One Disturbed Man That Ended Seven Lives | Killers Mistake | Real Crime

an allotment in North London Police are searching for a missing Woman They gain entry to the allotments and and whilst they're looking for her they're calling her phone they're making their way to her plot they're still ringing her number and they hear the sound of a phone ringing they hear it coming from a locked sh there's a padlock on the door inside they will find the body of 80-year-old Leia adris Yoko she's been murdered when they broke into the shed they found the terrible sight of Leah dead within there she was wearing Wellington Boots she had an apron on and unfortunately a cord around her neck she was also found to have a set of the keys to that particular shed in her pocket the suspect list was a small one and as police invest investigated the family of Leia Adria Yoko came to realize their mother had been murdered by a friend it added to their Devastation a lot of people said they can't imagine what a family like this goes through and I always said don't try in the end it's the worst thing in the world to lose anyone to violence it will completely turn your world inside out who was responsible for murder on the allotment detectives gather evidence until a picture of a suspect emerges which piece of the puzzle will reveal Rahim muhamed as guilty of murder what would be the Killer's [Music] mistake [Music] set within the neat rows of houses of an area of North London known as cindale is a much prized parcel of land divided carefully into rows and each of those rows is tendered lovingly by someone who has rights to grow plants and flowers in a corner of the capital of England over which they retain control one such person was Leia adri sooko Leia adri sooko was a very fit and healthy lady in her early 80s she was had been for many years the secretary of the colindale allotment her home which she had occupied for about 40 years by the time she died was but 150 M from the main entrance to the alotment she had made London her home and her hobby the allotment two factors which would contribute to her murder one sold because of a key mistake made by a killer and it was because of a key it was very strange that she was inside the shed but the shed door was locked and that reduced the amount of suspects really that the police were interested in talking to because there were only a certain number of keys now Leia had hers on her there were a couple of other keys that were either broken unusable people were out of the country and an allotment is a peculiarly British thing a place to garden and grow if you don't have a space of your own or if yours is too small she really liked it there she liked being able to grow her own food she liked being having something to go to do um she liked I think meeting the people there and then when she started I think join when she joined the committee and they asked her to do that she enjoyed that she enjoyed meeting all the different people colale is a residential suburb on the Northern edge of London that enjoys a great deal of cultural diversity Leia herself had moved from overseas and made North London her home Leia's son Mark recalls how much she relished welcoming new faces to the allotment after she retired she liked basically being busy having something to do having a you know something that basically made things better for not just for her but for you know for other people you know enabling people to use the allotments and you know helping organize all of that she she really enjoyed it Leia knew what it was like to have to find your feet in an unfamiliar place my mom was from Belgium um she's born I think in antp in 1936 in the early 60s whilst training to be a bookkeeper she met and fell in love with the man who was to become her husband they got married in 1965 and then I think in early 1966 they moved to to London Dad's job moved him to London and they came over and they stayed in London ever since Leia and her husband antonus quickly found their feet in the UK they settled in North London had three children Leia's house in candale had a garden that she loved to tend it was that which ignited a passion for gardening that led her to getting an allotment there she soon became a familiar face well there was the Garden at home which she used to do a lot of the work in you know Dad would do M the lawn she would work in the flower bed she liked cooking so she like to have vegetables and she like to grow those so there would be tomato plants around and stuff like that John price is the Barrister who would one day be charged with Prosecuting the man who took the life of Leia adri Yoko she was well known to all of the plot holders she'd been the Secretary of it for many many years and she was much loved by them all they all really loved her she didn't take sides she was there trying to make sure that everybody was able to enjoy the allotments as much as possible one of those allotment holders was Raheem mahamd and from the moment that he arrived in colindale he would benefit from Leia's acceptance and kind kindness his was a tortured life story literally Raheem muhamed was a refugee from Iran his Origins were in the Kurdish community in Iran Raheem Muhammed was a man who had multiple problems he said that those problems came from the torture that he had suffered in Iran and he did have lots of scarring on his body he seemed to have lots of medical problems and and suffered quite badly uh with back pain and he came over to the UK in 2005 where he sought Asylum the basis of his claim was that he'd been subject to torture and um he carried some significant injuries he had a glass eye on the face of it a vulnerable looking man who had lots of problems a charity called freedom from torture nurtured relationships with allotments across the country what better way to help refugees escaping abuse than to offer them a piece of land of their own to cultivate it was a charity that helped people who had experienced torture or escaped um really cruel regimes he was introduced by charity to the allotment really is therapy to help him deal with the effects of what had happened to him in Iran a refugee a victim of torture debilitated by his injuries a fish out of water in a new country rahem had struggled to find his place in the busy hustle and bustle of London but when he started visiting colale allotments it was as though he'd found his niche as well as attending as part of therapy sessions he soon began visiting on his own and despite the fact that there was a 7-year waiting list for a plot Rahim Muhammed was able to get one of his own and quickly there came a time in 2013 when he acquired his own plot he lived alone he had a bedsit in Hackney and he used to travel to the allotment on public transport pretty much every day it was quite obvious that by the early part of 2017 it was the center of his life in busy London the allotment was an oasis of calm for a refugee like Muhammed a place for friendship for the man who'd suffered torture Leia adri Yoko looked out for him a local journalist ree Handley spoke to others on the allotment who knew her she sort of took this uh very traumatized and very troubled man under a wing and at first Rahe mhammed responded by blossoming into a friend and enthusiastic fellow alotment teer how could Leah possibly know that a picture was building not one framed by flowers and allotment goings on but of the killer she had allowed into her life I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required it was the common Bond of gaining purpose from toiling on the colale allotment in North London which established a friendship between Committee Member Leia and the troubled Refugee rahem a bond which would from time to time be tested by Mr muhammed's occasional flashes of temper despite that she looked for the good in him she knew that people were difficult you know and uh you know they they had issues and they weren't always nice but she wouldn't hold that against them she would always try and find something good about them and I think this one things we've you know I think we did learn from her sometimes maybe she was a little too trusting for many years it was apparent that the relationship between them was a good one there is no reason to think that as with everybody else he became very fond of her not least because she was extremely good to him she indulged him overindulged him perhaps she invited him to her home every now and again for a cup of tea into chat did think to try and help him she worked with him you know he I think he did the odd job around the garden at house cutting things back Leia involved rahem in the running and the administration of the allotment he was handy with machines so so he helped maintain equipment and he mowed the communal paths as time went on he craved even greater involvement and more control over how the allotments were run and he was to get that control he became more and more involved in the running of it he became active he was growing fruit he was growing veg he'd been invited on to help with the committee by Leah Adria coko he became an active member of the committee and seemed to take a great deal of delight in being part of it she welcomed into the allotments and uh sort of opened up these positions for him on on the the committee for uh for the colale allotments getting a place on the allotment committee to a troubled lonely Asylum Seeker seems to have been a tremendous achievement he had become one of the central figures in an organization that he'd come to love in his new home he was given keys to the communal buildings a rare honor this was a proud moment he had been accepted raheem's horrific past which had left him maimed for life was over but getting a key to an allotment shed would also signal the start of a murder story because this small amount of power the power to unlock a communal shed would decidedly go to raheem's head the allotment became his second home each time he traveled by bus and Tube to get there it occupied nearly all of his time and he was very heavily involved in the politics of the allotment and he came to have strong views about how it should be managed there were a couple of disputes over just the general running of the allotment just sort of stuff that sounds like quite sort of sort of tedious and and busy Bish maybe even a little bit Petty and that kind of thing but obviously when you live in a community like this those things are so important to you and and something like an allotment is is a very personal thing for a lot of people so obviously Leia took a lot of pride in what she was doing here and I imagine rahee probably felt very precious about it as well on rahee Muhammed getting the keys to the colale allotment communal shed his fellow gardeners discovered they had swn seeds of discontent as one by one he would pick arguments with his allotment neighbors Leia adri Soko was often called on to settle disputes At first she kept the stressful encounters with rahee Muhammad from her family she wasn't going to try and make me worry she didn't want to burden me with stuff and she was kind of you know she managed her business she would get on and manage her business and she wouldn't burden other people with it she wouldn't lay it on any of us her children Leia suffered in silence but like an unwanted weed Rim Muhammed soon proved difficult to work around or to get rid of as soon as he achieved his ambition of joining the committee at colindale New Found power in a new land started to go to his head he didn't like the way that Leah Ram the allotment and he wasn't afraid to make his feelings clear just after muhamed had joined the management committee things started to change he started to change he became quite upset about the way that he saw that Leah was running things there was increasing tension between him and Lear adri sooko because he found himself increasingly frustrated by the way in which he managed the allotment and whereas he would have had her be much harsher on what he saw as infractions of the rules by other plot holders he only ever found her looking for a way to resolve disputes to diplomatically deal with incidents and to try and find a way of resolving problems without causing conflict she did not impose what she wanted on other people she would not impose on people at all that kind of way Muhammed was a stickler for the rules when other gardeners did things he didn't think were right holding noisy parties on their plot building fences above regulation height he demanded that the committee come down hard on them in meetings he was becoming increasingly vocal about the way things should be done that wasn't Leia adrio style she believed the allotments were there for everybody to enjoy and she stuck to her guns she wouldn't take nonsense particularly and she wouldn't let's say let people steamroll at her she wasn't a she wasn't a pushover at the same time though she would never roll over somebody else she knew what she wanted and she knew what she would stand up for and what she would need it and she would make sure she got it but she would do it in a way that didn't hurt other people things came dramatically to a head one night at one of the committee's regular meetings an allotment holder had started keeping chickens and rabbits in his shed that was against the association's rules Leia favored a diplomatic approach Muhammed insisted angrily that the man must be evicted there seems to be some very crosswords exchange at a committee meeting where he was quite abusive to her in a fairly open forum her family were becoming concerned don't get too engaged with this guy don't get involved beyond what you have to to do the stuff for the allotments you know be polite you know but don't get get involved don't bring him in any more than you need to but Leah was not about to allow herself to be bullied he was venturing his view on the matter and there came a moment when she told him to shut up and this according to the other committee members greatly angered him he was described as being extremely cross he appeared very offended at having being told by her to shut up he shouted insults back at her in front of everybody else I mean he called her an old witch you know among other things and it was really quite nasty and very very awkward for everybody what he said may have been much worse but his precise words were soon to be in dispute Leia and her fellow garders were horrified that things had got so out of hand they hadn't really seen this side of Muhammad before he'd always been passionate but now he seemed dangerous unpredictable he had to be pacified he accepted that there had been an incident which he regretted and which should not have occurred shocked and upset Leia immediately tried to make amends but after that violent altercation things were never the same again between the elderly woman and her onetime friend and prote after that argument Leia probably felt a bit bad because she went to muhammadi and she apologized and she tried to make things right between them but Muhammed really did not respond in a way I think that she expected Leo offered an olive branch to him and tried to be a bit of a peacemaker and make things all good again to no avail as emails would Leisure establish a number of emails which she'd clearly printed off and therefore it clearly had had an effect on her which she had sent to her in the immediate aftermath of this meeting in which again he had spoken to her over a period of days in those emails in really quite aggressive unpleasant and intemperate terms did he up the anti he was sending abusive emails he was being really rude about her saying he could run the allotments better and criticizing her handling of the finances unsettled scared even by Muhammad's Behavior Leia requested that a note be made in the committee's files of Muhammad's aggressive Outburst he responded by suggesting to the rest of the committee that Leia was abusing the allotment association's finances something which was an outright lie Rahim Muhammed was clearly determined to assert dominance and control over the situation any way he could Leia responded by taking a step back from the earlier established friendship she was you know a bit wary of him in trying to you know basically distancing herself slightly in terms of okay she would work with him for stuff in the lopment and you know but not get involved with anything personally she continued to try and treat him with the consideration and the fairness that she had always done but I think whereas in the past he was a frequent visitor to her home that would not have caused her a problem I think such closeness between the two of them was not so welcome more than unwelcome theya told close family members she was becoming frightened from things that she had subsequently said to her granddaughter and to her daughter about what was taking place that she was to use their phrases that she was increasingly wary of him and having seen what he'd done at the meeting in the presence of others and having seen how the emails that he was prepared to send to her as a way of trying to coers her into doing what he wanted her to do she was ever more unsettled by his behavior and as as they said ever more we of him though Leia was now on her guard around Raheem Muhammed she had no way of knowing just how much danger she was in despite a stream of angry emails no one seemed to have the impression that she could provoke someone to do something like this and obviously no one deserves to have something like that happened to them but with Leia it was in a special shock because she was known as a as a decent and upstanding person as shocked as she and others were nobody could possibly know how far Raheem Muhammed was prepared to take his anger Leia adri coka was in grave danger down on the allotment the 27th of February 2017 was a day like any other for Leia adoko and Rahim muhamed he planned to travel across London to spend most of the day at the allotment she would spend the morning at home before walking over to her plot just meters from her house on coland deep Lane it was a date in late February it was a wet and miserable day there were very few people on the allotment Leia was seen heading to the allotment site just after 2:30 in the afternoon by a former plot holder she had been due to meet a very good friend of hers to go to a meeting of the Haro and wheelstone allotment society and it was going to involve a journey by her from colindale Tube Station and then taking a bus to arrive at the venue at about 7:30 that evening and she'd arranged to meet her friend shortly before that near the bus stop where she was due to disembark the meeting had been set up via phone calls he was the last person that she ever spoke to and they'd confirm that Arrangement Leia has an appointment going meet a friend but she doesn't make that appointment and the friend is really quite worried and raises the alarm wondering where she is he had then called her starting at just after 6:00 and his calls to her went to voicemail and he called her about three or four times between 600 and 620 and each of the calls went to voicemail Leia aoko was someone who kept her appointments she wouldn't have left her friend waiting without calling him to explain why she was always mindful of what others needed and what they wanted and she would not um let's say ignore their needs or just brush them aside she wouldn't do that and when she didn't turn up he went back to the house at which her granddaughter lived and so it became known to the family that she hadn't kept this appointment so so after searching fruitlessly for Leah um for a number of hours they decided to call the police they took themselves to candale police station reported her missing because of her age the police immediately treated this as a as an urgent case she was treated as a vulnerable person Leia had never disappeared before she'd always answered her phone she was always careful not to give her children and grandchildren any cause for concern scared confused layers family worried that she'd been taken ill perhaps Fallen badly and was lying in the dark in need of urgent help her daughter went looking for her the police assisted her with a search and in the early hours of the morning and they went to the allotment just to search the general allotment area they're making their way to her plot they're still ringing her number and they hear the sound of a phone ringing they realized that that might be hers cuz obviously it coincided with them using their phone so they followed that sound ringing the number again and it took them to the mower shed the phone could clearly be heard coming from within the shed how had her mobile phone come to be in there neither the family nor the police had a key for the lock it was too urgent to wait officers set about forcing open the door what they found inside was the stuff of nightmer when they get inside they see Leia's body lying there she was wearing Wellington Boots she had an apron on and unfortunately a cord around her neck Leia adri Yoko was dead she was wearing her gardening clothes old trousers and an apron her head and face were covered with an old coat underneath the coat they found her face was badly bruised a lawn mower cord wrapped around her neck when police examined Leia more closely they discovered something that would prove to be pivotal in their investigation the Killer's mistake which would lead them very quickly to the door of a murderer it was very strange that she was inside the shed but the shed door was locked the padlock on the mow shed was one which required the use of its key not merely to unlock it but to lock it and when searching her they found the keys to the lock shed in her pocket her padlock key was on her allotment key ring in the pocket of the jacket that she was wearing inside the shed and that reduced the amount of suspects really that the police were interested in talking to because there were only a certain number of keys now Leia had hers on her they would have also then been thinking about who else has a key and who could possibly have locked that uh shed with uh Leah dead inside the killer could not have used Le 's key to lock the lawnmower shed he or she must have had their own to relock the shed when leaving apart from Leah only four other people held those keys who had locked Leah in that shed and who had killed her colale allotments became a crime scene and the investigation that followed would send shock waves through a residential neighborhood it was a bit of a shock for the for the local community I think for it to happen and everyone was just a little bit desperate to know what was going on everyone was concerned for their safety and that kind of thing people don't get killed on allotments except somebody had been killed in a corner of North London a real life murder mystery had begun colindale is quiet colell is unassuming it's it's diverse but it's vibrant it's got community things like the allotment going on and uh often most of my coverage was related to community things Village fairs and um and you know children dressing up for book day and that kind of thing it was a little bit of a shock to see it come through on the newswire and to get uh tip offs from residents saying that cindell was where a potential murder had happened the Metropolitan police's major investigations team was called to the scene the local journalist ree Handley had never seen activity like this in candale when I got here there was already a cordon put up it was quite hard to get close I couldn't get even as near as this when I was here last time once the site was sealed off detectives set about finding out who had keys to the lawnmower shed where Leia's body had been found apart from Leah there were four others to track down officers soon learned one of them was rahee Muhammed it meant he was a person of interest as well as his status as a keyh holder putting him in the frame his behavior on the day of the murder was arousing serious suspicion on being confronted by a police cordon when he arrived at the allotment that morning Muhammed showed no curiosity about why he couldn't enter he simply walked away he made no inquiry of the police on the gates as to why they were there but much more significantly he didn't ring her up to say Leo what's going on at the allotment why is it closed and of course she only lived 150 yards from the gate he didn't pop round to the house to see what the problem was why because he already knew exactly what had happened as police began to make their inquiry a postmortem was carried out on Leah's body she was strangled using the stter cord of the disused allotment lawnmower in the lawnmower shed she was badly beaten up she had sustained a number of recent blunt force impacts which had caused amongst other things fractured ribs serious bruising to her face including around her mouth and there was a minor fracture to one of the vertebrae at the back of her neck whoever had killed her had to be able to access the shed that her body was found in was not realizing how few people had a key the mistake which would cost Rahim Muhammed a lifelong prison sentence there had been an extraordinary violent attack on an 80-year-old woman what on Earth could have caused aggression of such magnitude especially against somebody who was well liked who'd never heard so much as a fly in her life reporters were hearing all about Leia adri Yoko from what I know from the people that I spoke to she was a lovely woman she was unassuming but she was also very dignified she was very she's very generous and uh she was very open and decent she was happy to to lend a hand to anyone who asked for her children and grandchildren a tragedy which boarded on the Absurd if you read about it or you saw it as something in a you know in a drama you think that's just stupid and it is it's such a stupid wasteful Wicked act it made no sense at all it's utterly senseless and it is so ridiculous mom wouldn't hurt a person hurt anything or anyone while Leia's family and friends reeled from the shock of her murder police followed the trail of the keys there were a couple of other keys that were either broken unusable people were out of the country the inquiry would have looked hard at who had access to that shed and where exactly all the keys and the keyh holders would have been um they found that one of the keyh holders was currently on holiday in Peru another had left the allotment at 9:00 in the morning and they could I think quite easily demonstrate that and that the other key was entirely bent out of shape and wouldn't have worked in the lock so that only left Muhammed Rahim Muhammed had been proud to become a member of the allotment committee it had been a mark of status acceptance when he was handed his set of keys now they were bringing suspicion to his door so he had to answer for his movements from the very start although admitting that he was was present on the allotment that afternoon denied that he had any involvement in her death at all he gave inconsistent accounts of his movements around the time he did claim that he'd been to see Leah in order to return a tape measure um he did say he been to the allotment that day and he did talk about hearing a drunken fight but just discounted it as nothing he said he'd been gardening for most of the day he claimed he'd only left the site once to visit the shops on the nearby edgeware Road and that he had seen nothing un to at the allotment before returning home but piece by piece detectives were gathering evidence that exposed his lies in line with nearly all murder inquiries CCTV plays an enormous part and extensive CCTV inquiries in the local area close by the allotment showed him active at the times when she had last been seen CCTV on the edgeway road captured this defendant going to and from that shopping area on three separate occasions when asked why he had been along the road so often and hadn't volunteered the information earlier Muhammed admitted something to the police that they had not expected he said he needed drugs he introduced into the case the fact that he had an opium habit and that he was supplied with opium by another plot holder and of course that enabled him also to explain why he had not revealed that he'd been down there three times because he said he didn't want to tell the police that he'd been buying opium detectives never got to the bottom of muhammed's lies about his movements that day while he tried to hide his comings and goings from the allotments but they suspected it was tied up with Leia's murder and as their inquire iies progressed they found even more damning evidence against him DNA on the cord used to strangle Leia it was accepted that the DNA found on the cord that matched his profile was indeed his but it was his case that the obvious explanation for that was as a result of him in fact having replaced the cord several years ago when it needed to be done Rahim Muhammed continued to deny his guilt but the police were building an Ever clearer Narrative of what had happened at colindale allotments on the evening that Leia had died both had gone to the site to tend to their plots but at some point their paths crossed they rowed in one shed before tragic events played out in another there was an encounter between the two of them in the committee shed next door much as had happened in that same building 6 months earlier there had occurred a row of some sort but this time there was nothing to inhibit him because there was no one else there and he lost it and he hit her there was clearly a violent altercation Leah was violently assaulted so there was a hot blooded assault and then suddenly this man whose life was the allotment was faced with a lady possibly partly conscious or uncons consious At His Feet whom he'd hit and of course who knew who had done this to her and our case was that he knew that his days on the allotment were finished if she was allowed to identify him as being the person who had done this to her at that moment Brahim Muhammed had a choice to make he could have sought help for Leia called an ambulance but if he had done that she would have reported the attack he stood to lose everything he'd be booted off The allotment he might face jail the refugee might even be deported he took the decision there's no other way of putting it he took the decision that she had to die to complete the murder Muhammad he felt that he had to move to the allotment shed to which he had a key a key so very few people had he unlocked the shed next door he picked her up he took her in there he laid her out and then he he applied the cord to her neck to kill her in order to prevent her from reporting the fact that he had beaten her up it was a cold blooded killing carried out to cover up a hot blooded assault Rahim Muhammed covered Leia Ado's face with an old coat left the shed locking the heavy padlock with his own key though he didn't know it it was at that moment that he secured his own conviction what did he plan to do next was he going to return to the shed in the dead of night and move her body the next part of his plan never became clear because even when charged with murder and faced with all of the evidence Muhammed refused to admit his guilt to tell the full story Mr Muhammed protested his innocence before the trial during the trial he protested his innocence to the jury after he he'd been sentenced as far as I am aware he protests his innocence still some found it hard to believe that Muhammad was a killer he called witnesses as part of his case and there was a particular individual who worked for the charity that had placed Mr Muhammed on the allotment all those years ago who was still a supporter of his came to give evidence for him and it was quite Apparent from the way in which that gentleman gave his evidence that he genuinely found it very difficult to believe that Mr Muhammed could have been responsible for so appalling and serious an act of violence but he was responsible despite his denials he displayed a level of cunning and Care in what he had to say and he thought very carefully about how he might best explain the ID Ence that was relied upon against him he was vehement he protested loudly he answered questions at Great length in his summing up the judge was prompted to ask rhetorically of the jury depending upon their view of the matter whether a stage had been reached whereby Mr Muhammed had convinced himself that he had not done it his protestations fell on death ears the strength of the evidence stacked up against him was just too strong on November 30th 2018 Rahim muhamed was found guilty of the murder of Leia adri Yoko and sentenced to life in prison he was told he would serve at least 19 years before he could be considered for release as he was sent down Muhammed told the judge and the jury they were jailing an innocent man I think either he has convinced himself he didn't do it or you know he's disassociated from it somehow so it's not real he actually you know um I think the only thing that came close to from what I can understand of him showing any kind of remorse is the fact that he covered her face when they her face was covered with an old coo when she was led out but other than that I don't think he has shown any remorse or any acceptance of what he's done it was a most remarkable case she was a remarkable and much loved woman who did a great deal for many people who lived worked and spent time on that allotment the conduct of the case was very very difficult it was almost a throwback this was in many senses an old-fashioned case in which the prosecution had to rely on a combination of circumstances to explain a story and to prove a man's guilt [Music] and there are not many cases like that anymore the key piece of evidence was the key itself to the lawnmower shed where Muhammed had left Leah's body after he had killed her being the only keyh holder without an alibi that afternoon was the one piece of evidence he simply could not explain a way clearly the biggest mistake that muhamed made he made a few but the biggest mistake was locking that shed door I think he locked that shed door because he didn't want anybody to find Leia before he'd had a chance to clean up or do whatever he was going to do but it was that that was his undoing locking the shed with his own key placed Raheem Muhammed firmly on the scene when Leia Adria Yoko was murdered that was his Killer's mistake the reason he's been sentenced to life in prison the guilty verdict however is not a consolation for the family of Leia adri Yoko while we believe the right person has been found guilty it's not something to feel good about at all you know it's not about Triumph or anything like that doesn't bring mom back a lot of people said that there' be Justice for her if there was actually Justice it would never have [Music] happened a wooded area behind a strip mall in Connecticut a McDonald's nearby two places known All Too Well to William Devon how it was where he stopped in his van when working in neighborhoods nearby he called it the murder mobile he called that field that area where those bodies were buried his garden he's a monster sick Howell abducted his victims in plain sight he raped and killed them in a busy car poog and then dumped their bodies just meters from where people went about their daily business he would drive around with his victims tied up in the back of his van for 12 hours before he would park strangle them and then bury them in the woods William deavon how went through his murder routine seven times in 9 months he felt like if he raped and murdered one woman and got caught for it he would get death so why not go on and rape and murder as many as possible detectives gather evidence until a picture of a suspect emerges which piece of the puzzle will reveal William Devon Howell as guilty of murder what would be the Killer's [Music] [Music] mistake [Music] [Music] in 2003 seven women went missing from an area of Connecticut off the Berlin Turnpike a road once known as Gasoline alley near in New Britain one of them was Nila Aris mende reported missing on July the 31st she had last been seen 6 days earlier after leaving this Motel where she was living with her boyfriend Angel Sanchez known as Ace Nilsa would stay here and in the afternoon she and Ace would walk along the Berlin Turnpike after they left the motel and arrive at the inner city section of New Britain where Nilsa would Pro Institute and Ace would purchase their drugs at the end of their evenings they would walk all the way back to the alar motel on the day of her disappearance Nila and Angel went to a grocery store car park they're there to purchase drugs uh the boyfriend says that uh Nilsa was there to meet her connection the one that she bought drugs from and Nilsa gets in this van and she's never heard from again it was Neil's sister who reported the 33-year-old woman missing to police the Finger of Suspicion for Neil's disappearance immediately pointed towards Ace one of the suspects of course was Ace Sanchez uh detective Deron wondered if perhaps it was a domestic violence incident these two had been known to have a rough and tumble relationship and get physical with one another and have verbal altercations so it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility that maybe a Sanchez was responsible for The Disappearance of NSA arismendi the police brought him in for questioning but he passed a polygraph test insisting that he had nothing to do with his girlfriend's disappearance instead he named William Devon H how as the man Nila was last seen with and he describes a blue van he describes the figure the same kind of body shape and style of that of how Nilsa a already knew how he would sometimes give them lifts up and down the turn pip in his van he also would party with them in their motel room they smoked crack together they smoked weed they sometimes drank together William Devon how was a gardener and odd job man tending Homes and Gardens in the affluent treelined streets of New Britain heavy set at 5'9 and 220 with long dirty blonde hair he had his middle name tattooed on his b s he kept the tools of his trade in his beaten up black and blue Ford van it had two broken windows that were covered with plywood it was also where he sometimes slept and where he took prostitutes that he picked up off the Berlin Turnpike the road was the place to go to pick up sex workers and that's what he liked to do drove around in a van and he cut people's yards it it is yet again a story of a killer who Blended in who did not stand out he wasn't unique he would be somebody that would be very common place to see in anybody's neighborhood how would admit that he had given Nilsa a ride but told the authorities that he let her out further down the road and she walked away detectives were not convinced suspicious they decided to trace the van which led them to the owner Dorothy hulham the police first went to Dorothy hul's house house and she was also how's girlfriend Dorothy said he wasn't home even though police could see the figure of a man a big man through the curtains and that he almost never drove the van that in fact another friend another male friend drove the van detectives then decided to forensically analyze the van despite the efforts to clean that van there's one small piece of evidence and that is blood indeed it's the victim's blood inside the van and she's the last one seen with him and you now have an identification and so what you would have now is a very good circumstantial case but Howell refused to admit what he'd done to Nilsa he claimed she and her boyfriend Ace had fought in the back of his van and Ace had hit her and Spilled her blood in the van police didn't believe him Howl's trial for murder was looming believing that detectives had a strong case against him Howell made a pragmatic move you can't necessarily prove absolute murder off of one drop of blood in a van but a reasonable person could come to that conclusion so with a very circumstantial case you have William how that pleads guilty I think what motivated him to accept that plea was the fact that uh the prosecution had blood DNA evidence on hand showing that Milsa ARIS Mendy's blood was in that van now granted it was just a single drop of blood but they had it also at that time uh the prosecution had an eyewitness who saw William Devon how drive off with Nilsa arismendy in his van back in July 2003 he was the last person to be seen with Nilsa [Music] arismendy he pleaded guilty to manslaughter without a body prosecutors were forced to accept his ple he was sentenced to 15 years but cops had a nagging suspicion that hadn't uncovered the whole story when the investigators searched Howell's van back in 2004 and 2005 they didn't just discover one DNA sample belonging to Nilsa arismendi they also discovered blood belonging to an unknown victim so at that time law enforcement knew that there was likely another person that Howell had killed but who no connection was made with the other women reported missing off the Berlin Turnpike often there's the assumption that these people just fell off the radar perhaps they overdosed on their drugs they skipped town they got in trouble were uh sent out of state and incarcerated somewhere else so not much was being done and all of the women were dead killed at the hands of William Devon Howell Howell remained in prison on a single conviction for manslaughter and due for release sometime in 2018 he' evaded capture because of the lifestyle of the missing women he was a serial killer but one whose mistakes were as yet unknown to detectives what sort of person was William Devon how in 2003 Howell was a heavy drinker and he was also addicted to paying for sex and Howard a local attorney got to know how well as she researched what had happened to the women who were reported and officially classified as missing she lives in a Connecticut home just a few miles from what she would discover with a Killing Grounds where Howell drove his van Howell began to solicit prostitutes at a very young age he describes for me the first time that he drove to Newport News and he went to the red light district of this City in Virginia he was only 14 years old he stole his father's car in the middle of the night and drove silently off and picked up his first prostitute after that he told me it became his secret addiction soliciting prostitutes in the middle of the night by the age of 12 William Devin Howell's mother got sick with breast cancer she was at the time in her early 50s she was sort of a source of stability in his life she gave him protection and routine she was a strong disciplinarian without her in his life Howell seems to have gone off the rails what was out of the ordinary was the extent to which he was drinking throughout his adolescence he told me that by the time he was in high school there really wasn't a day when he wasn't drinking alcohol sometimes in the morning before he went to school he only kept his driver's license for about a year and a half before he got into a drunk driving accident alongside his drinking another addiction sex by the time he was in his 30s how estimated that he had slept with over a thousand prostitutes the teenage William paid for his Habit to any way he could he had a paper route he did odd jobs for the Neighbors mowing lawns sweeping up leaves he worked as a cashier in a 7-Eleven anything to scrape together the $20 that he needed for for his next fix his next hookup with a sex worker his addiction coupled with the loss of his mother at such a young age seems to have had a profound effect on the way that he viewed women even the mother of his children I think he had a very strict binary code uh in his head about the difference between good girls and bad girls and he has told me that the mother of his children he considered to be a good girl she did not drink she did not use drugs she was a good mother to the children and then there were the women that Howell considered bad girls they were sometimes doing drugs or selling themselves on the street they were drinking they were doing dangerous things and they contrasted with the women in his life that he considered good girls it was what Hal would call the bad girls who were Officially Missing as he lay in prison on a single manslaughter charge around that time time Anne Howard became intrigued by The Mystery of the missing women and she made contact with the man she came to know as Bill Howell hey Bill can you hear me okay cuz I'm on speaker phone yeah I can tell though it sounds like an echo oh okay a man who freely admitted to her his disdain for sex workers it was their lifestyle it was their lifestyle and my just contempt of it and and the contempt you felt was because they were selling their bodies on the streets for drugs right yeah I felt like they were they were selling their bodies on the street they were putting themselves at risk they probably spread diseases to to husbands and boyfriend I don't know if disdain is the right word for it or discontent during the time that an Howard was researching The Mystery of The Disappearance of women off the Berlin Turnpike Howell remained unsuspected in their murders when would detectives make a breakthrough what mistake had the killer [Music] made most of those that bill Howell came into contact with on the outside and inside prison on a daily basis thought he was friendly genial his defense attorney Bill petzold suddenly got that impression he was an affable Southern gentleman um had a good sense of humor um and was very easygoing and laidback I still try try to uh look at him and say could he really have done this I still didn't see him in that in that context of committing these you know vicious crimes there was nothing gentle about the way William Devon Howell treated his first victim Melanie Ruth calini an accomplished pianist in her teenage years from a comfortable Connecticut background but who fell foul of opioid addiction she was strong um beautiful she was a good mom she wanted to be better um and she fought to be better but not strong enough to do that Jessica calini recalls the moment that Melanie's family realized she was missing it wasn't unusual for the mother of two to disappear for weeks sometimes months at a time but she would check in with her children this time it was different she had a really strong addiction but she went through phases and she would be there and um there'd be a few months when she'd be gone we didn't know where she was and uh no matter what though she would always reach out to her kids kids always so I mean when it came to the point to where she was gone for a year and she didn't talk to her kids you knew something was wrong because even if she was in trouble and uh couldn't come back in fear of being arrested she she'd reach out to her kids and she didn't Jessica remembers her sister as a big personality who was attracted to the wrong people in her mid teens Melanie's new friends introduced her to drugs her family found themselves powerless to help as they watched her personality change she wasn't shy she was bold um strong um daring crazy she was she used to love saying things to get her reaction yeah she was funny she used to make me laugh but then Jessica saw a change in her sister I can remember being around 16 she was around 17 I can remember seeing a change and um her just um changing getting into trouble our room was on the third floor and then um we had a staircas circular staircase down to the second floor and um there was a washer and dryer there and she would always do a load of laundry late at night so my parents couldn't hear her sneaking out the last time that Jessica saw Melanie was typical of the way Mel's life had become it isn't happy memory of her beloved big sister I was I believe 8 months pregnant with my son um I flew to Connecticut visiting family and um I went over to her place and unfortunately she was passed out on the couch again um I'm not sure what the circumstances were behind it um but I didn't get to talk to her it was soon after that Melanie calini encountered William Devon Howell so Howell describes to me the day in which he decided it was a very deliberate decision on his part that he was going to rape his first prostitute he was going to make the fantasy a reality he went to the hardware store and he explains that he was in a state of of nervous excitement he bought the duct tape the cords the rip ties the weapons that he would need to not just carry out the rape of this process destitute but to kill her as well he knew that he would have to kill after he raped to conceal the evidence Howell picked up Melanie camini took her to a secluded spot and raped her he then tied her to the back bench of the van kept her in that same location until he could have a cool down period for several hours during that night he would off and on rape her and slip into what he would describe as something of a catnap where he would doze off and then come to again and commit the act all over after keeping Melanie calini in the back of his van for 12 hours Howell decided it was time to finish what he'd started now with respect to the moments before Melanie died I think that's that's what is the most heartbreaking at least for me to hear firsthand um that this woman begged for her life and uh William Devon Howell tells me that he hit her on the temple very hard with a hammer with the intention of knocking her out and killing her that way and he said it didn't even phase her uh she put her hand to her head and she said please don't kill me I have children this was a pivotal moment for how he could have let his victim live he could have ended his Killing Spree there's every chance melan would have survived the brutal attack that she'd suffered she was strong very strong person even physically she was Tiny but still strong Howell considered not killing Melanie but then he realized that he had just spent the last 12 hours raping and torturing her if he didn't kill her she would go to the police he thought momentarily maybe I won't kill her I I don't know if I can kill her but he decided he had to go through with it and at that point he strangled her so then once you killed the first first victim Melanie camelini you told me in your words it was game on like you felt like I've got nothing left to lose right it was kind of like that it was it was you know I had crossed that line he knew he had nothing left to lose by going on to rape and kill anybody he wanted because there was a death penalty in the in the state of Connecticut at that time he felt like if he raped and murdered one woman and got caught for it he would get death so why not go on and rape and murder as many as possible because ultimately the consequences will be the same what Howell did next was perhaps almost as horrifying as maob as the murder that he had just committed it was in February and the ground was frozen so after strangling Melanie he tried to bury her in that frozen ground in those woods he could not do it and so he had to keep her body in that van for a full two weeks he describes how he wrapped that body up and slept with a dead body for two weeks because it was too cold to bury that body in the ground outside he actually dismantled her jaw and he sliced off her fingertips in a sloppy and frantic attempt to try to remove any traces of This Woman's identity after killing her he went to the wooded Ravine behind the strip mall and put her body in a big plastic barrel he left it there while he went off to Virginia for several months when the weather warmed he returned to New Britain and buried Melanie body behind the strip mall this grotesque sequence of actions tying his victims up raping them driving around to different locations in his van killing them and then dumping their body would become a well-rehearsed routine for William Devon Howell first off he would stop his van over there behind the strip mall and dump the parcel or the body of his victim wrapped in garbage bags deep into the Ravine and then what he would do is he'd get back back into his van and go over to the McDonald's parking lot Park his car and come back to this location where we're at right now there's a trail as you can see it goes into sort of a metal like littered area and William Devon Howell would walk this Trail and make a sharp right that led into the Ravine where the parcel that he had left was left in the Ravine he would retrieve a spade a shovel that he had stored behind the guard rail and then he would drag that body along with his shovel about a few hundred yards into the woods to the location that he was known to call his garden which is where he buried in very shallow grave the seven bodies of the people that he killed who would be the next to fall to his terrifying compulsion and what would it take to stop him despite the scale of the crimes of William Devon how in such a short period in 2003 he was not being investigated even as he served time for the manslaughter of one woman whose profile matched those missing he was not in the frame for their murders their bodies had been buried by him here a 14 acre stretch of Woodland behind a busy strip mall Marilyn Mendes Gonzalez was one who ended up in what Bill Howell would come to call his garden in May of 2003 he was driving through the streets of Waterberry and he came upon Marilyn Gonzalez she was also a young mother who had a drug addiction and was turning tricks on the street as with calini and most of his other victims Howell knew that that night the woman that he paid was going to end up dead he knew that he would rape Marilyn Gonzalez and as with all of his other victims that took place over a 12-hour period on again off again in between rapes he would bu find his his captives to the back bench of his van duct tape their mouth and drive them to different locations he never stayed in one location long enough to be seen by anybody so he would simply drive around and commit seven or eight of these rapes and then end it with the strangulation Marilyn was just 26 years old she was the mother of two little girls if she were alive today she would be a grandmother but she ended up buried in a shallow grave yards from a fast food parking lot where her body would lie UND discovered for over a decade although this strip mall is located on a busy roadway with a busy uh upscale shopping mall across the street and the strip mall itself with the parking lot to the left the area to the right is almost inaccessible to the public the brush gets thicker as you go along I remember going to the crime scene and I walked down the embankment uh in my dress shoes and it was kind of Muddy and and slippery and when I was down there I felt like I was in an Amphitheater kind of looking up at the uh at the parking lot area which you couldn't really see the parking lot with the trees that were there and I thought huh this is actually a pretty interesting place to to have buried bodies you know you think well people might be driving by and look down but it it wasn't a place that you would suspect there are no trespassing signs that line the guard rail and the fencing there are no walking trails this isn't a place that anyone would choose to go um not only that but when you look at the soil itself this is really swampy soil uh how told me that the graves he dog were only about 2 to 3 feet at the most in depth and that was because the water table out here is so high and so uh water would actually start to emerge as he was uh digging the graves after killing his first victims how began snatching sex workers from the street at an alarming rate and do in 2003 how killed his third victim but this time things went a little differently Danny wisut also went by the name of Janice Roberts they met outside of a bar after closing time and she got into his van this was a transgender man who was dressed as a woman he had uh long silky black hair howl States and a short mini skirt and high heels and so thinking Daniel Winston is a female Pro Institute he invites Mr winet into his van during the transaction that took place how puts his hand on the head of wisnet and pulls off a wig he becomes enraged that this man has deceived him into this vulnerable position he throws Daniel wisnet against the wall of the van and tells me that he punched him out twice and then quickly strangled him Howell later said that he killed Danny to stop him from quote duping anyone else but it also looked like Howell's rage and his addiction to killing was getting even more out of control he wasn't planning the way he had been before yet still how avoided detection for his crimes so this was again a case of society's cast aways society's most vulnerable people people who others might look at as perhaps not worth the effort that are cast off and so nobody notices that they're missing in some ways how was hiding in plain sight during the day he was driving around in a van at night he was using that same van to lure vulnerable women in to attack them and kill them later he would leave their bodies in Fairly public places quite close to where people were just doing their everyday shopping in Midsummer 2003 Howell imprisoned raped and murdered two vulnerable women the first was Diane cusac she had been addicted to drugs for many years and lived a very hard life on the streets Howell picked her up in New Britain Connecticut and went through his similar routine of raping and strangulation Diane was in her early 50s when she died she had been out of contact with her family for a few years and no one reported her missing after strangling her in the McDonald's parking lot he buried her behind the strip mall right next door the drive-in McDonald's played a big part in how's deadly Killing Spree Howell would also go through this very drivethru with some of his victims held captive in the back of his van tied up and duct taped and he said to me that he would turn the music up high so no one would hear him uh or hear the victims if they were screaming or cried for help and during that time he would actually order food through the uh drive-thru and ask his victims if they also wanted something to eat which to me just shows the callousness and the absolute lack of empathy of this man that as these poor women sat held captive on the back bench he was ordering food and eating Howell was carrying out his C s in full view of the world relying on the fact that his victims were never seen by Witnesses climbing into his van he was trusting that no one plying their trade along the turnpike really knew who he was and that few cared whether or not his victims came back alive many did but that wasn't his calculation having already killed three women it was now that he picked up Neil S as mende she wanted to buy drugs sex was on the agenda what happened was when she refused to finish that transaction he grew very angry when how picked up nila's mandate he hadn't been planning on killing her he decided in that Split Second I am going to rape and kill this woman it would be months before he would be arrested in connection with The Disappearance of Nilsa time enough to abduct to murder his sixth and seventh victims and the first of those victims in August of 2003 was Mary Jane Menard she was in quite a difficult dark place in her life she had struggled with alcoholism but she'd been sober for more than 10 years she had trained to be a substance abuse counselor so she could help other people who were going through what she'd been through but things started to go wrong for her again so Mary Jan Menard had back surgery and at that time she was faced with chronic pain she was prescribed by her doctor pain medications and as is the case unfortunately with people who struggle with chronic pain the opioids at some point just weren't enough and as as many find out they're also very expensive and so Mary Jane Menard unfortunately began to use heroin to help cope with her chronic pain she was 40 years old she went out to buy cigarettes and was never seen again he picked up Mary Jane Menard on the streets and went through his typical routine of of holding her captive in his van for 12 hours raping her off and on and eventually strangling her this was also the fate of joalene Martinez joine had been a track star at school before falling victim to drugs she lived with her mother who raised the alarm when her daughter failed to show up for her birthday celebrations javine Martinez was how's last victim she was a very beautiful young girl she was only 23 years old at the time of her death William devil Devon Howell picked her up uh on Hillside Avenue in Hartford Connecticut how went through what was becoming his usual routine he kept her captive in his van for 12 hours then he strangled her and dumped her body it was the face of jene Martinez that would one day trigger an extraordinary confession from William H who had killed all of the women but was in prison for the manslaughter of just one of them them in 2007 the ghosts of all of the people that he had killed were not prepared to lie quietly any longer and began to give up their [Music] secrets in August 2007 as how was serving a 15year stretch a hunter roaming the Woodland of the Berlin Turnpike made a terrifying Discovery a hunter was walking through the brush with his dog and found what looked like a human bone sticking out of the ground he called the police and they began an excavation of the area well there was a discovery of I think as I recall three um skeletal remains in that location but they weren't able to link anything the detectives have a hunter who's in a field and he discovers bones they get sent off to a lab and you're waiting you're waiting who are these bones to belong to where do I begin my investigation on these bones it was a Eureka moment for the Connecticut detectives with a long list of missing persons to trace or at least it should have been the crime Labs that were tasked with finding out who the bones belong to made error after error years followed before identifications were made and you're still wondering you're waiting for those results that frustration of the waiting the waiting and you have this dysfunctional lab that has hasn't processed the evidence yet not until 2014 would detectives finally be able to break the news to victim's families that their loved ones three of them at least had been found murdered the three bodies were named as Diane kusak Joy Valene Martinez and Mary Jane Menard for the families this was halfway to get enclosure but there was still no one on trial for having killed them police vowed to keep searching the 15 AK a woodland it was a mammoth task at this stage they had no idea what linked the three women whose bodies that they had already identified but they were determined to find out if any other victims were buried there then help came from an unexpected quarter the prison where Bill Howell was incarcerated and also where a man called Jonathan Mills was serving time almost out of nowhere you receive information to go speak to an inmate and an inmate has information on this case and when you go and you interview that inmate he reveals to those detectives detail after detail he is able to identify some by their first names of who these victims are and it is in such a manner that the detectives it's like switching a light switch on this inmate is specifically talking about those bones found in that field how will cellmate came forward to inform on it he said that they'd been playing cards in their cell and one of the cards had a picture of a missing woman on it that woman was Joy Valene Martinez in an attempt to track down missing people police put faces of those who had simply disappeared onto the backs of playing cards and distributed them throughout prisons they were hoping that inmates might recognize faces and volunteer information to the authorities the playing cards is is a technique that the police um and the prosecution have used to to try to solve cold cases and on the back side of the cards are faces of missing of of deceased individuals uh whose cases are unsolved and you know they have their phone number hotline to call and a lot of inmates um take advantage of that um either uh because they know or they don't know but they're going to try to pretend that they know information to try to get their their sentences commuted or shortened or something of that sort some kind of benefit Howell saw jene's face and told his cmate I know her I know where she is he starts to tell the story to a cellmate and as he tells his story it's almost like a steam engine going down a hill it gets faster and faster and faster and he reveals the most intimate details of every crime that only somebody who knew these crimes would be able to tell what gets William how in the end is his braggadocious attitude that he has with his cmate I think the police suspected Bill how of uh being involved in at least some of these unsolved murders but once Jonathan Mills came forward and um disclosed what Bill had told him in confidence uh during a um a jail discussion and Jonathan drew a map it wasn't a a perfect map but it kind of gave a general sense of where bodies may be located and that cellmate was not from that particular area is able to draw a pretty detailed diagram of where William Hal told them these bodies were buried and sure enough behind a supermarket William how's what he called his garden was located the map wasn't all that Howell's cellmate Jonathan Mills was able to give detectives Howell had shed some truly disturbing details about his crimes he told his cmate about the time when he drove around with Melanie camini body in his van for 2 weeks and called her his baby he refers to his own vehicle it's not other people that referred to his vehicle as the murder mobile he called it the murder mobile he called that field that area where those bodies were buried his garden he called himself a sick Ripper and said that he had a monster inside of him he said to Mills that he was going to go back to his bed in his cell that night to dream about his garden and his buried bodies that he had collected in his garden detectives and forensic teams followed the map drawn by Howell's cellmate one by one they un covered four more bodies they were identified as belonging to Nila Aris Marilyn Mendes Gonzalez Melanie Ruth calini and Danny Lee wiand and then they were able to really link their DNA the the DNA of the bones that they uncovered with other evidence that they uncovered from Bill's van four more families were informed that their missing loved ones had been brutally slain including Melanie cini's sister Jessica mom kind of kept me informed with what what was going on and um she had called me and said uh they want to meet with me so I kind of knew I knew something was going on um but um she said that she would know um ironically enough it was on Mel's birthday Mom said I'll I'll call you tomorrow after after I meet with [Music] him and I remember her calling and uh all she said was it's her you go back and you look at the lives of the victims you see a face you see what they look like it's no longer just a bunch of bones in a field it's it's a somebody's beautiful daughter somebody's beautiful sister and it's all the things that make William how the ultimate Thief he stole weddings he stole Futures he stole celebrations all from these families he stole perhaps the hope of redemption and Reconciliation that the families were longing for that they will never get because William how buried those bodies in his garden how do you coat terrific you don't think about it I don't didn't happen you ask me about my childhood you ask me about things I did with Mel it's hard to remember cuz I don't want to because you don't I don't you don't want to come to the re realization of what really happened wasn't a car accident it it it wasn't health issues how do you cope how do you process as the overwhelming evidence stacked up against him Howell finally admitted his guilt he was the last person seen with Neil SAR as mende in many ways that was the mistake he made made though serving time for her manslaughter only he had then bragged of his deeds to a fellow convict his story was finally ready to be told in full to Anne Howard a lawyer and Confidant of a man who was Connecticut's worst serial killer I guess the saddest part is that even though you're suffering in that isolated cell you know at least you have a life um your victims don't yeah you know what people say that but uh I might be alive and but this Dam sure ain't living right I have a life of of of being miserable for the rest of my days and and i' rather I'd rather be dead than wake up miserable for the rest of my life every day and that's that's what I have to serve now yeah um sometimes when you speak like that it it makes me think like you almost felt like you were putting them out of their misery I didn't feel like that at the time but I mean in a way that you know they're out of their misery would Howell have continued to kill if he hadn't been locked up for the death of Neil SAS mende even his own attorney struggles when answering that question would this have continued the answer I can't answer that for you uh but that's certainly a question looms out there with a lot of people whether if he had not been apprehended um for the Arizmendi murder and received a 15-year jail sentence on that um would this type of behavior have uh continued and that's that's for people to talk about um but nobody really knows if he had not through his own words damned himself to a lifetime in prison he may yet still be driving around and be not just Connecticut's most notorious serial killer but the world's most notorious serial killer the more Bill Howell killed the more mistakes he made his first was snatching up a woman Nilsa arende whose boyfriend could identify him and his murder mobile when he was doing time for her death he committed his biggest mistake giving in to a burning urge to brag to his cellmate about the horrific things he had done William how is in prison he spills his guts to a cellmate to a fellow inmate who is later able to help the detectives in Intimate details of what William Hal told him that's the biggest mistake a serial killer was finally am masked by his mistakes William Devon how was sentenced to 360 years in prison [Music]

Channel: Real Crime

Views: 129,911

Keywords: True crime, true crime documentary, law enforcement documentary, full documentary

Id: jYwVVY6Voac

Length: 91min 23sec (5483 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024