00:00:00
[AUDIO LOGO] [INTENSE MUSIC] - It was Nicki's
cousin who found Nicki. She was lying
face-up, and there was
00:00:21
blood matted around her head. TIM CORKETT: The community
were really shocked. Everybody knew
her, and nobody had
00:00:28
a bad word to say about her. GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
It's disturbing that there's broken porcelain
on the floor and blood.
00:00:38
TIM CORKETT: A violent
murder is something that's unheard of in Letchworth. - It just doesn't make sense.
00:00:44
[EERIE MUSIC] NARRATOR: This video,
provided by a neighbor, shows a threatening man.
00:00:53
He's seen walking past
a home holding an axe. - Help! Help me! [KNOCK] [KNOCK] [KNOCK]
00:01:10
[POLICE SIRENS WAILING] NARRATOR: Police have been
called to a block of flats on a quiet housing estate.
00:01:23
GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
A number of things will be going through
police's minds as they are driving
towards Ivel Court.
00:01:28
You'll know that there's
a female, deceased. And you'll be thinking about
your fast-track actions.
00:01:34
What can I do very
quickly that may bring about an early resolution
to this investigation?
00:01:40
Until you get there,
you don't know exactly what you're going to face. [INTENSE MUSIC]
00:01:50
GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Nicki's
cousin told the police that she was
concerned for Nicki
00:01:54
because she had failed
to pick her mom up from a hospital appointments. This was very unlike Nicki.
00:02:00
So she naturally went
round, but got no response from knocking on her door. The cousin then goes away
and gets some keys to her flat
00:02:08
so she can let herself
in to check on Nicki. NARRATOR: Inside
the flat, 26-year-old
00:02:13
Nicola Collingbourne is
dead on the kitchen floor. [SOMBER MUSIC] GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
The attending officers
00:02:22
can see that Nicki has got
a head injury because there's massive blood around her head.
00:02:26
They can also see
a cut to her wrist. We've got a head injury,
a broken ceramic pot.
00:02:34
It was actually a ceramic
chicken that people used to use to keep eggs in. And there was clear
evidence of blood
00:02:42
staining on that pot
and a dustpan and brush in Nicki's hand. NARRATOR: It's
a confusing scene.
00:02:51
Did Nicki have an accident? Was she attacked? [TENSE MUSIC] GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Whenever
an offense occurs,
00:03:02
there's a saying about
the golden hour principles. The golden hour is the time
immediately after an offense
00:03:09
when evidence is at its
ripest, DNA or fingerprints. That's why we get scenes
of crimes officers in there
00:03:17
straight away. It's vitally important
that we examine the scene and take away any samples for
further forensic examination
00:03:26
at a laboratory. JP ASHER: I was the first
journalist on the scene. It was a bit after 8
o'clock in the morning
00:03:36
that we got this call
through to the newsroom from a member of the public
who said that there'd
00:03:40
been a death on the Jackman's
Estate in Letchworth at Ivel Court. The mood was a bit eerie
because this harrowing thing
00:03:51
had happened. And yet, I arrived. And from the outside,
there wasn't any sign of anything like that at all.
00:03:59
There was a police car
there, but that could have been there for anything. I still wasn't sure quite
what to think at that stage.
00:04:06
You know, I really
was just asking questions and trying to find
out what was happening.
00:04:13
I spoke to a couple
of the residents, and then I just said,
oh, I hear something
00:04:17
has happened in the night. Do you know about it? And the first woman
I spoke to, she
00:04:22
had heard it from one
of the other people, that someone has died
in one of the flats.
00:04:27
At first, we thought
that it was a suicide. But the way she put
it to me was, oh,
00:04:31
there was such a mess
and so much blood, we thought it couldn't be. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:04:45
TIM CORKETT: News of Nicki's
violent death spread quickly, as it wasn't the sort
of thing that-- that would
00:04:49
happen in that community. It's a very pleasant
place to live. People were horrified by what
they heard had gone on.
00:04:58
NARRATOR: Murder
here is unusual, and Nicki doesn't fit the
profile of a typical victim.
00:05:06
- We can see by speaking
to her family that Nicki was a lovely person. She was well-loved, and she'd
do anything for her friends
00:05:13
and family, literally
anything for them. - This was somebody
from a close-knit local family, somebody who was
well-thought-of and well-liked.
00:05:21
[EERIE MUSIC] - Nicki was born
and bred in Letchworth. She loved children. She worked in a nursery.
00:05:31
She was living on her
own in the flat. She was single,
and her family said she was looking
for the right man
00:05:36
to have some
children of her own. She was the primary carer
for her mother who was ill,
00:05:43
and she would often take her
to hospital in Stevenage. People relied on her. She was just a popular
person on the estate.
00:05:56
Her family wouldn't believe
that she'd taken her own life. She loved life too much, and
she loved her family too much.
00:06:03
She would never have left
her mum who relied on her, or the rest of her family. [GENTLE MUSIC]
00:06:11
NARRATOR: How did Nicki die? Investigators believed
she'd been dead at least a day before she was found.
00:06:20
GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
For the officers attending, the first impression
could have been that this
00:06:23
is a case of suicide. There's a cut
to the wrist, which could be consistent
with self-harm,
00:06:29
but there's a lack
of blood from the wrist. Why is that? You have that open mind, but
you've also got an instinct.
00:06:37
Because it just doesn't
look right, does it? You've got a broken
ceramic pot, a dustpan and
00:06:42
brush in one hand, with a cut
wrist, and a clear head injury. The scene as a whole
is not giving
00:06:49
you a clear answer that this is
anything other than foul play. It just doesn't make sense that
a third-party is not involved.
00:07:00
TIM CORKETT: It was clear Nicki
hadn't taken her own life. It hadn't been an accident.
00:07:05
Somebody else was involved. She'd been murdered. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: The big
question is, who done it?
00:07:13
Who was it? Who's killed Nicki
Collingbourne? NARRATOR: With no idea who the
perpetrator is or their motive,
00:07:22
detectives canvass
the neighborhood. [TENSE MUSIC] - It's very important
to carry out house to house
00:07:30
inquiries straight away. People may not know they've
seen something significant.
00:07:35
So it's vital that we go
knocking on doors to see who's seen anything at all. We need information
as soon as possible.
00:07:43
And that could be anything from
the description of a vehicle to a description of a person.
00:07:50
- Is this some random person
who's just going to flats and doing this? GRAHAM MCMILLAN: I think
the most important thing
00:07:57
in this case is
the house-to-house inquiries of people who can see
or have sight of the entrance
00:08:03
to the flats. Has anyone seen anyone
suspicious going in there? Just parked here
where we are now,
00:08:12
you can see there's a community
center across the way. There's a number of shops
on the ground floor.
00:08:19
And then the flats
are above those. When you look at Nicki's
flat, it's a first-floor
00:08:26
flat in a corridor. So we're not likely to get
an eyewitness seeing somebody go into a flat unless there
was anybody in the corridor,
00:08:37
then they could
come and go unseen. [POLICE SIRENS WAILING] NARRATOR: Police fail failed
to find an eyewitness,
00:08:47
so refocus the investigation. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: One
of the fast-track actions on a case like this would
be to look for CCTV.
00:08:57
The offender has gone
in on the ground floor and gone up to Nicki's
flat on the first floor.
00:09:03
So the police need to do
a CCTV trawl for the entrance of the offender and the exit.
00:09:10
Just sat in my car
now, I can see a shop. It looks like they've
got a CCTV camera
00:09:16
outside looking down onto
the entrance doorway. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] TIM CORKETT:
The home surveillance
00:09:26
system in the flats had
recently been upgraded. The new cameras had been
installed at the entrance
00:09:31
to the block of flats and along
the corridor of the first floor where Nicki lived.
00:09:35
- Luckily, there was
a static camera overlooking Nicki's front door. Has the offender been
captured on CCTV?
00:09:45
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] JP ASHER: Letchworth is
an hour north of London. It's what's called
a Garden City in England.
00:10:02
It's a place combining
the perceived benefits of town and country. It's full of these
wider streets
00:10:10
with gardens and gaps
between the houses. TIM CORKETT: Letchworth
isn't a place that you'd associate with
violent murders, people killing
00:10:19
an innocent, young woman. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] JP ASHER: Nicki's death was the
biggest thing that had happened
00:10:31
in the town for some time. It became national
news within an hour. The fact that this is
a lone woman in her flat,
00:10:39
a lone attacker, that would
have been quite frightening for a lot of people. NARRATOR: As detectives
investigate Nicki's murder,
00:10:47
they struggle to find a motive. GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
One hypothesis was this is a burglary gone wrong.
00:10:54
Facts that lead away
from that is that nothing was taken from Nicki's flat. If this was
a burglary, then we'd
00:11:00
expect, even after death,
that the offender would have taken stuff from Nicki's flat.
00:11:06
I'm not ruling out that
they would try and stage the scene, because they've
got to try and
00:11:10
evade capture by the police. However, it just
doesn't feel like she was the victim of a burglary.
00:11:16
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] Police seize a number
of hours of CCTV because we need to know who
was going into those flats
00:11:27
and who was coming away. We need to identify
other householders but also potential witnesses.
00:11:34
So it is very important
that we identify everybody who we've seen
within our time parameters.
00:11:43
TIM CORKETT:
The police laboriously went through hours
of footage, knowing that Nicki
00:11:48
had died the day before. And then, suddenly, bingo. It paid off. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: When
police reviewed the footage
00:11:55
from the camera overlooking
Nicki's doorway, but also the entrance to the flats,
they saw a man wearing
00:12:02
a high-visibility jacket. [EERIE MUSIC] - He looks like a workman, and
he's gone straight to her flat.
00:12:18
Then the surveillance
footage shows this person knocking on Nicki's door. As Nicki opens
the door, this figure
00:12:25
tries to force their way
in, Nicki, we assume, pushing against the door,
trying to keep that person out.
00:12:32
But they force their way in. - The CCTV footage shows
that the intruder arrived at 8:30 on the Monday morning
and are inside for three hours.
00:12:48
We know that because the flat
is on the first floor, and the front door doesn't
open again for three hours.
00:12:55
The intruder is then seen
to leave with two small bags. [OMINOUS MUSIC] The discovery of that person
on the CCTV is a breakthrough.
00:13:10
We now have a good image of the
person we'd like to speak to, but that could be
any one of a number
00:13:17
of tradespeople in a white
van that we see every day. He could have just pulled
up, gone into the flat,
00:13:24
committed the murder,
then drove away again. So at that point, the police
don't have anything
00:13:28
to go on apart from one CCTV
image of an unknown male, and they have
to investigate from there.
00:13:37
TIM CORKETT: It's
vital that the police identify this person. They need to know who he is.
00:13:41
Is he the killer? Or can he be ruled out
of their inquiries? - As in all police
investigations,
00:13:59
we examine victims' phones. We live a lot of our lives
on these phones, so it's very important to find
out who Nicki was in contact
00:14:08
with prior to her death. From the examination
of Nicki's phone, we could see that there
were a number of phone
00:14:14
calls with a local locksmith. It was important for us
to identify that locksmith.
00:14:22
NARRATOR: As detectives
track down the locksmith, they also speak to those
closest to Nicki.
00:14:29
- The police need to build
up a picture of the victim. If you find out
how a victim lived,
00:14:34
you may find out how they died. Do the friends and family hold
any information which would
00:14:41
help us find Nicki's killer? TIM CORKETT: Nicki's
relatives were asked if Nicki had any
problems with any men,
00:14:49
anybody that she'd fallen out
with, an ex-boyfriend, perhaps. The answer that they
were given was no.
00:14:55
Everybody loved her. - Nicki's family
didn't know of any male who Nicki was in dispute with.
00:15:01
NARRATOR: Police look
into the locksmith. - When I've ever
investigated, say, a burglary,
00:15:06
we've always had to eliminate
tradespeople from inquiries. There may be fingerprints left
from the window installer.
00:15:14
There may be a locksmith who's
left a thumbprint or even DNA. So tradespeople, we try and
find the lawful excuse for them
00:15:23
leaving trace
evidence at the scene. And this was the case
with the locksmith. He had an alibi.
00:15:28
He just went round there
to change the locks. So police now eliminate the
locksmith from their inquiries.
00:15:35
At this point
of the investigation, they're quite frustrated. They have a CCTV image of a
person they'd like to speak to,
00:15:42
but they don't know
who that person is. They've also carried out
a CCTV trawl in the locality.
00:15:48
They've gone to shops,
businesses, and video doorbells from local houses. They've got a vast
amounts of footage,
00:15:56
but the only image
they've got of the person they want to speak to is
from the flat itself.
00:16:01
[TENSE MUSIC] The biggest challenge for the
police on this investigation is, how do they go
from CCTV imagery
00:16:12
to the identification of the
person in the high-vis jacket? [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NICK BARRIERO:
At first glance, there
00:16:29
doesn't appear to be anything
remarkable going on here. This appears to be
a bearded man
00:16:33
in a high-vis jacket walking
into a building, very nonchalant, not in a hurry. Seems completely normal.
00:16:42
It appears that this person is
familiar with this building. They know where they're going.
00:16:46
They go straight to that door. In this type
of investigation, it would be common for the police
to take a still frame
00:16:53
from the video like this
and put out a description of the suspect to the public.
00:16:58
They're looking
for a man, large build, light-colored hair, goatee,
thick-rimmed glasses.
00:17:03
So the first thing that I want
to do when I look at this video is, I just want to get
a better look at this person.
00:17:08
So I'm going
to brighten and enhance the contrast and the colors
to get the best look possible.
00:17:14
Now, looking
at this enhancement, it's clear that the goatee
is a completely different
00:17:20
color than this person's hair. It's also clear that this work
vest has never been worked in.
00:17:27
It appears to be brand new. Is this a disguise? Is this person trying
to hide their true identity?
00:17:34
[OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: The autopsy
on Nicki's death is released. - The pathologist
didn't actually reveal
00:17:49
a cause of death for Nicki. However, the fractured
skull, that would have rendered her unconscious.
00:17:54
It shows that Nicki was
the victim of an assault, and that the ceramic chicken
was the most likely weapon.
00:18:02
NARRATOR: The report
confirms that Nicki died around the same time
as the man in the high-vis vest
00:18:07
was caught on security footage. - We've got an unknown intruder
going into Nicki's flat.
00:18:14
She's been assaulted
using the ceramic chicken and has suffered a head injury. And we believe that
the cut to the wrist
00:18:21
was staged to make it
look like a suicide. And then that
person from the CCTV has left the scene
a number of hours
00:18:27
later after clearing it up
or staging the scene to make it look like something else.
00:18:32
So we know that the person
responsible for Nicki's murder is the person on the CCTV.
00:18:41
NICK BARRIERO: So if this
person is in a disguise, what else can we learn
from this video that
00:18:46
might help identify a suspect? One technique we can use
is called photogrammetry.
00:18:51
This is the type
of thing that a forensic analyst would do that most
police departments just can't.
00:18:58
By taking measurements
from this video, we can get an approximate
height of this suspect.
00:19:05
Someone's height
can't be changed. They can change
their physical appearance, but they can't change
how tall they are.
00:19:11
That's why every
mugshot you see, there's a height chart
behind the suspect. In this footage, we can
see that the lines that
00:19:22
are straight
in the real-world are actually curved in the footage. And that's because this
lens is a wide-angle lens,
00:19:29
and it creates some distortion. I am able to correct
for the distortion. So now that the footage
is undistorted,
00:19:39
we need to tell
the software where this camera is in 3D space. The lines that are highlighted
in green are the y-axis,
00:19:49
and this tells the software,
this is the ground plane. And all of the orange
lines are the z-axis.
00:19:55
Now we need to take a reference
measurement in the real-world. This yellow line
on the screen indicates
00:20:02
that reference measurement. Let's say it's 78 inches. Once the software knows
that reference measurement,
00:20:08
it can use that
reference to calculate the height of the suspect. In this case, the red line
is showing almost 68 inches,
00:20:17
or 5 foot 8". So I would tell
the police, you're looking for a suspect that's
approximately 5 foot 8".
00:20:27
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] NARRATOR: The figure
in the high-vis jacket is detective's prime suspect.
00:20:39
But who is he? GRAHAM MCMILLAN: I'm
looking at this footage, and I'm thinking they're
not walking right.
00:20:45
There's almost something false
about the way they're walking. The person in the footage
is also trying to move
00:20:51
their arms at the wrong time. It's not a natural way
of moving your arms. So that would pique my interest
as to why that person
00:21:00
is walking that way. So from the initial
suspicions of the way the person was walking, a gait
analysis of the body frame
00:21:08
was-- was carried out. NARRATOR: A person's
gait, or walking style, can be distinctive.
00:21:19
It's influenced by age,
gender, height, and weight. GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
On initial appearances,
00:21:33
the person on the CCTV
looked to be a man. He's got a goatee beard, and
he's dressed very masculine.
00:21:40
The gait analysis
results from the CCTV indicated that the offender
could be a woman.
00:21:49
When you realize that this
person could be a woman, you'd ask, why
would they do that?
00:21:53
Is this person known to Nicki? NARRATOR: Detectives
turned to Nicki's family. Had she fallen
out with a woman?
00:22:07
- The family then
revealed that Nicki was in dispute with her
half sister, Yvonne Caylor.
00:22:15
They shared the same
father, but Yvonne was 27 years older than Nicki. She'd gone to live
in America and was quite
00:22:22
estranged from the family. [EERIE MUSIC] TIM CORKETT: Yvonne
Caylor had left the UK
00:22:33
when Nicki was only a baby. And so when Nicki was
an adult, she decided to visit
00:22:38
her to get to know her better. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: At some point,
Nicki went over to America
00:22:43
to join her and to live
there for a while, but that didn't work out. They fell out,
and Nicki came back
00:22:48
home and got herself a flat. Yvonne herself then
returned from America and moved in with Nicki.
00:22:59
TIM CORKETT:
Nicki's family were surprised that she
said she could stay with her in her small flat.
00:23:05
But that was the sort
of kind, considerate, and thoughtful person Nicki was. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: But they had
a tempestuous relationship.
00:23:15
They were always falling out. Yvonne was very jealous
of the relationship that Nicki had with
their shared father.
00:23:22
NARRATOR: Living
together for four months, their relationship
eventually broke down.
00:23:30
TIM CORKETT: During
a row they had, Yvonne had lifted
a laptop above her head and brought it down at speed,
crashing to the floor.
00:23:40
GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Nicki is
concerned about Yvonne. She's a much bigger woman. They were always arguing.
00:23:49
And it got to the point
where Nicki actually evicted Yvonne from her flat. She had to have
the locks changed.
00:23:55
It had become that toxic. [INTENSE MUSIC] NARRATOR: On the day
Yvonne moved out,
00:24:07
they had another big argument. JP ASHER: Yvonne made
an allegation of assault against Nicki, which resulted
in Nicki being arrested.
00:24:17
TIM CORKETT: While Nicki was
being questioned at the police station, Yvonne
called a locksmith
00:24:23
and told that person that
she'd locked herself out. She showed some identification
to say that she lived there,
00:24:31
and she was let in. She went there and stole
some personal items. These included
dolls that had been
00:24:39
left to Nicki by her
grandmother that were worthless but were very important to her.
00:24:47
NARRATOR:
At the police station, officers finish with Nicki. - Nicki had been
told by the police
00:24:54
she had no case to answer. She went back to her
flat and discovers that she's been burgled.
00:25:01
JP ASHER: When Nicki saw that
the door had been messed with and the dolls were
missing, she immediately
00:25:05
knew what must have happened. Who else would break
in and take these dolls? SOHOM DAS: It is bizarre
to me that Yvonne
00:25:12
would orchestrate
this break-in, but she doesn't take
anything of value. She just takes
a couple of dolls.
00:25:17
So clearly, they must
have been symbolic. They must have held some
kind of emotional value.
00:25:23
Her actions were,
of course, risky because there's a chance that
she could have been caught.
00:25:27
So it feels like this
was some kind of threat towards Nicki, some way of just
making her feel uncomfortable.
00:25:34
Yvonne is trying to send
a message to Nicki, which is basically, she is vulnerable.
00:25:39
[EERIE MUSIC] [POLICE SIRENS WAILING] NARRATOR: With Nicki
in no doubt that Yvonne
00:26:03
had burgled her flat
and stolen the dolls, she called the police. TIM CORKETT: Yvonne is
charged with burglary.
00:26:10
During that time, she
contacts Nicki's mother, Rena, trying to get her to say that
some of the items were left
00:26:19
or belonged to Yvonne. And with that, she now
faces a second charge, not just burglary,
but also one of perverting
00:26:27
the course of justice. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Yvonne tried
everything she could to make
00:26:38
that burglary charge go away. This is very, very big. This is massive. It's something that the police
can now concentrate on to find
00:26:45
out what's going on here. - Yvonne was getting desperate. She wanted to stop that
burglary trial going ahead.
00:26:52
NARRATOR: While
the burglary charge is a potential motive,
on the face of it, Yvonne doesn't fit the profile.
00:26:58
- It's very, very rare that
we have a sister-on-sister murder in the UK. And it may have been a shock
to even the detectives
00:27:05
to think that
the victim's sister could be the one who's killed her. SOHOM DAS: Familicide,
when an individual
00:27:13
kills own members of their
family, is extremely rare. And the perpetrator is
usually the father or
00:27:18
the husband, often
in the context of domestic
violence or jealousy if their wife is leaving them.
00:27:24
For sororicide to occur,
the circumstances have to be extraordinary. It's usually in the context
of either mental illness
00:27:31
or extreme domestic conflict. NARRATOR: Although
Yvonne is a good suspect, to build their case,
investigators need
00:27:41
to tie her to the crime scene. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Police
have reviewed the CCTV images many, many times.
00:27:48
And now they know that the
person is wearing a disguise, they take the imagery
to family members.
00:27:55
TIM CORKETT: The family are
shown the CCTV of this person in the luminous jacket.
00:28:01
Immediately, they
identify Yvonne Caylor. - That was a massive boost
for the investigation.
00:28:10
The shock the family
must have felt when they realized
that they could see Yvonne Caylor on CCTV,
and she'd gone to such lengths
00:28:19
to try and hide her identity. I can only imagine
the grief the family have gone through when
they realized that.
00:28:28
SOHOM DAS: Clearly, there's
a pre-planned element to Yvonne's behavior. She put in a lot of effort
to disguise herself
00:28:34
to gain entry into that flat. What we don't know is what
her intentions were once she'd
00:28:40
got through the threshold. - There was bad
blood, but the family were shocked that Yvonne
had gone to this extent
00:28:49
to attack Nicki and kill her. NARRATOR: Detectives
believe Yvonne's disguise was designed to mislead Nicki.
00:29:00
If she'd recognized
Yvonne at the door, there's little chance
she would have opened it.
00:29:05
[TENSE MUSIC] TIM CORKETT: As part
of their investigation, detectives discovered
correspondence
00:29:12
that Nicki had been
having with her GP, saying that she
was living in fear. Nicki was petrified
of her half-sister.
00:29:21
She took a photograph of
belongings that she'd piled up against her door and sent that
to her relatives saying, "This
00:29:29
is how I have to live now." GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
Now that the police know that it's Yvonne
Caylor in the CCTV,
00:29:37
clearly wearing a fake
mustache and probably wearing a wig
as well, they went round to the local joke shop.
00:29:43
And they found
two employees who recognized Yvonne Caylor
as coming into the shop
00:29:48
and buying a fake wig
and a goatee beard. NARRATOR: Yvonne Caylor
is taken into custody.
00:29:57
GRAHAM MCMILLAN: Whenever
anyone is arrested for an offense, and they're
interviewed under caution,
00:30:02
as the caution says, "This
can be used in evidence." When we interview
a suspect, we don't
00:30:08
go in before the interview
and tell them everything that we've got. We don't show our hand
straight away.
00:30:13
There is a process,
a method, a strategy, so Yvonne Caylor doesn't
know what the police know.
00:30:22
POLICE OFFICER: Yvonne,
do you recognize the person in that CCTV? - Bow-legged. Fat and bow-legged to me.
00:30:28
I'm fat, but I'm
not bow-legged. And it looks like a man to me,
but I couldn't see his face.
00:30:34
GRAHAM MCMILLAN: She is shown
the CCTV, denies her it's her. She described what she sees
as a fat, bow-legged man.
00:30:43
- Bow-legged. Fat and bow-legged to me. - That was the impression
she was trying to achieve.
00:30:49
She continues to play out her
plan to the police officers. - It looks like a man to me,
but I couldn't see his face.
00:30:56
GRAHAM MCMILLAN: She does
refer to the person as a male. And she says "he." POLICE OFFICER: Why do you
say he looks like a man.
00:31:02
GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
But just after then, she uses the phrase, "they." - It's what they're
wearing looks like a dude.
00:31:07
- So she's gone
from he to they. So is that a slip? POLICE OFFICER:
Yvonne, is that you?
00:31:11
- Of course, that ain't me. Why would you think that's me? GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
She's maintaining
00:31:15
her innocence in this video. And to be fair, she's answering
the questions quite well.
00:31:19
She's answering them, as though
it was a third person. But she's had time
to prepare for this.
00:31:25
YVONNE CAYLOR: Why would
you think that's me? POLICE OFFICER: Because,
to me, it looks like the person
00:31:28
was wearing a wig and a beard. - I don't know about
a wig, but they look like they have a beard.
00:31:34
POLICE OFFICER:
As in a fake beard? - I couldn't tell
it was fake beard. POLICE OFFICER: Do
you own a fake beard?
00:31:39
- No, I don't own a fake beard. - And she answers
some questions, like, do you own a fake beard?
00:31:45
And she almost laughs
and shuts her eyes while she's thinking
of the question because she's probably
disposed of it.
00:31:51
So the truthful answer now is,
she doesn't own a fake beard, because she got rid of it.
00:31:56
POLICE OFFICER: We
suspect that person-- - Is me. POLICE OFFICER: --has
murdered your sister.
00:32:00
- Well, it ain't me. GRAHAM MCMILLAN: And what I
say on this interview tape is a cold, calculated
killer who's trying to stick
00:32:08
to a story of, It wasn't me. POLICE OFFICER: We
suspect that person-- - Is me. POLICE OFFICER: --has
murdered your sister.
00:32:15
We believe it's you.
You said it's not you. YVONNE CAYLOR: Ay, [MUMBLES]. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:32:22
- Yvonne totally
denied the accusation that she was responsible
for Nicki's death
00:32:26
during all her interviews
with the police. She denied any involvement
in Nicki's murder.
00:32:33
However, the pressure
is on because what the police want to do is charge
Yvonne with this offense.
00:32:40
She is a flight risk. She has previously
lived in America, and the concern
would be that she
00:32:45
would try and make
her way back there again should she be bailed. NARRATOR: Police get
the forensic results on DNA
00:32:53
taken from the crime scene. - The forensic
examination of the scene discovered that
there was blood left
00:33:00
on parts of the ceramic
chicken that rendered Nicki unconscious. TIM CORKETT: Nicki's DNA is
on it, as you would expect,
00:33:08
but also, there's blood
that matches Yvonne. - Therefore,
the blood on the pot can be attributed
to Yvonne during the time
00:33:17
of the attack on Nicki. - The police were
able to reconstruct the chicken-shaped
pot, but some
00:33:25
of the pieces were missing. - Yvonne Caylor
did try to clear up the pieces
of the smashed pot, but
00:33:33
didn't make a very
good job of it, because only about half
the pieces were picked up.
00:33:40
- And it's surmised that
they were in the bag that Yvonne was carrying when
she left the block of flats.
00:33:48
JOHN PRICE: There was
also blood staining in the bathroom,
the DNA of which matched that
of the deceased, but also
00:33:57
other DNA, the profile
of which matched Yvonne Caylor consistent
with the proposition
00:34:04
that some effort had been
made to wash, for example, her hands clean before
she had left the flat.
00:34:13
[EERIE MUSIC] - Police can now pinpoint
Yvonne Caylor at the murder scene at the time of death.
00:34:26
She's been identified
on CCTV by a family member. She is seen to go
into the flat at a time
00:34:33
consistent with the time
of death from the pathology report. And she's left her blood,
her DNA, on broken fragments
00:34:39
from the ceramic chicken. - The evidence is now so strong
that the police are in no doubt
00:34:46
that Yvonne was the person
who hit her on the head with the ceramic pot
and killed her before
00:34:52
staging the half-baked attempt
to make it look like suicide. [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:35:02
- Yvonne was due to appear
in court charged with burglary on the day that Nicki died.
00:35:08
I believe this
really angered Yvonne because Nicki is going to say
that she stole items from her.
00:35:14
And if she gets a criminal
conviction for burglary, she can't go back to America.
00:35:19
Everything had come
to a head for Yvonne. She was so angry
and enraged that she couldn't stop proceedings.
00:35:25
And the person in the way
is Nicki Collingbourne. - What the police
also discovered
00:35:33
was that, on her
computer, Yvonne had been making plans to flee the UK. She was looking at ways
to get to Spain,
00:35:41
possibly going
to drive there, and then was going to catch
a flight from Spain back to the United States.
00:35:50
- Somebody who is so cold
as to be able to put a plan together to murder
their half-sister
00:35:58
is a danger to the public. She's certainly a danger
to other family members. I mean, who else is
she going to kill?
00:36:07
NARRATOR: Yvonne
Caylor is charged with the murder of her half
sister, Nicki Collingbourne.
00:36:14
JP ASHER: When it
became clear that it was the sister
of Nicki Collingbourne who had been charged, that was
quite shocking for everybody.
00:36:21
- The community were
astounded to learn that Nicki had been
killed by the woman that she'd given
board and lodging to.
00:36:30
NARRATOR: Nicki's
body is released so she can be laid to rest. TIM CORKETT: Nicki's
funeral was a big event.
00:36:39
Friends and family
from Letchworth and from all over
the country were there to pay their respects.
00:36:46
- Nicki had an important
role in the family. She was her mother's
carer, so it must have made this even
harder for the whole family
00:36:53
to accept her loss. - Sadly, the day before
Nicki was laid to rest, her mother, Rena, died.
00:37:00
Her family said
that she couldn't cope with the death of Nicki. [SOMBER MUSIC] [SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
00:37:20
NARRATOR: Six months
after Nicki's murder, Yvonne Caylor goes on trial
for killing her half-sister.
00:37:27
TIM CORKETT: The trial was
held at Luton Crown Court in a small courtroom. The public gallery was packed
with members of Nicki's family
00:37:36
all watching Yvonne, who
sat motionless in the dock. JOHN PRICE: Yvonne Caylor
pleaded not guilty.
00:37:46
She did so upon the basis
that she was not the person who had gone
to the flat on that morning
00:37:51
and who had carried
out the killing. In other words, she
was not the person wearing
the high-visibility jacket
00:37:57
and sporting a beard
and a large pair of spectacles. [EERIE MUSIC] GRAHAM MCMILLAN:
The video footage
00:38:05
placing Yvonne Caylor at the
scene in this case was crucial. Because it's
a first-floor flat,
00:38:10
there's one way
in and one way out. Luckily, there was
a static CCTV camera, so that was always going
to catch the killer
00:38:17
going in and going out. Yvonne Caylor knew that. That's why she
disguised herself
00:38:23
at the time of the murder. NARRATOR: Local reporter
JP Asher covers the trial. JP ASHER: She's asked
by her barrister,
00:38:33
did you murder
your half-sister? And she replies, "No, sir." Did you have any
part in her death?
00:38:38
She replies, "No, sir." When they present
the evidence of a locksmith, she says, at no point
did I call a locksmith.
00:38:43
And when they ask
about this phone call to Rena Hibbert-Jones,
Nicki's mother to try to have
Rena lie about who
00:38:50
certain items had
belonged to, she says, "I have never phoned her ever. She wouldn't know
what I sound like."
00:38:56
When confronted with the
evidence of going to a fancy dress shop to try
on disguises, she replies,
00:39:01
"I would have to cut my hair
off to put a wig on." And finally, asked if she's
the intruder on the CCTV,
00:39:07
she replies, "Since I left,
I have never been back there, not once, ever." TIM CORKETT: All the way along,
when interviewed by police
00:39:19
and in court, Yvonne
ran what journalists might call the shaggy defense. "It wasn't me."
00:39:26
To people in court,
it was laughable that Yvonne went
into the witness box and denied that she
was the person wearing
00:39:36
a wig, big-frame glasses, and
a fake King Charles I beard, along with a hi-vis jacket.
00:39:45
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC] - There was then extensive
scientific evidence-- DNA analysis of blood
staining, and
00:39:56
there was evidence of motive,
background acrimony which had arisen between
the two sisters,
00:40:03
culminating in Yvonne
Caylor being charged with an offense of burglary. And it was an important
feature of the case
00:40:13
that the killing
was carried out on the very day
on which the trial for the charge of burglary
could have been commenced.
00:40:25
- Yvonne's actions and her
behaviors confuse me because, on the one hand,
some elements of what
00:40:30
she did was pre-planned. She had gone out of her
way to get a disguise. But the rest of it just seems
very sloppy and impulsive--
00:40:38
from breaking
into Nicki's house to steal some trivial objects,
to trying to wear a disguise
00:40:44
to fool Nicki, who presumably
would have recognized her quite easily being her
sister, to going around
00:40:49
and attacking her sister
in such a violent manner, and then trying to cover
it up in such a sloppy way.
00:40:55
To me, it just speaks
to her chaotic personality. JOHN PRICE: I recall that what
shocked me about the trial
00:41:04
was that Ms. Caylor seemed
unfazed by the strength of the evidence against her. I think that those
who were there
00:41:18
might have thought that
she had overestimated her own abilities
to avoid the consequences
00:41:24
of what, in fact, she'd done. TIM CORKETT: To reporters
covering the case, the evidence was
pretty overwhelming,
00:41:32
and it looked to us that
Yvonne would be found guilty. But you never know with juries.
00:41:39
NARRATOR: After four weeks,
the jury reaches a verdict. - The jury decided that Yvonne
Caylor was guilty of murder.
00:41:49
TIM CORKETT: There was huge
relief from Nicki's family in the public gallery. Yvonne was impassive.
00:41:58
NARRATOR: Before handing
Yvonne her sentence, the judge invites
Nicki's family to give impact statements.
00:42:04
- The victims' families
testimony spoke of Nicki being a wonderful
person, how she
00:42:10
would have been
a brilliant mother, and that she'd had
her life stolen from her at such
a young age when
00:42:16
she had so much to live for. It was heartbreaking
to hear what they said. NARRATOR: Yvonne Caylor is
sentenced to life imprisonment
00:42:24
with a minimum of 20 years. - The judge told
Yvonne Caylor that she was a violent,
dishonest, and deceitful
00:42:33
person who was ultimately
a selfish and heartless killer. As Yvonne was being
led down to the cells,
00:42:41
she looked across at the public
gallery, muttered something, and scowled
at Nicki's relatives.
00:42:54
- Did she show remorse
during the trial? Certainly not. As to whether Yvonne
got what she deserved,
00:43:01
I think the answer would
be justice was done. - I think
the sentence was fair. Yvonne wouldn't
take responsibility
00:43:09
for what she'd done. Over the years, I've covered
scores of murder cases, and this must go down
as one of the most bizarre.
00:43:17
Yvonne was
a manipulative person who needed to be in control. She's killed Nicki
for revenge, and
00:43:27
she's concocted her plan to
kill her in a most bizarre way that, if you saw on a TV
drama, you'd think,
00:43:36
well, why would you do that? You're not going
to get away with it. NARRATOR: Central
to the case against Yvonne
00:43:43
was the security footage. [INTENSE MUSIC] - The availability of CCTV
cameras, public and private,
00:43:52
has transformed
the type of evidence which is available in court
to place before a jury.
00:43:58
It would have been
unheard of many years ago, but it is now by no
means uncommon.
00:44:03
- Gone are the days of police
solving crimes by informants. Now they're trawling through
reams and reams of surveillance
00:44:11
footage to find the culprit. - With the increase
in doorbell cameras, I can say that
such surveillance
00:44:19
footage has assisted
every investigation reach a conclusion. It was so unnecessary.
00:44:38
It's bad enough if you
kill a stranger. But what sort of person
have you got to be
00:44:42
to kill your own half-sister? JP ASHER: That's
an aspect people would have found quite
shocking because murder
00:44:49
in this community
is rare in any case. Why do something
so terrible to somebody who did nothing to deserve it?
00:44:58
TIM CORKETT: Nicki had her
whole life ahead of her. She would have been
a brilliant mother,
00:45:02
and it was just so unfair
and so undeserving. - What I always found the most
tragic of all about this
00:45:08
was that she had taken
this person into her home, and it was ultimately Nicki
Collingbourne's kindness
00:45:14
that led to this. [SOFT MUSIC] GRAHAM MCMILLAN: The selfish
actions of Yvonne Caylor
00:45:29
has left a lasting
impact on this community. Nicki, who was only 26
when she was murdered.
00:45:36
She could have gone
on and had a family. Her children could be
living on the estate now.
00:45:40
Her children could have
been going to school. We will never know. Yvonne's actions have
robbed Nicki's family
00:45:47
of a loving daughter. The impact of--
of her murder has been huge on family, friends,
and the community as a whole.
00:45:57
It's absolutely devastating. [THEME MUSIC] [AUDIO LOGO]