Park Predators - The Suspect

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

One of the worst crimes to consume British headlines in 1986 leads authorities on a search for a killer who was in the thick of a murder investigation the entire time. The Wild Park double murders of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows end in justice, but justice delayed. Sources for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit parkpredators.comPark Predators is an audiochuck production.  Connect with us on social media:Instagram: @audiochuckTwitter: @audiochuckFacebook: /audiochuckllcTikTok: @audiochuck

Hi, park enthusiasts. I'm your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the story I have for you today may be infamous to you, or it might not. It all depends on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you live on. It takes place in Wild Park Local Nature Reserve in Brighton, England, about two hours south of London on the coast. According to the City Council website, Wild Park is several hundred acres of dense woods and grasslands that are all interconnected by small footpaths. Locals and tourists are drawn to its beauty because it's a great place to take a nature walk or catch a stunning view of the city. Since the year 2000, the town itself has been called Brighton and Hove, but back when this crime happened, it was just Brighton.

Brighton, and Hove, but back when this crime happened, it was just Brighton. There are sheep and other livestock that graze on the reserve, which I think really adds to its English charm vibe. The park is often dubbed an oasis in suburbia, but back in the fall of 1986, that image was shattered forever. Two young girls got a snack from a fish and chip shop near the park, and then they went to play in the grass. Everything was idyllic until it wasn't. Both girls vanished without a trace. The gruesome scene and boggling mystery that unfolded after they disappeared haunted police and the public for decades until one day the truth of what really happened in the woods finally surfaced.

This is Park Predators. On Friday, October 10th, 1986, shortly before 5 o'clock in the evening, two local teenagers named Matthew Marchant and Kevin Rowland were trudging through the outskirts of Wild Park Local Nature Reserve in their hometown of Brighton, England. A few hours earlier, the boys had decided to join a search party of nearly 50 police officers who were out scouring for 9-year-old Nicola Fellows and 9-year-old Karen Hadaway. Nicola and Karen hadn't been seen for almost 24 hours. The last time anyone had noticed them was around 6.30 p.m. on Thursday night, October 9th.

They'd been spotted at a fish and chip store across the street from an entrance to the park. The girls lived in a tight-knit community, which was less than a mile from the park, so in a small way, the boys felt that they owed it to these girls to at least join in the efforts to help find them. Matthew and Kevin, like everyone else in Brighton, had figured Nicola and Karen were just lost in the park somewhere. But now that a night and a full day had passed with no sign of them, finding the pair seemed even more urgent. And Kevin and Matthew weren't the only locals to volunteer in the search. The girls' whole neighborhood showed up to look for them.

As the boys walked down Lewis Road and entered the park on the north end, they walked along several paths and into the dense undergrowth, searching for any sign of the girls. But nothing stood out. For a brief few minutes while they were walking, Matthew and Kevin ran into another searcher named Russell. According to an article published in the Argus, as the boys and Russell passed by one

another, Russell asked, quote, any luck yet? End quote. To which Kevin and Matthew replied, no. The boys didn't think anything of this interaction with Russell. They'd bumped into a lot of people during the search, and everyone had been asking one another if anyone had found anything. After talking with Russell, the teens decided to go look in an area that was uphill from the trail they were on. It was a few meters of incline that was covered with dense bramble. Kevin had noticed a few broken tree branches that just looked out of place to him, almost like someone had recently walked through there or purposely broken them. He didn't know. He figured the branches might be a clue, so to play it safe, he wanted to make sure he and Matthew checked it out.

He crept up the hill, but then suddenly stopped cold. At the top of the incline, sticking out from underneath a cave-like dome of sticks and leaves was what looked like the body of a young girl. He stopped himself from going any further and called Matthew over, who saw a small hand sticking out from underneath the stack. Their hearts sank because in that moment they knew in their guts they'd found the missing girls, or at least one of them. Kevin told Matthew to run and get some help because he felt sure that both Nicola and Karen were probably underneath the pile. The site was reportedly so disturbing that Kevin had to turn away and take a seat while

he waited for Matthew to come back, because he couldn't bear to look at the lifeless arm anymore. When police arrived a few minutes later, Sussex Police Chief Superintendent John McConnell hurried up the hill to meet the others and almost immediately started pulling back the dense undergrowth. He crawled through the brush and within seconds found the lifeless bodies of two young girls. It didn't take long for police to identify the victims as Nicola and Karen. The source material isn't super clear on how exactly investigators made such quick work of the IDs,

but my best guess is that based on their clothing and the fact that Nicola and Karen were the only missing girls reported in Brighton at the IDs, but my best guess is that, based on their clothing and the fact that Nicola and Karen were the only missing girls reported in Brighton at the time, this was probably how the police made the ID. The two pressing things Chief Superintendent McConnell and his department needed to find out fast were how the girls had died and who would have done this to them. It was clear from just looking at their bodies stuffed under the brush pile that someone had killed them and then tried to hide the evidence. According to an article by the Daily Telegraph, Nicola's 14-year-old brother Jonathan had heard the news from search teams that the girls' bodies were found, and he'd run home to inform the rest of his family. Several news sources reported that the girls's mothers, Susan Fellows and Michelle

Hadaway, were so traumatized when they found out that they had to be heavily sedated. And as a mother myself, I can completely understand this. I would probably have to be sedated too. I can't imagine getting this kind of news, especially if I'd been the one to report my child missing in the first place. You see, after Nicola and Karen failed to return home on Thursday night, their moms went to the shops on Lewis Road near the park. They searched for them and asked all the shop owners if they'd seen the girls, but no one reported spotting them after 6.30 p.m. News reports state that Susan and Michelle hadn't wasted any time

in filing missing persons reports with the local police. The women told the officers that by all accounts, the girls' day on Thursday had been completely normal leading up to their disappearance. They'd gotten home from school around 3.30 p.m. and played outside for a couple of hours. Their parents fully expected them to return by sundown for a bite to eat and a bath before it was lights out. Shortly after receiving that information on Thursday night, local police went out with search dogs on foot in the woods. But in the darkness and with all the thick brush, it was nearly impossible to make any headway. It wasn't until Friday morning that efforts really ramped up.

On Saturday, October 11th, so one day after the girls were found, the local pathologist examined their bodies and determined what authorities pretty much already knew. They'd been victims of murder, and both of their manner of deaths were strangulation. The pathologist also noted that Nicola and Karen had been sexually assaulted, despite still having their clothes on. But I also read one article by the Sunday Telegraph that stated neither of the girls had been sexually assaulted. So I'm not really sure why some source material has this discrepancy about whether they were sexually assaulted or not. But for the most part, the resource articles all state sexual assault was a factor. all state sexual assault was a factor. The doctor also wrote in his report that neither of the girls had defensive wounds or any kind of marks that indicated they'd fought for their lives,

so whoever had attacked them had taken them most likely by surprise. One thing I want to note here is that there isn't clarity on Nicola and Karen's estimated time of death. Some news reports say they died shortly after 6.30 p.m. on Thursday, which would have been right after they were last seen, but some source material that specifically cites the pathologist's findings doesn't say exactly what time the doctor noted they died. In my mind, though, I think it's probably safe to assume that the girl's time of death was after 6.30 p.m. on Thursday, but before police search parties started up that same night, so maybe like a window of four hours, give or take.

All I know for sure is that they were dead by the time Matthew and Kevin found them around five o'clock on Friday, and it wasn't like Karen and Nicola were seen alive by anyone searching all day on Friday, so to me it seems obvious they died not long after going to that fish and chips store near the park. Anyway, after the pathologist's findings were released, police went back into the woods to search for more clues. They needed to find something that could point them in the direction of the girl's killer or killers. Because here's the thing, police told news outlets they felt confident the murders were the work of at least one man, but they weren't ruling out the possibility that two people could have committed the crime.

The reason they said that was because in their minds, it didn't seem likely that one man, who was a complete stranger to the victims, could overpower two girls without causing a scene. However, authorities realized it might be possible, for example, if Karen and Nicola knew their killer and he was someone they trusted or would have willingly gone into the woods with. According to the evening Sentinel, one of the police detectives working the case told the paper, quote, There is no suggestion that these girls put up a fight.

They may have known their attacker or attackers, and they may have been easily overpowered, end quote. So basically from the start, police were dealing with two possibilities. The girls knew their attacker, or there was more than one attacker, which both make sense to me because it's hard to imagine a scenario in which a total stranger approached these girls and managed to abduct them and then kill them both without anyone hearing a scream. A couple of days after that announcement, shop owners near Wild Park came together and offered up a reward hoping that someone would come forward with useful information. And thankfully that tactic worked because almost immediately a fellow store owner did come forward.

According to reporting by the Evening Sentinel and the Daily Telegraph, this person told investigators that on several occasions leading up to the murders, they'd seen a dark car that was bluish in color with a man inside of it parked outside the fish and chip shop on Lewis Road. The witness said the man appeared to only speak to young girls while he sat in the parking lot. The store owner said they'd seen this man outside of their shop on Thursday, October 9th, around 6 p.m., which was right in the window of time that Karen and Nicola would have been there. Now, this report obviously struck a nerve with Sussex police investigators,

because it was the biggest and best clue they'd gotten so far. And it just so happened that a similar sighting of a man luring a young girl had been reported in the town of Bristol. According to Paul Edwards' reporting for the Coventry Evening Telegraph, the Bristol incident happened a few days before Karen and Nicholas' murders. And even though Bristol was about three hours away from Brighton, the disturbingly similar details were hard to ignore. The suspicious man in Bristol had reportedly tried to lure an eight-year-old girl into his car. The girl escaped and reported him. James Dalrymple reported for The Independent that authorities looking into Nicola and Karen's case weren't super confident the cases in Bristol and Brighton were in fact connected. A detective stated, quote,

We have so little to go on that it is quite frightening. We are ruling out no possibility, and there is a serious school of thinking that says two men could have been involved. The girls were of an age where they could have actively struggled in defending themselves, and it is conceivable that it would take two men to do that kind of work and keep the girls quiet, end quote. So in essence, because the victim in the Bristol case had only reported one man, police in Brighton felt like it wasn't possible he was their killer. The police chief in Karen and Nicholas' case had said multiple times that he was convinced they were dealing with two perpetrators. case had said multiple times that he was convinced they were dealing with two perpetrators.

The department's rationale kind of struck me as odd and maybe a bit short-sighted here, but either way, that's what happened. Investigators in Nicola and Karen's case moved on from the Bristol incident. Detectives continued to scour the park for any forensic evidence and canvassed the neighborhood that the girls lived in. Investigators recovered a blue crewneck sweatshirt turned inside out on a trail near where their bodies had been found. Officers took that as evidence, and according to several newspapers at the time, it was something police believed the killer wore. It had small traces of paint and the word Pinto written on it. Paul Edwards reported for the Coventry Evening Telegraph that five days into the investigation, police had interviewed over 2,000 residents, either in person or over the phone. Their canvassing was tedious and time-consuming,

but it was necessary in order to be able to account for the movements of anyone in that area on the night the girls were murdered. And thankfully, their efforts paid off. The Independent reported that a woman from the girls' neighborhood came forward and told police that after dark on Thursday, October 9th, she'd taken her dog for a walk in Wild Park, and she'd seen two young men run from the woods near the exact spot where the girls had been found. She said she saw them run from the park and into the neighborhood that Nicola and Karen

were from. Then, the men parted ways. She described them as being in their early 20s, roughly 5 feet 2 inches tall, and one of them was slightly shorter than the other. This information definitely supported police's current theory that they were possibly looking for two suspects, not one. The Evening Standard and The Independent reported that this tip prompted investigators to focus in on questioning all young men in the area who were between the ages of 15 and 25.

The article states that the police chief superintendent, John McConnell, felt confident the girls' killer or killers were local to Brighton. He told the newspaper that because the bodies had been found in such a secluded location, that clearly indicated whoever put the girls there knew the layout of the park and how to conceal them so that they wouldn't be found for nearly a day. He also said it was highly unlikely the killer abducted the girls from the fish and chips parking lot. McConnell felt sure that the perpetrator was already in the park when he came across Nicola and Karen. About a week after the girls were found, the community came together and did something I found pretty strange. According to James Dalrymple's reporting, two local girls who

knew Nicola and Karen reenacted their last known movements. In front of dozens of mourning townspeople, they went to the fish and chip shop, then walked hand in hand along Lewis Road, played on the grass in Wild Park, then finally disappeared into the woods. Regardless of how strange this reenactment may seem, it did actually yield some results. Police got several calls after the reenactment was broadcast on BBC News. Many of those calls came from witnesses who said they'd seen two young men running from the park, just like the woman who'd been walking her dog. Police were hopeful they could track down these mysterious male figures, but within a matter of days, that lead dried up, and they

suspected the sightings might have just been local teens who weren't involved in the crime at all. After BBC News aired its segment, the story caught international attention overnight, and that influx of interest was kind of a double-edged sword. So much attention meant Nicola and Karen's story was reaching people far and wide, but it also opened the door for wild tips and false information to leach into the investigation. Throughout the next month or so, police got all kinds of reports and even some bogus confessions. The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reported that a man using the CB radio name Whispering Willie bragged about killing the girls. According to the Evening Post, people called in saying they'd seen the girls with two men,

but when police would arrange an interview, these so-called witnesses wouldn't show up. Time after time, police kept receiving these hoax calls, and it became glaringly obvious that everyone and their mother just wanted to be involved in this case. obvious that everyone and their mother just wanted to be involved in this case. Despite all this interference, Sussex investigators did their best to track down every single lead, no matter how exhausting. But it always seemed to end with the same outcome, a dead end. November passed with little to no updates, and the case seemed like it was going to go cold. That is, until two months after the murders, in December. Detectives issued a surprising announcement. They'd made an arrest. On December 4th, 1986, almost two months to the day that Nicola and Karen had been murdered,

Sussex police arrested 20-year-old Russell Bishop and charged him with murder. That name sound familiar? He's the same Russell that passed by Kevin and Matthew on the Friday the girls' bodies were found. You know, the guy that asked, any luck? And the boys said no. Well, on the surface, Russell's arrest seemed to come out of nowhere. But when police revealed that he was someone who'd been on their radar for a long time, a clearer picture of how he was involved started to come into focus. According to an article published by The Guardian, police began to suspect Russell during his initial interview with authorities. You see, just like every other young man who lived in or near the girls' neighborhood, Russell had been questioned extensively.

According to news reports, during his first sit-down with investigators, Russell told police that he'd gone right up to the bodies after Kevin and Matthew found the girls and saw Nicola, quote, lying on her back on the ground. Huddled next to her was Karen Hadaway. I cannot recall what position she was lying in, but her head was resting on Nicola's stomach. I felt for a pulse in the neck of both girls, but there was none. They were both very cold and stiff to the touch, and it was quite obvious to me they were dead, end quote. He even added a detail about seeing bloody foam formed around Nicola's mouth and nose. All of Russell's comments stood out as extremely suspicious to police, for the very reason I just mentioned,

his level of detail regarding how the victims looked and how they were positioned post-mortem. level of detail regarding how the victims looked and how they were positioned post-mortem. Not to mention, he'd volunteered to be right in the middle of the search effort to find Nicola and Karen. He'd even gone as far as offering up his dog to try and track the girls' scents during the first few hours of the search. The fact that he arrived on scene so quickly after the bodies were found also didn't sit right with detectives. And look, Russell being at the scene and making some weird statements afterwards is far from a murder confession. But just the nature of his statements is what prompted police to talk with

him a second time. When they re-interviewed him a few days after the crime, he reportedly changed his story completely. He said he'd never touched the girls' bodies or gotten close to them at all. He said the reason he'd arrived on scene so soon after they were found was because police officers had directed him to do so. When investigators confronted him about his changing story and why at first he provided so much detail,

he told authorities, quote, I said this to make myself look big and feel important, end quote. According to an article published by The Guardian, Russell's friends and family said he had a bit of a habit for telling tall tales and making up stories that he felt would make him the center of attention. His mother, Sylvia, told the newspaper, quote, he does tell porkies, he does it for attention, but he has never hurt anybody by his porkies, not in his life, end quote. And for those of you who are like me and weren't familiar with British slang for the term porkies, basically it's another term for a

fib or embellishment or an outright lie. Basically, Russell's changing story wasn't a good look for him. Something else that was a bad look was the fact that he knew the girls, or at least was acquainted with them. According to reporting by the Evening Standard, Russell frequently visited the fellows' home because he was friends with someone who stayed with them temporarily. He played football with their siblings and parents at a local park on occasion and spent time with both girls prior

to their murders. He would have fallen into the category as someone Nicola and Karen trusted and felt comfortable with. All of the pieces of the puzzle felt like they were fitting into place. The only thing left for police and prosecutors to do was figure out where Russell had been on the night of the crime. They needed to know if he had a solid alibi for the time frame the girls vanished. Prosecutors began creating a timeline of his movements for the night of Thursday, October 9th, which they hoped would prove he had the ability to commit the crime. According to The Guardian, a park keeper who'd been working on Thursday night placed Russell near where the girls had been playing just before they vanished. This same worker testified that he'd seen Russell again about an hour and a

half later, leaving the park, which meant a little over an hour of his time was unaccounted for. That testimony was good, but it wasn't enough to tip the scales all the way against Russell. The police needed physical evidence tying him to the crime. To help build that part of their case, Sussex investigators examined that blue crewneck sweatshirt they'd found in the woods near the crime scene. The police realized that it had been located on a trail that led in the direction of Russell's home. Now, the police knew Russell himself wasn't going to come right out and confirm if the sweatshirt was his, so they devised a pretty simple plan to determine if it was his.

They talked to his common-law wife and mother of his two children, a woman named Jennifer Johnson. The Guardian in the Argus reported that when authorities showed her the blue crewneck sweatshirt that was flecked with paint and had the word Pinto written across it, she confirmed that it belonged to Russell. By the time Russell was charged and had his initial appearance in court, everything the police had so far was pretty damning. But remember, we're talking about the late 80s here. DNA evidence was in its infancy, and they didn't have the technology we have now to test the blue sweatshirt for Russell's DNA, or either of the

girl's DNA. But according to the Daily Telegraph, the testing they were able to run on the sweatshirt revealed there were fibers from the girl's clothing found on it, which meant whoever had worn it definitely came in contact with the girls. According to the source material, this blue sweatshirt was the only piece of physical evidence in the case. By March of 1987, prosecutors felt confident enough to take the case to trial. During preliminary court proceedings, there was some back and forth about whether Russell would be released on bond because at the time it was reported by the Evening Post that he had two prior burglary convictions. Eventually, though, it was decided

he'd stay in jail for a short while before being released on bond. The Guardian reported that while he was out, Russell visited Nicola's dad, Barry, and told him straight up that he did not murder the girls, but Barry wasn't sure how to feel. Eight months later, in November 1987,

when Russell's trial finally began, news about the case had blown up across Europe and, honestly, the world. The press dubbed it the Babes in the Wood murder trial, a name that referred to an old English children's tale about two kids who were orphaned when their parents died and their uncle decided to have them murdered to obtain their inheritance. The hired hand who was supposed to execute the kids decided not to kill them and instead left them to wander the woods alone. The story goes that the orphans ultimately died from starvation and their bodies were covered with leaves by birds. The media giving the case that name, though, I think just speaks to the level of interest the public had surrounding this crime and the sensational nature it took on in the world press. It was infamous in the UK, and it still is today.

When it came time for opening arguments, the prosecution had abandoned the two-attacker or two-perpetrator theory and instead presented its evidence based solely on one perpetrator, Russell Bishop. First, prosecutors argued that Russell knew both girls. He'd had plenty of interaction with them prior to their deaths, and they would have felt comfortable around him. Both girls' lack of defense wounds proved their attacker had easily subdued them, most likely because the girls trusted him. Second, prosecutors brought up the importance

of the blue sweatshirt found at the crime scene and the fact that Russell's common-law wife said it had belonged to him. The government emphasized the importance of fibers from the victim's clothing being found on it. And third, the prosecution brought up the park keeper's testimony about seeing Russell in the park when the murders were suspected of happening and the fact that over an hour of his time was unaccounted for. The Guardian and the Evening Sentinel reported that during trial, it was revealed that Nicola had been sexually assaulted before and after her death.

The government's case wasn't a home run by any means, mostly because it was almost entirely circumstantial, but still, it was the best they could argue. Unfortunately, things took a wild turn during trial. The Daily Telegraph reported that while testifying on the witness stand, Jennifer Johnson recanted what she'd previously said about the blue sweatshirt belonging to Russell. She indicated that police investigators had pressured her during her initial questioning. She said, quote,

They were treating me as if I were a criminal, and I wanted to get shot of them, end quote. The real reason why Jennifer recanted her previous testimony about the sweatshirt is unclear, but it might have something to do with the fact that Russell was her common-law husband, the father of her children, and she was reliant on him in life. If he went to prison, her circumstances would change drastically. Again, no one really knows for sure why she went back and forth or if the claims she made about investigators pressuring her were truthful, but the end result was that the sweatshirt evidence against Russell became completely useless to the prosecution after she testified and then recanted. And this was really the defense's strategy during trial,

poke holes in the government's case until reasonable doubt surfaced. Russell's attorney, a man named Charles Conway, never provided concrete evidence of his own that Russell was not guilty of the crime. He just argued that what prosecutors presented wasn't good enough. According to the Evening Standard's reporting, the only alibi the defense presented regarding where Russell was in the window of time the girls were killed was that he was buying cannabis from someone at that time. However, that story was never corroborated by another witness, since the act itself was illegal. According to the Guardian, before jurors made their decision, the judge asked them to find

the defendant not guilty if they weren't sure the girls had died by 6.30pm on the evening of October 9th, if they weren't sure the sweatshirt that the prosecution said belonged to the murderer was worn by Russell Bishop that night, or if they weren't sure the sweatshirt was worn by the murderer at all. Two hours later, the jury returned and found Russell not guilty and acquitted him of all charges. Authorities didn't mince words after the verdict. They felt like they had their man. They'd just been unable to convince a jury. They felt like they had their man. They'd just been unable to convince a jury.

According to reporting by The Guardian, a spokesperson for the police department stated, quote, We are not looking for anybody else in connection with this inquiry at this time. This case was thoroughly investigated by us at the time. No new information emerged during the trial, and we have no plans to reopen the inquiry, but obviously any fresh information which was put to us would be carefully looked at, end quote. The statement about not

planning to reopen the inquiry didn't sit well with Nicholas' father, Barry. He felt that police should have reopened the case right after the trial ended, and if not that, at least let another police force come in and conduct a new investigation. But that didn't happen and Russell walked free. Authorities hands were tied due to double jeopardy laws. But that wasn't the last time anyone would hear about Russell. In February of 1990, another brutal attack on a young girl turned everyone's attention back to the Babes in the Wood murders. This incident bore striking similarities to what happened to Nicola and Karen, with one exception. The victim survived. On February 4th, 1990, a couple parked near a valley overlook outside of Brighton

called Devil's Dyke noticed something small coming out of the woods. The man and woman were just sitting in their car when suddenly a young girl crawled into view from some bushes. It was clear she needed help. She was naked, dirty, and appeared to be completely disoriented. She was lucid enough, though, to tell the bystanders she was seven years old, had been abducted from her home, and that she needed to call the police as soon as possible. the police as soon as possible. Soon, authorities became aware of the situation, and when they brought the girl in for an interview, she told them a terrifying story. She said she'd been roller skating near her home in White Hawk Estate in Brighton, which for reference is about three

miles southeast from the neighborhood Nicola and Karen were from. While she was playing, a man suddenly grabbed her and threw her in the trunk of his car. According to reporting by Paul Cheston for the Evening Standard, the girl kicked and punched while inside the trunk but was unable to escape. She said the man who took her drove to the Devil's Dyke area where he took off her clothes and then strangled her until she was unconscious. Based on the girl's injuries and statement, it was clear that her

attacker had also sexually assaulted her, then left her for dead in some bushes. Miraculously, though, she'd come to after the attack and scrambled her way up to the overlook where she got help from the couple in the car. Right away, this incident made authorities in Sussex shudder. All the suspicions they'd had about Russell Bishop being a sexual predator and murderer came flooding back. The Daily Telegraph reported that within just a few hours, authorities were at Russell's house questioning him about the Devil's Dyke incident, since he was one of a handful of suspected sex offenders they'd been keeping an eye on.

The Evening Standard reported that three days after the assault and attempted murder of the seven-year-old girl, detectives had the victim come in and view a lineup of men, and she picked Russell out of the mix. Within a matter of weeks, investigators obtained a sample of what they referred to as DNA genetic fingerprinting and determined that Russell was the only one in 80 million white men who could have committed the crime.

Immediately, authorities arrested him for attempted murder, kidnapping, and indecent assault. In early December of 1990, he was convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. But he had the possibility of being paroled after only serving 14 months of that sentence. He protested his verdict from the get-go because he said that the Sussex police had it out for him and were fabricating information and science in the Devil's Dyke attack to pin that crime on him because they were mad he'd been acquitted of Nicola and Karen's murders. In February 1994, he sued the police department claiming malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest, and

false imprisonment. That case didn't go anywhere, and Russell remained behind bars. As far as what his conviction for the Devil's Dyke incident meant for Nicola and Karen's case, it seemed to renew a lot of interest and the original acquittal verdict came under scrutiny. Since a few years had passed and the use of DNA testing on evidence had improved and was successful in the Devil's Dyke case, authorities felt it might be possible to find traces of DNA on the blue sweatshirt from Nicola and Karen's case after all. So in 2002, police reopened the investigation. But remember, Double Jeopardy was still attached, so even if they did find something forensically linking Russell to Nicola and Karen's murders,

he couldn't be tried for them again. However, in 2004, that changed. According to Patrick McGowan's reporting for the Evening Standard, UK criminal law was amended and allowed for people previously acquitted on serious charges, like murder, to be retried. It was going to be an uphill battle, though. For one, the prosecution was going to need to have new and substantial evidence to try Russell again in Nicola and Karen's case. At that point in time, they didn't have anything new, and to make matters worse, they couldn't retest all the evidence they had

originally had because, according to reporting by The Independent, authorities lost the clothing that Karen was wearing when she was found. You heard me right. Lost one of the victim's clothing. Just gone. Poof. That same article for The Independent stated that at some point in 1991, the Sussex police and Karen's family gave Karen's clothing to crews with BBC News for a program they were running called Public Eye. That crime show was supposed to pay to send off the clothing for additional DNA testing. Well, the testing never happened, and somehow the items of clothing were lost. Because of this, police investigators' efforts in 2004 to retry Russell were delayed, and then ultimately abandoned by 2006.

Three years later, in 2009, a disturbing rumor surfaced that landed Nicola's own father, Barry, in hot water. According to Adam Lesher's reporting for The Independent, back in 1987, a 16-year-old girl who Russell had been having an inappropriate sexual relationship with, which I'm not even going to consider it a relationship since she's 16, but anyway, this teenager told police that Barry and a man he'd been renting to had home videos of child sexual abuse material that featured Nicola. When authorities initially looked into the allegations, they detained Barry and his friend, but then eventually dropped the inquiry because no evidence ever materialized, and Barry denied all of the allegations that he abused his own daughter in any way.

Adam Lusher wrote that the pathologist who examined both girls' bodies after their murders supported Barry's claims, stating that there was zero evidence Nicola had suffered any repeated sexual abuse in the months leading up to her death. After 2009, the case went cold. Russell continued to serve his time in prison for the Devil's Dyke assault, and Nicola and Karen's families lived without justice. Fast forward to 2018, 32 years after the crime, and the Sussex court decided to retry Russell for Nicola and Karen's murders. According to an article by the Argus, prosecutors revealed that the case was never technically closed, and modern advances in DNA testing had allowed them to find new forensic evidence that was substantial enough to allow for a new trial.

During the second murder trial, the prosecution meticulously detailed all of the circumstantial evidence against Russell and showed jurors that more precise DNA analysis of the blue sweatshirt found near the crime scene proved with, quote, one in a billion chance of error, end quote, that it belonged to Russell.

That information sealed Russell's fate, and on December 10th, 2018, the jury unanimously found him guilty of the murders and sentenced him to a minimum of 36 years in prison, on top of the time he was already serving. Family members of both girls were present at the courthouse when the sentencing happened and expressed that Russell's conviction felt like a decades-old weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Karen's mother, Michelle, wrote a statement to the court that said, quote, This is the result we should have had 31 years ago. Finally, justice has been done and Bishop has been seen as the evil monster he really is.

If Bishop had pleaded guilty 31 years ago, my healing could have started then. I was 29 when Karen was killed, and I am now 61 years old. Karen's death destroyed my husband Lee, and I had to raise my young family on my own. End quote. Nicola's family suffered too in the wake of her murder. Not only did they lose a child, but the rumor mill never stopped whispering that perhaps Barry, her father, sexually assaulted and killed his own daughter. He called those 32 years, quote, Something I can't stop thinking about is that it's possible Russell could have been convicted all those years ago if Jennifer Johnson, his common-law wife, had not recanted her statement about the blue sweatshirt during his first trial.

Authorities told BBC News that her dishonesty was a factor in Russell walking free the first time around. In May of 2021, Jennifer Johnson was eventually charged with perjury for lying about the sweatshirt. That trial lasted a month, and she was found guilty of perjury and sentenced to six years in prison. On January 20, 2022, Russell Bishop died from cancer while still incarcerated. He was 55 years old. Following the news of his death, Nicola and Karen's family said they were glad to know that he could never apply for parole

or hurt anyone else ever again. But most of all, they said they felt relief that the truth behind what really happened to Karen and Nicola all those years ago in the woods finally found its way out. The suspect, who'd been in authorities' sights all along, had finally answered for his crimes. Park Predators is an AudioChuck original show.

So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?