00:00:03
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] MAN 1: It just
sounds like something bad is happening to her. FEMALE 1: I heard her
scream, no, stop it.
00:00:11
MAN 2: I heard some gunshots. MAN 3: Drop it! Whatever it is, drop it! MAN 4: That does not true
that I killed my wife.
00:00:18
FEMALE 2: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened. MAN 5: The camera doesn't lie.
00:00:24
[RADIO CHATTER] NARRATOR: This time
on "Killers Caught on Camera," in Florida,
a woman is recorded
00:00:34
screaming for her life. JARED KENERSON: There
appeared to be some signs that there was foul play.
00:00:47
NARRATOR: And in the UK a
brutal murder of a woman stabbed more than 50
times in her own home.
00:00:55
I tried to ring them
and text her all day. No answers. And I walked into that. Something is not right.
00:01:02
[THEME MUSIC] [POLICE SIRENS] NARRATOR: Jupiter, Florida,
a safe community on the East
00:01:25
Coast where crime is
half the national average and murder is rare. It was home to Gretchen
Anthony, a devoted mother
00:01:34
close to her family and friends. KELLY HANNA: This is such
a special place for us.
00:01:40
The sense of community,
the sense of fun that we all had here
on the afternoons after a long day of fishing
or going out on the boat.
00:01:48
And this was a place where
Gretchen and I would meet up here with all of our
friends and there
00:01:52
would just be a big gathering. NARRATOR: David Anthony
was her personal trainer.
00:01:58
Gretchen fell in love, and
they got married in 2015. David is tall, handsome,
charming, outgoing, funny,
00:02:09
and just very charismatic. And there were instant sparks. She was so in love. They appeared to just have
this magical family life.
00:02:21
[OMINOUS MUSIC] NARRATOR: Five years into the
marriage, it's March 2020. David had become
increasingly volatile.
00:02:32
Gretchen made the decision to
file for divorce and moved on. David found the
separation difficult
00:02:39
and decided to live
with his mother. It wasn't long
after that decision to separate that David's
mental health started
00:02:47
to decline very quickly. NARRATOR: Then the pandemic hit. Gretchen's family got a
message she'd got COVID.
00:02:56
But something about Gretchen's
texts didn't feel right. KELLY HANNA: The way the
text messages were structured
00:03:02
weren't making any sense. NARRATOR: Her messages were
totally out of character. KELLY HANNA: And they
try to get in touch
00:03:10
with her via phone
calls or text messages and she is not responding. NARRATOR: The family
were so concerned,
00:03:18
they decided to
involve the police. JARED KENERSON: We started
receiving phone calls
00:03:22
from family members and from
friends of Gretchen Anthony who were concerned about her.
00:03:28
They were receiving
text messages from her phone indicating that
she's ill and has COVID-19,
00:03:37
admitted to the hospital,
and later transferred to a COVID specialty center. Messages coming from her
phone aren't making any sense.
00:03:46
They're not adding up. And so it was just red
flag, red flag, red flag. NARRATOR: When Gretchen
stopped sharing her location
00:03:54
on her phone, the
police talked to Jupiter Medical Center, the last
place she said she was going.
00:04:01
We did a check with the staff. And we were able to
find that she was not a patient of their hospital.
00:04:11
NARRATOR: Police put
in an urgent request for the security footage
from inside the hospital
00:04:16
and the parking lot. Gretchen was nowhere. And a missing persons
investigation was now underway.
00:04:25
Something very
shady was going on. And now I'm absolutely
terrified for my friend.
00:04:32
NARRATOR: Her house had
been locked up for days. Jupiter police went
to her property.
00:04:38
Body cams rolled. Evidence was being gathered
for the state attorney's office, which was now involved.
00:04:47
[KNOCKING] CHRICHET MIXON: They've
knocked at the door, and they don't get an answer.
00:04:53
Gretchen is not
there, but there are some things within
Gretchen's residence that causes some concern.
00:05:02
There's just some towels on
the washing machine closet that has a substance
that was consistent
00:05:07
with a blood-like substance. There's some spray
bottles and a clean-up rag on the kitchen counter.
00:05:14
There's a broken picture
frame that appeared to be normally hanging on the wall.
00:05:19
NARRATOR: The search
showed no sign of Gretchen. Most notably,
there is a key broken
00:05:26
off inside of a lock that leads
to Gretchen Anthony's garage. [OMINOUS MUSIC] JARED KENERSON: We're not
able to initially gain entry
00:05:38
into the garage,
which is concerning. NARRATOR: They had no idea what
lay behind the locked door.
00:05:47
Law enforcement officers
force entry into the garage. There's a very strong
odor of cleaning agents.
00:05:56
And the garage
appears to be damp. Based on what we
found in the residence, we became more concerned about
where Gretchen Anthony was.
00:06:08
There appeared to be some
signs that there was foul play. That leads us to believe
that something transpired
00:06:17
in Gretchen's garage. NARRATOR: Bodycams picked
up disturbing witness statements about an
incident 24 hours
00:06:25
before Gretchen went missing. We were approached
by one of her neighbors that was across the way--
00:06:38
--who wanted to
know if we were there for the attack that happened at
the residence on days previous.
00:07:15
NARRATOR: Another
neighbor noticed white stains down the driveway. There was some
type of cleaning
00:07:25
agent running from under
Gretchen's garage almost consistent with someone was
doing some type of cleaning
00:07:34
inside of the garage. NARRATOR: The police knew
they had to work fast. They needed to track
down her estranged
00:07:41
husband, David Anthony. They went to his
mother's house where he'd been living since the
separation from Gretchen.
00:07:48
Bodycams recorded the encounter. All detectives knew was
that David told his mother
00:08:42
he was heading for Costa Rica. We're looking to find
Gretchen Anthony most-- most importantly.
00:08:50
Finding him may help find her. NARRATOR: Luckily,
detectives got a breakthrough as images from the
cameras at the hospital
00:08:58
revealed an ominous twist. JARED KENERSON: We were able
to get video from the Jupiter
00:09:03
Medical Center. We were able to show early
morning video of Gretchen Anthony's vehicle
coming into the property
00:09:10
and being parked
on the northeast portion of the parking lot. CHRICHET MIXON: And
there's an individual
00:09:19
who got out of
Gretchen's vehicle, except it wasn't Gretchen. Tall individual dressed
in dark clothing.
00:09:28
We still don't know where
Gretchen is and if she's OK. So now I'm terrified. I'm absolutely
terrified for her.
00:09:38
[SIRENS WAILING] NARRATOR: Evidence from
the cameras was adding up. Inside Gretchen's home,
detectives discovered
00:09:47
a gold mine of footage. CHRICHET MIXON: Gretchen
has multiple cameras inside of her residence.
00:09:56
NARRATOR: After feeling unsafe
from David's increasingly violent behavior during
their separation,
00:10:02
Gretchen set up a complete
home security system. KELLY HANNA: She was
filing for divorce.
00:10:07
And that was it, they were done. David just could not
handle that information. So someone like David
Anthony might, in these kinds
00:10:18
of situations, think, well,
but you've committed to me, and you are mine now. And we made that promise.
00:10:24
And now that you're
not wanting to keep that promise/you
want to leave me, that isn't an acceptable
course of action.
00:10:33
A really common
theme is this idea that men have or some men have
that they possess or own women.
00:10:40
And the problem is with that,
once you feel like you're losing this, effectively,
object, this then turns
00:10:47
into a situation where you
go, no, but no one else is allowed to have her. She's mine.
00:10:51
And that can subsequently
turn to justifications for extreme behavior,
extreme violence,
00:10:57
and saying, well,
if I can't have her, then literally nobody else can. And I will destroy her.
00:11:06
CHRICHET MIXON: Search warrants
were executed to obtain the footage from the cameras.
00:11:12
We are counting on the
surveillance footage from her house to
give us some answers.
00:11:21
That is potentially what
could give us the biggest lead or the most
information about what
00:11:28
transpired in her residence. NARRATOR: But there
was some bad news. CHRICHET MIXON: There were
some cameras that were missing.
00:11:37
NARRATOR: Video equipment in
the garage had been taken down. Detectives tried to
find out if the footage
00:11:43
was backed up online. Meanwhile, police
started to track David's and Gretchen's phone.
00:11:51
Essentially
what's happening is they're able to get an update,
let's say, every 15 minutes as
00:11:57
to the location of her phone. And we learn these phones
are traveling together. And they are traveling together
away from Jupiter, Florida.
00:12:12
JARED KENERSON: They were
able to say on the 25th that-- that her phone was in
Pensacola, Florida.
00:12:17
[DRAMATIC MUSIC] CHRICHET MIXON: We
are able to see David getting money from the ATM.
00:12:24
We see him going
inside of a store. We see him going inside
of the pawn shop. And not just in Palm
Beach County, but as he
00:12:34
travels north, hours away
outside of the county. We contacted
that jewelry store.
00:12:40
They were able to provide us
with some video footage of him in the store, also his
vehicle outside of the store.
00:12:46
CHRICHET MIXON: We
also have surveillance footage of him
pawning more jewelry that belonged to Gretchen.
00:12:56
NARRATOR: Police continue
to track both cell phones and follow them heading west
across the southern states.
00:13:03
CHRICHET MIXON: Gretchen's phone
is pinging in close proximity to David's phone.
00:13:10
You never see Gretchen with
him in any other surveillance. You see his dog occasionally,
but you never see Gretchen.
00:13:19
NARRATOR: As the net tightened,
Gretchen and David's phones are located in Las Cruces,
New Mexico, less than an hour
00:13:26
from the Mexican border. [SIRENS BLARING] It was a race against
time to find them.
00:13:35
Detectives in Florida
asked Las Cruces police for an urgent traffic stop. POLICE: We need officers
to block on Main Avenue.
00:13:46
NARRATOR: But Gretchen
was not in the truck. They spoke to David. He didn't provide any
information as to her location.
00:14:43
And he didn't provide
any information that would indicate that he had
committed a crime against her.
00:14:49
NARRATOR: It was the same truck
scene outside Gretchen's house seven days earlier.
00:14:55
The police had no idea
what lay beneath the tarp. There was evidence
that Gretchen's cell
00:15:14
phone was with David's. Police impounded
his pickup truck. JARED KENERSON:
So at this point,
00:15:25
we had a reason to take his car. We didn't have a reason
to take him into custody.
00:15:32
We're still evidence
gathering, so we want to gather as much
evidence as possible
00:15:37
to find Gretchen's whereabouts. He gives a lot of statements
about conspiracy theories
00:15:53
that-- of things at Gretchen's
job that she has uncovered. And for her own safety, she's
essentially gone into hiding,
00:16:06
NARRATOR: Las Cruces
police let David go but kept his vehicle
and the unknown contents
00:16:12
under the tarp. Back in Jupiter,
cybercrime specialists worked hard to retrieve the
camera footage from the night
00:16:25
Gretchen went missing. We were able to write a search
warrant that was addressed
00:16:31
to a surrounds company. We were also able to obtain
footage from the cloud. A crucial part of
this investigation
00:16:43
was the video footage
that we ultimately reviewed from Gretchen's house. The NARRATOR: Footage stored in the
cloud included video recordings
00:16:56
from the missing cameras. Detectives immediately
got to work, hoping it would reveal exactly
what happened to Gretchen.
00:17:08
There is a camera that is on
the patio of Gretchen's home. It's still dark
outside, although it's
00:17:14
the early morning hours. And you see what appears to
be a tall male individual. This person lurking
on her patio.
00:17:24
They're moving around
very slowly, methodically. It is unclear as to
what they're doing.
00:17:32
We don't know whether Gretchen
hears someone outside. The surveillance
shows that person
00:17:38
was in Gretchen Anthony's
porch for quite some time before she answered the door.
00:17:50
Gretchen comes to her
door, her door swings out, and this person is
behind the door.
00:17:57
NARRATOR: Some of
the footage was so graphic it was never released. The same person is tall,
male, dressed in all black.
00:18:08
We see this person taking
Gretchen or dragging Gretchen or forcing Gretchen
to the garage
00:18:17
as he muffles her screams. He uses the same garage where
the key was broken in the lock.
00:18:31
There is footage of what appears
to be the back of what we believe to be Gretchen's head.
00:18:39
And she is on the
floor of her garage. And there is this tall male
dressed in all black moving
00:18:48
around Gretchen's garage. And there is one
camera that captures this individual as he
turns around and looks
00:18:57
directly into the camera. And that person
was David Anthony. One of those videos captured
David looking up at the camera
00:19:11
and taking it down and
tossing it across the room. CHRICHET MIXON: At this point,
we are convinced that David
00:19:20
Anthony has killed Gretchen. NARRATOR: It was enough to
issue an arrest warrant.
00:19:30
Then, out of nowhere,
Detective Kenerson got a call from their chief suspect. JARED KENERSON: The person
calling me was David Anthony.
00:19:51
He conveyed a message
to me on some alleged circumstances as to why Gretchen
may have been in danger.
00:20:07
NARRATOR: But the
call ended abruptly. David was now on the run
close to the Mexican border.
00:20:28
They had just a few
hours to catch him. Detective Kenerson headed
to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
00:20:35
This is when we
were able to execute a search warrant on David's car,
which they had seized for us.
00:20:41
NARRATOR: David
was still at large, but the manhunt became
even more urgent when they discovered what
was in the back of the truck.
00:20:49
Cameras from Gretchen's garage
and a voice-controlled Alexa device. JARED KENERSON: She used the
Echo devices in her garage
00:20:58
to turn the lights on. During the attack,
Gretchen Anthony attempted to have Alexa summons help.
00:21:05
The audio files are disturbing. NARRATOR: It sounded
like she was muffled. [RADIO CHATTER]
00:21:20
JARED KENERSON:
After we completed the investigation
on his vehicle, we then went searching
for David Anthony.
00:21:26
[SIREN WAILING] [RADIO CHATTER] NARRATOR: With David just a few
miles from the Mexican border
00:21:33
and driving to Costa Rica,
every minute counted. Homeland Security deployed the
latest tracking technology.
00:21:42
Las Cruces' police traced
his car on the move. Outside a convenience
store, David Anthony
00:21:48
was cornered at gunpoint. David was arrested and
taken into custody for-- for the arrest warrant
for back in Florida
00:22:41
for second-degree
murder and kidnapping. NARRATOR: Finally, Detective
Kenerson had his suspect.
00:22:49
David Anthony, Gretchen's
estranged husband, was confronted with the gruesome
footage from Gretchen's home.
00:22:57
JARED KENERSON: I presented
the surveillance video of him. We presented evidence
of what happened.
00:23:02
Actual evidence
that we obtained. David kept telling us that
Gretchen was still alive.
00:23:07
NARRATOR: Despite his
denials, he'd been caught on camera at the crime scene. Even when police showed
David the video evidence,
00:23:30
he denied he caused
her any harm. We presented evidence to him. We presented evidence
that we actually
00:23:48
had to show what he did. I know he's the one who did it. CHRICHET MIXON: David Anthony
was subsequently charged
00:24:31
with second-degree murder. NARRATOR: But police
still had no idea where Gretchen's body was.
00:24:37
CHRICHET MIXON: Not having
a body in a murder case is difficult. Jurors expect
to see a body, right?
00:24:42
If you're saying this
person is-- is dead and the person you've charged
killed this person, show
00:24:48
it to me, which makes sense. NARRATOR: Then a
new witness came forward with a critical clue
as to where her body might be.
00:25:13
It narrowed the search
to a busy part of Jupiter but wasn't specific
enough to find her body.
00:25:21
David continued to
maintain his innocence. Desperate to get some sort of
closure for Gretchen's family,
00:25:33
Chrichet Mixon
changed her approach. CHRICHET MIXON:
Her family didn't want to go to sleep every
night wondering where
00:25:42
Gretchen was in the world. And they wanted to have a
place where her daughter could
00:25:45
go to, her mother could
go to, her sisters, her friends could go to and
know that she was there.
00:25:54
Defense counsel approached
me wanting to discuss potential negotiations. So as a part of
these negotiations,
00:26:06
David was going to tell
us where Gretchen was. Denying the families the
ability to see and often bury,
00:26:17
of course, their loved ones
is a major barrier to grief. And it's a major
barrier to move on.
00:26:23
So if we look at the
escalation of violence to femicide, which is the
killing of girls and women,
00:26:28
we can see usually
a clear pattern, especially in intimate
partner relationships.
00:26:32
And it starts with, as you
might expect, male aggression. Then there's victim blaming.
00:26:37
So the man is saying, you
are making me do this. Then there is an escalation,
so the violence gets worse.
00:26:46
After that, there's
resistance by the woman, who then says no, you know,
this is not acceptable.
00:26:52
Then the woman usually tries
to leave the relationship, which is met with consequences.
00:27:01
NARRATOR: David Anthony gave
up his claims of innocence and decided to swap the
location of Gretchen's body
00:27:06
for a shorter sentence. On the morning of
December 21, 2020, his attorney
provided the location
00:27:15
of Gretchen Anthony's body. PILOT: One traffic, one red tag. NARRATOR: Cameras on helicopters
and mapping technology
00:27:25
got involved in the search
for Gretchen's body. PILOT: Juliette, Charlie,
Zulu, Kilo, 2, 6.
00:27:31
And last eight is going
to be Bravo Alpha 001781. I wanted her to not be there. And I wanted her to be OK.
00:27:40
But I knew the reality
was we were going to bring Gretchen home,
just not in the way
00:27:48
that anyone would have wanted. PILOT: 3800 block of Kirk Road. NARRATOR: They close
in on the site.
00:27:59
CHRICHET MIXON: There's
a cadaver dog on scene. There were crime scene
investigators who began
00:28:03
the search for Gretchen's body. NARRATOR: Nine months had passed
since Gretchen went missing.
00:28:10
At this point, her body
may not be identifiable. JARED KENERSON:
This is the location
00:28:16
where we located
Gretchen Anthony's body on December 21, 2020. Just south of that large,
I believe it's an oak tree.
00:28:28
In that lower area
of the ground, that's where Gretchen
was recovered. It's not a hugely secluded area.
00:28:38
We're able to identify
her on scene and-- and let her family
members know that. CHRICHET MIXON: We were
able to see tattoos on her.
00:28:47
And there was one in particular. And I recall, there
was a detective who yelled out about one of
her tattoos that she had.
00:28:53
NARRATOR: Medical
examiners determined Gretchen died from multiple stab
wounds to her neck and torso.
00:29:01
CHRICHET MIXON: I don't know
where this investigation would-- would be without
surveillance footage,
00:29:08
without those cameras
inside of Gretchen's house, without the cameras from the
ATM, or from the pawn shop.
00:29:17
I don't know that we would have
gotten to an arrest of David Anthony for murdering Gretchen.
00:29:26
But for those cameras,
we would've-- we would have never known. NARRATOR: Due to
COVID regulations,
00:29:33
no grand jury
could be assembled. David Anthony was
convicted of kidnapping and second-degree
murder, sentenced
00:29:40
to 38 years in prison. JULIA SHAW: We all miss the
radiant, beautiful, smiling, vibrant person that
she always was,
00:29:49
and the energy she brought
to everybody she met. And just the happiness that
she just gave to everyone.
00:29:59
So it's hard to go on. And I miss my friend. I miss my friend. Well, I'm glad
David's in prison.
00:30:07
You have no right to take
another human being's life and steal that person
from people who loved her
00:30:14
and people she loved. She's gone, and
you're still here. And, thankfully,
you're in prison.
00:30:21
And you get to think about that
for a very, very long time. [RADIO CHATTER] [SIREN WAILING]
00:30:34
NARRATOR: A crucial part of the
evidence gathered against David Anthony was the footage captured
by the cameras in the home
00:30:41
and on the body. [KNOCKING] [RADIO CHATTER] Recording everything
and everyone they came into contact with.
00:30:58
[SOMBER MUSIC] Emi Polito is an expert forensic
video analyst who's worked on hundreds of cases in the UK.
00:31:07
EMI POLITO: Contrary
to common belief, body-worn cameras
are always recording. But it's not until the point
where the officer pressed
00:31:15
the start button that
that footage then becomes a video file that
can then be retrieved later.
00:31:21
NARRATOR: And often,
it's crucial evidence, as in the case of Kerry Woolley. In the United Kingdom,
the West Midlands,
00:31:31
with over 400
violent crimes a day, at its heart the
city of Birmingham. Back in early
2020, Kerry Woolley
00:31:40
had returned to
dating after divorcing the father of her two children. She met 38-year-old Ian Bennett.
00:31:47
And they started to go
on the occasional date. The pair enjoyed
spending time together.
00:31:53
And for a few weeks, it
seemed to be going well. [OMINOUS MUSIC] In July, Ian and Kerry
enjoy a night out.
00:32:02
But early the next
morning, police respond to an emergency call. Terry had been found brutally
murdered in her bedroom.
00:32:12
Digital forensic
experts searched for any crucial evidence
captured on camera. Dr. Vaselsios Karagiannopoulos
is a leading expert
00:32:22
in criminal law and
cybercrime at the University of Portsmouth. [INAUDIBLE CHATTER]
00:32:29
VASELEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
The police is equipped with bodycam footage. And that helps them
gather evidence
00:32:36
as things might unfold. It's got a very wide angle. So you can see we're
actually looking
00:32:42
through the eyes of the
police officer at the scene. The cam will record if there's
any kind of evidence lying
00:32:50
around or if any other
people come in or out of that might have been witnesses. NARRATOR: The
bodycam recorded Ian
00:32:58
Bennett's witness statement. He was the last person
to see her alive. Professor Coral Dando is
a former police officer,
00:33:17
who now applies psychological
research to camera footage to understand criminal behavior.
00:33:23
CORAL DANDO: When
police arrived, he was standing outside. He provided them with a
uninvited and very detailed
00:33:32
account of his movements
and his whereabouts. And, you know, his account
seems fairly plausible.
00:33:45
VASELEIOS
KARAGIANNOPOULOS: He is looking very distraught,
quite shaken, trying to figure out
what has happened.
00:33:56
He's calling his mother. NARRATOR: He didn't
refer to Kerry by name. Looking quite shaken again
and explaining what's happened
00:34:13
to his mother on the phone. CORAL DANDO: When we look at
the context of a horrific murder
00:34:22
scene, something is not right. Smoking, I see. Talking on his phone. A little bit of eye blinking,
suggesting a bit of tears.
00:34:32
But he's not traumatized
by the looks of it. He was very calm. This very nuanced very
detailed, very sort of,
00:34:43
at the time, plausible
account of his movements and his whereabouts. And this struck me straight away
as being a red flag and quite
00:34:51
a significant red flag from a
psychological point of view. Certainly having someone
who just spills everything,
00:35:00
entrusts, immediately tell
you every single thing that they did that
day is not abnormal,
00:35:04
as is someone being very
upset and calling their mom. They're acting through
what they think
00:35:09
people need to see to make
them not look suspicious. So when we go back
to that first scene,
00:35:15
we think of the oversharing. We think of the-- the calling performatively in
front of the police, the mom,
00:35:20
and the almost crying there. That now feels
like a performance. But at the time, that
would have been really
00:35:27
difficult for police to
spot because that could also be a normal reaction. We're looking for
signs of nervousness,
00:35:32
but nervousness looks
different for different people. We're looking for things
like inconsistent stories.
00:35:37
We're looking for things
like avoiding eye contact. CORAL DANDO: He is the one
that has found her and really
00:35:49
quite shocked and upset. So I just wanted to knock on-- NARRATOR: Ian's tears did
not convince the police.
00:36:12
Ian's mother, Linda,
arrived on the scene. CORAL DANDO:
Straight away, she is a little bit more believable.
00:36:23
You don't get this outpouring
of-- of information. NARRATOR: Linda didn't
ask about Kerry.
00:36:38
She was more concerned
about her son's welfare. CORAL DANDO: You just
get these questions
00:36:43
about where her son is. Where's my son? You know, what are
you doing with my son?
00:36:47
What's happened to my son? Is my son OK? So she's just asking
a series of questions.
00:36:54
NARRATOR: Ian was
taken into custody, while the forensic
team got to work. The autopsy revealed
Kerry was smothered,
00:37:01
strangled, and died
from 54 stab wounds to the neck and upper torso. Investigators pulled both
Kerry and Ian's phone records
00:37:13
and discovered there was already
some tension between the two. They'd only been dating on
and off for a few weeks,
00:37:22
but Ian was accusing a friend
of Kerry's of sleeping with her. One of the interesting
aspects of this case
00:37:30
is it would seem
as if Ian believed he was in a relationship
with the victim. Ian was the sort of person that
wanted to control and manage
00:37:43
his partner's behavior. Or maybe he's not had any
successful relationships before, and this
is the first one
00:37:50
that he felt was going to go
somewhere real or perceived. And the fact that she
didn't behave in the way
00:37:57
that he expected was enough
to trigger this response. The relationship
doesn't have to be real.
00:38:03
In the perpetrators
mind, it exists. NARRATOR: Police dug deeper
and discovered disturbing
00:38:13
internet search records. CORAL DANDO: This
has turned into I'm going to go and confront her.
00:38:19
And maybe that has turned
into a row of some sort. Or maybe he's thought, right,
OK, I'm going to kill her.
00:38:29
Because both things
happen in coercive and controlling relationships. NARRATOR: It seemed
like an intent to harm,
00:38:38
but police still
needed more evidence. Ian was at Kerry's
flat that night, but claimed he left
at about 1:00 AM.
00:38:46
Police checked CCTV
footage in the area to verify his statement
and found him on camera.
00:38:56
The closer he gets
to the-- the camera, the better the
overall resolution of the area that we're looking.
00:39:01
So even though we have CCTV
here recorded at nighttime, we still have sufficient
illumination from the street
00:39:09
to allow to discern quite
a fair contrast of detail, certainly, with his face. With his clothing as well, which
can be quite important as well
00:39:18
for identification purposes. We can see here, Ian
actually leaving the flat late at night carrying a bag.
00:39:31
NARRATOR: The second camera
tracked him to a local park still holding the bag. Minutes later, close observation
showed he was traveling light.
00:39:42
But what is interesting
about these two clips, they a few minutes apart. And in the first one, we are
seeing the suspect potentially
00:39:50
carrying a plastic bag, which,
again, is consistent with what we've seen in previous footage.
00:39:56
And then a few minutes later. And, again, we can tell
from the timestamps, we can see a person
of similar appearance
00:40:03
to the one we've just seen,
but without the carry bag. NARRATOR: Even in the dark,
the CCTV images were clear.
00:40:14
The CCTV has developed a lot
during the last 10, 20 years. In the old days, it was more
like a corroborative piece
00:40:22
of evidence. During an investigation, you
would have police officers knocking at people's doors,
getting witness statements,
00:40:29
trying to get some
traditionally forensic evidence like fingerprints or DNA. So the rules have
effectively reverted.
00:40:36
CCTV is now the first source of
evidence for an investigation, usually. Then corroborated with
other pieces of evidence.
00:40:45
NARRATOR: A third camera
provided another breakthrough, a mysterious car. VASELEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS: So
in addition to regular CCTV,
00:40:53
there is a police-controlled
system of cameras called the Automatic Number
Plate Recognition System,
00:41:00
ANPR for short. And this can be used to
record license plates and identify
vehicles of interest
00:41:07
and show us the movements
of those vehicles across the country. NARRATOR: Despite it being
the middle of the night,
00:41:16
investigators were able
to identify the car. It belonged to
Linda, Ian's mother.
00:41:25
When they impounded
the car, they made a discovery that
changed the course of the investigation.
00:41:30
There was a dashcam
that was recording everything that was going on. NARRATOR: And Ian
was seen throwing
00:41:37
something into the canal. Steve Jones is a former
police officer, an expert in the cameras that
are now the key tools
00:41:47
in evidence gathering. Dashcams have now
become a common practice right across the world.
00:41:54
Most dashcams will
automatically record when the ignition systems
are engaged or activated.
00:41:59
The dashcam will capture
the scene wherever that driver takes the vehicle. The police realize that the
footage, not just for road
00:42:07
traffic collisions, but for
general crime incidents, that can be invaluable. In the Kerry
Woolley murder case,
00:42:13
the dashcam from
the mother's car, from Ian Bennett's
mother's car, proves to be
00:42:17
a pivotal piece of evidence. NARRATOR: Police pulled
to the dashcam footage from the night Kerry died.
00:42:22
VASELEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
This is Ian getting rid of something in the river. But this is his
mother's car dashcam.
00:42:30
And we can see the same scene. NARRATOR: The footage
from the car identified the man as Ian Bennett.
00:42:38
Police dredged the
canal and found a knife. The blade was heavily
bent out of shape.
00:42:43
VASELEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
The dashcam is actually what cements this case in
terms of actually establishing
00:42:48
that what we've got
on the CCTV footage is Ian Bennett actually
getting rid of evidence
00:42:55
and his mother helping him. NARRATOR: DNA on the knife
matched both Kerry and Linda.
00:43:07
CORAL DANDO: Their lie script
and the account that they've developed between them straight
away can be undermined by CCTV
00:43:15
and also the dashcam footage
from the mother's own car. You can clearly see
that she was involved
00:43:21
in the aftermath
in terms of helping him to dispose of the knife. NARRATOR: The dashcam
footage gave police
00:43:29
the evidence they needed. All the dashcam evidence that
was collected alongside all
00:43:36
the CCTV footage that
the investigators had helped them build
a very, very strong
00:43:41
case against the suspect. These days, if you want
to commit a murder, you're really going to struggle
not to be caught on camera.
00:43:50
NARRATOR: Police now had enough
to charge Ian with murder and arrest Ian's mother, Linda,
for assisting an offender
00:43:57
and perverting the
course of justice. It's a really interesting
question, isn't it?
00:44:03
Whether you would help your
own child cover up a crime. I think there's a lot of people
who would say, of course,
00:44:09
I would. Of course, I'd help my child,
either because I believed that they had to do it or I
believed they were innocent
00:44:15
or if I knew that they actually
did go through with it, I just wanted to keep
them out of prison.
00:44:20
Whereas other people would
definitely say the opposite and say, no, I'd
encourage my child to hand
00:44:25
themselves in immediately. And I think it's
one of those things that you probably
just have absolutely
00:44:31
no idea how you would react
until it happens to you. CORAL DANDO: If he's a coercive
controller, a control freak,
00:44:42
which it seems as
if he was, then he will have been manipulating
and managing his mother.
00:44:49
We also know that this
is cyclical behavior. And he may have
experienced it or seen
00:44:56
it with his mother's partner. It may have been a husband,
may have been his father,
00:45:03
may have been his stepfather. [SOMBER MUSIC] NARRATOR: In December 2021,
the case went to trial
00:45:10
at Birmingham Crown Court. The jury took just two
hours to find Ian guilty. The cameras were crucial to
the conviction of the killer.
00:45:21
EMI POLITO: There are so many
opportunities for investigators to find evidence on video.
00:45:26
Now we have evidence
from mobile phones, body-worn cameras,
dashcam vehicles, drone footage, aerial footage.
00:45:35
Without all these multiple
camera sources, a lot of cases would be abandoned. NARRATOR: Ian was sentenced to
at least 25 years in prison.
00:45:45
Linda was given three years. VASELEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
It was that crucial dashcam
00:45:50
footage alongside the CCTV and
all the other digital evidence that helped the investigators
crack the case really quickly.
00:45:58
And it shows us how
collecting evidence from the various
different digital sources
00:46:03
can speed up a
case significantly. [DRAMATIC MUSIC]