00:00:05
-In 2002, in Bournemouth
on the south coast of England, police were called to the scene
of a disturbance
00:00:12
in a residential street. Two young children
were distraught and being comforted
by a neighbor.
00:00:18
When the police
entered the house, they found the mother
horrifically murdered. -Her body has been mutilated,
00:00:26
but, bizarrely, in her hands
are cut head hair. It's cut head hair,
but it's not her hair.
00:00:33
It's hair which is alien
from that scene. -The murderer had conned his way
into his victim's house,
00:00:41
attacked and killed the woman,
then mutilated her body. His name was Danilo Restivo.
00:00:48
-Most people, when they've
committed a murder, they want to get as far away
from that body as possible
00:00:52
as quickly as possible. But this is somebody
who enjoys spending time with the body and mutilating it.
00:00:59
♪♪ -This has a fetishistic
and almost sadistic element above and beyond the usual
simple motives for homicide.
00:01:12
-But police discovered that this was not
the first time he had killed. Their investigation revealed
Danilo Restivo
00:01:20
to be one of the world's
most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ -On the 12th of November, 2002,
00:01:46
Bournemouth police had received
a 999 call from a terrified 14-year-old
and his 11-year-old sister.
00:01:53
They had returned home
from school to find their mother's body
mutilated in the bathroom.
00:02:00
The investigating officer
was Phil James. -The police were called
at about 4:00 in the afternoon.
00:02:07
The initial response
would be made by uniformed police officers as soon as they realized
it was a murder.
00:02:13
I received a call,
and I drove to Bournemouth, and I took command
of that murder investigation.
00:02:20
-The woman was
a local seamstress, 48-year-old Heather Barnett. Her children had returned
home from school
00:02:27
and expected to find her. When they received no response
to their arrival, the children searched the house
00:02:35
and found their mother's
mutilated body. -When we look at the mutilation
of Heather's body,
00:02:41
both of her breasts
have been cut off. She's got some hair
in her hand. There's a glove down
by her underwear.
00:02:49
So what's happened here
is that this offender has completely
humiliated his victim.
00:02:55
He's taken the very kind of
symbols of her femininity, her breasts,
and taken that away.
00:03:01
So this is
a very distinct signature. It's an incredibly unique thing. -The killer
was Heather's neighbor,
00:03:09
30-year-old Danilo Restivo. When police arrived
at the scene, they found Restivo
and his girlfriend
00:03:17
comforting his
victim's children. -They've been befriended by the two Italians
from across the road,
00:03:25
who ended up becoming extremely
significant to the inquiry. -Although he would soon become
their prime suspect
00:03:33
in this seemingly
random killing, police were unable to prove
Restivo was responsible.
00:03:39
It would take
another eight years till Restivo could finally be
charged with Heather's murder.
00:03:46
Due to the extreme nature
of the killing, police were determined never
to let him out of their sight.
00:03:52
-We never left that case
even as the years progressed. You worked long, hard days,
00:03:59
and you were always thinking
about that case, you know, about the children,
about the horrific scene,
00:04:07
and about that, always,
the ongoing risk that this man,
who was walking about, driving about Bournemouth,
00:04:15
presented to the public. -By the time
Restivo was finally caught and faced trial for the murder
of Heather Barnett,
00:04:23
the police had already
uncovered connections to another murder in Italy. The sensational case
made headlines across the globe.
00:04:32
-This was truly a horrendous
and distressing murder that took away a person that was very special
to many, many people.
00:04:42
-He was sentenced to a minimum
of 40 years in prison. -I can remember after that,
00:04:49
after he was found guilty,
later that day. There wasn't massive
celebrations. It was just, "At last,"
00:04:56
you know,
"We've done it for the family." -Restivo may have finally faced
judge and jury in the UK,
00:05:04
but this killer's story
begins in Italy in 1972. He was born in Sicily, and his family later moved
to Potenza in Southern Italy.
00:05:16
-Potenza is a small Italian city which is quite a way away
from all the other cities,
00:05:22
not just geographically,
but also culturally. This is a city where the church
is very influential.
00:05:29
His family were amongst
the great and good of Potenza. So he grew up in quite
a privileged position.
00:05:36
His family were quite powerful. His father was the director of the local branch
of the national library.
00:05:44
He was quite
an influential figure within the local community. If you would say
his father's name,
00:05:50
everybody would know
who that was. -It was clear
from a very young age that Restivo was different
from other children in Potenza.
00:06:00
-Well, Restivo as a child,
he had glasses. He was quite pudgy. He's the kind of boy
who would have been the target
00:06:06
for bullies at school. He was the kind of boy
who would never really fit in with his peers.
00:06:13
But I think in those early days,
he got a sense that, "I'm an outsider. I'm not one of this group,
00:06:20
so I'm going to make up
my own rules." -He was awkward, as well, in the way he talked to women,
which is --
00:06:28
It's hard for you
to try to talk to somebody when you look awkward
and you act awkward.
00:06:35
-Age 21, Restivo became obsessed
with a young girl. -In 1993, he was a young guy,
and it was clear
00:06:45
he had an infatuation
for a girl called Elisa Claps. Elisa Claps was 16,
and she had said to friends
00:06:52
that Restivo was becoming
a bit of a problem, that he was chasing after her. -Elisa may have been irritated
by Restivo's attention,
00:07:02
but one Sunday, she was willing
to meet him at the local church. -She's a good, kind person.
00:07:08
There are many stories
of her going out of her way to help other people
in the community.
00:07:14
And I think she's somebody
who feels quite sympathetic
towards Restivo. She sees this lad
who is an outcast,
00:07:21
who's sort of picked on
and bullied by the people, and I think she feels a sense
of kind of care towards him.
00:07:28
So when he asks whether
she would come and meet him, she goes along with it, because
she doesn't for a million years
00:07:35
think that
his intentions are bad. -On a particular Sunday,
she had arranged to meet up
00:07:41
with him outside of the church
in Potenza in order that she could
say to him, "Look.
00:07:47
I don't want
a relationship with you. I don't want to go out with you,
and can you leave me alone?"
00:07:53
-Elisa was seen going to
meet Restivo in the church, but that was the last time
she was ever seen alive.
00:08:00
-Both Elisa and Restivo
went to that church. Restivo left and returned home, and Elisa was never seen again.
00:08:11
-Concerned for Elisa's safety, her family reported her missing
to the police. -There were quite a lot
of conspiracy theories
00:08:19
that developed around
her disappearance, and one of them related
to a page in her diary,
00:08:26
which was missing.
And it was thought that the words that were on
that page were in Albanian.
00:08:32
So there was this idea
that she'd been kidnapped by this Albanian criminal gang.
00:08:36
An innocent girl
just completely vanishes off the face of the earth. It's rife for speculation.
00:08:43
-The local police were called
by the family to investigate
her disappearance. -A number of inquiries
were made to find her.
00:08:51
She was never found, and she was considered
a missing person. However, there were a number
of complications or issues,
00:09:00
which the Italian police were not overly concerned
about following up. We know, for example,
00:09:06
that some time
after Elisa went missing, she supposedly sent an e-mail
to her family saying,
00:09:13
"Hi. I've left the country.
I'm not here any longer. Don't worry about me.
I'm having a new life.
00:09:19
Everything's wonderful,
and just forget about me." A number inquiries were made
in relation to that,
00:09:27
and that e-mail
wasn't sent from abroad. It was sent from an Internet
cafe in Potenza,
00:09:32
and it was sent at a time when Restivo was
in that Internet cafe. -During the investigation,
00:09:40
the local police missed
some vital clues that could have quickly
led them to Restivo.
00:09:46
-He had a history of taking
young girls behind a curtain and up to the first floor
in the church.
00:09:53
There was an injury on his hand around about the time
of her disappearance, and none of this
was really scrutinized.
00:09:59
None of it was really
looked into by the police. -The family did not
know it yet,
00:10:05
but 21-year-old Restivo
had in fact killed Elisa and hidden her
in the attic of the church.
00:10:13
Danilo Restivo would eventually
be convicted of the murder of 16-year-old Elisa Claps
in Italy in 1993,
00:10:23
but it would take nearly 18
years to bring him to justice. What was known by the people
in the small town of Potenza
00:10:31
where he grew up
was that as a young man, Restivo would chase after
young girls in unusual ways.
00:10:39
-He approaches them,
and when they reject him, he turns on them, essentially. And he calls them,
and he plays the theme tune
00:10:47
of his favorite film,
"Profondo Rosso," which is quite scary,
quite intimidating music.
00:10:52
And this is a really odd thing
to be doing. But what he's trying to do is trying to instill fear
in these girls.
00:11:00
He's trying to say, "Oh, well,
you've rejected me, so I'm now going to play
a bit of a game with you."
00:11:05
And I think that really does just tell us about
his underlying psychopathy. He's somebody who likes
playing with people.
00:11:13
-Restivo became obsessed with one girl
in particular, Elisa Claps. But when she rejected
Restivo's romantic approaches,
00:11:22
he reacted
in the most extreme way. Unbeknownst to her family
and the police, Restivo had in fact killed her
00:11:30
and hidden her body in 1993. At the time,
the police considered Elisa a missing person,
as her body was not found.
00:11:39
That, along with
some legal obstacles, meant the investigation in Italy
was halted.
00:11:45
Rumors were rife that this was
because of Restivo's family and their connections with
the police and the authorities.
00:11:52
-In Italy, certain positions
within a town are considered high-powered
and influential.
00:11:58
And Restivo's father
was the chief librarian, and in Italy,
the chief librarian is a significant
and powerful individual.
00:12:06
-To Danilo Restivo,
it seemed like he'd got away with murder. But Elisa's family
never gave up.
00:12:14
Since Restivo was the last
person to have seen her alive, he was suspected
by much of the town
00:12:20
as having something to do
with her disappearance. Being under observation, Restivo was unable
to chase women
00:12:27
to fulfill his unusual passions. In 2002, he turned 30 and decided to begin
a new chapter of his life
00:12:36
in Bournemouth
in the south of England. -I think when Restivo arrives
in the UK,
00:12:40
he is a very
dangerous individual, because he's never faced any
consequences for his actions.
00:12:46
He's in a country where
nobody knows his history. Nobody can join
the dots together.
00:12:51
So he really is like a kid
in a sweet shop. He's got every opportunity
to continue offending,
00:12:57
and nobody really knows
his background. -Restivo met an Italian woman
on the Internet,
00:13:03
and he quickly
moved in with her. They lived on a suburban street
in Bournemouth.
00:13:08
-She's an older woman. She has a disability. She's more of a mother
figure to him,
00:13:13
and she treats him
as if he's a son. She looks after him.
She cooks his meals. So he's stepping into
his well-established role
00:13:22
as this child
in a different location. -Restivo's new home was opposite that of 48-year-old
seamstress Heather Barnett.
00:13:32
Just six months after moving in
on the 6th of November 2002, he went to visit Heather.
00:13:38
He claimed he wanted her
to do some work for him. -Mr. Restivo had been over and asked if she would make
a set of curtains for him
00:13:47
as a Christmas present
for his then-partner. And you think, "Well, that's a
pretty strange Christmas present
00:13:54
for a man to give a woman." -Restivo had been discussing
the work with Heather. However, Restivo wasn't
interested in curtains.
00:14:03
Instead, he identified Heather
as his next victim. On the 12th of November 2002,
00:14:11
he paid his neighbor
another visit. -They'd gone through
to the back of the property,
00:14:18
which was her room for doing her
sewing and seamstress-type work. And from there, it appears
that she tried to make an escape
00:14:26
from the individual. Things were knocked over. She'd moved through
into the lounge,
00:14:31
where he'd obviously
caught hold of her, and he'd hit her several times
with a hammer.
00:14:36
Her skull was fractured,
and she would have been dead in the lounge
very shortly afterwards.
00:14:43
From that point, she was dragged
through the lounge, through the hallway,
and into a bathroom.
00:14:51
-Restivo had brutally murdered
Heather in her own home. He then placed a lock of hair
in her hand.
00:14:59
Curiously, it was not
Heather's hair. Restivo's callousness
did not end there. He then mutilated
Heather's body.
00:15:11
-He cut the breasts off and placed them behind
Heather's head. He also mutilated the rest
of the body quite badly.
00:15:18
This maybe would show that his obsession
was not simply the hair but possibly the cutting of hair
and cutting itself.
00:15:30
To cut someone's skin would possibly
have also excited him. -A few hours later,
police arrived at the scene.
00:15:41
They were greeted by Restivo
and his partner, who were looking after
Heather's two young children.
00:15:47
-Well, the children discovered
their mother's body. And not only that, but Restivo was one
of the first people on the scene
00:15:55
and appeared to be
comforting them. But this isn't particularly
surprising to me.
00:15:59
When you have an offender
like Restivo, he's quite proud
of what he has done. So it's not enough for him
to mutilate his victim's body.
00:16:08
He wants to see the impact
of his actions on the people around the victim, and that is enhancing
his enjoyments
00:16:15
and enhancing his sense of power over these people. -Other than Heather's son
and daughter,
00:16:23
Restivo and his partner were the only people
present at the scene. Restivo was very keen
to point out to the police
00:16:31
that he'd been out all that day before discovering
the distraught children in the street.
00:16:38
-We started to look
at Mr. Restivo, but from the very beginning,
we were being told
00:16:43
he had a strong alibi that
explained where he was all day. So, immediately, you think,
"Well, it can't be him."
00:16:50
So you start to look
at other areas. And it wasn't until other issues started to develop
with Mr. Restivo
00:16:58
that it was necessary to go back
and look at his alibi and say, "How strong is this alibi?"
00:17:05
-Regardless of this,
the police made Restivo the center
of their investigation. -Because he'd been at the scene,
in any case, we were interested.
00:17:14
We wanted his DNA so that
we could either implicate or eliminate him
from those inquiries.
00:17:19
We started to ask questions
about his relationship, if he knew Heather, what involvement
he had with Heather.
00:17:27
-It became clear that Restivo
had previously met Heather to discuss making some curtains.
00:17:33
So when he arrived
on the doorstep to kill her, he was welcomed into the house. -Mr. Restivo had spent
a great deal of time
00:17:43
considering
what he was going to do. He must have planned that murder in great detail.
00:17:51
-It was Restivo's meticulous
attention to detail that police hoped
to take advantage of
00:17:57
and use it to connect him
to the murder. -Her body has been mutilated, but, bizarrely, in her hands
are cut head hair.
00:18:07
It's cut head hair,
but it's not her hair. It's hair which is alien
from that scene.
00:18:14
So you're trying to understand why somebody who is going
to murder somebody has brought with them hair
00:18:22
to a murder scene. -In Heather's left hand
was a lock of her own hair. In the right, a lock
of someone unknown's hair.
00:18:33
This strange obsession with hair would eventually lead
to Restivo's downfall. -Well, many people
would describe Restivo
00:18:41
as a trichophile. He's got an obsession with hair. Paraphilia is
a sexual attraction
00:18:47
towards an inanimate object
or a nonconsenting party, 'cause when you cut
somebody's hair,
00:18:51
and you take
a piece of that hair, you're taking part of them, and it's making you
feel quite powerful.
00:18:58
But this is really odd behavior. It's incredibly
abnormal behavior. -When police searched
Heather's house,
00:19:05
they found plenty of evidence. -There was a lot
of blood about, and the training shoes
worn by the killer
00:19:13
left trails
of blood-splattered footprints around the house. But, bizarrely, although
they moved around the house,
00:19:24
they never left and went to
the front door of the property. By carrying out forensic tests
could work out
00:19:32
that the killer
had moved around the house to a point in the lounge
where there was a chair,
00:19:39
and, in our opinion, he had then
changed his clothing. -Police, however, were unable to
connect Restivo to the killing.
00:19:49
-Restivo would be what we
describe as forensically aware. That means they know what sort
of evidence they may be leaving.
00:19:57
So he had the foresight to change his clothes. He had the foresight
to change gloves.
00:20:05
He had the foresight to try and get rid of bloodstains
using bleach. He was aware of the sort
of things that could be found
00:20:14
that could link him to a crime, and he was doing what he could
to prevent that happening.
00:20:21
-He comes extremely
well-prepared. He has a plan.
He executes that plan, and then he leaves the house
in fresh clothes
00:20:29
that aren't going to cause
concern to any passersby. -The only thing out of place
at the crime scene
00:20:36
was a green towel
found near the front door of Heather Barnett's house. -We considered
that the murdered had stopped,
00:20:44
taken off his training shoes. Bizarrely, there was a chair, and there was
a green towel on it.
00:20:50
That green towel
had blood on it, but we always believed that that green towel
was alien to that house.
00:21:00
Our belief was that
that wasn't their towel and that it had been
brought there by the killer.
00:21:07
That towel was a constant
main line of inquiry in order to try and identify
the killer by his DNA.
00:21:16
We knew that Heather's blood
was on that towel, but there was a mixed profile
in that blood,
00:21:22
so it meant to say there was the profile
of at least two individuals. -Despite their suspicions,
police were not able to extract
00:21:30
a DNA connection to Restivo,
and they were unable to bring any charges
against him at this time.
00:21:38
Restivo felt he'd got away
with murder again. ♪♪ -Restivo is somebody who's used
to getting away with his crimes.
00:21:47
This has been something
that he's been doing for a very long time, both in his native Italy
and in the UK, as well.
00:21:54
So this is somebody
who feels untouchable. He's never had to face any
consequences for his actions,
00:22:00
so he's got no reason to believe
that things are going to change. So he's just going
to carry on regardless.
00:22:05
-By the end of 2002, police had identified Danilo
Restivo as the prime suspect. They knew they were dealing
with a dangerous man
00:22:14
and were doing all they could to gather enough evidence
to arrest him. -We shortly came to the
conclusion that Danilo Restivo
00:22:22
was the person who killed
Heather Barnett. He went over there
during that morning
00:22:26
and killed Heather Barnett, and then he knew that the
persons that would find Heather
00:22:33
are her two children, a 14-year-old
and an 11-year-old, and that they would come back
and find that scene.
00:22:42
You know, that's beyond
anybody's imagination, the cruelty to do that. -On arrival at the scene
of the crime,
00:22:50
one of the first things
Restivo had done was to supply police
with an alibi for the day.
00:22:56
But on closer examination, what Restivo told them
did not add up. -He had gone to a place
for unemployed people
00:23:04
to learn computer skills, and the signing-in
register showed that he'd signed in
at a specific time.
00:23:11
But when we looked at it again,
the entry had been altered. It had been written over.
00:23:16
So it said one time
and also said another time. So it then indicated
that perhaps that alibi
00:23:22
wasn't as good as first thought. -Restivo was their only suspect. When detectives began to uncover
his past in Italy,
00:23:31
their suspicions
only grew stronger. -It was about six months
into that inquiry when one of the detectives
working on the case
00:23:40
came into my office and said,
"Boss, I need to speak to you. I've done a lot of research
on the Internet,
00:23:45
and we've managed
to find details of a girl who went missing
in Potenza in 1993,
00:23:52
and there is a link
to Danilo Restivo." Soon after, we started
making inquiries about Elisa's death.
00:24:01
-But at this point,
Elisa was still considered just a missing person
by Italian police.
00:24:07
It had not reached the stage
of a murder inquiry. -In the case of Elisa Claps,
to start with,
00:24:14
there wasn't even a body. Running a murder investigation if you can't even prove
somebody is dead,
00:24:20
let alone how they died, is clearly far more difficult. There have been successful
prosecutions with no body,
00:24:28
but they're much rarer. -And in the UK,
although there was a body, there was not enough
hard evidence
00:24:35
to arrest Restivo for murder. He was allowed to carry on
his daily life. By March 2004,
16 months after the murder,
00:24:45
police were convinced Restivo
was a danger to the community. So they put him
under surveillance.
00:24:51
Then in May that same year, investigators made
a break in the case. -We followed Restivo
for quite a while,
00:25:01
and there was
one specific incident that -- It still now chills me
to think about it.
00:25:09
He went down to an area
called Throop at the edge of Bournemouth
on the countryside,
00:25:14
and on the morning in question,
Restivo went down there. There were about half a dozen
ladies on their own
00:25:21
walking their dogs
in this isolated area, and Restivo buried himself
in a bush and was clearly watching
these individuals.
00:25:30
Everywhere he went and the risk
that he presented, we were always concerned,
"Is today a day
00:25:36
where he's going to kill
another Heather Barnett? Is he walking around
with a knife in his bag today?"
00:25:44
-When we look
at Restivo's behavior when he's under surveillance,
this is the height of summer.
00:25:49
He's walking 'round
with gloves on. He's got his hood up. He's got waterproof trousers on.
00:25:55
He's filmed changing his
clothes, and the police see
that he's observing women from a distance, as well.
00:26:00
He's very clearly out
hunting for women. -Afraid that he was
getting ready to kill again,
00:26:08
the police moved in. -I arranged for two
uniform officers to go down, check him out.
00:26:15
Mr. Restivo was wearing
two sets of clothing. He had one set of clothing, and then, he had
another set on top
00:26:21
and a nylon, waterproof jacket, so very similar
to Heather's murder where he took two sets
of clothing with him
00:26:30
and changed into one. He's down there in the same. -The police stopped Restivo
and searched his bag.
00:26:38
-In his rucksack, he had gloves. He had a filleting knife. He had other material in there,
00:26:45
and it was just horrific. So he was brought in. He was arrested, but he
explained everything perfectly.
00:26:53
He said, you know, "I'm wearing
two sets of clothing because I was exercising, and I want to lose some weight,
and it helps me perspire."
00:27:02
And I can't remember
the explanation for the knife, but it was,
"Oh, I've been somewhere,
00:27:07
and I just happened
to still have it in my bag," or just bought it or something.
00:27:11
And again, extremely concerning, but as far as the Crime
Prosecution Service were concerned, it wasn't
that final piece of the jigsaw,
00:27:21
and it didn't prove Restivo
had killed Heather Barnett. -Again, Restivo could not
be charged with murder.
00:27:29
Police needed more evidence
to pin him to the killing
of Heather Barnett. -I think Restivo became aware
of the idea
00:27:39
that the police
were interested in him and that he could have been
connected to the murder.
00:27:44
But he had an explanation for every part
of his bizarre behavior. He felt that he was in control
of that information,
00:27:52
and he actually did
envision himself carrying on and committing further crimes. -The police changed tack.
00:28:00
They appealed to the public
for more information. This time,
they focused on the hair
00:28:05
belonging to an unknown person
found in Heather's right hand. Appeals were broadcast in the UK
00:28:12
and in Restivo's hometown
of Potenza and across Italy. -And then you suddenly
get a call,
00:28:19
and they say, "Hi. I'm
such-and-such from Potenza. Danilo Restivo cut my hair once.
00:28:25
I was sat in a cinema, and
he was sat in the row behind, and he took some of my head hair
and cut it and took it away."
00:28:32
And then somebody else
would say, "Oh, yeah. That happened to me. Danilo Restivo was well known
for cutting women's hair."
00:28:37
And when we came back,
and we started to ask the same question --
Had people in Bournemouth
00:28:42
had their hair cut -- women started to come forward
to say, "Yeah. In fact, I was on one
of the Bournemouth yellow buses,
00:28:51
and I had some hair cut,
and I looked 'round, and there was a guy
sat behind me,"
00:28:55
or, "I went
to the hairdresser's once, and she said, 'You've got
a big chunk of hair missing
00:29:01
from the back of your hair.
When has that happened?'" -Restivo actually developed
a paraphilia for hair.
00:29:08
This may have been some
originating situation where he felt, you know,
sexually excited, et cetera,
00:29:15
over contact with hair. His victims had their hair cut
often from behind. He wasn't in the social world.
00:29:24
He was in a very focused,
obsessive world. -In June 2004, the police questioned
Restivo again.
00:29:33
This time,
they asked him specifically about his hair
cutting activities. The investigators were hoping
to connect Restivo
00:29:41
to the hair found
in Heather's hand at the murder scene
two years earlier. -We put Danilo Restivo
on an identification parade,
00:29:50
and in two instances, those woman picked
Danilo Restivo out as the man who had sat
behind them on a local bus,
00:29:59
cut their hair,
and then got off the bus. So we always knew
he had a hair fetish.
00:30:05
We knew that he'd brought
alien head hair into the murder scene
and left it in Heather's hand.
00:30:14
-Restivo said that when he held
these women's hair in his hand, he said,
"Everything is visible,"
00:30:21
and that he could see
everything. It's making him realize,
"I can take a piece of these women,
and I can possess them."
00:30:28
He's got a real, kind of,
a grandiose sense of himself, a real kind of elevated sense
of his own power here.
00:30:37
-But all this evidence
was circumstantial and was still not enough
to convince the courts
00:30:42
that Restivo could be charged
with Heather's murder. -This man is truly evil. He prepared some time in advance
00:30:54
to kill this lovely single lady who's bringing up
two lovely children. He killed her
in the most horrific manner,
00:31:04
mutilating her body
and knowing -- The most evil part of him
is he knew that the people
that would find their mother
00:31:14
mutilated in
the worst possible way was her two young children. Are you telling me
that somebody who could do that
00:31:23
is not evil? -Restivo was released yet again
without charge. To prove him guilty, the police
needed to connect Restivo
00:31:33
to the crime scene. Their hopes rested on the green
towel with blood splatters that was found
in Heather's hallway
00:31:40
the day she was murdered. But to make the case
against Restivo, they had a major hurdle
to overcome.
00:31:49
-The forensic technology and the forensic advances
weren't there. But we kept going back
to that green towel and saying,
00:31:57
"How can we develop or separate out
that mixed profile?" And it did take
a number of years
00:32:04
before forensic
science advanced, and we were able to do that. -Police would finally
connect Restivo
00:32:12
directly to Heather's murder, but it would take the discovery
of a body in Italy
00:32:19
to bring this murderer
to justice. ♪♪ -What lies behind
Restivo's motivation to kill and mutilate women
00:32:29
is a sense of power, so he does so in the most
extreme way -- in killing them, mutilating them,
and using their hair
00:32:38
as something that he has
that's part of them. -Police in Dorset had already
found the connection
00:32:45
between Restivo
and several cases of women having had their hair
cut off by a stranger in public.
00:32:52
But it was a murder in
Bournemouth in November of 2002 that was their primary focus.
00:32:59
In 2008, police re-examined
a blood-stained green towel that they had found in the house
00:33:05
of murder victim
seamstress Heather Barnett. Critically, the towel had two
different types of DNA on it.
00:33:15
-It took some years
for DNA analysis to progress to the stage where
the material on the green towel,
00:33:22
which we said Restivo had left
at Heather Barnett's address, could be analyzed
and produce a profile
00:33:28
which could be
put forward as evidence. ♪♪ -Then in 2008, we find
that magic solution,
00:33:37
and it's that final bit of that
jigsaw where scientists say, "Look. We can now separate out
those two bits of DNA.
00:33:46
We can now separate
Heather's out, and we can identify
whose DNA that is." And that DNA that separated out
from that towel
00:33:57
belongs to Danilo Restivo. -Finally, the investigators
felt they had enough evidence
00:34:04
to charge Restivo with
the murder of Heather Barnett. To make certain, they also
needed to tie Restivo
00:34:10
to the murder of 16-year-old
Elisa Claps back in Italy in 1993. But with no body found, all
they had were their suspicions.
00:34:21
Elisa was still classed
as a missing person. Then in March of 2010, a remarkable discovery was made
00:34:30
that would seal the case
and Restivo's fate. -At the stage when Restivo
was first charged,
00:34:37
Elisa Claps' body had not
in fact been found, and so we proceeded
purely on the UK evidence.
00:34:43
However, on the 17th
of March, 2010, Elisa's body was discovered in the loft
in the church in Potenza,
00:34:51
where it, in fact, it had been
since she disappeared on the 12th of September, 1993.
00:34:57
-When Elisa's body was found
in the church that Danilo and Elisa had met
outside of and had been in,
00:35:06
it was decided that myself
and another officer would immediately
fly over to Italy
00:35:12
to try and work
with the Italian police, because we wanted to look
at the similarities
00:35:18
between the murder scene
of Elisa and our murder scene, because as far
as we were concerned,
00:35:25
Danilo Restivo had murdered
both individuals. We were allowed
to go down to Salerno,
00:35:31
which is the main city
near Potenza. We were allowed to see
the videos, and we were allowed to speak
to some of the scientists.
00:35:39
And lo and behold, there were things like
hair in Elisa's hand, the same as there were
in Heather's case,
00:35:47
and it started to make
a bit more sense. -So, Restivo's signature
is quite evident in both cases.
00:35:55
So, both of the women
have hair in their hands. Both of them have
their trousers pulled down.
00:36:02
So this is quite
a distinct thing in itself. Here is a case where
the offender has spent time
00:36:08
with both of these victims. But the crucial
difference for me is that whilst
Elisa's body was hidden,
00:36:15
Heather's body was displayed. He'd got to the point
in his offending here where he's saying,
"Hey. Look at me."
00:36:21
So this is somebody
who's evolved over time, and it's really,
really concerning.
00:36:26
This is somebody who's not going
to stop unless they are caught. -The UK police
could not charge Restivo
00:36:33
in relation to the murder
of Elisa Claps, as the crime
was committed in Italy and so out of their territory.
00:36:40
But connecting Restivo
to the murder of Elisa solidified their case in regard to the murder
of Heather Barnett.
00:36:49
-Even though he'd never
been tried in Italy for that crime, we adduced
all the evidence
00:36:54
in relation
to Elisa Claps' murder in order to prove him guilty
of Heather Barnett's murder.
00:37:00
-Finally, in May 2011, Danilo Restivo went to court, charged with the murder
of Heather Barnett.
00:37:09
-We've arrested Danilo Restivo
on a number of occasions, and we've always also lived
with the concern
00:37:15
that he's also so dangerous
he's likely to kill again. And eventually,
the case is solved,
00:37:21
and we've got
that magic solution. We've got that final piece
of the jigsaw. -It had been a long battle,
but in the end,
00:37:29
the murder Restivo
had committed in 1993 and thought he had got away with
was to be the deciding factor
00:37:36
when he faced judge and jury. -The police were having
quite a hard time of it getting enough evidence together
00:37:43
to be able
to meet that threshold to be able to secure
a conviction. But then when Elisa's body
was discovered,
00:37:52
you've got these two women, thousands of miles
and 17 years apart, but they're connected by one
thing, and that's Restivo.
00:38:00
-He had always thought he was
cleverer than everybody else, but now that didn't matter.
00:38:06
He wasn't cleverer
than everybody else. He wasn't cleverer than us. We had beaten him.
We'd solved the case.
00:38:12
And because the evidence was
so powerful and overwhelming, it did make him
look like an idiot
00:38:18
in terms of some
of his responses, whereas before,
he could show that bluster, and he could say, "It's not me."
00:38:24
Well, when he said that now,
it was meaningless, because the evidence
was overwhelming,
00:38:28
and it did prove it was him. -The jury unanimously
found Restivo guilty of Heather Barnett's murder.
00:38:36
Of course, they could not
return a verdict in relation to Elisa Claps, because Restivo
is an Italian subject,
00:38:41
and, therefore, could not be
charged with her murder. The jury retired and returned
the verdict on the same day,
00:38:50
and thereafter,
Restivo was sentenced. There is of course satisfaction
that justice has been done,
00:38:57
but I think really an
overwhelming feeling of sadness that two people that died
wholly unnecessarily
00:39:03
to satisfy his lust for killing. -Heather Barnett was a local
woman in Bournemouth.
00:39:10
She was a mother
to two children, and that's one of the things
that I find quite annoying
00:39:15
about cases like Restivo. When you've got such a grotesque
and such a unique murderer,
00:39:21
there's a tendency
to forget the victims, and they become known
as the victims of Restivo.
00:39:27
These two women,
Elisa and Heather, were individuals
in their own rights. They had lives.
They had families.
00:39:34
They had futures, and that was
callously taken away by Restivo. -In June 2011, Restivo was
given a whole life sentence
00:39:45
for the murder
of Heather Barnett. He later appealed
and was given a life sentence
00:39:50
and ordered to serve
a minimum of 40 years. Meanwhile, in Italy,
in November 2011,
00:39:57
a court in Salerno found
Danilo Restivo, in his absence, guilty of the murder
of 16-year-old Elisa Claps
00:40:05
in 1993. -With someone like Restivo with that very specific MO, with two cases so far apart
00:40:18
and so similar, there has to be more. We need to look very carefully into the past of Danilo Restivo,
00:40:30
because he must have
struck elsewhere. -Since his imprisonment,
Restivo's name has been linked
00:40:38
with other murders, but no charges
have been brought. However, the horrific murders
of both Elisa Claps
00:40:47
and Heather Barnett have shown that Danilo Restivo is one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:40:53
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪