“Ferocious and Cruel”: The Case Of Katie Kenyon

thank you Burnley Lancashire in the United Kingdom it's a market Town surrounded by the stunning Penang Countryside it has a rich Heritage and plenty to do the gorgeous landscape provides the perfect backdrop for hikes cycling riding horses and much more one of the people that called this place home was 33 year old Katie Canyon she was a caring and loving woman completely devoted to her two children a son and a daughter whom she adored she loved animals and was close to her family always making time for other people it was on the 22nd of April 2022 that the spelling of one word in a text message would set alarm bells ringing for her family that day at 12 18 pm Katie's daughter received a message from her I love you and I'm sorry ring your dad he will be looking after you for a while from today I need to get help so I can be a better person for you and your brother please know I love you and I'm not upset with you sorry I couldn't tell you about it if your dad won't look after you Andy will always have your back remember ring your dad or Andy one thing in the text message stood out immediately the spelling of the word while was missing the h Katie never spelled it this way another message was sent to her son saying hey dude I love you and I'm sorry you need to ring your dad he will be looking after you from today I need to get help it's not you I love you will you look after your sister and no Andy will always have your back get your dad to come and get you while I'm gone if you won't look after you get him to take you to Andy again the word while was incorrect [Music] Katie's mother Dawn also received a text message from her at 1 42 PM it said this is the bravest thing I've ever had to do I need to find some peace and sort my mind out so with the 6K Andy gave me to pay the debt off I'm being free for a while until I figure all this [ __ ] out just like the other two messages the word while was missing the letter H [Music] a text message had also been sent to Andrew burfield who was Andy in the text messages to her children it said I want you to know I'm truly sorry for everything Andrew burfield and Katie Kenyon had had an on off relationship for several years Dawn Katie's mother sent a message to her sister saying Katie's walked out on the kids this was completely out of character for Katie she was an utterly devoted mother and her family knew she would never go away and leave her children behind 5 PM Dawn contacted Sarah and Jenny Katie's sisters Jenny got in touch with Andrew to see if he knew where she was he said he had no idea he told Jenny he was at work that day and she had gone to his house to drop her card and keys through the letterbox before going to a clinic to get treatment for her anxiety what he was saying didn't add up so Sarah and her boyfriend Anthony went to Andrew's house Andrew lived on Todd Morden Road and when the pair arrived to talk to him they saw her white Ford Fiesta parked outside his house which still had her belongings inside but Katie was nowhere to be seen Andrew was not Cooperative with Sarah and Anthony and he ended up calling 999 he told the operator there's a guy here threatening me he's kicking my door in I don't know his name he's a friend of my girlfriend he's standing in the foyer I'm going to barricade the door the police soon arrived on scene and Sarah and Anthony spoke with them they explained that Katie was missing and that all these messages had come through from her phone a missing person's investigation was immediately launched the search started at Andrew burfield's home he was cooperative with the police and gave them ideas as to where she could be including this Clinic she had allegedly gone to he showed the officers the message she had sent him and let them look around his home he got the ladders from his Ford Transit van so they could check the attic and joked do you want to look in my van too he had also sent her several voice notes asking her to ring him and he had also sent a message to Katie's son on Instagram he said to her son that Katie had decided to go away for a while and asked him to care for her dog with the dog's name Indy being spelled incorrectly as news of her disappearance began to spread missing posters were circulated with a description of her she had last been seen wearing black leggings flip-flops a white and blue top and a blue cardigan one thing that was deeply concerning was that her phone had been permanently disconnected 60 specialist officers from four police forces were involved and searches were carried out to try and find her the hunt involved police and fire service officers dog teams Mounted Police Mountain rescue volunteers and drones the task before them was huge the area to search was vast and dense including a forest that made up nearly five square miles her sister Sarah wrote on Facebook it is now a waiting game we have done everything we can searched everywhere and contacted everyone then a witness came forward police said that a woman who matched Katie's description was seen getting into a silver Ford Transit van accompanied by a male and they issued an appeal for anyone who had seen anything similar to come forward the following day Saturday the 23rd Katie's sister Jenny sent Andrew a message Andy I think you know a hell of a lot more than you're letting on I have read over the messages Katie sent to her kids and she doesn't even spell like that or speak like that which is what the kids have also said Katie knows how to spell and mentioned about you having dyslexia which makes sense to the spelling you sent them texts you know where Katie is the police will Trace where she was from the last message sent doesn't add up how she would drop her car her keys her bank card at yours but no phone and none of her other bank cards it's about time you came forward and started telling some truth now Andrew replied I know you're worried and upset but you really can't be throwing accusations at me like that I had all that last night with Anthony and Sarah I thought we might work together on this that's why I gave you my number I reported her missing last night as I said I would I gave the police all Katie's things she posted this is worrying enough without you adding to it the police searched my house last night so I think we should leave it down to them now Jenny replied still doesn't make any sense Andy yeah we'll leave it there and hopefully CCTV will give us answers [Music] and sure enough the CCTV did start to provide some cameras had shown her arriving on top modern Road and getting into his van they were then seen at a McDonald's drive-through as the van drove along the a670 a camera showed the pair sitting in the front seat this was the last confirmed sighting of Katie Canyon mobile phone data showed that her phone had pinged off of several Towers heading towards the forest of Bowland it also showed the phone traveling back but a camera showed there was now only one person in the van Andrew burfield that day at 3 45 PM the police headed back to Todd Morgan Road and burfield showed them the messages on his phone when the police returned at 5 30 the SIM card had been removed and put into another phone he had also lit a fire which was unusual given that it wasn't that cold Andrew burfield was subsequently arrested on suspicion of kidnap he was taken to Greenback police station and the first of four interviews began you've been arrested on suspicion of the kidnapped with Casey Kenyon yeah um this interview is an urgent interview to try and Associate the whereabouts of Katie current life all right I'm aware that you've requested a legal representation but at the moment we have been off the rest by the superintendent to conduct this urgent interview because there is a real concern for the safety of cake tip and you will get chance to speak resources until later it's a very simple question Andrew can you tell me where he can see it you don't know so is there any clue you can give us as to where she might be I did give you a clue early on um I think she's a very absenter right okay I love that big but why did you give it a choose at that location your thoughts locations I think because that spot that's what she wants to do so that's just give an indication that that's yeah what she wants to do at the time you don't know where she is I'm good on PLT now to let me know if you do know anything at Walmart yeah okay family are really really concerned the last place she's known to be spots upon your road yeah she's obviously the way it costs today so it's reasonable for us to think that you may know where she is all right so please if you do know I did safety officers earlier I mean just they're left I went and got two two sort over kids and then they came up and all arrested I said where is our God and I'll write everything down um because they're asking me stuff when you were going through Yvonne so I thought about I don't know that's why I didn't tend to do tonight where is the last location that you know that she was my ass [Music] is it um nine twins substance and you don't know whereabouts so we need to give you the opportunity to say if you didn't know yeah she obviously could be in any state that she couldn't want to do everything we've come to our face no no all right okay is there anything else you want to say before okay so time is now at 10. 10 44 and but who exactly was Andrew burfield he was 50 years old and a father of two and worked as a handyman in Burnley and would work on different properties burfield was described as isolated and friendless he had also had run-ins with the law he had been jailed in 2001 for attempting to pervert the course of Justice he had also been accused of stealing his boss's car and selling it for 2 700 pounds but was cleared throughout their relationship Katie had looked to him for support and love but he was manipulative and controlling he would Gaslight her and pretend to help her telling her she needed to go to therapy to deal with her anxiety he would often toy with Katie's mental health and tell her that she was mentally unwell the pair would text back and forth and he would tell her she needed to go to rehab and that he would pay for it her anxiety was made worse when in 2021 her Ford Fiesta had been vandalized and her tires slashed but it wasn't reported to the police on the 18th of February she had received a high court writ ordering that she paid four thousand pounds to Andrew burfield many that he said she owed him the fees continued to escalate and by April she owed six thousand pounds she was terrified that she would lose her home and the debt collectors would start taking her possessions from her burfield told her he would pay it and stop any bailiffs from bothering her but as the deadline for payment grew closer the money was yet to materialize she had messaged her mother Dawn and told her she feared for her life she said I'm paranoid to death he's going to do some it couldn't sleep all night Andrew burfield told her how much she loved her but would then say she had overreacted about the money he said she owed and he contacted debt collectors without telling her in one message he told her to take two weeks off work and go to a clinic for mental health treatment adding I'm thinking we need to get you back on the right path Babs despite burfield's proclamations that he loved her he was also secretly seeing another woman she had told him how sick she was with anxiety and how paranoid and nervous she felt he told her everything would be fine and sorted out on the 22nd of April we remain extremely concerned about Katie kenyon's welfare after she was reported missing from home last week on Friday detectives from the Force Major investigation team are following a number of lines of inquiries to try and find out what just happened to Katie their family are extremely concerned and say Katie's disappearance is out of character for her they are currently being supported by specially trained officers We are continuing to search in the area along with Partners from Lancashire fire and rescue service and the mountain rescue teams a 50 year old man from Burnley was arrested on suspicious kidnap on Saturday and today today detectives have been giving her a further 36 hours to question this month this man is known to Katie we continue to be extremely concerned about Katie and we have a large team who are working hard to try and find out what has happened to her whilst we we keep an open mind it is obviously a great great concern that we haven't seen or heard from Katie since Friday morning we continue to support Katie's family and to keep them updated around any developments detective Chief Inspector Al Davies said while we have arrested someone in connection with our investigation I'm very much keeping an open mind as to what has happened and I have a team of officers and staff working hard to try and find Katie and return her to her family when investigators looked into burfield's phone they found several pieces of evidence his iPhone had last been backed up to the iCloud on the 4th of April as he had ran out of storage in his Notes app a series of drafted messages were found the messages were him pretending to be Katie and they were addressed to her children mother and him they were almost word for word what had been sent on the 22nd of April but had not been drafted any later than the fourth when they looked at his movements the day before she had last been seen another Sinister Discovery was made he had gone out to the forest where his phone had been switched off for 90 minutes he told the officers he had gone there to find a good spot as he wanted to take Katie for a picnic the next day the officers discovered that day he had also borrowed a spade from his parents then another witness came forward the homeowner of a property on Hillingdon Road the burfield had worked at on Saturday the 23rd said that burfield had asked what day the bins would be emptied this immediately stood out a strange when the officers went to go and check they found plastic bags with blood on them and Katie's bloodied flip-flops the Spade he had borrowed was also there in an interview with police on the 25th he said that their reason for going to the forest was because Katie would write down her problems and then burn the paper so this was what they were going to do he said he had gone to the forest on the 21st but because it was late and dark he couldn't find a good spot as the days passed with still no sign of or word from Katie hope began to fade the police started to conduct their inquiry as a murder investigation Lancashire police said whilst Katie has not yet been found we are now working on the basis that she is sadly no longer alive the police conducted another interview with Andrew burfield on the 27th of April and it was then that his story suddenly changed he said that after going to what he called their place in the forest and set up their spot there was an ax on top of the cooler he said that Katie had bet him he couldn't hit her can of drink with the ax he said he had thrown the ax at a tree using both arms to throw it overhead but at the same time Katie was starting to sit down he stated that he threw it down instead of up and shouted at Katie but it was too late and she was struck once in the head with the back of the ax he described being covered in blood as she lay in his arms saying it was like something out of a film he said he was unable to get her body into his van so he decided to dig a one and a half foot grave and bury her covering her body with leaves and sticks adding he didn't want her to be seen or for animals to find her he tied a bag to a tree to Mark the spot where she was buried he hadn't planned it he said and he was going to go back to his house deal with his children and her children and then take his own life he told the officers that he had burned her cards and phoned before dumping the ashes in a bin outside a shop the picnic box was found in his van and investigators were also able to find a spot of blood inside Andrew burfield's washing machine following this he was charged with murder on Friday yesterday it dramatically changed to a murder hunt when the police charged their suspect um sorry a rearrested their suspect on suspicion of murder this evening they have announced that he has now been charged with Katie kenyon's murder we got a brief statement from Lancashire police it says Andrew burfield 50 of toddman Road Burnley a has been charged with Katie kenyon's murder he's due to appear at Blackburn magistrates court at 10 A.M tomorrow Katie's family have been made aware obviously by the police she's still being supported by trained family that they're being supported by trained family liaison officers this is um Gisborne Forest half an hour 35 minutes or so away from where she was taken in this silver Transit van that the police located here that they know that she left Burnley they know that it was here and that van that was then back in Burnley um they have 60 odd people searching yesterday it's been scaled down somewhat today just for logistical reasons but there have been selected areas that they're working uh with psychological profiling computer systems that can tell them where they should look what their search parameters should be but the hunt now um for what they believe to be at the body of Katie Kenyon will continue the the search operator here told me he expects it to be resolved fairly quickly but history tells us that in terrain like this thousands of Acres of forest it can take a long time for a body to be found it could be that the police have quite some job to do but Andrew burfield age 50 charged with Katie kenyon's murder will be in court tomorrow morning on Friday the 29th of April DCI Al Davies told Katie's family the devastating news her sister Sarah said we simply could not face telling her children DCI Davies had to do that for us I cannot describe to anyone what that was like it had been the longest Seven Days of Our Lives with this new information a specialist search team was sent out to find her they were able to find the bag tied to the tree but they could not find any sign of a grave or burial site as they couldn't find her body police took the rare decision to have burfield show them himself he said he would take the officers to her all of which was captured on a police body campus okay that you said can be noted down okay foreign foreign we get started he was dressed in a forensic suit and handcuffed as he escorted the officers to the deposition site he led them 69 meters off of the main track a knelt down on the spot it was just meters from where they had already been digging it was here that the search for Katie Canyon came to a devastating end foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] said there was no mound of soil no sign of a disturbance it was a densely populated wooded area with a complex route Network notwithstanding burfield has a skill base as a builder this was a complex grave each layer of soil was taken off in order the topsoil then the next and put back in that same order a large route ran through the grave and it had not been severed an archaeologist and a forensic botanist said it was completely implausible to dig that grave within the time scale burfield was known to have been in the forest with Katie it was impeccably finished I want to bring you some breaking news now coming to us from Lancashire police in connection with the search for missing Katie Kenyon 33 year old mother of two the police say they have sat sadly found the body of a woman the discovery was made last night in an area but as part of the forest of Bowland after receiving new information and at this stage they say they're not in a position to formally confirm the woman's identity but they do believe that the body is that of Katie her family have been told and they continue to be supported by specially trained officers so a body has been found in the search for missing Katie Kenyon Andrew burfield who's 50 and of Burnley has been charged with her murder despite his story that she had only been hit once with the back of the ax the postmortem revealed that Katie had actually been hit 12 times her phone has also never been recovered Katie's funeral service was held in May mourners followed the horse-drawn carriage carrying her coffin as her family and loved ones prepared to say goodbye her family said that she had been taken away from her children and family far too soon and that they felt stuck in a heartbreaking nightmare her sister Jenny said we will love you forever and always my beautiful big sister when his trial began at Preston Crown Court on the 14th of November 2022 it was expected to last roughly three weeks he entered a plea of not guilty the prosecution laid out their case saying a post-mortem showed severe head injuries with multiple fractures the injuries indicated the use of a heavy weapon such as an ax or a spade Dr Jamie Robinson a home office pathologist who will give evidence next week estimated there were at least 12 separate strikes to the Head it is the prosecution's case that Andrew burfield inflicted those blows the court heard that on the 21st of April Katie was captured on CCTV kissing and hugging Andrew outside his home that afternoon burfield traveled to his parents home and took a spade and that evening his van was seen traveling out towards the forest he then sent a message to a woman he had been seeing saying that he was proper knackered as the next day came around in the morning the pair had messaged back and forth and Katie has sent Andrew a message saying that she was ready and excited for a new chapter he told Katie he was going to drive her to a unit for therapy where she could get some help phone data was able to show that burfield had not taken his phone with him that day at 907 am Katie made her last phone call between 10 24 and 11 15 that morning her phone didn't connect with the O2 network the prosecution argued that it was during this time that Katie was murdered at 12 34 burfield sent a message to the other woman he had been seeing saying that something had come up involving the children and he wouldn't be able to make their date as planned he then set about covering his tracks by messaging himself her children and her mother pretending to be her Sarah said when the messages were received that afternoon we knew immediately that something was not right Katie would never have left her children like that and there was all sorts going through our heads we went out looking for her almost straight away and we sensed then that burfield was behind it on the third day of his trial Andrew burfield dramatically changed his play he pled guilty to the murder of Katie Canyon Sarah addressed the court with a victim impact statement Katie's murder has had an Indescribable effect on our family emotionally and things will never be the same again I cannot put it into words every Christmas birthday holiday and other significant data events will be scarred by Katie's absence and the reasons behind her absence Andrew burfield was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 32 years Mr Justice Goose told him your murder of Katie was as cruel as it was Savage the calmness you displayed before during and after proves your dangerousness you plan this as early as April 4th when you wrote notes on your phone to her children you encouraged her to look forward to her new starts and she believed you he said that what Andrew burfield had done to Katie was a ferocious and cruel attack adding that his guilty plea was not due to remorse but rather because his plan to cover his tracks had failed nothing can ever bring cater back well the family told flick and gained some comfort in the knowledge that Mr burfield now wants to spend a significant period of time he posted it and hopefully the remainder of his life afterwards at bare minimum Mr birdfield will now be at least 83 before he's eligible Andrew birdfield is a callous called manipulative individual he's a vile individual he meticulously plunged the murder of Katie to Mana I have never seen before and told never to see again he's offending throughout the course of their relationship and sort of manipulation and mental torture for Katie the family and myself would like to appeal to anybody who's out there say if you are in a relationship and you have concerns about your partner or if you have concerns about anybody else I think they may have concerned relations to their partner our request and the family request that you contact the police and make a close or application you're very keen to ensure that nobody else is harmed in the way that cases in harm in this occasion the fund they've also asked me to personally thank every person who's been involved in the case to bring cater's killer to Justice they also think it's important to express who Katie was and the family have given me a few words I'm now going to read on their behalf change it was beautiful and silly she always surrounded herself by chill with children her own and everybody else's who wants to join him she would take kids and the dogs everywhere with her she'd even try to set up some accounts for the local children so they had something to do and somewhere to go she loved the outdoors and she loved people we miss her we miss her very much beyond words and we will never get to express our loss foreign was referred to the attorney general after a request to review it for being unduly lenient was made his sentence was upheld and it was determined it was not unduly lenient DCI Davies called it one of the most complex investigations he had ever worked on this investigation is something that will remain with me forever Katie was in the prime of her life and she should still be here now her children should be waking up to their mum every morning Andrew burfield has completely taken all that away he said Katie Canyon was a loving devoted mother of two she had the rest of her life in front of her her losses left a void that will never be filled her sister Sarah said not only has Barfield taken Katie from us he has taken our lives too her children have lost their mum in the most horrific way she was mum dad and best friend all in one Katie was a fantastic mom our mum dawn has had to become a mother to two grieving teenagers but to do this while grieving the loss of your daughter is so difficult Katie told us she wanted to stop burfield from being able to do to other women what he did to her this cost her her life if you've been affected by any of the issues raised in today's case we have left links to further resources in the description box below for those of you that like to listen on the go we now have our episodes in podcast form and you can now find this via the link in 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Channel: Truly Criminal

Views: 1,108,897

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Id: W24wu4PCF-Q

Length: 35min 19sec (2119 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 11 2023