On 7th June 1996, a tractor driver unearthed a human arm while ploughing a field at Little Abshot Farm, Hampshire, in the south of England.
When the police arrived, they noticed a swarm of flies about 50m away from where the tractor driver had been forced to stop. They had found the owner of the arm.
The body was buried in a shallow grave and wrapped in a blue sleeping bag. The hands had been placed in front of the body and held in place between the thighs with a knotted scarf. The skull was badly damaged. The only item of clothing on the body was a Pringle sweater.
The pathologist who performed the post-mortem concluded that death had occurred as a result of the skull being struck by a blunt instrument. However, the plough blade had caused a lot of damage to the skull and neck, so the possibility of death by strangulation could not be ruled out.
Owing to the body being very badly decomposed, most identification features had disappeared. The police knew that the body was male and that he had a gold crowned tooth. No missing persons in Hampshire were a likely match.
The body was too decayed for useful analysis of DNA or body fluids. A toxicological analysis revealed no traces of drugs or poisons in the blood or other organs. However, the results were not conclusive because of the level of decomposition.
A gastroenterologist examined the body's stomach contents and found that the deceased's last meal was a vegetarian chilli with kidney beans.
When an odontologist examined the teeth, he discovered that they had a very low incidence of decay. This is typical of immigrants into the UK from the Indian sub-continent. The degree of wear on the teeth indicated that the body was between 30 and 50 years old. The gold crown contained only 21% gold instead of the usual 60%. However, this did not turn out to be particularly unusual. 179 dental technicians were found to be using this lower quality metal in their work.
A trichologist examined the hair and found it was naturally dark brown and not dyed.
Two fingerprints from one of the hands that had been tied between the thighs were able to be checked with immigration and national databases, but with no result.
There was no good news when the sleeping bag, jumper and scarf were examined. The sleeping bag was the most common type available and the Pringle jumper was a fake. The scarf was an Indian 'chunni', but at this point, its significance was unknown. A forensic examination of the knot revealed nothing useful.
The police investigation team were left feeling frustrated with their lack of progress.
Then somebdy had the bright idea to commission a facial reconstruction. Although the skull was severely damaged owing to the head injuries and the additional action of the plough, noted anatomical artist and forensic facial reconstruction expert, Richard Neave, was able to build up a clay likeness of the deceased.
Here is a video which shows how facial reconstruction is done.
The image was used on the BBC programme 'Crimewatch', which asks for the public's help in solving crimes. Within days of the programme being aired, the police had a name, Harjit Singh Luther aged 40 from Ilford, Essex. The name and address of a possible suspect for Harjit's murder, Baljeet Rai from Southampton, was also put forward.
The police attempted to formally identify Harjit from his dental records. However, the records they were given did not match the deceased's teeth. When the police queried this, a dental technician admitted using 21% gold for the gold crowned tooth but charged for 60% gold and pocketed the difference. He had deliberately given the police the wrong set of dental records. The right set of dental records confirmed the idenity of the deceasd as Harjit Singh Luther.
The suspect, Baljeet Rai, was an illegal immigrant from India, who had worked at Little Abshot Farm. He had been refused political asylum and needed to arrange a marriage in order to stay in the UK. He subsequently married Manjit Kaur, but she left him in February 1996 and returned to Harjit, by whom she had a daughter. If his wife divorced him, Baljeet feared being deported to India.
In 1998, both Baljeet and Manjit were put on trial for the murder of Harjit. Manjit was acquitted, but Baljeet was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge recommended Baljeet's deportation.
So what happened? In the early hours of a morning in April 1996, Baljeet entered Harjit and Manjit's flat in Ilford and found them in bed. She woke up and was ordered to get out of bed and be quiet. She grabbed her daughter and watched from the landing while Baljeet beat Harjit to death with a hockey stick. At some point, Baljeet and Manjit drove the body to Little Abshot Farm in his Vauxhall Cavalier - a distance of about 100 miles - where he buried the body in a heap of soil that had been brought onto the farm from a nearby irrigation canal. He did not know that the heap would be flattened and the land used for planting, otherwise the body may have lain undiscovered for much longer.
This case was the largest murder investigation ever carried out by Hampshire Police. 14 different areas of expertise were called upon and around 3000 exhibits were documented, many of which were forensically examined. But ultimately, it was a combination of the facial reconstruction and a lucky phone call that paved the way for solving the case of the crushed skull.
The body was buried in a shallow grave and wrapped in a blue sleeping bag. The hands had been placed in front of the body and held in place between the thighs with a knotted scarf. The skull was badly damaged. The only item of clothing on the body was a Pringle sweater.
The pathologist who performed the post-mortem concluded that death had occurred as a result of the skull being struck by a blunt instrument. However, the plough blade had caused a lot of damage to the skull and neck, so the possibility of death by strangulation could not be ruled out.
Owing to the body being very badly decomposed, most identification features had disappeared. The police knew that the body was male and that he had a gold crowned tooth. No missing persons in Hampshire were a likely match.
The body was too decayed for useful analysis of DNA or body fluids. A toxicological analysis revealed no traces of drugs or poisons in the blood or other organs. However, the results were not conclusive because of the level of decomposition.
A gastroenterologist examined the body's stomach contents and found that the deceased's last meal was a vegetarian chilli with kidney beans.
When an odontologist examined the teeth, he discovered that they had a very low incidence of decay. This is typical of immigrants into the UK from the Indian sub-continent. The degree of wear on the teeth indicated that the body was between 30 and 50 years old. The gold crown contained only 21% gold instead of the usual 60%. However, this did not turn out to be particularly unusual. 179 dental technicians were found to be using this lower quality metal in their work.
A trichologist examined the hair and found it was naturally dark brown and not dyed.
Two fingerprints from one of the hands that had been tied between the thighs were able to be checked with immigration and national databases, but with no result.
There was no good news when the sleeping bag, jumper and scarf were examined. The sleeping bag was the most common type available and the Pringle jumper was a fake. The scarf was an Indian 'chunni', but at this point, its significance was unknown. A forensic examination of the knot revealed nothing useful.
The police investigation team were left feeling frustrated with their lack of progress.
Then somebdy had the bright idea to commission a facial reconstruction. Although the skull was severely damaged owing to the head injuries and the additional action of the plough, noted anatomical artist and forensic facial reconstruction expert, Richard Neave, was able to build up a clay likeness of the deceased.
Here is a video which shows how facial reconstruction is done.
The image was used on the BBC programme 'Crimewatch', which asks for the public's help in solving crimes. Within days of the programme being aired, the police had a name, Harjit Singh Luther aged 40 from Ilford, Essex. The name and address of a possible suspect for Harjit's murder, Baljeet Rai from Southampton, was also put forward.
The police attempted to formally identify Harjit from his dental records. However, the records they were given did not match the deceased's teeth. When the police queried this, a dental technician admitted using 21% gold for the gold crowned tooth but charged for 60% gold and pocketed the difference. He had deliberately given the police the wrong set of dental records. The right set of dental records confirmed the idenity of the deceasd as Harjit Singh Luther.
The suspect, Baljeet Rai, was an illegal immigrant from India, who had worked at Little Abshot Farm. He had been refused political asylum and needed to arrange a marriage in order to stay in the UK. He subsequently married Manjit Kaur, but she left him in February 1996 and returned to Harjit, by whom she had a daughter. If his wife divorced him, Baljeet feared being deported to India.
In 1998, both Baljeet and Manjit were put on trial for the murder of Harjit. Manjit was acquitted, but Baljeet was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge recommended Baljeet's deportation.
So what happened? In the early hours of a morning in April 1996, Baljeet entered Harjit and Manjit's flat in Ilford and found them in bed. She woke up and was ordered to get out of bed and be quiet. She grabbed her daughter and watched from the landing while Baljeet beat Harjit to death with a hockey stick. At some point, Baljeet and Manjit drove the body to Little Abshot Farm in his Vauxhall Cavalier - a distance of about 100 miles - where he buried the body in a heap of soil that had been brought onto the farm from a nearby irrigation canal. He did not know that the heap would be flattened and the land used for planting, otherwise the body may have lain undiscovered for much longer.
This case was the largest murder investigation ever carried out by Hampshire Police. 14 different areas of expertise were called upon and around 3000 exhibits were documented, many of which were forensically examined. But ultimately, it was a combination of the facial reconstruction and a lucky phone call that paved the way for solving the case of the crushed skull.
I was on the jury.
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