Casefile True Crime - Case 147: Julie Dart & Stephanie Slater

Episode Date: June 20, 2020

On July 10 1991, 18-year-old Julie Dart disappeared after a night out in Leeds. Two days later, her boyfriend Dominic Murray received a letter from Julie that read: “Help me, please. I’ve been kidnapped and I’m being held as personal security… Please go and tell my mum straight away.” The following week, a group of farmers working in a field alongside an abandoned railway line come across Julie’s decomposing body. --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Erin Munro Creative Director: Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-147-julie-dart-and-stephanie-slater

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. In July of 1991, things looked promising for 18-year-old Julie Dart. A bubbly, spirited teenager with wavy brown hair and a wide smile, she had recently finished high school and was hoping to fulfil her lifelong dream of joining Britain's armed forces. Julie had grown up in Leeds, the largest city in the northern English county of West Yorkshire,

where she still lived with her mother. On Tuesday, July 9, 1991, Julie spent the day with her boyfriend, 20-year-old Dominic Murray, who lived in the nearby suburb of Gipton. At six o'clock in the evening, the couple went to Dominic's sister, Rosa's house, where Julie helped prepare a meal of roast lamb and Yorkshire pudding. After they'd eaten, Julie excused herself to start a night shift at the hospital where she'd recently started working as an orderly. At 7.45pm, she kissed Dominic goodbye and departed, wearing a black skirt with a pink and black jacket. At 9pm, Julie phoned Dominic to say she would be working until 11.30pm and would then return to

her own home. Dominic noticed that there appeared to be music playing in the background, as though Julie were calling from a pub. Two days passed and Dominic didn't hear from Julie. Then, on the morning of Friday, July 12, he received an unexpected visit from his sister, Rose, who had found a handwritten envelope addressed to him amongst her mail. There was a letter inside, written in Julie's handwriting, which read, Dominic, help me, please. I've been kidnapped and I'm being held as a personal security until next Monday night. Please, go and tell my mum straight away. Love you so much, Dominic. Mum phoned the police straight away and helped me. Have not eaten anything, but I have been off

at food. Feeling a bit sick, but I'm drinking two cups of tea per day. Mum, Dominic, help me. Love you all. Julie. After reading the letter, Dominic called Julie's mother, Lynn Dart, who rushed over to read it for herself. She noticed that despite being penned in Julie's handwriting, some of the words and phrasing didn't sound like her daughter at all. Moreover, Lynn couldn't understand why Julie would be abducted and held for ransom as their family had little money. Lynn immediately called the police to report her daughter missing and gave them the letter. Police began looking into Julie's life. Born on March 1, 1973, Julie Ann Dart was the first child of Lynn and Alec Hill, who went on

to have a son named Paul two years later. When Julie was four years old, Alec left his young family, and in 1978, Lynn remarried an electrician named Ian Dart. Both the Julie and Paul were close to their stepfather, calling him dad and adopting his surname. Lynn and Ian separated when Julie was 16 years old, but Ian maintained a relationship with his stepchildren. Although Julie was bright, she wasn't a dedicated student and instead preferred to focus on her athletic abilities. A talented runner, she participated in school and county competitions, accumulating a number of trophies which her mother proudly displayed in the family home. In her spare time, Julie liked socializing, dancing, and performing karaoke with her friends.

While she was still at school, she got a part-time job at a cafe, which was where she met Dominic, a co-worker who was two years her senior. They dated for three years, and when Julie was just 17, they became engaged. Julie moved out of her family home to live with Dominic in his flat, which her mother Lynn didn't approve of. Julie had confided in her younger brother Paul that she and Dominic often argued, and these altercations sometimes became violent. By the end of 1990, the relationship ended, and Julie returned home. She and her mother had always been particularly close, but they both had strong personalities, and living together sometimes resulted in clashes and disagreements.

Julie longed for the day when she could live independently and start a career. Her long-time dream was to become a physical training instructor for the army. She had always been fit and healthy, though she was claustrophobic and suffered from mild asthma as a child. In December of 1990, she visited the Army Recruiting Office in Leeds to apply for a role as a driver in the Women's Royal Army Corps. After several months, her application was accepted, under the condition that she set a final selection examination. On Friday, June 7, 1991, one week before she was due to take the exam, a 41-year-old man named Michael Walter called the Army Recruiting Office.

He had befriended Julie several years earlier when she was employed at the cafe, and had eventually offered her a part-time job as a cleaner. Michael was calling to notify the office that Julie had recently stolen two of his bank cards and used them to withdraw £660. She had since signed a liability form, agreeing to repay the money to the bank, but Michael was worried that if she joined the army before settling the debt, the money might never be repaid. The recruitment officer who took the call was concerned, as it was essential that all new recruits were free from financial liability. When questioned by the officer, Julie denied owing any money and proceeded to excel at her

final exam. She was subsequently accepted for the Army's September intake. Michael Walter repeated his concerns that if Julie didn't settle her debt, the bank would initiate criminal proceedings. Julie continued to deny ever taking the money, but agreed to pay the bank what was owed to enable her to join the armed forces by September. However, on Thursday, July 4, the recruitment officer went to Julie's high school to confirm her final grades and discovered that she had forged her academic records. This resulted in Julie's application being rejected. The recruitment officer sent her a letter explaining the situation that same day, but it is unknown whether Julie ever received it.

Lynn told the police that there had been nothing happening in Julie's life that had given her any cause for concern. She said that about a month prior, Julie had started experimenting with her physical appearance by trying out different makeup styles and coloring her hair. However, she had dyed it back to its natural color when her grandmother didn't approve. Julie had told her mother that she had recently started a night shift job sterilizing syringes at a laboratory and had been spending nights at the home of an old friend. Police questioned this friend, who revealed she hadn't seen Julie in four months. It soon became clear that Julie and Dominic had reconciled their relationship,

but had been keeping it a secret from Julie's family. Dominic often divided his time between the homes of his two sisters, and Julie had occasionally been staying with him while telling her mother she was with her friend. While Lynn believed Julie had a job sterilizing syringes at a laboratory, Dominic was under the impression she worked as an orderly at a hospital. The police inquired with both workplaces, but neither had ever heard of Julie Dart. After filing her report, Lynn walked the streets of Leeds over and over, showing people Julie's photograph. At night, she visited the city's pubs, asking punters whether they had seen her daughter. A number of people recognized

Julie's picture and said they knew her, but none had sighted her within the last week. The police decided to speak with the Vice Squad investigators from the Leeds suburb of Chapeltown, which at the time was a red light district popular with sex workers. From 1975 until 1980, the area was a hunting ground for notorious serial killer, the Yorkshire Ripper, whose crimes were covered in episode 37 of Case File. Although the Vice Squad had no record of Julie, they soon established that multiple witnesses had seen her hanging around the district in the three weeks leading up to her disappearance. She had apparently told some sex workers that she was new to the industry

and had asked their advice on where to take clients and how much to charge. A former classmate of Julie's also came forward, claiming he'd seen her in Chapeltown on Tuesday July 9, the night she went missing. He had been driving through the area at 8.15pm when he spotted Julie standing on a street corner with another girl. They briefly made eye contact, but Julie turned her head away as though she didn't want to be seen. She had been dressed in light blue denim jeans and a white blouse, which was different to the outfit she had been wearing when she left a Dominic half an hour earlier. Inquiries revealed that shortly after this, Julie caught a taxi to a pub with two other young women, and at 9pm she phoned Dominic from the pub's phone.

She then had a few drinks and played the jukebox before all three women caught a cab to the Chapeltown Street of Spencer Place to engage in sex work. There, Julie spent roughly 20 minutes with a client before buying a takeaway kebab. By 11pm, both of her friends had gone home, leaving Julie standing alone on the corner of Spencer Place and Leopold Street. The discovery that Julie had been engaging in sex work troubled the vice squad. On Friday July 12, the same day that Dominic received the kidnap letter from Julie, the West Yorkshire Police had received an envelope addressed to Leeds City Police, an outdated name that hadn't been used since 1974.

Inside was a letter typed in red ink, informing officers that a young sex worker had been kidnapped from the Chapeltown area and would be killed, unless the police paid £140,000 in cash. The author also demanded that £5,000 be loaded onto bank cards. Instructions for the handover read. Next Tuesday July 16, a woman police constable will drive to Birmingham New Street station with the money and await a phone call at the phone terminal in the waiting room on platform 9. She must wear a lightish blue skirt with the money in a shoulder bag. She must be there by 6pm and await the call at 7pm. She will then be given the location

of the next phone call. The letter instructed the constable to drive from payphone to payphone, where she would receive further directions along the way. Eventually, at the last sight, a dog leash would be hanging from a tree, ready for her to clip the money to. The cash was to be wrapped in polythene and brown paper, then tied with a nylon cord. The author threatened that if these demands weren't met, a firebomb would go off at a major store in an English city at 5am on Wednesday July 17.

According to the postmarks on the envelope of this letter and the one sent to Dominic, both had been sent at 7pm on Thursday July 11 from the town of Huntingdon, located 135 miles south of Leeds. Realising that they appeared to be dealing with a genuine kidnapping, investigators decided to run an operation in accordance with the kidnappers' instructions. At 6pm on Tuesday July 16, Constable Annette Zeekness went to Birmingham New Street station as instructed, carrying the money in a shoulder bag. Located 120 miles south of Leeds in England's West Midlands region,

the station is the busiest and largest of three railway stations that service Birmingham's Central Business District. Undercover officers surveilled Constable Zeekness as she waited for the phone call at the phone terminal in the waiting room at Platform 9. At 6 minutes past 7, the pay phone rang. Constable Zeekness answered it, but the caller on the other end was silent and disconnected the call after several seconds. Constable Zeekness waited another 20 minutes, but no other calls came through. With no further instructions from the kidnapper, investigators were left waiting to see whether the individual would make contact again.

Despite the kidnapper's threat to firebomb a city building if their demands weren't met, the following day of Wednesday July 17 passed without incident. Early on the morning of Friday July 19, 51-year-old farmer Bob Skelton was preparing for his day in the rural village of Eastern, 92 miles southeast of Leeds. Bob's farm spanned 579 acres and included a disused railway line. His plan for the day was to relocate his cattle to fresh pastures with the help of his 18-year-old son and another young employee. At 7.45 am, the three men were in a field located alongside the abandoned railway line, half a mile from the A1 motorway, when they noticed a pink and

white striped sheet lying on the grass. Assuming it was carelessly dumped rubbish, they moved closer and saw that the sheet was bound with lengths of teal-colored rope and something appeared to be wrapped up inside. Bob's son used his penknife to slice the rope and cut a six-inch hole in the sheet, revealing another layer of sheet. Bob thought he could see the outline of a human arm and all three men smelled a strong, unpleasant odor. Bob decided to drive back to the farm to call the police, while the two younger men stood guard over the grisly discovery.

Officers arrived at the scene and unwrapped the sheet. Inside, they found the naked and significantly decomposed body of a young woman. The corpse was taken to be autopsied by Professor Stephen Jones, who noted that the only item the victim was wearing was a gold wishbone ring on her right middle finger. Her head was entirely bald and there were several injuries to her skull, including one at the back of her scalp, another above her left ear and a fracture below the ear. These injuries had likely been caused by a hammer-like weapon, but were not the cause of death. A round the victim's neck was a ligature mark, indicating she had also been strangled.

Her right ankle featured chain-like bruises, suggesting she had been made to wear some sort of leg restraint. Due to the state of decomposition, Professor Jones was unable to determine whether she had been sexually assaulted. It was determined that the victim had likely been killed a week prior to being discovered, but the grass beneath where the body had been found showed no discoloration, indicating it had only been dumped hours earlier. Using clear adhesive tape, forensic scientists recovered a number of fibers from the sheet, including yellow wool and brown nylon fibers, which appeared to have originated from a mustard

colored carpet. These same yellow and brown fibers were also found in the rope that had been used to tie the sheet. An electronic message was sent out to police forces around the country to inform them that an unidentified body had been found. The message caught the attention of Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Taylor of the West Yorkshire Police, who had been investigating Julie Dart's disappearance. Julie had a chipped tooth, leading Superintendent Taylor to inquire whether the unidentified victim shared this characteristic. When it was confirmed that she did, Julie's dental records were summoned, and on Saturday, July 20, the victim was positively identified as 18-year-old Julie Dart. That night, Superintendent Taylor went to Lynn Dart's home

to inform her of the news, bringing with him the gold wishbone ring recovered from Julie's body. The devastated mother identified the ring as a gift she had given Julie for her 18th birthday, four months prior. Witnesses who had seen anything suspicious in the area near Bob's Gelton's farm were encouraged to come forward. Several individuals reported that two hours before Julie's body was found, they had been travelling on a bus along High Dyke Road in Easton, when they noticed a red car up ahead and to the right. The vehicle was approaching the road from a track next to the pasture where Julie's body was found, and it was being driven by a white, lone male. Police had initially considered whether Julie's boyfriend, Dominic Murray,

could be responsible for her murder. However, he didn't own a car, and two days before Julie's disappearance, he had sustained an injury that would have made it impossible for him to dispose of her body alone. At 2am on Sunday July 7, he and Julie had been walking home together after a night drinking at the pub. An off-duty constable noticed that Julie could hardly stand and that her face was swollen and her lip was bloody. Dominic was propping her up and slapping her, so the constable intervened and Dominic fell, breaking his ankle. He and Julie were taken to the hospital and kept there overnight, with Dominic having a cast put on his left foot. Julie's older friend Michael Walter, who had alerted the Army recruitment office to her theft

of his bank cards, was also considered a suspect. Believing he had a motive, police arrested him for questioning a week after Julie's disappearance. He was released on Thursday July 18, but police ordered that he be kept under constant surveillance. As he was still being monitored when Julie's body was discovered the next day, he was ruled out as a suspect. Three days after Julie's body was found, the police received another letter claiming to be from the kidnapper. This typed message had been sent from Leeds Railway Station and was postmarked Sunday July 22 at Red. Words will never be able to express my regret that Julie Dart had to be killed, but I did warn what would happen if anything went wrong.

At the time of this letter, there has been no publicity. If you do not find the body within a few days, I will contact you as to the location. She was not raped or sexually abused or harmed in any way until she met her aunt. She was tied up and hit a few blows to the back of the head to render her unconscious and then strangled. She never saw what was to happen. Never felt no pain or knew anything about it. The fire bomb was not left as promised as the sealant around the combustibles must have got knocked in transit and smelled badly, so it was never placed. Owen's furniture store in Coventry was to be the target. I still require the same monies as before under the same conditions.

If you want to avoid serious fire damage and any further prostitutes lives, place an ad in the personal column of The Sun to read. Let's try again for Julie's sake. Convinced the letter was genuinely penned by Julie's killer, on Saturday July 27, the police placed an ad in the Sun newspaper as instructed. On Tuesday July 30, they received a handwritten letter from the kidnapper acknowledging the ad and warning that another hostage would soon be taken. He instructed Constable Annette Zeekness to travel to a particular payphone alongside the M1 motorway in the county of Leicester that evening and await his call. Constable Zeekness waited by the payphone as directed.

When the call came, instead of speaking directly into the phone, the kidnapper played an audio recording. Constable Zeekness explained that she was unable to hear the message over the noise of the traffic, but the line went dead. Two days later, on Thursday August 1, the kidnapper sent another letter ordering Constable Zeekness to return to the same payphone in Leicester on Tuesday August 6. She followed these instructions, but no call came through. Three days after that, police received a letter from the kidnapper explaining that he'd been unable to find a suitable hostage in time. He told Constable Zeekness to return to the phone booth on Wednesday August 14 at 8.15pm, threatening, quote,

This will be the last time you will receive a call at the usual location. Should anything go wrong, you will not then be given the location of the incendiary device or the prostitute's body. On August 14, the call came through as promised, and the kidnapper spoke to Constable Zeekness directly, claiming to have abducted a sex worker named Sarah Davies from the town of Ipswich. He provided directions to another phone box near the M1 motorway and told Constable Zeekness to be there by 9.45pm. She arrived in time, but when she answered the call, the kidnapper said he'd encountered some problems and would call back in half an hour. The phone rang again 30 minutes later,

but the phone's cradle had jammed and Constable Zeekness struggled to answer it. By the time she was able to pick up the receiver, the caller had hung up. Constable Zeekness waited for another half hour, but the phone didn't ring again. The West Yorkshire police checked whether anyone named Sarah Davies had gone missing from Ipswich, but no reports of this nature had been made. They concluded that the caller had lied about the kidnapping in order to increase pressure on police. The following day, some men were walking underneath the disused railway bridge on the M1 motorway near the phone box that had jammed when they found what appeared to be a small bomb. The device was shaped like a tin can

and attached to one end was a wire and a small red plastic cube. Responding officers from the South Yorkshire police were unaware that their colleagues in West Yorkshire had been interacting with a possible extortionist and suspected the device was a fake. This was confirmed by a bomb disposal officer who arrived on the scene to investigate. Nearby, police found a brick that had been painted white and had an envelope attached that was marked with the number three. Inside, a hand stenciled note read, message next bridge 400 meters, detector on panel, carry money. When the news spread to the West Yorkshire police, they were certain the items had been left by

their suspect and that the disused bridge was his intended location for the money drop. To test their theory, they carried out a reconstruction at the site. Had Constable Zeekness been able to receive the second phone call, the police deduced that she would have been directed to the bridge and to the fake incendiary device. From there, she would have placed the device, which the suspect had referred to as a detector, on her car dashboard and driven to the next bridge 400 meters away. There, as per the kidnapper's original letter, he would have intended to stand on the bridge and lower a dog leash for Constable Zeekness to clip the bundle of money too.

The kidnapper would have then intended to haul up the money and attempt an escape. Ten days later, a discovery in the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley revealed that the kidnapper had planned yet another step which police had missed. An envelope labeled with the number two was found taped underneath a shelf in one of the town's phone booths. Inside was a note providing directions to the fake incendiary device and white brick. Investigators determined that the kidnapper had actually planned to direct Constable Zeekness to this pay phone first to receive the instructions, but his plan had been thwarted when the phone receiver jammed at the previous phone booth.

On Monday, August 19, police received a letter from the kidnapper that read, Games now abandoned. Crime Watch UK will tell me most of what I wanted to know. You'll have to file your papers until I try again. As you know, I never picked anyone up in Ipswich or planted a device. I didn't need to. Following Julie's unfortunate death, you'd cooperate with anything I wanted. For your records, Julie was picked up on Tuesday, July 9, 11.30pm. The reason the body deteriorated so quick was that it was kept in a wheelie bin in a greenhouse for two very hot days. Her head was wrapped in a towel, but when this was removed to clean her up

before dropping her, her hair came away, stuck to the blood on the towel. As none of these details about Julie's body had been released to the media, the police forwarded the letter to a pathologist to verify the kidnapper's claims. Professor Stephen Jones confirmed that the state Julie's body was in was consistent with having been stored in a plastic bin inside a greenhouse, as the killer described. In order to gain further insight as to the type of individual they were dealing with, police retained criminal psychologist Paul Britton to create a profile of the suspect. Britton concluded that the suspect was likely aged in his late 40s or early 50s and was a

careful planner. As his letters were riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, he likely had a secondary level education but no university degree. In terms of occupation, he likely worked in a field that required a high level of technical knowledge but not a high level of technical skills. He wanted to be taken seriously by police and have them engage him as a high level adversary. Although murder wasn't the primary aim of the crime and the suspect probably hadn't killed before, Britton concluded that he would kill again, unless he was caught. As the suspect's letters had been posted from various locations, it was clear that whoever had sent them had the time and freedom to travel.

They were sent to a forensic document examiner in Birmingham who determined that the typed letters were written using an Olivetti manual type bar typewriter that had damage to its typefaces. Several keys were missing particular elements, including the lower left portion of the number zero and part of the lower case F. Consequently, it was estimated that the machine was between 20 to 30 years old. The handwritten letters were mostly penned using messy capital letters, possibly by the kidnapper using his non-dominant hand. Despite his obvious attempts to disguise his handwriting, consistent features were noted in how he drew particular letters of the alphabet. Furthermore, given that he referred to the West Yorkshire Police by their old name of Leeds City

Police, it was suggested that the kidnapper could be an older individual with a grudge against the force. An examination of the fake bomb revealed it had been crafted from a container of fish food that had been painted silver. The white painted brick was harder to identify. It wasn't of a standard brick size and was originally blue instead of a typical red colour. Chemical and mineral analysis revealed that the brick had been made from a particular clay found at a quarry in the county of Staffordshire. Only one company in the country manufactured this sort of brick, which was used to construct road gutters. On Wednesday, August 21, the police held a press conference to share some of the details

about Julie's murder that they had intentionally been withholding. They revealed that one of the kidnapper's letters contained indentations from another message that had been written on a sheet of paper placed on top. It read, Mavis will not be in on Tuesday. Fill. On Thursday, September 12, Julie's case was covered by Crime Watch, a monthly BBC program that shared information about unsolved crimes and requested viewers' assistance in solving them. Reconstructions depicting Julie's last known movements were aired, along with the red car that was spotted by the field where her body was found. The coverage prompted 400 viewers to phone in with information, including one man who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Julie

one week before her disappearance. He said the two had met in a Leeds pub and he later gave Julie a lift in his car. They chatted for an hour, during which Julie revealed she had taken up sex work to repay a debt so that she could join the army. Another man called asking to speak to Superintendent Bob Taylor directly before abruptly hanging up the phone. This led police to consider whether the caller had been the kidnapper himself. On October 16, 1991, after two months of silence, the police received another handwritten letter from the kidnapper. It read, As you are nowhere near on my tail, the time has come to collect my 140,000 pounds from you. I do not get any bigger sentence for two murders and prostitutes are easy

to pick up. He ordered Constable Zeekness to go to a payphone at the Carlisle train station in Northwest England at 8pm on Wednesday, October 21 and wait for his call. Investigators were confused as October 21 was actually a Monday, not a Wednesday. Moreover, the phone box the kidnapper described had been relocated years earlier. Nevertheless, they sent their crime squad to the location on both Monday and Wednesday, but received no further contact from their suspect. On October 15, a menacing letter had also been sent to the London headquarters of British Rail, the state-owned company that operated most of Great Britain's overground rail transport. It had been sent five days prior from the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire.

Over two typed pages, the author threatened to derail a high-speed train and less 200,000 pounds in cash was delivered by two female employees on Wednesday, October 23. The employees were directed to go to a payphone at crew station in Cheshire to receive further instructions, with a stenciled message warning, your females will be in danger if money not real. Throughout the letter, the pronoun we was used repeatedly, giving the impression that more than one person was behind the extortion scheme. Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Fleming from the London Metropolitan Police was assigned to coordinate the railway thread inquiry and began looking into possible links with other blackmail schemes, including the Julie Dark case.

On Monday, October 21, senior officers from both investigations compared their respective letters and discovered there were a number of similarities. Both included stenciled writing, the use of technical language and diagrams, and instructed women to act as couriers to deliver money in a similar fashion. As the British rail extortionist was requesting that money be delivered on the same day that officers from the Julie Dart inquiry would be carrying out their own operation, police suspected the perpetrator was attempting to tie up their resources. At 7pm on Wednesday, October 23, a female police officer went to crew station to await the extortionist's phone call. Eight minutes later, a call came through, during which the caller

repeatedly asked hello, before hanging up. The phone rang again shortly afterwards, but stopped before it could be answered, and the operation was subsequently aborted. On Monday, October 28, another letter arrived at British Rail, stating, congratulations, you have now qualified for retribution. The extortionist threatened to take down a section of a train line and remove an electric local pantograph, which is an apparatus that connects a train to a line overhead. A week later, on Monday, November 4, British Rail track chargeman Dennis Parton was conducting a routine inspection of the West Coast line, which runs from London to Glasgow. He was focusing on

an eight mile stretch that ran south between crew station and Stafford station, when he came to a bridge near the Staffordshire village of Millmeese. Under the bridge, Dennis noticed that a broken concrete block, some sandstone, and a piece of rope were lying between the rails. He notified the British Transport Police, who determined that the extortionist had likely tied the concrete to one end of the rope and the sandstone to the other. Using the concrete end as an anchor, he then threw the sandstone end over the train line, with the intention of damaging a passing train's pantograph. If this plan had succeeded, the train would have lost power and potentially caused significant damage to both the train and those on board.

On Thursday, November 7, the Julie Dart Inquiry was formally linked with the British Rail case, and West Yorkshire Police were awarded responsibility for both investigations. That same day, Julie's funeral was held in Leeds. Almost four months had passed since her body was discovered, and 300 mourners gathered to pay their respects, including a number of police officers who had been working tirelessly on solving her case. Julie's family were devastated by the revelation that she had been struggling with finances, an abusive relationship, and her army application, and had chosen to keep these troubles to herself. Her maternal grandparents, Margaret and Harvey Aitken, had always told their grandchildren

to come to them any time they needed help. Margaret later stated, I think of Julie every day. It still breaks my heart that she couldn't come to us and tell us what was wrong. Police continued to work the case, but no substantial leads emerged. On January 16, 1992, an inquest into Julie's death was held, with the coroner ruling her death had been an unlawful killing by person or persons unknown. Six days later, on the morning of Wednesday, January 22, 1992, real estate agent Stephanie Slater was preparing for work. The 25-year-old lived with her parents in Birmingham and had recently started a new job at Shipways Estate Agents, an offshoot of one of England's largest

insurance groups. Things were going well for Stephanie. She liked her new job, she had a boyfriend and an active social life, and had just booked a two-week summer holiday with a friend. The pair were planning to visit the Isle of Wight, a picturesque island south of England, that Stephanie had often visited as a child. By the time Stephanie was ready for work, her parents had already left for the day. She gave her two pet cats a quick pat before heading out the door. Her first appointment was scheduled for 10.30 am, where she would be showing a client named Bob Southall, a rundown, two-story, semi-detached house located at 153 Turnbury Road in Birmingham. Bob had called Shipways two weeks earlier, seeking a list of houses for sale in the

£60,000 price range. He had visited the office in person to collect the list, before sending a letter confirming which house he wanted to visit. This was unusual, as most prospective buyers typically booked their viewings via telephone. Stephanie arrived at the office at 9 am and spent the first part of her morning checking her mail and following up on client inquiries, before driving to meet Bob at the Turnbury Road property. Shortly before noon, Stephanie's manager, Kevin Watts and another colleague, were on their way to a meeting when they drove past 153 Turnbury Road and noticed that Stephanie's car was still parked out the front. They remarked that she'd been at her appointment for an unusually long time.

20 minutes later, the phone rang at the Shipways office. Receptionist Sylvia Baker answered and a man on the other end stated, Listen, Syl, Stephanie Slater, she's been kidnapped. There will be a ransom note in the post tomorrow. Contact the police or anybody and she'll die. He then hung up. Stunned, Sylvia immediately called Kevin Watts at his meeting and he quickly returned to the office. Stephanie's co-workers called the number Bob Southall had provided, but it turned out to be connected to a phone booth at a petrol station. Kevin and a colleague then hurried to 153 Turnbury Road. Stephanie's car was still parked out the

front, but the house was empty. In the hallway, they found Stephanie's car keys as well as the keys for the property. On one of the key rings, there were several spots of blood and a single long hair. Kevin phoned the police and uniformed officers were immediately dispatched to the house on Turnbury Road to conduct a search. In the upstairs bathroom and at the top of the stairs, they found drops of blood as well as a larger bloodstain on a wall near the kitchen. Officers interviewed Shipways employees and installed a phone at the office that could record and trace incoming calls. When Stephanie's parents Warren and Betty Slater were notified, they both collapsed in shock and required sedation. They couldn't think of any reason

why Stephanie would be targeted, nor did they believe she had any reason to orchestrate her own disappearance. Detectives from the West Midlands police were assigned to the case. And immediately realized it had been a mistake to send uniformed officers in response to the report, as the kidnapper had warned Sylvia not to call the police. The uniformed officers were quickly withdrawn and replaced with undercover investigators. Shortly after 3pm, another call came through at the Shipways office. A man with a northern accent stated, Just listen, Stephanie's dropped her keys to the house in the hall, so go and lock it up. The call was over so fast that it was unable to be recorded.

An incident room was set up and a media embargo was enforced to prevent the story from going public. Shipways agreed to pay whatever the kidnapper demanded, and police were granted permission to sort through the post at Birmingham's Royal Mail sorting office, in an attempt to find the ransom letter as soon as possible. At 5am on Thursday, January 23, they found an envelope addressed to Shipways that contained a letter and a micro cassette tape. The letter explained that Stephanie would only be released if Shipways agreed to pay £175,000 in unmarked bills that were free from tracking devices. The micro cassette featured a female voice saying,

This is Stephanie Slater. The time is 11.45. I can assure you I am okay and unharmed. Providing these instructions are carried out, I will be released on Friday, the 31st of January. She explained that her manager, Kevin Watts, was to deliver the money on Wednesday, January 29. He had to use his own car and would be given instructions at various points along the way. West Midlands police were aware of Julie Darts' murder and the extortion attempt against British Rail and wondered whether Stephanie's disappearance could be connected. The similarities between the three crimes appeared to be mounting. Both Julie and Stephanie's kidnapper had used recorded messages and misspelled the word ransom by adding an E on the end.

Moreover, in all three crimes, the perpetrator provided very specific instructions about how the money was to be bundled. Investigators began carrying out covert operations in the neighbourhood where Stephanie had been abducted. They door-knocked houses on Turnberry Road, explaining that there had been a break-in nearby and asked whether neighbours had seen anything unusual on Wednesday, January 22. One mentioned seeing a red van revving its engine and turning into a laneway to the rear of the houses. Another had noticed a man standing outside of 153 Turnberry Road who appeared to be in his early 50s. He was short and wore a coat with a badge on the left to breast pocket. With little in the way of leads, investigators were forced to

wait and see whether the kidnapper would make contact again. At 2pm on Sunday, January 26, four days after Stephanie had vanished, the phone rang at her parents' home. Recording equipment had been set up in anticipation of this moment and Stephanie's father, Warren, immediately started taping the call. A male voice on the other end told Warren to listen and then played a pre-recorded message featuring Stephanie's voice. She said, Hello, it's Stephanie here. They've allowed me to make a message to you, just to let you know that I'm alright and unharmed. I hear that West Bromwich Albion lost yesterday to Swansea 3-2. I want you to know that I love you. I'm not to say too much,

and whatever the outcome, I'll always love you. Look after the cats for me. The results from the recent football match indicated that Stephanie was still alive. Her parents were both relieved and distraught, while investigators believed that if they followed the kidnappers' demands, they might have a chance of bringing Stephanie home safely. Stephanie's manager Kevin Watts agreed to help, and investigators provided him with strategies to speak with the kidnapper to minimize threats to his own safety. As the kidnapper had already demonstrated that he was capable of traveling throughout the country, 1,000 detectives from the Midlands Police Forces, Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police

were enlisted to be positioned throughout various motorways during the operation. Investigators would follow Kevin from all directions, with backup ready just in case. Four female detectives would be on standby to care for Stephanie if she was returned safely, while another 30 officers were prepared to spring into action if she was found to be deceased. Shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, January 28, the day before the ransom drop, the phone rang at Shipways Estate Agency. It was the kidnapper demanding to speak to Kevin. He asked if Kevin had the money, and in response, Kevin inquired who was calling. The kidnapper responded impatiently,

never mind, have you got the money for tomorrow. Kevin confirmed that he was getting it, and the kidnapper told him to expect a message at 3 o'clock the following day. The next morning, Kevin said goodbye to his wife and daughters, using his finger to write, I love you in the air, before getting into his car. At the office, he put a bulletproof vest on beneath his work suit. A two-way radio was installed in his vehicle, and the ransom money was delivered to the office in a sports bag that had a tracking device sewn into the lining. He was to keep the bag with him at all times, so that the police could constantly track his whereabouts. At 3.25pm, the kidnapper

called and instructed Kevin to go to the railway station in Glossop, a town almost 98 miles north of Birmingham. There, he was to head to the payphone in the station's entrance hall, where the kidnapper would call to provide further instructions at 7 o'clock. Kevin departed for Glossop with undercover officers trailing behind. As he drove, he used the two-way radio to keep the police informed about the route he was taking. He arrived at Glossop railway station shortly before 7pm, and waited nervously by the phone booth the kidnapper had described. Eventually, the kidnapper called and told Kevin to leave the station, turn right, and go to another phone box about 200 yards away. There, he would find

written instructions taped beneath a shelf. Kevin followed these orders and found an envelope in the phone booth marked with the letter A. Inside, was a typed note directing him to drive 22 miles east towards the town of Dodworth, where another letter was waiting in a phone booth. Kevin got back in his car and started driving, but within a minute, heavy fog fell all around him, making it difficult to see. The limited visibility hindered his progress, but he made it to the isolated phone booth by 8.15. A note inside pointed him towards an off-road lane 150 yards away and warned, this route will show if you are being followed. Once there, Kevin was to look for a red and white traffic cone near a small building.

There would be a bag next to the cone, which he was to place the money into. Kevin returned to his car again and turned left onto the lane, passing a small wooden sign that read, Shipways. The track was rough and framed by hedges and low stone walls, but he soon spotted a shed with a cone and a large black bag in front of it. Kevin pulled over, griped the bag and stuffed the cash inside. He found a note directing him to continue to the end of the lane and then on to another pay phone several miles away, where another note was waiting. Kevin kept driving forward, noticing that the stone walls on either side suddenly loomed much

higher. Within 300 yards, he unexpectedly encountered another cone with a stenciled message attached. It explained that a wooden tray with a sensor inside was perched on one of the walls. Kevin was instructed to place the bag with the money in the tray, and if the sensor didn't buzz, he could leave the money and go. Kevin walked over to the tray, noticing a silver rectangular device in one of its corners. He jammed the bag inside and was relieved when the sensor didn't make a sound. Nervously, he then headed back to his car. Meanwhile, the investigators who were monitoring Kevin's movements had struggled to find a parallel route along the narrow lane and had lost contact with the tracking signal

that had been fitted into his bag. By the time Kevin delivered the money, they had lost sight of him altogether. Kevin had used the two-way radio to let the police know that he was about to hand over the cash, but a technical problem had prevented them from receiving the message. As Kevin drove away from the drop-off site, he used the two-way radio again to inform police that he'd successfully dropped off the money. This time, his message went through. Investigators were horrified to learn that they'd lost contact with their courier at the most crucial moment, as it meant the kidnapper had likely managed to escape with the money.

Worse still, they had no idea where Stephanie was, or if they'd just lost their only chance to save her life. When West Yorkshire detectives heard that their prime suspect for Julie Dartsmurder had slipped through West Midlands Police's comprehensive and elaborate sting, they were furious. Investigators said about detaining and interrogating everyone they encountered in proximity of the drop-off zone, but there was no sign of the kidnapper or of Stephanie Slater. Eventually, at 11.30pm, police reluctantly held a press conference to announce that their operation had failed. Although the media embargo on the story was still being enforced, investigators admitted the money had been handed over, but they had not managed to recover Stephanie.

Detective Inspector Adrian Bowers had been tasked with looking after Stephanie's parents while the operation was carried out and was waiting with them in their family home. The past eight days had been incredibly distressing for Warren and Betty Slater, and the news that Stephanie had not been been saved during the operation further added to their grief. At 12.50am, there was a loud banging at the Slater's front door, accompanied by the doorbell ringing. Detective Bowers raced to answer it and found a dishevelled looking young woman whom he didn't recognise standing on the doorstep. Warren Slater rushed up from behind, pushed the detective out of the way and pulled the woman into the house, shouting to his wife. It's our Stephanie. She's home.

Stephanie's parents were eager to embrace their daughter, but Detective Bowers held them back, explaining there might be crucial evidence on her body. He asked Stephanie where her kidnapper was, to which she responded, oh he's long gone. It turned out that the kidnapper had driven Stephanie home himself, dropping her roughly 200 feet from her house. There had been no security detail outside, meaning the kidnapper had managed to elude police twice that night. Investigators and doctors arrived at the Slater's home, and Stephanie underwent a physical examination. Though confused and disoriented, she didn't have any serious injuries. She revealed she had been blindfolded for a long period of time, and the doctors

confirmed that her eyesight was temporarily damaged as a result. Blood and hair samples were taken, and physical evidence was collected from underneath her fingernails. Her clothing was also taken into evidence. Stephanie denied that any sexual assault had taken place, meaning that it wasn't necessary for doctors to conduct a rape kit. After being allowed to shower, she was transported to a private hospital for monitoring, where her parents were allowed to stay in an adjoining room. When she learned that her kidnapper was also suspected of having murdered Julie Dott, she was overcome with grief at the thought of what Julie had endured.

The eight-day media embargo was finally lifted, and the next morning, Stephanie's story featured on breakfast news and radio programs throughout the country. West Midlands police assistant Chief Constable Phil Thomas thanked the press for their cooperation throughout the operation, and said that while the kidnapper had escaped with £175,000, police had achieved their primary objective of bringing Stephanie home. He stated, quote, We can now openly get on with the investigation to catch this man. Our inquiries are now well in hand, and we have gained a lot of information which we didn't have before. The media interest in the story was intense, and later that afternoon, Stephanie appeared at

a press conference to answer questions about her ordeal. When asked how she felt upon realizing she had been abducted, she stated, I'd call it sheer terror. You can't put that sort of feeling into words unless you've actually been through it. Stephanie said she was eager to thank her manager Kevin Watts in person, and hoped that she could return to her normal life as soon as possible. Following the press conference, Stephanie returned to the hospital, where she spent the next 10 days providing evidence about her ordeal to three female officers who were specially trained in debriefing victims. Her recall was excellent, and she managed to provide a detailed account of the events that unfolded after she met the man claiming to be named Bob Southall

at 153 Turnbury Road. When Stephanie arrived at the address, Bob was already standing by the front door. She described him as aged between 40 and 55, with an average to stocky build and a tanned complexion. He had been wearing thick black-framed glasses and a jacket that had a badge picturing a train on its left pocket. He spoke with a northern accent, indicating he wasn't local to Birmingham. When they entered the property, Bob asked a few questions about the house, but didn't appear particularly interested. As they headed upstairs to see the second story, Bob pointed to a window and inquired whether it was double-glazed. Stephanie replied that it was.

Stephanie waited nearby while Bob explored the upstairs rooms. As he entered the bathroom, Stephanie began to walk back downstairs, but Bob suddenly pointed at the wall opposite him and asked, what's that up there? Stephanie went into the bathroom and realised he was pointing at a hook, which she explained was to hang a towel on. She turned around to leave, but Bob suddenly flew towards her. He was holding a 10- to 12-inch knife in one hand and a long, flat chisel with a hook in the other. A struggle ensued and Stephanie received small nicks to her face from the knife. She grabbed both weapons and managed to bend the chisel, rendering it useless. Stephanie screamed and Bob attempted to cover her mouth with his hand. He then jumped on her and grabbed her long

hair from behind, wrenching her head back and pushing her over the side of the bathtub. Stephanie caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and saw that Bob was holding a knife to her throat. He threatened to cut her throat if she started screaming, to which Stephanie responded. All right, calm down. You've got me. Don't kill me. Please don't kill me. Please remember, I'm human. Bob bound Stephanie's wrists together with what appeared to be rope from a washing line and placed a noose around her neck made from the same material. He forced her downstairs, yelling angrily whenever she looked directly at him. At the bottom of the stairs, he blindfolded and gagged Stephanie using her own scarf,

then tied her legs with rope just below the knees. He then steered her through the back of the house and into the garage, where he forced her into a vehicle at knife point. Stephanie was made to lie down on the passenger seat, which had been moved into a reclining position. Her face was then covered with a blanket and a line of rope was tied across her neck to restrict her from sitting up. Bob held a knife to her stomach and started driving. In order to determine where they were going, Stephanie focused on noises, the quality of the roads and the turns Bob was taking. He eventually pulled over in a quiet, isolated area and forced Stephanie to record the ransom message that he later sent to her employers. He also explained

that his name wasn't really Bob, but instructed Stephanie to continue calling him that, to make things easier. By evening, they reached a rough dirt track. Bob parked the car and guided Stephanie along a gravel path. He pushed what sounded like a metallic sliding door and led Stephanie into a room with a stone floor where he tied her to a wooden chair. He left the room and returned shortly after with some chips for her to eat. He then forced her to change into men's clothing and remarked, I hope you're not claustrophobic. Bob explained he was going to place Stephanie inside a box that was placed inside another box. She was forced to lie down and shuffle feet first into a long, narrow container which required her to twist her body into an uncomfortable corkscrew

position. Once she was in, Bob tied Stephanie's handcuffed wrists to a metal bar above her head and warned that if she pulled on the bar, boulders placed above would fall down and crush her. He also placed a wire inside the box which he explained was attached to electrodes that would shock Stephanie if she moved. Bob told Stephanie he couldn't understand why she was so calm to which she responded, I'm not calm, I'm frightened to death. Bob closed the lid over the top of her head and said, See you in the morning then. Stephanie spent the night in physical agony. It was freezing cold and her body was in pain from the awkward, restricted position she'd been forced into. Terrified, she lay awake throughout

the night, convinced she would die from suffocation or hypothermia. At her most distraught point, she noticed a speck of light that appeared to grow and move towards her. As it came closer, Stephanie realized it resembled the face of Jesus Christ. As she was not a religious person, the vision took her by surprise and she wondered whether she had died. The following morning, music started playing from a nearby radio. By this stage, Stephanie's entire body was wracked with excruciating pain and her extremities were numb. Bob opened the box and seemed surprised to find her in such agony. He removed Stephanie from the box and sat her onto a chair, rubbing her arms in an attempt to lessen the pain. After giving her a cup of tea and some

porridge, he explained that his plan was to keep her hostage until the following Wednesday, January 29, when he would collect his ransom money. If she behaved, Bob told Stephanie she would be home within a week. Instead of returning her to the box, Bob then allowed Stephanie to stay on a mattress on the floor while he went to work, provided she didn't make any noise or attempt an escape. After he had left, Stephanie began reflecting on Bob's behavior. Although he had been threatening and violent, he had also shown a more humane side and Stephanie wondered if she could appeal to this part of his personality. Deciding her best chance at survival was to be compliant and polite, she resolved to put her strong people skills to use.

Over the following week, Bob returned every morning and evening to give Stephanie food and let her use the toilet. At night, he would also back into the box. During his visits, Stephanie attempted to humanize herself by chatting with Bob about the TV programs she liked to watch. She told him about her boyfriend, whom her mother hoped she would marry one day. On one occasion, Bob brought a German shepherd puppy with him and Stephanie revealed her love of animals. She also confided that she had been adopted at six months old because her parents were unable to conceive children and Bob appeared moved by this revelation. Although Stephanie was kept blindfolded and bound a majority of the time,

she managed to pay close attention to her surroundings. During her first day in captivity, she heard muffled voices nearby, followed by a short ringing sound and then silence. This pattern repeated several times and Stephanie realized she was likely being held out the back of a store. The sound of an electric saw and banging led her to believe it could be an engineering workshop. In addition, she knew there was a microwave nearby as it made a dinging sound every time Bob made her porridge. A radio was also close by, which played all day and was permanently tuned to BBC's Radio 2 channel. Stephanie also heard a bell on what sounded like an old-fashioned cash register and the ringing of a rotary-style phone.

The sound of trucks, lorries and trains could also be heard regularly passing through the neighborhood. During one conversation, Bob told Stephanie that he was carrying out the ransom scheme with a male accomplice, whom he referred to as his mate. He described the man as a nasty piece of work and told Stephanie she was lucky not to be stuck with him. Bob appeared to grow somewhat fond of Stephanie and repeatedly promised that she would be going home. Yet, he also appeared to take pleasure in scaring her. On one occasion, Stephanie told a joke that made Bob laugh, after which he remarked, I'll have to get rid of that bin now. When Stephanie asked which bin he was referring to,

Bob explained there was a plastic wheelie bin in the corner that he had planned to dispose of her body in. On Sunday, January 26, Bob made Stephanie record a message that he could play for her parents. He had her mention the result of the recent West Bromwich Albion vs Swansea football match to verify that she was still alive. The next day, he confirmed that she would be going home on Wednesday, January 29. On Stephanie's final night in captivity, Bob let her sleep on the mattress instead of inside the box. On the morning of Wednesday, January 29, Bob told Stephanie he would be collecting the ransom money from her manager Kevin Watts that night and would be back to release her between 8 and 9pm. He then remarked, I was thinking that

it would be nice to have a photograph of you, you know, something to remember you by. He told Stephanie to remove her blindfold but keep her eyes closed while he snapped a picture of her. Stephanie was then secured back into the box where she remained for the rest of the day. The radio was kept on, allowing her to keep track of the time via the hourly news bulletins. 9pm eventually came and went with no sign of Bob and Stephanie began to worry that he wasn't coming back after all. She became increasingly panicked that she would be left to die a slow, painful death alone in captivity. To escape such a fate, she contemplated taking her own life by smothering her face with the duvet that had been left inside the box with her. At 10.45pm, Bob finally returned.

He released Stephanie, had her change into new clothes and reassured her that he was taking her home. His initial plan was to leave her at a police station or a phone box but he drove her back to Birmingham instead and dropped her off near her home. Before he left, he asked for a kiss goodbye. After being blindfolded and restricted for over a week, Stephanie found it difficult to see and walk, but she managed to stumble home, where she was finally reunited with her parents. The police were impressed by the level of detail in Stephanie's recollections and said about having create an impression of the perpetrator. Meanwhile, an investigation of the money drop site revealed that the narrow lane with large stone walls that Kevin had been sent to was actually a bridge

above an abandoned railway line. Underneath the bridge, officers recovered a rectangular device that had been painted silver as well as the tray that Kevin had placed the money in, which was a wooden drawer with a length of washing line attached. It appeared that the kidnapper had waited under the bridge, then dragged the drawer with the money in it down after Kevin had left. Investigators theorised that he may have escaped on a motorbike to avoid police roadblocks. The site of the abandoned railway line was part of a country walking trail, known as the Dover Valley Trail. It was just three miles down the track from the bridge,

where the painted brick and false incendiary device were found in relation to Julie Dart's case. The two cases were formally linked and West Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Tom Cook was appointed as the head of the investigation. Stephanie's neighbours were questioned to see if they'd noticed anything unusual on the night of her return. A spray painter named Les Barnaby recalled that he'd been watching a film in bed around 1am when he heard the sound of a car engine revving outside. He looked out the window and saw a red Austin Metro in the street below. It was old and muddy and the passenger door was slightly open. After a minute, a young, disheveled-looking woman stumbled backwards out of the car and

staggered down the street in an awkward run. On the evening of Tuesday, February 4, six days after Stephanie's return, police released the first sketch of the suspect. It depicted a middle-aged white male with short dark hair wearing square, black-framed glasses. His face was broad with a square forehead and a straight nose. Within an hour of going public, more than 500 people phoned tips in to the police, but none generated any promising leads. Assistant Chief Constable Tom Cook told the media he was almost expecting to hear from the kidnapper directly. Quote, perhaps he might like to boast about it if he feels he has been successful.

On Thursday, February 6, a letter arrived at the offices of the BBC, Yorkshire Television, the Sun and News of the World newspapers, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire Police, and at the workplace of Julie Dart's mother. It claimed to be from the kidnapper who admitted to abducting Stephanie, but denied murdering Julie or blackmailing British Rail. He wanted to clarify this out of concern for Stephanie's well-being as he had previously told her that he'd never killed anyone and was worried about how she might feel if she thought he had. The letter read,

The fact that I could and did carry out the crime extremely successfully is my only satisfaction. I am ashamed, upset and thoroughly disgusted at my treatment of Stephanie and the suffering I must have caused to her parents. Even now my eyes are filled with tears. I wake up during the night actually crying. With a little luck, Stephanie will get over it shortly. Myself, I do not think I ever will. The letter contained spelling and punctuation errors that matched previous correspondence from the kidnapper. The phrase, with a little luck, had also been used in one of the letters sent to British Rail. This indicated that the same person was indeed responsible for all

three crimes and on Friday, February 7, snippets of the letter were published in the country's newspapers. Two days later, Stephanie finally left the hospital and was able to return home. A number of reporters had set up camp in the field's opposite her house to cover her homecoming. She agreed to pose for the cameras with her parents and two pet cats and was met at the front door by a police officer carrying a bouquet of flowers. Armed detectives took shifts guarding the family and escorting them everywhere they went, while police dogs and their handlers patrolled the land between the house and the nearby motorway. Media interest in the case was unrelenting and Stephanie was inundated with large financial

offers in exchange for an exclusive interview. Police advised her to negotiate a deal with one newspaper as this would prompt all other outlets to back off. She decided to sign a contract with the Sun newspaper as it was the paper her father read and also had the highest number of readers. Stephanie wanted to use her experience to alert women to the possible dangers they faced and suggest ways they could protect themselves. From the outset of the investigation, police had intentionally withheld significant details from the media and they eventually chose to release this information on an episode of BBC's Crime Watch. The show aired on the evening of Thursday, February 20, with 15 million viewers tuning in to watch.

For the first time, it was publicly revealed that the kidnapper drove a red Austin metro, that he appeared to have a connection with British Railways and that Stephanie had been held hostage in a workshop environment. The recorded phone call between the kidnapper and Kevin Watts was also played, prompting 1,000 phone calls to police and to the Crime Watch headquarters. 48-year-old Susan Oak had been out when the show aired, but she had taped it so she could watch it later on. The case had caught Susan's attention as the sketch of the suspect resembled her ex-husband, Michael Samms, who also drove a red car similar to the one witnessed near the location where Julie Dart's body was found. Furthermore, the suspect had reportedly

worn a railway badge on his coat and Michael loved trains. However, Michael had one leg amputated 13 years earlier and the suspect wasn't said to have a limp, so Susan deemed it unlikely that her ex could be responsible. She primarily wanted to see the Crime Watch episode to lay her suspicions to rest. At 11pm on the night the episode aired, Susan played the tape. Upon hearing the voice of the kidnapper, she leapt out of her chair and shouted, It's him. It's Mike. Michael Benerman Samms was born on August 11, 1941, in the west Yorkshire town of Keithley. He had a conventional middle-class upbringing and was a bright child who did well at school, although struggled with spelling and grammar. At the age of 20, Samms joined the merchant navy,

but returned to his hometown a year later and trained to work as a lift engineer. He met his first wife Susan when he was installing lifts at her workplace. The young couple married on July 18, 1964 and went on to have two sons. By 1970, Samms had started his own business servicing central heating boilers and was often so busy that he rarely saw his wife and children. He dedicated any spare time he had to train spotting, a term used to describe the hobby of watching trains. Samms was fascinated by rail transport. He collected train memorabilia and displayed a model railway in a spare room. In 1973, Samms suddenly became ill and was rushed to hospital.

Doctors suspected he had meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord, but tests were inconclusive. Samms managed to make a recovery, but thereafter he was prone to mood swings and violent outbursts. He and Susan argued frequently, with Samms often becoming physically and sexually aggressive. He started raping his wife and subjected her to humiliating sexual abuse. In 1976, Susan left Samms, taking the couple's two sons with her. Samms begged her to take him back while also threatening, if I can't have you, nobody else will. On one occasion, one of Samms employees told Susan that Samms had offered him money to kill her.

Samms had also bragged to the employee that he knew how to carry out the perfect kidnapping. Samms and Susan divorced in 1977, and that same year, Samms stole a car, resulting in his first recorded criminal offense and nine months in prison. While serving his sentence, Samms began experiencing significant pain in his right knee. He was diagnosed with cancer, and to prevent the disease from spreading, his leg was amputated above the knee. Samms was released after serving six months. Three weeks later, he married a woman named DeJane, whom he'd met through a Lonely Hearts personal's ad. However,

Jane soon became unhappy in the relationship and ended the marriage in 1981. The next year, Samms began work as a power tool repairman for Black and Decker in Birmingham. He met his third wife, Tina, after she placed a personal ad in a local newspaper, and he soon opened his own tool repair shop in the town of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Samms often criticised Tina and pestered her for sex, which caused their marriage to deteriorate within a few years. He once threatened to go to Leeds to find a sex worker, saying he knew which areas they frequented. Despite being unhappy, the couple stayed together and eventually moved to the village of Sutton

on Trent, which was approximately halfway between Leeds and Birmingham. Samms started his own business repairing power tools and had a shop in the nearby town of Newick. Susan Oak had little to do with her ex-husband, though her son still saw him occasionally. In mid-February 1992, Samms' father died and Susan attended his funeral, where she saw Samms for the first time in four years. He appeared strange and evasive, refusing to make eye contact, or give Susan a lift to the cemetery in his red Austin metro. His voice and peculiar behaviour were still clear in Susan's mind several days later when she watched the Crime Watch episode, and she had no doubt that he was responsible for the crimes.

She immediately called the Crime Watch hotline, but it was busy, so she reported her suspicions to the Julie Dutt incident room in Leeds instead. One of her sons also called Crime Watch to back his mother's report. Among the hundreds of calls that were coming through, the West Yorkshire police quickly prioritised Susan's information, and two officers were dispatched to her home. By 2am, Michael Samms had officially been placed on the suspect list, along with four other individuals. At 10.40am on Friday, February 21, four high-ranking officers were dispatched to Samms' residence in Sutton on Trent. His wife, Tina, answered the door and explained that her husband was at work. One of the detectives noticed an abundance of railway paraphernalia hanging on

the walls of the house, including photographs of trains and salvaged engine name plates. There was also a moped, a German shepherd, and a fish tank. These details were significant as a fish food container had been used to construct the fake incendiary device found in the Julie Dutt case. Stephanie had also been shown a German shepherd puppy while in captivity, and police believed the kidnapper may have driven a motorbike of some kind when picking up the ransom money. The officers told Tina they would return at 5pm, but then rushed to Samms' shop eight miles away in Newark, hoping that Tina wouldn't alert him to their visit. They pulled up at the address, where a hand stenciled sign read, T&M Tools. Samms' red Austin Metro was parked outside,

and a railway line ran nearby, which could account for the trains that Stephanie heard during her time in captivity. Inside, tools were hanging on the wall, and a cash register sat on the counter, but nobody was there. A number of other features aligned with Stephanie's recollections. There was an old rotary-style telephone, a microwave, a bell above the door, and a radio playing that was tuned to BBC Radio 2. One of the officers called out, and Samms emerged from behind a curtain, stating, I've been expecting you. What is it you want? The officers explained that he was under arrest for suspicion of abduction and murder relating

to Julie Dart and Stephanie Slater. Samms retorted, You've got the wrong man. You are making a big mistake. He was taken to the nearest police station and held for questioning. A young constable tasked with guarding Samms asked what he was in for. Samms replied, Suspicion of murder and abduction. Didn't you watch Crime Watch last night? The constable said that he hadn't, and asked whether Samms was referring to the Stephanie Slater case. Samms responded, Yes, the evidence is in the workshop. I didn't do the murder. I don't know how they've linked the two. Startled, the constable asked Samms if he was responsible for Stephanie's abduction. He replied, Yeah, but I didn't do the other one.

Samms was taken to the station's sergeant to repeat his admission. He stated, I've done the kidnapping. I've not done the murder. I promised Stephanie that she'd go home. And she did. Following this confession, Samms was stripped, searched and given new clothes with his own sent off for forensic testing. As he was moved throughout the station, he continued to provide further details to the young constable whenever the two were left alone. Samms explained that he was annoyed when the real estate agency sent a woman to the property at 153 Turnbury Road, as he would have become less emotionally attached to a male hostage. He also boasted about successfully hiding the fact that he had a prosthetic leg from Stephanie,

and added that he only carried out the kidnapping because he was bored and lonely. Samms' first formal interview commenced later that afternoon. He repeated his confession and explained that he'd buried most of the ransom money after dropping Stephanie home. He said that he only asked for 175,000 pounds because it seemed like a realistic amount that would be manageable to carry. By the time the interview ended, news had broken about the arrest. Samms was transferred to a police station in Birmingham, where angry crowds were waiting out the front to hurl abuse as he was rushed inside. Meanwhile, forensic investigators had been inspecting Samms' workshop for evidence and found 19,000 pounds in cash. They discovered that the

chamber he had kept Stephanie in was a custom-built timber box that had been placed inside a sideways plastic wheelie bin. A number of human hairs matching Stephanie's were found, while other dyed strands of hair looked like they could belong to Julie Dart. A diluted blood stain was found on an old curtain which someone appeared to have attempted to wash away with water. There wasn't enough blood to obtain a DNA profile, but the blood type was identified as the same as Julie's. Brown nylon fibers on the workshop floor also matched those found on the sheets used to wrap Julie's body. An inspection of Samms' computer revealed a disturbing word document written in the style of a police statement. It explained that he had picked up a young sex worker named

Julie from Leeds, who said she worked at the Leeds General Infirmary. She mentioned having a boyfriend whose name began with D.O., but she stopped herself before revealing his whole name. The two had sex, during which Samms noticed that Julie had a number of bruises on her body. Afterwards, she wrote the name Julie D. on a business card and told him, I will be around here some evenings. I get dropped off about 10.45 and collected around 11.30. Samms claimed he'd returned to the area a few days later, but didn't see Julie again. Investigators also searched the tool repair shop in Cambridgeshire that Samms had run several years earlier. There, they found a number of unusual bricks that matched the one found during the Julie

Dart investigation. That brick had been painted white and had an envelope attached with instructions, and a forensic examination revealed that it had been made from blue-colored clay. The bricks found at Samms' former shop were of the same size and color. Samms' wife Tina told investigators that she and her husband had watched the latest episode of Crime Watch together, and that Samms had commented that the suspect sketch looked like him 10 years prior. Tina had agreed and joked, You've got a metro and you live near a railway line. It's a good job you've got a tin leg. When Samms' mother was questioned, she said that he and Tina had visited her on July 21, 1991.

This matched the date that Julie Dart killer had posted a letter to the police from Leeds Railway Station. Tina confirmed that she and her husband had stopped at the station during their trip, while other journeys Samms had made also aligned with dates that other ransom letters had been sent. Samms' ex-wife Susan Oak was shown some of these letters, and confirmed that the spelling and grammatical errors matched those she'd seen before in Samms' writing. On Saturday, February 22, the police continued to formally interview Samms about Stephanie's kidnapping. When talking about Stephanie, he often started crying, saying that he couldn't bring himself to hurt her. Samms adamantly denied having anything to do with the Julie

Dart's murder, or being familiar with the Chapel Town's red light district, insisting he was incapable of hurting a woman. When the police pointed out that Julie's body was disposed of in a wheelie bin, and that he had made a similar threat to Stephanie, Samms dismissed this as a coincidence. The day's interrogation concluded, and police applied for a 36-hour extension on Samms' detention so they could continue questioning him about Julie. The following morning, Samms provided investigators with a lengthy written statement in which he claimed to have an accomplice in Stephanie's kidnapping. He said he paid the accomplice £20,000 to drive him to the Glossoper Raleway Station, which was the first site that Stephanie's manager Kevin Watts was

directed to, leaving Samms with a moped and other equipment. After Samms had successfully obtained the ransom money, the accomplice picked him up and insisted that Stephanie be killed. Samms refused, and a violent argument broke out between the two men. The accomplice only relented when Samms offered to give him a majority of the money. Samms claimed that it was his accomplice who was responsible for blackmailing British Rail and for murdering Julie Dart. The accomplice had allegedly kept Julie tied to a bed in a chalet on the east coast of England and beat her with a hammer when she tried to escape from his sexual abuse. Samms also claimed that his accomplice had a key to Samms' workshop and had used his computer on

multiple occasions. Samms refused to name this individual out of fear he might harm Stephanie in retaliation. Investigators didn't believe that another individual was involved. Instead, they were convinced this was Samms' way of explaining the evidence that linked him to the other two cases. They obtained a writing sample from Samms and had an expert compare it to the handwritten letters from Julie Dart's case. The sample featured a number of notable similarities to the letters, including 14 identical spelling errors. The expert concluded that Samms was the author of the letters. On Monday, February 24, Michael Samms was formally charged with the kidnapping of Stephanie Slater, as well as unlawfully holding her prisoner and demanding

175,000 pounds from her employer with menaces. Two days later, he was also charged with the murder of Julie Dart and with demanding 140,000 pounds with menaces from West Yorkshire Police. Samms was remanded in custody pending trial, during which he continued to undergo interviews with the police. During one interview, he suddenly confessed to another failed kidnapping attempt. Samms admitted that one week before Julie's disappearance, he made an appointment to view a house with Nottingham real estate agent, 42-year-old Carol Jones. He went armed with a knife and rope, intending to abduct her, but his plans were foiled when a builder working on the house next door started chatting to him while he waited for Carol to arrive. Samms ended up leaving before

Carol got there. Investigators spoke with Carol Jones, who remembered that her client was a no show that day. One of her colleagues, Karen Langdon, recalled going to meet a client at that same Nottingham property. Upon her arrival, she had been approached by a man carrying a clipboard who was wearing glasses similar to Michael Samms. He walked away at the last moment, and Karen noticed he walked with a slight limp. Both Carol and Karen were shocked to learn they had escaped a brush with a kidnapper. Karen was particularly shaken, as she had resigned from her job after Stephanie Slater's abduction out of fear of the risks involved. Michael Samms eventually admitted to writing the ransom letters, but claimed his accomplice had

forced him to do so. As he maintained that this individual had the majority of the ransom money, finding the cash became a priority for investigators, as it would disprove Samms' claims about a second perpetrator once and for all. Two witnesses had reported that in July of 1991, they saw a man with a walking stick on a disused railway track less than one mile from where Julie's body was found. Samms denied ever visiting the area, except for one occasion, when he visited a popular trainspotting destination named Stoke Summit. Police then spoke with a retired colonel from the special air service, who had specialized in finding arms caches. He advised that the money

would likely be buried in a remote location that was close to public access. Based on this advice and the witness sighting, police honed in on the Stoke Summit railway embankment, located 1.7 miles from where Julie's body had been dumped. On December 2, 1992, just over 10 months after Stephanie's kidnapping, they used ground probing radar to dig in the area. Eight inches below the surface, they found a black tray wrapped in polythene topped with a newspaper dated February 6, 1992. Inside, there were stacks of banknotes. When Samms heard about the discovery, he told police the parcel was one of two he'd prepared,

but claimed that it must have been buried by his accomplice. Two days later, buried 16 feet away from the first, police recovered the second parcel of money. All up, they recovered all of the ransom money, less 12,500 pounds, which was never found. Michael Samms' trial commenced at the Nottingham Crown Court on June 9, 1993. He pleaded guilty to the charges relating to Stephanie Slater, but not guilty to Julie's abduction and murder, and not guilty to the attempted extortion of British Rail. Over two and a half days, the prosecutor delivered a dramatic opening speech, detailing what he dubbed Michael Samms' campaign of crime.

Julie Dart was known to be terrified of confined spaces, and was described as someone who would have fought back against an attacker. The prosecution's theory was that Julie had likely attempted to escape from the box Samms held her in, and Samms had then killed her out of fear that she had seen too much. The prosecution believed that Stephanie had survived because she had played along with Samms' demands. When Stephanie took the stand to deliver her testimony, she kept her eyes to the ground, while Samms sobbed in the background. The defense called Michael Samms as their first witness. He maintained that his accomplice had murdered Julie Dart and had forced Samms to write the ransom letters. As for Stephanie's

kidnapping, he claimed he was financially motivated to commit the crime because he wanted to buy a nice house for his wife in an attempt to mend their relationship. During cross-examination, Samms refused to name Julie's killer, saying he would only do so at the conclusion of the trial after proving himself innocent. The prosecutor accused Samms of lying, stating, quote, you cannot bring yourself to admit that you killed Julie Dart, and like a little child, you have invented this friend. The trial ran for four weeks, and on July 8, the jury retired to consider their verdict. They deliberated for three and a half hours before declaring Michael Samms guilty of all charges,

including Julie's murder and the British Rail extortion attempt. Those seated in the public gallery applauded and cheered, while Stephanie Slater cried and mouthed, thank you to the jury. Julie's mother, Lynn Dart, cried out, you bastard, before bursting into tears. Samms showed no emotion as the judge addressed him directly, saying, quote, you are an extremely dangerous and evil man. The jury has convicted you of the murder of Julie Dart. That was murder in cold blood. A kidnap gone wrong because she saw more than she should. Undeterred by the horror of what you had done, you tried to turn her death to your advantage. When Stephanie Slater was kidnapped, I have not the slightest doubt that she was in desperate

and mortal danger. The ordeal that you inflicted on her is something that the rest of us can only imagine. Her survival, in my judgment, is entirely due to her own remarkable moral courage. For his crimes against Julie and Stephanie, the judge sentenced Samms to four life terms. He also received concurrent 10-year sentences for each of the Blackmail attempts and the attempted extortion of British Rail. When Stephanie was later asked how she felt, she remarked, well, he shouldn't have done it, should he, if he was going to cry like that after what he has done. I can show him tears. I can show him lots of tears, stronger, upsetting, natural tears. Outside court, Lynn Dart told reporters, quote, I know we will never have Julie back.

I also know that justice has been done at last, and that beast Samms, and that's what he is, has got what he justly deserves. Samms was sent to serve his sentence at Full Sutton Prison in Yorkshire. Four days after his conviction, he requested to speak with West Yorkshire Detective Superintendent Bob Taylor, who had been in charge of the Julie Dart inquiry. Samms told the detective that he had seen a photo of Julie Dart's headstone on television and noticed that it didn't have an exact date for her death. Consequently, he had decided to come clean as he wanted Julie's mother to know when her daughter had died. Samms confessed that he had lured Julie into his car at 11.30

on Tuesday, July 9, 1991, under the guise of hiring her for sex work. When she leaned forward in the passenger seat to remove her shoes, he placed a noose around her neck and drove her to his workshop. There, he stripped her clothes, tied her to a chair, and forced her to ride a ransom letter to her boyfriend. Samms then confined Julie in the box inside the wheelie bin, like he did with Stephanie. The next day, Julie managed to smash her way out, but Samms had set up a trigger mechanism that sent him a phone call to alert him to any escape attempts. Shortly before 6pm, the trigger went off and Samms raced over to the workshop.

Using a hammer, he knocked Julie unconscious before strangling her to death. Although she was no longer alive, Samms proceeded with his extortion attempt by continuing to send ransom letters to the police. After Samms' confession, Detective Superintendent Taylor met with the Julie Darts family to share this new information. Lynn Dart was finally able to update her daughter's headstone with the Julie's exact date of death. She told Yorkshire Television, quote, Samms has known for two years that he did it. He knew all through the trial that he was guilty, so why does he now decide to come out and say it? He is just walked and twisted.

He is twisting the knife and rubbing salt in the wound as well. It is just another game in his book. One month later, portions of a letter that Samms had written to his now estranged wife Tina were published in newspapers throughout Britain. In it, Samms revealed that he had always intended to release Stephanie and had always planned on killing Julie. Based on this information, investigators theorised that Samms had likely abducted and killed Julie as a trial run for his subsequent abduction scheme. From the moment Stephanie Slater was abducted, comparisons were made to the 1986

disappearance of Susie Lamplew, which was covered in episode 48 of Case File. Susie was a 25-year-old British estate agent who vanished after going to show a house to a client named Mr Kipper, and her case has never been solved. Stephanie had been well aware of Susie's disappearance, and as a real estate agent herself, she had initially started carrying a personal alarm when she was out showing houses. However, by the time of her own abduction in 1992, the memory of Susie's tragedy had faded, and Stephanie no longer carried the alarm. During her time being held hostage, Samms had assured Stephanie that he had nothing to do with Susie's disappearance, but after his arrest, the media speculated that he may be responsible.

Police dismissed this theory, stating that Samms wasn't a likely culprit, but had likely been inspired by the case. In 1994, Samms allegedly sent a letter from prison confessing to Susie's abduction, but it was dismissed by police as a sick hoax. The following year, crime writer Christopher Berry D published a book titled, Unmasking Mr Kipper Who Really Killed Susie Lamplew, which argued that Samms was responsible for the crime. The Lamplew family were never consulted about the book and were unhappy about its publication.

Susie's mother Diana publicly stated her belief that Berry D was using her daughter's disappearance to sell his book, which was far more focused on Michael Samms than on Susie. Stephanie Slater found it difficult to return to normal life after her abduction. She was unable to return to her job, struggled to socialize with friends, and to end her relationship with her boyfriend. As a result of being kept in the wooden box, she suffered from chronic back pain as well as anxiety, nightmares, and panic attacks. People recognized her everywhere she went, so she altered her appearance and temporarily changed her name in an attempt to create a new identity.

Stephanie also struggled with the fact that she had survived, while Julie Dart hadn't been so lucky. She met Julie's mother and grandparents and went with Lynn Dart to place flowers on Julie's grave. In an attempt to find closure, Stephanie decided to go back to the workshop where she'd been held hostage and agreed that television network Central Television could film the visit. Seeing the workshop unblindfolded for the first time, she was surprised by how small it was and how close it was to a main road. Though she found the experience unnerving, it didn't provide the resolution Stephanie was looking for. In need of a fresh start, in October 1993, she decided to relocate to the Isle of Wight

with her best friend Stacy Kettner. Stephanie had spent many happy summers there as a child and described it as her own personal heaven on earth. The following year, she began working as a part-time tour guide at a historic castle. This helped to give her life focus and encouraged her to speak to strangers again. Stephanie developed a close-knit circle of friends and attributed her recovery to the support of her loved ones. Stephanie decided to write a book about her ordeal in the hopes her story might help others. Titled, Beyond Fear, My Will to Survive, the book revealed that Stephanie had in fact been raped by Michael Samms during her first night as a hostage.

She had originally withheld this information as she was terrified that the truth would devastate her mother, who had health problems and had suffered a heart attack following Stephanie's kidnapping. On the night Stephanie had been released from captivity, her mother had begged her to say that the kidnapper hadn't touched her, and Stephanie decided not to raise the issue. In the months and years that followed, the only person she told about the rape was her friend, Stacy. While Stephanie was in the process of writing her book, it was reported that Michael Samms also intended to write a book, claiming that he and Stephanie were in love and had a consensual

affair. Stephanie was incensed by the claims, later stating, quote, It felt as if I was being raped all over again. I was taking antidepressants and drinking heavily to try to stop the flashbacks and nightmares. I was drinking two bottles of wine a night in the hope of sinking into some kind of oblivion. Stephanie's co-writer eventually convinced her not to let Samms bully her, and she persevered with telling the truth in her book. She later said that this decision was, quote, The best thing I ever did, I just wished I'd have done it earlier. When the rape became public knowledge following the book's publication in 1995,

Michael Samms threatened to sue Stephanie for libel, but was prevented from doing so by the prison service. On October 24, 1995, probation officer Julia Flack was in her office when Michael Samms entered without warning, armed with a sharpened metal rod he'd stolen from a prison workshop. Julia screamed for help and pressed an alarm button, but Samms threw a lunch tray at her and proceeded to headbutt her. Another prisoner heard the attack and came to Julia's rescue. He managed to overpower Samms before prison officers arrived seconds later. Due to this quick intervention, Julia only required minor medical treatment. Samms was transferred to the prison's segregation unit and charged

with false imprisonment and attempted murder. In February 1997, he opted to defend himself a trial. Samms said he had committed the attack because he was angry that the prison service had prevented him from suing Stephanie. He had also wanted to sell some paintings for charity, but these had been confiscated. He claimed to have entered Julia Flack's office to stage a peaceful demonstration and had planned to hold her hostage until police were called, at which point, he intended to take his own life. Jurors found Samms guilty of false imprisonment, but not guilty of attempted murder, and he was sentenced to a further eight years. He is now among the oldest and longest serving

life sentence prisoners in England and Wales. Over the years, Stephanie Slater continued to use her traumatic ordeal to help others. She helped various police departments improve their interactions with kidnapped victims and provided support to other survivors of crime. In 2011, she said, quote, In a 2012 interview with the journalist Keith Wilkinson, Stephanie said, I ran away from my name, Steph, for a long time because of everything it was attached to. But the thing was, I didn't realise when I was running so fast that I've actually come back into contact with her again. This time around, I'm proud of what she's done,

and I'm proud of what she survived, and I've embraced it again. I'm not going to run away from Stephanie Slater anymore because I've found her again, and it's me. So now I take on board what happened to me, I use it, and hopefully help others through it. Stephanie continued living on the Isle of Wight, where she and her best friend Stacey made plans to start a ghost tour business using a restored 1966 camper van. However, in August 2017, Stephanie was diagnosed with liver cancer at the age of 50 and died just 11 days later. Her funeral was held at the Isle of Wight Cramatorium on September 14. Morners travelled in her vintage camper van while her coffin was carried in a second silver camper. Stephanie's friend Stacey Ketner said,

We have had a unique and epic friendship for over 25 years and shared so much together, good and bad times. I know that she truly never got over the events that shaped her life so dramatically in January 1992. It's been an honour and a privilege to be Stephanie's best friend. The West Midlands police also paid tribute to Stephanie in a statement that read, to Stephanie's courage and bravery over the years and for the work she did in helping police officers and victims by sharing her experience. Journalist Keith Wilkinson who worked with Stephanie on a documentary in the 1990s said, There's no doubt her efforts helped pave the way for better support for victims. She also helped raise awareness of the possible dangers faced by

estate agents meeting clients alone. For her bravery and campaigning work, many people owe Stephanie a great debt of gratitude.