Silent Witness

Interview with Calvin Dunn

of 64 Elderwood Close, Ealing.

Mr Dunn is here voluntarily,

he is free to leave the interview at any time.

The date for the recording is February 11th, 2004.

You're actually recording this?

Uh, Home Office pilot scheme.

Recording and filming, belt and braces.

- You don't mind? - I don't mind.

- Oh, do you mind? - Don't tell my SIO.

Now that we're all comfortable, how can I help?

So, just screams, Control?

Did the caller happen to say where in the woods

they heard these screams?

We were discussing your whereabouts on the night

of Tuesday, January 22nd, 2004.

Tuesday, um...

Lynn has book group. So it's my night to stay home.

You're not technically allowed to call it babysitting

if they're yours, are you?

How many kids have you got, Mr Dunn?

Oh, Calvin, please.

Uh, Lee's eight and Mia's four. My little sweet pea.

Can anyone confirm that you were at home that night?

Ask Lee if you want, he'll tell you.

Talk your legs off, that lad.

Do you know St Margaret's Church on Pond Lane?

It's barely a mile from your house.

St Mag's? Mm.

It's, um, it's up by High End Woods?

What the hell is that?

We found dead birds hanging outside St Margaret's.

Is that funny?

It is to me, love. Yeah.

Detective Constable actually.

DC Ford.

Why's that funny?

Well, some mad bastard's killed four people

and you're worried about a few birds?

Whole world's gone mad.

They're cutting off heads in Iraq.

You see that, DC Ford?

They're cutting them off,

and they're sticking them on spikes.

It's just kind of quaint to be worried about

the little birdies, isn't it?

Your car was noted by the verger at St Margaret's

on... four occasions this last month.

Yeah. I saw that bald git giving me the evils.

I park there sometimes

when I'm going to Blockbuster for the kids.

The Parade's no stopping now,

and the church parking's always empty.

So you didn't go into the church?

No, I did once.

I was feeling a bit low.

I was looking for God, I suppose.

But God wasn't there.

Sir?

Are you okay, sir?

Sir?

I need you to turn around.

# Testator #

# Silens #

# Costestes #

# E spiritu #

# Silencium #

# Testator #

# Silens #

- Ford. - (indistinct chatter over phone)

Yeah?

- It's not my concern. It's my... - (indistinct chatter over phone)

- (Naziri) Where you going, Boss? - Homicide. Just in.

Everyone's coming, it's your send-off.

There's been a man found.

At St Margaret's Church. Pond Lane.

St Margaret's? That St Margaret's?

You were up with the lark.

The verdict came in on the Harrison case.

I heard it at the coroner's court.

- (Jack) And...? - Guilty. Both of them.

- You did good. - (Nikki) Really?

They were 15 and 16 years old.

The victim was only 14.

I say we skive off for the afternoon, hmm?

Take a long lunch by the river.

Or... we could hop on a plane,

forget about this place for a week or three, hmm?

Lee...

I'm not here to fight.

Have you seen this?

There are police all round St Margaret's Church.

No.

- (Jack) Here he is. - (Velvy) Uh, Dr Alexander.

Is it you or the Professor on call?

Uh, I'll take it.

It's a suspected homicide. Male, 30 to 40 years old.

- Uh, he's in a church in Ealing. - A church?

- Which one? - (Velvy) St Margaret's.

They think he was strangled, the ligature is still in place.

Red PVC clothesline. Knotted.

And the body was found in a kneeling position.

- Kneeling? - (Velvy) Yeah, what is it?

- Calvin Dunn? - That must be 20 years ago.

Can't be.

Uh, who's Calvin Dunn?

We'll tell you on the way.

- (uneasy music) - (indistinct chatter)

Blessed by the true Judge.

Uh, the first officers thought that he was stiff.

Does that help us narrow down when he died?

Sadly not.

Too many variables for rigor mortis

to give a postmortem interval.

No signs of struggle, no scrapes on the floor.

Police found no ID on him.

- (Nikki) What do you make of it? - (Jack) Hmm...

It's a distinctive knot.

We can check the database, see if anything similar comes up.

It's not similar. It's the same.

Same knot, same supplication pose.

- Even the same church. - (Jack) You know this case?

I took these pictures 20 years ago.

Right here.

I was a junior DC on the killings.

I'm DCI now. Jane Ford.

- Dr Alexander, pathologist. - Jack Hodgson, forensics.

This is our colleague Velvy Sheur.

You investigated Calvin Dunn?

Four victims, two male, two female,

were found strangled and placed in churches

in the West London area, 2003-2004.

A fifth woman was presumed abducted,

her body was never found.

There was a sixth attack. Dominic Johnson.

But he managed to get away.

What about Dunn? Didn't he disappear as well?

He was interviewed four times by different teams.

Never arrested.

By the time we matched his DNA to the crime scenes,

he was...

...without a trace.

So he was never charged? Never tried?

You can't charge them if you don't have them.

And now you think he's back?

Could it be some sort of copycat?

We never released details of the ligature.

The type or the knot.

Well, I get why you're connecting this

to another case, but I can't.

I can only examine what I see here, now.

And I know what I see.

You find me the evidence,

I'll do the rest.

- (Jack) No broken nails? - Uneven.

But I don't think from the struggle.

No obvious defence wounds to his hands

and nothing around the ligature either.

Hands bound before the ligature applied.

Likely killed elsewhere, then brought here?

What's he weigh? About 70 KG?

Yeah? You'd take him under the arms,

drag him backwards, right?

No drag marks.

There's nothing on the threshold or the front door.

And he's got bare feet

and there are no abrasions on his heels.

Right, so maybe, you put him on your shoulder.

No. Too far.

Wouldn't do that. I can't see him, Nikki.

There's got to be a trace, got to be a trace.

What about this?

- His jumper's orange, right? - (Nikki) Yeah.

Come here.

He carried him through here on his shoulder.

There's parchmentation around the ligature mark, here...

and all the way across to here.

Generally, that suggests a peri-mortem injury.

The ligature abrasions follow a predictable pattern

of horizontal circumscription about the neck,

distinguishable from the marks left by, say, hanging.

No discoid bruising.

The hands were bound with a cable tie.

Presumably prior to the ligature being applied.

There are petechial hemorrhages in the eyes,

consistent with an asphyxial death.

Moving to the chest and the upper torso.

There's bruising consistent with a sustained assault.

- Any ID yet? - Fingerprints came back negative.

Somewhere out there, people are missing him.

At least I hope so.

Family, friends...

It's like an echo, isn't it?