00:00:04
[music playing] NARRATOR: As 47-year-old
Carol Jarvis became ill, her husband, Harry moved his
mistress Rita into the garden
00:00:12
shed. There, she sleeps
on a dingy mattress. GARY ALLEN: If Rita
were sleeping there,
00:00:18
her head would be only
about four feet from where I understood Carol's head
would have been in her bed
00:00:26
through the wall
inside the house. NARRATOR: There
was much detectives had to uncover about the story
of Mr. Harry and Mrs. Carol
00:00:32
Jarvis, including how she died. One of her four children
learned about Carol's death
00:00:38
in gruesome fashion. GRAHAM JARVIS: Later on that
day, they had came round and-- and there
was-- they told us
00:00:43
that they had found a body
on underneath the floorboards of the house. And obviously it was his Mom.
00:00:53
NARRATOR: Carole
Jarvis was dead. Had she been killed by
the man she had married?
00:00:58
If so, proving it was not
going to be straightforward. PHIL GACHAGAN: I had meetings
with Crown solicitors.
00:01:05
And there was a real worry that
there wasn't enough evidence to even take the case to court.
00:01:15
[music playing] NARRATOR: Harry Jarvis was
working as a bus driver in London when he met Carol.
00:01:43
He quickly set his sights on
marrying her despite her age. Graham Jarvis, the
couple's son, would
00:01:49
hear stories of their youth. GRAHAM JARVIS: She was a
proper bound [inaudible] girl.
00:01:54
And so we had all
proper cockneys. And Dad was from Grimsby area. But my Mom's family were all
London, [inaudible] Londoners.
00:02:04
Jarvis met Carol in 1977. And times were different then. And we can see this
because at 29 years old,
00:02:11
he is working as a bus driver
and he meets a 15-year-old girl and gets into a relationship
with one another.
00:02:18
NARRATOR: Harry was
much more worldly. A fact which he displayed
in his drinking.
00:02:23
Even back then, I
think he was a man who would get
through the best part of the bottle of whiskey a day.
00:02:28
So he really wasn't exactly
the kind of man that you want for your daughter. It was a very, very frowned
upon relationship as a result.
00:02:36
Carol's entire family
were very much against it. His interest is
in a schoolgirl.
00:02:41
That says something firstly,
about his personality that he's somebody who
doesn't obey rules.
00:02:47
But secondly, that
he doesn't feel that there is a power imbalance
in a man dating a child.
00:02:55
NARRATOR: Despite the
obvious differences in age and personality,
the couple married
00:02:59
and children soon follow. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH:
Carol has three children in quick succession, just a--
00:03:05
one a year, really, for
the first three children. And that's another
warning perhaps
00:03:11
that Carol is being
put into a position where she's actually
now completely trapped in the relationship.
00:03:18
NARRATOR: Before
their eldest child Graham had finished
primary school, the family left London and
moved 450 miles to Scotland.
00:03:26
We grew up in
[inaudible] and then, I think, from the age of
eight, we moved up to Scotland.
00:03:32
Because Mom used
to always like it. We used to go on holidays there. She always had a special
fancy for Scotland,
00:03:39
and specifically
Bathgate for some reason. NARRATOR: Harry had fallen
out with some of his family.
00:03:45
So making the decision
for he and Carol to move to Bathgate easy, it
was a far cry from London.
00:03:51
A small town 22 miles
West of Edinburgh. GRAHAM JARVIS: I
think ma and Dad, and specifically Dad had these
demons, should we say, just
00:04:00
in terms of his history
and his family history and those [inaudible]
him and his brothers
00:04:08
and his side of the family. I think they settled on Bathgate
as that sort of forever home.
00:04:15
NARRATOR: They moved
into Balbardie Crescent. Carol embraced life in
her Scottish community,
00:04:19
becoming a Brownie
leader and devoting herself to being a good Mom. TONY KENT: It seems
of the two of them--
00:04:25
it seems of Harry and Carol,
that Carol was the parent. I don't think Harry seemed to
play much of a role at all.
00:04:31
But Carol more than
made up for that. She was to all intents and
purposes, the perfect mother.
00:04:36
GRAHAM JARVIS: She
was one of a kind. I think always like
at a party and stuff like that she'd always dancing.
00:04:43
She didn't-- she didn't care
about what anyone thought. But on the flip side of it, she
would always have your back.
00:04:50
Like we were sort of
picked on for being English and moving up. And she would almost
come over and defend us.
00:04:58
And she was the type
of woman who really loved bringing up her children. GRAHAM JARVIS: Back
in the younger days,
00:05:03
because he was a
bus driver for-- for when I was growing up,
he used to go on, like,
00:05:10
the long journey, so
he used to drive buses from London up to Edinburgh. And sometimes even back
down again a couple of times
00:05:18
in a row. So and it was pretty much left
to Mom to do day-to-day stuff. She just bloomed into
the whole maternal role.
00:05:30
The children could not ask
for more from their mother. For example, when
they had a birthday,
00:05:36
they'd have a birthday
party but all of the kids would get the presents on each
of the children's birthday.
00:05:40
It was like they had
four birthdays a year. When she would go on all
the Girl Guides trips,
00:05:46
she would be the first port of
call for any of her children who had any kind
of problem at all.
00:05:51
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH:
And from the outside, certainly, it seems
some people thought
00:05:56
that it was a really good
marriage or, you know, they were both happy. Carol was happy, the
children were happy.
00:06:03
Everything's rolling
along perfect family. But, you know, what
looks perfect rarely is.
00:06:08
TONY KENT: As well as
being this great mother, Carol was also an
absolutely devoted wife.
00:06:13
She was absolutely
besotted with her husband. It's very clear when you
look into this relationship
00:06:18
that Carol trusted her
husband implicitly. NARRATOR: She trusted him,
despite evidence which
00:06:25
suggested that he had
something secret and separate in his life. GRAHAM JARVIS:
And then there was
00:06:30
times whereby again, I
think he just-- maybe just needed a break or whatever. I don't know.
00:06:36
But used to go away for,
like, maybe a couple of days at a time or a week at a time.
00:06:41
We called them missing
episodes and he'd vanished. You know, even at
a young age, you
00:06:47
start to ask, where is he going,
where has he been, if you like. She ignored so
many warning signs.
00:06:55
He was picking up a bit
of a criminal record. He was in trouble
for embezzlement.
00:06:59
He was in trouble for fraud. He was doing quite a
lot of dishonest things. And he was being found out.
00:07:06
And Carol turned a blind
eye to all of them. Carol let go because
she absolutely
00:07:10
adored the man who had
brought her to Scotland when she was 15 years old. EMMA KENNY: Even though some of
his behaviors are very dubious,
00:07:18
she chose to see him in
the best light possible. We are introduced to a very
concerning trait in Jarvis
00:07:24
when he starts to get involved
in fraud and embezzlement. Con artistry behavior
scores highly
00:07:31
on the psychopathy scale. Because people who
are willing to con people are very deceptive and
malicious and manipulative.
00:07:40
NARRATOR: Fraud and
embezzlement weren't they only have Jarvis's vises
to have a negative impact
00:07:45
upon family life. We always knew when he was
in a mood or when he was tired just to stay clear
of him, if you like.
00:07:52
'Cause he would
just not be the best person to talk to, if you like. Other times, he would be fine.
00:07:58
He would be happy as Larry
and, you know, he'd be fine. But when he was maybe in the
kitchen having a wee drink
00:08:05
or he was [inaudible],,
you would just avoid him. NARRATOR: It was around 2000
when, 38, that Carol became
00:08:14
overrun with a
debilitating illness and was forced
into a wheelchair. It was due to a degenerative
muscle condition.
00:08:22
GRAHAM JARVIS: I was
probably around about 12-13, I reckon, and I
became aware of, like,
00:08:28
how-- how Mom could be and,
um, sort of some of the stuff that she used to be
able to do, she--
00:08:36
she couldn't, if you like. And almost, like, sort
of seeing Dad taking an active role in the house.
00:08:41
Or sometimes when
he was gone, we would have to take that active
role and to sort of, you know,
00:08:49
do the housework
and stuff like that. So I think round
about 12 or 13 when I fully recognized
that, you know,
00:08:55
Mom's not in a good place. NARRATOR: It was
agreed that Harry would become Carol's full time carer.
00:09:02
And the family relied
on the benefit money that he received for that
role to keep things afloat.
00:09:07
GRAHAM JARVIS: I think in-- in the early days, Dad's done
a good job caring for Mom.
00:09:12
Obviously, it's
difficult, like, you know, trying to raise four
kids, let alone caring
00:09:17
for your-- your-- your partner. It's a-- it's a tough job. But I think in the
mainstream, in the early days,
00:09:25
I done a reasonable job. Now, he's the hero. He's taking care of her. He's given up his job for her.
00:09:33
So again, her analysis of
him is potentially that he is the most caring husband.
00:09:39
And that the devotion
that she's given him is being played out
positively for her here.
00:09:44
NARRATOR: With Carol bedridden,
Jarvis had a free rein to prowl the internet looking for women.
00:09:50
He was having affairs. A chance encounter
lead him to Rita. TONY KENT: Harry's
affairs continued.
00:09:55
And they culminated
in what was probably the unluckiest affair
when we look at it
00:10:01
from the position of Carol. And that's with a woman
called Rita Heyster. NARRATOR: Rita Heyster had been
a millionaire after inheritance
00:10:08
but had spent lavishly. Temporarily, she needed
a roof over her head and she wanted a
man in her life.
00:10:15
Enter Harry Jarvis. Harry fitted out the garden
shed with a mattress and a bowl and a towel and
other basic things.
00:10:28
And Rita moved in. She moved into the shed in
the back garden of the house where Carol was
lying as an invalid.
00:10:39
NARRATOR: The complicated
world of Harry Jarvis in 2008, heavy drinker, embezzler,
husband and father,
00:10:46
a man who thought he'd
found a meal ticket for life in Rita Heyster, heiress
to a family fortune.
00:10:52
If only Carol
wasn't on the scene, perhaps Rita could be
a useful second wife. By 2008, Harry Jarvis was
displaying his love of whiskey,
00:11:05
women and doing his wife wrong. GARY ALLEN: As a regular
feature of his life, he would take a
fancy to other women.
00:11:13
He would make contact on
the internet in some way. He would go off
with them on a jolly
00:11:21
for sometimes weeks at a time. Carol, whilst not happy
about the situation, tolerated the situation.
00:11:29
And when Jarvis
did misbehave, I think she protected her children
from perhaps what she really
00:11:40
probably knew their father was. But also, she's protecting him. She's protecting him from
any negative feedback
00:11:48
and perhaps trying to keep
things nice and balanced. NARRATOR: It was
May of 2008 when
00:11:54
Harry Jarvis found
56-year-old Rita Heyster on an internet dating site. She lived 50 miles south on
the England-Scotland border.
00:12:03
GRAHAM JARVIS: Rita
was the first person that we knew that Dad had
a full-on affair with.
00:12:09
She had, it seems,
been a lady who had inherited a substantial
legacy following the death of her father.
00:12:20
TONY KENT: Unfortunately,
Rita went through that money very quickly. So she came from this very
privileged background.
00:12:26
Yeah, she was adopted
into privilege. She was adopted into wealth. She likes nice
cars, nice homes.
00:12:32
So she's very, very
frivolous with her cash. On one level, this could
introduce us to somebody who's
00:12:39
quite naive and vulnerable. She doesn't know how
to manage herself. And we know that Jarvis
likes that kind of woman.
00:12:44
He can control her. But on another, they've
got this perfect synergy. He is chaotic, he
drinks heavily.
00:12:51
She is chaotic,
she spends heavily. They probably have
a very immature emotional coping strategy.
00:12:59
TONY KENT: By the
time she met Harry, she had been married twice. She had found herself
having to downgrade
00:13:04
repeatedly in her houses
as her wealth dwindled. By the time she
met Harry, she was
00:13:09
living in a semi-detached
council house. NARRATOR: Things
developed quickly between Jarvis and Rita.
00:13:15
Apparently, in love and
desperate to be together. We know that when Rita meets
him she's instantly besotted.
00:13:21
And even though her
friends are saying, this guy might not
be a good idea. She disregards all
of her friends advice
00:13:27
and she just absolutely
goes full throttle into this relationship. She moved up to
Bathgate to be near him.
00:13:35
She initially, it
seems, stayed in bed and breakfast accommodation. But that was too expensive.
00:13:42
NARRATOR: What
cheaper accommodation than the Jarvis family shed? Rita's defense lawyer
uncovered the reality
00:13:49
of her makeshift home. And it was literally one or
two feet away from the window
00:13:55
of the living room
of the house, which was looking out
onto the back garden where the shed was situated.
00:14:03
There were electricity
cables running from the house into the shed to provide
some sort of power.
00:14:09
But I just thought
the whole situation seemed bizarre from the outset. GARY ALLEN: How the mattress,
which filled the whole shed was
00:14:18
positioned meant that at night,
if Rita was sleeping there, her head would be only
about four feet from where
00:14:27
Carol's head would
have been in her bed through the wall
inside the house. Because this happened
so often that actually all
00:14:33
of the neighbors became aware
that there was this woman who seemed to be in a
relationship with Harry,
00:14:39
because they would walk up and
down the road hand-in-hand, though, not really seeming
to care who saw them.
00:14:45
And everyone knew she was
living in the garden shed. It must have been the--
the strangest sort
00:14:49
of circumstance for the
local gossips to talk about. Rita would have gone along
with this ludicrous scenario
00:14:55
because she believed it was
the path to them being together in a permanent relationship.
00:15:03
And this is just something they
had to go through temporarily to get there. NARRATOR: At that
time, only Harry
00:15:10
and Carol's 18-year-old daughter
was living with the couple. It meant often, regular
and unwitnessed access
00:15:17
to a medicine cupboard
and an opportunity that Harry took to keep
Carol under his control.
00:15:23
Dad had access
to her medication, was giving her medication
as a [inaudible] They
00:15:27
say that he was giving her
excessive sleeping tablets, I feel like. So, again, if you're
constantly sleeping all day,
00:15:34
then it helps [inaudible]. We didn't really
question it at the time. NARRATOR: Watching
the mother's health
00:15:40
deteriorate, Carol's children
grew increasingly suspicious about her worsening ill health.
00:15:46
After all, when Dad was away,
Mom seemed to get better. When Dad would sort
of maybe went away
00:15:53
again on one of his
vanishing episodes, and then we used to
give Mom her medication,
00:15:59
she seemed to be, like,
perking up a lot more, waking up and
asking where Dad is.
00:16:04
And almost trying to find him. And I remember she
used to just go back to the nights of getting off
her bed and looking for him,
00:16:10
if you like. And not so much a
miraculous recovery, like, sort of the alarm
bells started ringing.
00:16:17
But even as young adults,
how do you question your-- question your Dad,
if you like, if terms
00:16:22
of, like, Dad what's happening? She's fine one minute
and then not the next. NARRATOR: Unquestioned and
unaccountable to anyone,
00:16:31
Jarvis seemed to see
his future with Rita. And she fell under his spell. He was clearly a very
manipulative, persuasive
00:16:40
individual. And that applied to many people
with whom he came into contact. And I think the reasoning that
I reached at the time for Rita
00:16:52
Heyster being in that situation
was entirely down to her desire to keep Harry Jarvis
happy and to go
00:17:02
along with what he wanted. NARRATOR: Jarvis and
Rita became inseparable. Carol, an inconvenience.
00:17:09
Harry wanted out of
the marriage and sends Rita twisted love letters
to the shed unveiling
00:17:14
his plan to get rid of her. EMMA KENNY: Rita and
Jarvis are engaged in some kind of fantasy play.
00:17:19
They are writing to
each other letters from the shed to
the house to express how much they love one another.
00:17:25
But also, really,
disturbingly, they're talking about Carol's demise. NARRATOR: Phil
Gachagan would one day
00:17:32
be asked to investigate
the events surrounding the married life of
Harry and Carol Jarvis,
00:17:37
and the letters between
Harry and his mistress Rita. The letters talked about
Carol dying as he wrote.
00:17:48
And that at some point in
the near future, he and Rita would be together and
everything behind them
00:17:56
and start a new life together. TONY KENT: The letters
they were writing were all about how
this was almost over,
00:18:02
it won't be long now. Most importantly, it was very
clear from the letters written
00:18:07
by Harry that by
now, at least, he was actively poisoning
Carol with the intention
00:18:14
of killing her. NARRATOR: On Friday, 11th
of September, as Kimberly, their youngest child leaves for
university, her brother Graham
00:18:21
sees their father
walking in town and is struck by his
uncomfortable behavior. GRAHAM JARVIS: I seen Dad
walking through Bathgate market
00:18:30
and he looked sort
of confused, dazed. And I was with my partner
at the time and it--
00:18:39
[inaudible] it even at that
time, [inaudible] said to me, have you got a
couple of quids, see?
00:18:44
[inaudible] then I was like, ah. Then I said, where's Mom? And he was like, oh, he's in--
she's in the house sleeping.
00:18:51
And then I don't
think any more of it. And then the Monday, Kevin had
phoned me and he said, are--
00:19:00
like, are you going back
to the house because-- or are you going for
to see Mom today?
00:19:04
Because like, I went through and
Dad was being like really funny and, like, sort of couldn't--
00:19:11
I couldn't get into the house. When the children
start asking questions, he comes up with a
bizarre and poorly thought
00:19:19
out excuse for her absence. I didn't understand that. He was like, I didn't have
my key to get in and check,
00:19:25
so can you go
through after work. So after work on
the Monday night, I went through and asked
Dad where was-- saying like,
00:19:34
where's Mom? And then he sort of made up
a story that she was like away for a walk or something.
00:19:42
And he quickly changed his story
to, oh, she was away up to-- to Dundee 'cause they
were planning on moving up
00:19:48
there or something. So I think that was time, like,
alarm bells started ringing that something's not right.
00:19:54
He's really kind of
reckless because it's so easily uncovered. So he hadn't really
thought about how he was
00:20:04
going to get away with this. He told a story that could
so easily be disproved. She literally disappears.
00:20:13
Her children don't
know where she is. NARRATOR: Graham
calls his siblings and they gather in
the front garden
00:20:18
to question their father. They want answers about
their mother's whereabouts. GRAHAM JARVIS:
Even in the garden,
00:20:23
it was like a
hostile atmosphere. He was clearly trying
to defend his self and there was no way a
[inaudible],, if you like.
00:20:30
And Dad was sort of
still [inaudible] that Mom away up in
Dundee looking for a house
00:20:38
and everything like that. And I managed to
actually get in the house and I had a quick scope about.
00:20:47
And I couldn't see anybody. And then I came back out. And then we phoned-- we phoned the police
and the police came out.
00:20:54
NARRATOR: There's supposed to be
a bizarre discovery of a woman they knew nothing about.
00:21:00
They find Rita
hidden under a bed. But instead of admitting
that she's his lover,
00:21:06
he tries to pass
her off as his wife. Rita came out from
underneath the bed and went along
with Harry's story
00:21:15
that this was Carol,
the missing wife. The difficulty with that is
that the female police officer
00:21:24
had met Carol and knew
who Carol was and knew that Rita was not Carol. PHIL GACHAGAN: When I arrived
at the police station,
00:21:33
I was briefed on the
circumstances of the case. I was told that Carol
had been reported
00:21:40
missing by her children. And that during the initial
part of the investigation to try and find
Carol, a woman had
00:21:46
been found hiding under a bed
in the house who was not Carol. And she gave her name as Rita.
00:21:53
NARRATOR: Jarvis told police
that he would collect his wife from Dundee the next day.
00:21:57
The children now had an
agonizing wait for Jarvis to bring their mother home. GRAHAM JARVIS: The police
said, look, you know,
00:22:02
we need to give it 24 hours. Your dad's going to
get your mom tomorrow and make sure she's safe.
00:22:09
We'll come back
and check her over. We went away and we were-- we were, right,
something's not right here.
00:22:15
Definitely not something on. But ultimately, there was
nothing else we could do, eh?
00:22:21
NARRATOR: They had
met, married in haste, had four children very quickly. Now, those same
children were witnesses
00:22:27
to an unfolding mystery. What had happened to
their mother Carol Jarvis? Was she in Dundee
or was she dead
00:22:35
at the hands of their father? [music playing] [music playing] September 2009 and
Carol Jarvis is missing.
00:22:49
Her husband, Harry unable to
convince the couple's children that she's still alive.
00:22:54
I think the siblings we,
being in that space of time, we knew something that happened.
00:23:00
We just wasn't sure what. We couldn't report her as
missing because she's an adult.
00:23:04
And you had to wait
the full 24 hours. And Dad had agreed that he
was going to bring Mom down
00:23:10
to the place on the Tuesday
so it was almost just a sitting and waiting game. NARRATOR: A waiting game which
ended with a police search team
00:23:18
making a grim discovery
at the Jarvis family home. On the day that
Carol was found,
00:23:23
I was on call at home at
1 o'clock in the morning and received a call to
see that a body had been
00:23:31
found under the floorboards
of a house in Bathgate-- a women's body. I attended to Bathgate
police station
00:23:38
and there was briefed
on the discovery. And at that time, I
found out that Carol
00:23:44
had been reported missing the
day before by her children. So the suspicion at that
point was that the body
00:23:50
may actually be Carol. Later on that day, they
had called us just to see-- or they had came
'round and they told us
00:23:59
that they had found
a body underneath the floorboards of the house. And obviously it
was-- it was Mom.
00:24:09
PHIL GACHAGAN: It was a space
of three feet in height. Through a small trap door
about two feet by two feet.
00:24:18
She was wrapped in a
duvet cover and was bound with a partial
tape and pushed up
00:24:26
against the corner of the
space underneath the floor. And if you can imagine, a skip
where people would dump their,
00:24:35
you know, unwanted
belongings or trash. And that's what it was
like under the floor.
00:24:40
It was full of debris-- household debris, books, old
items of household equipment,
00:24:48
pieces of furniture. And Carol was squeezed
into that space with some of the stuff
dumped over the top of her.
00:24:57
[music playing] GRAHAM JARVIS: So
many questions when-- when they tell you
as to what's happened
00:25:05
and that they found her. It's almost like,
obviously, shock. I just remember feeling sick.
00:25:13
The lack of respect
for her, the lack of respect for the children
that they shared together.
00:25:19
The sheer disdain for this
woman that he should have loved. It's just remarkable.
00:25:26
I think at the time to have
the siblings-- and not just the siblings, but, like, the--
00:25:31
the various friends, partners,
again, without that support and that-- that close-knit
network, if you like.
00:25:38
And you do wonder,
well, like how things would have turned out. NARRATOR: Police launched
a murder inquiry.
00:25:45
PHIL GACHAGAN: Obviously, we had
to confirm that it was Carol. So we contacted
our forensic team.
00:25:53
Forensic teams came in
and went into the space beneath the floor and
removed the body from their,
00:26:01
having carried out some
forensic tests before hand. NARRATOR: It was Carol's body.
00:26:07
But other results
were inconclusive. GARY ALLEN: What was
clear is that no one could tell how Carol had died.
00:26:14
Because when her body was
in due course discovered, it was in a state
of decomposition,
00:26:20
which prevented the pathologists
who investigated that matter-- it prevented them
arriving at a conclusion.
00:26:29
NARRATOR: Unable to
determine cause of death, police turned their attention
to Harry Jarvis and Rita.
00:26:34
They were nowhere to be seen. And then that was just like
I say, trying to find Dad.
00:26:39
And I think after that, he'd
done a runner, should we say. And he's disappeared.
00:26:46
NARRATOR: Harry
Jarvis had been wrong footed by the arrival
of his children, who had confronted him
about their mother.
00:26:53
Our suspicion was that
had he been given the time, he would have
disposed of Carol's
00:26:59
body away from the house. And there was evidence
that we uncovered that suggested that that's
what he was planning to do.
00:27:06
I think we had caught him on
the hop, if that makes sense. I think he was-- we had caught him a
couple of days short.
00:27:12
If we had left it until sort
of a couple of days later, I think he-- him
and Rita probably
00:27:18
would have disappeared. And it would have been
later on down the line. I think we've rushed these
plans, if you like, by--
00:27:27
by establishing through Kevin,
going through on the Monday. On me on the Friday
seeing him a wee bit
00:27:33
shaken to put two and two
together for him to then bring his plans
forward, if you like.
00:27:39
NARRATOR: A manhunt
was launched. PHIL GACHAGAN: Jarvis
and Rita went on the run.
00:27:44
And we had to cut
out some surveillance to-- to try and trace them. RAYMOND MCMENAMIN: It seems
as if they'd tried to get away
00:27:55
from the Bathgate area
and they both went to, I think, some guest house--
a bed and breakfast in Perth.
00:28:02
And they left without the
bill having been settled. PHIL GACHAGAN: We
were able to pinpoint
00:28:10
that whereabouts, which at
that time, was in Perth. After a short period of
time, we found that they had
00:28:17
moved to [inaudible] Edinburgh. And we had some officers
waiting at Edinburgh bus station
00:28:22
if we picked them up coming
back off the bus from Perth. NARRATOR: The couple were
taken to the local headquarters
00:28:28
at Livingston police station
where they were searched, processed, interviewed. PHIL GACHAGAN: He basically said
that Carol had died of a fit,
00:28:39
having had a fit
during sex with him, and that he decided to place
a body beneath the floorboards
00:28:48
because he couldn't
bear to be without her. TONY KENT: His whole explanation
for the death of Carol
00:28:54
is they were involved
in a kinky sex game that Carol had particular
likes and dislikes.
00:29:03
And that one of the things
that she asked him to do was to choke her in the
course of sex with a rubber--
00:29:12
I think, a red rubber implement. GARY ALLEN: I thought that that
was a very odd lie to tell.
00:29:20
To say such a thing
of one's deceased wife struck me as being
not a great indicator
00:29:28
of character or
sensitivity so far as his family were concerned. All it would really
do was hurt the children
00:29:35
and denigrate Carol further. But it gives us an idea
of how she actually died. And I think it tells us that
he strangled her because he was
00:29:43
actually making up a plausible
story of why she would have marks on her neck,
just in case that came
00:29:51
up in the forensic post-mortem. NARRATOR: Jarvis claimed that
after the alleged accident,
00:29:55
he had treated his wife
with love and respect. PHIL GACHAGAN: So he
had placed a lovingly
00:30:01
beneath the floorboards. And occasionally,
over the weekend, would go down and lie
beside her and speak to her.
00:30:13
And basically, have
some time with her because he found
it very difficult to be without her, which
obviously, in my mind,
00:30:20
was a complete fantasy. And he actually
probably believed that he would get away with that.
00:30:27
I formed the impression
from all the material that he was a manipulator. That he was untruthful and that
he would probably say anything
00:30:34
to get himself out of trouble. NARRATOR: Separated from
Jarvis for questioning on her initial
interrogation, Rita told
00:30:42
a completely different story. PHIL GACHAGAN: She claimed that
she and Jarvis were an item.
00:30:49
They were romantically involved. That he was leaving
his wife and that they were going to set up
home elsewhere together.
00:30:57
She claimed that she had
no idea that Carol had died and that they were leaving to
set up a home somewhere else
00:31:06
and live out the rest
of their lives together. NARRATOR: Their stories appeared
contradictory and implausible.
00:31:12
Prosecutors and
investigators were concerned. The case of Mr. Harry
Jarvis, his wife
00:31:16
Carol and Harry's lover
Rita was far from clear cut. We didn't have
a cause of death.
00:31:22
We had no eyewitnesses
to the death. And forensic evidence
was always going to be tricky because Carol
and Jarvis lived together.
00:31:36
There was no direct
evidence that anyone had seen a criminal act being committed.
00:31:43
There was no direct evidence
of how Carol had died, what was the cause of death.
00:31:51
I had meetings with
Crown solicitors. And there was a real worry that
there wasn't enough evidence
00:31:58
to even take the case to court. NARRATOR: Was it a case of
a husband killing his wife?
00:32:03
Were a lover's, Harry
Jarvis and Rita Heyster about to be free to
begin a life together?
00:32:09
[music playing] Harry Jarvis and his lover,
ex-millionaire heiress, Rita Heyster, are under
arrest for the murder
00:32:20
of his 47-year-old wife Carol. GARY ALLEN: My impression
of Harry Jarvis was that he was a
manipulative man.
00:32:32
My impression was that
he told lies easily. NARRATOR: Jarvis and
Rita denied murder.
00:32:40
The police and the
prosecution built a case to prove how they left the
mother of his children, Carol,
00:32:45
rotting under the floorboards
of the family home in Bathgate. PHIL GACHAGAN: We
managed to build
00:32:50
a good circumstantial case
against both Jarvis and Rita. NARRATOR: Before the trial at
the high court in Edinburgh
00:32:57
begins, there's an early
setback for the prosecution. That trial
started out as being
00:33:02
intended as a single trial. But in the course of the
preliminary procedure, an application was made by
the solicitor advocate who
00:33:12
was acting for Rita Heyster,
that the trials of the two individuals be held separately.
00:33:18
I was able to
submit to the court that there was insufficient
evidence to link Rita Heyster
00:33:25
to the death of the victim. There had to be evidence
that she, to some degree, participated in the murder.
00:33:34
The judge was sympathetic
to my argument and he decided to acquit
Rita Heyster at that stage
00:33:45
of the charge of murder. NARRATOR: Instead Rita's
defense team argued successfully
00:33:50
that Rita should
stand trial separately from Harry Jarvis for attempting
to defeat the ends of justice.
00:33:55
RAYMOND MCMENAMIN: I think if
they'd been tried together, Rita would have been
prejudiced by having
00:34:01
Harry as a co-accuser. And I think there was a real
chance of her being convicted
00:34:06
simply by her association
with Harry if the two of them were to stand trial together.
00:34:11
NARRATOR: Jarvis now
stood alone in the dark on a count of murder. In the court, his four children.
00:34:18
GRAHAM JARVIS: We went
to trial when it started. We used to always ask,
like, what would Mom do?
00:34:23
And we used to always
say, like, Mom would still probably be to defend him. You know, whether it be through
love or just sheer stupidness.
00:34:32
During the trial,
Jarvis changed his story all the time, going from
one ridiculous explanation
00:34:39
to another. He's basically like
a compulsive liar. So, like, anything he says, you
just take with a pinch of salt.
00:34:46
And that's not that
surprising with somebody who's maybe a psychopath. Because they are used
to working from scripts.
00:34:54
They are used to responding
to things in ways they know that will work. This was taking some intuition.
00:35:02
This was taking knowing people
and how to think on your feet. He couldn't do that.
00:35:07
This was a script he'd
never come across. So he was having to
think on his feet.
00:35:16
Couldn't do it. NARRATOR: What was the
evidence put to a jury that Harry Jarvis
had killed his wife?
00:35:21
What we did know that
what-- she was dead. What we did know, she was
under the floorboards.
00:35:26
What we did know,
she was trussed up in a blanket and duct tape. What we did know was
that her husband had told
00:35:37
lies about where
she had been when the children inquired of him. The one thing that really
helped with the investigation
00:35:48
was the letters that Jarvis
had written to Rita, which indicated that he
was drugging Carol
00:35:56
and was planning on killing her. The notes which suggested
that Carol's death was imminent.
00:36:05
The notes which suggested
that at that time, Harry and Rita could
sell off everything
00:36:12
and move on to a life-- I think, the expression
was, somewhere in paradise-- was a very dramatic
picture, which I was able--
00:36:22
I thought-- to
present to the jury and show that this was not
an unfortunate death which
00:36:31
had resulted in
panicked decisions being made by individuals
close to the deceased.
00:36:36
NARRATOR: After a lengthy trial,
the jury were ready to announce their verdict. GRAHAM JARVIS: The verdict that
I wanted was guilty, of course.
00:36:45
I was in court and
the foreman of the jury stood up and delivered
the jury's verdict.
00:36:52
Even at that point,
I didn't know which way it was going to go. It was a circumstantial case.
00:36:58
No direct evidence, so
we were really worried that the case would be lost. However, the jury
returned a guilty verdict,
00:37:07
which was a massive
relief to me and my team. NARRATOR: Jarvis was
convicted of murdering
00:37:12
his wife Carol at
Edinburgh high court on the 30th of March 2011. He received a life sentence
with a minimum of 15 years
00:37:20
before being able
to apply for parole. At the end of the day,
we had no cause of death.
00:37:26
We had no eyewitnesses. But we still managed
to achieve justice for Carol and for her family.
00:37:33
I don't think I'll ever
forgive or forget Dad, I mean, for what he's-- for what
he's done. 'Cause there's no
00:37:40
rhyme or reason. And I think even though we
wanted to sort of be civil and understanding, I
think the trial went--
00:37:51
the way that the whole trial
and the way he handled hisself and, you know, some times
if he had put his hand up
00:37:58
and sort of-- and if we'd noticed he-- what actually
happened, then that's potential whereby you
can sort of not so much
00:38:08
understand and accept it,
but you can sort of just process it more. Because I think now
that will forever
00:38:15
be that question of
what actually happened and what actually got
him to that stage?
00:38:21
And nobody's going to know that. I think because
that, you can-- you can never forgive him for it.
00:38:28
NARRATOR: Rita's trial followed. RAYMOND MCMENAMIN:
The funny thing is that she didn't say
anything at any stage
00:38:34
to anybody about it. And she didn't give evidence. But on the basis of
our instructions,
00:38:45
the defense will run as a denial
of any involvement in murder. It was in that trial
that Harry, seemingly going
00:38:54
against the grain of what
his normal character was, acted almost selflessly. Almost without
explanation really.
00:39:03
And continued to
say that he was not in a relationship with Rita. But of course, that
was proved very wrong.
00:39:08
NARRATOR: There was one
piece of forensic evidence that came from the
body of Carol Jarvis.
00:39:12
And it showed that Rita had been
in contact with Carol's body. We also had some
forensic evidence
00:39:20
linking Rita to the
parcel tape that had been wrapped around Carol's body. NARRATOR: Rita's
trial lasted for weeks
00:39:29
at the high court in Edinburgh. PHIL GACHAGAN: Rita was
found guilty with attempting
00:39:34
to defeat ends of justice,
which is basically helping Jarvis hide the body. That was what she
was found guilty of.
00:39:43
And I think that
was a just result. NARRATOR: The judge
sentenced Rita Heyster to four years and six months.
00:39:50
And said that she had
delayed the discovery of Mrs. Jarvis's body. I think Rita was
the victim of Jarvis.
00:39:57
What she did was awful. She shouldn't have done it. But if she'd never
met him, she'd
00:40:02
never have got into trouble. He was always going to be
in trouble, whatever he did.
00:40:06
He didn't need somebody else. So from that perspective,
he wrecked her life. I think all this
[inaudible] almost felt
00:40:17
sorry for her to an extent. Like she just happened to-- she probably could have been
any woman and it fell on Rita.
00:40:25
I think Rita, she's
a bit of a lost soul and could potentially have
become another victim of Jarvis
00:40:34
at sometime in the future. And that was always
at the back of my mind during the investigation.
00:40:41
GARY ALLEN: I cannot remember
at any stage in the trial, Harry Jarvis showing any
remorse because his position
00:40:52
was he had not killed his wife. His position was she
had died naturally. And anything he had
done had been in panic
00:41:01
and had been directed
at hiding her remains. GRAHAM JARVIS: After
the trial, that
00:41:09
was the last time we seen Dad. And he went to prison. I don't think any of us
got in contact with him.
00:41:16
NARRATOR: A bitter irony about
the motivation Harry Jarvis may have had to kill his
wife was the expectation
00:41:21
of helping Rita spend money that
he felt certain she still had. It seems that he killed
Carol under a misapprehension.
00:41:29
It seems that he was well
aware of Rita's inheritance. But somehow, he believed
that it was still there.
00:41:36
He no longer needed
to be the world's most dysfunctional carer and
to be paid by the state
00:41:42
to do so because he
could go off and marry Rita and enjoy her money. And all he had to do to achieve
that was to get rid of Carol.
00:41:50
[music playing] NARRATOR: On the
20th of April 2017, Harry Jarvis died in prison
in West Lothian, Scotland
00:41:57
after a heart attack. He had served six years
of his 15 year sentence. And I was like, not a weight
off your mind, if you like.
00:42:06
But it was almost
like, right, that's it. That's it, closed
off, I feel like. But again, it's never
really closed off.
00:42:16
Jarvis was a very
manipulative, controlling man. And he thought he
knew everything.
00:42:26
He tried to con people. And he did con people
over the years. And he was someone that
you just could not trust.
00:42:37
And ultimately, he was
found guilty of the most serious crime of all, murder. He shouldn't have done
what he'd done, so I--
00:42:48
it's a difficult one in terms
of how you feel for him. He eventually got
his comeuppance.
00:42:55
But it's so sad that it happened
at the cost of his wife's life. NARRATOR: Left behind
from the marriage of Harry
00:43:03
to Carol Jarvis, four children. GRAHAM JARVIS: I've got like a-- a photo of my Mom in
the house in all--
00:43:13
event some music that comes
on that makes me remember her. And, you know, [inaudible]
favorite song, if you like.
00:43:23
You know, if I'm
talking to my kids. Well, it still
plays on your mind. Even after 11 years last
week, it's still as fresh
00:43:35
as it was like yesterday. [music playing] [music playing]