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[dramatic music] - When a murder's committed, it's always a race against
time to find the truth,
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to separate fact from fiction, to catch the killer, and to make sure that
justice is served.
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[dramatic music] What happens when the truth
vanishes with the victim? I'm Dr. Richard Shepherd.
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And I've spent my entire career
as a forensic pathologist, performing nearly 23,000
autopsies, including on some
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of the most high profile
cases of recent times. I've learned that the
dead don't hide the truth.
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And they never lie. Through me, you'll be hearing
directly from the victim. From a state-of-the-art
laboratory
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with groundbreaking technology that uses digitally
scanned sample bodies, I'll be investigating a series
of intriguing murders where,
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from the victim's
bodies, I'll be revealing to you the truth behind
those horrific crimes.
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[camera shuttering] [birds chirping] [ominous music] On the 22nd of March, 2009,
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a human leg severed
at the hip was found in a sports bag on farmland. Who did the leg belong to?
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And where was the
rest of the body? [ominous music] - [Narrator] Could this single
body part give any clues
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as to what had
happened to the victim? [ominous music] - I was the on-call
detective sergeant
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for Hertfordshire and
Bedfordshire major crime team. I was at home. And I received a
report of a body part,
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what they believed
to be a body part, being found in a rural location in a village called Cottered
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over in East Hertfordshire. [dramatic music] - [Narrator] A farmer
had spotted a green bag
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at the edge of his field. [dramatic music] When he looked inside, he was concerned by what
he found and called 999.
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[dramatic music] - Uniform officers
turned up at the scene, examines the object further,
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and suspected it to be some
form of human body part. The murder team were contacted.
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I was phoned at home. And I went across to the scene. But by the time I
actually got there,
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they'd moved the body part to the local hospital,
to the mortuary. [ominous music]
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The leg was initially examined. And it was in a green
Gulliver's holdall, wrapped in heavy blue polythene,
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and wrapped with gaffer tape. [ominous music] - So when the leg and
its wrappings are brought
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into the mortuary, the first thing that's
gonna happen is we're going to take off all of the
wrappings very carefully
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'cause they're crucial bits
of forensic science evidence. And we don't deal with those.
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What we look at is the leg. So looking at the sample
leg on the digital table, the first assessment is,
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is it an adult leg
or a child's leg? And we can see that
it's a size that's going
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to fit much better with it
being a male adult left leg. The next thing is, is it Caucasian or a
different ethnic group?
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And here, once again,
the skin is white. So it's likely to be a Caucasian
person that it's come from.
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Then we are looking
for other features. Like are there any marks that might be
identifiable on the legs?
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So are there any tattoos? Any marks of surgery? Any evidence of implants? Like knee implants and
things of that sort
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that might actually help
us to get an identity. None of those
things were present.
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However, there were
signs of eczema. And then we'd be looking
at are there any injuries?
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Are there any marks
of it being tied? Any bindings, any
stabbings, any shooting.
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Anything that would
give us a clue as to what may have gone on. And finally, the
one thing we'd look
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for is the actual
site of amputation. Is this something
that's surgical? Is this a clinical specimen
that somebody's just dumped?
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But here, there's no tying off of any of the major
veins or arteries. So clearly, this leg has
been removed by an amateur.
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Was it removed when
they were alive or dead? We simply don't know. [ominous music]
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- It was an unusual call. And so therefore, it's all about keeping an
open mind as to why.
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What was this left leg
doing in Cottered and why? Was it a stolen body part from a mortuary or
something like that?
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Or was it indeed
some macabre murder? We weren't to know
at that stage. And the most important
part of my role
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that night was just to make
sure that our scene was secure so that come first light
the following morning,
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our forensic teams and our crime
scene managers could get in and do a proper forensic
search of that crime scene.
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[dramatic music] - The news turned
up on the wires that a body part had been found
in a field in Hertfordshire.
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Initially, we thought
it might be somebody who has died of natural causes. And perhaps their body had
been spread by wildlife.
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That was the first thing. [ominous music] - The first lines of
any inquiry, really,
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are the golden hour principles. You know, you must
secure your scene. You're looking at
house-to-house inquiry
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and appeal for witnesses. Did anybody see the
deposition of that body part? Were they driving
past in their car?
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Did anyone see
anything suspicious? Anyone loitering? Anything out of place? Being mindful that this was
a very, very rural location.
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So we'd be looking
for key witnesses. We'd be looking for CCTV. Of course, we'd have the
whole area cordoned off
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so that our forensic
team could come in and do a fingertip search
of the deposition site
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and the surrounding area. And it's about
keeping an open mind as to how did that body part
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and why did that body part
arrive at that bizarre location? [ominous music] - [Narrator] But the leg
still had more truths to tell.
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- It clearly wasn't a
surgical amputation. But it's been done by someone who has some
knowledge of anatomy.
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It's not simply been hacked off. There's been some
dissection around the joint to remove the leg from
the rest of the body.
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Quite often, in
cases such as this, the individual would try and saw through the
bone of the thigh.
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And this is the femur. It's one of the
thickest, strongest
bones of the whole body.
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And that's incredibly hard. But that's not
what's happened here. What's happened is that someone
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with some knowledge
has actually dissected around the joint
to remove the leg from the rest of the body.
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But what the pathologist
is doing now is going to be taking a sample. Gonna be taking a
sample of muscle
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so that the DNA of the
leg can be analyzed. And that's what happened. And the police compared it
with their own database.
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But there was no match. So the owner of this leg
was not known to the police and remained, at that
point, unidentified.
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[ominous music] - Whoever that body was, whoever the deceased was, had never come into
contact with the police
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and weren't registered
on the national database. [ominous music] - [Narrator] Even though
they didn't know the cause
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of death, the
police felt they had to treat it as a murder inquiry. But uncovering the truth
wasn't going to be easy.
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- The crux of the matter
is we had a left leg. That's all we had at that stage. You know, we needed to identify
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who did that left leg belong to? As soon as you identify
who your victim is, it naturally follows on
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that you are gonna identify
who the offenders are. [ominous music] - [Narrator] But it would
be another three weeks
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before the body of
the victim was able to tell the truth about
what had happened.
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- Once the police had declared that it was a murder
investigation, it took it to a new height.
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This was a very big case. It was a real whodunit. [ominous music] [dramatic music]
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[dramatic music] - An unknown person's severed
leg discovered in a hedgerow and a killer who appears to
know how to take a body apart.
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- [Narrator] In time, would
the victim's body give away the truth of
what had happened?
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- A murder investigation
was now in full swing. [ominous music] - We focused quite heavily
on missing persons inquiries.
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But we didn't have
a lot to go on. That was a big problem. All we had was a left leg.
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We couldn't give
the deceased an age. We couldn't really. We knew their ethnicity.
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So all we knew they were
probably a white male. An interesting thing
was, on the left leg,
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he had quite severe
eczema on his left leg. So, of course, that was
always gonna be a method,
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hopefully, for us to
identify our victim. You know, was a missing
person gonna be reported
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who suffered with severe
eczema on their legs? You know, so anything like
that was gonna be really useful
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for us to sort of
focus our investigation to identify who is this victim. [dramatic music]
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- [Narrator] But then
a discovery was made, which would blow open
the investigation.
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A week after the
severed leg was found, dog walkers uncovered a
forearm in Wheathampstead,
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25 miles away from
the first discovery. - That really did
catapult the investigation
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to the fore, really,
into the media. And it was crucial for us to
identify who is our victim.
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Personally, I believe
that the left forearm had to have come from the
same body as the left leg.
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But, of course, you
could assume nothing. So it was key that we
had that postmortem.
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That we were able to submit, again, to national DNA database. Could we match the left
forearm to the left leg?
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Was it the same deceased or were we talking
about two victims? - A second body part is found.
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In fact, it's a left forearm. It's brought to the morgue. And immediately, it's apparent
that it's been removed
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with the same level of
skill as the left leg. Amputating a forearm is
really quite complicated,
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cutting through the elbow joint. And a lot of people would try and simply saw through the bone.
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But this bone is really hard
and would take a long time. However, if you have the skill
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to dissect through the joint, it's much neater,
quicker, and simpler. It's also clear the
hand has been taken off.
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Presumably with an attempt to hide the identity
of the individual. The key question though
is does it match the leg?
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The sample of DNA is
taken from the arm. And it matches that
from the left leg. So both limbs are
from the same person.
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But, of course, the
police still don't know who that person is. [ominous music] - The discovery
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of one body part was
obviously sinister enough. But the discovery of
a second body part
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some considerable distance away from where the
first body part was, that was really
concerning for us.
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[ominous music] - From that moment,
we felt that, oh, you know, this is
something very, very serious.
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- Well, we didn't know
what we were dealing with. Was the offender, was the
murderer playing games with us?
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Was he trying to
avoid detection? Why these particular
deposition sites? [ominous music]
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- I think the general
sense amongst the public at the time was that
they were terrified.
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Because I think at that
stage, they didn't know whether this was the
beginning of a serial killer.
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[ominous music] - The fact that it was,
you know, one in East Hert. The next one in
Central Hertfordshire.
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Where was the next
body part gonna be? [dramatic music] - Then over a
hundred miles away,
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a head appears in
Leicestershire. [dramatic music] - [Narrator] Like all
the other body parts,
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the head was found
in open countryside. This time, by a farmer
on his land in Asfordby,
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near Melton Mowbray. - I mean, this was a
truly shocking discovery. The killer had gone
to great lengths
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to make sure that the
victim was not identified. [dramatic music] - A decapitated head is found.
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But lying in the
middle of a field. Not wrapped up. Not contained in any way. When it was brought
to the mortuary,
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it was quite clear
that there'd been a lot of activity taking
place around the skull.
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Most of the skin was missing. The tongue was missing. Eyes, ears, nose had
all been taken off.
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Presumably in an attempt to hide the identity
of the individual. Further examination confirmed
there was no evidence
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of any injury to
the head or the face that could have caused the
death of this individual.
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So we still don't know
how or why he died. Two teeth were missing. But that has happened
a long time ago
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and wasn't associated
directly with the death. Next thing is, is the
skull matching the arm
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and the leg that have
already been found? Well, it does. It matches very well indeed.
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Because the strong
eyebrow ridges and the solid bits of bone, the mastoid processes
that can be seen
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at the back all fit with this
skull belonging to a male. And DNA analysis showed
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that the head matched
the other body parts. So all of those things
are fitting together.
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Now, how had it been
removed from the body? Well, removing the
skull by cutting through the spine is
really quite complicated.
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'Cause the vertebra
aren't flat plates that just fit together. They actually interdigitate.
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They fold together. And it requires skill,
care, and knowledge to be able to cut between them.
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And that's what
had happened here. So the same person
had removed the skull, had removed the arm,
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and had removed the leg. [dramatic music] - So Leicestershire
contacted us to say,
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"Look, we found this
skull in a field. But it's in Leicestershire. Is it gonna be connected?"
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I, for one, believed
it would be. And I think the rest of the inquiry team
were of the same vein.
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That how often do we
find body parts scattered around rural
locations of England?
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This had to be connected. [dramatic music] We dispatched the team
up to Leicestershire
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to liaise with their
murder inquiry team. And as a result of the
DNA confirmation that,
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indeed, the skull, the left leg, and the left forearm were all
from one and the same body,
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that really did throw
us in the mix, really. You know, why Leicestershire? Why Central Hertfordshire?
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Why East Hertfordshire? Who's doing this? What are the link
to all these areas? [dramatic music]
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- I think the body parts
being strewn all over was not what you would
expect of somebody
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who has gone through
such great lengths to kill someone
and dismember them. Usually, you would expect
the body parts to be buried.
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But these were very
much easy to be found. Amongst reporters, the
general feeling was
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that this was somebody who was
almost taunting the police. This was the person who was
very proud of what they had done
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and, you know,
wanted the publicity. - It was very high
profile in the media. And I think the British public,
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I think it certainly
caught their attention. I think it was more concerning for the residents of Cottered,
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for Wheathampstead
in Hertfordshire, and for Leicestershire. Those local communities
must have been concerned.
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Why our location? What's going on here? So we were mindful that the
communities would be concerned.
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But we, of course, we hadn't
identified who's our victim. There's a victim's family
out there that need our help.
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But we couldn't identify
them at that time. [ominous music] - [Narrator] While
identifying their victim
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was the main focus
of the inquiry, police were trying everything
to solve this case.
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- The discovery of
every body part, and every deposition site,
and every crime scene,
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therefore, gave us potential to possibly identify
who are our offenders. So things like all
of the wrappings
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that the body parts
were found in, they were submitted
for DNA profiling, for fingerprinting,
and so on and so forth.
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So no stone was left
unturned, really. [ominous music] - Well, the interesting thing
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about items that
have been wrapped up as part of the commission
of the crime is that the wrappings are
often just as important
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as the actual item
that they can contain. It's really important
to understand as much as you can about them.
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So you could look for
the source of them, who they were manufactured by, in case there are more of them.
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If you do identify
a suspect's house to go and have a look at, there might be some
more of these sacks.
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But then in terms of the traces that will be on the
outside of them, well, there can be
almost anything.
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And, obviously, DNA
and fingerprints are
really important. But also things like
textile fibers from clothing
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or from other soft furnishings. From car seats, car boots, and any other tiny
particulate traces
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that might turn out
to be relevant in
this particular case. And so here, a lot
of attention was paid
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to the wrappings themselves. The blue plastic
and the sticky tape. And, of course, sticky
tape is very good in a way
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'cause it picks up things. So they would've formed
a really important part of this case.
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[dramatic music] - [Narrator] There was no DNA or fingerprint evidence
on the wrappings.
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But embedded in the tape of all the fines were
distinctive green
and blue fibers.
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[dramatic music] Despite this, over a week
into the investigation, police weren't any closer
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to finding out who
the perpetrator was. The victim's story
was yet to be told. - We needed a
little bit of luck.
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And it's often said in
police investigations that you make your own luck. But when was our
break gonna come?
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Our next port of
call was gonna be, well, you know, if we
can find the hands, were we gonna identify that
person via fingerprints?
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[dramatic music] - [Narrator] However, the killer had already
made one crucial mistake.
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- With the deposition
of the head, this is where the offenders
made their first faux pas.
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It was, of course, they
left the teeth in the skull. [dramatic music] [ominous music]
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- Three times, body parts
have been found strewn around the English countryside in the case that was now
known as the Jigsaw Murder.
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[ominous music] - [Narrator] The more body
parts that were discovered, the more the body was
able to speak its truth
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about what had taken place. - Forensics had
identified the body as being that of a white
or Asian middle aged male.
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But for the police, there were many
unanswered questions. And the killer was
still on the loose.
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- The coverage at
the time was huge. This was a very big case. The body parts turning up
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at various locations
in the countryside. You know, it was
almost like a jigsaw. I think there was pressure
on the police at the time.
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I mean, there's always pressure on the police in a
murder investigation. But this one, you know,
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people really wanted the
person responsible caught. [dramatic music] - [Narrator] And yet more pieces
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of the jigsaw were
about to turn up. [dramatic music] - [Richard] A week after
the skull was found,
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the right leg was discovered, dumped in a layby on the A10
near Puckeridge, Hertfordshire.
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- The right leg cutting too, wrapped in the blue polythene, identical to that
of the left leg.
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But we were obviously hoping the hands would
naturally follow. Hopefully, at some point.
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[dramatic music] - [Narrator] Four days later, a farmer in nearby Standon
found a suitcase lying
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in a small ditch in his field. But the police weren't going to get fingerprint
identification for
this latest discovery.
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- Saturday the 11th of
April, 2009 was the discovery of the torso and
the remaining part
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of the left arm and right arm. - So the torso is found. And once again, clearly
that of an adult male,
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fitting together with
what had gone on. But crucially, crucially, there's significant
injuries in the back.
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There were two stab
wounds to the back, which had penetrated
through into the lung.
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A knife blade at least
four inches long. And in fact, the lungs
are very, very close
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to the skin surface. Just one stab wound into
the lung can cause death. And they could
easily have resulted
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from a knife that
was four inches long. The victim's body had
revealed the truth.
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And the cause of death
finally had been established on this body. There was no evidence
of any struggle.
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No evidence of any fight. No evidence of any other injury. So it looks as though
two stab wounds
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in the back had been delivered when the person was
either lying down or simply from behind them.
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[ominous music] - So we now knew that,
yes, this was murder. That we'd recovered nearly all
00:22:34
of our body parts
other than the hands. And that it was two
stab wounds to the back.
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Now, it was crucial for us to identify exactly
who that victim was. And then we had a
case for murder.
00:22:48
[dramatic music] - [Narrator] Three days later and three weeks since the
first body part was found,
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the police made an
appeal to the public. - I'm dealing with
horrific murder here.
00:22:58
I need the public's help to help me identify
who the victim is. We can now confirm
the cause of death,
00:23:06
which was a stab
wound to the back. The man is believed to be of white, Asian, or
of mixed heritage
00:23:13
between the heights
of 5'6" and 5'10". - It was a direct result
of our press appeal.
00:23:19
From that conference, we received a telephone
call from a gentleman who stated that his brother had
been missing for some weeks.
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And his brother
was Jeffrey Howe. [ominous music] He fit the criteria. He was the right age,
00:23:35
the right ethnicity,
the right weight. He had eczema. And we knew that from the
eczema on our left leg
00:23:43
that was first
discovered at Cottered. And as soon as we started
making our initial inquiries
00:23:49
into Jeffrey Howe,
we soon established that he'd been missing
since March of that year.
00:23:54
That no one had seen him. And just hadn't turned
up for work one day. [ominous music]
00:24:02
- Jeffrey Howe was
a kitchen salesman. And his family said sometimes, he did have like, a little
bit of a temper at times.
00:24:12
But generally, everybody who knew him
spoke warmly about him. We knew that he
lived in Southgate,
00:24:20
which is in an area
of North London. [ominous music] - He had lived in
a two-bedroom flat.
00:24:30
Initially, alone. But then we'd established from
our sort of early inquiries that he had a male and a
female living with him.
00:24:39
And they'd moved in some
weeks or months previously. And they were friends of his.
00:24:46
And the name Stephen Marshall
came up in the investigation. I was shocked to hear that
00:24:50
because I knew of
a Stephen Marshall from my early policing days, who was quite a,
he was a criminal.
00:24:57
Quite a concerning character. Quite a formidable
character in his own right. At that stage, I thought,
00:25:05
well, it can't be
one and the same. But a few further
inquiries established that it was indeed the
same Stephen Marshall.
00:25:12
[dramatic music] - Stephen Marshall was very
much an imposing figure. Very much a man
mountain of a character.
00:25:23
And, you know, he used to boast
that he had a 52 inch chest. He was so big. And anybody who ever met him
knew they were in his presence.
00:25:33
- He was quite an
intimidating character. Very imposing. Very well built. Very fit.
00:25:40
And would come across
as very charismatic and very friendly at first. But was without doubt,
00:25:46
I would probably
describe him as a bully. Would probably really aptly
describe Stephen Marshall
00:25:51
as a nasty bully of the
criminal fraternity. [ominous music] - [Narrator] Stephen Marshall
had moved into Jeffrey's flat,
00:26:02
along with his
girlfriend, Sarah Bush. [ominous music] - Sarah Bush was a
very petite figure.
00:26:12
She'd also worked
as a sex worker. And she'd managed
to meet Marshall. Apparently, he stopped paying.
00:26:22
And then he was very much
a big, imposing figure on her life and pretty
much controlled her.
00:26:29
- Steve and Jeffrey had met
through the kitchen business. Through kitchen sales.
00:26:38
Both were very successful
in kitchen sales. I think Stephen Marshall
probably had the gift
00:26:44
of the gab as it were. And they seemed to hit it off. Sarah Bush and Stephen
Marshall had moved
00:26:49
into Jeffrey Howe's flat, just for a short term initially. And Jeffrey Howe, which appears
to be typical of Jeffrey,
00:26:58
was just doing them a favor. Just being a good
friend to them. But, no. They exploited that friendship.
00:27:05
And initially, they were
paying a small amount of peppercorn rent. But eventually, stopped paying
any money to Jeffrey at all.
00:27:13
[dramatic music] - [Narrator] After a week
of gathering intelligence, police decided to investigate
Jeffrey Howe's address
00:27:28
in person. [dramatic music] - I took a team of officers to Southgate where
Jeffrey Howe lived.
00:27:36
[ominous music] [bell ringing] As soon as I
knocked on the door, it was answered by none
other than Stephen Marshall.
00:27:48
I obviously immediately
recognized Stephen. [dramatic music] He's quite an
intimidating character.
00:27:54
But he was very
friendly with us. Invited us into the premises. And we sat down at
the kitchen table.
00:28:00
[ominous music] Both Stephen and Sarah
portrayed themselves as good friends of Jeffrey
00:28:07
but really couldn't offer
any firm explanation as to why he'd gone missing. Why he'd just left and not
been in contact with them.
00:28:16
They were very sketchy
about any detail, which as a detective,
is always a, rings the alarm bells for us.
00:28:24
And they weren't at all
concerned about him. [ominous music] So we just asked if we could
have a look around the flat,
00:28:31
as we would do on a routine
missing person inquiry. And it was then that we
saw the number plates
00:28:38
for Jeffrey Howe's vehicle. He had a private number plate. And those number plates
were in the master bedroom,
00:28:47
which was unusual
because obviously, the car wasn't
outside the address. And they'd said that
he'd taken the car
00:28:54
when they'd last
time they'd seen him. Nothing was ringing true. There was no master
bed in the bedroom.
00:29:04
There was a blue inflatable
blow up mattress on the floor. Things just weren't right.
00:29:12
And things they were saying, explanations they were giving
about their last sightings
00:29:18
and about their relationship
to Stephen just, were clearly just
weren't ringing true
00:29:23
and were a pack of lies. [ominous music] So I just made an
excuse to leave. Went outside.
00:29:31
I immediately phoned the
detective superintendent. [ominous music] Just explains my
gut feeling, really,
00:29:40
and the rationale around it. We had options. We put them onto some
form of surveillance
00:29:46
or were we gonna let them run
and just see what happens? But the risk was
too extreme for us
00:29:56
as far as we were concerned. And the decision
was rightly made that we should arrest
them there and then.
00:30:01
So that's what we did. We took the other officers
back into the flat. And that's when I
arrested Sarah Bush
00:30:07
and Stephen Marshall for
the murder of Jeffrey Howe. [ominous music] - [Narrator] This
was a bold move,
00:30:14
considering they
hadn't even confirmed that it was Jeffrey Howe's
body strewn across the country.
00:30:21
They had 24 hours to
charge them or let them go. [ominous music] - They were both
interviewed under caution.
00:30:28
Both had solicitors,
as is their right. - [Detective] That
is Jeffrey Howe. Do you deny or confirm
that's Jeffrey Howe?
00:30:35
- No comment. - [Detective] Do you recognize that person to be Jeffrey Howe? - No comment.
00:30:41
- [Detective] I
believe he was a friend or an associate of yours. - No comment. - [Detective] My understanding
is he has been quite kind
00:30:46
to you in the past by letting
you stay at his home address. - No comment. - Stephen Marshall
went, "No comment"
00:30:51
to all questions asked of him. Now, bearing in mind that
he portrayed Jeffrey Howe
00:30:56
to be one of his best mates, that they lived together,
we were suggesting, and it was our suspicion
00:31:05
that Stephen Marshall was
responsible for his murder. And we were accusing
Stephen Marshall
00:31:12
of murdering Jeffrey Howe. - [Detective] Are you
responsible for the killing and of dismembering of
your friend, Jeffrey Howe?
00:31:18
- No comment. - [Detective] If
so, why did you kill and dismember Jeffrey Howe? - No comment.
00:31:24
- If he was an innocent
man, you would expect him to shout from the rooftops that,
00:31:27
you know, that I'm
an innocent man. I've not done this. He would do everything
possible to try
00:31:32
and help us identify who had. - [Detective] And
do you feel upset by the fact that not only
has he been murdered,
00:31:38
but someone's chosen
to dismember him and place parts of his body
around the countryside?
00:31:43
- No comment. - [Detective] How does
that make you feel? - No comment. - But no.
00:31:48
Stephen Marshall refused
to help us in any way. - No comment. [ominous music] - [Narrator] With
time not on their side
00:31:57
and Marshall not cooperating, the police needed
concrete evidence, or their suspects would
have to be released.
00:32:04
- While Sarah Bush and
Stephen Marshall were in police custody at Hatfield, our fast track inquiry was
00:32:10
to send Jeffrey
Howe's dental records to an expert along with
the teeth from the skull
00:32:18
that had been recovered
from Leicestershire. [ominous music] - It was interesting that
despite all the effort
00:32:24
that had been taken to
remove the nose, the ears, the tongue, the teeth had
been left in the skull.
00:32:31
And teeth can often be
used to identify someone. And so the police asked a
specialist forensic dentist,
00:32:37
a forensic
odontologist to come in and to have a look in the hope that a positive
identification could be made.
00:32:45
[ominous music] - [Narrator] If police
couldn't find a match and confirm the victim
as Jeffrey Howe,
00:32:52
they'd have to release their
suspects the next morning. [ominous music] - We only have
them for 24 hours.
00:32:59
So time was of the essence. [ominous music] [dramatic music] [ominous music] - After body parts
had been found strewn
00:33:14
across the countryside, a man called Jeffrey Howe
was reported missing. And police arrested his lodgers,
00:33:21
Sarah Bush and Stephen Marshall. [ominous music] - [Narrator] Even dismembered, the body had given the
truth of what had happened
00:33:28
with the discovery of
stab wounds in the torso. - But the police still had to positively
identify the victim.
00:33:35
Fortunately, they had his teeth. - We had fast tracked
Jeffrey Howe's dental records
00:33:43
to an expert and also fast
tracked the dental impressions of the recovered skull
from Leicestershire.
00:33:50
And that dental expert
was able to confirm, 100%, that, yes, our victim
was Jeffrey Howe.
00:33:58
And that was the first
time in the investigation and a big breakthrough for us. - So now, almost all of the
body had been recovered.
00:34:06
The only significant things that were missing
were the two hands. And the torso had given evidence
00:34:12
of the two stab
wounds to the back, which undoubtedly were
the cause of death. One had penetrated right
through into the lungs
00:34:20
and would've caused
extensive bleeding into the chest cavity itself. Interestingly, stab wounds
00:34:26
to the chest often don't
bleed much externally. All the bleeding is contained. But when the body
was dismembered,
00:34:33
when the head was cut off
and the limbs were removed, their major blood vessels
would've been cut through.
00:34:39
And blood would've leaked
passively out of the body, causing extensive blood
staining of the area.
00:34:44
[dramatic music] - It is extremely difficult to clean up a crime
scene of all blood,
00:34:51
especially where quite
a lot has been shed. Blood spatter because
it goes everywhere.
00:34:56
You could easily miss
tiny, tiny spots, which forensic
scientists will find with their powerful lamps and,
00:35:03
you know, chemical tests
and all the rest of it. So it is really
difficult to clean up.
00:35:08
And then, of course, if you try to use water or anything
like that, you know, sloshing it all over the
place, you are diluting it.
00:35:13
And while you might
not be able to see it, we will still be
able to detect it. So it's really difficult.
00:35:19
[ominous music] - The flat was locked
down as a crime scene. And our forensic team spent
many, many days there,
00:35:29
carrying out a very thorough
search of the address. And albeit that Sarah Bush
and Stephen Marshall had tried
00:35:40
to do a very, very
good cleanup job, when we took up the
carpets, the underlay, the floorboards,
the skirting boards,
00:35:48
and so on and so forth, we found a significant
amount of blood. [ominous music] - They found a lot of
blood in the bedroom.
00:35:54
But then there was also
blood in the bathroom. And it's more difficult
to control blood
00:36:00
in somewhere like a bedroom
than it is in the bathroom. And the pattern
of blood staining
00:36:05
that they found told them
exactly what had gone on where. [ominous music] - The key line of
inquiry was to match
00:36:12
that blood to that
of Jeffrey Howe. DNA analysis confirms
that the DNA we found in significant volumes inside
the flat was a positive match,
00:36:26
100%, that of the body
parts found scattered around the rural locations. And it was a result of
00:36:33
that forensic examination
that we identified that the master's bedroom was
indeed the scene of the murder
00:36:42
and indeed was the scene
of the dismemberment. [dramatic music] - [Narrator] Police could
now charge Stephen Marshall
00:36:48
and Sarah Bush for the
murder of Jeffrey Howe. [dramatic music] - Within days of their arrest,
00:36:56
police announced that they
had been charged with murder, which was a real shock.
00:37:01
The two appeared in
magistrates' court on the Saturday morning. And they were then remanded
in custody to face trial.
00:37:08
[slow music] I think there was some
relief from the public. Two people had been
charged with his murder.
00:37:15
And perhaps this was the
conclusion of the case. I think there were a lot
of unanswered questions
00:37:22
about why would somebody
kill Jeffrey Howe, who had only shown kindness by allowing these two
people to stay in his flat?
00:37:32
[dramatic music] - [Narrator] To build a case
that would stand up in court, there was still a lot
of investigation needed.
00:37:40
- For every crime,
it's imperative that we prove beyond
all reasonable doubt, what is the motive
for this crime?
00:37:46
Is it jealousy? Is it greed? Is it drug-related? Is it crime-related in any way?
00:37:52
And very, very quickly, we established that,
in actual fact, the murder of Jeffrey
Howe was simply
00:37:59
about finances and greed. We established that within
hours of Jeffrey Howe's murder,
00:38:05
Stephen Marshall had
started writing checks from Jeffrey Howe's checkbook. Taking out cash and monies
from Jeffrey's bank account.
00:38:16
They sold his car. They'd set up online
shopping accounts. They'd purchased
takeaway pizzas.
00:38:25
And basically, just as soon as they'd got rid of Jeffrey, just plundered his assets
00:38:31
and plundered his bank
accounts to their own ends. Stephen Marshall had
even gone to the extent
00:38:36
of utilizing Jeffrey Howe's
personalized car number plates to put over the top
of his number plates
00:38:44
on his car to carry
out a theft of petrol at a local petrol station. The private number
plates that are seen
00:38:51
in the flat on the day of
Stephen Marshall's arrest. [ominous music] - [Narrator] The evidence
was overwhelming.
00:38:59
And crucially, all
the forensics gathered from the body parts
also matched up. - The fibers evidence was
particularly powerful.
00:39:07
Some of the links with the actual house itself
involved three mattresses that were there.
00:39:13
They had this flopped surface. It's like peach skin. It's very soft to the touch.
00:39:19
A bit like very short velvet. And some of the fibers
on the wrappings and body parts are
related to that.
00:39:25
These three mattresses. And then there was some really
powerful evidence to link,
00:39:31
again, the body parts
and the wrappings with a green polo shirt that
belonged to Stephen Marshall,
00:39:40
one of the defendants. And they were of
two different kinds. So they were green polyester
fibers and green cotton fibers.
00:39:49
And so that immediately makes
the evidence more powerful. [ominous music] - [Narrator] A clear
image finally emerged
00:39:57
of what had actually happened. [ominous music] On the night of the murder, Stephen Marshall entered
Jeffrey Howe's bedroom,
00:40:05
stabbed him in the back, and left him to bleed to death. [ominous music] He later returned to
dismember the body.
00:40:14
[ominous music] - We couldn't have had
a stronger case, really. We had our motive.
00:40:25
And we have evidence
that Sarah Bush and Stephen Marshall
had plundered all of Jeffrey Howe's finances.
00:40:33
Stephen Marshall's
fingerprints were on a receipt that he
supplied to the man who brought Jeffrey Howe's car.
00:40:41
We proved the fact that
Stephen Marshall was in that flat at the time and the fact that the flat
was indeed the murder scene
00:40:52
and the scene of
the dismemberment. We had extensive fiber evidence to show that Stephen Marshall's
T-shirts must have been
00:41:03
in that room at the time that the dismembered body
parts were being wrapped up in those blue rubble sacks.
00:41:10
We couldn't have been
in a stronger position. [slow music] - [Narrator] On the
12th of January, 2010,
00:41:18
Stephen Marshall and
Sarah Bush were tried at St. Albans Crown Court. [slow music]
00:41:24
- What was quite interesting
was, Marshall and Bush, who were sat next to
each other in the dock,
00:41:31
barely spoke a
word to each other. Considering they were lovers, why were they so cold
towards each other?
00:41:40
[slow music] - At the time of
Jeffrey Howe's murder, we don't actually believe that Sarah Bush was present
at the flat at the time.
00:41:50
She had actually extracted
herself away from the premises and gone to visit a friend.
00:41:56
Nevertheless, it
was always our case that Sarah Bush was complicit
in everything that happened.
00:42:03
Was involved in the
planning, the preparation, and, of course, the disposal
of all the body parts
00:42:11
with Stephen Marshall. - Both Marshall and
Bush pleaded not guilty, despite the weight of the
evidence against them.
00:42:19
Stephen Marshall had
admitted chopping up Jeffrey Howe's body,
but denied murder.
00:42:25
[ominous music] The details of the case
were truly grizzly. But Marshall and Bush showed
absolutely no remorse.
00:42:35
No upset. [ominous music] As the trial proceeded, Marshall and Bush started
to blame each other.
00:42:46
Very much turning
in on each other over who killed Jeffrey, who had dismembered him,
00:42:54
who'd got rid of the body parts. And it was very much the
first emotion that we'd seen,
00:42:59
which literally, to
blame each other. [slow music] - [Narrator] But
no one was prepared
00:43:04
for the next turn of events. [slow music] - Three weeks into the trial, we were all called into
court in the morning.
00:43:12
And Marshall asked for the
charge to be put to him again. And this time, he
pleaded guilty.
00:43:17
[ominous music] I mean, that's really shocking. To admit murder
when you are going
00:43:23
to get a life sentence is
like signing your life away. [ominous music] I think he's open to
different theories
00:43:30
why he decided that he
was gonna plead guilty at the very last minute. Was this him deciding
that he wanted
00:43:39
to completely clear the slate? Was this him playing the system? Pleading guilty at
the very last minute
00:43:47
once he'd seen the
overwhelming case against him, knowing that he also gets
a discount in his sentence?
00:43:55
Or was there some pressure
put on him to plead guilty by people in the
criminal underworld?
00:44:01
[ominous music] - [Narrator] Then came
perhaps the biggest revelation of all. - Stephen Marshall didn't
just leave it there.
00:44:11
You know, after pleading guilty, he then decided that
he was gonna get his QC to stand up in court
during his sentencing
00:44:19
and confess that he'd
cut up four more bodies. [dramatic music] Not only that, but
he'd worked for one
00:44:26
of the biggest crime families
in London, the Adams family. And he had been
disposing of people
00:44:33
who had double-crossed them. I mean, it was truly
a shocking revelation. [dramatic music]
00:44:45
- [Narrator] On Monday,
1st of February, 2010, Stephen Marshall was convicted
of the murder of Jeffrey Howe
00:44:51
and given a life sentence. [slow music] He would have to serve
at least 36 years
00:44:58
before he could
apply for parole. [slow music] Sarah Bush was sentenced
to three and a half years
00:45:06
for perverting the
course of justice. [slow music] - It was a difficult
investigation.
00:45:13
But I'm immensely proud
of not just my work, but that of the team 'cause it really was
a team investigation
00:45:20
that resulted in that
successful outcome. - It was certainly one
of the most disturbing,
00:45:26
you know, court cases that
I think I've ever covered. - So immensely proud. And so glad that we managed
00:45:33
to get justice for
the family, really. [slow music] - With the case concluded
and the killer in jail,
00:45:45
the last piece of the
puzzle was in place. The autopsy had provided
the information they needed.
00:45:51
The stab wound to
the back, the teeth, and even the eczema on the leg. [slow music]
00:46:00
- [Narrator] In the end, Jeffrey Howe's body
had revealed the truth. And the jigsaw was complete.
00:46:07
[dramatic music] [dramatic music]