loss of love.
00:25:25
For him, this is
the loss of control. And so now, not having even
the ability to raise a response
00:25:32
from Natalie, that's going
to be infuriating to someone like Andrew Pearson.
00:25:38
NARRATOR: When Andrew's tactics
failed to win Natalie back, he posted a message
on social media.
00:25:45
STEVE MENZIES:
In that message, he portrayed Natalie to be
the bad person, a person who
00:25:50
was stringing him
along, using him, and that he was a perfect
gentleman in that relationship.
00:25:56
What he was trying
to do, in my view, was to soil Natalie's name so
that if he couldn't have her,
00:26:02
nobody else would want her. - Andrew Pearson is
clearly narcissistic. He has these extreme
senses of grandiosity,
00:26:12
and so someone like that
being broken up with shakes them to their core,
because what
00:26:17
our internal feelings
of inadequacy, it brings them to the surface. And anyone who exposes
that inadequacy
00:26:25
is immediately an enemy
to someone like Pearson. What he's doing
at this point is just
00:26:32
another way of him trying
to assert control over her, over the narrative
of their relationship,
00:26:37
and positioning
himself as the victim. NARRATOR: When Natalie didn't
respond to the message,
00:26:44
Andrew's behavior took
a turn for the worse. - Andrew Pearson's
attitude towards Natalie
00:26:50
completely changed. He now escalated to sending
a really nasty text messages to upset her and to blame
her for the breakup
00:26:58
of the relationship. - Andrew was saying
that he was going to reveal that Natalie
had been sleeping around
00:27:04
during their relationship. I could not get
my head around why anybody, let alone somebody
that claimed to love them,
00:27:11
would do that. Made me really, really angry. - This resulted
on the 18th of September,
00:27:17
Natalie sending Andrew
Pearson a message saying that the relationship was finished
and pleading with him to leave
00:27:25
her alone, not
to contact her, and not to turn up at her at work. NARRATOR: In the aftermath
of the breakup,
00:27:31
Natalie tried to move
on with her life. - Friends of Natalie saw
a real positive change
00:27:37
in her whole demeanor having
ended the relationship with Andrew Pearson. She was wearing makeup.
00:27:42
She was doing more
things socially. She was going to church
more, going to church events.
00:27:46
NARRATOR: But Andrew
continued to harass her. STEVE MENZIES: She mentioned
to a number of people, friends,
00:27:52
people from church,
work colleagues, that Andrew Pearson
was concerning her by turning up unexpectedly
at her workplace
00:28:00
or bumping into her when she
was going to or from work. It was really apparent
that his behavior
00:28:06
was escalating
quite dangerously to stalking behavior. AMBER HAQUE: Natalie told
her family and friends
00:28:13
that she thought when
she cut off contact, this would all just go away. But Pearson was
really relentless.
00:28:20
He would not leave
Natalie alone and she was getting frightened. She told friends that she never
knew what he was capable of
00:28:27
and that he had a really
volatile personality. ALISTAIR HARKER: After Natalie
had finished with them,
00:28:33
she'd said to me, "what
do I do if I see Andrew?" And I said to her, "all you
need to do is if you see him,
00:28:41
walk away, go to somewhere
where there's lots of people, and you'll be all right."
00:28:45
At this point, I
felt very angry towards Andrew, as I
didn't know why he wouldn't leave Natalie alone.
00:28:51
HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND:
And now Natalie has fully cut
contact with Andrew, he is now escalating his
behavior even further
00:28:58
because this is just
another step of his control being challenged. He's obsessing over the end
of this relationship,
00:29:06
this loss of control. And so this is his way of
trying to strike fear into her. And it's working.
00:29:13
- We didn't know
at the time that Andrew was stalking Natalie and
turning up at her workplace.
00:29:19
Natalie was a very
independent person. She didn't tell us
about what was going on
00:29:25
as she felt that we were going
to start not letting her go out on a bike and taking
her to places,
00:29:31
and that would have taken
her independence away. - We now had a really
good understanding
00:29:36
of Andrew Pearson's
behavior towards Natalie, and he developed
a motive to harm Natalie.
00:29:44
Natalie was so concerned about
Andrew Pearson's behavior that she warned him that she
would report him to the police
00:29:49
if he didn't leave her alone. Unfortunately, she never did. NARRATOR: Despite
the damning testimony
00:29:55
police had gathered about
Andrew's controlling and threatening behavior, it
wasn't enough to prove
00:30:01
that he had murdered Natalie. But then came a major
breakthrough in the case. - The forensic
examination managed to get
00:30:09
into Andrew Pearson's phone. What we discovered
were a series of photographs that
had been deleted,
00:30:16
but were managed
to be recovered. And that showed
that Andrew Pearson had been plotting some week
or so before Natalie's death.
00:30:24
Evidence showed that he'd been
photographing up the cycle path, down the cycle
path, which
00:30:30
gave alternate views
of what he could see and what Natalie could see as
she was cycling down the path.
00:30:36
They photographed the gateway,
the field, the barbed wire fence, through the wooded
area, over the stream,
00:30:43
and up to the area where
Andrew Pearson would eventually pitch his tent. The discovery
of the photographs
00:30:49
taken from Andrew
Pearson's phone was a key missing piece
of the investigation.
00:30:54
- These photos just go to show
exactly how obsessive Pearson was becoming, because this is
now someone who is not just
00:31:01
mentally stewing
on this breakup and becoming
internally frustrated. This is someone who's now
actively planning ways to scare
00:31:10
and potentially hurt
their ex-partner. These pictures are evidence
that Pearson's initial account
00:31:16
of what occurred
that he just had a chance meeting with
Natalie along the path is total nonsense.
00:31:21
These pictures prove that
this is premeditated, this is planned, and Pearson
can no longer be believed.
00:31:30
NARRATOR: The phone data also
provided critical information about Andrew's
whereabouts in the days
00:31:34
leading up to Natalie's death. STEVE MENZIES: Further
evidence gained from the phone
00:31:39
was cell site evidence. We can show that the morning
before Natalie was murdered,
00:31:44
he'd been in the field
or at the gate, watching when Natalie cycled
past on her way to work,
00:31:50
so he knew exactly the time
that she would pass. Almost a dry run
for the events that would take
00:31:56
place the following day. This showed that, contrary to
what Andrew Pearson had stated,
00:32:02
where he said that he'd
been camping out in the days before he met Natalie
on that cycle path.
00:32:07
In actual fact, he hadn't. The night before
Natalie was murdered, he was actually at home in bed.
00:32:13
We could also evidence
from his phone that Andrew Pearson had set his
alarm that morning, so he could
00:32:18
get down to the scene
and be there in preparation when Natalie
cycled down that cycle path.
00:32:23
- This was not a chance
meeting with Natalie. - This data shows
that this is clearly
00:32:28
someone who has methodically
mapped out exactly what he intends to happen. And it's really sinister.
00:32:35
It's really chilling. It's very telling of his
mental state at that moment.
00:32:39
This is someone out to attack,
out to assert their control. NARRATOR: As police continue
to build their case,
00:32:47
another key piece
of evidence surfaced from the morning Natalie died. - Further examination
of Andrew Pearson's mobile
00:32:54
telephone showed
that it was powered down at 7:12 AM that morning. Andrew Pearson claims that
when he got back to the tent
00:33:02
and having taken
Natalie's clothing off, he collapsed his
unconscious for a number
00:33:06
of hours due to severe
back pain that he suffered. Even though Andrew
Pearson had powered down
00:33:10
his mobile telephone, another
device in his possession showed that he was
actually moving
00:33:15
around the field
at a point where he claims to be unconscious. This just demonstrated that
Andrew Pearson's account
00:33:21
was completely untrue. NARRATOR: But what police
would discover next would be the most damning evidence yet.
00:33:27
- The next inconsistency
in Andrew Pearson's account was that he claimed, having
gone unconscious next
00:33:32
to Natalie, he
woke up because he received a call on his
mobile telephone from a friend in America.
00:33:38
However, the evidence showed
that having powered up his mobile telephone at 3:06
PM in the afternoon,
00:33:45
he actually tried
to make a video call to a friend in America. This video call was either
rejected or not connected.
00:33:52
Andrew Pearson then sends
a text to his friend in America saying, "goodbye,
I've killed Natalie.
00:34:00
I'm going to hand myself in." Even though Andrew Pearson
had deleted the iPhone message
00:34:05
in an effort to destroy
the evidence, the forensic examiners were
able to recover the message.
00:34:10
The iPhone message
led to his friend in America phoning
Andrew Pearson. Then followed a long
telephone conversation,
00:34:19
during which Andrew
Pearson tells him that Natalie had fallen
into the stream and had died.
00:34:25
The friend tells Andrew
Pearson to contact the police. As the senior investigating
officer for this investigation,
00:34:31
this was a massive
breakthrough. This suggested
to me that this was a pre-planned,
premeditated kidnap
00:34:37
and murder of Natalie Harker. NARRATOR: Investigators
were finally able to piece
together what happened
00:34:45
on the day Natalie died. Had she fallen to her
death, as Pearson suggested? Or was she murdered?
00:34:54
- Based now on all
this new evidence, I believe that
Andrew Pearson had waited down that cycle path.
00:34:59
And when she
cycled towards him, he jumped out, dragged
Natalie off the bike, and then forced her over
the fence, across the field,
00:35:08
through the thicket
to the stream. I believe, at some
point, Andrew Pearson had tried to drown
Natalie in the stream.
00:35:16
He's then taken
to his tent where he stripped of her clothing. Once in his tent, I
believe Andrew Pearson
00:35:22
has powered down his phone
to try and hide his location. From the point of the kidnap of
Natalie at 4:45 AM to the 999
00:35:29
call is some 12 hours. I believe that
Andrew Pearson had to remain in the tent
with Natalie's body
00:35:35
because he was disturbed by
some men working in the woods. That meant he couldn't
emerge from the tent
00:35:40
for fear of being seen. With all of the evidence from
the breakup of the relationship
00:35:44
between Andrew
Pearson and Natalie, from the evidence of Andrew
Pearson stalking Natalie
00:35:51
to the mobile
telephone, which showed the movements
of Andrew Pearson, I felt it was a really
strong position
00:35:57
to re-arrest Andrew Pearson
for the offense of kidnap and murder of Natalie Harker.
00:36:07
NARRATOR: By late October 2019,
Andrew Pearson was out on bail, claiming that Natalie
had died after slipping
00:36:15
and falling into a stream. But behind
the scenes, detectives were building a case,
one that pointed
00:36:23
not to a tragic
accident, but to murder. - Police now had evidence
which included the photographs
00:36:30
of the cycle path,
messages which Pearson had deleted from his
friend in America,
00:36:35
and also evidence
from his devices which showed that
he'd been on the move when he claimed he'd
been unconscious.
00:36:42
And the police also had
the evidence of their breakup as the motive. So all the jigsaw pieces
were there for them
00:36:50
to re-arrest and charge
Pearson with the kidnapping and murder of Natalie. STEVE MENZIES: I
deployed officers
00:36:57
early one morning to go
to his family home to make that arrest. Those officers
told me he'd made
00:37:02
no reaction to that arrest. - When I found out
that Andrew had been re-arrested
on charges of murder,
00:37:09
I felt very, very happy. I thought to myself,
"they've got the--" NARRATOR: Andrew was taken
to Harrogate Police Station
00:37:17
and interviewed
by detectives who presented the overwhelming
evidence they had against him
00:37:23
that they believed
proved Pearson had pushed Natalie to her death. STEVE MENZIES: He
continued to be disengaged
00:37:30
from the interviewing officers,
and failed to respond to any of the questions posed to him.
00:37:35
Despite all this new
evidence that was put to him, this continued to demonstrate
to me that Andrew Pearson
00:37:40
was guilty of this offense. Following those final
interviews with Andrew Pearson,
00:37:46
we approached the Crown
Prosecution Service asking for charges of kidnap
and murder of Natalie Harker.
00:37:51
Those were authorized
and Andrew Pearson was charged and remanded into custody. NARRATOR: In the months
that followed,
00:37:58
police continued
to build their case to try and prove that
Andrew had kidnapped and
00:38:03
killed Natalie in cold blood. But there was still no
definitive cause of death until the forensic
pathologist's
00:38:13
full report finally came in. - The evidence showed
that Natalie Harker had died as a result of neck
injuries, and the fact
00:38:22
that both her mouth and nose
had been submerged under water. Natalie's cause
of death was a result
00:38:28
of strangulation and drowning. NARRATOR: To identify
the location where Natalie was murdered,
an isotope analysis
00:38:36
of the water in her
lungs had also been carried out and examined. STEVE MENZIES: The isotopes
within Natalie's system matched
00:38:43
those from the stream close
to where Andrew Pearson had pitched his tent. NARRATOR: The pathology
results concluded
00:38:50
there was no evidence
of a brain injury, despite Andrew's claim that
she had fallen into the stream.
00:38:58
STEVE MENZIES: All
of the forensic evidence and the evidence
gained from the scene
00:39:01
didn't show that Natalie
had fallen into the stream. My belief is Andrew Pearson
dragged Natalie to that stream
00:39:08
and tried to drown her. NARRATOR: Armed with
evidence that Andrew had pushed Natalie
underwater and drowned her,
00:39:14
police received further
devastating details about Pearson's actions
on the day Natalie died.
00:39:21
- So the initial
post-mortem report suggested that there had been some sexual
activity that had taken place.
00:39:28
HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND:
Pearson raping Natalie is just another way that
he is yet again trying
00:39:32
to assert control
over her because he is physically, in that
moment, dominating her.
00:39:40
And I think this is just
another element where you're seeing how insidious and how
controlling this person
00:39:47
really is. - Pearson was in the tent
with Natalie for hours. And this was a person who
he claimed to have loved.
00:39:58
At Teesside Crown
Court in November 2020, almost a year after his
arrest, Andrew Pearson
00:40:03
stood trial for the murder
of Natalie Harker. - We're in the courtroom. We heard the 999 call
that Andrew had made.
00:40:11
And I remember thinking
to myself, "you little-- how dare you make yourself
look like a victim?"
00:40:17
STEVE MENZIES: Despite all
of this overwhelming evidence, the fact of the mobile
telephone,
00:40:22
the fact of the history, all
of the forensic evidence, Andrew Pearson continued to
deny the fact that he kidnapped
00:40:29
and murdered Natalie Harker. In court, he stuck by the story
that they'd met together.
00:40:34
They'd walked across the field,
they'd had sex in the field, and then she'd fallen
into the stream by accident,
00:40:40
following which he
dragged her to the tent. The jury to sit through and
listen to all of the evidence,
00:40:47
first from the prosecution
and then the defense. It was harrowing evidence. But not only the jury.
00:40:52
Natalie Harker's family had to
sit through the evidence, too. So it was really
tough for them.
00:40:57
- When we were
in the courtroom listening to all the evidence
brought against Andrew,
00:41:01
I kept looking
over at him and I saw absolutely no
emotion whatsoever, no remorse, no anything,
just a blank expression.
00:41:11
- Going into the trial,
I felt really confident in the investigation
that team had conducted.
00:41:17
The evidence was overwhelming. However, it's a jury trial. The jury have to listen to both
the prosecution case and
00:41:24
the defense case,
and then have to make up their own minds
based on the evidence
00:41:27
as to what they believe. - The jury heard evidence for
over three weeks in this trial,
00:41:33
yet they took just three
hours to return a verdict. NARRATOR: Andrew
Pearson was found guilty
00:41:41
and sentenced to life
in prison with a minimum of 25 years for the kidnap
and murder of Natalie Harker.
00:41:49
STEVE MENZIES: When
the jury came back with a guilty verdict,
it was a massive relief
00:41:53
both to the investigation
team and Natalie's family. - When we heard
the verdict, I was at home
00:41:57
with my mother and my father
rang me and said, "they've got him." And I jumped up and I
said, "we've finally
00:42:03
got justice for Natalie. They've got
the little bastard." Both my mom and dad were
feeling very, very happy,
00:42:10
as was sad but we
were all still very numb and very hollow. - At no point through
this whole process,
00:42:16
from Andrew Pearson
being arrested to the point he was
sentenced by a judge, did he show any
remorse for the kidnap
00:42:23
and murder of Natalie Harker. As a murder detective, I have
investigated lots of murders.
00:42:28
However, this was quite
striking in the fact that Andrew Pearson
sought revenge on Natalie.
00:42:34
Andrew Pearson controlled
the relationship with Natalie Harker. However, once she got
that control back,
00:42:40
he couldn't cope with that. This was a matter of power,
revenge against Natalie Harker.
00:42:46
- This is just such
a tragic and upsetting case. You have this young
woman that was trying
00:42:53
to leave this relationship
with such an abusive man, and you just hope
that the verdict
00:42:59
gave her family a real sense
of justice and closure. [melancholy music] NARRATOR:
In the years following
00:43:10
Natalie Harker's
death, her memory lives on through her
friends and family. ALISTAIR HARKER: We got
a commemorative bench
00:43:18
in Natalie's favorite
place, the church. It's a lovely place
to go and sit and
00:43:23
contemplate Natalie,
just think about how much of a lovely young lady
she was, how happy and kind
00:43:30
she was, all the friends
she's left behind, and the family that
she's left behind.
00:43:38
I'll go and visit the bench
on Natalie's birthday or the anniversary
of when she was killed,
00:43:44
and think about how
bright, beautiful, and amazing of a sister
she really was. When me and my wife
Amanda got married,
00:43:55
Natalie would have been
a big part of this. But with the life
being so cruelly taken,
00:44:01
we decided that we'd have some
photos taken by a memorial bench so that it felt like
she was part of the day
00:44:10
and part of our lives. She was a kind, loving
human being with so much love and life to give.
00:44:21
And that's how I'd like
my sister to be remembered. [melancholy music] [theme music]