Location of Clandestine Graves - clues from plants

 

Murderers do not always give up the secret of where they have buried their victims. 

                                                                                         

Keith Bennett, 12, was killed in 1964 by Ian Brady, the so-called Moors Murderer.

 



 

Keith was one of five children tortured and killed by Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley in the 1960s.  Keith's burial place is still a mystery.  His mother died last year without ever knowing where her son was buried.

 

For a comprehensive account of Brady's and Hindley's crimes click here.

Advances in Search Techniques

Undoubtedly, the best way of searching for clandestine graves is to employ a team of experts, each of whom is a specialist in a particular forensic investigative method.

 



Investigative methods in forensic geology, botany, entomology and chemistry are becoming increasingly specialized.  Innovations in remote sensing tools e.g. thermal cameras have added another dimension to the search process.

In addition, portable soil chemistry equipment is much more sophisticated now.  Near-surface geophysical devices and mapping instruments can also play their part in clandestine grave location.

Here is a link to an article which discusses new technologies and procedures for the discovery and recovery of buried victims.

http://searchfortruth.info/sites/default/files/Forensic_Investigation_Clandestine_Graves.pdf

Plants as Indicators of Clandestine Graves

Despite the availability of the various new techniques discussed in that article, the value of plants as indicators of the location of clandestine graves is still relevant. 

In a previous blog, we saw how pollen was a major factor in determining the location of the bodies of Derek and Eileen Severs.  Now I want to consider the use of whole plants.

General Soil Disturbance Indicators

Digging a grave - even one that is shallow - produces significant disturbance to the local environment.  Besides destroying the primary root structures of the plants, the act of digging also causes the layers of soil to become redistributed.

Soil layers with poor nutrient content may end up on the surface.   This results in either little or no plant life, less dense growth or growth that is smaller and newer than nearby vegetation.

Digging a deep grave may disrupt layers of soil with differing levels of water retention. 

Depending on the soil composition, opening up the soil structure will either allow for greater water retention or cause more evaporation of soil moisture. 

Over time, more water-retentive soil will produce vegetation that is more lush than that of the surrounding area.

Where the soil is losing moisture, the vegetation is likely to exhibit more browning of the leaves than nearby vegetation.

Plant Succession Clues

When an area of ground is disturbed by digging a grave, plants will colonize the area in a set pattern of succession.

The first plants will be the 'pioneer' or 'opportunistic' species.  These will usually be grasses and weedy species.

These will be followed by long-lived perennials and finally, small shrubs and trees, known as 'climax' vegetation.

The rate that a disturbed area is recolonized will depend on the amount of light and water, the temperature and the soil conditions.

It is possible to predict plant successional stages for some habitat sites.  If a localized site exhibits different successional stages from the surrounding vegetation, then this is a good indicator of a potential grave site.

Another clue is the lack of species diversity in the localized site compared with the surrounding vegetation.

Fungi as Indicators

Certain fungi are closely associated with the presence of a decomposing corpse.  Ammonia fungi and post-putrefaction fungi provide visible markers of likely grave sites.

Estimating Time of Disturbance

Plants that are growing on a site can also provide evidence of time since the last disturbance.

The act of digging and refilling the grave with soil produces a seedbed in which new plants can become established.

For example, winter annuals such as the purple deadnettle, Lamium purpureum, germinate in autumn and die the following year after flowering.

 

The presence of the purple deadnettle in a localized area would mean that the soil was last disturbed in mid-autumn or earlier in the previous year.  If the soil had been disturbed later than this, the small seedlings would have been destroyed.

This data may correlate well with the dates in which a missing person was last seen alive.

Studies have shown that disturbed plots can remain visually different for up to five years.  However, changes in vegetation patterns do not necessarily mean that a buried body is present.  It is the soil disturbance that creates the change; not the presence of a body.

A Grave Site Revealed

I started this blog by highlighting the still unknown location of Keith Bennett's remains.  One murderer, did, however, finally reveal where he had buried the body of his victim and the family were able to have closure.

                                                       

Shane Fitzpatrick killed David Guilfoyle (pictured right) in 2005 in a fit of jealous rage.  Seven years later he revealed that Guilfoyle was buried in a shallow grave in a local beauty spot. 

Police took Fitzpatrick from his prison cell so he could show them the location of Guilfoyle's grave. 

A search revealed human remains, which were subsequently identified as those of David Guilfoyle.

Here is an illustrated article about the case.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2299833/David-Guilfoyle-Businessman-body-lay-shallow-grave-7-years-beaten-dead-love-rival.html

                                                                                                            

Just to let you know that I'll be blogging every two weeks until September, when I'll be back on a weekly schedule.  My readership is growing steadily, so do, please, leave a link to your book in the Comments section.

 

Invitation to Murder - The Murder of Alan Street

On the night of 19th December 2008, Alan Street was enjoying a few drinks in Burnley, in the North of England, when he met up with brothers Alan, Ian and Mark Palmer.

 

Here is CCTV footage from that night, with each identified individual marked by a red arrow. 

 

 

At the end of the footage, a man identified as Peter Leonard is seen talking on his mobile phone at a petrol station.  The person on the other end of the call is Alan Palmer.

 

Ten months later, Alan Palmer and Peter Leonard will be sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Alan Street. 

 

Another man, Kieron Davison will be sentenced to a minimum of eight years for manslaughter. 

 

Ian Palmer will be found not guilty of either murder or manslaughter.. Mark Palmer will not be charged with any offence.

Invitation to Murder?
 

After Street and the Palmers finished drinking, he and Alan Palmer (and possibly Ian Palmer) returned to Alan Palmer's house in Stockbridge Road, Padiham, which is a few miles from Burnley.  Palmer shared this house with a lodger, Kieron Davison.

 

Alan Palmer then left a voicemail message on Peter Leonard's mobile phone, stating that Alan Street was at his house and inviting Leonard to call back urgently. 

 

A forensic analysis of Leonard's and Alan Palmer's phone records reveals that there were a number of conversations between them in the early hours of 20th December 2008.

 

Street and Leonard used to be friends until Street began dating Leonard's ex-girlfriend.  They fought and Street knocked Leonard unconscious.  This led to an irrevocable breakdown of their friendship. 

 

Alan Palmer's phone call to Leonard was clearly offering him the chance to take his revenge on Street.
 

Violence 'beyond belief'
 

Whilst at Alan Palmer's house, Street became the victim of a sustained and prolonged attack. 

 

He was punched and kicked and struck with both a wooden pole and a litre size whisky bottle.  He was stabbed in the eye, ear and back of the head with a pair of scissors.  A plastic bag was placed over his head.

Evidence of Murder

 

The police did not become aware that a murder had been committed until 21st December 2008, when they received an anonymous phone call.  The caller stated that there was a lot of blood and a sack of bloodstained clothing at a house in Stockbridge Road, Padiham.

 

When police searched the address given by the caller they found nothing.  The call was either a hoax or the caller had made a mistake with the house number. 

However, while the police were searching the area, they discovered a smashed front window in another house in the street (number 29).

 

A preliminary search of this house revealed a black sack containing bloodstained clothing and a wooden pole. 

 

A forensic team was called to make a full search of the house, and they found massive amounts of blood downstairs.  It was obvious that a sustained and violent attack had taken place.

Much of the blood was difficult to see with the naked eye because the carpet and sofa were both a deep shade of red. 

Unlike TV police and forensics programmes, the scenes of crime officers did not spray luminol everywhere to determine the presence of blood.  Instead, they used high intensity light sources, which visualised the blood spatter patterns without damaging them in any way.

(Luminol should, really, only be used as a last resort.  Luminol is water-based and can cause smearing of bloodstains or further dilute an already diluted bloodstain.  Luminol may also cause the loss of genetic markers, which restricts DNA profiling).

Police enquiries revealed that Alan Palmer and Kieron Davison lived at 29 Stockbridge Road.

While the police were searching outside the house, Mark Palmer arrived.  The police told him only that they were responding to a call about the broken window. 

Mark Palmer then attempted to call his brother to tell him about the broken window, but was unable to get in touch with him.  Kieron Davison had also not returned home.

Kieron Davison and friends

Over the next few days, friends of Davison rang the Burnley Major Incident Room with information 'about the murder'.

It was not long afterwards that police received a tip-off about Davison's whereabouts and succeeded in arresting him.

Davison had been taking his friends round to the house to view the aftermath of the murder. 

He told police that when he arrived home in the early hours of 20th December 2008, 'somebody' was there, who was being attacked because he was a paedophile.  Davison admitted to punching this 'somebody'.

The police never believed Street was a paedophile, although he was a convicted rapist (of an adult).

Davison told police that the 'paedophile' had been put in the boot of a car, a blue Mitsubishi Colt.

Piecing it all together

In the meantime, the blood in the house was identified by DNA analysis as belonging to Alan Street.

                                                

 

                                                                    Alan Street

The police then began the painstaking task of tracking his movements on the night of 19th December/early morning 20th December 2008 by viewing CCTV footage of Burnley town centre.

The CCTV footage coupled with the phone records of Alan Palmer led police to Peter Leonard, who, they considered, had the most likely reason to want to attack Street i.e. their fight over Leonard's ex-girlfriend.

On the CCTV footage at the beginning of this blog, Peter Leonard has stopped at a petrol station to buy cigarettes and is on his way to Stockbridge Road by taxi.

But Alan Palmer and Leonard had apparently disappeared.

The blue Mitsubishi Colt was proving to be equally elusive.  It took ten days for the police to
locate the vehicle.  It had been parked in a residential street in Accrington, three miles away from Padiham.

There was no body in the boot, but there were traces of blood, which were identified as belonging to Street.

Street's body was eventually discovered by Environment Agency contractors on 19th January 2009, lying face down in knee-high water in a culvert in Accrington.

The post-mortem examination suggested that he may have survived for half an hour to two hours after the attack.

Alan Palmer and Peter Leonard eventually handed themselves in to police and were tried and convicted of murder.

The investigating officer, Detective Inspector Neil Hunter said 'The level of violence used in this sustained and prolonged attack was beyond belief'.