PC Michael West was hoping for a quiet night operating the switchboard for Chelmsford Police Station, until he received a hurried call in the early hours of August 7, 1985… (Part 1 of 3) 

One month before the trial was due to take place at the Old Bailey on May 2, 1978, Joyce McKinney and Keith May, now daily fixtures in the tabloids, disappeared… (Part 2 of 2).

The now 21-year-old Kirk Anderson was standing outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ewell, Surrey, on September 14, 1977. He was getting on with his day but had no idea he was being watched by the woman he had broken off a relationship with in his late teens. (Part 1 of 2) 

As more punches were thrown, Christopher struggled, but it was no use. He was now on the ground and felt something around his neck. He heard an engine slowly getting louder. It was the sound of the sit-on lawnmower. In a moment of realisation, he knew he was either going to be strangled to death or mutilated…

The following excerpt was found in Gregory Davis' leather-bound diary in 2003: "Quit job tomorrow. Get Mick killed. Get Stuart to withdraw cash every day. When all gone, kill him. Repeat Mick plan ad infinitum all over country and world in Las Vegas and swanky bars"…

Around 9 am on Monday, October 28, 2002, police officers were called to a warehouse on the Huyton Industrial Estate in Brickfields, Merseyside...

Just before sunset on Saturday, June 18, 1988, a local patrol car slowed as it travelled eastbound along the M50 motorway. Walking along the hard shoulder was a young girl carrying a baby. The officer pulled in and asked if the girl was alright. Eleven-year-old Georgina explained that she was looking for her older sister, Marie. Their car had broken down a little way up the road, and Marie had left to use the emergency phone some time ago — but she had not come back…

The Rooney Family lived on a travellers’ site in Drinsey Nook, Lincolnshire. They splashed out on plastic surgery, driving top-of-the-range BMW cars, while wearing expensive Rolex watches and designer outfits. They enjoyed luxury holidays to Mexico, Barbados, Egypt and Australia. An aerial shot of the land where they lived, pictured green fields surrounding a collection of single-story red brick homes with a few dilapidated caravans nearby. The reasons the Rooneys were able to enjoy the extravagancies they did, lived in those caravans...

In a school in Pontypridd, Wales, Christopher May sat peacefully playing a piano, oblivious to the firefighters around him. He continued to play as the flames circled, flames from the fire he had started. The arson was just one in a string of offences this former butcher would commit before being arrested for murder…

Anne Fitzpatrick, a market stallholder, lived with her Yorkshire terrier on Church Lane in Moston, Manchester. On the evening of May 30, 1983, at 11:30 pm, the 29-year-old dressed in her pyjamas, secured the front door of her flat and got into bed. She switched off her bedside light and drifted off to sleep. Anne was abruptly woken in the early hours of the morning by her dog barking loudly. In the darkness, she saw the outline of someone standing in the doorway of her bedroom…

You drop the kids off at school at nine in the morning. The next six hours of their day are spent in the care of trustworthy professionals. The majority of the time, they are safe in the hands of their tutors. It’s a rare occasion when the friendly teacher isn't the honourable person they appear to be...

After receiving a 999 call in the early hours of Thursday, July 7, 2016, two police officers from the Avon and Somerset Constabulary arrived at a property on Wells Road in Bristol. The caller confessed that he had killed someone...

In the American embassy, the telephone rang. Special agent Jaclyn Zappacosta picked it up. The call marked the end of a decade of crimes so bizarre that if they were translated into a book of fiction, it would be deemed too outlandish to publish...

Overlooking an estuary, the small village of Bosham, West Sussex, sits on the South coast of England. Located a few miles south from the built-up village centre, a sizeable six-bedroom property called ‘Hove To’ on Smugger’s Lane lies off the beaten track, affording a view of a natural inlet of Chichester Harbour. On December 30, 2013, a woman was found dead in one of the downstairs bedrooms…

He got into the stolen car, started the engine and left his mother’s home. The vehicle wasn't the only thing that he had stolen. Concealed under a blanket, in the boot of the car, was a pump-action shotgun and some ammunition taken from his stepfather. Women in the south-east were not safe. The severity of his crimes escalated fast…

After Michael Ross was charged with the murder of Shamsuddin Mahmood, a trial began at the High Court in Glasgow on May 12, 2008… (Part 2 of 2).

Off the northeastern tip of Scotland, many of the 70 isolated Islands in Orkney are unoccupied. The sandy beaches, lush green fields and rugged white cliffs look like something you would see on a postcard. With a population of roughly 20,000 people, crime is rare. On the odd occasion when an offence is committed, it doesn’t take long for police to apprehend the culprit, as everyone knows everyone else’s business. There hadn’t been a murder in Orkney in a quarter of a century, but in 1994 all that would change…  (Part 1 of 2).

Stephen suddenly felt a pain in his chest and momentarily blacked out. After hitting what he thought was a brick in the centre of the road, it startled him, and looking for the brake, he accidentally put his foot on the accelerator. Before he could get the vehicle under control, it ploughed through a gap in the trees and plummeted into the freezing waters of the Bridgewater canal…

The early spring evening was spent at the George Hotel in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Raymond and June Cook enjoyed their meal while overlooking the Thames. Nights like these, alone, were a rare treat, and they were making the most of it…

Extramarital transgressions can cause anger and destruction. But add to that mix another element. The people having the affair are related by marriage. The following two cases cross the boundaries of family, sex and murder…