How Brilliant Detective Work Trapped This Killer (True Crime) | Our Life

tonight's story recreates the investigation into the murder of a 19 year old student you may remember her name rachel mclean [Music] the extraordinary thing about this case is that it was virtually solved without the one ingredient that is normally the center of any murder investigation the body it was carried out in the full glare of national publicity but that can be a double-edged sword fortunately the officer in charge right from the start had a hunch about how to exploit to the full this emotionally charged atmosphere you may turn over your paper and begin [Music] uh i will be a moment sir sorry sir carry on i'm worried about her sir she was reported missing on saturday by a tutor after she didn't show up for an exam but when we checked with her family and flatmates it turns out no one has seen or heard from her since last monday and what do the parents say they can't understand it they say they never go a whole week without speaking to them friends boyfriends she has a boyfriend he was the last one to see her but there doesn't seem to be any reason why she'd just disappear like this without telling anyone i'll keep you up to date sir but i thought you'd to know yes okay sarge sorry told you no problem [Music] the words seem to stick in bounds mind so much so that he took the unusual step of asking for the missing person's file on rachel mclean unusual because under normal circumstances he wouldn't have been notified of the case for possibly another week as bound read through the witness statements already taken from rachel's friends and flatmates the case appeared on the face of it baffling rachel was a second-year english and classic student at sint hilda's college oxford she kept in regular contact with her family in black and was well ahead with her studies [Music] who's she that's rachel it's her partner [Music] hi i'm a friend of max happy birthday [Music] i'm john [Music] i've never seen you shine so bright what scratching sounds i'm convinced we've got rats in this place can you have a look around oh don't worry i'll save that well then who's a little scaredy i'll show you something [Music] [Music] will i marry him will i get engaged to him will i let it roll over me without intercession simply because i can't be bothered to make any effort to stop it [Music] no man can love a strong woman without wanting to weaken her [Music] [Music] what time i don't know john she didn't say [Music] john what was she wearing [Music] hello oh hi john i'm sorry still no news [Music] my dearest lovely rachel thank you for such a wonderful weekend please excuse the handwriting as i am now sadly winging my way away from your smiling face i love you rachel fancy seeing that friend of yours at the station at least you didn't have to get a bus home he seemed really cool [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] john tanner yeah it's a thames valley crd just a routine call sir [Music] can we just go through again the last time you saw her okay she went back to oxford on the saturday after spending easter with her parents and i met up with her her place on saturday afternoon and we spent the weekend together how did she sing to you john were there any problems no my relationship with rachel was as loving as it's ever been in fact we both said how much we loved each other and you went home on the monday evening yeah that's right rachel came with me to oxford station to see me off we went there by bus and got there about five they cut one train out so in the end i got the 6 20. i've got my ticket somewhere anyway while we were waiting that's when she met her friend yeah tell us about you well he was about my age his hair was quite long bit like mine i hadn't met him before but i'm sure he and rachel knew each other pretty well so you'd recognize him if you saw him again sure [Music] sorry sir right we searched the house twice and all we have found is the leather jacket and boots tanner says rachel was wearing when she went to the station with him so what does that tell us she got back to the house after she met the friend at the station possibly or that she never left the house in the first place much more likely you think tanner's killed her don't you i do just get that feeling i can't work out what he has done with the body we have torn that bloody house apart and if it was still in there now what nine days after she was last seen alive you'd know about it two final point on it you'd be smelling it as soon as you walked in now he hasn't got a car so what has he done with her [Music] how do you want us to play it i want us to go out of our way to make him think he's in the clear see who looks a bit like rachel now we've dressed her in rachel's clothes and we'd like the two of you with your guidance to reenact what actually happened maybe just maybe someone saw rachel after she left you at the station what do you say sure [Music] what do you think happened rachael john there's someone i'd like you to meet this is david the local student he's helping us out today and what do you think does he look like the man you saw that night yes a very good likeness good what i'd like you to do now is to take us through step by step what happened in the cafe tell us where people were what they said okay well i was over here rachel was opposite yeah that's right what happens next well that's that's when a friend turned up and he came in from over there over there yeah yeah that's it now you see her and then you walk over to her yeah that's it that's it and now you tap her on the shoulder and now start talking to her yeah that's it well then he was chatting to her and then we left the cafe together and i got my train and that's the last time i saw her and that's how it happened like that yeah okay john that's great terrific thank you ladies and gentlemen if you'd like to take your pictures now [Music] what's your own theory about it john have you got some ideas mr tanner will answer your questions in a moment but i would ask you to remember it's his girlfriend he's suffering too so please bear that in mind john do you think rachel's still alive uh in my heart of hearts i'd i'd like to think so i would like to remind anyone who's watching to contact us with any information they have with regards to this case an eight-year-old boy who saved his incident room [Music] [Music] i always get on the same bus every day at around five o'clock so you get to know the regulars that's why i noticed him he was sitting there on his own i'd never seen him before i remember he was wearing these strange boots and they had a funny bit of cloth tied around one of them really scruffy they were [Music] i sat next to him on a bench at the station there wasn't any girl he was on his own about what time was this must have been about 20 past five he was writing a letter i suppose i was being a bit nosy but i had a look at what he was writing i couldn't see too much but it was written in black very small writing and there were four words at the top of the page my dearest lovely rachel no one saw him with rachel that evening he got himself no we haven't okay so they didn't see him with her but you could always stretch it she was in the toilet when they saw him she was bending down on the bus i don't know it's not watertight what about the letter he says he wrote it in the train on the way home but we got someone who saw him writing it in the station uh well he could have finished it off on the train now we still have no proof that he's lied to us about his version of events and until we do find some we leave tanner alone [Music] attention please enjoy the bachelorette one two three to the garage office please one two three to the garage office well i'm sorry none of the houses in this street has a basement or a cellar could there be a smaller space under a house maybe not a cellar just a couple of feet well i don't know sometimes the ground the house is built on demands underpinning well that would give you a few feet but it's pretty unusual around here where can you tell well unless you know what you're looking for you'd never spot it i could perhaps have a look for you if it's urgent [Music] i think i found what you're looking for now there's no way the driver would remember i mean you're asking for one face out thousands in a week but the computer never lies what did you say monday april the 15th yes he he gave us his ticket well his ticket confirms that he got on at maudlin road at 4 45 pm and his destination was oxford station but if we look at the computer printout for that time of day yes he was the only one who bought a ticket to the station no one else got on at that stop at that time and went to the station it's all here in black and white [Music] [Music] this house is underpinned i found an air brick on both sides and there's probably something like an 18 inch two foot cavity underneath it is that any use [Music] yes [Music] oh [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] john i can't buy another round i'm skinny [Music] well done well done we found her [Music] [Music] nottinghamshire police would you come with us please so [Music] what's the matter did you hear that what scratching sounds i'm convinced we've got rats in this place or will you have a look around for me don't worry i'll save you [Music] you couldn't foresee a future without it could you [Music] she was a lovely girl with a lovely family to do them justice now tell them why in god's name you did this [Music] i spoke to them last night and told them their daughter was dead that was an experience i never want to go through again they'll never recover john at least tell them why [Music] john tanner pleaded not guilty to the murder of rachel mclean he claimed in court that it was manslaughter not murder but at the birmingham crown court on december the 5th 1991 a jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment tanner claimed that he'd killed rachel when she told him that she'd been unfaithful to him but detective superintendent john bound remains convinced that despite tanner's conviction some questions remain unanswered tanner's version for example of how he killed rachel with his bare hands doesn't tally with the pathologist's finding that a ligature was applied to her neck two young lives now lay ruined and the truth is we shall probably never know exactly what happened on that dreadful night good evening [Music] you

Channel: True Lives

Views: 180,062

Keywords: our life, documentary, world documentary, documentary channel, award winning, life stories, best documentaries, daily life, real world, point of view, story, full documentary, documentaries, real life, michael winner, michael winner's true crimes, true crime, true crime documentary, crime documentary, real crime, rachel mclean

Id: 5jMoiZvFtrE

Length: 22min 4sec (1324 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2022