00:00:03
[TENSE MUSIC] MAN: And it just
sounds like something bad is happening to her. WOMAN: I heard her
scream no, stop it.
00:00:10
[SIRENS] MAN: I heard some gunshots. OFFICER: Drop it! Whatever it is, drop it! MAN: That does not prove
that I killed my wife.
00:00:18
WOMAN: We know what
happened because the video tells us what happened. MAN: Camera doesn't lie.
00:00:25
NARRATOR: This time on
"Killers Caught on Camera," in West Virginia, a
teenager is killed,
00:00:36
--then hidden from view. No one realized
she was missing. NARRATOR: And in the UK
during a minor traffic stop,
00:00:43
a woman is found with two heavy
suitcases full of body parts. [THEME MUSIC] [TENSE MUSIC]
00:01:08
In the US, Berkeley
County, West Virginia, home to 15-year-old
Riley Crossman who lived with her
mother, Chantel,
00:01:19
two younger brothers,
and her mother's boyfriend, Andy McCauley. Riley was dating her
classmate, Haydn Lacy.
00:01:27
Jasmine Cooley was
her best friend. We became friends
in middle school, and it was very quick
how close we became.
00:01:39
We would sit out here for
hours on end and just talk. We would talk about boys. We would talk about
our friends, our lives,
00:01:49
especially, like,
school and stuff, and what was bothering us. Our friendship, it reminded
me of sisterhood more
00:01:57
than anything, and I feel
like she was the sister my age that I never got. She stayed here for days on end.
00:02:06
She would stay so
long that my mom would give her chores [LAUGHS]
to do around the house.
00:02:11
[PIANO MUSIC] She was such a good dancer,
and she showed that on stage. (SINGING) My dear
Jasmine, happy--
00:02:26
JASMINE COOLEY: She was able
to just dance her heart out or sing her heart
out, and she was
00:02:31
just so good at what she did. [CHEERING] NARRATOR: But on May 7,
2019, everything changed.
00:02:42
I got a phone call,
just some preliminary information about a missing
15-year-old, Riley Crossman.
00:02:49
It's not abnormal
for a teenager to be missing a couple hours. DAN JAMES: Chantel was really
struggling to make ends meet.
00:02:56
She worked two jobs at the time. She would literally
finish one shift and then have a short break,
and she would start another job.
00:03:04
So she worked pretty long hours. NARRATOR: It was the end of
another busy day for Chantel.
00:03:14
DAN JAMES: Chantel had
worked a long shift that day. She wasn't feeling well. Chantel comes home.
00:03:19
She said she walked
in, that she saw Andy McCauley sitting in a chair. She went upstairs.
00:03:26
She saw Riley's door shut. She wasn't going to disturb her. NARRATOR: Chantel went to bed.
00:03:33
But the one thing that stood
out that following morning is Riley almost always would
walk into her bedroom, say,
00:03:41
hey, Mom, have a good day. I love you. And then leave for school. She doesn't remember
Riley saying that.
00:03:49
NARRATOR: Riley normally
walked to school in the morning before Chantel dropped
the boys off in the car.
00:03:56
DAN JAMES: Chantel
dropped them off, and she went about her day. It wasn't until around
the evening hours
00:04:04
that she started to notice
that something was wrong. NARRATOR: Riley hadn't been in
touch with her mother all day.
00:04:13
Riley was glued
to that cell phone, and a lot of the
communication with her mom happened to be through
that cell phone
00:04:20
because Mom was always at work. It wasn't until she came home
that evening that she got
00:04:28
the phone call from the
school that said she wasn't present for school that day.
00:04:34
No one realized
she was missing. DAN JAMES: She immediately
starts looking around,
00:04:39
calling all of Riley's friends. JASMINE COOLEY: I'd
come home from school. My mom had come
upstairs, and she
00:04:44
was on the phone with
Riley's grandmother, and she asked me if I had
talked to Riley today.
00:04:48
And I said, no,
I don't think so. So I tried to text her,
and it didn't go through.
00:04:54
And I had gone on
Snapchat, so I went to go see if she
posted anything, and nothing was there.
00:05:01
NARRATOR: Chantel also
tried calling Riley. It immediately
went to a voicemail. NARRATOR: The
police got involved.
00:05:11
They kind of took it
as a runaway complaint. NARRATOR: Riley's
father lived nearby.
00:05:16
He didn't believe
she'd run away. DAN JAMES: He in his heart
thought there was something
00:05:21
more to this, and that
prompted Captain Stapleton and the sheriff's department to
drive back out to the location.
00:05:30
NARRATOR: The police
headed out to Riley's home. They met up with
Riley's mother, Chantel,
00:05:37
and her boyfriend, Andy. OFFICER: Hey,
clear up the steps. So this is a photo
of Riley's bedroom.
00:05:53
And at first, it was
this messy bedroom. But the more they looked
at it, they're like,
00:05:57
this isn't matching up. Her bookbag is there. Her eyeglasses were there. All the things that if
you're going to run away,
00:06:19
typically a teenager
would take with them. The cell phone was missing,
but her purse was there.
00:06:25
Money was there. As they begin to look
around this room more-- again, there's a pile
of clothes everywhere--
00:06:38
they start to notice blood. Blood was on her sheet. The blood was also
on the comforter.
00:06:55
NARRATOR: According to
Chantel, Riley's room looked different to
how she last saw it.
00:07:10
There was no note. The blood samples were
sent off for DNA profiling. A missing child
investigation was launched.
00:07:26
They checked her school,
the neighborhood, and community centers. Dogs were brought in
to track Riley's scent.
00:07:36
We also called a K-9
out to check the area, because where she
lived at, it actually
00:07:41
was walking distance to
where she would go to school. They didn't find anything.
00:07:46
So they reached out to
the cell phone provider, and they were unable to give
a ping on the cell phone
00:07:51
because the cell
phone was turned off. And Mom's like, Riley always
had her phone charged.
00:07:57
It was always plugged in. She never let it go silent. JASMINE COOLEY: Nobody knew
what happened to Riley,
00:08:03
but Riley went missing,
so everybody just lost it. She wasn't the type of
person to just go missing,
00:08:09
so whenever anybody
would say anything to me, like, do you think she
would run off, I'm like, no.
00:08:15
OFFICER (ON RADIO): Bye. OK, thanks. There's so many law
enforcement officers. They were just
everywhere at that point.
00:08:25
And any evidence anybody
had like last text messages, anything anybody had,
they were on top of.
00:08:33
They wanted-- they
wanted to know, who was the last to speak to her? Who last had
conversations with her?
00:08:42
NARRATOR: Police started
to question the family. DAN JAMES: Everything
that Chantel said, all
00:08:48
of her statements matched up. Her younger brothers went to
school, what happened that day,
00:08:54
their statements matched up. Then it was this
discussion with Andy. NARRATOR: Detectives tried
to piece together events.
00:09:30
On the Wednesday morning, Andy's
colleague, Johnnie Walter, picked him up as usual.
00:09:35
Normally when they would
pick up Andy at his home in the early morning
hours, someone would have
00:09:41
to go and bang on the door. Hey, Andy, come on. We've got to go to work. This particular morning, Andy
couldn't wait to go to work.
00:09:58
NARRATOR: Andy
confirmed to police that he got to work on time
and stayed there all day.
00:10:07
But Chantel said Andy was
missing from work, an absence confirmed by his colleagues.
00:10:26
Detectives wanted to
know where Andy went for five hours the day
Riley went missing,
00:10:31
and called him back in. There's many reasons
why people might confess to a lesser crime,
so a crime that's
00:11:29
less serious than the one
you're being accused of. And one of the main
reasons is to divert
00:11:34
the attention of the
police and to basically say, hey, look over here. So it's effectively an alibi,
or I am trying to muddle up
00:11:43
the investigation
and say, yes, you caught me, but for
this other thing, not for the main thing that
you're actually interested in.
00:11:50
So it's a distraction
technique most of the time. He left to go back to get
drugs, which doesn't make sense
00:12:08
because Johnnie
Walter is already telling us there
was enough cocaine left to do a couple more lines.
00:12:31
A changing story
or changing some of the details of your story is
by no means itself an indicator
00:12:36
that someone's guilty. But if those changes, those
fluctuations in the story are huge, then we should
pay attention and say,
00:12:45
hey, something's wrong, and
either all or part of this is a lie. And with guilty people
there is another problem,
00:12:51
which is that they often
think that there is-- basically, that they're
going to outsmart the police,
00:12:56
and so that they can come up
with a story that is plausible, that is an alternative to what
the police are presenting them.
00:13:07
NARRATOR: Another
problem was that Andy said he left his cell phone
at home when he went to work.
00:13:12
Police were unable to track his
movements through phone data and had to change their tactics.
00:13:17
FRED EDWARDS: We were lost
at that point in time. He fell off the grid. We knew that he
came back to work
00:13:22
roughly four and a half hours
from the time that he left. He was unaccounted for.
00:13:26
So he left this neighborhood,
got in his truck, and basically tore out of there.
00:13:35
NARRATOR: Detectives turned
to CCTV footage for answers. DAN JAMES: Task force and other
members of law enforcement
00:13:42
had already been going
up and down Route 9. They canvassed. They went from every
business and every home,
00:13:47
and we found cameras
from various businesses. NARRATOR: A camera attached
to Hedgesville School
00:13:54
gave him their
first breakthrough. These are the cameras-- you
can see up on the right corner
00:14:00
and the left corner
here-- that captured Andy McCauley leaving his worksite. That was our starting point.
00:14:07
We knew the direction of travel. We knew that he was on Route
9, and that was our tracking
00:14:11
point at that point in time. One of the key factors that we
hit him with that he could not
00:14:18
deny were these video cameras,
these surveillance photographs. NARRATOR: More crucial
evidence emerged
00:14:26
from Haydn, Riley's
boyfriend, who revealed Riley's final messages. Haydn goes to sleep, we
believe, around 10:30 on May 7,
00:14:36
and then you had the
series of text messages that come forward. Andy's in her bedroom.
00:14:43
She's reaching out to Haydn. Andy's in my room. I'm scared, Haydn. NARRATOR: Haydn fell asleep
and didn't see her messages
00:14:53
until the following day. Detectives put the
evidence to Andy. The DNA profiling of the blood
samples from Riley's bedroom
00:15:21
offered up evidence
of extreme violence. The DNA that came back
matched Riley's DNA.
00:15:32
The blood was also
mixed with saliva. The crime team also found two
additional spots on the sheets.
00:15:39
Again, came back for Riley's
blood and the saliva was mixed. We believe Riley's face
forced into the pillow.
00:15:47
It almost looks like that's
where her nostrils were. That's where her mouth is. There's a separation
in between the blood.
00:15:55
NARRATOR: Riley's last
text and the DNA results were a major development. Riley was still
nowhere to be found,
00:16:03
and police needed to find out
exactly what Andy was doing the day Riley went missing.
00:16:11
Cameras on the Bank of Charles
Town provided another clue. FRED EDWARDS: Started
tracking westward on Route 9,
00:16:18
and we came to the Bank of
Charles Town right here, and we were able to capture
video of the same green truck
00:16:25
going in that direction. So this was another-- another camera that put
us in the right direction.
00:16:30
And there was a camera
right on the corner here, very close to the roadway,
and it gave us great footage.
00:16:38
Here you can see
the green Dodge Ram with the ladder
rack on the back, heading towards
Berkeley Springs.
00:16:45
NARRATOR: Glimpse by
glimpse, frame by frame, the cameras tracked
Andy's truck. FRED EDWARDS: The next
camera that was successful
00:16:55
that we found Andy McCauley on
was at Murphy's Gas Station, which is literally within
a mile and a half maybe
00:17:04
from the Bank of Charles Town. About four minutes later,
he's picked up again. Same Dodge Ram truck
at the Murphy's
00:17:11
Shell Gas Station
that's in Hedgesville. NARRATOR: Andy was
also caught on camera
00:17:18
rapidly paying for fuel
at the Rock's Gas Station. FRED EDWARDS: So the
significance of the camera
00:17:26
was we had the same
truck going out Route 9 at that point in time. We had him leaving
the high school,
00:17:30
going past the Bank
of Charles Town. And this camera here put
that vehicle going up Route
00:17:34
9 towards Berkeley Springs. NARRATOR: But Andy
went off grid again, until he was spotted by his
former girlfriend, Denise
00:17:43
Deaver. We actually had an eyewitness
that put his truck here at a specified time frame that
told us that the truck was
00:17:50
actually backed up. NARRATOR: Police
now believed Andy killed Riley and he hid
her body in her bedroom
00:17:58
until everyone left. Then he went back
and moved her body. FRED EDWARDS: This is where
the residence used to be.
00:18:09
It was bulldozed and
demolished I believe in 2021. It's hard to understand
it or get a feel to it,
00:18:15
but there used to be just
a-- well, a gravel driveway right here. And he actually
backed his truck.
00:18:22
Instead of pulling in, he
actually backed the bed of his truck to the back door.
00:18:27
NARRATOR: Police had to
find evidence that Riley's body was in Andy's truck. They brought in
a specialist team
00:18:33
with a cadaver dog trained
to respond to the scent of decomposing human bodies. DAN JAMES: When this
truck is impounded,
00:18:43
that was one of the places
where Rock was brought in to do his investigation. When we go in and
we search things,
00:18:53
they don't tell me
anything because they don't want it tainting
how you worked your dog.
00:19:00
So in the Riley Crossman case
when we searched the vehicle and we went in, as we are
going around the vehicle,
00:19:08
we got to that back
end of that vehicle. And he-- I saw that change
of behavior with my dog.
00:19:15
I asked if we could drop
the tailgate on the truck. So we dropped the tailgate. He immediately went in.
00:19:20
And as he went in, he kind of
went up along the head rack area and along the
wheel well and up
00:19:27
underneath the toolbox area,
come back along the driver's side wheel well. And at that point, he
gave me an indication.
00:19:36
As soon as we went up in there,
I knew he was in scent because of the way he was acting.
00:19:41
So we knew that there
was an odor of decomp. And an odor of decomp
can come from anything.
00:19:48
Brandy was very good in
explaining that to us. So we knew that this was
a construction vehicle.
00:19:53
We knew that during job
sites, you're cutting drywall. You're working with
construction tools.
00:19:57
There could be an
easy explanation why this dog, why
Rock, the cadaver dog, indicated in the
presence of decomp
00:20:04
in the back of the vehicle. NARRATOR: They knew a dead
body had been in Andy's truck,
00:20:09
but they still didn't
know exactly where he went on the day Riley went
missing, until a chance
00:20:15
encounter on the edge of town
revealed unexpected evidence. FRED EDWARDS: Yeah, I
believe one of the officers
00:20:23
traveled past that. It was just a little--
little store out. And we'll get down there.
00:20:27
It's out in the secluded
area of Berkeley County. One of the officers
frequents that store,
00:20:31
and he happened just to go in
there and ask, hey, you know, can I check your video?
00:20:36
And miraculously he checked
it, and we saw the truck down there, so that
was a complete jackpot,
00:20:41
if you want to say. And I think finding that video
at Hernandez's was probably the turning point in
the investigation.
00:20:51
NARRATOR: Then one final camera
provided a geographical focus. FRED EDWARDS: There was
actually a residential home here
00:20:57
that gave us our
last video footage of Andy McCauley driving
that green Dodge truck
00:21:02
up the mountain. And what was key about that
was it gave us a general sense of time frame, because not only
did it capture him traveling
00:21:10
as we are right now,
up the mountain, it got him coming back
down the mountain. It was right around a
20-minute time frame.
00:21:19
Maybe a couple
minutes under that. So we knew that he had
traveled up that mountain,
00:21:24
and had turned around and
basically came right back. NARRATOR: Police
got a team together
00:21:29
and headed up the mountain. FRED EDWARDS: The only reason
that you're coming up here
00:21:34
is either to, one,
you live in this area, you're trying to get home, or
you are trying to circumvent
00:21:42
the other areas of
traffic, and you are going to go down
to the back creek area,
00:21:46
the actual fishing portion. So basically, there's
absolutely no reason that somebody would come here.
00:21:53
On May 16, eight days after
Riley was reported missing, investigators started
to search the area.
00:21:59
Also on the scene was Brandy
with her cadaver dog, Rock. BRANDY EGGEMAN: I have
to look after my dog.
00:22:07
He is my asset, and I can't
put him in any kind of danger. I got Rock out of the vehicle.
00:22:14
Rock actually wanted
to go down the hill, and I pulled him back up, and
we went back up the other way.
00:22:21
DAN JAMES: And as the officer
was driving down the hill, he noticed there were a lot
of birds in one location,
00:22:27
and he smelled something
that he had smelled before. He got out and he saw
this body over the hill.
00:22:38
Part of our training is
looking out for evidence, especially in cases like this.
00:22:44
And so as we walked up
on the side of the cliff where her body had
been dumped off of,
00:22:53
I saw a bunch of these
screws that were there. I mentioned to the
forensics, I said,
00:22:59
I think I saw these
screws yesterday in the back of that vehicle. FRED EDWARDS: Now they
were very crucial screws.
00:23:05
They were very unique
and very identifiable, and they were found right here
lying essentially next to her.
00:23:11
BRANDY EGGEMAN: That was another
link to everything with him. And upon finding that body,
the first thing that we did
00:23:18
was put eyes on Andy McCauley. He was working at that job site
up by Hedgesville High School.
00:23:25
NARRATOR: Eight days after
Riley was reported missing, her mother's boyfriend,
Andy McCauley, was arrested.
00:23:32
Our theory in the
case was is that when Andy went into that room, he
was intending to do something.
00:23:39
And I don't have any
direct evidence of this, but I believe he went in
there to sexually assault her.
00:23:44
And I think Riley was
trying to get help, and the only thing
she could possibly do
00:23:50
is scream for her mother, and
he wasn't going to allow it. NARRATOR: Andy couldn't
escape the evidence
00:23:56
caught by the cameras. FRED EDWARDS: Without the
videos and without the footage,
00:24:03
it would have made this case
very difficult to prosecute. Sure, it helps to have a
camera catching the crime,
00:24:09
but we had probably the second
best evidence with the cameras catching every other
thing involving
00:24:15
Andy's movements and
Andy's statements that weren't matching up. And then when you
looked at that evidence,
00:24:20
the jury was able to draw
a reasonable conclusion and were convinced
beyond a reasonable doubt
00:24:24
that he committed these crimes. There is no
explanation for anyone else other than Andy McCauley.
00:24:29
Cameras showed every one of
those admissions and then the lies. That was absolutely critical
for those cameras to show that,
00:24:36
to paint the
picture to the jury. NARRATOR: On the 4th
of November, 2021, Andy McCauley was convicted of
first-degree murder and child
00:24:45
abuse resulting in death. He was sentenced
to life in prison without the
possibility of parole.
00:24:51
[SOFT MUSIC] This candle is the candle
I got from her vigil the day they announced that
her body was found.
00:25:03
And then the day that they
announced that Andy was guilty, they did these
personalized necklaces,
00:25:11
and it's got her name on them. When he was guilty, we did
a big balloon releasing.
00:25:18
There is no reason
that she shouldn't have graduated high school. There was no reason
she shouldn't
00:25:23
have had her 18th birthday. But I feel like I will
do everything in my power to outlive that for her
and get those experiences,
00:25:33
because she deserved them. Everything I do is for
Riley at this point. [TENSE MUSIC]
00:25:51
NARRATOR: In the UK
in 2020, there were over five million CCTV cameras. The COVID pandemic
led to a sharp rise
00:26:00
in home surveillance
and doorbell cameras, and this helped catch
more criminals on camera.
00:26:07
CCTV sources and video
evidence in general has now become crucial
in solving crime.
00:26:14
Without all these multiple
camera sources, a lot of cases would be abandoned. There would be simply not enough
evidence to progress them.
00:26:23
NARRATOR: And now
in the UK, you're increasingly likely to be filmed
even outside the main cities.
00:26:29
There's a significant increase
in the use of these types of cameras in rural
areas because that's
00:26:34
where there's a significant
increase in crime. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: The Forest of Dean,
Gloucestershire, England.
00:26:43
On the 12th of May, 2020,
the UK was in lockdown. Everyone was grounded,
confined to their homes.
00:26:52
Coronavirus restrictions
meant all but essential travel was forbidden. Despite the emergency
laws, an unfamiliar vehicle
00:27:01
was spotted driving up
and down a remote road near the Welsh border. This is a home security
camera that we can see.
00:27:09
A concerned citizen is
actually asking the police to investigate why
this car is moving,
00:27:16
and the police go
there to investigate. NARRATOR: Dr. Vasileios
Karagiannopoulos
00:27:23
is a digital forensics expert
in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the
University of Portsmouth.
00:27:30
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
The home surveillance camera actually
allows the police
00:27:35
to identify the license plate. And when they check,
the car is registered at an address in Wolverhampton.
00:27:44
This is more than 80 miles
away from the location where this footage
is received from,
00:27:49
so the police have a good
reason to investigate why this car is
moving so far away
00:27:55
from its registered address. NARRATOR: Police officers
pulled the car over and spoke to the male
driver of the vehicle.
00:28:04
He said he was
waiting for a friend. Police reminded him
of COVID regulations and sent him on his way.
00:28:13
But by 10 o'clock that night the
same vehicle was spotted again, lurking near the woodland.
00:28:21
[RADIO CHATTER] The police knew
something wasn't right. They went back to
check out the vehicle.
00:28:27
A woman had just been dropped
off by the side of the road with two suitcases in
the middle of the night.
00:28:34
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS: The
police visit the scene where the car was spotted,
and they actually
00:28:39
find a woman in the area with
some pieces of luggage close to the car. The police officers inquire
about what's in the luggage,
00:29:01
and the suspect is
actually trying to prevent them from opening the luggage. NARRATOR: Emi Polito
is a forensic video
00:29:17
and audio analyst, working with
police forces all over the UK. EMI POLITO: So on
this recording,
00:29:23
we're actually
seeing the suitcase. We don't know what's inside yet. A very grim discovery is
made at the scene where they
00:29:39
actually find out
that the suitcase contains the remains of a body. NARRATOR: The woman
found with the suitcases
00:29:47
was 28-year-old Gareeca Gordon. EMI POLITO: The
suspect, Gareeca Gordon, is caught red-handed
with a suitcase
00:29:55
containing a dismembered body. But in order to be
able to convict her, the police need to find
a lot more evidence
00:30:03
to start building the case
and making sure the case is as robust as it can be. NARRATOR: Gareeca was arrested
and charged with murder.
00:30:12
The driver was held for
assisting an offender. A chance traffic stop turned
into a major investigation.
00:30:19
The police had to
start from scratch to find out how
Gareeca was involved and the identity of the
body in the suitcases.
00:30:30
[TENSE MUSIC] Lozells, Birmingham. With a population of 12,000,
an inner city area that
00:30:42
has high rates of violence,
drugs, and weapon possession. Gareeca Gordon was
living at a hostel.
00:30:49
She came to England
from Jamaica aged seven. A troubled life ensued. She was sexually abused
and had to leave the family
00:30:58
home after coming out as gay. After Gareeca's arrest,
forensic analysis of her phone
00:31:06
revealed she made a
call to a helpline. Part of the transcript revealed
issues with another woman.
00:31:18
Phoenix Netts was also
living in the same hostel, a 28-year-old woman who dreamt
of becoming a paramedic.
00:31:26
As a child, she was a keen
writer and close to her family. Phoenix was desperate
to move back to London,
00:31:34
but lockdown stalled the move. On the 7th of
April, Phoenix sent a worrying text to a friend.
00:31:43
EMI POLITO: "There's
a girl here who keeps asking me to be sexual. I think I'm going to
move back to London.
00:31:48
It's scaring me." We can see there's a
clear indication that she was concerned about this girl.
00:31:56
NARRATOR: Coral Dando
served on the front line as an officer in the
Metropolitan Police in London.
00:32:01
She is now a professor
of forensic psychology. They may have
had a friendship, a female friendship, and
Gareeca wanted to take
00:32:12
that further, it would appear. And it seems as if
Phoenix didn't want that. The information
suggests that she
00:32:22
was very anxious, very upset
about Gareeca's sexual advances towards her. And of course, that is a
form of sexual violence,
00:32:30
and it can happen between
same-- in same-sex relationships in the same as it can do
in any other relationship.
00:32:38
Unwanted sexual attention
can have a significant effect psychologically, emotionally.
00:32:44
It can trigger anxiety. And it seems as if Phoenix
was a vulnerable young woman,
00:32:51
and I think it triggered
a vulnerability response, an anxiety
response in a way exactly as we would predict.
00:33:03
Vulnerable people are
more likely both to be perpetrators of crimes and
to be victims of crimes.
00:33:08
Both the victim and the
perpetrator were vulnerable. So these weren't people who came
from really stable environments
00:33:15
with lots of resources. These are people who had
in different ways needs, and these needs
weren't being met.
00:33:23
Hostels are also a sort
of in-between space where you're not meant
to stay there forever.
00:33:27
You're meant to be there
as emergency housing or for a temporary
amount of time.
00:33:32
And that can lend them a very
transitional feel in that people are in and out a lot.
00:33:38
And you're
encountering strangers, and you're sleeping in very
close proximity to strangers.
00:33:44
In no other context would you
be doing that in the same way, and so it can open up new
and different dynamics,
00:33:50
which can also lead to violence
or difficult situations. So it's not to say that hostels
are inherently dangerous.
00:33:55
It's just that there are a
lot of people with existing vulnerabilities in them. NARRATOR: With
Gareeca in custody,
00:34:05
digital forensic teams checked
the CCTV footage obtained from outside the hostel.
00:34:12
EMI POLITO: So we have CCTV
here from the suspect's home, and he's the job of the
place to go back days, weeks,
00:34:18
even months to try to
find valuable evidence as to what has happened. NARRATOR: On the 11th of April,
Phoenix was captured on CCTV.
00:34:28
But in the early hours
of the 16th of April, another woman
living in the hostel heard noises of drilling
and banging and someone
00:34:36
shouting for help. At around 5:30 in
the morning, a search was made on Phoenix's phone.
00:34:46
EMI POLITO: Mobile
phones, smart phones are incredibly important
to an investigation,
00:34:50
not just because of call
records, of text messages. In this case, the police were
able to identify a number
00:34:57
of searches conducted
on the mobile phone that were of interest to
the investigation.
00:35:03
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
One of the searches was how to fix a punctured lung.
00:35:08
One was internal bleeding. Can someone recover
from getting stabbed? NARRATOR: Over
the next few days,
00:35:17
CCTV from outside
the hostel captured a series of unusual activities. The police are trying
to get a better picture
00:35:26
of exactly what has happened. And as a matter
of fact, the CCTV reveals a number of
suspicious activities
00:35:32
carried out by the suspect. NARRATOR: A cover-up
appeared to be under way. The suspect is
found at the DIY
00:35:40
store buying cleaning products. NARRATOR: On the
20th of April, a van arrived to collect carpet,
a bed, and some black bags.
00:35:50
EMI POLITO: The suspect can
be seen carrying bin bags, even though the footage is
at night, it's a bad quality.
00:35:59
NARRATOR: When the search
history was cross-referenced with CCTV footage
and card purchases,
00:36:04
a gruesome picture
began to emerge. VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS: We
also know that the perpetrator
00:36:13
was looking for a circular saw. We can actually see a
person delivering a big box
00:36:22
to the suspect's address that
could actually be including the circular saw she purchased.
00:36:29
NARRATOR: The
pathologist's report confirmed the body parts
found in the suitcases were
00:36:34
dismembered with a circular saw. And police determined
through DNA analysis that the dismembered
corpse was Phoenix Netts.
00:36:47
If you picture
dismembering someone, the intense emotional, visceral,
sort of gut reaction to that
00:36:56
is that is the worst thing I
can possibly think of doing. And so we assume that
someone who has gone through
00:37:03
with dismembering a body must
also have felt that way as they were butchering up the body.
00:37:09
But in reality, what we
know is that people often see dead bodies no
longer as human beings.
00:37:16
Arguably correctly,
because they are dead. But they see them as a
problem to be solved.
00:37:22
They see them as evidence,
and so that evidence needs to be gotten rid of somehow.
00:37:30
NARRATOR: On closer
inspection, detectives felt the messages sent
from Phoenix's phone
00:37:35
after the 16th of
April didn't add up. VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
Another very interesting piece
00:37:40
of evidence is this
message saying, "Feel free to reach me by
email" because obviously
00:37:46
email is far more impersonal. You don't have to
speak to anyone, and anyone can send an email
pretending to be Phoenix.
00:37:53
That's when they realize Phoenix
is not using her phone anymore and someone else has her phone.
00:38:01
CORAL DANDO: It's not unknown
to use the victim's phone to send out text messages, to
send out information to deceive
00:38:11
the outside world, to
suggest that that person is still alive, and that's
clearly what's happened here.
00:38:20
In a lot of the cases
I've seen recently, people have at some
point pretended to text
00:38:25
on behalf of somebody
else or they've sent an email lying
about their whereabouts
00:38:29
or the victim's whereabouts. And it's usually
to buy themselves more time and to fake
that this person is
00:38:36
alive for some period of time. [TENSE MUSIC] NARRATOR: As well as
impersonating Phoenix in text
00:38:46
messages, a voice
altering app was used to send voice notes to
Phoenix's family and friends.
00:38:53
EMI POLITO: Of
course, these apps can be used in various
different ways, and we can see here they can
be used for criminal purposes
00:38:59
as well. COLIN ROBINSON: Nowadays
you don't need to be a tech genius to create a deepfake.
00:39:05
There's plenty of apps
available you can download to your phone or your laptop. They can just capture
somebody's voice using a machine
00:39:12
and they can get them to
say things they never said. NARRATOR: Colin
Robinson is an expert
00:39:18
in audio forensics at Liverpool
John Moores University. He's examined audio
evidence from some
00:39:25
of the most high-profile cases. COLIN ROBINSON: A deepfake is a
computerized representation of
00:39:31
a person's voice or their face. All our voices have
very special nuances. The thing is, if you distill it
down to numbers, which is what
00:39:41
a computer does, you can
manipulate those numbers and then put in those nuances
that weren't there before.
00:39:48
When we use a phone, our
expectations of the quality is quite low, isn't it? We know that it's not quite
the voice that we're hearing.
00:39:56
It's a representation
of the voice because of the quality of
the microphone and the phone
00:40:00
itself. This is where the criminal
can take advantage. The police really have to be
on their toes to be sure they
00:40:07
know what they're looking at. NARRATOR: When audio
evidence appears suspicious, Colin has to look
for clues to show
00:40:13
the audio has been manipulated. COLIN ROBINSON: Now
to the untrained eye, this may look normal.
00:40:20
But to the trained
eye, they will notice that this line
here and this line here indicates an edit.
00:40:28
And what that means is a piece
of audio has been taken out and it's been cut together
and spliced together.
00:40:34
So when we're
analyzing audio files, these are just
some of the things that we will look for to
see whether the audio has
00:40:41
been manipulated. NARRATOR: All the fake
audio and text messages sent from Phoenix's phone
meant her disappearance went
00:40:49
undetected. In the coming days, there is
a lot of CCTV footage collected relating to the suspect.
00:41:00
Leaving her house, cycling
about, taking the train. The whole pattern
of her movements
00:41:07
and how she's moving around the
city and the area in general is looking very chaotic.
00:41:14
NARRATOR: Meticulous analysis
of Gareeca's phone records and thousands of
hours of CCTV footage
00:41:20
showed regular trips
to the Forest of Dean, 70 miles from Birmingham,
despite early lockdown
00:41:27
restrictions. Just 11 days after the night
of the murder on April 16, CCTV revealed another mistake.
00:41:39
What is really telling is
her visit to a police station. She goes in. She's asking for a charger for
a particular brand of phone,
00:41:53
but then hands in
another brand of phone. The police officer here is
actually telling the suspect
00:42:00
that she's given the
wrong brand of phone for the charger she asked. She takes out a different phone
and hands it in to get charged,
00:42:11
and takes the other phone. She has two mobile phones. NARRATOR: Strong
evidence that Gareeca
00:42:19
had Phoenix's phone all along. And the most crucial
piece of evidence was also captured on CCTV.
00:42:28
But we also have footage in
the daylight of the suspect carrying suitcases. NARRATOR: But at
this stage, it became
00:42:36
clear dismemberment wasn't
considered enough to destroy the evidence of the crime.
00:42:41
Gareeca was then caught on
camera buying fuel and a gas canister in Gloucestershire.
00:42:47
VASILEIOS
KARAGIANNOPOULOS: We have seen from her internet searches
that she's actually looking
00:42:54
of ways to dispose of the body. Now we have evidence
of her getting petrol in order to achieve that.
00:43:06
NARRATOR: That night, Gareeca
was found with two suitcases containing charred body parts.
00:43:21
CORAL DANDO: Seems very
much by the truncated, short, sharp responses that she
gives to the police officers'
00:43:29
questions that she
hadn't expected to have to give an account. She'll be paddling
really hard cognitively
00:43:43
to try and discourage that
police officer or the police officers from accessing,
opening the suitcase,
00:43:51
which she clearly knows
have got body parts in them. And once that's been
accessed, the game is over.
00:44:03
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS:
Body worn cameras, CCTV footage, the home surveillance
cameras, the text messages,
00:44:09
the internet history, we
have a puzzle of information that the investigators
can put together
00:44:17
and create a very
thorough and strong case to convict the suspect. NARRATOR: The driver
of the vehicle
00:44:27
was released without
charge, but Gareeca Gordon was comprehensively
caught on camera.
00:44:33
She pleaded guilty
to Phoenix's murder at Bristol Crown Court on
the 21st of April, 2021.
00:44:40
She was given a life
sentence with a minimum term of 23 years. She planned this murder
meticulously, it would seem.
00:44:50
And certainly after the
murder was committed, where it was carried out was cleaned.
00:44:56
The body was
dismembered, and she'd clearly thought about
how she was going to dispose of Phoenix's body.
00:45:06
In England and Wales in the
year ending 2020, fewer than 7% of the homicides were
perpetrated by women.
00:45:14
The vast majority of women who
kill, kill an abusive partner. So they're either killing
as a form of self-defense
00:45:23
or they're killing someone
who, after many, many years of abuse, they've
taken revenge on.
00:45:29
It's very rare for women
to kill other women. It's also very rare for
women to kill someone
00:45:34
who they don't know intimately. [SOFT MUSIC] Remote, rural home
surveillance was crucial.
00:45:46
If police officers hadn't been
alerted to a suspicious car driving during
lockdown, they wouldn't
00:45:52
have come across Gareeca
near isolated Woodland with the suitcases,
and Phoenix's murder
00:45:58
may never have been solved. [THUD] [STATIC] [THEME MUSIC]