Catching a Serial Killer: Inside the Investigation | Real Stories True Crime Documentary

foreign six years ago top detective Steve Fulcher took on a case that would change his life it's a crime in action it's a kidnap and a girl's life is at stake it would bring him face to face with a serial killer the used of kidnapping Sean o'callaghan her 22 year old from Wiltshire Steve didn't what I think any family member would want an officer to do for them he did what he thought was necessary to save a life but stretched the law to Breaking Point he breached rules they were serious they were deliberate they were extraordinary disciplined by the force that once admired him his career was ruined my God I couldn't believe what the police were doing now for the first time Steve Stitcher reveals the dramatic story of his five-day search to rescue a kidnapped woman and bring a serial killer to Justice if I assumed she was dead then she would be dead because there is no other Cavalry that's coming the story began at a nightclub in Swindon Sean o'callaghan a 22 year old personal assistant was in a night out with friends Sean was this wonderful girl who who a stable relationship with Kevin nice family parents were lovely she's gone out with friends and then she decided to go home the nightclub CCTV [Music] very murky very grainy showed her clearly alone but you can see it's her and you see her leave the club and go along the road and that is it she did not come home I had a phone call from my son Liam say that her boyfriend Kevin had been concerned about Sean he'd spoken to the police and reported her as missing we had police turn up to kev's house in plain clothes they look serious date segmented myself and Kevin interviewed Kevin separately interviewed me in in the police car that's when I started to realize something's not right Wiltshire police began a missing person's inquiry checking hospitals Sean's mobile phone records and Bank details finding nothing they intensified their search and brought in one of their top Detectives Steve Fortune was described by a previous Chief Constable of Wiltshire as probably the brightest detective he had very good with families but a very good mind you could get inside people's heads at about six o'clock on Saturday the 19th of March I was called by officers from Swindon police station they decided that time to escalate the issue to me as the on-call senior investigating officer for the force I dropped everything and ran up to Swindon to work out precisely what lines of inquiry we should be instigating a telephone Trace has thrown up a startling clue at 3 24 am half an hour after she left the club the boyfriend sent her a text saying worried her phone picked that up through a mobile mast in the savinak forest this Show's alive that's got to be searched we've got to try and find him we've got to do it urgently the forest is approximately 15 miles from the nightclub a distance only manageable by car within that time frame working on the hypothesis that she could have been kidnapped and was still alive I conducted this investigation as a crime in action that means everything else is subordinate to the notion of finding sharp and seeking to save her life if I assumed she was dead then she would be dead because there is no other Cavalry that's coming it's it's me and my team or or nothing [Music] scouring Savannah Forest Shan's family and friends joined police today in the hunt for her even people who don't know her turned up to help it seemed like one minute it was on the television the next thing it was hundreds of people out at sevenak it was very surreal seeing it all it couldn't be harder a six and a half mile radius of the sabernac forest now clearly that in any terms is a difficult search issue and I haven't got explicit locations that I can pinpoint a search parameter around foreign [Music] with the search of seven act Forest failing to find Chang Diaz vulture badly needed a breakthrough all he had to go on with the grainy CCTV images looking at a tiny screen as someone's pressing play it showed Sean quite clearly walking into the headlights of a vehicle that was facing her swelled in numbers as more people came in and he just had so many pairs of eyes the car was stationary after she walked into those headlights for one minute four seconds from that minute of play by doing a house to house inquiry further down the street we could establish that she hadn't walked past that point even though you can't see her getting in the car she must have got in the car the car pulls away and Sean's no longer on the path it's blatantly obvious that she got in that car the key thing was to take the limited CCTV footage of the car that we believe Charlotte got into and get it into the hands of experts in identifying make and model it was a Toyota Avensis 2007. police then obtained another piece of CCTV on the side of the car and the door frame is a yellow square and what could this be it could it be a taxi number then came the real breakthrough a police officer had the idea of looking at all the police dashboard cameras that were patrolling Central Swindon at that time just in the minutes before Sean vanished one of the police cars had filmed a Toyota Avensis driving the other way and it had the number plate [Music] the register keeper was a Christopher Halliwell lived locally in Swindon he was a taxi driver he was in a relationship and had two daughters and a son not an obvious suspect we did a thorough examination of his fears picked up and movements and Halliwell had ostensibly told the firm that he's booking off duty at about 1 30 in that morning but Halliwell never went home instead the CCTV pictures show him driving around Swindon for another 90 minutes they knew he was lying he was telling the taxi company I'm going home I'm tired and he wasn't I placed him under surveillance with a 12 vehicle crew augmented by use of the helicopter and she was meant to return to her boyfriend's home but she didn't get there she was last seen Morris lives in his vehicle so that was a 24 7 surveillance commitment as he took TAXI fares wherever he went The Disappearance of a young woman during the Tuesday night he was observed putting Sean o'callaghan missing posts to sellotaping them into the back of his car he was observed cleaning the rear of his vehicle behind the passenger seat with some blue fluid he's seen depositing items in litter bins at various locations we've recovered car seats and seat covers he was burning things in the middle of the night he's clearly destroying evidence the question was asked of Me by the surveillance Commander do you want us to move in do you want us to arrest him and the answer is so you find forensic traces of charm great it won't help find Sean it might help Prosecuting him on suspicion of her disappearance but it won't find Sean the decision not to arrest Halliwell fat takes colossal nerve and it's an insight into what was driving superintendent vulture was still alive we've got to hope that Halliwell returned to wherever he'd left her could be bound and gagged somewhere we've got to find Sean if Sean was alive as Fortune knew that the time to save her was running out police had now been tracking Christopher halliwell's movements for 24 hours but he still hadn't LED them to Sean o'callaghan although more specific data from her mobile phone was narrowing the search area my new hypothesis was that the most likely location was a local Beauty Spot called Barbary Castle my hunch was that this was the most likely placement because it fits within the telephony data and is very close to Swindon the window for finding Shan alive was closing so Fulcher came up with a high risk plan to trap Halliwell into leading them to her he began to release selected information to the media dog teams police have narrowed the search area due to more specific information from Sean's phone not written a sequence of information releases which would indicate to him that we're closer and closer to finding Sean they describe digital hot spots and these are the areas they're now focusing on we're trying to encourage Halliwell to return to wherever he's left Charlo Callahan but the pressure of coming close to capture people can act in all kinds of ways the very latest we have from the police says we're getting very close to identifying Sean's whereabouts he came out of his house drove off followed by the surveillance team at about 10 o'clock the officers surveilling him called up to say he's been into a chemist he's bought an overdose quantity of pills if he commits suicide that's the end of Sharna callan's life Steve Fortune thought right I can't risk him committing suicide I'm going to have to have him arrested [Music] this was the moment of arrest as a man was stopped on suspicion of kidnapping Sean there are quite strict rules about how police officers deal with suspects they're governed by what's known as the pace laws they were brought in to prevent police from putting words into people's mouths and generally making sure they're guilty before they've even reached trial so when somebody has been arrested they are cautioned for taken back to a police station and they're given access to a lawyer but is arrested Under Suspicion of kidnap now that allows the police to have what is called an urgent interview where there's an immediate threat to life it is perfectly legitimate for officers to interview parties on the ground without reference to solicitors or return to the police station when Hollywood was arrested Steve Fulcher was at a police station across town conscious of the pace rules about Gathering police evidence Fulcher told the arresting officers the questions they should ask the principal question was is Sean still alive will you tell us where Sean is replies no comment so what was the right course of action at that point according to the PACE I should have had him take you to the police station booked him in and then once he'd had access to legal advice asking the same questions is she still alive where is she because the role of a solicitor acting on behalf of a client in custody is to prevent them incriminating themselves it isn't a voluntary thing it's their Duty that's how the law is written a discussion is then had in the office about whether or not this urgent interview can be extended by Steve vulture actually speaking to Halliwell and Steve takes the decision that he will conduct an urgent interview of Hallowell himself and just says right let's go [Music] Deborah Peach came with me to record everything that he said and done so I can demonstrate my decision making to any subsequent Court [Music] I directed the officers who were transporting Halliwell to go to the place I considered most likely chant at B and that was Barbary castle and I'd meet them there okay and the officers that were with Christopher Honeywell said are you sure you want to do that and I said don't get wobbly on me there were no other operational options available to me there were none [Music] it's a crime in action it's a kidnap and a girl's life is at stake all I could do plead with him [Music] plead with him for her life follow me and write down everything I say hello Chris I'm Steve Fulcher I'm leading this inquiry and I'm looking for Sean o'callaghan would you get out of the car and follow me comes to a point where you have to look him in the eye yourself make that assessment are you going to tell me where charm is I want to go to this station who's obviously determined to make no comment I know my rights I want my solicitor I'm not saying anything I'm not doing anything to help you find Sean you can go to the station but what will happen is that you'll be vilified in the Press but if you tell us where Shan is they will have known you've helped me you'd have done the right thing both of them were really calm there were long silences it was like this game was passing between them you think I did it I know you did it you reached the point at which his ability to maintain the line of Silence was no longer sustainable have you got a car we'll go what he said was have you got a car we'll go but it wasn't explicit so we were entirely in his hands personally I didn't think this was going to work I thought he'd toyed with us enough foreign [Music] passenger seat immediately in front of Christopher who's only later that Debbie said you know she spent the entire Journey fearing that he was going to lean forward with his handcuffed arms and rip her throat out I hadn't really thought of it in those terms but it's a fair point foreign that I thought Stephen just done it he's managed to persuade Chris value out to take us to Sean we're in this remote Road with a deep 12-foot Bank to our left side it was dark I pushed it down the bank [Music] down there somewhere finding Sean alive was still Steve's main objective I feared she was dead I might even believe she was dead I didn't know she was dead until I found Sean check for Vital Signs breathing pulse you've got to keep going so I dropped a surveillance car off at one extremity science car at the other calling search teams in to find charm you will find her search teams arriving he thought his job was done I felt the sense of gratitude he had done what I considered to be the right thing so I thanked him and explained that he would be given his rights taken back to the police station foreign he'd said you and I should have a chat which was quite old actually I asked a driver to get us off the road and he ended up driving up the countryside track that takes you directly onto the tail of the Iron Age White Horse I think [Music] I interpreted you and I should have a chat as meaning that he would want some quid pro quo [Music] I thought he would want the deal in terms of me catering for his family who are going to be affected by his incarceration which was sure to follow my thoughts were he was about to do a runner and I was looking around thinking how quickly he could make an escape and I just said well you know would you want to tell me he asked for help he said what's the matter with me Steve I'm a sick [ __ ] can I get help I said he's gone beyond that Chris and then he said do you want another one he's agreed it would appear to take me to another victim that he's responsible for which is an extraordinary offer are you sure you want to tell me this you're a man in charge described another victim a girl he'd taken from Manchester Road in Swindon a prostitute he couldn't tell me the year he said he was either in 2003 four or five but he said that he could take me to the exact spot where he'd buried her stage there's absolutely no doubt under Pace Christopher Hallowell should have been charged on the suspicion of murder taken back to a police station and given access to a solicitor clearly this second victim has been dead for some time therefore the defense that it's a kidnap doesn't hold water [Music] I say if somebody says I've murdered somebody your duty as a police officer is to recover the victim and the evidence associated with it so I agreed to go with him it was a decision that would change Steve fulcher's life forever [Music] we drove for about 45 minutes trying to keep him in the moment he showed me a list of girls who who he has on his phone that trust him as their preferred taxi driver Des vulture had still not cautioned Hallowell nor offered him access to a solicitor with no Prospect of finding a second victim alive he knew he had a far weaker case for breaking police rules as a professional police officer calculating the consequences of accepting a confession under these circumstances how admissible is any admission going to be how will this be perceived subsequently in court processes should I stop him confessing Place him under arrest and take him back into custody what are the ramifications of that well the ramifications are clear we might never find out who another one is [Music] then paste it out one foot in front of the other each showed me the exact position where he thought the body was [Music] she's under here that's how definitive he was he was fully contrite for that one moment in his life I believe how did you finish it strangled we had this quite surreal Exchange he knew full well that he's given the rest of his life away we're gonna have to get you back to the neck you're gonna have to tell us all this again [Music] I don't want to have to talk about it again Steve I'm afraid you're gonna have to okay as Fulcher made his way back to the police station he took the phone call he'd been dreading the search teams had found Sean o'callahan's body the missing person's investigation into what happened to Shana Callahan after she left a Swindon nightclub is now a double murder investigation earlier on today they had confirmed two bodies one of them believed to be Sean o'callaghan there's been a lot of activity here in Ashby Avenue this afternoon police began searching a property belonging to a taxi driver arrested earlier on suspicion of kidnapping shark I can remember exactly where everyone was sat in the room uh liaison had been with us most of the time was sat down another liaison stood up and she just said we found Sean and she is dead and that that was it that words I remember that very clearly on a clothing Aid in the absence of stars the sky over Swindon lit up by the light of a thousand lanterns I did go down to the lantern vigil I went with a few friends and they sort of enabled me to remain anonymous it sort of formed a circle so that I could see the lanterns and be a part of the vigil and it was comforting Char was a bubbly friendly caring and loving girl side of things they worked tremendously hard and they got a result very fast we would like to firstly thank Stephen Fulcher and his team for their inexhaustive work in finding and bringing Char back to us so speedily it was seen as a textbook investigation without a shadow of a doubt when I went back into the police station there was a line of senior officers who solemnly shook my hand as I went in today detectives investigating the murder of sharno Callahan confirmed that a second set of human remains belonged to Rebecca Gordon she would have been 29 years old [Music] my daughter's assistant I spent an hour or two with her mother she told the story of Becky's life um it's a heartbreaking story the last time I saw Becky and I said Becky you've got to come home you have to come home and she said oh mum I can't keep putting you through this I'll come home when I'm clean Becky was a drug addict and a prostitute nobody wanted to help a drug addict fairness I don't know what how you can help a drug addict because we tried rebecci and we didn't succeed we were told that Christopher Halliwell would go away for a very long time for a double murder but then the roller coaster began [Music] the police were the only ones who knew that hello will had confessed to the murders without being cautioned they'd assumed it would be a formality to get him to repeat what he'd told Steve Fulcher when they got back to the station it was clear that he would not he got himself a solicitor and was now offering no comment I was both surprised and disappointed because the bond that we'd formed and the Contrition that he was demonstrating meant that I was quite convinced that he would repeat the confession he talked about the then silence the confession was not made in the police station in front of her sister you've only got the word of a policeman and indeed a member of police staff who was taking notes that conversation those vital confessions disappeared without those confessions the case could fall apart of the trial and Halliwell would walk free ten months after Steve Fletcher arrested Christopher Halliwell the case was ready to go to trial despite questions about his own conduct in breaching police and criminal evidence guidelines known as Pace Steve futcher was confident that he'd acted correctly but as proceedings began Hallowell was still refusing to make a formal confession to the murders I was in court when halliwell's lawyers suddenly sprung this quite shocking suggestion that the trial should not go ahead that Steve Fulcher had broken the pace laws and as a result of that all the information that you got conversations with Christopher halderville were to be inadmissible they could not be put before a jury you have to have an appreciation of just how many rules he breached during the course of those five or six hours that he had had well in his custody I mean they were multiple they were serious they were deliberate they were extraordinary I understand that people did not want to give police officers carte blanche to breach pace and I don't advocate course of action at all is a very particular very extreme set of circumstances the view in the was the DS Fortress actions had undermined justice for Shan I was cross-examined by one of the top qcs in the country for two days he said officer this isn't about truth and Justice this isn't about guilt or innocence this is about admissibility of evidence the idea you could extract those Notions from a meaningful Court process is in my view utterly ridiculous yes you can go to the station but what will happen is that you'll be vilified in the Press D.S vulture I had set him will be vilified by the Press if you don't make this confession and that was employed by the defense to show that The Offspring question had engaged in impression to get Honeywell to speak frankly with him in one hour's time you will be in the Press I knew perfectly what statement as the Italian well Steve was saying look I can't control the media the point I made was we've got the whole media outside the police station you're going to be taken into custody they'll be doing a number on you and if you're innocent simply tell me and you don't need that to happen now that was twisted to to suggest that I threatened to vilify him in the press as if I could do such a thing for one thing I was following the national kidnap manual to the letter this is what you're required to do in kidnap situations prioritize the life of the hostage if she was still alive and I'd walked away my offense would have been grotesque [Music] the judge ruled that any evidence given by Steve Fulcher as to his conversations with Christopher hallibur were inadmissible they could not stand and they would not be put to a jury included both confessions on the basis that T.S Fortress conducted had been improper that he could have engaged oppression to get the confessions that he did and accordingly the evidence was unreliable but there was to be a further twist after his confession police searches had found forensic evidence Shan's blood in halliwell's taxi and traces of his DNA on her body fortunately that forensic evidence placed Christopher Halliwell with a body of Charlotte so therefore the judge ruled the trial could go ahead for Charlotte Callahan based purely on that forensic evidence but nothing could be said about Becky Gordon whatsoever and the charges against Halliwell for the murder of Becky Gordon Edwards should be dropped I couldn't believe it I would I would just so I was just so destroyed I thought my daughter my daughter is a nothing Halliwell was the criminal not Steve Fulcher you've got two bodies there you've given a confession you're guilty then how can that that's what I don't get so I'd love someone to explain that to me but um I don't know how does that work a taxi driver jailed for life for the killing of a young nightclubber in Swindon has escaped charges for a second murder it was only months later when Halliwell was convicted of Sean's murder that the truth was made public there would be no justice for Becky police made crucial mistakes during halliwell's confession they failed to caution him properly which meant despite admitting Becky's murder the charge had to be withdrawn questions are now being asked about the actions of detective superintendent Steve Fulcher an investigation by the independent police complaints commission concluded that future should face charges of gross misconduct an independent panel arranged by Wilshire police found him guilty of breaching Pace guidelines and inappropriate contact with the media he was given final warnings about both but allowed to keep his job I can remember coming out of his conduct herein I was just [Music] God I couldn't believe what the police had actually what they were doing [Music] they were hanging him out to dry [Music] the murder detective who caught a killer and was criticized by the police Watchdog has resigned he's almost unemployable certainly unemployable than any British police force although of course he was not sacked it's certainly taken its toll on him I have a lot of sympathy for DS vulture I can understand why he did what he did but this was a bungled inquiry this is a experienced police officer who chose deliberate I mean it wasn't ignorance on his part it was a conscious decision by him to drive a coach and Horseshoe through a recognized police procedure I've lost my career it destroyed my life my finances my family one thing came out of it after this systematic destruction of Steve Fulcher they decided then to reopen Becky's murder inquiry a fresh hunt for clues about the murder of Becky Gordon police today began the forensic search of a house in Swindon which they hope will yield missing evidence about what happened to Becky who was last seen in December 2002. today prompted a direct appeal to Halliwell Behind Bars to tell all this is your chance now come clean please what have you got to lose Chris Halliwell was questioned Again by a new lead officer about the Becky murder and there's this footage of the interview hello world seems to be offering police a deal if I could resolve the matter but don't want to come back every couple of years every five years over 10 years whatever it is as if if it goes to court and I'm found guilty that's it you're locking up that's right he seems to be offering them the confession that he murdered Becky but he wants to be left alone and the police say no deal we can't do that police still didn't have an admissible confession from Halliwell that he'd murdered Becky Gordon but then there was a breakthrough there reopened investigation discovered soil on a spade which placed Halliwell in the field where Becky was found Becky's friends also gave evidence against him this was enough to bring Halliwell back to court [Music] in that court case the judge ruled that because of his earlier conviction for Sean's murder halliwell's confessions were now admissible in his trial for Becky's the case was now overwhelming and Halliwell was found guilty after only two hours of jury deliberation to the families of Becky and Sean this new ruling suggested the pace laws need to be looked at again it has been an extremely painful Journey but today we've received the justice that has felt like an eternity coming for our beautiful little girl Becky my view is that I have brought two daughters back to their mother and I've prevented other victims resulting from halliwell's continued pursuit of his career as a serial killer [Music] morally I don't think there's any question over Steve doing what I think any family member would want an officer to do for for them and for their for their family but at the same time I could also understand the legal ramifications of it as well he crossed the line which he shouldn't have done but I feel the line shouldn't be there some issues with the actual Pace guidelines itself um that need to be changed so that there isn't any ambiguity in the future [Music] the current thinking in policing is the pace is inviolable and if the girl dies so be it they're wrong what I did was write Pace precisely provides for it and the oath of office of a constable requires me to do this you have to look at the wider picture and say all right do we need to have a way of ensuring that the police powers are not abused that people aren't bullied into making confessions but for my course of action Becky would still be in that field Sean would be would never be found and Christopher Halliwell would be walking the streets people can talk about it discuss it weight all up but ultimately for us that can go on and on and on but we haven't got Sean and that then that's that's the hardest [Music] [Music] foreign

Channel: Real Stories

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Keywords: documentary 2023, full length documentaries 2023, documentary movies - topic, free documentaries on YouTube, Real stories uk, real stories full documentary 2023, conspiracy documentary, conspiracy theory, freedom of choice, matrix, simulation theory, are we free to choose, capitalism, philosophy, philosophical debate, tlc, only human, wonder

Id: QrQSbaIMTaE

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023