00:00:03
[music playing] NARRATOR: In April
2000, a loving mother of six
children, Lesley Ford,
00:00:11
celebrated her 36th birthday. By the end of the
summer, Lesley, along with four of her children,
had vanished from their home.
00:00:20
Where is Lesley Ford? NARRATOR: The truth is,
Lesley Ford and her four teenage children
were buried beneath
00:00:28
the woodshed in the
garden of their family home, killed by her
husband, Lee Ford.
00:00:35
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It
almost defies belief that anyone could
be that callous and that cruel to people
whom he called his family.
00:00:43
NARRATOR: To cover his
tracks, Ford casually told anyone who asked that Lesley and
his stepchildren had left him.
00:00:50
CHRIS BOARLAND: I think it's
illustrative of Lee Ford's character and how callous and
cold-blooded this whole thing
00:00:56
is, was the story he tried
to create of his wife and the children going missing.
00:01:01
He's creating a version
of events around the murders of this family. This shows how premeditated
this is, how planned this is.
00:01:12
This isn't a panicked
afterthought. This is something
that he's really given a lot of consideration to.
00:01:18
NARRATOR: He killed his wife
Lesley after an argument, and then, one by one, garroted
his four stepchildren.
00:01:25
It is a tragedy of the most
extraordinary proportions. It is beyond even consideration.
00:01:31
It's beyond wickedness. I want him to have
a long life and suffer as bad as suffering can be.
00:01:39
That's how bad I feel about him. NARRATOR: Lee Ford committed
the most heinous crimes,
00:01:45
proving himself to be one of
the world's most evil killers. [theme music] In the late August of 2000,
Lesley Ford and her four
00:02:15
children from a
previous marriage disappeared from the small
Cornish village of Carnkie
00:02:21
in the south of England. The only family
members left behind were Lesley's two youngest
children, aged nine and three,
00:02:29
and her husband, Lee Ford. Lesley's behavior wasn't
completely unusual, as former senior
investigating officer
00:02:40
Chris Boarland recounts. CHRIS BOARLAND: It clearly
wasn't a happy marriage. I believe that
Lesley had left him
00:02:47
and fled from sort of Shropshire
area down to Cornwall. And he had then followed.
00:02:51
And they'd got back together. NARRATOR: When people questioned
the family's whereabouts,
00:02:56
Ford gave them a
believable response. His explanation to
neighbors and to family
00:03:03
who had been
concerned they'd not seen Lesley and the
children for some time was that she had left him.
00:03:09
From my perspective, there
was nothing on the face of it that was suspicious. NARRATOR: The shocking
reality of their disappearance
00:03:17
isn't discovered until
more than four weeks later. On Thursday, the
5th of October 2000,
00:03:27
the bodies of 36-year-old
Lesley Ford, 14-year-old Steven, and 13-year-old Craig were found
buried beneath the woodshed
00:03:37
in the family's garden. The bodies of Lesley's
two daughters, 17-year-old Sarah-Jane and
15-year-old Anne-Marie,
00:03:47
were discovered the
following morning in a field just a few miles from Carnkie. The perpetrator was
their 33-year-old husband
00:03:57
and stepfather, Lee Ford. Shortly after his
arrest, Ford confessed to the horrific murders.
00:04:04
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was
the prosecuting counsel at Ford's trial said, this
is not a crime of passion,
00:04:09
but of savagery. And that's exactly what
it was, but precisely executed savagery at that.
00:04:17
NARRATOR: Carnkie in
the west of Cornwall had been the Fords'
home for two years.
00:04:23
To the tight-knit
community there, they seemed to be a normal family. But now their tiny
village was the center
00:04:31
of a murder investigation. COLIN GREGORY: Obviously, the
neighbors were terribly shocked
00:04:36
because in a small
place like that, a family of six children,
two adults, would be noticed.
00:04:45
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Ford has
killed Lesley and four children in cold blood. And this had been calculated.
00:04:53
He knew exactly
what he was doing. He knew that it was wrong. He makes up stories.
00:04:58
He keeps other people
at bay for a while. So this is somebody
who's incredibly organized and incredibly in
control of what he's doing.
00:05:06
NARRATOR: This killer
story begins in 1967. From a young age, Ford lived
in Telford, Shropshire,
00:05:15
almost 300 miles north of
where he committed his crimes. Ford grew up in
Wellington in Telford.
00:05:24
And at the time that he
was growing up in the area, it was quite a deprived
part of the town.
00:05:30
And this area suffered
from a lot of issues-- poverty, substance misuse,
high rates of unemployment.
00:05:38
NARRATOR: Little is known
about Ford's formative years. By the time he
reached his early 20s,
00:05:43
he seemed to have no
ambition and no fixed career. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Lee
Ford is a drifter, roofer,
00:05:51
builder, sometime removal man. Likes to drink. Lives on the fringes of
society, pretty much,
00:05:59
but has an eye for
a beautiful woman-- there's no doubt about that. NARRATOR: What he lacked in work
ethic, he made up for in charm.
00:06:09
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: And I think
he saw a bit of a vulnerability there with Lesley.
00:06:13
Lesley is a divorcee. She's got four kids. Her marriage has not worked out. But she's a very
determined woman.
00:06:21
She's wanting to look
out for her children. She's working part-time. She's holding it
together, essentially.
00:06:29
NARRATOR: Michael Tranter,
Lesley's ex-husband and father of her
eldest four children,
00:06:34
remembers their life together. Yeah, Lesley
was my first love. We were together a
couple of years, I think.
00:06:41
And then I proposed to her. NARRATOR: Michael
and Lesley were eager to have a large family,
so their four children
00:06:48
were born close together. By July 1987, the Tranter
family was complete. Sarah-Jane was
always smiling, always.
00:07:04
Although we were all
close, Sarah-Jane was like mummy's little girl. She was so happy.
00:07:10
She was a lively little girl. Anne-Marie was a daddy's girl. Again, she was always
smiling, so happy.
00:07:21
Craig Jonathan, Steven Paul,
they were typical little lads, running around, doing stuff.
00:07:27
We'd always have football, and
it was always kicking balls around on the little parks.
00:07:32
They love football. Lesley was a brilliant wife
and so special as a mom. NARRATOR: In 1989, after
eight years together,
00:07:44
Lesley and Michael divorced. MICHAEL TRANTER:
We just moved on. We were still good friends.
00:07:50
And the children, obviously,
were still very close to me. NARRATOR: The following
year, Lesley began
00:07:59
a new romance with Lee Ford. But when Lesley's family
and ex-husband, Michael, met her new beau,
they were taken
00:08:07
aback by her choice of partner. MICHAEL TRANTER: I was
very surprised Lesley was with somebody
like him, to be fair.
00:08:14
When I met him the first
few times, I didn't judge. There was nothing untoward,
so it was a case of Lesley
00:08:21
moving on and I've moved on. And I know Lesley's brother
said he wasn't keen on him.
00:08:28
He just didn't like the way
he looked and the way he was. Scruffy-looking lad,
always wear a bobble hat.
00:08:34
ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
She's probably having a bit of a tough
time of it on her own with four young children.
00:08:39
So it wouldn't surprise
me if he kind of rides in this kind of knight
in shining armor
00:08:45
type routine in the beginning. And he would have seemed
like the ideal partner. NARRATOR: Ford and Lesley's
relationship quickly blossomed.
00:08:54
In June 1990, the couple
got married in Telford. The following
year, they welcomed
00:09:00
the birth of their son. On the outside,
23-year-old Ford appeared to be a contented
family man, playing
00:09:09
the role of both father and
stepfather to five children. Lesley was happy. Lesley even rang
me up the one day
00:09:18
and said they were going away. It was a late call to
go and see the family. They were going the next day.
00:09:24
She asked me if I could
have the children. NARRATOR: But in
reality, Ford was far from being a loving
stepfather and husband.
00:09:34
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Then
what becomes more and more familiar as part of
this relationship
00:09:38
that Ford and Lesley
Tranter forge is, it is abusive from
the beginning. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: What
we need to remember,
00:09:45
abusers like Ford are
incredibly manipulative. And in the early days,
they can be quite
00:09:51
convincing, quite charming. And it starts with
the small things. So very often, it will
start with comments
00:09:58
about not liking a
particular item of clothing or saying you look
better without makeup on.
00:10:05
I prefer the natural look. And this is what
happened in this case. And this is how
people like Lesley
00:10:11
find themselves in
these situations. They don't choose
this situation. It's something that
creeps up on them.
00:10:22
NARRATOR: Ford's controlling
behavior also extended to his four stepchildren. I started seeing the
children every week.
00:10:31
It wasn't long before I
was picking my children up on a Saturday,
where I was getting
00:10:37
told they weren't ready. They hadn't had breakfast. They'd be another hour. So I drove back to the house
I was living at, at the time.
00:10:47
Then I'd go back,
and I was still told that they weren't ready
and basically told to go away.
00:10:53
That happened on
a few occasions. Ford is somebody
who sees his partner and her children
as his possessions.
00:11:01
This is my household. I'm the man of the house now. There is no room
for anyone else.
00:11:10
NARRATOR: In three years,
25-year-old Lee Ford had gone from being a young
single man with little
00:11:16
to care for to being a
controlling husband, a father of one, and a stepfather
to his wife's four children
00:11:24
from her first marriage. Underneath, what
we've got going on here is a key tactic of abuse.
00:11:30
It's isolation. So if you cut your victim off
from their sources of support, from their family, you close
down those critical voices.
00:11:39
People can't see into
your family life. And that's exactly what
Ford was doing here.
00:11:45
NARRATOR: Lesley
suffered in silence. MICHAEL TRANTER: I
wasn't aware that he was being abusive to
Lesley at all, to be fair.
00:11:53
I only noticed the children
were more clingy with mum, especially when they were
[inaudible] because he
00:12:00
would come to the door as well. But there was nothing to
suggest anything was going on.
00:12:06
NARRATOR: As time
went on, Ford's regular alcohol
and substance abuse fueled his volatile nature.
00:12:14
Despite his frequent
bouts of violence, Lesley remained in
the relationship. When we look at
why Lesley stayed,
00:12:21
well, there can be
many reasons for that. There's likely a fear
of Ford as to what he
00:12:27
would do if she was to leave. And very often,
victims, in deciding to stay in a relationship, are
actually keeping themselves
00:12:35
safe because if they
leave that relationship, they compromise
the perpetrator's control over them.
00:12:40
They're not quite sure
what the perpetrator would do if they were to leave. And perhaps, they've been
threatened by the perpetrator.
00:12:47
If you ever leave me,
this is what will happen. NARRATOR: But in 1995,
Lesley contacted her family
00:12:54
and revealed the horror
occurring in her marriage. She informed them of her plan
to break free from Ford's grip
00:13:02
and swore them to secrecy. She thinks, I've
got to do something. She takes off from Telford.
00:13:09
And she goes to Cornwall. NARRATOR: Lesley fled south
with her five children and settled in a small Cornish
village called Bugle, a place
00:13:18
she had no connections to. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
I think this is testament to her
strength of character
00:13:23
and her love for her children. So despite the fact
that she's been abused by this man for five
years, there's still
00:13:29
some Lesley left in there. I think this is an incredibly
brave decision that she makes.
00:13:35
NARRATOR: To ensure
Ford can't find her, Lesley only disclosed
her location to a few close family members.
00:13:44
I'd gone to the house
to pick my children up. And I was told they weren't
there and that they'd moved.
00:13:50
Nobody could give me
any answers to that. NARRATOR: Lesley and
her children immersed
00:13:56
themselves into village life. She takes on a job
as a part-time carer to support herself
and the children.
00:14:04
In the meantime,
Ford was desperately searching for his family. CHRIS BOARLAND: You know, with
her and with those children,
00:14:12
who would have brought in quite
an amount of child allowance, and no doubt that was
helping to support
00:14:17
him, because he wasn't doing
anything to support the family. Suddenly, he was going
to be left with nothing.
00:14:25
ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Ford was absolutely determined to find Lesley. So he calls Lesley's
mother, claiming
00:14:32
to be a solicitor who needs
to get in contact with her. And unbeknownst to
Lesley's mother,
00:14:39
this is obviously
not a solicitor. It's Ford. And she discloses
this information.
00:14:44
So I think this tells us
just how manipulative, just how cunning
this offender is,
00:14:49
that he can be that convincing,
even to Lesley's own mother. NARRATOR: In the summer
of 1995, just months
00:14:58
after fleeing from
her abuser, Lesley was faced with a dilemma. Ford turned up at her door.
00:15:05
His only mission was to get
his wife and family back. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Now there must
have been a moment when Lesley
00:15:13
Ford could have said to
herself, I'm not letting that man back into my life. But she didn't.
00:15:19
She's drawn back
into this spell. CHRIS BOARLAND: It's
so difficult for women in those situations
that when you're
00:15:27
faced with an abusive partner
who's all controlling, and, you know, your
connections in an area
00:15:36
are probably limited, it's
really, really difficult and not unusual for those sort
of relationships to continue.
00:15:44
NARRATOR: After he
reconciled with Lesley, Lee Ford once again
gained control. He fully resumed his role
as head of the family
00:15:53
without opposition from
his stepchildren's father. She moved down there without
any trace of me knowing where.
00:16:01
I obviously didn't
know what was going on. If I knew where they
were, where they lived,
00:16:06
I would have definitely
got back in touch. Obviously, that's
what I was trying to do in the first place, trying
to locate where they were.
00:16:13
NARRATOR: In
September 1997, Lesley gave birth to a baby girl,
her second child with Ford.
00:16:21
But the addition
of another daughter didn't change Ford's behavior. She now has six children.
00:16:33
Ford spends most of
his time drinking. But the beatings
and the violence and the horror inside the
relationship don't go away.
00:16:45
In 1998, Ford,
Lesley, and the family move further south to
the village of Carnkie.
00:16:54
Carnkie is a small village
in the old Cornish mining area, about five miles from Helston.
00:17:02
There's rows of houses,
but if I remember rightly, the shop was probably
more than a mile away,
00:17:12
so a distance to walk. And there was also a parish hall
with, I believe at the time,
00:17:18
a social club. NARRATOR: Reporter Colin
Gregory offers one theory for the sudden relocation.
00:17:26
It's quite a remote village. And that may be why Lee Ford
chose it as a place to move to,
00:17:34
because he probably
didn't want to get in with a lot of neighbors
who might ask him who he was
00:17:42
and where he'd come from. NARRATOR: The tiny
village of Carnkie was the perfect
location where Ford
00:17:48
could keep tabs on every
movement his family made. COLIN GREGORY: The
four older children
00:17:55
went to Helston
Community School, but they would have either
had to be taken by car or bus.
00:18:02
It was much too far to walk. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
This is a family unit that many people have
described as being
00:18:08
a very private family unit. This is a family man who
kept himself to himself. But we need to
remember that privacy
00:18:16
is this barrier behind which
this kind of alleged abuse goes on. NARRATOR: As the
family settled in,
00:18:24
the Ford and Tranter
children became welcome faces amongst the community. Everybody said what
lovely children they were.
00:18:33
And one of the things was
that the children would offer to go shopping for elderly
people in the village
00:18:43
because the shop was
quite a distance to walk. So people thought highly of them
and also sort of said they were
00:18:52
really cheerful, well-mannered. NARRATOR: However, their
mother, Lesley, was rarely seen.
00:18:58
People didn't really know
Lee and Lesley very well, but people said although
she stayed home a lot,
00:19:07
she was quite pleasant
to speak to sort of across the garden
fence, so to speak,
00:19:12
or if she was walking
down the road. NARRATOR: Lesley's
husband, Lee Ford, made little contribution
to the local community.
00:19:23
It's a human
tragedy in that sense that this good, upright, decent
woman is stuck with a man who
00:19:33
seems to spend most of his
time drinking or taking drugs, doesn't seem ever to
have a job, doesn't seem
00:19:40
to care much about anything. He just appears to
be quite insignificant. But actually, if you
look behind closed doors,
00:19:47
if you look at his family life,
he was incredibly domineering, incredibly controlling.
00:19:52
He was the master
of his own home. NARRATOR: In 2000,
the Tranter children had reached adolescence.
00:19:59
Sarah-Jane was 17, Anne-Marie,
15, Steven, 14, and Craig, 13. Ford's stepchildren
had grown up fast,
00:20:09
but he continued to rule
over them with an iron fist. The children
can only wear what
00:20:15
they were told they could wear. His wife could only
wear what she was told. They had to do what he wanted
when he wanted it to happen.
00:20:21
No one was allowed to
penetrate that household. This wasn't a house
in which people were
00:20:28
constantly coming and going. Yes, they went to school. And yes, they had friends.
00:20:33
But it wasn't one of those-- this house is integrated
into the community. NARRATOR: Ford was especially
strict with his eldest
00:20:41
stepdaughter, Sarah-Jane. COLIN GREGORY: Sarah-Jane was
working down at McDonald's
00:20:47
at Falmouth, which would
have been about four or five miles from the house. So she would have
had to have a lift.
00:20:56
Lee would have taken her
to work and picked her up. It seems like he didn't want
her to meet other people.
00:21:04
CHRIS BOARLAND: Lee Ford
was jealous of Sarah-Jane being involved with other boys.
00:21:10
It's about control. At 17, she was getting to
an age where she would make her own decisions,
where she would stand
00:21:17
for it no longer, where
she could leave home, have her own life. And I've always suspected
that there is something
00:21:23
in his actions around that that
he wouldn't be able to control her for that much longer.
00:21:30
NARRATOR: Ford struggled
being in the same household with so many people. He started to withdraw
himself from the family.
00:21:39
He was an alcoholic. He probably more and more
was not getting his own way. He felt a little isolated that
he spent time in the garage,
00:21:47
away from the family. And he couldn't watch the TV. When we think of
a family man, we
00:21:52
think of somebody who
puts their children's needs before their own. And when we look at Ford's
behavior, what we've got here
00:21:59
is essentially a petulant child. Some of his behavior
is incredibly immature. So his children are
watching particular things
00:22:06
on television, which
means that he can't watch what he wants to watch. So he goes off
ultimately in a strop.
00:22:12
And he goes and takes
himself off to the garage or the garden shed and
spends time in there.
00:22:17
And he'll also go and escape
to the local cricket club, where he'll just sit and drink.
00:22:22
So this is a man who
is incredibly selfish. He wants to do what
he wants to do. And that's really revealing.
00:22:30
NARRATOR: In May
2000, after years of being violently
abused by Ford, Lesley made a
shocking discovery.
00:22:39
Ford embarks on a
sexual relationship with his 17-year-old
daughter, Sarah-Jane.
00:22:45
It is horrifying. ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
Ford had known Sarah-Jane since she
was a little girl,
00:22:51
around six years old. So this shows a real abuse
of a position of trust. This is a man who feels a sense
of ownership over this family.
00:23:02
He feels that he has the
right to do with Sarah-Jane whatever he wants to do. So this poor girl
really has been
00:23:09
completely manipulated by him. NARRATOR: Lesley didn't take
the situation lying down.
00:23:15
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When
this incident happens, I think this was a real
line in the sand for her.
00:23:20
She thought about
what she'd seen. And she decided, I think
this is out of order.
00:23:25
I'm not putting up with this. I'm going to get some help. So she goes to see a solicitor.
00:23:30
She reports this
to social services. Yet, Sarah-Jane is
never interviewed. NARRATOR: In the late summer
of 2000, isolated and alone,
00:23:40
Lesley finally
broke her silence. She contacted her
brother, Peter, and revealed to him the
horrific extent of Ford's abuse.
00:23:50
I had a phone call off the
brother-in-law out of the blue, telling me that he'd
been to Lesley's house,
00:23:57
and Lesley wasn't very happy. He'd been hitting her. And that was the first I
knew of anything happening.
00:24:05
Peter was trying to get
Lesley out of the situation. And I think that's why
he called me as well.
00:24:11
And he could tell he
was with her in the end because Lesley didn't want
anything to happen with that.
00:24:16
And then, obviously, that
became a massive thing to me, that Lesley and the
children need to be safe.
00:24:22
NARRATOR: This was the
first news Michael had had of his family in five years. After weeks of
searching, he tracked
00:24:30
down his eldest daughter. MICHAEL TRANTER: I spoke
to Sarah-Jane, who I found out was working at McDonald's.
00:24:38
I briefly spoke to her
and told her who I was, and that I wanted to know
if she was all right.
00:24:43
And she did put the phone
down after acknowledging me. But I put that down to me
not being in their lives
00:24:52
for a little while. That's why she put
the phone down. NARRATOR: It was the
last conversation Michael
00:24:57
had with any of his children. I then got a phone
call of Lesley's mom saying the children were fine.
00:25:06
They're happy. They're safe. I asked them where they lived. She wouldn't give
me the address.
00:25:11
NARRATOR: It's
believed that news of Michael Tranter's phone call
to Sarah-Jane reached Ford.
00:25:17
COLIN GREGORY: I thought that
quite likely that she had gone home that night and said that
her father had traced her
00:25:27
and wanted to meet her. And that Ford was, by
then, thinking, as much so, the game was up.
00:25:35
And he was afraid of
what would happen. NARRATOR: Just weeks
later, Ford's behavior
00:25:41
spiraled out of control. At some point, towards
the end of August 2000, there is another row
between Lee and Lesley.
00:25:55
Lee hits Lesley with a
rounder's bat in the face. He goes into the
garage to calm down.
00:26:03
He doesn't calm down. He finds a piece of rope. And he goes back into
the house and proceeds
00:26:11
to garrote his wife, Lesley. Lee Ford then hits some
kind of psychotic break. NARRATOR: He took
decisive action.
00:26:27
He's not content with
simply killing Lesley. He decides he's going to
kill Lesley and then all
00:26:33
her children with
Michael Tranter. He clearly and carefully
and meticulously killed them one by one.
00:26:42
He wraps the bodies
up and takes them to the woodshed at the
bottom of the garden,
00:26:47
where he buries them, all five. NARRATOR: Lee Ford had brutally
murdered his 36-year-old wife,
00:26:57
Lesley, and his four teenage
stepchildren, Sarah-Jane, Anne-Marie, Steven, and Craig.
00:27:05
Only his own two young
children escape Ford's wrath. The reason why the two
youngest children weren't
00:27:14
killed, I think was because
Ford feels a sense of ownership and possession of
them that he doesn't
00:27:20
feel over the other children. The relationship is
slightly different there. So they are his
biological children.
00:27:27
He sees them as an
extension of himself. And he's got a very
high opinion of himself.
00:27:33
So he sees these children's
lives as worth saving. Not because he loves them,
but because they are his.
00:27:39
They are part of him,
and he owns them. NARRATOR: Ford continued
to go about his daily life
00:27:45
without any sign of remorse. As far as anyone is
concerned in the village, well, he's just
looking after the kids.
00:27:54
No one comes knocking
on the front door to ask where Lesley
and the children are.
00:28:02
NARRATOR: Nevertheless,
Ford wanted to ensure his dark secret
was never discovered.
00:28:08
It's believed he
concocted a story, should the family's
sudden disappearance raise any suspicions.
00:28:15
He goes to the
McDonald's in Falmouth, where Sarah-Jane has
been working and tries
00:28:20
to collect her pay packet. Oh, they've gone off
with their mother. It is as if he's
constructing a new life.
00:28:28
Oh, well, I'm left to look
after the little ones. I'll do that. And she's left me.
00:28:32
She doesn't care about me. NARRATOR: Initially, Ford called
the Tranter children's school,
00:28:38
telling them they
had food poisoning, but later changed his story. He visits the children's
school to hand back some books
00:28:47
that they'd borrowed from
school and says that they've moved out of the area. They won't be coming back.
00:28:53
And he's being quite
convincing to the people he's telling these stories to. They believe him.
00:28:58
And what's happening
here is that Ford believes that he's restored
the natural order of things.
00:29:03
He's got back in control. So there's no wonder he
appears to be really calm. NARRATOR: Michael Tranter
hadn't heard anything
00:29:11
from Lesley's relatives or
his daughter, Sarah-Jane, since their last phone
call in early August.
00:29:17
And he was concerned
for their welfare. MICHAEL TRANTER: I
went down to Cornwall.
00:29:21
I went down there that week. So I did go down
there to have a look. But I got no phone call,
nobody to ring to try
00:29:28
and find out where they were. NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
Ford kept up the pretense that Lesley, with her children,
had left of their own accord.
00:29:38
Ford calls Lesley's
brother, Peter, and says, I know that Lesley and
the children are with you.
00:29:45
And this is yet another
one of his performances, essentially, that are
part of this narrative.
00:29:51
I'm the victim. She's left me. I've been abandoned. You're part of this conspiracy.
00:29:56
And there's almost
a sense in which he's kind of enjoying this. He's creating a drama.
00:30:01
He's laying the blame at
the feet of other people. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Her
brother, Peter, in Hampshire
00:30:07
begins to worry. He hasn't heard from her. He tries to find
out where she might have gone, with no success.
00:30:15
Where is Lesley Ford? NARRATOR: On the
29th of September, Lesley Ford and her
four eldest children
00:30:23
had been missing
for almost a month. By contacting Lesley's
brother, Ford had unwittingly
00:30:30
made a grave mistake. His call had made Lesley's
relatives so suspicious, they reported it to the police.
00:30:38
MICHAEL TRANTER: That's
when they rang me and asked me questions if I knew
anybody, if she got friends
00:30:43
in different part of the
country and anything, in Hampshire and whatnot. And I said no, definitely not.
00:30:50
NARRATOR: Initial police
inquiries into the family's disappearance proved fruitless.
00:30:55
Lesley and the Tranter children
had vanished without a trace. Detectives turned
their attention
00:31:01
to Lee Ford, the
last known person to see them before
they disappeared. CHRIS BOARLAND:
They did visit him.
00:31:08
He used that same story to say
that his wife had left him. The family had gone. Certainly, there were
no obvious offenses
00:31:16
that Lee Ford had committed that
we knew when the officers first went round there.
00:31:22
NARRATOR: Officers
searched Ford's home, but came up empty-handed. CHRIS BOARLAND: There were no
outward signs that a crime had
00:31:31
been committed at that time. By the time I get involved,
we're starting to want to get out to the public.
00:31:37
We want to appeal to
Lesley if she's still alive and the children to
come forward and not
00:31:41
to worry about doing so. NARRATOR: Lesley and
the Tranter children never made contact
with the police.
00:31:47
Instead, further investigation
into Ford's behavior at home revealed some
disturbing information.
00:31:55
CHRIS BOARLAND: I
strongly suspected that he was having sexual
relations with Sarah-Jane
00:31:59
and possibly Anne-Marie. I don't recall it
was ever proved. Lesley had made complaints.
00:32:07
And if it had been going on
for a number of years, then, clearly, those girls would
have been underage at the time
00:32:13
this sexual activity
would have taken place. So it wouldn't have
been with consent.
00:32:18
NARRATOR: It quickly became
clear to investigators that something
serious was amiss.
00:32:23
The family were last seen
alive on the 31st of August. They had no proof of
life after this date.
00:32:30
Their missing persons inquiry
became a murder investigation. I think from the outset,
I knew this wasn't right.
00:32:38
I suspected that there
was foul play involved. NARRATOR: Their prime
suspect was Lee Ford.
00:32:45
CHRIS BOARLAND: We never
suspected anyone else was involved in any harm
coming to the family,
00:32:50
other than Lee Ford himself. And that was down to the
actions that he had shown--
00:32:55
his evasiveness. His story didn't ring true. NARRATOR: Despite
their suspicions,
00:33:03
detectives still didn't
have any hard evidence that a crime had been
committed or that Lee
00:33:09
Ford had harmed the family. CHRIS BOARLAND: What
I was concerned about is that if we didn't step in
soon, he could go on the run
00:33:16
and cause us even
more difficulties. The family could
be alive, and he could then still cause them harm
if he was allowed to run free.
00:33:25
So we had to take steps to
have him in custody so that we could interview him properly.
00:33:33
NARRATOR: On the 5th
of October, officers discovered Ford and
his two children were missing from
their home in Carnkie.
00:33:41
Police suspected he'd fled
and immediately issued a warrant for his arrest. I remember
thinking at the time
00:33:48
that he knows we're onto him. He knows he's going
to get caught. NARRATOR: Just
hours later, police
00:33:55
tracked Ford's vehicle
using automatic number plate recognition. He'd traveled
north to Shropshire
00:34:02
with his two children. When he reentered Cornwall,
officers seized their chance.
00:34:09
Ford was arrested driving
through Bodmin Moor. So he'd come back
from dropping his two
00:34:15
children off in Telford. CHRIS BOARLAND: He was actually
arrested for a relatively
00:34:19
minor offense-- benefit fraud. But it gave us sufficient powers
to legitimately arrest him
00:34:26
and have him in custody. And he was brought back to
Camborne Police Station, where
00:34:32
the interviews took place. NARRATOR: While being
questioned by officers, Ford made a sickening admission.
00:34:39
One of the detectives
who was interviewing him opened the door
and said that she
00:34:45
had to speak to me urgently. She said he's admitted to it. He's killed them all.
00:34:50
NARRATOR: Ford revealed
that after an argument with his wife, Lesley, he'd
hit her across the face
00:34:56
with a rounder's bat. He then left the house and went
into the garage to calm down.
00:35:02
Instead, he picked up a piece of
rope, returned to the bedroom, and garroted her.
00:35:07
He then, one by one, killed
all four of his stepchildren in the kitchen, using
the same method.
00:35:15
He was later to say that
he didn't know why he did it. I don't know why
I did what I did.
00:35:21
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He's
essentially saying, I flipped. I lost it. I snapped. I lost control.
00:35:27
These were very
deliberate killings. At any point, he
could have decided to stop in between the
first and the second,
00:35:34
the second and the third. But he didn't. He continued. And these killings took place
over a period of 24 hours.
00:35:41
So this is not somebody
losing control. What this is, is somebody
exerting control.
00:35:48
NARRATOR: Senior investigating
officer Chris Boarland remembers Ford's confession.
00:35:54
CHRIS BOARLAND: We were all
shocked that he just came out and said it and
that he had told them
00:35:59
where the bodies were buried. I was absolutely
adamant that we were not going to leave
those bodies there
00:36:05
any longer than we had to. So we were out that
night, recovering the bodies from the woodshed
at their home in Carnkie.
00:36:14
REPORTER: Police hunting for
a mother and her four children who disappeared more
than a month ago
00:36:18
found one body this morning. The discovery was made
in a woodshed close to the family home
in Helston, Cornwall.
00:36:24
Forensic officers are
continuing to search the area. And police fear more
bodies may be found.
00:36:31
NARRATOR: The bodies of Lesley,
along with her two sons, 14-year-old Steven
and 13-year-old Craig,
00:36:38
were recovered, but
Sarah-Jane and Anne-Marie were nowhere to be found. CHRIS BOARLAND:
He said that he'd
00:36:44
started to move the bodies. He wrapped them in plastic, put
them in the boot of his car,
00:36:49
and the plan was always
to move all of them. But he hadn't had time. Ford moved Sarah-Jane
and Anne-Marie's bodies
00:36:57
to a field a few miles away and
buried them in shallow graves. Officers have uncovered
two further bodies from
00:37:05
the scene here at [inaudible]. They've been taken to the
Royal Cornwall Hospital
00:37:09
at Treliske, where
post-mortems will be carried out this afternoon. CHRIS BOARLAND: They had
decomposed quite badly.
00:37:18
So we used dental records. And of course, some of the
clothing that they were buried in helped identify them.
00:37:23
And he had admitted
that they were his family that he'd murdered. GEOFFREY WANSELL:
The cause of death
00:37:30
was established to be
ligature strangling because it left very
little damage to the skin,
00:37:37
or indeed, to the neck. It was a very precise and
calculated method of killing, which, again, indicates
to me that Lee Ford had
00:37:47
planned this very carefully. NARRATOR: Michael Tranter
recounts his visit to Carnkie after he received
the heartbreaking news
00:37:56
that his children
were no longer alive. MICHAEL TRANTER: I was
told what he actually
00:38:01
did to my four children. Sorry. Sorry. I visited the house when
I went down, obviously,
00:38:16
when everything happened. And I looked over the view
down towards the fields. I think there was
a cricket field.
00:38:24
And me thoughts were how
peaceful it was where they lived, how peaceful it looked.
00:38:31
ELIZABETH YARDLEY:
When a crime like this happens in a local community,
it has an absolutely devastating
00:38:36
impact because there are a lot
of children in this family. So this family would have
been known in the community.
00:38:42
Lots of people's kids would have
known the kids in this family. So I think this is a
very visible scar that's
00:38:49
been left on this community. NARRATOR: On the 6th
of October, 2000, Lee Ford was charged with the
murders of his wife, Lesley,
00:38:59
and her four
children, Sarah-Jane, Anne-Marie, Steven, and Craig. Despite his confession,
Ford refused to divulge
00:39:09
his motive for the killings. CHRIS BOARLAND: He's
never, to my knowledge, given a full and frank admission
of exactly what happened
00:39:16
and why it happened and the
detail of how he murdered those children in the house.
00:39:25
And I think that must be
really difficult for the family that they've never
got a true picture
00:39:31
of what actually happened. NARRATOR: In the months
that led up to his trial, Ford's legal team
attempted to put forward
00:39:39
a defense of not
guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Their case fell apart when he
refused psychiatric assessment.
00:39:49
Ford changed his plea. COLIN GREGORY: By
pleading guilty, he saved himself
going into the dock.
00:39:56
And nobody knows completely what
happened that dreadful night. NARRATOR: On the 24th of May
2001, at Bristol Crown Court,
00:40:06
Ford was sentenced to
five life sentences with a minimum term of 35 years. There is the possibility
that in the near future,
00:40:16
Ford will walk free again. Michael Tranter hopes
he won't see that day. MICHAEL TRANTER: In my eyes,
he should never come out.
00:40:25
I want him to have a
long life and suffer as bad as suffering can be. That's how bad I feel about him.
00:40:34
At the time, I would
love an electric chair. And I'd be the one that did it. I will never, ever forgive
whatever answers he gives.
00:40:45
I've got no thoughts whatsoever
other than him suffering. We have the option
now in England and Wales
00:40:54
to give people a
whole life tariff, to say, you are never going
to be released from prison.
00:41:00
And I think some crimes
are so heinous that they warrant that kind of sentence. And this is one of those crimes.
00:41:08
NARRATOR: Ford was locked away,
but the impact of his actions had a devastating effect on
family members left behind.
00:41:18
MICHAEL TRANTER: [sighing]
Worst time in my life, children's funeral, absolutely.
00:41:32
It was a horrible, horrible day. I don't know how I got
through it, to be fair. I just certainly hope nobody
else has to go through.
00:41:49
NARRATOR: Reporter
Colin Gregory attended Lesley's funeral and the Tranter
children's memorial service
00:41:56
in Truro. COLIN GREGORY: 400 people-- that
was family and school friends-- went to the service
at Truro Cathedral.
00:42:06
There were a lot of
tears, but a lot-- sometimes people smiled
when they remembered playing
00:42:13
with the kids at school. And one of them, I remember,
said, we will never forget you.
00:42:20
You were such good
fun and always had a smile on your face. And I'm glad that you
came into my life,
00:42:28
even though it was
for a short time. Well, I think this is one
of the most awful crimes
00:42:37
that I've ever been involved in. And those wonderful
children, that nice family,
00:42:42
have been killed by a
worthless individual. He's affected a lot of people. And personally, I hope he
never comes out of prison.
00:42:51
GEOFFREY WANSELL:
Lee Ford didn't just deprive Michael Tranter of
his children and their mother.
00:42:57
He also deprived
his two children with Lesley, of their mother
and their brothers and sisters.
00:43:03
It is a tragedy of the most
extraordinary proportions. It's beyond wickedness. NARRATOR: We may never
know what triggered
00:43:13
Ford to kill that day. What is certain is that he
systematically murdered almost
00:43:19
his entire family
over a 24-hour period without remorse, making
Lee Ford one of the world's
00:43:27
most evil killers. [music playing]