A&E - Robbie Coltranes Critical Evidence: Series 2 (2017)

When there's a murder with no suspect, no leads and perhaps not even a body, that's when investigators face their toughest test. Evidence must be gathered. Evidence must be analysed. But evidence is worthless if it can't be pinned to a suspect… Most murder victims knew the person that killed them. That's why homicide, in many cases, is a straightforward crime to solve. Yet 20 percent of UK homicides are classified as "circumstances unknown".

Part 1: Little Miss Nobody: Alan Charlton
Robbie Coltrane reveals eight of the hardest, most complex and baffling murder cases ever to be investigated by British police. An old carpet dug up by workmen in a Cardiff back garden was the beginning of a case that would push the boundaries of forensic science. The carpet contained human bones - but whose?
On a cold winter's evening in 1989 shortly before the Christmas holidays, construction workmen make a horrifying discovery while renovating a building: they find the remains of an extremely decomposed body wrapped in a carpet, lying on the ground in a garden in Cardiff. At the same moment, the construction site turned into a crime scene, and the police's first challenge was to find out the identity of the victim, that being the most sure way to track down the perpetrator. In the laboratory, forensic scientists actually succeed in giving the dead person an identity – and ultimately in finding the murderer.
Crucial evidence for this episode: carpet, bones, DNA, facial reconstruction.

Part 2: The Perfect Murder: Roger and David Cooper
Sameena Imam was about to start a new life with her lover Roger Cooper, but her plans ended in tragedy. Robbie Coltrane examines the case of two brothers who murdered a marketing manager Imam on Christmas Eve 2014 using chloroform.
The plot of this murder could be straight out of an Agatha Christie crime novel. 34-year-old Sameena Imam disappeared on Christmas Day 2014. She was reported missing by family in Essex after failing to return home, sparking a major police inquiry. Her body was found three weeks later after she disappeared in a grave dug in the ground in Leicester, wrapped in plastic wrap. A complex investigation led to the trail of the treacherous brothers. Brothers Roger Cooper, a Costco store manager and ex-soldier David Cooper are targeted by investigators. Did the two pull off a near-perfect murder?
Crucial evidence for this episode: car, receipts, surveillance camera, cell phone data, plastic wrap.

Part 3: Appointment with Death: Scott Singleton
Robbie Coltrane examines the case of Scott Singleton, who murdered a 17-year-old girl after luring her to a bogus job interview. She had been looking for work in July 1991 and had sent out her curriculum vitae to over 100 job agencies. Scott Singleton stole her CV and then called Lynne Rogers at her home and offered a job for L14k/year as a secretary at Gatwick Airport as well as stewarding executive flights.
17-year-old Lynne Rogers leaves home to go to the job interview of her dreams in September 1991. Little does she know that the road leads to her death. After making arrangements she went to Charing Cross station in London to meet up with Scott Singleton. A week later, her partially undressed body was found in a ditch. There is a bite mark on her chin… The police was able to track down the perpetrator thanks to the teeth marks.
Crucial evidence for this episode: bite mark, eyewitnesses, phone calls, cassette tape.

Part 4: Countryside Killings: Graham Backhouse
Robbie Coltrane examines why Graham Backhouse attempted to kill his wife with a car bomb before murdering his neighbour in 1984.
A murder and attempted murder in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Horton leave police baffled. In the driveway of an idyllic country house, police officers make a terrible discovery: a young mother of two has been fatally injured by a car bomb. On 9th April 1984, Margaret Backhouse had climbed to driver's seat of her husband's Volvo and turned the ignition key, setting off a pipe bomb filled with nitroglycerine and shotgun pellets. Her husband is beside himself with grief. He is also certain that the perpetrator was actually targeting him - after all, it was his car. Police are investigating this mysterious case of false leads… The exploded car and severed sheep's head gave clues of the perpetrator, but the truth amazed even the researchers who have seen everything.
Crucial evidence for this episode: blood spatter, car bomb, sticky note, fiber.

Part 5: Far from Home: Kyu Soo Kim
Robbie Coltrane examines the harrowing case of a London landlord, Kim Kyu Soo, who sadistically tortured and murdered his tenants, two young students he slowly suffocated with sticky tape. He bound their mouths and noses so tightly with tape that their eyes bulged as they struggled in vain to breathe. After the murders, Kim then concealed their bodies - he jammed one into a suitcase, and walled the other up in a sealed compartment of the house.
In 2002, police found the body of a young woman in a suitcase near York. The investigations that follow span three continents. When the police find out about another murder that has many parallels to the crime in York, they get closer to the perpetrator. A rarely cold-blooded killer was revealed behind the murders.
The decisive evidence in this episode: sticky tape, bloodstain, suitcase and entomology.

Part 6: The Saturday Night Strangler: Joe Kappen
Steeltown Murders: How Saturday Night Strangler was caught. Robbie Coltrane examines how DNA evidence ended a 30-year hunt for triple murderer and rapist in Wales. Three 16-year-old girls strangled, followed by a country's biggest murder hunt and the ground-breaking way police found the serial killer. Many feared detectives would never find the killer known as the "Saturday Night Strangler" - but 30 years on, he was found in the most unlikely place.
The deaths of three girls within six weeks in 1973 led to one of the most intense investigations in South Wales history. They were raped, beaten and finally strangled. The actions triggered a huge police investigation, but despite the efforts of the police, the perpetrator was not identified and it took 30 years for the case to be solved. Forensic science and even an exhumation eventually provide the crucial clues.
Crucial evidence for this episode: the white car, the girls' clothes, the DNA, the exhumation.

Part 7: The Double Axe Murderer: Dennis Smalley
Robbie Coltrane examines the horrific crimes of Dennis Smalley and the tiny clue that led to his capture and conviction.
In 1991, two people were murdered with an ax within three months that shocked the city of Lincoln. On a stormy night on October 2, 1991, an elderly gentleman lies dead in his chair. He was wounded several times with an ax and the wall behind him is spattered with blood. The motive for the murder remains a mystery until a similar murder occurs three months later. What is the brutal ax murderer up to? The police's only clue was the tiny flakes of paint found in the wounds of the second murdered man. The actions might have gone unsolved, but then a persistent researcher started going through European paint factories.
The decisive evidence in this episode: the axe, the paint flakes, the pillow, the nosy neighbor.

Part 8: Into Thin Air: David Gilroy
In 2010, Suzanne Pilley disappeared on her way to work in Edinburgh. Here, Robbie Coltrane reveals the remarkable way her killer was caught.
Scottish Suzanne Pilley doesn't come home after a day at work. She was last seen on her way to work as a bookkeeper at the Infrastructure Managers Limited (IML) office in the Edinburgh after leaving her Whitson Road home on May 4, 2010, then she disappeared for good. Police are looking for her and suspect she was murdered at work and then taken away. No body was found, but based on a complex investigation, the police became convinced that Suzanne was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, David Gilroy, with whom Pilley had "turbulent" relationship and officers arrest him as a murder suspect. The complex murder inquiry saw police speak to nearly 1,500 potential witnesses, take 1,164 statements, gathered 2,325 productions to use in evidence and obtained CCTV footage from 250 separate locations while 30 different areas in Argyll were subject to coordinated searches.
Crucial evidence for this episode: surveillance camera, car, phone records, cadaver dogs.