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Botanist tells how nettles helped solve Soham murders

33 points by isaacfrond 2y ago

mellosouls 2y ago
The Desert Island Discs interview from which this article is derived is available here fwiw: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020qcs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020qcs
tempaway4512641 2y ago
I remember that the detectives working on the Soham case in 2002 sent a voicemail to one of the missing girl's phones and then appealed on TV for their abductor to listen to the message. At the time this seemed like quite a strange thing for the detectives to do (people were a lot less savvy about phone evidence back then). It got a lot of coverage in the press. In retrospect I wonder if it was a stingray-type gambit, whereby if the abductor turned the phone on they would be able to trace exactly where they were. I don't think it got mentioned in court so perhaps it was unofficial/inadmissable https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/15/childprotection.children1 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/15/childprotection.c... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303637.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303637.stm
- mindracer 2y ago
  Weren’t the news of the world hacking their voicemail? I guess the police and others didn’t know that at the time
  - whutsurnaym 2y ago
    You might be thinking of the murder of Milly Dowler. IIRC there was a scandal about reporters hacking into her voicemail, leading investigators to believe she might still be alive.
jahnu 2y ago
She was also interviewed on the excellent The Life Scientific (dive into the hundreds of episodes) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cz0p https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cz0p
IncreasePosts 2y ago
It's cool, but after reading up on the murders, it seems like they had already zeroed in on the suspect, and knowing the bodies were placed where they were when they were was not particularly impactful in the investigation - at the very least, the gamekeeper who discovered the bodies noticed a smell a few days before the discovery, and the remains were partially skeletonized, indicating that they had been there for a while.

33 points by isaacfrond 2y ago

The Desert Island Discs interview from which this article is derived is available here fwiw: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020qcs https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0020qcs

tempaway4512641 2y ago

I remember that the detectives working on the Soham case in 2002 sent a voicemail to one of the missing girl's phones and then appealed on TV for their abductor to listen to the message. At the time this seemed like quite a strange thing for the detectives to do (people were a lot less savvy about phone evidence back then). It got a lot of coverage in the press. In retrospect I wonder if it was a stingray-type gambit, whereby if the abductor turned the phone on they would be able to trace exactly where they were. I don't think it got mentioned in court so perhaps it was unofficial/inadmissable https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/15/childprotection.children1 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/15/childprotection.c... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303637.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3303637.stm

mindracer 2y ago
Weren’t the news of the world hacking their voicemail? I guess the police and others didn’t know that at the time
- whutsurnaym 2y ago
  You might be thinking of the murder of Milly Dowler. IIRC there was a scandal about reporters hacking into her voicemail, leading investigators to believe she might still be alive.

jahnu 2y ago

She was also interviewed on the excellent The Life Scientific (dive into the hundreds of episodes) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cz0p https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cz0p

IncreasePosts 2y ago

It's cool, but after reading up on the murders, it seems like they had already zeroed in on the suspect, and knowing the bodies were placed where they were when they were was not particularly impactful in the investigation - at the very least, the gamekeeper who discovered the bodies noticed a smell a few days before the discovery, and the remains were partially skeletonized, indicating that they had been there for a while.