The Crossbow Cannibal: The Definitive Story of Stephen Griffiths - The Self-Made Serial Killer by Dixon Cyril

Author:Dixon, Cyril [Dixon, Cyril]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Published: 2011-03-06T23:00:00+00:00

Officers evacuated the other third-floor residents and applied the same crime scene analysis techniques to the corridor outside Flat 33. In the light of the dramatic surveillance footage, their hard surfaces could be a goldmine of forensic material. Outside Holmfield Court, the search continued apace. Officers cordoned off the pavement in front of the block, together with the courtyard and Soho Street, where another forensic tent was erected. Workmen who had been using a mechanical digger to replace gas pipes were brought into the search. They excavated lumps of soil and concrete, and then broke them up with the digger’s claw before policemen crouched on their hands and knees to sift through the rubble. Officers extended the crime scene to the other side of Thornton Road, digging out a hole where workmen had been laying cables. Once again, the SOCOs went nose-to-the-ground to pore over the pieces. Dog handlers with brown and white spaniels ferreted around Holmfield Court’s back courtyard and the overgrown alleyways that led to neighbouring buildings. The animals were also led to sniff about near the utility trenches, dug during the previous few weeks. Plain-clothes detectives moved in and out of the block, and, behind the building, the underwater search team went down a drainage culvert, which was usually covered by iron plates.

Meanwhile, community support officers stood guard at the block’s entrance and at the edge of the cordon across Soho Street, while two police vans, including a scientific support team vehicle, were parked outside. The diving squad also plunged into Bradford Beck below Bradford College, about 200 yards away on the other side of Thornton Road. Furthermore, a team of SOCOs scrabbled around in skips alongside the college’s hall of residence in Laisteridge Lane. Just as at the river, passers-by hung around to witness the dragnet in action, and traffic queues built up as motorists slowed down to ‘rubberneck’. Overhead, a hovering helicopter’s rotors whirred away incessantly.

The trawl spread into the red light area. At the bottom of Albion Street, a side road running off Sunbridge Road, officers began searching around some bins and rubbish that had spilled onto the ground outside an anarchist social club called The 1-in-12. They used poles to poke through the contents of crammed black bin liners, while the sniffer dogs scampered around their ankles. Workers had complained about a ‘rotten smell’ coming from somewhere nearby, and given the events of the last few days, the source had to be traced. A shop assistant at a nearby music store said at the time: ‘There is a really nasty smell. It’s like an abattoir.’ Along Sunbridge Road, the investigators found some items of interest near a parking bay next to the Provident Financial insurance company offices. They pulled out a pair of grey and white trainers and a red coat, and sealed them both inside brown paper evidence bags.

Meanwhile, the police were still foraging for clues that might help them find all three victims. At 9 Barkston Walk, Suzanne’s neighbours witnessed ‘swarms’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.