The Saturday Night Strangler - Forensics: Catching the Killer British Murder Documentary

whenever there's a murder it's the job of detectives to find out who the Killer is and how they killed and often it's forensic evidence which provides the clues each bit of information delivers that to the whole jigsaw I was able to test that sample uh and I got a DNA profile there's no doubt at all that forensics were absolutely crucial in this case in this series we shine a light on how cutting Edge forensic techniques and the power of science were able to bring some of our most dangerous and Despicable Killers to Justice this was such an unnatural crime it's not a question of if he will kill again it's a question of when he believed that he was invincible and and that nothing could stop him we'll hear how some of the toughest and most disturbing crimes were solved thanks to the tiniest fragments of evidence when you begin a forensic investigation you don't know what you're going to find the officer plunged his hand into loose soil and actually felt cold flesh from the type of insects that were around she'd been dead for at least 5 years and how even the most forensically aware of killers couldn't beat the experts and hide their crimes you know if he comes out have help somebody cuz he is a dangerous dangerous man in this episode The Savage murders of three teenage girls leaves communities in South Wales terrified this wasn't a person this wasn't a human being this was some fiend some monster the case goes cold for almost 30 years until a forensic breakthrough it was groundbreaking this was the very first time in the world that this had been done science might have identified a serial killer now will evidence from Beyond the Grave prove they found the murderer witnesses who were present at the exclamation say that when the first shovel went in the ground there was a huge clap of thunder and they were unearthing evil this is forensics catching the killer you know was a a young detective or a temporary detective at the time just got on the c um working in a police station probably about 20 mi north of you but on the day that the bodies were found this would have been full of police officers this would have been um obviously the main area to start the investigation in 1973 we win Phillips was one of many officers being drafted into the port Albert area from across South Wales to assist with a murder case unlike any other seen locally until that time uniform police officers would form lines they would be scouring the area examining in the area for any clues any weapons anything that may be of evidential value um and and anything that could add value to the to the investigation the bodies of two teenage girls had been found in woods near a main road Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd were just 16 years old both were normal teenagers living with their families in NE and sandari and both had been subjected to a terrible and brutal attack back both girls were found in having been raped and with uh rope tied around their neck journalist Martin Shipton who's worked the southwes patch for nearly 30 years remembers the story Pauline's body was found um with her face down and she had been strangled with a 5-ft rope uh and she'd also been B Ed uh so the clothing was heavily Blood [Music] Stained geraldine's body was found a few yards away which has led to speculation that the killer uh had to run after her to catch her you know perhaps she was uh trying to escape but obviously he was able to outrun her and overpower her there was also evidence that um because there was mud on on their feet that he the killer had allowed them to dress again afterwards um so they were able to put their stockings on uh and you know one can only speculate about exactly what the um what the circumstances were there may very well have been screams but if you look around who would have heard them you know the chances of them being uh being seen in that area at that time of night were very remote he probably knew that and that's why he brought them here this had never been seen before double murder of two 16 year-old girls in this area um the community outraged um it was um it was a terrible terrible day wasn't it to find two bodies two young girls who' been out the night before and had never got [Music] home it was a crime That Shook tightnit communities across the whole of South Wales the nearest town to Pauline and Geraldine was Port Tolbert where there was a huge steel Works in 1973 the steel works alone was employing about 13,000 people it was a very workingclass Town um lots of people had come to work there from other places in Wales and even further of field uh so a lot of people were around but it was a very friendly sort of place and um it was a sort of place where people would leave their doors open and um neighbors would be in out of each other's houses you know typical workingclass Community Sharon Morgan was only 14 years old at the time of the murders she knew both girls well we lived in this world that was good you know it was a good World until that night and that morning the world was no longer a good world geraldin and paulen were friends of mine um geraldin was my cousin she'd become my cousin in March 1973 because my mother's sister had married geraldine's brother so we weren't just friends and we were also cousins but Geraldine and Pauline and me were in the same school together so we met friends through the school um but they were a little bit older than me Geraldine had a a music you know like a player in her back room in the Parlor and she used to learn the words to the songs and um she would sing them with a brush in her hand and we all enjoy it you know it was just fun and she was a lovely girl she full of life Pauline was beautiful girl she was lovely and she loved clothes and fashion and makeup um and she was lovely T so the night that um they went to the top rank I was on my way down to the Neath Fair on the bus and I saw them on the opposite side to the bus stop waved to them cuz I was on the bus going to the fair um and then I never saw them again Geraldine and pin's regular Saturday night out together would be their last the concern for both police and the terrified towns and Villages of the Southwest valleys was that this Maniac was one of their own [Music] [Music] to him he was just so evil and evil was there and uh it was in the community in 1973 South Wales was rocked by a sickening double murder the bodies of teenagers geraline Hughes and Pauline Floyd had been found strangled to death in woods near a main road both had been raped the friends had last been seen on a night out in Swansea their usual routine would have been to catch the bus into town and then hitchhike the short 7mile drive home to the Village of thari for two 16year old girls in the early' 70s um the attitude to life was very Carefree so if they wanted to go to the big city of Swansea they would just factor in if you like the fact that they would have to uh hitchhike back and they wouldn't think about it they wouldn't think about the potential danger it was something that a lot of young girls did and they wouldn't even consider that it was a matter of risk you know they would just they would just do it in 1973 investigating a double murder and rape in a normally sleepy part of South Wales was not something local police had much experience of but one thing they did know the killer was still at large it could have been somebody from outside it was the uncertainty and the fact that could this person strike again that's always in the back of of of people's minds and you know I think that women and especially young people probably were more concerned about their safety after this incident happened because because they realized by thumbing a LIF home it could end your life one of the problems was that there were a potentially huge number of suspects um as a result of various factors um the steel works alone employed 13,000 men so technically they could all be suspects in the case um there was a lot of construction going on all the time so there were a lot lots of itinerant workers who didn't necessarily come from the local area who were working there and tracking those people down was a huge task and then also it just so happened that uh the time of the murder coincided with the Neath Fair which is something that attracts people from quite a long way with no CCTV in 1973 investigators for lied on eyewitnesses to piece together Pauline and geraldine's last know movements luckily someone came forward the last sighting of the two girls alive uh was uh near the top rank in Swansea where they were seen getting into an Austin 1100 which was white which was driven by somebody who wasn't entirely visible to the witness who saw him uh and saw the girl getting into the car who was the mystery driver who picked the girls up outside the top rank nightclub that night was he the killer later on a car of the same description was seen in the vicinity um of the area where they were found in a layby so that meant that there was a extremely strong possibility that the killer was the driver of this Austin 1100 that gave the police a bit of a break but of course the Austin 1100 was a very popular car at the time they were having to troll through all of these owners of Austin 1100s in the vicinity but also further field as well which um was hugely challenging in terms of the Manpower that they had to use in order to carry out these various investigations and these interviews with the with the car owners so we were Keen to establish who in the area uh owned a white 1100 um and there was a set questionnaire that we took with us to visit owners of white 1100s and ask them the questions obviously did they own the vehicle where was the vehicle where were they during the relevant [Music] time as well as trying to track down the car to find out who was driving it police also knew it could contain important forensic evidence such as blood stains that could suggest signs of fou play what could have been done in in 1973 um well I think I'd start by saying that the by by even by today's standards the standard of examination was exemplary but of course we didn't have DNA the examinations of the cars failed to find blood so they began looking for other forensic clues that could link the vehicle to the crime fibers from Geraldine and Pauline's clothes they they looked at the um all of the um Vehicles all of the the white 1100 vehicles that were around the area at the time um and fiber tapings were taken of the seats um to actually try to put the victims in into the vehicle so very straightforwardly we'd probably use some adesive tape uh to to dab it onto the uh onto the seats um pick off the tape um and look at it under a microscope a little bit in the same way as you would do if you were removing lint from from a jumper um regrettably they missed out on the the most important vehicle but despite inquiries to thousands of people and traveling hundreds of miles around the UK to find the elusive tin 1100 car no fibers were found and no further Clues came to light it was as if the killer had simply vanished they they just really reached a dead end I mean there was just nowhere else for them to go they didn't have any forensic evidence that they would be able to use to check uh against individuals that they were interviewing and um the only eyewitness uh who uh saw anything at all was the person who saw the girls getting into an Austin 1100 but there wasn't a sufficiently good description of the uh individual who was driving the car for them to be able to track that person down there was no number plate or anything like that but at the time it was basically a paper based system that in some respects cause more problem because you um taken from from both Jolene and Pauline they were were stored meticulously I have to say um all those years ago unbeknown to police at the time there was more forensic evidence that could help solve this double murder it had been collected from the body of another young girl just 15 years old which had been found not far from Geraldine and Pauline's bodies in a remote Hillside spot only 2 months earlier she too had never made it home after a Saturday night out and she too had been raped and strangled could the same person have killed all three girls by late 1973 a double murder investigation of two teenage girls had gone [Music] cold Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd were savagely raped and murdered on their way home from a night out in nearby Swansea but just 2 months earlier in July of that year another girl never made it home from her night out either her body was found 3 days later in a remote spot in the Hills near portalet she too had been raped and strangled to death so what we know about Sandra Newton is that she was 15 years of age she uh was from Neath she'd been out in a nightclub in Britain Ferry which is a few miles away and after being in the nightclub she met her boyfriend um and then after meeting him she was hitchhiking home and that was when she was abducted by the murderer Sandra Newton had been raped she had been choked to death with her own skirt and left in a culet which was close to a disused cery called ton Ma and the police at the time came to the conclusion that the murderer was somebody local because the area where she was dumped was pretty remote and it's not the sort of place that someone who was a a random visitor from outside would have known about a very unusual case for that area of Neath um um you know in that time there wasn't that many murders in that area especially um a sexually motivated strangulation of a young girl but at that time um I have to say there was no link made between Sandra and the two girls who were found in in September Geraldine and Pauline one thing that linked the investigations into the murders of Geraldine and Pauline with that of Sandra was that bodily samples and clothing were taken from all the victims and perfectly stored for years to come they would have been blood samples um fingernail scrapings that type of uh examination um and of course the clothing from the victims with no new developments or realization of the time that these murders could be linked the investigations were wound down until 1999 when southwales police started to review some of its unsolved serious Crimes by then there had been some major advances in forensic science and in particular the use of DNA in the late '90s in the case of Geraldine and Pauline and indeed thra uh they were able to locate the underwear of the girls and all the clothing for that matter that was retained and they were able to uh look at the semen stains and and and obviously the body fluids on the clothing we had developed a strategy to look at old cases um in the light of uh new technology to see what we could do to investigate undetected murder investigations from the years gone by wi and his team now called in the help of home office forensic scientists the uh advances in science had become such that we were able to generate uh DNA from these uh samples that we we' got from the time um the samples from the victims the clothing from victims um and of course uh they matched uh together so we at that stage we didn't know who the potential perpetrator might be uh but what we did know was the the cases matched that was um discovered because the the DNA from the what had ever been collected from the scene from the victims themselves and from the victim's clothing um DNA matched the uh one individual one male individual so at that time we we knew that it was the same person who killed Sandra po her and Geraldine in 2001 after more than a quarter of a century forensic science have been able to connect the crimes to the same brutal killer so that was quite a breakthrough um it was um you know you realize then that you know this is a serial killer he hadn't killed just one it killed three and on two separate occasions just months apart which again was probably the first for southwest police to deal with um with what we found ourselves with a a serial killer and yet the murders of this first serial killer the ones known of at least had taken place nearly 30 years earlier but by now the National Database had been set up listing all the DNA profiles of anyone who had been in police custody since 1995 so we we called a meeting of Pathologists um we called a meeting of um forensic scientists all the experts and um the pathologist from 1973 who had conducted the postmortem on the three girls any scientists who were still left from 1973 so we all met in um in police headquarters in briend and talked it through went over uh the July incident the September double murder but the Euphoria of having thought they would finally find the killer was quickly followed by yet another setback the DNA profile of the killer now dubbed the Saturday night Strangler by the Press was uploaded to the National Database would police now get a name the the DNA profile had been produced um sent off to the database that there were no matches the Killer's DNA wasn't on the database but thankfully another pioneering DNA technique meant all was not lost of course science and understanding had Advanced um we'd been experimenting with the the concept of familial DNA um which looks to exploit the the the similarities between brothers and sisters parents and their children um so you can actually look for uh people who are are not on the database through their children um or their their siblings who actually are on the database they they share a similar DNA profile while the forensic scientists were searching to find anyone on the National Database who had similar DNA to that found on the clothing of the victims when and his team used good old fashioned police work to look again at the people of interest from the original Case Files so they went through a long list of suspects who had um who had uh come into that c or Persons of Interest whether they were owners of 1100s whether they were Associates of the girls or whether in other information came in sightings descriptions everything like that so what we needed now is to look at any suspect who how do we match a suspect ECT against the profile that we've got and the best way to do that would to take a blood sample we're talking about 1973 not everybody was still alive not everybody was still in the area the team managed to reduced the list of suspects or Persons of Interest to us down to about 500 or so and even down way below that as well and um you know they would have started uh going to these people and um and taking blood samples and they would be matched against the profile that we've got for the forensic scientists one family's name on that list stood out that name was kaen we've got somebody here whose DNA profile um is very similar to the man who was of interest to this investigation back in 1973 it was about 50% similar which is quite a quite a bit um family member it couldn't have been him because he would only have been a young boy at the time if this man was too young to have committed the murders in the 1970s could any of his relatives be the Killer and he actually was the son of this Bouncer from Port Tolbert called Joseph kappen Joe kappen was uh a petty criminal uh there had been some knowledge of him from police officers uh who uh said that he was someone who could be prone to having um temper outbreaks and that he could be prone to violence someone who has experienced that violence firsthand is Theresa fiser she'd been in a relationship with Joe kaen in 1983 10 years after the murders of Geraldine Pauline and Sandra and when Theresa herself was only 16 years old the same age as that of the victims this is where I grew up with my my grand and grandfather there's my grand and grandfather's house where I stayed where I was 16 and I was coming home from the Alex and I came down here and then I came up this path but I could do Teresa and he sitting in his car and I went to the car and because my grandfather and my grand in bed I said uh don't come over by you because I didn't want to disturb them so I I walked over here with jaw and because I was a bit of a fiery girl and he had upset me I slapped him as I was standing in this position so I slapped him I didn't really know there was a telegraph pole behind me but out of nowhere he grabbed me by the neck and ELD me against the telegraph Pole soon as he left his hand against my throat straight away he said come for R and a raid I went with him and that raid at 3:00 in the morning was clandar so to me I'm just going on exciting rides I'm 16 never met anyone with a car before and there I am now going for these rides which happened often but why did Joseph Ka take the young Theresa that night to the very Woods in sandari where 10 years previously the bodies of Geraldine and Pauline had been [Music] found in January 2000 police had officially reopened the investigations into the double murder of two 16-year-old girls Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd as well as the killing of 15-year-old Sandra Newton all had been raped and strangled and all by the same man they now had a DNA profile of the murderer and through the Revolutionary process of familial DNA tracing one name in particular had surfaced Joseph kappan and frustratingly for southwell's police he was a man who lived locally to the murders in 1973 and who owned a particular type of car Joseph kaen actually became a person of interest to the investigation the original investigation he owned a 1100 car police went to the to his house and uh they probably had the same form as I did to to complete um when they went to the house his vehicle was up on rumps and the they notice he had 1100 car they completed the form I believe he gave them uh a false Alibi um and he said that his vehicle was not roadworthy now nearly 30 years later in 2001 the investigation had come full circle and straight back to Joseph kaan's doorstep had forensics finally LED police to the killer of jaline Pauline and Sandra when Joseph kaan became the number one suspect the police obviously wanted to trace him so they went to his house knocked on the door and his wife came to the door and they spoke to her and she told them that in fact kaen had died um 13 years before he died in 1990 from lung cancer another setback police now had to get DNA samples from ka's wife and some of his other children in order to see if they could match parts of their DNA to that found on the victim's clothing but those results proved inconclusive too that meant that the only option that remained to them in order to conclusively demonstrate that Joseph kappan was the killer was to exume his body and indeed they then made an application to the Home Secretary who was David blunkett at the time that they should be allowed to do that permission was granted everything was planned there was operational orders people were fully aware of how we were going to do it the tents were erected in CRA Cemetery to obviously make sure of privacy um and uh everybody knew what their role was from the grav diggers to the forensic scient to the pathologist to the senior investigating officers from the moment that we started it was incredible really there was a clap of Thunder lightening a storm and um you know we it it was incredible I mean we all looked around and thought God where did that come from Witnesses who were present at the exhumation say that when the first shovel went in the ground there was a huge clap of thunder and those who were present came to the conclusion that they were unearthing evil and he was taken then to moriston hospital Mory I went along to the postmortem we took his FEMA Jawbone and teeth uh because that's where we were told that that's where they would main the DNA within days we had a result back which was absolutely positive you know beyond Reasonable Doubt couldn't have been anybody else finally after an investigation spanning nearly 30 years wi and his team had solved the mystery of who had raped and killed the three teenagers Sandra Geraldine and Pauline all those years ago thanks to the game-changing use of familial DNA tracing a first not just for South Wales police but for worldwide forensic investigators it was groundbreaking um this was the very first the very first time in the world that this had been done um and so people were of course very proud both very proud within the police service and of course within the scientific Community proud of what had happened and proud of the the science um and I suppose relieved that that once and for all you know that the victims had actually received some form of closure um and that they they knew all the the perpetrator was was dead um at least the case was closed and they knew who' committed these these offenses as the news broke it shocked the local community none more more so than Theresa fiser who had dated Joseph kappen nearly 20 years earlier when she was just 16 years old herself especially terrifying was the realization that kaen had taken Theresa to the very places where the victim's bodies had been found jaw cabin drove me to this Lane and this is round about the place where we pulled up and he left the car he left the car and he I don't know where he went you went ahead and then he came back to the car then with a rock placed it in my hands and I put it in the front of the car he said it was for him to take home for his Rockery in the garden even though I came here in the day still gives me shivers because is is something he planned and I I didn't know I just thought it was just right now I can see now it was him he was getting Thrills out of this without me kn when and then to think that this is a place where poor Sandra Newton there's no words I I I can't say any words I I I Can't Describe what happened because I just haven't got no words how to describe it just just gives me shivers and you you still getting a thrill out of coming back [Music] you we at the C now where Sandra poor Sandra was found gives me shivers and I can't stop thinking about poor Sandra of was she went through and realizing that man coming back here you still getting Thrills but it just gives me shivers now but when I first came here I just thought it was a ride didn't realize it meant all this it was just a ride to me this is the first time I've come back since the police brought m in 1983 I find out it must have been probably 10 years close to how everyone lost [Music] Sandra then finding out then that was 10 years later that he's bringing me here to when he put when he murdered Sandra Newton and another 16 old and to think I'm 16 and he's bringing me here to relive his sick memories memories and questions were all the victim's families had for nearly 30 years they'd had no resolution or answers as to why that's all they've been left with they were chish loved you know they weren't out on on the streets neglected children they were lovely girls and they were happy and they had their whole lives ahead of them they'd be in the 60s now probably grandparents if he had never encountered them only that man had never been born finding out who the killer was gave one answer but still left many other questions there was no TR well so we couldn't I didn't understand how he did it how could he have killed two girls at the same time why couldn't one have got away um but apparently J J nearly did get away and she almost got to the very road which was 2 minutes to where her father was working that night so she was almost out of the woods no trial but a kind of justice for the families of Sandra Pauline and Geraldine but finding out who killed them left further unanswered questions for investigators did Joseph kappen take even more secrets back to his grave with [Music] him um you know people who have a um a liking for violent sexual crime um are almost addicted to it um you know they only stop when they're stopped by law enforcement and the criminal justice process do I think that other investigation should take place um in short uh yes um I think um these will not be the only cases the crimes that he committed uh that I'm pretty sure that they'll be other to sit out [Music] there [Music] hey [Music] [Music] spee [Music] [Music] [Music] spe [Music] spee [Music] spee foree [Music] [Music] spee [Music] foree [Music] [Music] the said Lord is [Music] fore [Music] swe s got do it for foree foree is fore spee [Music] for [Music] spee [Music] [Music] St fore spee fore [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] spe fore spee [Music] spee [Music] fore fore foree spee [Music] spee [Music] spee [Music] spe [Music] [Music] spee by foree so foree spee [Music] fore [Music] fore [Music] spee [Music] for

Channel: UK Dokumentary Six

Views: 108,805

Keywords:

Id: Vg3jfmTYe80

Length: 57min 16sec (3436 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024