WEBVTT
1
00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:11.679
In twenty twenty, pregnant Nicole McGregor disappeared from Lemington Spa.
2
00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:15.919
Her frantic boyfriend Chris searched for her, helped by a
3
00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:20.760
new friend. He had no idea that his friend was
4
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.280
stone cold killer Anthony Russell.
5
00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:27.440
Chris saw a newspaper and realized that Anthony was the
6
00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:29.559
person that the police were looking for in connection with
7
00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:30.879
the team murders in Coventry.
8
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.159
The last person to see Nicole alive was wanted for
9
00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.240
the brutal murders of Julie Williams and her son David,
10
00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:45.560
and now Anthony Russell had killed a third victim.
11
00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.920
He was saying things to Nicole's boyfriend like, oh, he
12
00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.399
must be really looking forward to becoming a father.
13
00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.119
He knew that Nicole was dead.
14
00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:01.320
Anthony Russell went on the run, sparking a huge manhunt.
15
00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:06.200
This wasn't a that of madness was calculated, and that
16
00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:13.040
calculation had cost three people their lives.
17
00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:17.920
Had Russell murdered three innocent people and destroyed the lives
18
00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:19.200
of those left behind.
19
00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:21.680
Daniel didn't want to live with that his mom, or
20
00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:22.599
without his brother.
21
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.760
His week long murderous rampage left a trail of death
22
00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:31.519
and destruction, making twisted Anthony Russell one of the world's
23
00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:57.480
most evil killers. The search for thirty nine year old
24
00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.079
Anthony Russell was one of the largest in West Midland's
25
00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:02.319
police history.
26
00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.319
We launched a huge manhunt. I think we had two
27
00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.400
hundred officers that were working on it. We've got a
28
00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:13.120
responsibility to protect the public. That's our number one responsibility.
29
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.360
And you've got someone who's already been prepared to kill,
30
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:16.520
who's on the loose.
31
00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.919
The police put in the papers a photograph of him.
32
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:23.319
Can it come on the radio every half hour? This
33
00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:27.159
man is dangerous, Do not approach him. So the police
34
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.199
already knew what he'd done and they were frightened for
35
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:30.719
the public.
36
00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:35.919
Over the course of a week, Anthony Russell killed three people.
37
00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.680
This was a murderer without mercy.
38
00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:46.120
This wasn't just enough violence to kill somebody. This is
39
00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.080
what we call over kill. So that's way more violence
40
00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:52.680
than is needed to kill that person.
41
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:58.479
The carnage that Anthony Russell left behind will stay with
42
00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:00.800
his victims loved ones forever.
43
00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:04.319
You never expect something like that ever to happen to
44
00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.800
your family. Ever. He might watch on the television, read
45
00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:10.319
about it in a book, but to actually have it
46
00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.039
happen to you. Absolutely ripped our families apart.
47
00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:21.360
This killer's story begins in the West Midland city of Coventry.
48
00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.719
Anthony was born on the sixteenth of April nineteen eighty two.
49
00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.280
He'd got a number of siblings, had a difficult childhood
50
00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.639
and he grew up mainly in care. He used to
51
00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.560
regularly go missing when he was in care and he
52
00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:39.599
was often difficult to find, so he would be reported
53
00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:41.759
missing on a regular basis and it would take quite
54
00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.639
a long time to find him.
55
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.759
As he entered adulthood, bad behavior became criminal behavior.
56
00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:57.120
Anthony Russell had a track record of low level crime theft, burglary,
57
00:03:58.240 --> 00:03:59.400
possessing weapons.
58
00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:02.280
There was a bit of violence in there. I think
59
00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.000
he was convicted of a robbery, crimes that are often
60
00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:06.479
associated with people that have.
61
00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:08.960
Substance issues.
62
00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:13.800
It's pretty clear that Anthony Russell had a very big
63
00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:14.680
heroin addiction.
64
00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.360
In twenty twenty, Russell was thirty eight years old and
65
00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:24.759
living in a flat in Riley Square in the Belgreen
66
00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:26.120
area of Coventry.
67
00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:31.480
It was a nineteen sixties development. It's sort of precinct
68
00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.319
type design. It was built in a quadrant, so you
69
00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.279
have shops all around the bottom of the quadrant, and
70
00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:39.800
then I think there's about four or five stories above
71
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:44.319
that which contains flats, so a very sort of urban
72
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.639
area with local shops. So it was quite a close
73
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.360
knit community.
74
00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.319
On that same estate, living in a one bedroom flat
75
00:04:54.600 --> 00:05:00.360
was fifty eight year old Julie Williams, widowed, young, raised
76
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.199
her sons alone.
77
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.399
Julie was my brother's partner, the love of my brother's life.
78
00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:11.920
My brother unfortunately passed away when he was thirty nine.
79
00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:16.040
Julie and her eldest son, David shared a close bond.
80
00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:22.040
David is my nephew. David didn't have along with my brother,
81
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.959
which is a great shame because his dad absolutely adored him.
82
00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:30.319
In and his brother Daniel, he absolutely adored his mom.
83
00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:35.360
They lived together and they went out together. He lived
84
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.600
for his mom. He was very family orientated. He had
85
00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.920
lots of cousins that he got on with everywhere. Everybody
86
00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.759
absolutely loved him because he was such a happy chappie.
87
00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:51.120
On Wednesday, the twenty first of October twenty twenty, thirty
88
00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.040
two year old David did not come home as planned.
89
00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.800
Three days later, Julie still hadn't managed to get in
90
00:05:57.879 --> 00:05:59.519
touch with David.
91
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.680
My daughter Fomi or and she said there's something on
92
00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:12.480
the internet. She says that Julie's looking for David. She
93
00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:16.600
put out on the local radio. Has anybody seen David?
94
00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.040
But we just thought always crashed out at one of
95
00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:23.279
his friend's houses, you know, and he'll be back in touch.
96
00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:27.519
She first came to the attention of police on Saturday,
97
00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.839
the twenty fourth of October twenty twenty, and that was
98
00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:34.040
a report made by Julie to say that her son
99
00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:35.519
David had gone missing.
100
00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:40.360
Police will always do a kind of a victimology when
101
00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:42.879
they get a missing person report, and that will be
102
00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:48.920
largely around vulnerabilities and how unusual it was for this
103
00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:50.000
person to go missing.
104
00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.480
His daily routine involved him being in the local area
105
00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.800
and associating with friends and spending time with his mother,
106
00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:02.759
so it was really unusual for him not to be
107
00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.079
in contact with her or to come back home.
108
00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:07.040
We have a.
109
00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.199
Dedicated team that deal with missing persons.
110
00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.040
Inquiries were started to be made around house to house
111
00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.959
inquiries looking at CCTV to see when they could see
112
00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:17.920
his last sighting.
113
00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:24.879
West Midlands Police identified David as a man struggling with addiction.
114
00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:28.560
He didn't want to do drugs, but all those around
115
00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:32.439
him were, and unfortunately David got into that way of living,
116
00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:37.560
which changed him as a person. And I think that's
117
00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:39.399
why his mum always kept an eye out for him
118
00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:40.079
all the time.
119
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.759
He'd been using drugs, it seems for some considerable time,
120
00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.800
and all his connections were in the world of people
121
00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:50.759
who had similar addictions.
122
00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:56.120
We knew he regularly visited the chemists for medication, so
123
00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.439
they started to look at to see when the last
124
00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:02.160
time it was that he picked his medication. To work
125
00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:04.399
around his phone, see when that was last active.
126
00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:10.399
The police obtained David's phone records. Amongst the people that
127
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.959
he called friends, there were some that worried his mother.
128
00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.759
She mentioned one person that she was concerned that he
129
00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:21.079
owed some money for drugs, and she'd also received a
130
00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:24.759
text from David that said he was potentially having to
131
00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:26.959
get out of the area because he owed money for drugs.
132
00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.959
I think she thought that was unusual because David could
133
00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:33.240
often know money for drugs, but that wouldn't cause him
134
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:33.799
to go missing.
135
00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:42.120
The circumstances surrounding David's disappearance were unclear. Police kept an
136
00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:45.440
open mind about what may have happened, but on the
137
00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:49.480
afternoon of Sunday, October the twenty fifth, just twenty four
138
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:53.799
hours after Julie Williams reported David missing. There was an
139
00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:56.679
unbelievable twist in the investigation.
140
00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:02.240
Julie herself is reporting did missing by one of her sisters.
141
00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:06.159
Julie kept in touch with her sisters and her brothers
142
00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.919
every single day, so when she wasn't around, that's why
143
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.720
her sister then reported it to the police because she
144
00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:14.320
knew that that was out of character.
145
00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:19.159
Once we've done all the background checks into the fact
146
00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:22.600
that David was missing, then it became a real concern.
147
00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:25.399
So at this point they went to Julie and David's
148
00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:28.320
address and they couldn't go a response there.
149
00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.559
The police said, at then o'clock that Sunday evening, break
150
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.519
into Julie's flat and they find her dead.
151
00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:44.320
The scene that met them was one of carnage. In
152
00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.159
the center laid Julie's blooded body.
153
00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:53.360
Julie been subjected to this episode of prolonged beating, essentially
154
00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.879
punching and blunt force injury.
155
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:02.080
Julie had an enormous number of injuries, something like one
156
00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:05.799
hundred and thirteen injuries to her body, so that suggests
157
00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:07.799
a rage fueled attack.
158
00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.399
The final act which caused her death was the application
159
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:17.399
of a ligature. The ligature which was used in Julie's
160
00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:20.240
case was an electric flex from an electric fan.
161
00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:26.159
The case was allocated to the homicide team, with Detective
162
00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.879
Inspector Jim mun put in charge.
163
00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:32.559
I am that senior investigating officer, which means that I
164
00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:38.000
am the lead investigator for any serious crime. I went
165
00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:40.879
there in the middle of the night. It's dark, it's gloomy,
166
00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:44.480
so just even the inquiries around, just trying to establish
167
00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:46.919
who was going in and out at the time, was
168
00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:48.399
going to be really really challenging.
169
00:10:50.279 --> 00:10:53.879
Julie's family woke to the news of her murder.
170
00:10:57.799 --> 00:11:01.000
We heard about Julie and that was from the papers
171
00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:05.720
telling us that they'd found a woman's body. It was
172
00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:10.039
so final, It was so traumatic. It is so evil
173
00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.799
frightening that somebody could do that to another human being,
174
00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:17.120
and straight away then I think that's when we felt
175
00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:18.960
something bad's happened to David.
176
00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.399
We obviously then had immediate concerns about the welfare of
177
00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.840
David because he was still a missing person, but now
178
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:31.480
Julie had been killed, so it just really ramped up
179
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.480
in terms of one trying to identify who the killer
180
00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.039
was and secondly try and find where David was.
181
00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.000
There were many questions and no answers to what may
182
00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:57.559
have happened. Investigators needed to find David Williams fast on
183
00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.879
the twenty sixth of October twenty two and see. The
184
00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:04.480
investigation into the murder of fifty eight year old Julie
185
00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:07.360
Williams in Coventry had just begun.
186
00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:12.879
At this point, we're in the evidence gathering stage. There
187
00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:15.720
was some blood and what looked like a fingerprinting blood
188
00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:20.159
on the radiator. There was only a bedroom and a
189
00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:23.279
living room in the flat. David would sleep on a
190
00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:26.960
bed in the living room and Julie would sleep in
191
00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.840
her bedroom and watch Telly there. Julie was dead on
192
00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:36.000
the floor in the room that David occupied her Telly
193
00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:40.039
was still on in the bedroom. The neighbors had heard
194
00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:44.120
someone approach Julie's flat the night before, but they couldn't
195
00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:48.279
really hear what was being said. The person that had
196
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:50.879
killed Julie had taken the keys and had locked the
197
00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:54.080
door behind them, so was probably known to Julie for
198
00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:55.559
her to have let him into the house.
199
00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:01.039
For the family, not only the horror of Julie's death,
200
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:06.279
the worry of David's whereabouts, but also the rumors surrounding
201
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:06.919
the murder.
202
00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.279
People were saying, Davis and that has gone disappearing, and
203
00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.960
David's gone and killed his mother. And I said, no,
204
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.159
he wouldn't do that. He loves her too much. He
205
00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.720
definitely wouldn't do that. And he hasn't a bad bone
206
00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:21.279
in his body.
207
00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:26.200
We didn't have a suspect at all. The main focus
208
00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:29.159
then was on this fingerprinting blood. Now, that might have
209
00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:33.320
been Julie's fingerprint, but if it wasn't, then.
210
00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.200
It's most likely to be the killer.
211
00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:40.000
That became the sort of priority submission to take a
212
00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:41.840
photo and then see if we can match it to
213
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.039
the fingerprint database to somebody on it.
214
00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:51.240
Whilst the forensic investigations were underway, the search for David intensified.
215
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.440
Accessing his phone records provided police with vital information.
216
00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:02.120
When we examined david phone, we saw that he was
217
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.240
in regular contact, quite a lot of contact with an
218
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.399
individual that, when we checked him out on our police systems,
219
00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.879
was known to supply Class eight drugs. That phone activity
220
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.679
dropped off at the point where David had been reported missing,
221
00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.360
so there was an assumption there that that person knew
222
00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:21.600
that David was no longer going to be using his phone,
223
00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:26.639
and the Sunday night we had that individual identified, located
224
00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:29.320
and arrested and brought into custody, and he protested his
225
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.600
innocent straight away and provided an alibi.
226
00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:37.559
Part of David's routine included regular visits to the Riley
227
00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:41.360
Square pharmacy where he collected his methodone prescription.
228
00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.080
What we found out as our inquiries went through on
229
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.080
the Monday was that David had been seen going in
230
00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.320
and out of the chemist with an individual called Anthony Russell.
231
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:52.039
There were both.
232
00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:54.679
Drug users, they lived near each other. They used to
233
00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:57.480
beg in the area for money, so we were quite
234
00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:00.159
keen to trace Anthony. He was the last person than
235
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:01.799
Julie that had seen David alive.
236
00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:07.480
Five days after David Williams had been reported missing. Police
237
00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.240
had a name, thirty eight year old local men Anthony Russell.
238
00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:16.480
We realized that he was a close associate of David
239
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.840
and he lived in the area. He would hang around
240
00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:24.080
Riley Square, all around the local supermarkets that surrounded the
241
00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:27.799
area and would beg for money with other people in
242
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.799
that community and then once they've got enough money. They
243
00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:35.360
tended to head towards each other's flats and new drugs.
244
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.840
He was a well known figure in the area and
245
00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:42.279
one with a reputation for trouble.
246
00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.679
He was unhinged. He wasn't normal, you know, his behavy
247
00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:51.080
wasn't normal. But people were always frightened of him. So
248
00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.919
he got moved on, but nobody ever did anything about it.
249
00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:58.279
He used to go up to the hospital and annoy them.
250
00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.320
My daughter works at the hospital on and she said
251
00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.120
that the security'd had to move him on. Several times.
252
00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:11.000
We tried to locate him. We went to his flat,
253
00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.159
couldn't get any response from the flat. We forced entry
254
00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.919
into his flat to try and search for Anthony and David.
255
00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:25.799
Anthony Russell's sparsely furnished flat was spattered with blood. A
256
00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.320
brief search uncovered the sauce.
257
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.720
On that Monday evening, we found David's body hidden underneath
258
00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:38.320
Anthony's bed. What was evident was that he had been
259
00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.039
quite savagely beaten, so it had been quite a lot
260
00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:45.519
of brute force used on David.
261
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:50.240
Either those injuries were defensive and came as a result
262
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:55.120
of a full out fight with his attacker, or again,
263
00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:59.600
they could have been about the rage that the attacker
264
00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:00.159
was feeling.
265
00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.240
My daughter firred me up and she was screaming down
266
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:11.119
the phone at me, she says. They found David. We
267
00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:16.960
was devastated. I couldn't eat or sleep, and every time
268
00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.319
I closed my eyes, I kept thinking about what David
269
00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.680
must have gone through. He must have been so scared,
270
00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:25.880
because he probably wouldn't have believed it. You know, if
271
00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.200
somebody went to attack him, he'd probably just laugh, thinking
272
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.400
it's a joke. He wouldn't have realized until it was
273
00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:30.920
too late.
274
00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:38.160
David's death meant the police faced an entirely different investigation.
275
00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:43.000
It had gone from a missing person on Saturday, a
276
00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.920
murder and a missing person on Sunday. We've now got
277
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:51.559
two murders. This now is where the investigation really really
278
00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:57.160
ramped up. David had suffered from eighty one external injuries,
279
00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.240
some including a knife, had been stabbed, It'd got some
280
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:04.440
severe wounds and bangs to his head.
281
00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:10.519
Also, there was a lanyard around his neck which was
282
00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:14.960
causing neck compression, which would be very similar to Julie.
283
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.480
The lanyard ordinarily held David's keys, but they were not
284
00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:25.559
with his body. Detectives believed his and his mother's deaths
285
00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:26.480
were linked.
286
00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.079
The fact that I could see similarities between Julie's body
287
00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:33.920
and David's body supported the notion that was likely to
288
00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.279
be just one person, and I could see that the
289
00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.359
changes in which were present in David's body would suggest
290
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:44.839
that he was in fact the first victim, with Julie
291
00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:45.319
following on.
292
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:46.440
Afterwards.
293
00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.599
We've got two crime scenes that were working through, working
294
00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.039
through all the phone evidence, working through who were the
295
00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:59.920
last people to see everyone alive, and understanding their background.
296
00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:02.680
But the main priority is we've got someone who's killed
297
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.400
two people on the loose and is a real danger
298
00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:06.000
to the public.
299
00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:11.960
The double murder investigation was code named Operation in Shore,
300
00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:16.160
and detectives had one person at the top of their list,
301
00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:17.519
Anthony Russell.
302
00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:23.720
Anthony Russell is a person of considerable interest in the
303
00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:25.319
killing of David and Julie Williams.
304
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:29.799
When we spoke to his family, we found that he
305
00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:33.599
had left the area, but he never had a phone.
306
00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:35.720
He never had his own mobile phone, so we had
307
00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.559
no way of tracking his phone or understanding who he
308
00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:41.799
was in contact with, and it just disappeared from Coventry.
309
00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:43.839
So we'd got a big man hunt on the go,
310
00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:45.480
but we had no idea where he was.
311
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.039
At this point where.
312
00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:52.599
They suspected double murderer at large, every precaution had to
313
00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:58.200
be taken. The alert on Russell was put out nationwide.
314
00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:00.759
They put it on the in and in the Common
315
00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:05.400
Achieving Telegraph. They were showing you photos of this Anthony
316
00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:07.839
Russell saying do you not approach him? He is very,
317
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:08.799
very dangerous.
318
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.759
We were getting sightings all over the country and we
319
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:15.599
couldn't ignore these sightings because we had no way to
320
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:18.680
confirm whether that sighting was correct or not, so we
321
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:20.559
had to link in with all the different police forces
322
00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:21.839
to try and do those inquiries.
323
00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:25.839
He didn't have a vehicle of his own, so they
324
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.519
weren't using the usual AMPR tracking that kind of thing,
325
00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:35.000
but they would have been looking at all public transport.
326
00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.599
What we did find as we moved through the tracking
327
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:41.279
on the CCTV, so we'd got some points where people
328
00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:45.400
who knew him had last seen him. He'd certainly been
329
00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:47.920
to a supermarket, which allowed us then to track him
330
00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:51.000
the supermarket, which captured him getting on a bus. Now
331
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:54.039
this bus then we were able to track him going
332
00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.559
into Commentary City Center, but then We lost him within
333
00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:59.240
the sort of bus station area, which wasn't covered by
334
00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:03.440
CC so we assumed he'd gone into the city center
335
00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:05.759
to then travel on with We had no idea where
336
00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:06.319
he would have come.
337
00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:13.400
Anthony Russell had been running away since childhood. By twenty twenty,
338
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:17.000
he was a man skilled in staying under the radar.
339
00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:22.279
Anthony Russell took it upon himself to adopt various disguises.
340
00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:25.960
He was a man who hadn't lost his senses. He
341
00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:29.279
was extremely aware that he was a focus of interest.
342
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.599
By the police or the CCTV.
343
00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.559
When you put together each still of what he looked like,
344
00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:37.559
he was changing his appearance all the time.
345
00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:38.960
He was stealing glasses.
346
00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.240
He'd wear different hats, he'd wear hoods, His clothing was
347
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:43.519
changed quite regularly.
348
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:50.200
Russell was as organized as he was brutal. On Monday,
349
00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:54.119
twenty sixth of October, just hours since Julie's body was
350
00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:58.319
discovered and David still lay dead in his flat, Anthony
351
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.119
Russell was already thinking ahead.
352
00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:05.079
He needed cash and he needed a phone.
353
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.680
He attacks a seventy eight year old man stealing his
354
00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:16.240
mobile phone. He goes to Kenilworth, where, believe it or not,
355
00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:20.400
Russell attacks a seventy one year old woman and steals
356
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:25.599
two hundred pounds. He drags the poor lady along the ground,
357
00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:26.319
injuring her.
358
00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:28.359
Once again.
359
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.160
The actual man who has absolutely no concern for anyone
360
00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:32.839
but himself.
361
00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:39.079
Anybody coming into this man's path at this time is
362
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:39.720
in danger.
363
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:46.039
On the run from the police. Wanted for two murders,
364
00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:50.039
Anthony Russell was a desperate man with nothing to lose,
365
00:22:50.759 --> 00:23:03.319
and his murderous rampage was far from over. By the
366
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:08.759
twenty seventh of October twenty twenty, Coventry double murder suspect
367
00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.400
Anthony Russell had been on the run for two days.
368
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.160
Twelve miles away in the town of Lemington Spa, Waisha,
369
00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:20.039
Police received a missing person alert.
370
00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:24.000
A man reported that his girlfriend had gone missing. They
371
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.480
were begging in Lemington Spa. They had a different spot
372
00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:30.759
in the town where they would beg and when he
373
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:32.880
went to see where she was when they finished begging,
374
00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:37.160
she'd just gone. He made that report on the Tuesday,
375
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.000
so Warwickshire Police started a missing person inquiry into a
376
00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.200
girl called Nicole.
377
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.400
Nicle McGregor. At this point is five months pregnant and
378
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:50.039
extremely proudly.
379
00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.759
She got a boyfriend called Chris. They lived in a
380
00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:57.960
flat in Lemington. They were both drug users, but they
381
00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.160
were trying to get off drugs.
382
00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:04.079
Nicole had not been seen since the previous day, when
383
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:06.680
she had spent the morning with her partner and a
384
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:11.880
new friend. By Tuesday afternoon, Chris was frantic with worry.
385
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.400
Chris wasn't the sort of person really to interact with
386
00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:18.440
the police. I don't think he was particularly fond of
387
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.319
the police, but he got so worried by that evening
388
00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:23.960
that he actually approached the uniform police officer and said,
389
00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:28.880
I'm really concerned that my girlfriend's missing. When the police
390
00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:32.279
started to get the information from Chris, he started to
391
00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:35.960
disclose that the day before they'd befriended a person called Anthony.
392
00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:37.440
He was from Coventry.
393
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:40.960
It was at that point when the realization came in
394
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.640
that this might be Anthony Brussell.
395
00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:47.680
That same evening, the investigation into the double murder of
396
00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:52.039
Julie and David got a result. The blooded fingerprint from
397
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:56.400
Julie's flat found a match on the national database. It
398
00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:58.400
belonged to Anthony Russell.
399
00:24:59.279 --> 00:25:02.640
The fingerprint was the confirmation that Anthony was the suspect
400
00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:03.759
that we were looking for.
401
00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:08.440
The chilling revelation that Nicole McGregor had been in the
402
00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:12.119
company of a man suspected of murdering two people in
403
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:17.599
cold blood was one police took very seriously. They knew
404
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:19.759
that time was of the essence.
405
00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:24.799
We scoured Lemington for CCTV and seized all the CCTV
406
00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:28.920
of the town center were able then, with the information
407
00:25:29.079 --> 00:25:32.880
from Chris to piece together where Nicole was.
408
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.000
Then the story dark although it already is, begets even
409
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.640
darker because for some reason known only really to Anthony Russell,
410
00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.480
he targets Nicole McGregor.
411
00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:50.880
What we saw was that Anthony Russell had approached her,
412
00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:52.920
he'd been begging over the other side of the road,
413
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:54.640
and they had walked away together.
414
00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:01.559
Anthony Russell invites Nicole McGregor to join him in a
415
00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:06.880
place called Newbold Common, a wooded area in Leamington spa
416
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:14.640
quite quiet, quite secluded. Suggested that she'd taken up the
417
00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:19.160
invitation because she thought that he could supply more drugs.
418
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:25.519
CCTV showed Nicole and Anthony Russell entering the woods together.
419
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:29.480
Forty minutes later, Russell emerged alone.
420
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.839
That gave us then the last sighting of Nicol McGregor,
421
00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:36.720
and we were able to go through the woodland in
422
00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:39.119
the area where he could have got to on foot.
423
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:40.839
In that forty minute period.
424
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:46.039
The CCTV cameras captured Russell walking the short journey back
425
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:47.359
to the town center.
426
00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:51.720
He goes to seek out Nicole's boyfriend, the father of
427
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:52.799
her unborn child.
428
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.200
What we were able to do then was track Anthony Russell,
429
00:26:56.519 --> 00:26:59.359
and what we found was that he spent the Tuesday
430
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:06.319
with Chris Nichole's boyfriend going around Leamington looking for her.
431
00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.400
He was like sympathetic to him and he was inserting
432
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.440
himself into an investigation as a good guy. He was
433
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:18.279
saying things to Nicole's boyfriend like, you know, oh, you
434
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:21.799
must be really looking forward to becoming a father.
435
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:26.480
On the twenty ninth of October, three days after Nicole
436
00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.920
was last seen, police searched Newbold Common.
437
00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.440
We knew Anthony had already killed two people. We've got
438
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:38.000
a girl going missing with Anthony, so you know, our
439
00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:45.160
biggest fear was that she was dead. On the Thursday,
440
00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.200
there was a specialist police teams that are trained to
441
00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:53.039
search wooded difficult areas do a methodical search to make
442
00:27:53.079 --> 00:27:55.839
sure that they search every area and they take it
443
00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:56.880
piece by piece.
444
00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:01.559
Storm Barbera was hitting the UK. The river was riding.
445
00:28:01.319 --> 00:28:06.640
Quite high, so the terrain was really really difficult. Her
446
00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:11.079
body was found in some bushes and she had been
447
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:13.400
strangled with her own leggings.
448
00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:17.960
I received another phone call from the police to inform
449
00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:22.880
me that they had found another victim, and this victim
450
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:27.720
was Nicole McGregor. Nicole's body was found with her face
451
00:28:27.799 --> 00:28:30.640
down and what I could see was that there was
452
00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:35.160
vegetation within Nicole's mouth, which is likely to have been
453
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.319
when she was face down on the floor but alive.
454
00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:43.480
The sheer terror that she must have felt when she
455
00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:46.079
was being attacked by this man she thought she trusted.
456
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:51.680
The position in which she was found was very suggestive
457
00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:54.119
that she was likely to have been the subject of
458
00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:55.519
a sexual assault as well.
459
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:00.119
Both Nicole and the baby she'd look forward to bringing
460
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:01.960
into the world were dead.
461
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.480
It can be a very sobering experience when you perform
462
00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:10.799
a post mortem examination or an expectant mother, when you
463
00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:15.240
find the unborn child lying peacefully inside.
464
00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:16.000
The mum's womb.
465
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.880
This woman who was excited about the prospect of being
466
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:25.799
a mum has had that taken away from her.
467
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:31.559
The death of Nicole McGregor meant police suspected Anthony Russell
468
00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:35.799
of killing three innocent people in a period of less
469
00:29:35.799 --> 00:29:39.640
than a week. Their biggest concern was what he would
470
00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:40.319
do next.
471
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:48.440
Russell is becoming more and more dangerous, so he's committed murders.
472
00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:54.079
He then is attacking people, taking their money, taking their phones.
473
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:57.440
But again there's a kind of a logical reason for
474
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.960
doing that, even if the methods are brutal an awful.
475
00:30:01.160 --> 00:30:04.640
But now he's escalated to kill in for the sake
476
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:07.720
of it, because it pleases him. So at the end
477
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:10.720
of this seven days he's about as dangerous as he
478
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:11.640
can possibly get.
479
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:18.240
Once again, Russell went on the run. A wanted man.
480
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:21.720
He was prepared to do whatever it took to make
481
00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:23.039
his escape.
482
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:26.519
He left Lemington. He'd walked away on foot.
483
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:29.160
We saw that on CCTV and lost the tracking of
484
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:32.839
him as he disappeared. We then found that there'd been
485
00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:35.240
a robbery just outside Lemington.
486
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:36.319
Old man called Roy.
487
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:39.720
He'd had a brick smashed over the top of his head.
488
00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:44.039
The attacker was a man with a plan, a man
489
00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:45.279
without mercy.
490
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:49.599
He steals the car, he leaves the seventy eight year
491
00:30:49.640 --> 00:30:52.440
old with a fractured skull in his own front door,
492
00:30:53.319 --> 00:30:54.599
takes the car and leaves.
493
00:30:56.920 --> 00:30:59.960
He only survived because there were some people that were
494
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.599
doing gardening that turned up to help with his garden
495
00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:06.039
that actually found him there or were able to get
496
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:08.799
paramedics there and do first aid to keep him alive.
497
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:15.240
Police suspected the attacker was Anthony Russell, a fugitive hell
498
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:18.400
bent at getting away no matter what the cost.
499
00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:23.039
Russell is what I would call on a spree one
500
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:28.279
emotional event. He's not coming down. He's gone up into
501
00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:30.880
that rage when he's killed the first person, and he
502
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:35.799
kind of stayed there. Spree killers don't stop until they stopped.
503
00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:43.079
Preventing Russell from killing again was the police's number one priority.
504
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:48.160
So we're working closely with Warwickshire Police to locate Anthony
505
00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:51.079
Russell as soon as possible, but i'd appeal to the
506
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:54.519
public they've got any information as to where he might be,
507
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:57.160
if they see him at all, make sure that they
508
00:31:57.200 --> 00:31:57.559
call us.
509
00:31:57.559 --> 00:32:03.000
On nine nine nine, they put out alerts on the
510
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:05.440
red Ford c Max he'd stolen.
511
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.680
It was picked up on some AMPR cameras and it
512
00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:13.440
headed towards the Staffordshire Police area. But it had pretty
513
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:17.400
much disappeared into the countryside and it hadn't been hitting
514
00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:19.400
any AMPR cameras from that point.
515
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.839
In October twenty twenty, there was a large police presence
516
00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:29.000
in rural Staffordshire due to a recent spike in theft there.
517
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:33.880
In the early hours of the thirtieth of October, one
518
00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:37.359
of the patrol cars made an unexpected find.
519
00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:41.000
They came across the vehicle and when they did the
520
00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:42.839
check on the vehicle they realized that it had been
521
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.640
stolen in a violent robbery. It might have been linked
522
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:46.720
to our murder suspect.
523
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:48.000
There's the car.
524
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:50.319
Stec sac sack.
525
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:52.200
They approached the.
526
00:32:52.160 --> 00:33:00.200
Car found Antony.
527
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:03.640
That's where he was arrested.
528
00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:08.680
Anthony Russell, you're under arrest for the murder of three people.
529
00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:11.559
You don't have to say, but my army defense.
530
00:33:11.599 --> 00:33:13.079
You do not mind to a question something with you
531
00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.359
later around courteth you do say may be given Everett.
532
00:33:17.039 --> 00:33:21.279
At four seventeen am on Friday thirtieth of October, the
533
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:24.920
man suspected of killing three people was taken to penny
534
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:28.720
Bar Police station in Birmingham.
535
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:30.119
He refused to be interviewed.
536
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:32.799
He wouldn't leave his cell, so he was eventually asked
537
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:35.039
the questions at his cell and he just put a
538
00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:36.839
blanket over his head and ignored.
539
00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:39.240
All the all the questions, refused to make any comment.
540
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:44.839
Having caught their fugitive, the police would now need to
541
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.319
use all their skills to link Russell to all three
542
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:54.720
murders and make sure a suspected triple killer didn't escape justice.
543
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:06.440
On Monday, the tewond of November twenty twenty, Anthony Russell
544
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:11.199
appeared via video link from Birmingham Magistrate's Court, charged with
545
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:15.840
the murders of David Williams, Julie Williams and Nicole McGregor.
546
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:20.519
Nicholl's unborn baby was too young to be classed as
547
00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:22.440
a victim.
548
00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:26.159
He killed Julie, he killed David, he killed Nichola, but
549
00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:28.840
they didn't say he killed the baby because she wasn't born.
550
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:36.840
I don't understand how that baby was not even classified
551
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:40.639
as a body.
552
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:43.880
The violent robberies Russell had carried out whilst on the
553
00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.719
run were added to the list of offenses.
554
00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:51.800
The team that works on it were brilliant. The real
555
00:34:51.880 --> 00:34:54.519
fear there is that you can find him within a week,
556
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:57.400
but if you've not got the evidence hand, he could
557
00:34:57.400 --> 00:34:59.440
be back out the door again. So it was really
558
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:01.920
really that the team worked as hard as they did
559
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:03.400
to make sure that they got that evidence.
560
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:09.599
Whilst Russell awaited trial, another charge was brought against him.
561
00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:13.480
We also charged him with rape of Nicole because we
562
00:35:13.559 --> 00:35:18.280
found evidence that he'd had sexual intercourse with her. We
563
00:35:18.599 --> 00:35:21.440
knew that Nicole wouldn't have willingly gone with him to
564
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:24.280
have sex, so we charged him with the rape.
565
00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:30.760
In the leader to trial, the Williams family suffered further heartbreak.
566
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:35.559
For Julie's son, David's brother Daniel. The loss was too
567
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:36.360
great to bear.
568
00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:40.480
Daniel didn't want to leave without his mum or without
569
00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:44.079
his brother, which is why he decided to hang himself,
570
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:48.400
which is heartbreaking the thing that he is in that
571
00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:51.320
much pain that he thought that was the best outcome.
572
00:35:56.039 --> 00:35:59.159
As far as I'm concerned, Anthony Russell should be charged
573
00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:01.000
with Daniel's mud. As well.
574
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:07.880
As the team prepared for the court case, investigators put
575
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:12.079
together an account of that fateful week in October.
576
00:36:13.239 --> 00:36:17.239
We did piece together some things from Anthony's associates and
577
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:22.719
David's associates, and we realized that Anthony thought that David
578
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:24.000
had slept with his girlfriend.
579
00:36:24.039 --> 00:36:26.400
So we think that was the motive for killing David.
580
00:36:27.119 --> 00:36:30.119
It was all lies, but all this was going on
581
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:33.679
Facebook saying Anthony Russell's looking for David because he's been
582
00:36:33.719 --> 00:36:34.760
seeing his girlfriend.
583
00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:41.519
Police believe that Julie's murder was directly related to her sons.
584
00:36:42.679 --> 00:36:45.400
Anthony's never really given us a full account as to
585
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:50.760
exactly what happened, so we've never understood the real motives.
586
00:36:50.840 --> 00:36:55.320
But we think Julie reporting David missing was the potential
587
00:36:55.360 --> 00:36:56.679
motive for killing Julie.
588
00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:03.440
Russell calculated that he couldn't keep up the charade of
589
00:37:03.559 --> 00:37:08.679
David having disappeared and decided in a cold bloody, premeditated
590
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:11.639
manner to kill David's mother, Julie.
591
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:17.360
The police said that Auntie Russell probably knocked on Julie's
592
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:20.480
door because she wasn't shutting up and she weren't going away.
593
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.199
My heart breaks thinking she's just been told that a
594
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:28.000
son's dead and now you're next.
595
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.800
In the case of Nicol McGregor, the evidence suggested Russell
596
00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:36.280
had raped her then killed her to cover his tracks.
597
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:40.480
The team put together a case which the Crown Prosecution
598
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.159
Service felt confident of winning.
599
00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:46.920
It was really really challenging because we used to dealing
600
00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:49.440
with one murder, one crime scene.
601
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:54.719
Then suddenly we were finding murder, murder, murder scene, seeing scene.
602
00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:02.559
The investigation gathered almost nine thousand hours of CCTV footage
603
00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:06.119
and put together a timeline which shon light on the
604
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:10.679
message Julie had received from David about leaving town due
605
00:38:10.719 --> 00:38:11.599
to drug debts.
606
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:15.599
We believe that that text message had actually been sent
607
00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:19.400
by Anthony after David had been killed, to Julie to
608
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:21.880
try and put her off the cent of it being
609
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:26.280
Anthony that had killed him.
610
00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:30.760
It was fourteen months after the murders before Anthony Russell
611
00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:34.880
was tried for his crimes. On the fourteenth of February
612
00:38:34.920 --> 00:38:39.119
twenty twenty two, his trial began at Warick Crown Court.
613
00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:43.480
Everyone was there and it was before the jury was
614
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:46.679
sworn in, so we were expecting quite a lengthy trial.
615
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:50.800
But then he pleaded guilty on the first day. They
616
00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:52.960
pleaded guilty to everything apart from the ray.
617
00:38:54.400 --> 00:38:58.880
That's not unusual actually, because murdering somebody has some kind
618
00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:01.199
of machismo to it. You can hold your head up
619
00:39:01.239 --> 00:39:03.840
in the prison when you get your sentence, You're much
620
00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:06.960
more likely to get sympathy because you can say I
621
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:08.960
thought this and I thought that and I was being
622
00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:13.159
treated badly. You can't say anything like that about a rape.
623
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:16.199
So that left us with a decision then whether we
624
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:19.239
were going to proceed just with the rape or not,
625
00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:24.000
and we decided we would try and for the rape.
626
00:39:26.039 --> 00:39:29.360
Julie's sister went to the court every single day. I
627
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:32.039
couldn't go because I kept thinking, if I go and
628
00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:34.760
I see something, I won't be able to unsee it.
629
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:39.280
The thing she's seen in the photos she's seen and
630
00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:42.400
what she heard that never come out in the papers.
631
00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:46.280
I think people would be very, very shocked if they'd
632
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:48.519
known just how bad he was.
633
00:39:49.760 --> 00:39:54.039
The jury heard the testimonies of those involved in the case.
634
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.920
The focus of the trial was whether or not Anthony
635
00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:03.480
Russell hadn't raped Nicole prior to her death. The fact
636
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:06.440
that she was found in a state of undress, the
637
00:40:06.440 --> 00:40:10.639
position in which her body was found would suggest to
638
00:40:10.679 --> 00:40:14.679
me that she had been subject to a sexual assault.
639
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:20.320
Called to give evidence for the prosecution was Nicole's boyfriend Chris,
640
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:24.239
who'd searched for Nicole with the very man who'd killed her.
641
00:40:25.079 --> 00:40:27.199
It was the first time he had seen Anthony since
642
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:28.639
Anthony had been with him.
643
00:40:28.800 --> 00:40:31.079
He was unable to give any.
644
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:34.480
Evidence in a calm way because he reacted so badly
645
00:40:34.519 --> 00:40:37.559
to seeing Anthony in the courtroom, and that resulted in
646
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:39.960
a jury failing to reach a verdict.
647
00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:43.159
A new trial date was set for the following month,
648
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:46.840
and on the seventh of March twenty twenty two, at
649
00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:51.039
Way Crown Court, Russell returned to face the charge of
650
00:40:51.159 --> 00:40:52.679
raping Nicole McGregor.
651
00:40:53.599 --> 00:40:56.960
We ran exactly the same trial, and the second time round.
652
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:00.480
I think because Chris had actually seen Anthony, he had
653
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:03.519
faced him, he was able to stand and give evidence.
654
00:41:04.679 --> 00:41:06.760
Chris's evidence was quite compelling.
655
00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:11.320
When the jury came back, they found him guilty after
656
00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:14.719
only deliberating for eighty three minutes of the rape of
657
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:15.679
Nicole McGregor.
658
00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:21.800
At his arrest and during the trial, Russell had remained
659
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:27.519
relatively silent. When the time came for sentencing, he declined
660
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:28.679
to leave his cell.
661
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:34.320
Russell is so uncooperative he isn't even prepared to leave
662
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:38.239
his jail cell to go to court to hear his sentence.
663
00:41:39.639 --> 00:41:42.320
Got a whole life term which means he will never
664
00:41:42.400 --> 00:41:45.239
ever be released, and that is reserved for the most
665
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:48.960
serious offenders. I think there's less than one hundred people
666
00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:51.400
that have received that sort of sentence in the UK.
667
00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:56.480
It was the result everyone had hoped for, but there
668
00:41:56.519 --> 00:41:58.519
was little cause for jubilation.
669
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:02.400
The families are the ones that are doing the sentence,
670
00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:06.079
not Russell. He's got the easy bit to do, but
671
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:08.159
the people that have to live with what he's done
672
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:10.199
is unbearable.
673
00:42:13.639 --> 00:42:16.599
It's really difficult to feel any good feeling from it
674
00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:20.400
because it's just so horrific. But the only satisfaction you
675
00:42:20.480 --> 00:42:23.440
get is that he's in prison now, he won't come
676
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:25.360
out and he won't hurt anybody else.
677
00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:31.960
The bodies weren't released until after the court cases. David
678
00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:36.320
and Julie has a funeral together at the Hanley Crematorium
679
00:42:36.559 --> 00:42:41.000
and they also had a picture of Daniel and his
680
00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:44.639
ashes were there so that they could include the three
681
00:42:44.679 --> 00:42:48.159
of them. And we're all sat there, all looking at
682
00:42:48.159 --> 00:42:52.599
each other like everything's surreal. Because you might see on
683
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:55.039
the television, you might read about it in the newspaper,
684
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:57.079
but that doesn't happen to people like her, as just
685
00:42:57.239 --> 00:43:01.559
ordered me people. If only he Julie hadn't opened the
686
00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:05.440
door to Anthony Russell, if David had realized what an
687
00:43:05.960 --> 00:43:10.639
evil person's friend was, you know story would be completely different.
688
00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:17.119
Anthony Russell was a man who took what he wanted
689
00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:22.639
and gave nothing back in return, A man motivated only
690
00:43:22.719 --> 00:43:27.000
by serving his own needs, who terrified the elderly victims
691
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:31.320
he brutalized and stole from, who subjected three people who
692
00:43:31.440 --> 00:43:36.320
trusted him too sadistic and tortuous murders. To this day,
693
00:43:36.440 --> 00:43:41.119
he's refused to explain or apologize for his actions, making
694
00:43:41.199 --> 00:44:20.719
Anthony Russell one of the world's most evil killers.
1
00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:11.679
In twenty twenty, pregnant Nicole McGregor disappeared from Lemington Spa.
2
00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:15.919
Her frantic boyfriend Chris searched for her, helped by a
3
00:00:16.039 --> 00:00:20.760
new friend. He had no idea that his friend was
4
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.280
stone cold killer Anthony Russell.
5
00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:27.440
Chris saw a newspaper and realized that Anthony was the
6
00:00:27.480 --> 00:00:29.559
person that the police were looking for in connection with
7
00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:30.879
the team murders in Coventry.
8
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.159
The last person to see Nicole alive was wanted for
9
00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.240
the brutal murders of Julie Williams and her son David,
10
00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:45.560
and now Anthony Russell had killed a third victim.
11
00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:48.920
He was saying things to Nicole's boyfriend like, oh, he
12
00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.399
must be really looking forward to becoming a father.
13
00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:55.119
He knew that Nicole was dead.
14
00:00:56.960 --> 00:01:01.320
Anthony Russell went on the run, sparking a huge manhunt.
15
00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:06.200
This wasn't a that of madness was calculated, and that
16
00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:13.040
calculation had cost three people their lives.
17
00:01:13.079 --> 00:01:17.920
Had Russell murdered three innocent people and destroyed the lives
18
00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:19.200
of those left behind.
19
00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:21.680
Daniel didn't want to live with that his mom, or
20
00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:22.599
without his brother.
21
00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:26.760
His week long murderous rampage left a trail of death
22
00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:31.519
and destruction, making twisted Anthony Russell one of the world's
23
00:01:31.599 --> 00:01:57.480
most evil killers. The search for thirty nine year old
24
00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.079
Anthony Russell was one of the largest in West Midland's
25
00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:02.319
police history.
26
00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.319
We launched a huge manhunt. I think we had two
27
00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.400
hundred officers that were working on it. We've got a
28
00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:13.120
responsibility to protect the public. That's our number one responsibility.
29
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.360
And you've got someone who's already been prepared to kill,
30
00:02:15.639 --> 00:02:16.520
who's on the loose.
31
00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.919
The police put in the papers a photograph of him.
32
00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:23.319
Can it come on the radio every half hour? This
33
00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:27.159
man is dangerous, Do not approach him. So the police
34
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:30.199
already knew what he'd done and they were frightened for
35
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:30.719
the public.
36
00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:35.919
Over the course of a week, Anthony Russell killed three people.
37
00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:39.680
This was a murderer without mercy.
38
00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:46.120
This wasn't just enough violence to kill somebody. This is
39
00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:50.080
what we call over kill. So that's way more violence
40
00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:52.680
than is needed to kill that person.
41
00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:58.479
The carnage that Anthony Russell left behind will stay with
42
00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:00.800
his victims loved ones forever.
43
00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:04.319
You never expect something like that ever to happen to
44
00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.800
your family. Ever. He might watch on the television, read
45
00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:10.319
about it in a book, but to actually have it
46
00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.039
happen to you. Absolutely ripped our families apart.
47
00:03:16.560 --> 00:03:21.360
This killer's story begins in the West Midland city of Coventry.
48
00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.719
Anthony was born on the sixteenth of April nineteen eighty two.
49
00:03:26.159 --> 00:03:29.280
He'd got a number of siblings, had a difficult childhood
50
00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:32.639
and he grew up mainly in care. He used to
51
00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:35.560
regularly go missing when he was in care and he
52
00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:39.599
was often difficult to find, so he would be reported
53
00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:41.759
missing on a regular basis and it would take quite
54
00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.639
a long time to find him.
55
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.759
As he entered adulthood, bad behavior became criminal behavior.
56
00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:57.120
Anthony Russell had a track record of low level crime theft, burglary,
57
00:03:58.240 --> 00:03:59.400
possessing weapons.
58
00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:02.280
There was a bit of violence in there. I think
59
00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:05.000
he was convicted of a robbery, crimes that are often
60
00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:06.479
associated with people that have.
61
00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:08.960
Substance issues.
62
00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:13.800
It's pretty clear that Anthony Russell had a very big
63
00:04:13.919 --> 00:04:14.680
heroin addiction.
64
00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:21.360
In twenty twenty, Russell was thirty eight years old and
65
00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:24.759
living in a flat in Riley Square in the Belgreen
66
00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:26.120
area of Coventry.
67
00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:31.480
It was a nineteen sixties development. It's sort of precinct
68
00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.319
type design. It was built in a quadrant, so you
69
00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.279
have shops all around the bottom of the quadrant, and
70
00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:39.800
then I think there's about four or five stories above
71
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:44.319
that which contains flats, so a very sort of urban
72
00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.639
area with local shops. So it was quite a close
73
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.360
knit community.
74
00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:54.319
On that same estate, living in a one bedroom flat
75
00:04:54.600 --> 00:05:00.360
was fifty eight year old Julie Williams, widowed, young, raised
76
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.199
her sons alone.
77
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:07.399
Julie was my brother's partner, the love of my brother's life.
78
00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:11.920
My brother unfortunately passed away when he was thirty nine.
79
00:05:12.199 --> 00:05:16.040
Julie and her eldest son, David shared a close bond.
80
00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:22.040
David is my nephew. David didn't have along with my brother,
81
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.959
which is a great shame because his dad absolutely adored him.
82
00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:30.319
In and his brother Daniel, he absolutely adored his mom.
83
00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:35.360
They lived together and they went out together. He lived
84
00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.600
for his mom. He was very family orientated. He had
85
00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.920
lots of cousins that he got on with everywhere. Everybody
86
00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:45.759
absolutely loved him because he was such a happy chappie.
87
00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:51.120
On Wednesday, the twenty first of October twenty twenty, thirty
88
00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.040
two year old David did not come home as planned.
89
00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.800
Three days later, Julie still hadn't managed to get in
90
00:05:57.879 --> 00:05:59.519
touch with David.
91
00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.680
My daughter Fomi or and she said there's something on
92
00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:12.480
the internet. She says that Julie's looking for David. She
93
00:06:12.600 --> 00:06:16.600
put out on the local radio. Has anybody seen David?
94
00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.040
But we just thought always crashed out at one of
95
00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:23.279
his friend's houses, you know, and he'll be back in touch.
96
00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:27.519
She first came to the attention of police on Saturday,
97
00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:30.839
the twenty fourth of October twenty twenty, and that was
98
00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:34.040
a report made by Julie to say that her son
99
00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:35.519
David had gone missing.
100
00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:40.360
Police will always do a kind of a victimology when
101
00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:42.879
they get a missing person report, and that will be
102
00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:48.920
largely around vulnerabilities and how unusual it was for this
103
00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:50.000
person to go missing.
104
00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:55.480
His daily routine involved him being in the local area
105
00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.800
and associating with friends and spending time with his mother,
106
00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:02.759
so it was really unusual for him not to be
107
00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.079
in contact with her or to come back home.
108
00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:07.040
We have a.
109
00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.199
Dedicated team that deal with missing persons.
110
00:07:10.399 --> 00:07:14.040
Inquiries were started to be made around house to house
111
00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.959
inquiries looking at CCTV to see when they could see
112
00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:17.920
his last sighting.
113
00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:24.879
West Midlands Police identified David as a man struggling with addiction.
114
00:07:26.360 --> 00:07:28.560
He didn't want to do drugs, but all those around
115
00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:32.439
him were, and unfortunately David got into that way of living,
116
00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:37.560
which changed him as a person. And I think that's
117
00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:39.399
why his mum always kept an eye out for him
118
00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:40.079
all the time.
119
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.759
He'd been using drugs, it seems for some considerable time,
120
00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.800
and all his connections were in the world of people
121
00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:50.759
who had similar addictions.
122
00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:56.120
We knew he regularly visited the chemists for medication, so
123
00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:58.439
they started to look at to see when the last
124
00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:02.160
time it was that he picked his medication. To work
125
00:08:02.199 --> 00:08:04.399
around his phone, see when that was last active.
126
00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:10.399
The police obtained David's phone records. Amongst the people that
127
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.959
he called friends, there were some that worried his mother.
128
00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.759
She mentioned one person that she was concerned that he
129
00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:21.079
owed some money for drugs, and she'd also received a
130
00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:24.759
text from David that said he was potentially having to
131
00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:26.959
get out of the area because he owed money for drugs.
132
00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.959
I think she thought that was unusual because David could
133
00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:33.240
often know money for drugs, but that wouldn't cause him
134
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:33.799
to go missing.
135
00:08:36.279 --> 00:08:42.120
The circumstances surrounding David's disappearance were unclear. Police kept an
136
00:08:42.120 --> 00:08:45.440
open mind about what may have happened, but on the
137
00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:49.480
afternoon of Sunday, October the twenty fifth, just twenty four
138
00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:53.799
hours after Julie Williams reported David missing. There was an
139
00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:56.679
unbelievable twist in the investigation.
140
00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:02.240
Julie herself is reporting did missing by one of her sisters.
141
00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:06.159
Julie kept in touch with her sisters and her brothers
142
00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:09.919
every single day, so when she wasn't around, that's why
143
00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:12.720
her sister then reported it to the police because she
144
00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:14.320
knew that that was out of character.
145
00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:19.159
Once we've done all the background checks into the fact
146
00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:22.600
that David was missing, then it became a real concern.
147
00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:25.399
So at this point they went to Julie and David's
148
00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:28.320
address and they couldn't go a response there.
149
00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:33.559
The police said, at then o'clock that Sunday evening, break
150
00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:38.519
into Julie's flat and they find her dead.
151
00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:44.320
The scene that met them was one of carnage. In
152
00:09:44.399 --> 00:09:47.159
the center laid Julie's blooded body.
153
00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:53.360
Julie been subjected to this episode of prolonged beating, essentially
154
00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:55.879
punching and blunt force injury.
155
00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:02.080
Julie had an enormous number of injuries, something like one
156
00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:05.799
hundred and thirteen injuries to her body, so that suggests
157
00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:07.799
a rage fueled attack.
158
00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.399
The final act which caused her death was the application
159
00:10:13.480 --> 00:10:17.399
of a ligature. The ligature which was used in Julie's
160
00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:20.240
case was an electric flex from an electric fan.
161
00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:26.159
The case was allocated to the homicide team, with Detective
162
00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.879
Inspector Jim mun put in charge.
163
00:10:29.039 --> 00:10:32.559
I am that senior investigating officer, which means that I
164
00:10:32.600 --> 00:10:38.000
am the lead investigator for any serious crime. I went
165
00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:40.879
there in the middle of the night. It's dark, it's gloomy,
166
00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:44.480
so just even the inquiries around, just trying to establish
167
00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:46.919
who was going in and out at the time, was
168
00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:48.399
going to be really really challenging.
169
00:10:50.279 --> 00:10:53.879
Julie's family woke to the news of her murder.
170
00:10:57.799 --> 00:11:01.000
We heard about Julie and that was from the papers
171
00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:05.720
telling us that they'd found a woman's body. It was
172
00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:10.039
so final, It was so traumatic. It is so evil
173
00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.799
frightening that somebody could do that to another human being,
174
00:11:14.120 --> 00:11:17.120
and straight away then I think that's when we felt
175
00:11:17.399 --> 00:11:18.960
something bad's happened to David.
176
00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.399
We obviously then had immediate concerns about the welfare of
177
00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.840
David because he was still a missing person, but now
178
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:31.480
Julie had been killed, so it just really ramped up
179
00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:34.480
in terms of one trying to identify who the killer
180
00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.039
was and secondly try and find where David was.
181
00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:42.000
There were many questions and no answers to what may
182
00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:57.559
have happened. Investigators needed to find David Williams fast on
183
00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.879
the twenty sixth of October twenty two and see. The
184
00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:04.480
investigation into the murder of fifty eight year old Julie
185
00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:07.360
Williams in Coventry had just begun.
186
00:12:08.159 --> 00:12:12.879
At this point, we're in the evidence gathering stage. There
187
00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:15.720
was some blood and what looked like a fingerprinting blood
188
00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:20.159
on the radiator. There was only a bedroom and a
189
00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:23.279
living room in the flat. David would sleep on a
190
00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:26.960
bed in the living room and Julie would sleep in
191
00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:31.840
her bedroom and watch Telly there. Julie was dead on
192
00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:36.000
the floor in the room that David occupied her Telly
193
00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:40.039
was still on in the bedroom. The neighbors had heard
194
00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:44.120
someone approach Julie's flat the night before, but they couldn't
195
00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:48.279
really hear what was being said. The person that had
196
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:50.879
killed Julie had taken the keys and had locked the
197
00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:54.080
door behind them, so was probably known to Julie for
198
00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:55.559
her to have let him into the house.
199
00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:01.039
For the family, not only the horror of Julie's death,
200
00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:06.279
the worry of David's whereabouts, but also the rumors surrounding
201
00:13:06.320 --> 00:13:06.919
the murder.
202
00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.279
People were saying, Davis and that has gone disappearing, and
203
00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.960
David's gone and killed his mother. And I said, no,
204
00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.159
he wouldn't do that. He loves her too much. He
205
00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:19.720
definitely wouldn't do that. And he hasn't a bad bone
206
00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:21.279
in his body.
207
00:13:22.039 --> 00:13:26.200
We didn't have a suspect at all. The main focus
208
00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:29.159
then was on this fingerprinting blood. Now, that might have
209
00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:33.320
been Julie's fingerprint, but if it wasn't, then.
210
00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.200
It's most likely to be the killer.
211
00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:40.000
That became the sort of priority submission to take a
212
00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:41.840
photo and then see if we can match it to
213
00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.039
the fingerprint database to somebody on it.
214
00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:51.240
Whilst the forensic investigations were underway, the search for David intensified.
215
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:57.440
Accessing his phone records provided police with vital information.
216
00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:02.120
When we examined david phone, we saw that he was
217
00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.240
in regular contact, quite a lot of contact with an
218
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.399
individual that, when we checked him out on our police systems,
219
00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.879
was known to supply Class eight drugs. That phone activity
220
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.679
dropped off at the point where David had been reported missing,
221
00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.360
so there was an assumption there that that person knew
222
00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:21.600
that David was no longer going to be using his phone,
223
00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:26.639
and the Sunday night we had that individual identified, located
224
00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:29.320
and arrested and brought into custody, and he protested his
225
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:32.600
innocent straight away and provided an alibi.
226
00:14:33.559 --> 00:14:37.559
Part of David's routine included regular visits to the Riley
227
00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:41.360
Square pharmacy where he collected his methodone prescription.
228
00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:44.080
What we found out as our inquiries went through on
229
00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:47.080
the Monday was that David had been seen going in
230
00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.320
and out of the chemist with an individual called Anthony Russell.
231
00:14:51.360 --> 00:14:52.039
There were both.
232
00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:54.679
Drug users, they lived near each other. They used to
233
00:14:54.759 --> 00:14:57.480
beg in the area for money, so we were quite
234
00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:00.159
keen to trace Anthony. He was the last person than
235
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:01.799
Julie that had seen David alive.
236
00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:07.480
Five days after David Williams had been reported missing. Police
237
00:15:07.559 --> 00:15:12.240
had a name, thirty eight year old local men Anthony Russell.
238
00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:16.480
We realized that he was a close associate of David
239
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:20.840
and he lived in the area. He would hang around
240
00:15:20.919 --> 00:15:24.080
Riley Square, all around the local supermarkets that surrounded the
241
00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:27.799
area and would beg for money with other people in
242
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:30.799
that community and then once they've got enough money. They
243
00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:35.360
tended to head towards each other's flats and new drugs.
244
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.840
He was a well known figure in the area and
245
00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:42.279
one with a reputation for trouble.
246
00:15:43.360 --> 00:15:47.679
He was unhinged. He wasn't normal, you know, his behavy
247
00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:51.080
wasn't normal. But people were always frightened of him. So
248
00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:53.919
he got moved on, but nobody ever did anything about it.
249
00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:58.279
He used to go up to the hospital and annoy them.
250
00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.320
My daughter works at the hospital on and she said
251
00:16:01.360 --> 00:16:04.120
that the security'd had to move him on. Several times.
252
00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:11.000
We tried to locate him. We went to his flat,
253
00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.159
couldn't get any response from the flat. We forced entry
254
00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.919
into his flat to try and search for Anthony and David.
255
00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:25.799
Anthony Russell's sparsely furnished flat was spattered with blood. A
256
00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.320
brief search uncovered the sauce.
257
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.720
On that Monday evening, we found David's body hidden underneath
258
00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:38.320
Anthony's bed. What was evident was that he had been
259
00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.039
quite savagely beaten, so it had been quite a lot
260
00:16:41.080 --> 00:16:45.519
of brute force used on David.
261
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:50.240
Either those injuries were defensive and came as a result
262
00:16:50.320 --> 00:16:55.120
of a full out fight with his attacker, or again,
263
00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:59.600
they could have been about the rage that the attacker
264
00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:00.159
was feeling.
265
00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.240
My daughter firred me up and she was screaming down
266
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:11.119
the phone at me, she says. They found David. We
267
00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:16.960
was devastated. I couldn't eat or sleep, and every time
268
00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:19.319
I closed my eyes, I kept thinking about what David
269
00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:22.680
must have gone through. He must have been so scared,
270
00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:25.880
because he probably wouldn't have believed it. You know, if
271
00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.200
somebody went to attack him, he'd probably just laugh, thinking
272
00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:30.400
it's a joke. He wouldn't have realized until it was
273
00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:30.920
too late.
274
00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:38.160
David's death meant the police faced an entirely different investigation.
275
00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:43.000
It had gone from a missing person on Saturday, a
276
00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.920
murder and a missing person on Sunday. We've now got
277
00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:51.559
two murders. This now is where the investigation really really
278
00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:57.160
ramped up. David had suffered from eighty one external injuries,
279
00:17:58.480 --> 00:18:02.240
some including a knife, had been stabbed, It'd got some
280
00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:04.440
severe wounds and bangs to his head.
281
00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:10.519
Also, there was a lanyard around his neck which was
282
00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:14.960
causing neck compression, which would be very similar to Julie.
283
00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.480
The lanyard ordinarily held David's keys, but they were not
284
00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:25.559
with his body. Detectives believed his and his mother's deaths
285
00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:26.480
were linked.
286
00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.079
The fact that I could see similarities between Julie's body
287
00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:33.920
and David's body supported the notion that was likely to
288
00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.279
be just one person, and I could see that the
289
00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.359
changes in which were present in David's body would suggest
290
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:44.839
that he was in fact the first victim, with Julie
291
00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:45.319
following on.
292
00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:46.440
Afterwards.
293
00:18:50.200 --> 00:18:53.599
We've got two crime scenes that were working through, working
294
00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:56.039
through all the phone evidence, working through who were the
295
00:18:56.119 --> 00:18:59.920
last people to see everyone alive, and understanding their background.
296
00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:02.680
But the main priority is we've got someone who's killed
297
00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.400
two people on the loose and is a real danger
298
00:19:05.440 --> 00:19:06.000
to the public.
299
00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:11.960
The double murder investigation was code named Operation in Shore,
300
00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:16.160
and detectives had one person at the top of their list,
301
00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:17.519
Anthony Russell.
302
00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:23.720
Anthony Russell is a person of considerable interest in the
303
00:19:23.759 --> 00:19:25.319
killing of David and Julie Williams.
304
00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:29.799
When we spoke to his family, we found that he
305
00:19:30.200 --> 00:19:33.599
had left the area, but he never had a phone.
306
00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:35.720
He never had his own mobile phone, so we had
307
00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:38.559
no way of tracking his phone or understanding who he
308
00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:41.799
was in contact with, and it just disappeared from Coventry.
309
00:19:41.880 --> 00:19:43.839
So we'd got a big man hunt on the go,
310
00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:45.480
but we had no idea where he was.
311
00:19:45.519 --> 00:19:48.039
At this point where.
312
00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:52.599
They suspected double murderer at large, every precaution had to
313
00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:58.200
be taken. The alert on Russell was put out nationwide.
314
00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:00.759
They put it on the in and in the Common
315
00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:05.400
Achieving Telegraph. They were showing you photos of this Anthony
316
00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:07.839
Russell saying do you not approach him? He is very,
317
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:08.799
very dangerous.
318
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.759
We were getting sightings all over the country and we
319
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:15.599
couldn't ignore these sightings because we had no way to
320
00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:18.680
confirm whether that sighting was correct or not, so we
321
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:20.559
had to link in with all the different police forces
322
00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:21.839
to try and do those inquiries.
323
00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:25.839
He didn't have a vehicle of his own, so they
324
00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.519
weren't using the usual AMPR tracking that kind of thing,
325
00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:35.000
but they would have been looking at all public transport.
326
00:20:36.039 --> 00:20:38.599
What we did find as we moved through the tracking
327
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:41.279
on the CCTV, so we'd got some points where people
328
00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:45.400
who knew him had last seen him. He'd certainly been
329
00:20:45.400 --> 00:20:47.920
to a supermarket, which allowed us then to track him
330
00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:51.000
the supermarket, which captured him getting on a bus. Now
331
00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:54.039
this bus then we were able to track him going
332
00:20:54.039 --> 00:20:56.559
into Commentary City Center, but then We lost him within
333
00:20:56.680 --> 00:20:59.240
the sort of bus station area, which wasn't covered by
334
00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:03.440
CC so we assumed he'd gone into the city center
335
00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:05.759
to then travel on with We had no idea where
336
00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:06.319
he would have come.
337
00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:13.400
Anthony Russell had been running away since childhood. By twenty twenty,
338
00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:17.000
he was a man skilled in staying under the radar.
339
00:21:17.839 --> 00:21:22.279
Anthony Russell took it upon himself to adopt various disguises.
340
00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:25.960
He was a man who hadn't lost his senses. He
341
00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:29.279
was extremely aware that he was a focus of interest.
342
00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:31.599
By the police or the CCTV.
343
00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.559
When you put together each still of what he looked like,
344
00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:37.559
he was changing his appearance all the time.
345
00:21:37.640 --> 00:21:38.960
He was stealing glasses.
346
00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.240
He'd wear different hats, he'd wear hoods, His clothing was
347
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:43.519
changed quite regularly.
348
00:21:45.119 --> 00:21:50.200
Russell was as organized as he was brutal. On Monday,
349
00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:54.119
twenty sixth of October, just hours since Julie's body was
350
00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:58.319
discovered and David still lay dead in his flat, Anthony
351
00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:01.119
Russell was already thinking ahead.
352
00:22:02.680 --> 00:22:05.079
He needed cash and he needed a phone.
353
00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.680
He attacks a seventy eight year old man stealing his
354
00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:16.240
mobile phone. He goes to Kenilworth, where, believe it or not,
355
00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:20.400
Russell attacks a seventy one year old woman and steals
356
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:25.599
two hundred pounds. He drags the poor lady along the ground,
357
00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:26.319
injuring her.
358
00:22:27.720 --> 00:22:28.359
Once again.
359
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:32.160
The actual man who has absolutely no concern for anyone
360
00:22:32.200 --> 00:22:32.839
but himself.
361
00:22:33.920 --> 00:22:39.079
Anybody coming into this man's path at this time is
362
00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:39.720
in danger.
363
00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:46.039
On the run from the police. Wanted for two murders,
364
00:22:46.359 --> 00:22:50.039
Anthony Russell was a desperate man with nothing to lose,
365
00:22:50.759 --> 00:23:03.319
and his murderous rampage was far from over. By the
366
00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:08.759
twenty seventh of October twenty twenty, Coventry double murder suspect
367
00:23:08.880 --> 00:23:12.400
Anthony Russell had been on the run for two days.
368
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.160
Twelve miles away in the town of Lemington Spa, Waisha,
369
00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:20.039
Police received a missing person alert.
370
00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:24.000
A man reported that his girlfriend had gone missing. They
371
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.480
were begging in Lemington Spa. They had a different spot
372
00:23:27.799 --> 00:23:30.759
in the town where they would beg and when he
373
00:23:30.799 --> 00:23:32.880
went to see where she was when they finished begging,
374
00:23:32.960 --> 00:23:37.160
she'd just gone. He made that report on the Tuesday,
375
00:23:37.359 --> 00:23:41.000
so Warwickshire Police started a missing person inquiry into a
376
00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:42.200
girl called Nicole.
377
00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.400
Nicle McGregor. At this point is five months pregnant and
378
00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:50.039
extremely proudly.
379
00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:53.759
She got a boyfriend called Chris. They lived in a
380
00:23:53.799 --> 00:23:57.960
flat in Lemington. They were both drug users, but they
381
00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.160
were trying to get off drugs.
382
00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:04.079
Nicole had not been seen since the previous day, when
383
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:06.680
she had spent the morning with her partner and a
384
00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:11.880
new friend. By Tuesday afternoon, Chris was frantic with worry.
385
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:15.400
Chris wasn't the sort of person really to interact with
386
00:24:15.480 --> 00:24:18.440
the police. I don't think he was particularly fond of
387
00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:21.319
the police, but he got so worried by that evening
388
00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:23.960
that he actually approached the uniform police officer and said,
389
00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:28.880
I'm really concerned that my girlfriend's missing. When the police
390
00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:32.279
started to get the information from Chris, he started to
391
00:24:32.319 --> 00:24:35.960
disclose that the day before they'd befriended a person called Anthony.
392
00:24:36.279 --> 00:24:37.440
He was from Coventry.
393
00:24:38.200 --> 00:24:40.960
It was at that point when the realization came in
394
00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.640
that this might be Anthony Brussell.
395
00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:47.680
That same evening, the investigation into the double murder of
396
00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:52.039
Julie and David got a result. The blooded fingerprint from
397
00:24:52.160 --> 00:24:56.400
Julie's flat found a match on the national database. It
398
00:24:56.519 --> 00:24:58.400
belonged to Anthony Russell.
399
00:24:59.279 --> 00:25:02.640
The fingerprint was the confirmation that Anthony was the suspect
400
00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:03.759
that we were looking for.
401
00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:08.440
The chilling revelation that Nicole McGregor had been in the
402
00:25:08.440 --> 00:25:12.119
company of a man suspected of murdering two people in
403
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:17.599
cold blood was one police took very seriously. They knew
404
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:19.759
that time was of the essence.
405
00:25:20.839 --> 00:25:24.799
We scoured Lemington for CCTV and seized all the CCTV
406
00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:28.920
of the town center were able then, with the information
407
00:25:29.079 --> 00:25:32.880
from Chris to piece together where Nicole was.
408
00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:39.000
Then the story dark although it already is, begets even
409
00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:43.640
darker because for some reason known only really to Anthony Russell,
410
00:25:44.839 --> 00:25:46.480
he targets Nicole McGregor.
411
00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:50.880
What we saw was that Anthony Russell had approached her,
412
00:25:51.160 --> 00:25:52.920
he'd been begging over the other side of the road,
413
00:25:53.200 --> 00:25:54.640
and they had walked away together.
414
00:25:56.440 --> 00:26:01.559
Anthony Russell invites Nicole McGregor to join him in a
415
00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:06.880
place called Newbold Common, a wooded area in Leamington spa
416
00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:14.640
quite quiet, quite secluded. Suggested that she'd taken up the
417
00:26:14.680 --> 00:26:19.160
invitation because she thought that he could supply more drugs.
418
00:26:20.519 --> 00:26:25.519
CCTV showed Nicole and Anthony Russell entering the woods together.
419
00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:29.480
Forty minutes later, Russell emerged alone.
420
00:26:30.279 --> 00:26:33.839
That gave us then the last sighting of Nicol McGregor,
421
00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:36.720
and we were able to go through the woodland in
422
00:26:36.799 --> 00:26:39.119
the area where he could have got to on foot.
423
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:40.839
In that forty minute period.
424
00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:46.039
The CCTV cameras captured Russell walking the short journey back
425
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:47.359
to the town center.
426
00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:51.720
He goes to seek out Nicole's boyfriend, the father of
427
00:26:51.759 --> 00:26:52.799
her unborn child.
428
00:26:53.799 --> 00:26:56.200
What we were able to do then was track Anthony Russell,
429
00:26:56.519 --> 00:26:59.359
and what we found was that he spent the Tuesday
430
00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:06.319
with Chris Nichole's boyfriend going around Leamington looking for her.
431
00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.400
He was like sympathetic to him and he was inserting
432
00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.440
himself into an investigation as a good guy. He was
433
00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:18.279
saying things to Nicole's boyfriend like, you know, oh, you
434
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:21.799
must be really looking forward to becoming a father.
435
00:27:22.839 --> 00:27:26.480
On the twenty ninth of October, three days after Nicole
436
00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:29.920
was last seen, police searched Newbold Common.
437
00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.440
We knew Anthony had already killed two people. We've got
438
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:38.000
a girl going missing with Anthony, so you know, our
439
00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:45.160
biggest fear was that she was dead. On the Thursday,
440
00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.200
there was a specialist police teams that are trained to
441
00:27:48.279 --> 00:27:53.039
search wooded difficult areas do a methodical search to make
442
00:27:53.079 --> 00:27:55.839
sure that they search every area and they take it
443
00:27:56.000 --> 00:27:56.880
piece by piece.
444
00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:01.559
Storm Barbera was hitting the UK. The river was riding.
445
00:28:01.319 --> 00:28:06.640
Quite high, so the terrain was really really difficult. Her
446
00:28:06.680 --> 00:28:11.079
body was found in some bushes and she had been
447
00:28:11.279 --> 00:28:13.400
strangled with her own leggings.
448
00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:17.960
I received another phone call from the police to inform
449
00:28:18.119 --> 00:28:22.880
me that they had found another victim, and this victim
450
00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:27.720
was Nicole McGregor. Nicole's body was found with her face
451
00:28:27.799 --> 00:28:30.640
down and what I could see was that there was
452
00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:35.160
vegetation within Nicole's mouth, which is likely to have been
453
00:28:35.319 --> 00:28:38.319
when she was face down on the floor but alive.
454
00:28:40.680 --> 00:28:43.480
The sheer terror that she must have felt when she
455
00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:46.079
was being attacked by this man she thought she trusted.
456
00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:51.680
The position in which she was found was very suggestive
457
00:28:51.759 --> 00:28:54.119
that she was likely to have been the subject of
458
00:28:54.160 --> 00:28:55.519
a sexual assault as well.
459
00:28:56.400 --> 00:29:00.119
Both Nicole and the baby she'd look forward to bringing
460
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:01.960
into the world were dead.
461
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.480
It can be a very sobering experience when you perform
462
00:29:06.519 --> 00:29:10.799
a post mortem examination or an expectant mother, when you
463
00:29:11.240 --> 00:29:15.240
find the unborn child lying peacefully inside.
464
00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:16.000
The mum's womb.
465
00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.880
This woman who was excited about the prospect of being
466
00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:25.799
a mum has had that taken away from her.
467
00:29:26.920 --> 00:29:31.559
The death of Nicole McGregor meant police suspected Anthony Russell
468
00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:35.799
of killing three innocent people in a period of less
469
00:29:35.799 --> 00:29:39.640
than a week. Their biggest concern was what he would
470
00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:40.319
do next.
471
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:48.440
Russell is becoming more and more dangerous, so he's committed murders.
472
00:29:49.200 --> 00:29:54.079
He then is attacking people, taking their money, taking their phones.
473
00:29:54.359 --> 00:29:57.440
But again there's a kind of a logical reason for
474
00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:00.960
doing that, even if the methods are brutal an awful.
475
00:30:01.160 --> 00:30:04.640
But now he's escalated to kill in for the sake
476
00:30:04.680 --> 00:30:07.720
of it, because it pleases him. So at the end
477
00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:10.720
of this seven days he's about as dangerous as he
478
00:30:10.759 --> 00:30:11.640
can possibly get.
479
00:30:14.319 --> 00:30:18.240
Once again, Russell went on the run. A wanted man.
480
00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:21.720
He was prepared to do whatever it took to make
481
00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:23.039
his escape.
482
00:30:24.039 --> 00:30:26.519
He left Lemington. He'd walked away on foot.
483
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:29.160
We saw that on CCTV and lost the tracking of
484
00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:32.839
him as he disappeared. We then found that there'd been
485
00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:35.240
a robbery just outside Lemington.
486
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:36.319
Old man called Roy.
487
00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:39.720
He'd had a brick smashed over the top of his head.
488
00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:44.039
The attacker was a man with a plan, a man
489
00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:45.279
without mercy.
490
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:49.599
He steals the car, he leaves the seventy eight year
491
00:30:49.640 --> 00:30:52.440
old with a fractured skull in his own front door,
492
00:30:53.319 --> 00:30:54.599
takes the car and leaves.
493
00:30:56.920 --> 00:30:59.960
He only survived because there were some people that were
494
00:31:00.079 --> 00:31:03.599
doing gardening that turned up to help with his garden
495
00:31:03.799 --> 00:31:06.039
that actually found him there or were able to get
496
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:08.799
paramedics there and do first aid to keep him alive.
497
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:15.240
Police suspected the attacker was Anthony Russell, a fugitive hell
498
00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:18.400
bent at getting away no matter what the cost.
499
00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:23.039
Russell is what I would call on a spree one
500
00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:28.279
emotional event. He's not coming down. He's gone up into
501
00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:30.880
that rage when he's killed the first person, and he
502
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:35.799
kind of stayed there. Spree killers don't stop until they stopped.
503
00:31:37.839 --> 00:31:43.079
Preventing Russell from killing again was the police's number one priority.
504
00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:48.160
So we're working closely with Warwickshire Police to locate Anthony
505
00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:51.079
Russell as soon as possible, but i'd appeal to the
506
00:31:51.240 --> 00:31:54.519
public they've got any information as to where he might be,
507
00:31:54.599 --> 00:31:57.160
if they see him at all, make sure that they
508
00:31:57.200 --> 00:31:57.559
call us.
509
00:31:57.559 --> 00:32:03.000
On nine nine nine, they put out alerts on the
510
00:32:03.039 --> 00:32:05.440
red Ford c Max he'd stolen.
511
00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:09.680
It was picked up on some AMPR cameras and it
512
00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:13.440
headed towards the Staffordshire Police area. But it had pretty
513
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:17.400
much disappeared into the countryside and it hadn't been hitting
514
00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:19.400
any AMPR cameras from that point.
515
00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.839
In October twenty twenty, there was a large police presence
516
00:32:24.920 --> 00:32:29.000
in rural Staffordshire due to a recent spike in theft there.
517
00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:33.880
In the early hours of the thirtieth of October, one
518
00:32:33.920 --> 00:32:37.359
of the patrol cars made an unexpected find.
519
00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:41.000
They came across the vehicle and when they did the
520
00:32:41.079 --> 00:32:42.839
check on the vehicle they realized that it had been
521
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:45.640
stolen in a violent robbery. It might have been linked
522
00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:46.720
to our murder suspect.
523
00:32:47.200 --> 00:32:48.000
There's the car.
524
00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:50.319
Stec sac sack.
525
00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:52.200
They approached the.
526
00:32:52.160 --> 00:33:00.200
Car found Antony.
527
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:03.640
That's where he was arrested.
528
00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:08.680
Anthony Russell, you're under arrest for the murder of three people.
529
00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:11.559
You don't have to say, but my army defense.
530
00:33:11.599 --> 00:33:13.079
You do not mind to a question something with you
531
00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:15.359
later around courteth you do say may be given Everett.
532
00:33:17.039 --> 00:33:21.279
At four seventeen am on Friday thirtieth of October, the
533
00:33:21.279 --> 00:33:24.920
man suspected of killing three people was taken to penny
534
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:28.720
Bar Police station in Birmingham.
535
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:30.119
He refused to be interviewed.
536
00:33:30.160 --> 00:33:32.799
He wouldn't leave his cell, so he was eventually asked
537
00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:35.039
the questions at his cell and he just put a
538
00:33:35.079 --> 00:33:36.839
blanket over his head and ignored.
539
00:33:36.559 --> 00:33:39.240
All the all the questions, refused to make any comment.
540
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:44.839
Having caught their fugitive, the police would now need to
541
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.319
use all their skills to link Russell to all three
542
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:54.720
murders and make sure a suspected triple killer didn't escape justice.
543
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:06.440
On Monday, the tewond of November twenty twenty, Anthony Russell
544
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:11.199
appeared via video link from Birmingham Magistrate's Court, charged with
545
00:34:11.280 --> 00:34:15.840
the murders of David Williams, Julie Williams and Nicole McGregor.
546
00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:20.519
Nicholl's unborn baby was too young to be classed as
547
00:34:20.519 --> 00:34:22.440
a victim.
548
00:34:22.599 --> 00:34:26.159
He killed Julie, he killed David, he killed Nichola, but
549
00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:28.840
they didn't say he killed the baby because she wasn't born.
550
00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:36.840
I don't understand how that baby was not even classified
551
00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:40.639
as a body.
552
00:34:40.719 --> 00:34:43.880
The violent robberies Russell had carried out whilst on the
553
00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.719
run were added to the list of offenses.
554
00:34:48.039 --> 00:34:51.800
The team that works on it were brilliant. The real
555
00:34:51.880 --> 00:34:54.519
fear there is that you can find him within a week,
556
00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:57.400
but if you've not got the evidence hand, he could
557
00:34:57.400 --> 00:34:59.440
be back out the door again. So it was really
558
00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:01.920
really that the team worked as hard as they did
559
00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:03.400
to make sure that they got that evidence.
560
00:35:04.559 --> 00:35:09.599
Whilst Russell awaited trial, another charge was brought against him.
561
00:35:10.159 --> 00:35:13.480
We also charged him with rape of Nicole because we
562
00:35:13.559 --> 00:35:18.280
found evidence that he'd had sexual intercourse with her. We
563
00:35:18.599 --> 00:35:21.440
knew that Nicole wouldn't have willingly gone with him to
564
00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:24.280
have sex, so we charged him with the rape.
565
00:35:26.079 --> 00:35:30.760
In the leader to trial, the Williams family suffered further heartbreak.
566
00:35:31.599 --> 00:35:35.559
For Julie's son, David's brother Daniel. The loss was too
567
00:35:35.599 --> 00:35:36.360
great to bear.
568
00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:40.480
Daniel didn't want to leave without his mum or without
569
00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:44.079
his brother, which is why he decided to hang himself,
570
00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:48.400
which is heartbreaking the thing that he is in that
571
00:35:48.519 --> 00:35:51.320
much pain that he thought that was the best outcome.
572
00:35:56.039 --> 00:35:59.159
As far as I'm concerned, Anthony Russell should be charged
573
00:35:59.159 --> 00:36:01.000
with Daniel's mud. As well.
574
00:36:03.679 --> 00:36:07.880
As the team prepared for the court case, investigators put
575
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:12.079
together an account of that fateful week in October.
576
00:36:13.239 --> 00:36:17.239
We did piece together some things from Anthony's associates and
577
00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:22.719
David's associates, and we realized that Anthony thought that David
578
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:24.000
had slept with his girlfriend.
579
00:36:24.039 --> 00:36:26.400
So we think that was the motive for killing David.
580
00:36:27.119 --> 00:36:30.119
It was all lies, but all this was going on
581
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:33.679
Facebook saying Anthony Russell's looking for David because he's been
582
00:36:33.719 --> 00:36:34.760
seeing his girlfriend.
583
00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:41.519
Police believe that Julie's murder was directly related to her sons.
584
00:36:42.679 --> 00:36:45.400
Anthony's never really given us a full account as to
585
00:36:45.639 --> 00:36:50.760
exactly what happened, so we've never understood the real motives.
586
00:36:50.840 --> 00:36:55.320
But we think Julie reporting David missing was the potential
587
00:36:55.360 --> 00:36:56.679
motive for killing Julie.
588
00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:03.440
Russell calculated that he couldn't keep up the charade of
589
00:37:03.559 --> 00:37:08.679
David having disappeared and decided in a cold bloody, premeditated
590
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:11.639
manner to kill David's mother, Julie.
591
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:17.360
The police said that Auntie Russell probably knocked on Julie's
592
00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:20.480
door because she wasn't shutting up and she weren't going away.
593
00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.199
My heart breaks thinking she's just been told that a
594
00:37:25.280 --> 00:37:28.000
son's dead and now you're next.
595
00:37:28.559 --> 00:37:32.800
In the case of Nicol McGregor, the evidence suggested Russell
596
00:37:32.920 --> 00:37:36.280
had raped her then killed her to cover his tracks.
597
00:37:37.079 --> 00:37:40.480
The team put together a case which the Crown Prosecution
598
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.159
Service felt confident of winning.
599
00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:46.920
It was really really challenging because we used to dealing
600
00:37:46.920 --> 00:37:49.440
with one murder, one crime scene.
601
00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:54.719
Then suddenly we were finding murder, murder, murder scene, seeing scene.
602
00:37:56.800 --> 00:38:02.559
The investigation gathered almost nine thousand hours of CCTV footage
603
00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:06.119
and put together a timeline which shon light on the
604
00:38:06.159 --> 00:38:10.679
message Julie had received from David about leaving town due
605
00:38:10.719 --> 00:38:11.599
to drug debts.
606
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:15.599
We believe that that text message had actually been sent
607
00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:19.400
by Anthony after David had been killed, to Julie to
608
00:38:19.440 --> 00:38:21.880
try and put her off the cent of it being
609
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:26.280
Anthony that had killed him.
610
00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:30.760
It was fourteen months after the murders before Anthony Russell
611
00:38:31.199 --> 00:38:34.880
was tried for his crimes. On the fourteenth of February
612
00:38:34.920 --> 00:38:39.119
twenty twenty two, his trial began at Warick Crown Court.
613
00:38:41.199 --> 00:38:43.480
Everyone was there and it was before the jury was
614
00:38:43.480 --> 00:38:46.679
sworn in, so we were expecting quite a lengthy trial.
615
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:50.800
But then he pleaded guilty on the first day. They
616
00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:52.960
pleaded guilty to everything apart from the ray.
617
00:38:54.400 --> 00:38:58.880
That's not unusual actually, because murdering somebody has some kind
618
00:38:58.880 --> 00:39:01.199
of machismo to it. You can hold your head up
619
00:39:01.239 --> 00:39:03.840
in the prison when you get your sentence, You're much
620
00:39:03.880 --> 00:39:06.960
more likely to get sympathy because you can say I
621
00:39:07.039 --> 00:39:08.960
thought this and I thought that and I was being
622
00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:13.159
treated badly. You can't say anything like that about a rape.
623
00:39:14.199 --> 00:39:16.199
So that left us with a decision then whether we
624
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:19.239
were going to proceed just with the rape or not,
625
00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:24.000
and we decided we would try and for the rape.
626
00:39:26.039 --> 00:39:29.360
Julie's sister went to the court every single day. I
627
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:32.039
couldn't go because I kept thinking, if I go and
628
00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:34.760
I see something, I won't be able to unsee it.
629
00:39:36.239 --> 00:39:39.280
The thing she's seen in the photos she's seen and
630
00:39:39.320 --> 00:39:42.400
what she heard that never come out in the papers.
631
00:39:42.760 --> 00:39:46.280
I think people would be very, very shocked if they'd
632
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:48.519
known just how bad he was.
633
00:39:49.760 --> 00:39:54.039
The jury heard the testimonies of those involved in the case.
634
00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:57.920
The focus of the trial was whether or not Anthony
635
00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:03.480
Russell hadn't raped Nicole prior to her death. The fact
636
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:06.440
that she was found in a state of undress, the
637
00:40:06.440 --> 00:40:10.639
position in which her body was found would suggest to
638
00:40:10.679 --> 00:40:14.679
me that she had been subject to a sexual assault.
639
00:40:15.239 --> 00:40:20.320
Called to give evidence for the prosecution was Nicole's boyfriend Chris,
640
00:40:20.599 --> 00:40:24.239
who'd searched for Nicole with the very man who'd killed her.
641
00:40:25.079 --> 00:40:27.199
It was the first time he had seen Anthony since
642
00:40:27.440 --> 00:40:28.639
Anthony had been with him.
643
00:40:28.800 --> 00:40:31.079
He was unable to give any.
644
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:34.480
Evidence in a calm way because he reacted so badly
645
00:40:34.519 --> 00:40:37.559
to seeing Anthony in the courtroom, and that resulted in
646
00:40:37.800 --> 00:40:39.960
a jury failing to reach a verdict.
647
00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:43.159
A new trial date was set for the following month,
648
00:40:43.519 --> 00:40:46.840
and on the seventh of March twenty twenty two, at
649
00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:51.039
Way Crown Court, Russell returned to face the charge of
650
00:40:51.159 --> 00:40:52.679
raping Nicole McGregor.
651
00:40:53.599 --> 00:40:56.960
We ran exactly the same trial, and the second time round.
652
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:00.480
I think because Chris had actually seen Anthony, he had
653
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:03.519
faced him, he was able to stand and give evidence.
654
00:41:04.679 --> 00:41:06.760
Chris's evidence was quite compelling.
655
00:41:08.079 --> 00:41:11.320
When the jury came back, they found him guilty after
656
00:41:11.440 --> 00:41:14.719
only deliberating for eighty three minutes of the rape of
657
00:41:14.800 --> 00:41:15.679
Nicole McGregor.
658
00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:21.800
At his arrest and during the trial, Russell had remained
659
00:41:22.079 --> 00:41:27.519
relatively silent. When the time came for sentencing, he declined
660
00:41:27.800 --> 00:41:28.679
to leave his cell.
661
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:34.320
Russell is so uncooperative he isn't even prepared to leave
662
00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:38.239
his jail cell to go to court to hear his sentence.
663
00:41:39.639 --> 00:41:42.320
Got a whole life term which means he will never
664
00:41:42.400 --> 00:41:45.239
ever be released, and that is reserved for the most
665
00:41:45.280 --> 00:41:48.960
serious offenders. I think there's less than one hundred people
666
00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:51.400
that have received that sort of sentence in the UK.
667
00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:56.480
It was the result everyone had hoped for, but there
668
00:41:56.519 --> 00:41:58.519
was little cause for jubilation.
669
00:42:00.079 --> 00:42:02.400
The families are the ones that are doing the sentence,
670
00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:06.079
not Russell. He's got the easy bit to do, but
671
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:08.159
the people that have to live with what he's done
672
00:42:08.880 --> 00:42:10.199
is unbearable.
673
00:42:13.639 --> 00:42:16.599
It's really difficult to feel any good feeling from it
674
00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:20.400
because it's just so horrific. But the only satisfaction you
675
00:42:20.480 --> 00:42:23.440
get is that he's in prison now, he won't come
676
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:25.360
out and he won't hurt anybody else.
677
00:42:27.039 --> 00:42:31.960
The bodies weren't released until after the court cases. David
678
00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:36.320
and Julie has a funeral together at the Hanley Crematorium
679
00:42:36.559 --> 00:42:41.000
and they also had a picture of Daniel and his
680
00:42:41.079 --> 00:42:44.639
ashes were there so that they could include the three
681
00:42:44.679 --> 00:42:48.159
of them. And we're all sat there, all looking at
682
00:42:48.159 --> 00:42:52.599
each other like everything's surreal. Because you might see on
683
00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:55.039
the television, you might read about it in the newspaper,
684
00:42:55.039 --> 00:42:57.079
but that doesn't happen to people like her, as just
685
00:42:57.239 --> 00:43:01.559
ordered me people. If only he Julie hadn't opened the
686
00:43:01.559 --> 00:43:05.440
door to Anthony Russell, if David had realized what an
687
00:43:05.960 --> 00:43:10.639
evil person's friend was, you know story would be completely different.
688
00:43:13.880 --> 00:43:17.119
Anthony Russell was a man who took what he wanted
689
00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:22.639
and gave nothing back in return, A man motivated only
690
00:43:22.719 --> 00:43:27.000
by serving his own needs, who terrified the elderly victims
691
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:31.320
he brutalized and stole from, who subjected three people who
692
00:43:31.440 --> 00:43:36.320
trusted him too sadistic and tortuous murders. To this day,
693
00:43:36.440 --> 00:43:41.119
he's refused to explain or apologize for his actions, making
694
00:43:41.199 --> 00:44:20.719
Anthony Russell one of the world's most evil killers.
