Murder charges / convictions without a body

http://justice4nickrose.wronglyaccusedperson.org.uk/

Found this but none of the links work anyway so a bit of a waste of time.

A petition from 2010:

http://www.petition.co.uk/justice-for-nick-rose/

And an old forum discussing it:

http://forum.wronglyaccusedperson.org.uk/other-specific-wrongly-accused-cases/nick-rose-wrongly-convicted-of-murder/

There's a Facebook group but you need to join it to see any posts. It has over 2,500 members.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/83436042314/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17464298

Convicting a murderer with no dead body
By Nick Tarver
BBC News
3 April 2012


The body of a bookmaker who was murdered by his tax inspector wife and their daughter has never been found. In the past prosecutors have been wary of charging suspects in cases like this - so how difficult is it to convince a jury to convict a killer without the evidence of a body?
Don Banfield, 63, was last seen alive leaving his family home in Harrow, north-west London in May 2001. His body has never been found.
In 2009 police re-opened their investigation and suspicion immediately fell on his wife Shirley, 64, and daughter Lynette, 40.
They found the pair had forged documents with his signature, fraudulently collected his pension and immediately moved house following his disappearance, first to Yorkshire and then to Canterbury in Kent.
They also lied about seeing him in 2008.
But without finding a body, how did police know he had been murdered?
'Tipping point'
Det Ch Insp Howard Groves, who led the Met investigation, said he had "no nagging doubts" that Mr Banfield was dead, but admitted missing body murders were extremely difficult to prove.
He said: "You have to satisfy the jury that someone is dead and therefore not going to walk into a police station and say, 'I believe my wife and daughter have been convicted of my murder, but here I am alive and well'."
'No body, no murder'

The "no body, no murder" rule, said to be part of English common law, stems from cases such as the mysterious disappearance of William Harrison in 1660.
The estate manager went missing from the Cotswold village of Chipping Campden, in Gloucestershire, on his way to collect rent.
His man servant John Perry, and two members of Perry's family, were found guilty of his murder and hanged, despite no body being found.
However, two years later Mr Harrison returned, claiming he had been kidnapped and taken to Turkey to work as a slave.
Prosecutors have since been wary of charging a suspect with murder without finding a dead body.
He said two particular lines of enquiry form the cornerstone of missing body murder investigations.
Police have to prove an individual was alive in the first instance. Officers then have to prove that normal behaviour by the victim has stopped suddenly and completely.
This would mean no bank transactions, use of a mobile phone, visits to their friends, relatives or their GP.
Mr Groves said: "We established that within days of his last known sighting his pension had been fraudulently transferred from his account to an account that he shared with his wife.
"The tipping point was when handwriting experts confirmed that the documents in question were forged by his daughter."
'The body lives'
In many missing body murder cases, the killer attempts to imitate the victim to falsely prove he or she is alive.
Danielle Jones, 15, vanished while walking to catch a school bus near her home in East Tilbury, Essex, in June 2001. Her body has never been found.
Danielle Jones
Image caption
Danielle Jones, 15, was murdered by her uncle Stuart Campbell in 2001
Suspicion immediately fell on her uncle Stuart Campbell who denied her kidnap and murder.
As part of his defence, lawyers presented two text messages sent from Danielle's phone to her uncle after she disappeared.
The first read: "HI STU THANKZ 4 BEIN SO NICE UR THE BEST UNCLE EVER! TELL MUM I'M SO SORRY LUVYA LOADZ DAN XXX"
However, the text messages soon moved from being a central part of Campbell's defence, to being a weapon for the prosecution after linguistics expert Professor Malcolm Coulthard was called.
He pointed out that Danielle had only ever sent messages in lower case.
He also highlighted the misspelling of "what" in the other text. Campbell had spelt it "wot", whereas Danielle's usual spelling before her disappearance was "wat".
Campbell was found guilty of her murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Roy Murphy, a retired Detective Chief Inspector who now lectures in policing and criminal investigations at Canterbury Christ Church University, said this is a common tactic.
"The defendant tries to put up a ruse that the body lives," he said.
"He or she sends messages or makes calls from the victim's mobile phone - in the past this was done by doing things like writing letters."
'Fed to pigs'
Historically prosecutors have been wary of charging suspects if they could not find a body, fearing the victim might turn up alive.
This was a further worry when it was common in the UK for murderers to be executed.
Muriel McKay
Image caption
Muriel McKay was mistaken for the wife of Rupert Murdoch
One of the cases which eventually changed this mentality was in 1970 when Muriel McKay, the wife of Rupert Murdoch's deputy, Alick McKay, was kidnapped and killed.
In a bungled extortion attempt Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein thought they had taken Mr Murdoch's then wife Anna.
Mrs McKay's body was never discovered, but it was suspected she was fed to pigs on a Hertfordshire farm owned by the brothers.
Mr Murphy said: "It was a cause célèbre in terms of missing body murders. It was one of the very first trials that we had when there was no body.
"That made police wake up to the notion that we didn't need to have a body to have a murder."
Mr Murphy said the rarity of these cases is due to the difficulty in disposing of a dead body.
"One of the things that has prevented the perfect murder is just how difficult it is to get rid of the corpse. Most of the time it will turn up."

Never knew or at least couldn't remember the case about the lookalike of Rupert Murdochs wife, Muriel Mckay.

Some more info on it:

http://murderpedia.org/male.H/h/hosein-brothers.htm

You did put up the same link for the Hosein brothers some time ago, Freedom. Just noticed. Must of missed it first time round.

Another one which I'm sure has been discussed before, but no idea where.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Arlene_Fraser

http://www.newschannel5.com/news/local-news/judge-to-decide-on-evidence-in-burgess-case

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A judge is expected to decide whether to allow crucial evidence to be presented in the high-profile murder case involving a Hermitage woman.

Caleb Cannon has been accused of killing the mother of his child, Nikki Burgess, back in 2014. However, her body has not been found.

During a hearing in August, handlers said their cadaver dogs did pick up the scent of a dead person in Cannon's trunk.

However, Cannon's lawyers argued that the dogs can't be considered expert witnesses because there isn't universal certification for cadaver dogs.

Some of the more gruesome testimony came from Cannon's former cellmate, who claimed Cannon told him he was at Burgess' home where they argued over alimony and custody.

Cannon allegedly told him he beat Burgess with brass knuckles, strangled her, and disposed of the body.

The hearing was scheduled to get underway at 11 a.m. NewsChannel 5 will stream the hearing online.


Be interesting to see the outcome of this case......

A bit more about the above case:

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2015/11/24/cadaver-dogs-boys-testimony-key-nashville-murder-case/76303126/

I remember this as though it was yesterday..Danielle Jones murder
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-39920191?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

wjk wrote:I remember this as though it was yesterday..Danielle Jones murder
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-39920191?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Hi WJK. I mentioned this one earlier in the 'misc crime' thread (which nobody reads apart from Freedom occasionally ).

I actually can't remember this case. Maybe because I wasn't living in the country at the time it happened or whether the media coverage at the time of trial etc was very low-key...?

I'll read up more about it this eve when I have a bit more time.

I saw your other post too, Andrew!



I'm trying to find the whole programme from which this link comes. I always think of this case along with that of Millie Dowler as they were only nine months apart.

I can't find that episode either

Here's the original crimewatch programme on it:



The quality is really poor though.

Will stick this up as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Danielle_Jones

Another clip here. I watched the whole programme not long ago on YouTube so it must have been removed since then.

I'd had perhaps a strange view of Danielle's family, thinking that they knew about her uncle's obsession with her but didn't do anything about it. It was interesting to have that opinion corrected by the programme.

http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/shows/videos/britains-darkest-taboos-2-danielle-jones-my-daughter-was-abducted-murdered-by-her-uncle-clip-3

Andrew wrote:

wjk wrote:I remember this as though it was yesterday..Danielle Jones murder
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-39920191?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Hi WJK. I mentioned this one earlier in the 'misc crime' thread (which nobody reads apart from Freedom occasionally ).

I actually can't remember this case. Maybe because I wasn't living in the country at the time it happened or whether the media coverage at the time of trial etc was very low-key...?

I'll read up more about it this eve when I have a bit more time.

Apologies Andrew, I read the 'misc crime' thread too but hadn't read it when I posted the link.
I'm just going to watch the Crimewatch programme you've posted & Freedoms clips too.

No worries at all, WJK.

And no need to apologise

Freedom, maybe this case deserves its own thread if there's going to be a lot more news on it etc?

I've put the posts on another topic for now.

Let's hope they can find the poor girl.   If they do I suppose there will be an enquiry as to why these garages weren't searched at the time, but maybe the 'information' they were given at the time was too vague.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-39920191
More than 1,000 garages were included in a "huge number" of searches that were carried out in 2001 and 2002, according to Mr Worron.
However, the force on Monday confirmed it had received "non-specific information" about one set of garages back in 2001 but no search was carried out.
"We are working to ascertain why these (the Stifford Clays garages) were not searched as part of the original investigation," a police spokesman said.
Danielle Jones

Andrew wrote:http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-murdered-schoolgirl-danielle-jones-10426963

Parents of murdered schoolgirl Danielle Jones visit garage block where police are searching for 15-year-old's body
Detectives sensationally revealed they have reopened the case of Danielle Jones - who was murdered by her uncle Stuart Campbell in 2001 - after a tip-off regarding 'garage bases'

Will it be possible for the police to use some sort of ground penetrating radar, or will excavation be the only way to search?
What about cadaver dogs, some can find remains under concrete can't they?

Bring in Birch.

Heisenburg: I'm late for birthday greetings ...

And, yes, Bluebell, dogs can smell "things" under concrete!