The unsolved murder of Ann Heron-Part 2 (with Scottish Murders Podcast)

This week's episode is a little different. John guests on the excellent podcast Scottish Murders to examine the 1990 unresolved murder of Ann Heron.

This is part two. You can listen to part one by visiting the Scottish Murders podcast at Home - Scottish Murders or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

In part two we continue the story of Ann Heron’s murder with an arrest made in November 2005. This person was later released due to insufficient evidence. Despite various leads and multiple suspects, including Christopher Halliwell, sadly the case remains open. Durham Police and Ann’s family continue to seek information, hoping to solve a mystery that has persisted for decades. The case’s complexity is underscored by conflicting theories, a lack of definitive forensic evidence, and the emotional toll on the families involved. The search for justice continues, with the hope that new advances in forensic science will finally provide the answers needed to close the chapter on Ann Heron’s murder.

Sources for the episode can be found here

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Transcript

Speaker A: This is part two of the Anne Herron murder. You can listen to part one on the podcast scottish murders. In this episode, we hear from dawn from scottish murders, Anne Herron's son Ralph and former journalist Chris Webber, who did an in depth interview with Peter Heron and with Anne's daughter Anne Marie in 2015, the 25th anniversary of Anne Herron's murder. At 08:00 a.m. That morning, six police officers came to a house in Wilshaw, near Huddersfield, where Peter Herron was now living, and arrested the then 70 year old for Anne's murder. Peter was taken to Spennymoor police station in County Durham. At the station, Peter refused a solicitor and said he had nothing to hide and answered all the questions put to him by detectives, though eventually one of Peter's daughters did organize a solicitor for her father. Police argued the motive for Ann's murder was the affair Peter was having with the barmaid Amelia. They believed Peter was not being truthful about his whereabouts on the afternoon Ann was killed and that he had more than enough time to have committed the murder. Investigators believe Peter was behind the wheel of the speedy mercedes, seen driving erratically at around 350 to 03:55 p.m. They had faith in the witnesses who said they had seen Peter in his car. One witness said they got a close enough look to see the driver's false teeth swishing around their mouth. Peter repudiated all of this and pointed out that he didn't even have false teeth. He stuck by his 1990 statement that he had been in a meeting with Cleveland Bridge employees at this time. Peter said he was in a meeting from 350 to 04:20 p.m. If you remember, the time he said he arrived at Cleveland Bridge is either 315 pm as stated in the northern Echo in 2015, or 03:45 p.m. As stated in the Channel five documentary, the police maintained that Peter had the time and opportunity to have committed the murder. They then played their trump card. They now confirmed that DNA evidence had been obtained from Ann's body in 1990. The family had been told of this at the time, but it was not made public. The DNA was from a minuscule amount of ***** found in Ann's throat. Through technological advancements, the ***** was now shown to belong to Peter Heron. Peter and his legal team were dubious as to why, after 15 years, this piece of evidence was suddenly produced that even if it was his, Peter argued, of course his DNA would be all over the scene as Ann was his wife. Many people, including journalist Kevin Donald, has since expressed surprise that Peter was charged with Ann's murder based on this DNA sample. Still, that is what happened. And Peter was charged with Ann's murder in a magistrates court on November 11, 2005. He was placed in custody and spent a week in home prison before being granted bail. The Heron family staunchly stood behind Peter. They thought the premise that Peter had killed his then wife was ridiculous, as he had no reason to do it. Peter went to stay with his daughter Debbie, and together with his legal team, they began preparing for the upcoming trial. Then, just as suddenly, it was all over. One day in February 2006, Peter opened the front door to find a group of reporters on his doorstep. They were there to get his reaction to the news that the case against him was being dropped. The Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to continue with the prosecution.

Speaker B: I kept in close touch with the police. Obviously there was a family liaison officer and the police, they clearly knew that I worked in the CID, I worked in other investigations. So there was a bit there that I didn't want to overstep the line because I knew I could compromise anything that they did. They didn't clearly want to overstep that line as well. So I was kept informed, but probably no more than anybody else would have been. However, when they told me that Peter had been arrested initially, huge relief that finally something's happened. I then and I drove down to Darlington, so I was living in Los laughs at the time, so I drove down to Darlington. I think Ann Marie came with us as well. And we went to see the police at Durham. And I remember speaking to the police at Durham. I can't remember it wasn't Keith Redmond at that time. I can't remember who it was, but whoever the SIO was told us. I said, so what have you got? What evidence have you got? And they told me what evidence they had. And I remember thinking to myself, well, I ain't going to convict them, surely they're holding something back from me and they're not telling me something which would be perfectly normal, and except it was something that I wouldn't particularly challenge at that point. But it appeared that when he did appear at court and appeared to me that they didn't have any more than they said they said they had. So had he gone to trial and what they had, I doubt very much. In fact, I'm sure that he wouldn't have been. You can't be sure. I'm almost sure that he wouldn't have been convicted on the evidence that they.

Speaker A: Had at that point, commenting on the decision to drop the case. Ann's son Ralph, who was a police officer, said from a professional viewpoint it was the correct decision as there wasn't enough evidence presented to warrant a trial. Anne's daughter Ann Marie has since said she was not surprised the prosecution collapsed. While many defendants would welcome this news, at the time, Peter said he was disappointed. He wanted his day in court to prove his innocence and put a stop to the rumors and whispers that had followed him over the last 15 years. Peter's legal team believed that many would continue to think Peter had committed the murder and the case against him may have only been dropped on a legality. They feared the cloud of suspicion would remain. Over the last two decades, the Heron family have campaigned for Peter's innocence to be recognized. Peter's daughter Debbie spearheaded a drive to change people's perception of her father. Through her work, Debbie uncovered information which eventually led to an official complaint being made. When preparing for trial, Debbie was given the police files on the case which contained the evidence they had against her father. She was shocked by how little they had. Speaking in the 2022 Channel five documentary, Debbie said Peters arrest was in part due to a document written by a forensic analyst just six days prior. It was written by the same person who had completed a report in 1992, days after the murder. It seems that this person had now come to a new conclusion which put forward an explanation as to why no blood was found on Peter or his clothing. The exact details of this have not been made public, but it was one of the factors that led to a formal complaint being made by the family about how the case was handled by the police. Other reasons cited in the complaint concerned the way the crime scene was handled. According to Peter, both the paramedics and the first police officer on the scene moved the body. Another major cause for concern for the family was the way the investigation had focused on Peter to the detriment of discovering the identity of the man driving the blue car.

Speaker C: I don't think I necessarily agree with that though because I mean, what did they have, 100,000 police man hours and was it 5000 statements taken? I think they didn't just go down blinkers. I think it's, to me, obviously as an outsider, there's a lot of.

Speaker D: They did.

Speaker A: Well, I've read the stats a while ago, didn't. In terms of the 5000 lines of inquiry.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's right, yeah.

Speaker A: Three, almost 4000 statements taken. So yeah, from my research going through, they did a really thorough job going through lots of different angles looking for the cars, but they just didn't come up with a lot of concrete stuff. Basically, they just eluded them for whatever reason.

Speaker C: I can understand why Peter's frustrated, obviously, because he's been stuck in limbo all this time, can't go forward, can't go back. So I can understand why he's saying they haven't done their job, but maybe in regards to that, they haven't. But I think in general, it sounds like they have.

Speaker A: You know, it's a man who is incredibly frustrated. That's what it feels like and just feels he's in a corner. Yeah. In April 2022, the Independent Office for Police Conduct ordered Durham Constabulary to investigate the complaint, which, as I said, centered around the belief that police dismissed Peter's alibi and focused on the narrative that he was the killer, ignoring evidence to the contrary. The complaint, however, was thrown out in December 2022. Peter Herron says he has found it impossible to get on with his life. Even after charges were dropped against him in February 2006, he feels his reputation was completely torn to shreds. Speaking in the Daily Record in August 2023, the now 88 year old said he wants the Durham constabulary publicly to say he is no longer a suspect. He is calling for an independent investigation into Anne's murder and is campaigning for a judicial review to completely exonerate him.

Speaker D: I was just a local reporter. I'd gone back into reporting kind of lower down than when I'd left it. I'd done all different kinds of journalism, but I'd gone back to the local paper kindly for personal reasons. The kind of journalism I enjoyed most was feature writing, where you might get a bit of a few more words, you know, and to try to really get behind the story and try to get a sense of what people are like, a bit like you probably do yourself, but by writing. And I was really interested in that. And so my. One of my many bosses, Chris Lloyd, he asked me to do it. He gave me the assignment to follow up because it was the. I think at that point, it was the 25th anniversary and, I mean, I was excited to do the story because I'm from Darlington, I remember the story and it's quite a small town. And, for example, my sisters went to school, I think with one of Peter Barons, or at the same school, didn't know each other. But it's such a small town that people did do know. Do you know that everybody on some level knows everybody there? But still, a murder like that is rare, you know, it's very, very, very rare. So I'd known the story anyway, you know, I knew. I knew all about it, really. You know, the breakthrough was an interview with Peter Heron, husband of Ann, who had been accused of. Of murder. He had spoken, but at a kind of a press conference many years ago. He'd never given. Unless. Unless I'm remembering it wrong, but I don't think he'd ever given a one to one interview. His daughter Debbie had, and she. Debbie had been a strong campaigner on behalf of her dad. She'd given interviews. So that was really important, I think, to get his side of the story in his own words, because you have to remember a lot of people, armchair detectives, who don't know what they're talking about, who just, you know, oh, it'll be. It'll be the husband. And that's something to be extreme as well. You do it for a living. It's something to be extremely careful of. So I could understand that. And I was excited to do it as a kind of news journalist. The first thing to do was to go and meet Debbie and Peter at her house in a swiss village just to the north of Stockton and a lovely house. And that was quite something. We did video that and we did have quite an in depth interview. And there were all the documents and all of the actions that were taken with the police at that time and had taken. So there was a lot of quite. I won't say mundane, but quite factual talk of going through the whole thing. And then we sat down and I had an interview with Peter. And again, Peter was. He was quite a charming man. He's a man of a certain generation, so he wasn't going to be tears and, you know, wailing at the wall. I won't say reserves the wrong word, because he was forthcoming, but he was. He was a man of his generation. You could kind of tell he'd be a successful businessman. He was quite a charming man and he spoke very well. And he spoke very well. I got the impression he was there for Debbie, really. I did get that impression, because Debbie's. It was there for himself and for Anna. Don't, you know? He was. Of course he was. But I got the impression if it wasn't for Debbie, this interview wouldn't have happened, if that makes sense, you know, I mean, he had things he wanted to say, but he wanted. Debbie was so. You know, she loves her dad and she wants. She wants to be cleared. And they've put up with all kinds of people. And don't forget, they were young when it happened. You go to a nightclub or whatever your dad's this and, you know, and all that and all that kind of thing. And it was a big anniversary and he spoke very well. And I think I got the more emotional side of the story and what it meant to that family from Debbie, as I recall, and I'd like to say this, from doing that kind of reporting over a long time and covering court cases and the whole business, I often think, suppose Peter was a murderer and he isn't, you know, but in any family where somebody has committed a terrible crime, and again, Peter, I'm not saying Peter did, they are forgotten. The family of that person didn't do anything wrong. They get untold. They are victims, too. Do you know what I mean? In this case, it's not just Peter. The whole family have been dealing, had to with, deal with this accusation. So I got a bit of emotion from Debbie there. She's a reserved woman and a very intelligent woman, as I remember. I was, you know, as she seemed. I don't pretend to know her, but when I met her that day, I just could tell it really. She wanted her dad cleared, do you know what I mean? She was quite. I could tell the emotion was there with Debbie. It's not a common interview to have that, really. It's usually outside the court or, you know, oh, you might get a letter or. Do you know what I mean? It was. Yeah, it was quite, quite an unusual. They usually just want to forget, you know, so. But because there was this opinion, you know, this misguided opinions, you know, so it was quite. It was quite an unusual interview to have. It was quite contained. But they got what they wanted to say and they both came across as articulate, nice people. The person I really wanted to speak to and I did manage to get hold of was Anne Marie or any of the. Or any of Anne's children, really. But Anne Marie was the one I ended up in touch with and I always wanted to speak to the victim. She just wants the murder solved, as they all do. So I was really. I was really interested to speak to her when she. When she said she'd come down to Darlington. It was an anniversary. It's a big anniversary. She was a lovely, lovely person and it was so hard for her. So she shows up to the train station, she gets picked up by somebody she doesn't know. I can't exactly remember the details about how it happened. To talk about the horrific death of her mother 25 years ago and go to the house where that happened. What a strange, strange experience for her. And then I got in touch with the owners of the house, which was then a cattery, as if memory serves, and they were lovely, too. And so that was quite a moment to go into the house and into the room where Ann was found with Anne Maria daughter. It was quite a moment. It wasn't as draining, as emotional as I thought it would be, which is a really good thing, because it was all there. The emotion was all there for Anne Marie, but it wasn't. She kept it together and the couple who ran the home was so kind and was so chatty, and it kind of kept it so that Anne Marie could talk and get to what she wanted to say, you know, and have the photographs taken and all the rest of it. It was still just photographs then. It'd be video now. That sounds like we'd want the tears and everything, but I didn't really. I wanted Anne Marie just. Just to be able to say what she wanted to say.

Speaker B: Ann Marie spoke to me about going there. She told me that she was going. She'd been there more than once now. And the sort of people that now own it, I think Anne Marie's been in contact with, because it's now a pet sanctuary or a kennels or something like that. And Ann Marie clearly thought that was quite fitting because my mom loved animals and she went and see the house. And Ann Marie said to me afterwards that although it was the house, it just felt completely different to what it had been before. I was actually training up in Darlington. For the last two years, I've been up in Darlington every month and training investigators up there. And the last occasion I was up there, I drove by Aolane House and I sat in the lay by, just. And it did. It just looked completely different. There's a new road, there's a new roundabout, there's new buildings round about it. So it's just. It's just completely different. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker D: And that's it, really. You know, we ran the story over three days. This is how big a story it is in the community. I'm from it filled up the paper for three days. If I'm right, if I remember it, right after the stories came out, there was a reaction, and not just these people leaving messages, I mean, people getting in touch with the newspaper. I remember people who said they'd saw somebody suspicious and all this kind of business, like never going to solve the crime. And, you know, he followed them all up. I did a couple of stories out of it. People say they saw a suspicious man in the shoe and they went into a shop and the shoe. It was him and all this. If there was anything genuine, I would have taken that to the police. But there wasn't really. There wasn't really, really anything. There's sightings. People thought they'd seen somebody and heard them say something funny in the pub and all this kind of thing, which I reported. So it was there for. If there was anything in it.

Speaker A: So we'll come back to Peter shortly and in a moment we're going to look at other suspects that have been put forward in this case. They center around the man in the blue car seen driving at speed away from Aeolian House. Just before I get into that, I'll mention here a piece of information that surfaced 20 years after the murder, because if true, it certainly throws up two potential persons of interest. According to unsolved murders dot co dot UK comma in 2010, a lorry driver came forward to say on the afternoon of Friday, August 3, 1990, they had seen Anne in a car turning into the driveway of aeolian house from the main road. This was at 04:15 p.m. The lorry driver said Ann was driving the car and there was someone in the passenger seat who was leaning forward with their arms on the dashboard. The lorry driver also made out another backseat passenger. This sighting has never been confirmed. The woman the lorry driver saw was wearing clothes, not a bikini. Azan had been wearing a bikini when she was last seen at 03:30 p.m. And was found dead wearing the upper part of the bikini. Police were skeptical of this sighting and I can't really comment any more of this. Police just don't seem to put much weight in it, looking at some of the suspects that have come up. In April 1997, the Times newspaper reported that a convicted rapist, 29 year old Philip Han, was being questioned in connection with Anne's murder. In 1994, Han was sent to prison for a minimum of twelve years for one rape and two serious sexual assaults in Hartlepool. Hartlepool is about a 40 minutes drive from Darlington. These attacks happened in 1990, 119 93 and 1994, and showed Han to be a cruel and violent offender. His last assault saw him drag a 19 year old woman into a driveway as she walked home from college. He put a balaclava over her face, held a knife to her throat and held a brick above her head. He sexually assaulted her and then raped her twice. Due to his violent history and the fact he lived in the northeast, I can see why Philip Hann was looked at, though nothing ever came of this line. Of inquiry. As a side note, Philip Hahn was released from prison in 2018, but in May 2021 struck again, attacking a woman on the Tees barrage in Middlesbrough. The woman fought him off and hand fled. He was soon captured and is currently back behind bars. In 2015, a woman came forward and told of a strange encounter she had witnessed in a card shop way back in late 1992 or early 1993. I've also seen the date given as 1991. A man had come into the shop where the woman worked as an assistant and inquired about some orders he wished to place. The man was directed to go into the back room to speak with the shop manager. Shortly after, the man left the shop with an odd smirk on his face. Moments later, the shop manager emerged from the back room visibly shaken. She said during their conversation, the man had boasted about being the killer of Anne Herron. Although the manager was disturbed by what the man had said, she did not inform the police of this encounter, as she believed he was just trying to scare her. In 2015, the woman who was the shop assistant, saw a news feature about Ann's murder and learnt about the description of the sun tanned, dark haired man seen driving away from the scene in a blue car. She said this matched the description of the man she remembered coming into the card shop. The woman has claimed that she went to the police with this information, but was never spoken to at length about the issue. In response to this, the police said they did speak to the woman and did look into the matter further.

Speaker C: I was curious about this. Do you know where the card shot was? Was it in the area or was it something else?

Speaker A: I don't know. I meant to find that out today and I don't think it was noted. I'm guessing it was in the northeast, because they obviously knew about the murder. Because they said she obviously remembered the name. I think they must have heard of the murder. It was. It was nationwide news, but I just wonder whether it was. I'm guessing it was in the area.

Speaker C: Yeah, you're right, because she mentioned that she thought she just boasted, so they must have. Yeah, you're right. They must have known who Anne was. Just find that awful strange.

Speaker D: It is.

Speaker C: Somebody would just go into a shop and say that.

Speaker A: I mean, yeah. I mean, again, we don't know if that has anything to do with the murder. Whether it was someone just being odd and sick. No one's ever got to the bottom of it. In 2016, the Heron family were contacted by independent cold case investigator Jen Jarvie, a university lecturer in public procedure. She offered to work for free on Ann's case and ended up winning the Zena Scott Archer Investigator of the year award for her work. Jen firmly believes that Peter Heron could not have committed the crime, as his timings and movements that afternoon just don't make it possible. She came up with a few potential suspects, with one in particular gaining traction. Jem believed that whoever had committed the murder was comfortable going into a stranger's home. She had a hunch that the person may have a history of burglary and decided to see if any similar crimes had happened. Around the same time as research, Jen watched an episode of BBC's crime watch tv program which first aired meant after Annes murder. It featured the story of Michael Benson. Benson had escaped from a prison in Hampshire in 1989 and was on the run. He had been serving a sentence for attempted murder and wasnt recaptured until 1999. Benson was known to drive a blue Ford Orion not dissimilar to the car spotted at the Herons house and had been involved in violent knife crime in the past. Although Benson was from the south of England, he had relatives in Leeds, in the north of England, an hour and 15 minutes drive south of Darlington. Benson matched the description of the dark haired, sun tanned man seen driving away from Aeolian House. He was also similar in appearance to a man who had attacked two women at knifepoint near the River Weir in Durham on July 18, 1990, just nine, a few weeks before Anne's murder.

Speaker B: So Jen had come to me with the Benson thing. Jen had been to me a couple of days with various. Because she'd been. I think she had looked to my mum's case as part of her master's degree. So she then got in touch with me and she came up with a couple of different hypotheses. We spoke at length about some of them. There were some that were, you know, looked reasonable and certainly warranted some further investigation. But I guess the most incredible one that she had come up with was the Benson one. So there were various aspects about that that I thought if we didn't eliminate Benson, even if it wasn't him, if he wasn't eliminated, then he could be used as a defense by whoever was eventually arrested for it. So that was the reason that I wanted Benson looked at and eliminated, or we could prove that it was that it was him. I think Donald Jen's angle was to exonerate Peter from the inquiry.

Speaker A: Unfortunately, Michael Benson could not be questioned, as he had passed away in 2011 from complications resulting from diabetes. Anson Ralph Cockburn went with Gen Jarvi to the police to share with them. The information about Benson. Jen Jarvie has gathered additional circumstantial evidence that she says points to Benson as Ann's killer. In 2020, after Ann's murder was featured in a news report, an ex cellmate of Benson's, known only as Mick, came forward to share his story. Mick recognised Michael Benson as a man he had been in prison with while they were both serving time and home prison in the north east of England. Mick had mentioned to Benson that he had once been involved in a fight and had used a Stanley knife. Benson really liked hearing this story and in return told Mick he had once cut someone up with a Stanley knife after jumping over their garden fence. Mick claimed that Benson had told him he had killed a woman living in an isolated house in Darlington. He had been in the area driving around looking to burglar property and had thought this large house was an easy target. Mick now thought Benson had been referring to the murder of Anne Herron. Some doubted that what Mick had shared was the truth, including fellow inmates who had served time with Benson. They suspected Mick was hoping for a reward in exchange for talking. Nevertheless, Mick provided a signed statement to police and declared that he was not interested in receiving any monetary reward for the information he had given. Jan Jarvey also spoke with Benson's ex wife Ruth, and showed her copies of the taunting letters purportedly sent by the killer in 1994. Ruth said it was Benson's handwriting. It's important to say here that Durham police officially ruled out Benson in May 2017, not long after he was first touted as a potential suspect by Gen. Jarvey. They say there is no evidence Benson was anywhere near the location and they are almost certain he was living abroad at the time. Theron police are quoted in various news sources, such as Teesside Live in May 2022, as saying Michael Benson is not and never has been a suspect in Anne Herron's murder, which is quite disappointing.

Speaker C: I think, wasn't it? Because he seemed quite viable for a while, you know, everything that I was reading about, what Jane had come up.

Speaker A: With, yeah, it was a well thought out theory, but the police seem quite quick to dismiss it, didn't they? And they don't seem to have changed their mind on that at all. So, I mean, they've obviously got access to stuff, but we don't. And they're obviously pretty sure that he wasn't in the area at the time. Over the last few years, another name has been put forward as a potential suspect in this case. In 2021, a series of articles were written in the North York Enquirer by journalist Tim Hicks and retired police intelligence officer and cold case investigator Chris Clark. Their focus was on linking convicted killer Christopher Hanniewell to other unsolved murders around the UK. On October 19, 2012, at Bristol Crown Court, Christopher Halliwell, 48, pleaded guilty to the murder of 22 year old Sian O'Callaghan. Sian disappeared from Swindon, Wiltshire, having last been seen at a nightclub in the town in the early hours of March 19, 2011. Her body was found on March 24, 2011 near Effington in Oxfordshire. It came to light that a second murder charge against Halliwell had been dropped as a result of an error in the police handling of the case. The body of Becky Godden Edwards, a woman who had been reported missing in 2007, was found after Halliwell's arrest. Halliwell actually led police to the body as detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher had breached the guidelines of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 by failing to caution Halliwell and denying him access to a solicitor. During the period the confessions were obtained, the judge deemed that they were inadmissible in court.

Speaker C: Yeah, I found that crazy, that Christopher Halliwell actually led the case to Becky's body. Well, obviously, okay, they're supposed to read out their rights, but he led them to her body. Don't understand that.

Speaker A: I think it was. The BBC did a really good dramatisation of it with Martin Freeman as Fulcruh, probably about five or six years ago. It might be around on iplayer store. It's really good. It was very good to kind of get into that case and Martin Freeman was really good in it. So, yeah.

Speaker C: Did it make sense why they had to throw that?

Speaker A: Yeah, it does, yeah. And I've kind of condensed a lot of it here just to make it fit into the narrative. Cause it was complicated and basically the following years were full of legal wrangling and detective Superintendent Fulcher resigned from the force in 2014 after being found guilty of gross misconduct for not following proper procedures when arresting Halliwell. But by 2016, enough evidence had been uncovered and Halliwell was charged with Becky godden Edwards murder and he was found guilty of the crime. Unfortunately, Christopher Halliwell has popped up in quite a few of the episodes I've done for unsolved murders in the UK, as we will see in a minute, basically. So, fortune maintains that Halliwell is a serial killer. There was an eight year gap between the murders of Becky and Sian, and he is convinced there are other victims during this period and possibly before it's unusual for someone like Halliwell to start killing in his forties and there are unsolved murders as far back as 1988, when Halliwell would have been in his mid twenties, that have been linked to him. A strong piece of evidence suggesting the serial killer theory is the secret stash containing over 60 items of women's clothes Halliwell had hidden away at a river in Ramsbury, Wiltshire. Items belonging to Sian and Becky were found at this location. Fulcher also says that during a search of Halliwell's house after Sean O'Callaghan's murder, he found twelve pencil drawn sketches of areas of outstanding beauty. These have not been made public. Do these drawings depict possible burial sites? In a 2016 interview with BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Fulcher claimed that Halliwell said, police want to interview me about eight murders. Chris Clark and Tim Hicks put forward Halliwell as a potential suspect in Anne Herron's murder. They also say there may be a link with a missing person's case that happened just six weeks or so before Ann's murder. It's a case I've covered on my own podcast. On Saturday, June 16, 1990, in Llangollen, north Wales, 52 year old antiques dealer Treveline Evans put a sign on her shop door which read, back in two minutes. She popped across to a local market stall and purchased some fruit for her lunch. Around an hour later, a witness saw Trevelline walking near her home, a short distance from her shop. There have been no confirmed sightings of Treveline since then. Clark and Hicks believe Trevolyn may well have been murdered by Halliwell. Clarke and Hicks note some similarities between the cases of Treveline Evans and Anne Herron. Both women were on their own and the incidents took place in the middle of the day. They happened over sunny summer weekends in a rural location and were near fishing sites, the River Dee and Llangollen Canal in north Wales and the River Tees in the northeast of England. Halliwell was a keen fisherman and traveled all over the UK to participate in his hobby. A blue four door car was reported near the scene. In both cases, Clarke and Hicks speculate that the theft of antiques could have been the initial reason for the attacks on the women. Treveline was an antique stealer and perhaps Halliwell viewed aeolian house as a place he would find expensive trinkets. In their eyes, Halliwell is a good suspect for Anne Herron's murder because he fits the description of the man seen driving the blue car. In 1990, Halliwell would have been in his mid twenties, but he did look a lot older than his years. The man in the car is described as being 30 to 45. It is believed that in 1990, Halliwell was living in Orton Park, Lancashire. This is around a two and a half hours drive from Darlington and about an hour and 20 minutes drive from Llangollen. Clarke and Hicks speculate that the lower part of Anne's bikini was taken by Halliwell as a souvenir. He did take trophies after the murders of Becky Godden Edwards and Sian O'Callaghan.

Speaker C: I did read somewhere, though, that Jen Jarvie had said that no trophies were taken from Eren's, the murder scene.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think they speculated that, possibly because certainly in the newspaper reports I've read, the police never, although they said that the bikini bottoms were removed, they never said where they were found. So I think that's them speculating. And I think, as the police have never officially said, as far as where they've just speculated that. But, yeah, I don't know if they're working on any information that we don't know or whether it's just pure speculation. Christopher Halliwell's past remains shrouded in mystery as he refuses to talk about any of the crimes he may have committed. For that reason, it is difficult to officially discount him as a suspect in so many unsolved murders around the country, including Anne Herron's.

Speaker B: I heard vaguely about it. I wouldn't. Over the last however many years, it's been 34 years or something like that. You know, various things have come to notice when every time I read about serial killer or a killing in that neck, in the words, I always follow up, have a look at various articles. Hollywood was just another one of those. It's possible, but he's a big name, so he's going to draw. He's going to draw more attention. I guess I've got every faith in the police, Dalton, and that if there is anything substantial there, then they will have a look at it. I mean, at the end of the day, I guess, as time has passed, DNA has evolved and there's always a chance there that something might come through, through DNA. But who knows? Who knows?

Speaker A: In August 2023, Durham police issued a fresh appeal for information in Anne's case, saying they would continue to use technological advances to review forensic evidence in the case. DCI Craig Rudd of Durham Constabulary Major crime team, said the case was still open.

Speaker D: I don't hold a flag for the police. I've had run ins as a reporter. Professionally, I'm not in trouble with the police, but professionally I've been involved, and colleagues of mine have been involved with the police using powers to book telephones or journalists. And there's quite a few things. I've had trouble professionally with the police. So I'm not the kind of person who's police. Right or wrong. Sometimes the police can be wrong. But I will say that with a murder inquiry, the police do take that very, very, very seriously. And because I've read a lot of the talk today about, oh, they've done, they haven't done the job properly. Maybe they didn't, but it won't have been because they didn't care. You know, I will say, and as I say, I say that as somebody who doesn't necessarily hold a, hold a flag waving for the police.

Speaker E: Yeah, I certainly think that everybody in life makes mistakes, not just police officers, everybody makes mistakes. So I don't think it's perfect. I don't think investigation was flawless, but I certainly think that they have done a thorough investigation. I've kept in touch with them all of these years now, less frequently, but I do talk to them once or twice a year. Whoever the SIO is, the senior investigating officer, I'll speak to at least twice a year, usually on the anniversary, and then at some other point during the year. But, yeah, it's still open. We're still hoping, and I take every opportunity, including this one. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to talk about it, because we want to just get it out there. And, you know, if there's somebody, if it reaches somebody out there that hasn't been reached before, that's got any information whatsoever that they can come forward to get in touch with you guys, get in touch with me, whatever that would be. That would be fabulous.

Speaker A: Over the years, Durham police, they have investigated many individuals, and some remain of interest. Police say Peter Herron was designated a suspect in 2005, and this status has not changed. When Peter was asked outright in front of tv cameras, did you kill Anne Herron? He answered with an unequivocal no. The Heron family and Anne's family have had no contact with each other since about a week after the murder, although Ann's son Ralph said in the Channel five documentary that he would like to have a conversation with Peter to talk about what happened.

Speaker B: I have been in touch with various people since I haven't. I've spoken to criminologists, I've spoken to them place from the various people. And I've offered several times to have a conversation with Peter and he's, he's not taking me up on that at any point. I went down to see, I was invited down to his daughter Don's house. This has got to be, I don't know, 1012 years ago. Don had said to me, because Don, clearly, you know, she's looking, looking after her dad. And Don wanted to prove to me that Peter wasn't involved in any way. And she said to me, calm down, see us spend the night and we can show you what we've got and talk you through it. And I said, fabulous, brilliant. Is Peter going to be there? And she said, no, he doesn't want to see you, he's going. So I went down, went through with dawn what she had and I left there. And I remember leaving there and saying to dawn as I left that, yeah, see what you've got to say. I've seen the documentation and everything that you've got, but still doesn't change my mind either way, so. And that was it from then on. Went to Smokey's daughter a couple of times since then and we've been to see the police at Darlington. When Michael Benson came up as a potential suspect or potential person of interest, we went to see the police and Durham and Don, his daughter was there and I, I was there as well. So I spoke to her on that occasion because clearly we both had a vested interest in the police taking an active interest in Michael Benson. Having a look at him, who's a person of interest. From my point of view, he had to be eliminated. You know, gotta look at him, eliminate him, move him away and carry on, or look at him, get some evidence and not convict the guy because he was dead at that point, but at least get something to indicate that it was him. The police obviously looked at that, haven't come up with anything from that line of inquiry. And I think that was probably the last time that I spoke to, to Peter Orry's daughter. I just got the impression that he thought that I thought he had kill him, which I'd never said to him and I never have said that. The only thing I've ever said about who killed my mum was the only person I know who it wasn't, 100% was me. You know, that's it. And until anybody comes up with definitive evidence either way, then guess we'll never know.

Speaker A: If you have information about the 1990 murder of Anne Herron, you can contact Crime Stoppers anonymously on 080-05-5111 or call the Durham police via 101.

Speaker E: I would just ask anybody that thinks they have got anything, no matter how insignificant, anything that they think might be.

Speaker B: Relevant to come forward.

Speaker E: Let the police at Darlington know. Call crime Stoppers. It can be anonymous because we really like to. I'd like to know why. I mean, that's the answer that I need. I need answer this. Why? You know, I don't know. I don't know who it is. You know, I said at the time, with. With absolute certainty, 100% certainty, the only person I knew hadn't done it was me. So, yeah, there are people of interest. There are people who are suspected. They're still there. They haven't been eliminated. So it might just be that final piece of the jigsaw that we're waiting on to help solve it.