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A woman is lying on a London pavement in her nightdress,
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blood soaking through the fabric, and she is dying. Neighbours
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are kneeling beside her, screaming for an ambulance, and in
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the middle of all that chaos, with maybe minutes left
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to live, she does something extraordinary. She lifts her hand.
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She points down the street at a man walking calmly
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away from her, like nothing at all had just happened,
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and she says his name. Over and over. She names
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her killer with her own dying breath. before she can
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no longer speak at all. That woman was thirty-two years old.
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She was a mother of two. She was seven weeks
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pregnant with a third child she had already started naming
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in her head, a child she had been so happy about.
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And the man she pointed at had killed before, a
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teenager stabbed to death in the street twenty-four years earlier.
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He had been released. He had been given a second chance,
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and then a third. and he used every one of
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them to destroy an entire family. By the end of
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this video, you'll understand exactly how a sister meant to
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protect the public let this happen twice. This is the
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story of Alana Odysseos, and of the final six hours
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that took her from a woman falling asleep beside a
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man she loved to a woman fighting for her life
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Alana Odysseos was born in the early 1990s, most likely
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in 1991 or 1992, and raised in Newmarket, a small
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Suffolk town famous for horse racing and quiet, unremarkable streets.
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The kind of place where everybody eventually knows everybody. She
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was the third of five children born to Karen Cronin
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and Alan Yates, and she grew up alongside her sisters Lorraine,
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Tara and Jasmine. From the very beginning, by every account
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her family would later give, Alana was the loud one.
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the confident one, the sister who would talk to absolutely anybody,
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who would interrupt a phone call mid-sentence just to shout
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hello to someone she recognised across the street, who filled
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every room she walked into with noise and laughter rather
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than fading into the background of it. Her family later
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said she was never afraid to speak her mind or
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stand up for what she thought was right, even as
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a girl. One of the steadiest figures in her early
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life was her grandmother Patricia. Alana was especially close to her,
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and that bond stayed with her long after she left
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Suffolk for London. In fact, years later, she would tell
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her sister Jasmine that when she died she wanted to
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be buried back in Newmarket next to Patricia, so she
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could rest near the family that had shaped her. It was,
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in a strange way, the one piece of her future
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she had already decided on, long before she had any
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reason to think about it. The specifics of Alana's schooling,
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her exact date of birth and precisely when or why
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she left Newmarket for London have never been made public.
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What is clear is that as an adult she settled
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in Walthamstow in East London and it was there that
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she built the life her family would later describe in
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such vivid, affectionate detail. She worked for a time as
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an enforcement officer for a local council, though the exact department,
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the length of her employment and and her reasons for
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leaving that job were never disclosed. What is known, and
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what her family returned to again and again when they
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spoke about her, is that music was absolutely central to
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her everyday life. Her sister Jasmine remembers Alana blasting rap
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music through an Alexa speaker in her kitchen, almost constantly,
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singing along at the top of her voice, dancing while
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she cooked or cleaned or got the kids ready for
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the day. It wasn't a hobby she picked up occasionally.
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It was simply who she was, loud and alive and
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completely unapologetic about it. Neighbours in Walthamstow Market would hear
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her coming before they saw her. But behind that outward confidence,
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Alana's adult life had also been marked by devastating loss,
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long before she ever met the man who would kill her.
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She had two daughters from two different relationships, and by
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the time she was in her early thirties, both of
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the men, the fathers of her children, had died. Her
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younger daughter's father, a man named Ruslan, died by suicide.
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The circumstances surrounding the death of her older daughter's father
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were never publicly detailed. What prosecutors would later tell the
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court is that after so much grief, after burying two
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partners before she had even turned 32, Alana simply wanted
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to be loved. She wanted to build something stable and
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safe for her children, a family that wouldn't be taken
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away from her again. That longing. that very human and
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very understandable need, matters here, because it goes a long
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way toward explaining why she held on so tightly to
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the relationship that would eventually take her life. Jasmine would
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later say that Alana deserved to be remembered for everything
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she had already overcome, for how hard she had fought
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to rebuild herself before this next chapter of her life
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even began. By around March of 2024, Alana had begun
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a new relationship with a man named Shane March. He
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was in his mid-forties, more than a decade older than her,
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and on paper, he seemed to be someone who had
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turned his life around. What Alana knew, because probation services
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had reportedly conducted safeguarding checks connected to the relationship, was
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that March had a previous murder conviction. In the year 2000,
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when he was in his early twenties, March had travelled
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to Denmark Hill in South London armed with a knife,
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looking for a group of young men he believed had
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robbed his friends. Outside a McDonald's, he stabbed 17-year-old Andre
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Drummond in the neck and killed him. He claimed self-defence.
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A jury didn't believe him, and he was convicted of
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murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term
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of 13 years. March was released on licence in January 2013.
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Less than six months later, he was recalled to prison.
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because he had assaulted another pregnant partner, stamping on her
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stomach during the attack, along with a charge of criminal damage.
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He served more time and was released a second time
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in February 2018. For roughly six years after that, he
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had no recorded offences. On paper, that made him a
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rehabilitation success story, a man who had served his time
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and stayed clean. In practice, it meant nobody was watching
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closely enough when he met Alana. The exact details of
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when checks on the relationship stopped remain unclear, but what
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is known is that at some point March told probation
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the relationship with Alana had ended amicably. No further checks
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appear to have followed. Whether Alana was ever told the
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full extent of his history, the 2013 assault on a
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pregnant partner in particular, has never been publicly confirmed. She
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moved forward with him anyway. At first, by all accounts,
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things seemed fine. but within months the relationship began to
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change shape. Friends and family started noticing that Alana, the loud, confident,
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unstoppable Alana, was becoming quieter, more withdrawn. Her father would
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later say that the daughter he knew, the one who
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was happy-go-lucky and always ready to defend what she believed in,
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had turned into someone timid and afraid, someone he barely recognised.
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Friends who had once heard from her constantly noticed she'd
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started pulling away from them too. The pattern was one
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investigators would later describe in court as textbook coercive control.
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March required Alana to answer his calls immediately, no matter
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the time of day or night. He demanded video calls
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so he could see exactly where she was and who
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she was with. He accused her of cheating. He made
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her delete mail contacts from her phone. He worked deliberately
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and steadily to put distance between Alana and the people
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who loved her most– her sisters, her friends– the family
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she had always been so close to. He threatened, at points,
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to have her daughter taken away from her. He destroyed
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her child's toys. He sent her degrading, abusive voice messages.
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On at least one occasion, he physically assaulted her, smashing
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a glass into her face. Alana's family begged her to leave.
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She didn't. She stayed, hoping, the way so many people
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trapped in this exact situation hope. that the man who
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loved her would eventually be the only version of himself
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she ever saw again. Then, in July of 2024, Alana
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found out she was pregnant. She believed she was about
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four weeks along. She was thrilled. She called her sister
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Jasmine to talk about baby names. to share the excitement
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of starting this new chapter, of finally building the family
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she had wanted for so long after everything she had
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already lost. For a woman who had already buried two
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partners and raised two daughters largely on her own, this
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pregnancy represented something enormous. Proof, maybe. that things could still
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turn out well for her. March's reaction was the opposite
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of joy. He disputed that the baby was even his.
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He pushed her to have an abortion. And by every
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account from people close to Alana, the pregnancy didn't calm
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his controlling behaviour. It intensified it, adding a new and
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even more dangerous edge to an already volatile relationship. Alana
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had told her sister, during that final period, that she
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was determined to turn her life around. a phrase Jasmine
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would later repeat publicly, without ever fully explaining what specifically
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Alana meant by it. What is clear is that Alana
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saw herself as someone actively rebuilding, not someone standing still,
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and that belief in her own resilience seems to have
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carried her through the worst months of the relationship with March.
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On the evening of July 21st, 2024, Alana messaged her
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sister Jasmine on WhatsApp. She told her that March was
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acting up, She said she wasn't feeling well physically, and
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that she was worried about protecting her younger daughter, Victoria,
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who was just two years old at the time. In
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one of the last messages she would ever send, Alana wrote,
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Can't help who you love, but you don't love any
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of us. It's a devastatingly honest line. She knew, on
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some level, exactly what she was dealing with. She was
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afraid of him, and she still loved him. Both things
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were true at once. Looking back, Jasmine believes that on
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that final night, Alana was starting to see the relationship
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clearly for what it was, starting to accept that it
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couldn't go on the way it had been. That same evening,
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March came to Alana's flat, reportedly to move some of
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his belongings. An argument broke out, partly over a pair
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of his trainers, partly according to neighbours who overheard parts
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of the confrontation about the pregnancy itself. Someone was heard
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saying she didn't want to end it, The fight escalated
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to the point where it spilled outside the flat. At
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one stage, Alana found herself locked out. She didn't have
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her keys, and March refused to let her back inside,
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even though her two-year-old daughter was asleep in the flat
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at the time. CCTV captured Alana walking alone outside in
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her dressing gown, just before half-past midnight, with nowhere to
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go and nobody around to help her. Eventually, she made
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her way back into the property. Hours later, in the
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early morning of July 22nd, the argument reignited inside the flat.
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March got hold of a kitchen knife roughly 24 centimetres long,
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its blade nearly 3 centimetres wide. What followed was a sustained,
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violent attack that began inside the home and continued outside it.
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Alana's blood was later found in both locations, meaning she
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was still being attacked or trying to escape as she
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moved from one to the other. Her young daughter remained
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asleep nearby the entire time. At around 2.58 in the morning,
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two separate neighbours placed 999 calls within seconds of each other.
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Alana had made it outside. She was found in her
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nightdress and dressing gown, clutching her side, bleeding heavily, and
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even then, even in that state with her body already
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failing her, she was lucid enough to repeatedly identify March
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by name and point toward him as he calmly walked
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away from the scene. as if none of it had
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anything to do with him. Paramedics and police reached her
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within minutes and fought to save her life. It wasn't enough.
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Alana was pronounced dead at 3.52 in the morning. March, meanwhile,
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didn't run far and he didn't hide well. As he
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walked away, CCTV showed him discarding the knife near a
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neighbour's doorway, along with his clothing, a small rucksack and
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items taken from Alana's home. He dropped three mobile phones
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into a drain and Only one was ever recovered. At
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around 4.20am, he walked into a nearby Cream's Cafe, ordinary
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as anything, and told a member of staff that he
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had stabbed or killed his wife, who has baby. The employee,
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understandably alarmed, called police. March was arrested just before 5am.
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Body-worn camera footage captured him making a series of chilling,
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unprompted admissions. That he had killed her. That he regretted nothing.
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that he wanted to stay in prison, that he considered
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himself a demon. Later that same day, in a formal
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police interview with a solicitor and an appropriate adult present,
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he answered no comment to every single question put to him.
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Alana's daughter, Victoria, was found safe and physically unharmed inside
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the flat. She had lost her mother while sleeping in
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the next room, without ever knowing what was happening just
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a few feet away from her. technical and forensic analysis.
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The forensic picture of what happened to Alana was, in
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the words of the court, extremely severe. The post-mortem examination,
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carried out by a forensic pathologist, recorded a cause of
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death of stab wounds to the chest, and revised the
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estimated stage of her pregnancy from four weeks to closer
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to seven or eight weeks. The official sentencing document itself
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contains an internal inconsistency in the wound count, It references
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23 sharp force injuries in one place, and 19 stab
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wounds plus at least 5 additional slasher incision wounds in another,
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a total that actually works out to at least 24.
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What's consistent across every account is that this was overkill,
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far beyond anything needed to cause death. Five of the
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wounds were independently fatal on their own. A sixth may
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have been. Several penetrated bones, including one that passed straight
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through her shoulder blade. Injuries to her arms and legs
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were consistent with a woman who fought back with everything
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she had, defensive wounds, and wounds suggesting she was kicking
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out from the ground in a desperate attempt to protect
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herself once she'd been forced down. Investigators also noted that
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at least one wound appeared, on its face, to have
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been directed toward her abdomen, though this was never formally
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charged as a separate offence against the pregnancy itself. the
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recovered phone added another layer of evidence. Two unsent voice
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recordings in which March admitted to the killing, one apparently
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meant for his mother, the other for his probation officer.
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Proof that even in the immediate aftermath, some part of
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him understood exactly what he had done and who he
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was still accountable to. Investigators leaned heavily on the layered
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nature of the evidence in this case. CCTV, recovered forensic material,
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the murder weapon itself, a cafe witness, body camera footage
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and Alana's own dying identification, because it left almost no
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room for a defence built on doubt about what had
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actually happened. The knife itself, roughly 24cm long, was recovered
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heavily bloodstained near a neighbour's doorway exactly where CCTV showed
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March discarding it, forming a direct unbroken evidential line from
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the kitchen, where he took it to the moment of
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his arrest less than two hours later. Psychological Analysis What
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makes this case psychologically distinct is the direct collision between
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calculated behaviour and a claimed loss of control. At trial,
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March initially tried to plead guilty only to manslaughter, arguing
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diminished responsibility, that a traumatic brain injury he suffered at 17,
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combined with a diagnosed antisocial personality disorder and depression, had
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substantially impaired his ability to control himself in that moment.
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That defence fell apart when his own expert witness, a neuropsychologist,
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reviewed the full weight of the prosecution's evidence and changed
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his professional opinion. Concluding March simply didn't meet the legal threshold.
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It isn't hard to understand why. A man suffering a genuine,
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overwhelming loss of control doesn't calmly discard a knife, strip
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off bloodied clothing, drop three separate phones down a drain,
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and then walk into a cafe to casually announce what
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he'd done. Those are the actions of someone making a
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chain of clear, sequential decisions in real time, fully aware
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of what he was doing and trying, in his own way,
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to manage the consequences. Later, speaking to a prison officer,
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March would describe the moment differently, saying he saw red
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and remembered Alana begging him to stop. That single detail
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matters psychologically, because remembering a victim's pleas is not consistent
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with a total absence of awareness. Meanwhile, the pattern of
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coercive control he inflicted on Alana in the months before
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the murder, the surveillance, the isolation from her family, the
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threats against her daughter, the destruction of the child's belongings,
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is a well-documented psychological mechanism that abusers use, consciously or not,
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to erode a victim's confidence and independence until the idea
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of leaving starts to feel more dangerous than staying. Alana's
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own words to her sister capture that trap with painful clarity.
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Fear and love, coexisting. right up until the very last
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night of her life. It's also worth noting what the
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court did and didn't accept about March himself. Experts agreed
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he had a documented traumatic brain injury, antisocial personalities disorder
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and depression, but found no sufficient evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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and none of those conditions, individually or combined, were judged
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severe enough to legally excuse or substantially reduce his responsibility
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for what he did to Alana. The part of this
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story most people never hear. Here's what should genuinely disturb you.
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During Alana's murder trial, the jury never learned that Shane
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March had already killed someone. That single, crucial piece of
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information only became public after he pleaded guilty and the
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case moved to sentencing. When it finally came time to
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sentence him, the original judge actually declined to hand down
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a whole life order, pointing to March's brain injury, the
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gap of over two decades between the two killings, his
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lack of advance planning and his eventual guilty plea. He
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was given life with a minimum of 42 years instead.
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Alana's family was outraged because a minimum term sentence, even
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a long one, technically leaves a door open at the
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end of it, the possibility however distant of parole. so
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the Solicitor General referred the case under something called the
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Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, essentially asking a higher court to
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look again. In March of 2026, the Court of Appeal
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completely reversed course, ruling that the original sentence had in
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fact been too lenient given everything the judge had heard,
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and replacing it with a whole life order, meaning March
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will now die in prison, with no possibility of release, ever.
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It was only after being told this only after hearing
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that outcome directly that he apologised to Alana's family by
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video link, a sharp, almost jarring contrast to the man
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who told police hours after the murder that he regretted nothing.
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Alana's sister Jasmine has since launched a public campaign called
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Alana's Law, pushing for automatic, proactive disclosure of a partner's
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violent history rather than forcing potential victims to go digging
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for it themselves through an existing scheme most people don't
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even know exists, it has already gathered tens of thousands
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of signatures. And there's still one question hanging over this
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entire case that nobody has fully answered. How does a
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man convicted of one murder, who later assaulted another pregnant partner,
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remain under lifelong supervision and still manage to build and
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sustain a relationship with a new victim, right up until
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it ends in a second killing, without a single intervention
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along the way? Alana Odysseus was so much more than
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the way she died. She was the girl blasting music
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through a kitchen speaker in Walthamstow, the sister who talked
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to everyone on the street, the woman who had already
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survived so much before she ever met Shane March, and
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the mother who, in her very last moments, still found
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the strength to make sure the truth came out. If
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this case moved you, subscribe for more true crime coverage
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00:23:02.529 --> 00:23:05.230
every week. and drop a comment below telling us what
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you think should change so no other family has to
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go through what Alana's did.
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A woman is lying on a London pavement in her nightdress,
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blood soaking through the fabric, and she is dying. Neighbours
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are kneeling beside her, screaming for an ambulance, and in
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the middle of all that chaos, with maybe minutes left
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to live, she does something extraordinary. She lifts her hand.
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She points down the street at a man walking calmly
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away from her, like nothing at all had just happened,
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and she says his name. Over and over. She names
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her killer with her own dying breath. before she can
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no longer speak at all. That woman was thirty-two years old.
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She was a mother of two. She was seven weeks
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pregnant with a third child she had already started naming
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in her head, a child she had been so happy about.
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And the man she pointed at had killed before, a
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teenager stabbed to death in the street twenty-four years earlier.
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He had been released. He had been given a second chance,
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and then a third. and he used every one of
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them to destroy an entire family. By the end of
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this video, you'll understand exactly how a sister meant to
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protect the public let this happen twice. This is the
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story of Alana Odysseos, and of the final six hours
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that took her from a woman falling asleep beside a
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man she loved to a woman fighting for her life
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on a stranger's doorstep. unreal true crime launches its new
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Alana Odysseos was born in the early 1990s, most likely
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in 1991 or 1992, and raised in Newmarket, a small
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Suffolk town famous for horse racing and quiet, unremarkable streets.
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The kind of place where everybody eventually knows everybody. She
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was the third of five children born to Karen Cronin
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and Alan Yates, and she grew up alongside her sisters Lorraine,
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Tara and Jasmine. From the very beginning, by every account
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her family would later give, Alana was the loud one.
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the confident one, the sister who would talk to absolutely anybody,
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who would interrupt a phone call mid-sentence just to shout
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hello to someone she recognised across the street, who filled
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every room she walked into with noise and laughter rather
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than fading into the background of it. Her family later
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said she was never afraid to speak her mind or
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stand up for what she thought was right, even as
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a girl. One of the steadiest figures in her early
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life was her grandmother Patricia. Alana was especially close to her,
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and that bond stayed with her long after she left
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Suffolk for London. In fact, years later, she would tell
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her sister Jasmine that when she died she wanted to
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be buried back in Newmarket next to Patricia, so she
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could rest near the family that had shaped her. It was,
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in a strange way, the one piece of her future
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she had already decided on, long before she had any
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reason to think about it. The specifics of Alana's schooling,
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her exact date of birth and precisely when or why
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she left Newmarket for London have never been made public.
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What is clear is that as an adult she settled
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in Walthamstow in East London and it was there that
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she built the life her family would later describe in
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such vivid, affectionate detail. She worked for a time as
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an enforcement officer for a local council, though the exact department,
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the length of her employment and and her reasons for
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leaving that job were never disclosed. What is known, and
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what her family returned to again and again when they
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spoke about her, is that music was absolutely central to
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her everyday life. Her sister Jasmine remembers Alana blasting rap
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music through an Alexa speaker in her kitchen, almost constantly,
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singing along at the top of her voice, dancing while
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she cooked or cleaned or got the kids ready for
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the day. It wasn't a hobby she picked up occasionally.
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It was simply who she was, loud and alive and
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completely unapologetic about it. Neighbours in Walthamstow Market would hear
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her coming before they saw her. But behind that outward confidence,
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Alana's adult life had also been marked by devastating loss,
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long before she ever met the man who would kill her.
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She had two daughters from two different relationships, and by
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the time she was in her early thirties, both of
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the men, the fathers of her children, had died. Her
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younger daughter's father, a man named Ruslan, died by suicide.
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The circumstances surrounding the death of her older daughter's father
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were never publicly detailed. What prosecutors would later tell the
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court is that after so much grief, after burying two
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partners before she had even turned 32, Alana simply wanted
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to be loved. She wanted to build something stable and
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safe for her children, a family that wouldn't be taken
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away from her again. That longing. that very human and
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very understandable need, matters here, because it goes a long
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way toward explaining why she held on so tightly to
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the relationship that would eventually take her life. Jasmine would
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later say that Alana deserved to be remembered for everything
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she had already overcome, for how hard she had fought
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to rebuild herself before this next chapter of her life
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even began. By around March of 2024, Alana had begun
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a new relationship with a man named Shane March. He
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was in his mid-forties, more than a decade older than her,
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and on paper, he seemed to be someone who had
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turned his life around. What Alana knew, because probation services
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had reportedly conducted safeguarding checks connected to the relationship, was
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that March had a previous murder conviction. In the year 2000,
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when he was in his early twenties, March had travelled
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to Denmark Hill in South London armed with a knife,
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looking for a group of young men he believed had
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robbed his friends. Outside a McDonald's, he stabbed 17-year-old Andre
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Drummond in the neck and killed him. He claimed self-defence.
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A jury didn't believe him, and he was convicted of
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murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term
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of 13 years. March was released on licence in January 2013.
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Less than six months later, he was recalled to prison.
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because he had assaulted another pregnant partner, stamping on her
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stomach during the attack, along with a charge of criminal damage.
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He served more time and was released a second time
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in February 2018. For roughly six years after that, he
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had no recorded offences. On paper, that made him a
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rehabilitation success story, a man who had served his time
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and stayed clean. In practice, it meant nobody was watching
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closely enough when he met Alana. The exact details of
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when checks on the relationship stopped remain unclear, but what
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is known is that at some point March told probation
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the relationship with Alana had ended amicably. No further checks
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appear to have followed. Whether Alana was ever told the
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full extent of his history, the 2013 assault on a
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pregnant partner in particular, has never been publicly confirmed. She
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moved forward with him anyway. At first, by all accounts,
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things seemed fine. but within months the relationship began to
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change shape. Friends and family started noticing that Alana, the loud, confident,
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unstoppable Alana, was becoming quieter, more withdrawn. Her father would
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later say that the daughter he knew, the one who
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was happy-go-lucky and always ready to defend what she believed in,
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had turned into someone timid and afraid, someone he barely recognised.
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Friends who had once heard from her constantly noticed she'd
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started pulling away from them too. The pattern was one
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investigators would later describe in court as textbook coercive control.
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March required Alana to answer his calls immediately, no matter
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the time of day or night. He demanded video calls
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so he could see exactly where she was and who
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she was with. He accused her of cheating. He made
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her delete mail contacts from her phone. He worked deliberately
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and steadily to put distance between Alana and the people
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who loved her most– her sisters, her friends– the family
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she had always been so close to. He threatened, at points,
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to have her daughter taken away from her. He destroyed
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her child's toys. He sent her degrading, abusive voice messages.
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On at least one occasion, he physically assaulted her, smashing
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a glass into her face. Alana's family begged her to leave.
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She didn't. She stayed, hoping, the way so many people
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trapped in this exact situation hope. that the man who
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loved her would eventually be the only version of himself
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she ever saw again. Then, in July of 2024, Alana
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found out she was pregnant. She believed she was about
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four weeks along. She was thrilled. She called her sister
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Jasmine to talk about baby names. to share the excitement
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of starting this new chapter, of finally building the family
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she had wanted for so long after everything she had
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already lost. For a woman who had already buried two
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partners and raised two daughters largely on her own, this
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pregnancy represented something enormous. Proof, maybe. that things could still
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turn out well for her. March's reaction was the opposite
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of joy. He disputed that the baby was even his.
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He pushed her to have an abortion. And by every
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account from people close to Alana, the pregnancy didn't calm
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his controlling behaviour. It intensified it, adding a new and
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even more dangerous edge to an already volatile relationship. Alana
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had told her sister, during that final period, that she
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was determined to turn her life around. a phrase Jasmine
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would later repeat publicly, without ever fully explaining what specifically
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Alana meant by it. What is clear is that Alana
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saw herself as someone actively rebuilding, not someone standing still,
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and that belief in her own resilience seems to have
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carried her through the worst months of the relationship with March.
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On the evening of July 21st, 2024, Alana messaged her
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sister Jasmine on WhatsApp. She told her that March was
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acting up, She said she wasn't feeling well physically, and
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that she was worried about protecting her younger daughter, Victoria,
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who was just two years old at the time. In
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one of the last messages she would ever send, Alana wrote,
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Can't help who you love, but you don't love any
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of us. It's a devastatingly honest line. She knew, on
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some level, exactly what she was dealing with. She was
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afraid of him, and she still loved him. Both things
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were true at once. Looking back, Jasmine believes that on
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that final night, Alana was starting to see the relationship
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clearly for what it was, starting to accept that it
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couldn't go on the way it had been. That same evening,
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March came to Alana's flat, reportedly to move some of
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his belongings. An argument broke out, partly over a pair
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of his trainers, partly according to neighbours who overheard parts
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of the confrontation about the pregnancy itself. Someone was heard
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saying she didn't want to end it, The fight escalated
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to the point where it spilled outside the flat. At
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one stage, Alana found herself locked out. She didn't have
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her keys, and March refused to let her back inside,
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even though her two-year-old daughter was asleep in the flat
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at the time. CCTV captured Alana walking alone outside in
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her dressing gown, just before half-past midnight, with nowhere to
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go and nobody around to help her. Eventually, she made
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her way back into the property. Hours later, in the
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early morning of July 22nd, the argument reignited inside the flat.
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March got hold of a kitchen knife roughly 24 centimetres long,
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its blade nearly 3 centimetres wide. What followed was a sustained,
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violent attack that began inside the home and continued outside it.
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Alana's blood was later found in both locations, meaning she
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was still being attacked or trying to escape as she
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moved from one to the other. Her young daughter remained
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asleep nearby the entire time. At around 2.58 in the morning,
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two separate neighbours placed 999 calls within seconds of each other.
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Alana had made it outside. She was found in her
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nightdress and dressing gown, clutching her side, bleeding heavily, and
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even then, even in that state with her body already
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failing her, she was lucid enough to repeatedly identify March
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by name and point toward him as he calmly walked
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away from the scene. as if none of it had
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anything to do with him. Paramedics and police reached her
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within minutes and fought to save her life. It wasn't enough.
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Alana was pronounced dead at 3.52 in the morning. March, meanwhile,
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didn't run far and he didn't hide well. As he
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walked away, CCTV showed him discarding the knife near a
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neighbour's doorway, along with his clothing, a small rucksack and
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items taken from Alana's home. He dropped three mobile phones
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into a drain and Only one was ever recovered. At
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around 4.20am, he walked into a nearby Cream's Cafe, ordinary
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as anything, and told a member of staff that he
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had stabbed or killed his wife, who has baby. The employee,
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understandably alarmed, called police. March was arrested just before 5am.
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Body-worn camera footage captured him making a series of chilling,
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unprompted admissions. That he had killed her. That he regretted nothing.
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that he wanted to stay in prison, that he considered
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himself a demon. Later that same day, in a formal
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police interview with a solicitor and an appropriate adult present,
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he answered no comment to every single question put to him.
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Alana's daughter, Victoria, was found safe and physically unharmed inside
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the flat. She had lost her mother while sleeping in
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the next room, without ever knowing what was happening just
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a few feet away from her. technical and forensic analysis.
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The forensic picture of what happened to Alana was, in
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the words of the court, extremely severe. The post-mortem examination,
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carried out by a forensic pathologist, recorded a cause of
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death of stab wounds to the chest, and revised the
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estimated stage of her pregnancy from four weeks to closer
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to seven or eight weeks. The official sentencing document itself
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contains an internal inconsistency in the wound count, It references
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23 sharp force injuries in one place, and 19 stab
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wounds plus at least 5 additional slasher incision wounds in another,
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a total that actually works out to at least 24.
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What's consistent across every account is that this was overkill,
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far beyond anything needed to cause death. Five of the
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wounds were independently fatal on their own. A sixth may
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have been. Several penetrated bones, including one that passed straight
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through her shoulder blade. Injuries to her arms and legs
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were consistent with a woman who fought back with everything
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she had, defensive wounds, and wounds suggesting she was kicking
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out from the ground in a desperate attempt to protect
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herself once she'd been forced down. Investigators also noted that
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at least one wound appeared, on its face, to have
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been directed toward her abdomen, though this was never formally
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charged as a separate offence against the pregnancy itself. the
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recovered phone added another layer of evidence. Two unsent voice
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recordings in which March admitted to the killing, one apparently
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meant for his mother, the other for his probation officer.
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Proof that even in the immediate aftermath, some part of
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him understood exactly what he had done and who he
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was still accountable to. Investigators leaned heavily on the layered
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nature of the evidence in this case. CCTV, recovered forensic material,
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the murder weapon itself, a cafe witness, body camera footage
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and Alana's own dying identification, because it left almost no
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room for a defence built on doubt about what had
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actually happened. The knife itself, roughly 24cm long, was recovered
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heavily bloodstained near a neighbour's doorway exactly where CCTV showed
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March discarding it, forming a direct unbroken evidential line from
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the kitchen, where he took it to the moment of
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his arrest less than two hours later. Psychological Analysis What
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makes this case psychologically distinct is the direct collision between
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calculated behaviour and a claimed loss of control. At trial,
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March initially tried to plead guilty only to manslaughter, arguing
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diminished responsibility, that a traumatic brain injury he suffered at 17,
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combined with a diagnosed antisocial personality disorder and depression, had
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substantially impaired his ability to control himself in that moment.
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That defence fell apart when his own expert witness, a neuropsychologist,
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reviewed the full weight of the prosecution's evidence and changed
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his professional opinion. Concluding March simply didn't meet the legal threshold.
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It isn't hard to understand why. A man suffering a genuine,
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overwhelming loss of control doesn't calmly discard a knife, strip
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off bloodied clothing, drop three separate phones down a drain,
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and then walk into a cafe to casually announce what
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he'd done. Those are the actions of someone making a
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chain of clear, sequential decisions in real time, fully aware
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of what he was doing and trying, in his own way,
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to manage the consequences. Later, speaking to a prison officer,
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March would describe the moment differently, saying he saw red
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and remembered Alana begging him to stop. That single detail
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matters psychologically, because remembering a victim's pleas is not consistent
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with a total absence of awareness. Meanwhile, the pattern of
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coercive control he inflicted on Alana in the months before
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the murder, the surveillance, the isolation from her family, the
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threats against her daughter, the destruction of the child's belongings,
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is a well-documented psychological mechanism that abusers use, consciously or not,
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to erode a victim's confidence and independence until the idea
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of leaving starts to feel more dangerous than staying. Alana's
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own words to her sister capture that trap with painful clarity.
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Fear and love, coexisting. right up until the very last
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night of her life. It's also worth noting what the
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court did and didn't accept about March himself. Experts agreed
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he had a documented traumatic brain injury, antisocial personalities disorder
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and depression, but found no sufficient evidence of post-traumatic stress disorder.
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and none of those conditions, individually or combined, were judged
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severe enough to legally excuse or substantially reduce his responsibility
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for what he did to Alana. The part of this
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story most people never hear. Here's what should genuinely disturb you.
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During Alana's murder trial, the jury never learned that Shane
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March had already killed someone. That single, crucial piece of
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information only became public after he pleaded guilty and the
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case moved to sentencing. When it finally came time to
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sentence him, the original judge actually declined to hand down
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a whole life order, pointing to March's brain injury, the
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gap of over two decades between the two killings, his
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lack of advance planning and his eventual guilty plea. He
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was given life with a minimum of 42 years instead.
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Alana's family was outraged because a minimum term sentence, even
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a long one, technically leaves a door open at the
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end of it, the possibility however distant of parole. so
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the Solicitor General referred the case under something called the
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Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme, essentially asking a higher court to
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look again. In March of 2026, the Court of Appeal
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completely reversed course, ruling that the original sentence had in
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fact been too lenient given everything the judge had heard,
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and replacing it with a whole life order, meaning March
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will now die in prison, with no possibility of release, ever.
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It was only after being told this only after hearing
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that outcome directly that he apologised to Alana's family by
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video link, a sharp, almost jarring contrast to the man
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who told police hours after the murder that he regretted nothing.
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Alana's sister Jasmine has since launched a public campaign called
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Alana's Law, pushing for automatic, proactive disclosure of a partner's
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violent history rather than forcing potential victims to go digging
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for it themselves through an existing scheme most people don't
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even know exists, it has already gathered tens of thousands
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of signatures. And there's still one question hanging over this
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entire case that nobody has fully answered. How does a
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man convicted of one murder, who later assaulted another pregnant partner,
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remain under lifelong supervision and still manage to build and
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sustain a relationship with a new victim, right up until
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it ends in a second killing, without a single intervention
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along the way? Alana Odysseus was so much more than
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the way she died. She was the girl blasting music
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through a kitchen speaker in Walthamstow, the sister who talked
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to everyone on the street, the woman who had already
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survived so much before she ever met Shane March, and
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the mother who, in her very last moments, still found
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the strength to make sure the truth came out. If
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this case moved you, subscribe for more true crime coverage
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every week. and drop a comment below telling us what
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you think should change so no other family has to
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go through what Alana's did.
