It was a cold and frosty morning in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on Friday, February 15th, 2019. Children across the country woke up excited because it was the last day of school before half term. For 19-year-old Leah Croucher, it was a day like any other. She got out of bed, got dressed and set off for work. Leah usually made the short journey on foot, but as 9 AM came and went, she never arrived. Her disappearance would spark a nationwide manhunt as her missing person posters were distributed far and wide. The exhaustive investigation would see officers from the Thames Valley police force trawling through thousands of hours of CCTV footage and knocking on the doors of more than 4,000 homes…

Helmsley is a small market town within the North York Moors National Park. The VisitHelmsley website describes it as “the perfect base for enjoying the wider area”. Helmsley has numerous attractions, including a nature reserve, an art gallery, abbey ruins, and a market square boasting a range of shops and excellent restaurants. Named Britain's Best Market Town in 2015 by the Great British High Street Awards, the quaint area on the banks of the River Rye is a peaceful and quiet place to live. It is one of Yorkshire's hidden gems, rarely mentioned in the media; that was until a grisly discovery thrust Helmsley under the national spotlight…

In some religions and communities, great weight is placed on the family and its so-called collective honour. Name and reputation can overshadow everything else, and a specific code of honour must be followed. Sometimes, when perceived shame has been brought upon a family, the alleged wrongdoer is forced to pay the ultimate price…

Torrential rainfall had caused flash floods along the coastal Cliff Road in Salcombe, South Devon. Once there was a break in the clouds on that remarkably wet summer day, holiday goers seized the opportunity to make the most of their vacation. It was around 5 PM on Sunday, June 27th, 2021, when Charlotte Rollings and her family left the beach, and returned to the cottage where they were staying. The clothes designer was walking along the footpath by Bennett Road with her partner and parents, when Charlotte’s mother noticed something unusual…

The dark web is part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines. It’s rife with criminal activity, from drug sales all the way to targeted attacks. In August 2022, a man was browsing the dark web when he came across a website claiming to provide hitmen for a fee. Curiosity got the better of him, and as he scanned through the forum, one post piqued his interest; a request seemingly from a female asking for a man to be killed in Norfolk…

PLEASE LISTEN TO ‘SEASON 7 - EPISODE 43’ FOR PART ONE OF THIS TWO-PART CASE. Investigators from numerous police forces across the Midlands had been searching for a connection between the unsolved murders of sex workers in the 1990s. After exhausting all resources, a cold case review was held in 1998 in an effort to identify the killer of Samo Paull and Tracy Turner. DNA obtained during Tracy Turner’s post-mortem had been collected after her death. As part of the re-investigation, the sample was cross-checked against the national DNA database in March 1998. After four years with no leads, the police finally had a match — a man awaiting trial for a violent sexual assault… (Part 2 of 2).

In February 2023, a man was convicted of sexually abusing a child during the 1980s. Aside from the harrowing details presented to the jury at Stafford Crown Court, some information was kept from them. Jurors were unaware the defendant was already serving a life sentence or that he was suspected of being one of the worst serial killers in British history... (Part 1 of 2).

On the evening of Saturday, June 9th, pubs across the country were filled to the brim. It was the second day of the 2012 European football championship. Groups of friends jostled to find seats in front of the television screens in the pubs throughout Bedfordshire, to watch the matches; The Netherlands versus Denmark and Germany versus Portugal. Hours later, in the early morning, things were starting to wind down when a young man appeared outside the White Hart pub in Ampthill. He looked dishevelled, and his tracksuit was saturated in blood…

Ian Cooke was at home in Brighton, East Sussex, on the morning of August 25th, 2016, when his phone rang. The caller was his 21-year-old son, Ash. Ash told his father he had been struggling to contact his girlfriend, 19-year-old Shana Grice. She was not answering her phone, and to compound matters, Shana had failed to show up for work. Unable to leave his shift, Ash asked his father to go and check on Shana at her home on Chrisdory Road…

At around 4 PM on July 17th, 2015, John Jr. drove to Marsh Street to ensure his father was ok. He approached the front door and could hear the television blaring from the living room. John Jr. noticed the door was unlocked — a curious detail as his father was very safety-conscious. He slowly stepped inside. It took John Jr. a few seconds to register what he saw in the hallway. There was a trail of blood leading to the living room, and he felt he had no choice but to see where it led…

Officers arrived at the scene shortly after 8 AM that morning, and when they knocked on the door of the property on Botley Drive in Havant, Hampshire, they were met by 26-year-old Shaye Groves, who was smoking a cigarette and wearing a bright pink dressing gown…

There is a saying that “a man’s home is his castle” — it is supposed to be a sanctuary, a place of safety and security. Unfortunately for many, anti-social behaviour can make them feel uncomfortable and on edge in their own homes. When problems like these arise, it can take weeks for the police to resolve them, and only after the damage has been done. Some try a different approach and directly confront the people responsible, but they could never imagine that it might cost them their life... 

Strong gales were sweeping across much of the United Kingdom on the night of Sunday, January 24th, 1993. Temperatures dipped below freezing, as most of the country found relief in the warmth and comfort of their homes. On the quiet estate of Birch Hill in Bracknell, Berkshire, seven-year-old Stacey Queripel was sent to bed early by her mother. She had no plans to go to sleep. Instead, Stacey put on a tracksuit over her pyjamas, packed a small bag and then set off into the blustery darkness...

After making the 50-mile journey to the cottage in the Somerset village of Loxton, Peter found Noreen reclining on a sofa in the sitting room. When he asked her what had happened, she began rambling incoherently for almost 45 minutes. Eventually, Noreen told him that she had seen an evil look in Marie’s eyes, and said, “There was one moment when the look became so strong and the evil in the eye so strong that I plucked them out”. Peter was stunned and asked if Marie was dead; Noreen replied, “It is not Marie that is dead. It is the evil that was in her”...