26/01/2012 Crimewatch

Tonight, the 79-year-old widow who died after she was mugged in broad

daylight, just yards from her home. No, no, please leave me alone!

was found still clutching the handle of the bag which contained

her husband's ashes. She wouldn't have let go of her bag. She

wouldn't even forget him going from one room to another, let alone let

go of her bag for anybody to take it. Tell us who killed Nellie

Hello and welcome to Crimewatch. We're going to bring you the full

story of what happened to Nellie Geraghty very soon. But first,

let's look at tonight's other appeals. As ever, we have a studio

full of detectives just ready to take your call. They want to

identify the gang of armed robbers who struck a village Post Office in

Nottinghamshire. I saw a gun. Open the safe! No, I

can't. I ended up on the floor. just who murdered 77-year-old rer

tired teacher Betty Yates at her remote cottage. The investigating

officers need your help to identify who, last week, sent anonymous

letters, containing important details of the case.

And we'll have some remarkable CCTV. Look at this footage, showing the

moment a gang burst into a mini cab office in North London.

Also, police need to know who could have killed a man in Worcester by

deliberately setting fire to his flat.

Help! I just can't imagine what it would have felt like, for him,

struggling probably to get out of the flat and knowing he couldn't.

Matthew's here with the latest news on previous cases. Yes, including

an arrest and charge in the case of 15-year-old Mo Bourner who was

critically injured after being attacked in Bexhill in Sussex. And

I'll have the inside story of how an ingenious bluff by detectives in

North Wales led to the capture of a cunning murderer.

He was watching us digging the field. Little did he know we were

also watching what he was doing at exactly the same time. And can you

help to track down a priceless collection of Scottish coins? Stole

anyone what police think was a targeted raid, some of them are

more than 900 years old. Before all of that, I need to tell

you about a couple of appeals to track down escaped prisoners. First,

detectives in Staffordshire are urgently trying to trace 31-year-

old John Anslow, who escaped from a prison van near Bromsgrove on

Monday. Anslow was being transported from Hewell Grange

prison, where he was on remand after being charged with the murder

of father of one Richard Deakin who was shot in Staffordshire of July

2010. The prison van was attacked by three masked men carrying sledge

hammers, who got out of this silver Volkswagen Scirocco. The gang

switched to a silver Mercedes, police believe it may have been a

C-Class model with partial plate KR 11. That happened in Stoney Lane.

There's a �10,000 award leading to Anslow's arrest and return to

prison. If you have information call Staffordshire Police

information room: if you see him, don't approach him. Just call 999

immediately. Police in Suffolk are looking for 26-year-old Tim Farron

-- Andrew Farand on who escaped yesterday. He escaped while being

escorted to hospital last night. He was serving a sentence for GBH. He

had a longer hair and goatee beard when he escaped. Call Suffolk

Police if you have information. If you see this man, call 999

immediately. More details about both these appeals on our website.

Time now to go back to our first reconstruction of tonight. The

fatal mugging of 79-year-old widow Nellie Geraghty. It happened in

November, where she lived in Shaw, just outside Oldham in Greater

79-year-old Nellie Geraghty's whole life revolved around this small

community of Shaw, just outside Oldham. It's also where her life

ended two months ago, when she was attacked, mugged and left for dead

still clutching the broken handle of her handbag.

Nellie was a devoted mother and grandmother and had been happily

married to her husband franc since 1953. His death, 17 years ago, had

left her bereft. When he died she wouldn't go out anywhere. She

wouldn't, she didn't like people going to the house to visit her.

Ever since his death, Nellie carried her husband's ashes with

her everywhere. We've never referred to the ashes as ashes.

It's always been "franc quts ". When he came back from the

crematorium, he was in quite a big box. She made covers for it. She

had to have a bag big enough for franc to fit in. She's never gone

anywhere without him. Late morning on Thursday, 24

November, Nellie left her home to go to meet some friends at her

local Community Centre, just a few minutes' walk away. She was

normally quite a reserved, quiet person, but she did like company as

well, especially in the winter. She would go, you know, that was a nice

time for her to go and visit the people that lived around her.

journey would have taken her along Elizabeth Grove. And as always,

Nellie had her handbag, containing her late husband's ashes. We know

she entered the alleyway at the end of Elizabeth Grove at 11.50. But

she never made it to the other end. Please, leave me alone. A few

minutes later, a passer-by discovered Nellie. She was semi-

conscious and barely breathing. She still had the handle of her handbag,

but the rest had been snatched and with it her husband's ashes. She

was rushed to hospital, but she died the next day. Just after 12

o'clock the phone rang and they said "Can you get to us, as soon as

possible? "She's going fast. By the time I'd got there, she'd gone.

The shocking nature of Nellie's death made headline news.

elderly widow has died after trying to stop a mugger stealing her

handbag in which she kept her husband's ashes for 17 years.

And many in the local community turned out to look for Nellie's

handbag and Frank's ashes. Despite the best efforts of local residents

and specialist forensic officers Nellie's bag has still not been

found and her killer is still at large.

At 79, Nellie was physically tiny, just after five foot tall. Her

family and police are convinced when she was confronted in this

alley, she desperately tried to fight off her attacker.

wouldn't have let go of her bag. She wouldn't have gone, she would

never, she wouldn't even forget him going from one room to another, let

alone get go of her bag for anybody to take it. Detective Chief

Inspector Joanne Rawlinson is leading the investigation. Nellie

was determined to hang onto her bag, but she was just physically

overwhelmed, wasn't she? Yes, when we found her she was still holding

onto the handle. That's actually been damaged. It's not merely fell

off from the handbag. It's damaged significantly. It shows the level

of strength and fight she's put up to keep hold of the bag. Take me

through her injuries. She had a significant injury to the back of

her head, one to her forehead. She's also got some area of heavy

bruising to her right shoulder and down the right arm, which is the

arm we knew she carried her handbag in. The investigation continues,

but Nellie's family have been left grieving the death of a mother and

the loss of a father. She wanted to be with my dad. She was waiting for

her time to be with him. He was her life. That's why she fought for him

and that's why she's not with us. It's heart breaking. DCI Joanne

Rawlinson, you saw her there and she's joined us now. It's very

important to stress, you're treating this as a murder

investigation. People should also remember this was an elderly

vulnerable lady attacked in broad daylight. Yes. Nellie went to a

local Community Centre every Tuesday and Thursday for lunch. She

was attacked just 100 yards from her front door. She was left with a

severe head injury, which shows the level of force used. The handbag

hasn't been recovered or the ashes. No, we have the strap of the bag.

It's a black, shoulder bag. You can see the strap has been damaged. But

the handbag is still missing. We know that Frank's ashes were in a

container which Nellie kept in a blue velour pouch similar to this.

Also inside her bag was a green Spiral cord and a pink wallet with

ocean village on it. Nellie had sewn that blue pouch with her own

hands. You're looking for people to come forward, that's crucial.

anyone with any information please come forward. Specifically, I want

to speak to two youths who I know were on Elizabeth Grove and a man

that was stood with a child in the garden of 8 Victoria Street. I

believe they have vital information. There's a bike you think might be

important. Yes there was a bike seen in the area on CCTV. We've

recreated an image to show you what we believe it looks like. It's a

black framed mountain bike. We believe the wheels and spokes had

been spray painted a pinkie, orange colour, very distinctive. There's a

reward, yeah? There's a �5,000 reward for any information that

leads to the successful recovery of the handbag and ashes or a

successful prosecution. Thank you. It's truly unbelievable. Nellie's

family at the least deserve to know who did this and they are desperate,

of course, for the ashes to be returned. If you can help, you must

do the right thing. Call now: Call Crimestoppers anonymously: Matthew

has tonight's first collection of wanted faces.

First up is Ehsannullah Mohabat. The 18-year-old is wanted in

connection with the murder of a butcher, who was stabbed in his

shop in Wood Green in London last September. Mohabat has links to

Gloucester, Leicester and Gloucester, Leicester and

Birmingham as well as north London. There is a reward of up to �10,000

for information leading to his arrest, but he is considered

dangerous, so please, don't approach him, just call the police

immediately. Next is Barry Robert Brunton. He is wanted in connection

with indecent assaults on a child in Bishops Stortford in

Hertfordshire, dating back to the '70s. Now this is an image of him

as he was then, but police have used age progression technology to

show how he might look now. 63- year-old Brunton - who has used the

names Barry and Dennis Roberts - has links to The Isle of Wight,

Norfolk, and Cambridge. Number three is Jason McKenzie-Paul.

Police want to speak to him about a large-scale conspiracy to supply

heroin worth more than �400,000. Mckenzie-Paul, who has links across

London and Essex, uses the street name 'J Money' which he has

tattooed on his upper left arm. The 25-year old, who usually wears

glasses, is also interested in martial arts. And lastly for now is

Abdulsamda Ahmed Raza who is known as Samad. The 25-year-old Kurdish

national is wanted in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl

in Llanelli last month. Raza has links to Stoke on Trent, Leeds,

All tonight's faces are on the website. If you know where they are

In an effort to live a quieter life, Sarah and David Draisey took on the

business of running a business post office and shopping cherubs in

Nottinghamshire. As well as their place of work it is also the

couple's home but on an evening in November there peace was shattered

when two armed robbers burst in and used extreme violence to get what

This is Shireoaks, near Worksop, in Nottinghamshire. It is a quiet

village, the last place the residents might expect to be the

scene of a vicious armed robbery. But this is exactly what happened

at this small Post Office in November of last year. We had moved

to Shireoaks about ten years ago. We run the business up until a

couple of years ago as it was, and newsagents shop and post office,

and unfortunately Dave got diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

We decided that we would get rid of the newsagent side and just run the

shop and the Post Office to give Dave more time. Hello. Just that,

police. It was a normal Wednesday. There was no reason whatsoever to

expect anything untoward. I'm just taking him for a walk. I

Shut up, or I will do you. Shut it, or I will do you. Shut up. Open the

safe. I can't, I can't. Don't lie to me! I will kill you. It is my

wife who does it, I can't do it. Getting in there, wait for your

missus. You had better not be lying to us. Come on. Sit up. One of the

pair ransacked the bungalow, taking around �400 of the couple's own

money. I had been out about 20 minutes. I opened the door and the

dog came dashing in but this time he dashed in Barking. What is it

with you? Stay there! Shut up! Shut your dog up or I will shoot it.

Come on. Open the safe. Open the The attacker grabbed bundles of

cash and unregistered tax discs from the Post Office's sake. Come

on. Before taking the keys to David's are. -- car. Get down. Come

The car the attackers used for the getaway was low on fuel but the men

did not need to get far. The couple's distinctive Jeep Cherokee

was found abandoned just a five- Did you see the gang swap cars? We

need to know how they made their escape from here and what direction

they took. You can get through a day without thinking about it and

then something will trigger it off and you just become an emotional

wreck. I have got Parkinson's but I never shook as much as I do now. It

is 15% worse than it was. Apart from the shock and trauma of having

somebody standing pointing a gun at you, it was the aggression. It is

unspeakably scary. He had a gun, the next bloke came through with a

hammer. I ended up on the floor. People in the village have been

wonderful. But we don't want to stay any more. It is up for sale.

We have got to get out and have a nice, normal, quiet life, like we

Well, we are joined by Diame Ash Wilson from Nottinghamshire Police.

You saw him in the reconstruction. It was unspeakably scary, a

terrifying attack for the couple? Yes, and a completely unnecessary

level of violence used. David was not capable of giving any physical

resistance at all, completely necessary. They have also

threatened to shoot the couple's dock. Thankfully the Post Office

have significantly increased the security since that time. You are

interested in the possibility of witnesses coming forward who might

have seemed a gang swap cars after the robbery? Yes, the vehicle, a

Jeep Cherokee, was abandoned on the A57 northbound, known locally as

Shireoaks roundabout. This was about 6pm on the day of the

incident. Someone will have seen these people get out of the car and

possibly into another car and it is those people I would appeal to come

forward. What about the way the robbers got into the property? That

was unusual? Yes, almost an old- fashioned way of gaining entry.

They have actually drilled through a wooden frame to the rear window

and gained entry that way, it indicates to me they have some

criminal knowledge. A do you think they were sticking out, watching

the property beforehand? We have a reconstruction to show but we know

a male was seen about six night before at the rear of a neighbour's

property but importantly that leads to the post office at the back.

That person has not come forward as yet and I would dearly like to

speak to them. As well as a bundle of cash, these guys took tax discs

as well. Yes, 15 Tests in total, 14 that expire at the end of April

this year ran one at the end of November -- tax discs. The serial

numbers are on the Crimewatch website. The serial numbers that we

were talking about on the tax discs are available in detail on the

website. If you do have any of those which were stolen we would

urge you to get in touch. There is a �10,000 reward offered for

information leading to a conviction. Sarah and David's lives have been

terribly affected by the terrific robbery. If you know anything about

it, please do the right thing. Call us. Now, Matthew has some CCTV for

you to take a look at. We start with a shocking footage

from the summer riots, a terrifying attack on a minicab office in north

London. It is just after midnight on 9th August last year. Inside the

foyer or of a CAB farm in Chalk Farm and a gang of looters is

trying to break in. They eventually managed to force the law can swarm

into the tiny office, where two terrified members of staff are

trapped. They plead with them to stop but a savage it -- but are

savagely punched and kicked in the head. The rioters attacked the

camera system. We need names for This is the entrance to the canteen

pub in Bristol just after 11pm on Tuesday evening. A tall man with a

beard saunters in but he seems a bit lost, first going one way, then

another. A few minutes later he has managed to find his way to the bar,

where he is talking to another drink are sitting near by. But it

is not a friendly chat. Suddenly the attacker lunges at the victim,

smashing of fat -- smashing a pint glass in his face and kicking him

before hurrying off. The glass only just missed an artery in the

victim's neck and has left him permanently scarred. This was a

vicious, unprovoked attack. Tell us We are on the number 25 bus

travelling through London city centre during the early hours of

Saturday last July. The victim is dozing after finishing a knife --

night shift. As he snoozes, two men sitting behind try to reach into

his back. -- bag. Getting nothing, one of the men dress to grab his

wallet. The victim wakes up and realises what is going on. But his

attacker is determined and the pair grappled. Despite being punched

several times the victim puts up a good fight but in the end the

Robben manages to take his wallet. -- the robber. The victim escapes

downstairs while the two men responsible sit, smirking. Tell me

who they are tonight. All the CCTV is on the website and

if you can name any one you have Do remember you can log on to our

website to see all the reconstructions as well. It is time

for some Updates on some previous appeals.

The start with some news on a case from our last programme. We asked

for information about an attack on 15-year-old Moore -- Mo Bourner,

who was critically injured after being punched in the head. He made

his way through -- he made his way home from a beach party in Bexhill

in October. At 20-year-old man has been arrested and charged with GBH.

Mo has since turned 16 and I am sure you will be pleased to hear

his condition is improving. He is now able to communicate with his

family and is making steady progress.

Next, a case we featured four years ago. Football fan AJ Clarke was

killed after being punched in the street in Liverpool city centre in

November 2007. We showed you this CCTV of the man police believed was

responsible for the death. Earlier this month that man, 25-year-old

Malik Al-Brumy from their fields in Liverpool, was convicted of

manslaughter and sentenced to five years in prison -- Fairfield in

Liverpool. Have a look at this footage which we broadcast in 20th

September ten of a man harassing female occupant of a house in

Brighton in the middle of the night. Deeo was watching the programme

identified the peeping Tom as 40- year-old Paul Goodenough from

Leatherhead. Last month he was given a 20 -- 12 months suspended

prison sentence, a curfew and he will remain on the sex offenders

register for ten years. Finally you might remember this CCTV of a man

who attacked a good Samaritan who had intervened to stop an assault

on a train in London in 20th June ten. As a direct result of calls to

the studio the man in the footage was identified as 25-year-old James

Tibbs from Essex and last month he was given 240 hours of community

service and ordered to pay his victim �250 compensation. Many

thanks for all those crucial calls. Yes, good news. Still to come

tonight, the appalling arson attack on a man as he slept at his home in

Worcester. There is a fire outside my front door. And these very

valuable Scottish coins, one is very similar, possibly stone to --

stolen to order. Detectives need to know if you have been offered any.

And we have the fascinating story of how detectives cracked a

seemingly impossible murder case. We were dealing with one of the

most difficult cases you will ever deal with. We did not have a body,

we did not have any witnesses and we did not have any forensic

evidence. First, let's go to Matthew, who has

the latest on what has been happening on the phones so far.

Thank you, it is busy. That's interrupt the person leading the

hunt for Nellie Geraghty. We have had a number of calls in relation

to the hand back but I desperately need to speak to people about the

man and child I have mentioned in the garden earlier and the two used

on the Avenue and the bike. Have you had a bike like that stolen?

This is such an appalling attack that has left a family devastate --

devastated. We need to find the killer and the Ashes. Please give

us a call. Thanks very much, good luck.

An appeal now for information on a case you may have seen in the news.

Just over three weeks ago retired schoolteacher Betty Yates was found

dead at her remote riverside cottage next to the River Severn.

Near Bewdley in Worcestershire. The 77-year-old widow had been stabbed

and beaten with her own walking stick. Since her death officers

have been carrying out extensive inquiries to try to establish who

was responsible for her murder including detailed forensics

searches of her home as well as the surrounding woodland. Last week

police received two anonymous letters containing information

about Mrs Yates' death. Both letters had been typed and the one

sent to Bewdley Police Station on Monday 16th January was in a

handwritten on the leg. The other letter was sent via the local

newspaper in this and will appear. Now officers are extremely keen to

speak to the authors of these letters and they believe they were

written by different people and are urging them to please get in touch

tonight. Detectives think that Mrs Yates was killed during the evening

of Monday January 2nd, which was the bank holiday after the new year

of course. They asked -- they are keen to speak to anyone who was in

the area, or who may have visited her in the days before she died and

of course they want to talk to anyone who knows who might be

responsible. If you have any information, please call West

Also, contact Crimestoppers anonymously. Time for more wanted

faces with Matthew. faces with Matthew.

First we have Tyran Reid. Police are keen to trace the 33-year-old,

after he escaped from the back of a prison van three weeks ago. Reid,

who has connections to Greenwich in London, has a deep scar on his left

forefinger and a burn mark on his right wrist.

Number six is Martin Wolstenholme, who is wanted in connection with a

kidnap, which took place in Newcastle under Lyme in

Staffordshire in November 2010. The 32-year-old has links to Stoke on

Trent and to Southampton. Police consider Wolstenholme to be

dangerous. If you know where he is, call the police immediately.

Next is Florin Procs - although the police aren't convinced that's his

real name. Detectives want to speak to the 23-year-old about a burglary

in the West Midlands where cash and jewellery worth more than �20,000

was stolen. Procs, who is from Romania, has links to Banbury in

Oxfordshire. And last tonight is Barrie Gordon

Williamson. He's wanted in connection with a string of

burglaries across the country. 48- year-old Williamson was born in

Newcastle but has links to Milton Keynes, Norfolk, Lancashire, Kent,

Hampshire and Sussex. He regularly If you recognise any of them please

call or text. They all stay online until they're caught.

On the 13th December, 52-year-old Andrew Heath enjoyed supper with

his down stairs neighbours, before going to bed as normal. Just a few

hours later, she would wake to find his flat engulfed with flames. With

his only exit blocked, he didn't stand a chance. Police are

convinced this was a deliberate arson attack. They need to know who

SMOKE ALARM SOUNDS Wake up! There's a fire outside my

front door. Help! Burnt-out shell of this flat in

Worcester is all that remains of the life of Andrew Heath, a 52-

year-old, who was murdered in an arson attack on his home just

before Christmas. His friends and family have been left devastated by

his untimely and terrifying death and have no idea why anyone would

want to kill him. We adopted him, seven -month-old. We brought him up

as our own. He was caring, kind, loving boy. He had a lot of friends.

I don't think we could have wished for a better son. The fact that he

was adopted made no difference at all. He was my brother. I think he

started singing when he was at secondary school. He progressed to

the male voice choir, which he loved. People liked to be round him.

He was a big chap, with quite a big personality. He came out when he

was 18. That would have been in the 70s. It wasn't an easy time to come

out as a gay person. I think I was very proud of him that he'd done it.

He had been in Worcester for a long time. He liked Worcester. He was

very happy with his neighbours. They shared a good deal of their

lives, I think, together. Andrew lived above us. We're ground floor.

Every night, 8pm, he'd come down, knock the door, dog would bark,

because she knew it was Andrew. Over the years, we've got closer

and closer. He's like part of the family that. Particular night...

was really cheerful that night. Yeah. He got up and said "I'll see

you tomorrow. "That was last we saw of him. Andrew went upstairs to his

flat just before 9pm, where the police think he spent the rest of

I heard a noise. I thought it was just someone being a bit weird,

like. I didn't take much notice of His only exit was engulfed in

flames. Now all Andrew could do was call for help. Wake up. All of a

sudden there was a loud shout. There was just general talking. I

couldn't understand. Sue! Clive! All of a sudden, there was a thud,

I said to Clive, "Andrew needs us now." Hello Fire Service. There's a

fire outside my front door. I can't breathe. What's yaur dress please.

Can you not get out? I went round to the front. All I

could hear Clive shouting was "Andrew". I knew he couldn't be got

I just stood there, just looking and in a daze really, not really

knowing was it real? Was it a dream? It was just horrible. I just

can't imagine what it would have felt like for him struggling

probably to get out of the flat and knowing he couldn't. It must have

been terrible. DCI Paul Williamson is

investigating why someone would target Andrew. Paul, in the last

few moments for Andrew, it must have been terrifying. Yes, we know

from the 999 call Andrew knows the porch is on fire. The heat and

smoke must have been unbearable. He's trapped inside the premises

and desperately trying to get help. If you look at the way the fire was

set in the porch, I mean, it effectively barricaded him in.

the front doorway has been completely destroyed, as have the

stairs. This makes me think it was a targeted attack on Andrew. The

killer place aid wheelie bin in the porch, blocking off any escape.

It felt as if somebody had eradicated every part of Andrew.

There was very little left. I can't believe that somebody would have

done this to Andrew. That's right. And I hope that, in a way, they'll

be haunted by what he has done. Somebody couldn't have planned it

any better really to hurt the most. A tragedy. DCI Paul Williamson from

West Mercia Police is with me now. It happened in the middle of

December. It was a horrendous Christmas for this family. You and

your team are examining all sorts of motives. Yes, this has the hall

marks of a really devastating attack on Andrew. We need to know

what possible motives there may have been and we're exploring a

number of possibilities as to why this occurred. Could this have been

somebody owed him money? We know Andrew lent money to people and

that may led to a dispute. Could somebody have fallen out with

Andrew in the months leading up to the attack or could it be a grudge

with something in his past or a religionship we don't know about?

There were lots of people around. Noises were heard. It was busy on

the estate that night. Yes, we know there's a group of people outside

Andrew's flat, as well as raised voices in the early hours of the

morning and particularly before the fire afrs are called. What were

those people doing there? This bin, is it even a possibility that was a

prank that went badly wrong? have to consider the fact that this

could be a deliberate act by somebody intending to kill Andrew

or it could also be somebody trying to upset or scare Andrew. But

whoever did this must have realised the terrible consequences of their

actions and I need answers to these questions for Andrew's family and

friends who've been totally devastated by his death. Paul,

thanks very much. It was a terrible way to die. You heard Andrew making

the phone call there. He knew there was no escape. There is a �10,000

reward if you can provide police with information that results in

the arrest and conviction of the people who did it. If you can help,

call the detectives here: Now, it's time to look at more CCTV. Here's

Matthew. We start with a brutal assault in

Warwickshire. It's closing time at coco's nightclub in Leamington spay

on a Wednesday night last June. As the clubbers gather on the street,

one group seems intent on trouble. Some of the nip off down an alley

and into a building site where at least two arm themselves with

bricks. Back on the street, one of the men immediately lunges at his

victim smashing him in the face with the brick, before legging it,

slapping a woman as he did. The victim's eye socket was fractured.

Can you name the brick thrower? A security guard keeps watch at a

technology firm in Staffordshire during the early hours of a

Thursday morning last August. Suddenly a brick is hurled through

the glass doors, followed immediately by a gang of 17 people,

all wearing hoodies, some wielding hammers knives and even fence posts.

The terrified guard is hand cuffed and forced to the floor behind his

desk, while the gang rampage round the building. They grab laptops and

TVs off the walls, stuffing their loot into a duvet cover before

making off. You can't see their faces, but someone know who's did

this. Give us some names tonight. This is the Co-op store in washway

Road in Sale near Manchester. It's 6.30pm last May. After parking his

bike outside, a balding man in a dark top walks in and wanders round.

He seems to have forgotten his shopping list. After much

deliberation he finally chooses a cream egg.

He queues up and pays for his treat, before whipping out what appears to

be a gun wrapped in a bag and threatening to kill the terrified

cash ear. The attacker reaches over the counter and grabs handfuls of

notes from the till before running off.

Now, we need to find this guy - name please.

All the CCTV stays online till they're caught. If you recognise

anyone, you know what to do: Now it's worth remembering that the

vast majority of murder investigations in this country are

eventually solved, but of course, some are far more straightforward

than others. And when police suspect murder, but there are no

witnesses, no forensics and not even a body, well then detectives

really have got their work cut out When Ermatati Rodgers dais peered

from her home in North Wales in January 2008, police suspected foul

play. The problem was they had no way of proving it.

We were dealing with what is probably one of the most difficult

cases you'll ever deal with, which is a murder with no body. What

followed was a cat-and-mouse chase between detectives and the man who

almost got away with murder. First we were asked to look at an

ongoing high risk missing person case into a 42-year-old Indonesian

female called Ermatati Rodgers. She lived in the Wrexham area for a

number of years. It was highly unusual behaviour for Ermatati to

go missing. She hadn't called anyone or been seen in her house.

The way she left her house with food preparing on the cooking stove

made it look like she just disappeared.

A police trawl of her contacts led detectives to a Polish friend of

her Mr Respondek. They soon established he was the last person

to see her before she went missing. You're always looking closely at

the last person to see the missing person alive. When police

questioned Respondek his story seemed plausible. He admitted

seeing Ermatati and said he had That was the last time I saw her.

Police tried to investigate but here, where Respondek claimed to

have dropped her off, is as CCTV blind spot. There was no way of

checking his story either way. But when they examined his laptop

police found something much more concerning. You're not going to

believe this. We found a number of search terms that had been put in

and these included prettification, rot, decay, and organisms --

organisms that feed off dead bodies and when I saw that I could not

believe what I was seeing. These search terms had been putting in

Polish and Wikipedia. Why would so there'd be doing that if they were

innocent? Detectives made Respondek the main focus of their

investigations and they soon made what looked like another major

breakthrough. When we did the checks on his banking transactions,

credit card, debit card, we found on the Saturday morning, the day

after Ermatati Rodgers was last seen he had gone into town early,

bought a suitcase, a shovel and a knife cumbersome gloves and some

plastic sheeting, in effect what he had bought was a shopping list to

get rid of the body. But a search of Respondek's House revealed

things were not going to be that simple. Unbelievably in the house

we found these items apparently unused. We just -- we could not

believe for we were seeing. From being at a point where we thought

we had a breakthrough here, to going straight back down again,

these items are in the house, he hasn't used them at all. Detectives

felt sure Respondek was deceiving them so they began the painstaking

trawl of his movements. We found that he had made a withdrawal of

cash on the day after the detectives had seen him. We checked

CCTV footage in the local hardware store and amazingly he was there,

actually buying the same shovel he had bought on the Saturday again,

just four or five days later but this time for cash. Knowing that

police checks on his debit card would reveal his incriminating

purchases, Respondek had gone out and bought Duplicate items to cover

his tracks. Alarmed by this devious behaviour, police began to

formulate a theory Respondek and Ermatati Rodgers had been having a

secret affair but might this affair have led to her murder? We had all

this circumstantial evidence, however, there was three

significant things we did not have. We did not have a body, we did not

have any witnesses and we did not have any forensic evidence.

Respondek was put under surveillance. Stand by. A year into

the investigation it was clear he was feeling the pressure.

Respondek's appearance changed significantly over the course of

the inquiry. He looked like a man on the edge, he looked very nervous.

Someone who knew that the net was closing in on him and it was only a

matter of time before he would be caught. Police intelligence showed

Respondek was making regular visits to the estate just outside Wrexham

and he had labelled the area on his sat nav with a two letter code

which seemed to resemble the victim's nickname. It was the

police's last chance. They had to take a gamble. A major search of

farmland in Wrexham is being carried out a Knight we publicised

it in the press and we wanted everyone to know what we were doing

but most significantly we wanted Respondek to know what we were

doing. They are treating the case as a murder inquiry. But what

seemed like an exciting new lead was in fact an elaborate bluff by

detectives. The dig, the search teams, the press reports, were all

set up by police to convince Respondek they knew where the body

was. It was a trick to force him into making a mistake. Ross Pendock

-- Respondek's behaviour was becoming more erratic. He had gone

out and bought a camouflage jacket, hat, a pair of binoculars, and he

concealed himself in trees and undergrowth not far away from where

we were digging. He was watching us digging the fields, but little did

he know that we were watching exactly what he was doing at the

same site. By now Respondek was spending around eight hours a day

watching the police but time was running out for the hoax Dick and

detectives were still no closer to finding the body. What happened

next was unbelievable, really. We actually saw him leaving his house

with a garden spade and fork and driving back to the location. Then

we picked him up on cameras actually going down into the lanes,

looking behind him to see if he was being followed. This was a guy who

was really spooked now and we knew he must be close. Respondek headed

for the estate, panicked that the next day's diggers would unearth

his guilty secret. But he was not prepared for the heavy clay soil

which had preserved the body over the 14 months since her murder. And

which had already -- also locked it firmly into the ground. After three

hours of digging, he was defeated. In the early hours of the following

morning, Respondek walked into at Wrexham police station and told

officers he wanted to take them to the body of Ermatati Rodgers.

Pathologists found no underlying natural illness or disease that

might have killed Ermatati Rodgers and identified the most likely

cause of death as compression of the neck. Her body was in his house

for some considerable time, at least probably 24 hours or so.

Respondek had gone out, left the body in his house when he bought

the items, but he had also come back and played games on line on

his computer while her body was in his house. While he was deciding

how he was going to get rid of the body. He waited until it was dark

and used those items to dispose of her body in the fields. We may

never know for certain why Ermatati Rodgers was killed but despite the

baffling lack of evidence at the outset detectives took on her

murderer in the ultimate test of nerve. It was this high risk bluff

which led police both to her killer and to the place where he buried

her body, here in the cold, North Wales clay. He always felt that he

was one step ahead of us and that he was too clever to be caught. He

lied throughout the investigation to cover his tracks and he was a

cold, calculating person. I don't think that he thought we would keep

on for as long as we did and ultimately I think that was his

undoing. Matthew, we used to dealing with

scums on this programme but not normally was perpetrated by the

police. It was quite brilliant, a psychological con-trick which could

not have worked any better. The police had very little that was

concrete when they went public with this supposedly lead. Had Respondek

not taken the bait he could have got away with it but they managed

to get inside his head. That is what it came down to, a battle of

wits in the end. It was, every time they hit a wall and they hit many

in this investigation, they responded by thinking outside the

box. The bluff was a good example. Another was when they used sniffer

dogs, they carried out a covert operation to extract is cent. They

had all the relevant authority to do it. He had no idea, he still

doesn't, but last week the detectives and team were explaining

to me exactly how they did it and obviously I can't repeat that, I

wish I could, because it was incredibly clever, but that gave

them the cent, the dogs used to turn but got them to within 100

yards of where the body was found. What this did was pile more and

more pressure on Respondek and eventually he cracked. Briefly, the

sentence? Life with a minimum of 18 years. The judge ordered he be

deported at the end of the sentenced to protect the public.

Just take a look at this. It may be pretty small but it is incredibly

rare and valuable and an important part of Scotland's heritage. Police

are investigating the theft of an irreplaceable collection of coins

including ones just like this one which was in total was almost half

a million pounds. It is almost five years since they were taken and now

police have decided to relaunch an appeal in the hope that the coins

may have surfaced somewhere. It was me now is DCI Grant Dougall from

Lothian and Borders police and also Philip Skingley, from Spink of

London. Grant, can you tell me more about the case? The collection of

more than 2000 coins were taken from the home of one of Scotland's

leading coin experts. His house is in Broughton, a quiet village on

the Scottish Borders and it took place overnight between the 6th and

7th June in 2007. We believe it was a targeted raid because the thieves

only took the coins and some jury that was stored with them. Philip,

can you tell me, they look to the untrained eye like that they are

fairly innocuous but what is so important? They are a unique pieces

of history in their own right. Each one can tell us about the social

and economic history of the period in Scotland. The earliest ones date

from around the 10th or 11th century and the collection

consisted mainly of those early coins. They would be instantly

recognisable. This is on a par with the theft of a national treasure.

Really? Given that it is a national treasure presumably it is very

difficult to sell it on? Yes, they are extremely rare and I am

appealing to anyone under particular to any deal or collector

who may think they have been offered these coins to get in touch

tonight. We have conducted its -- extensive inquiries across the

country and to date, not a single coin from the collection has

surfaced. Someone out there knows where they are. Please get in touch

with information that could assist the recovery of the coins. Very

important, gentlemen, thank you. There is a substantial reward,

�50,000 is being offered for information which leads to the full

recovery of this magnificent collection. If you know anything

about these beautiful Scottish coins, please get in touch with us

tonight. Here is the number. Time now for a quick update on what is

coming in on the phones. A great response on all of our

appeals. Let's start with the Nellie Geraghty -- the Nellie

Geraghty murder. Detectives are desperate to find her killer ran

find Frank's ashes. Detectives need more information. They have had

calls about the bike and the bag. Let's turn to the Nottingham Sharon

robbery, incredible violence used against Sarah and David Draisey. We

have had a couple of similar robberies calls coming income or

more specifically at a post office. More information on any one who has

the car swap on the A 57. Wanted face number for, 13 calls on that.

We will give you more on the update. OK, that is all for now. You can

view all the reconstructions, the wanted faces and the CCTV on line

along with special would appeals which this month include the brutal

murder of 17-year-old Charlie Wright in south London. It is all