All language subtitles for In.The.Footsteps.Of.Killers.S01E03.WEBRip.x264-ION10[eztv.re]

Rita Ellis, an unsolved murder.

1967, a brutal attack on
a cold November night.

She was an RAF service woman.

Yeah.

And it's remained unsolved for 53 years.

I've got Rita Ellis's
inquest here from 1968,

which is very detailed.

It describes a lot of
background on the case

and where her body was found

Rita Ellis was murdered on
the 11th of November, 1967.

So it was the night
before Remembrance Day.

She was a cook, wasn't she?

Yeah, she'd been at the camp

for five months before her death,

and this was her second posting.

Now, this is interesting.

According to the inquest, she
was due to babysit that night

for a Wing Commander Watson.

We've got also a report
that she's seen walking

towards a red car and
she was found dead here

at RAF Halton, one of the
largest RAF training bases

in the UK.

And at the time of Rita's murder,

there were 2000 people
working on the camp.

I think a starting point is
to walk Rita's last moments

and see what that could
tell us about her death.

Let's head to the crime scene.

According to the inquest,

her body was found in a
copse beyond these trees.

I think this is it.

Rowborough Copse.

So Rita's body would have been found

up against one of these posts.

So eerie, isn't it?

She was partially clothed.

She had been strangled,

it looks like by her own knickers.

And there was a crude
attempt at covering her,

wasn't there, with foliage?

Yeah, rather inexpertly, if you ask me.

It was relatively easily
found the following morning

by a dog walker.

These posts mark the western
perimeter of RAF Halton.

So the very edges of the camp.

How do we think that Rita got here?

Did she come willingly in the car?

Did she realise something was
wrong and try and run away?

Was she dragged here?

I just don't know the answer to that.

Does the inquest tell us anything?

Well, the inquest gives us

a bit more definitive information

and it was Keith Simpson
that was the pathologist.

He put the time of death about 9:00 PM.

This area would have been dark.

We were in November.

This is isolated.

It's a disused area.

So the perpetrator would have
had time to do what it is

that they wanted to do.

And here, again,

there's something that
might be significant.

She was virgo intacto,

so there had been no penetration,

although there was chafing at her vagina.

But crucially, she was still a virgin.

What do you do with a case like this

which is over 50 years old?

Can it ever be solved when
the possible perpetrator

might even be dead now?

Well, it's not easy is it?

It's 1967, so we don't have ANPR.

We don't have mobile phone records.

We don't have CCTV.

Forensic evidence?

Rita's case was reopened

by the Thames Valley Police in 2007.

And, surprisingly, they have been able

to generate a full DNA
profile of the perpetrator.

That's gonna be useful.

Yeah, but any testing they've done

in the investigation
hasn't led to a conviction.

I think we should guard
against simply thinking

of Rita as just another murdered girl.

We've gotta build up a picture

of what she was like when she was alive.

Have a look at this.

I've managed to uncover some footage

of her passing out
parade at RAF Spitalgate,

where she did her training.

Look, there they are having a laugh.

Still haven't seen Rita though.

-There she is.
-Where?

There she is, just there

with her hand on her mouth.

So on the outskirts of the fun.

Here she comes

She looks shy, doesn't she?

Being in front of the
camera, with her head down.

And that totally fits
with the descriptions

that we have of her.

The inquest describes her

as a lonely girl looking for company.

She didn't have a boyfriend.

She didn't drink or smoke.

And she spent her time off duty reading

or watching television.

And another description is
that she was a shy person

that, if an officer came along,

she wouldn't dare to say to him,

are you the wing commander?

She'd have just got in the
car, assuming it was him.

That might be quite important.

Another contemporary
described her as a gentle soul

who wouldn't have been able
to put up much of a fight.

She had no aggression in her.

All of these descriptions
paint a similar picture

of her, don't they, that she
was a lovely girl, gentle.

quiet, timid, shy, and
vulnerable to other people.

But I suppose

if we're trying to discover
who it was that killed her,

we really need to know much more

about that final hour that she's alive.

David, I tracked down
this guy called Steve Tank

who was an apprentice at RAF Halton.

Apparently he saw Rita
on the night she died.

Steve, how well did you know Rita?

Well, I didn't know Rita
at all until that night.

And, as it transpires, I
might well have been one

of the last ones to see her alive.

So what happened that night?

I was going out with a trainee nurse

and I'd arranged to meet her

outside the WAF block that night.

Where was that, the WAF block?

It was just at the top of this hill.

Yeah.

And to the left.

It was about quarter past seven,

I turned up to meet Liz, Liz Hearn,

and she came out of the
WAF block with her friend

who I later found out was Rita Ellis.

She said, Rita's gonna be babysitting.

Can we walk her down to the guard room?

November night, it would have been dark

at that time as well.

It was cold and it was foggy, misty.

Right.

So I said, yes, but you
know, I don't really want to

because at that time we
weren't allowed to associate

with any of the other staff.

I could have got thrown
out of the Air Force.

-For being with Liz?
-Yes.

Right.

So we walked down to the guard room here.

So I think we were only there

for about three or four minutes.

She said, well, you might as well go.

I'll be all right.

I'm getting picked up.

Rita said that?

Rita said that, yeah.

So what time do you think you left Rita?

Between 25 past, half past seven.

And that was the last time you saw Rita?

That's the first and last.

-First and last.
-Yeah, yep.

And when did you find out about
what had happened to Rita?

It must've been about two
days later, I suppose,

when we were all being
interviewed by the police

'cause they'd said the name.

It was then I realised it was Rita Ellis

that we'd walked down
to the guard room with.

Yeah.

Do you have a theory of who
you think might be responsible?

No, I haven't a clue.

Honestly, I wouldn't know.

I've dug out some newspaper articles

and taken some facts from the inquest

to try and work out Rita's last movements.

So let's see if we can
actually plot them down.

Steve says he thinks that
he might have been one

of the last people to see Rita that night

and he escorted Rita and Liz
from block seven at 7:15 PM

to the guard room, which was
about five minutes walk away.

Then he and Liz left Rita there

at the guard house at about 7:25 PM.

Okay, the next thing that we know for sure

from the coroner's inquiry
is that the wing commander

is gonna leave his house at 7:31

and therefore it's gonna take some minutes

to get to the camp,

but the key thing is he's
already running late.

And there was confusion

about where he was going to
pick up Rita, wasn't there?

So it was possible that
Rita was at the guard house

whilst the wing commander

was outside the women's
accommodation block.

So they would have missed each other.

Well, and he can't go into
it because he's a man.

Therefore, he had to return home

because he wanted to get his wife

because his wife could go
into the female accommodation.

So then the next known thing is

that Rita was seen by Sylvie
Banks who said in the inquest

and that her friend Rita was
in block seven at 8:00 PM

and Sylvie asked her what
she was doing that night

and Rita said that she
was going to babysit.

Now, meanwhile, the wing
commander has gone home.

He's got his wife with
him now, but crucially,

they searched block six, not block seven.

Oh, so he's made a mistake.

Yeah.

And the next thing that we
know from the police report

is that there was a sighting of Rita

between 8:00 and 8:15 at the gymnasium.

And then there's this
account in the newspaper

that she's seen walking
towards a man driving

a red Cortina around about 8:10

and then the next definitive
piece of information

that we have, according
to the coroner's inquiry,

is that she was murdered at 9:00 PM.

But just to make things
even more complicated,

on the 50th anniversary appeal,

the Thames Valley Police say that night,

two events, that civilians
could come to, were being held.

There was bingo and a disco on camp.

And therefore who actually
is responsible here?

Is it someone on the camp or
someone from the community?

Well, whoever they are

they committed a terrible
crime and we need their name

and we need to find them.

I've traced a policeman who
worked in the incident room

on the first investigation
into Rita's murder.

His name is Michael Clanfield.

I'm hoping he can give
us some information.

Have you had any luck
with former officers?

Yes, I have.

I've tracked down an ex policemen

who was actually there

on the day that Rita's body was found.

This is the actual incident room.

That handsome chap there
is me with dark hair.

Oh my goodness.

What were the early theories

about what had happened to Rita?

I think the feeling was
that maybe she mistook

the car that pulled up.

At that time, when we used
to go out to any nightclubs,

the girls would stand on
the road for a lift home

and thumb a lift home.

It was like normal practise.

Chaps, you always used to
go there and pick girls up

they didn't know just
to give them a lift home

to start a relationship.

How does that fit though, with Rita,

still thinking that she
was going babysitting?

Now, if the offender pulled
up and she was anxious to go,

she could have volunteered
that information quite easily.

Have you come to pick
me up for babysitting?

And all he's got to say
is yes and she gets in.

That's what sits with me more logically.

So random opportunity was taken.

And was the wing commander,

by virtue of having been the man

who was meant to be picking up Rita

for babysitting that night,

was he an early person of
interest in the investigation?

At the beginning, he was
obviously a first one,

needs to be seen.

From what I've heard, he was quite angry.

He was not happy.

I mean, he was a high ranking officer

and this was a young apprentice
and she'd let him down.

So she was going on my report,

which is not the reaction

of someone who's took her up
in the woods and murdered her.

Right.

And were there people

of interest early in the investigation?

Because this was a sexual offence.

Yes.

A lot of the inquiry was based on people

who might have a sexual tendency.

Right.

Most of the information seemed
to come from the females

of having bad experience with males.

We call them stalkers now, don't we?

Right?.

But in them days, they were
just creeps, weren't they?

But they were the same type of person

that gave a female an
uncomfortable feeling.

So in the statement taken, if
it was a person of interest,

they would take swabs

and do the basics and the
fingerprints and things like that.

And why did the police take DNA swabs

at the time when DNA testing
wasn't common practise?

My opinion is it was an avenue

that hadn't been used

that would have possibly
ruffled the suspect's feathers

and cause some sort of
irrational behaviour.

And because it was a murder,

you'd get a Home Office
pathologist and forensics.

They would retain everything

in any shape or form
for future examination.

You're the last person alive

who attended the crime scene
on that Sunday morning.

That's right, yeah.

When you walked
into the murder site itself,

what were your first impressions?

Yeah. Shock.

Shock, really.

You couldn't take a lot of it in.

All around was items of her clothing

on the trees and things.

It implied to me that
she'd been terrified.

and running around, fighting
for her life, so to speak.

The body was not a pretty sight.

Poor girl was lying there, on her back,

almost naked.

Been to many, many death scenes before,

but this was one which you
can't forget it, to be honest.

Was there evidence

that she had been sexually
assaulted at the time?

It appeared to me she had, yeah.

Just the way she was lying,

her clothing removed and

and just, why was she lying

there like that in the
first place, you know?

Doug, if she had
screamed at this spot.

Nobody would have heard, no.

The garage would've been closed.

Tea rooms was closed.

It's a good 50 yards
in from the main road.

Why would they go to such a remote spot

in the first place?

Was she going there willingly

or was she forced there?

The only sense I can make is

that she was taken there
by the perpetrator.

Whether it was someone she knew

or a complete stranger, I can't say,

but I mean, I can't see
him dragging her there,

to be honest.

I mean, there would've been
plenty of time to escape.

Did you or your colleagues
form any impression

as to who this might have
been that killed Rita?

Initially? No, no.

But afterwards, you just sort
of start thinking, you know,

is it somebody local?

Is it somebody from the camp?

Someone she knew?

One fellow was sort of suspected.

He used to live in the scrapyard

down at Rosie Bridge.

Who was that?

That was a fellow named Fletcher.

I've got a suspect.

It's a guy called Fletcher.

Right, tell me
what you know about him.

Well, at the minute, not very much,

but apparently he lived
in a scrapyard near

to where Rita was murdered.

And here's the thing, he'd
previously been investigated

for sexual assaults.

Well, I'll look into that

and try and find out
some more information.

This is our man.

His name was Joseph Hulson Fletcher.

He was a scrap metal dealer

and he lived in a caravan in
the woods around the RAF camp.

And a short time after Rita's murder,

he was arrested for the sexual assault

of a 17-year-old girl.

How old was he?

He was 49.

But there's just one problem.

I contacted Thames Valley
Police because, as you know,

they've got a DNA profile of the killer.

They won't give specific details

about the DNA profile they have,

but they have told us that
we can rule out Fletcher

because his DNA doesn't
match the DNA they have

of Rita's killer.

And neither does Wing Commander Watson's.

Well, it's back
to square one then.

Well, I've
arranged for us to speak

to some apprentices from RAF
Halton who were there in 1967.

Will you tell me how you
learned about Rita's murder?

I don't think it was straight away.

It was about the time
that we were asked to go

and give witness statements to the police.

Were you shocked that this murder

could have taken place on the camp?

Yes, definitely.

It's just not something we'd
never thought would happen.

In 50 years, has there been
another murder at Halton?

No, so it was pretty unique.

Pretty shocking, to be honest.

Do you remember rumours about any suspect

who people thought might
have been responsible?

There were a couple people in the frame.

One was an apprentice who was a bit

of a loner, an oddball.

He was also a boxer who was notorious

for his ability to be physical.

Get into fights?

Yeah, he'd get into fights.

My abiding memory is of
him holding a guy's belt

and his neck and ramming
his head into a stone wall,

which resulted, as it turned
out, with a fractured skull.

Oh my goodness.

So if you were going to look at someone

to put in the frame,

probably he would be an ideal candidate.

But there was also a corporal

that lived with us in the block.

The corporal was a very strange bloke.

You could never get to know him.

He was slightly remote,

and he was quite a tough guy, you know?

Why did he become a suspect?

The first time I heard it mentioned

was at this reunion in 1989.

You know, we had discussed,
who do you think did it?

One person said to me, I'd heard

that this guy had blood
on his hands or his shirt.

That's, again, hearsay and second thing,

but that's the first
time I heard about that

and that was quite a shock.

So that's two more suspects,

the apprentice and the corporal.

What do you remember about
the investigation at the time?

That's interesting.

The apprentice.

He was known to be a boxer.

Now he was described to me

as someone who was pretty violent

and got into horrible
fights, but it's not him.

I've spoken to the police and
he was a person of interest,

but they did a DNA test on him

and he's been forensically eliminated.

That's a bit of a surprise.

The second suspect was a corporal.

It was a story that seemingly emerges,

not during the investigation,

but several years later.

It was never reported to
the police at the time,

but I still think about him being seen

with blood on his hands.

On the night of Rita's murder?

Yeah.

I don't know how much to
give credence to that story.

Rita's murder was a strangulation.

It doesn't say anywhere in the inquest

there was blood from her injuries

and indeed, it wasn't
mentioned by Doug Manderfield,

who saw her body.

So it could just be hearsay years later.

Well, I checked with the police.

They confirmed that they
have this person's details,

but we can't take it forward anymore

because the files are closed to us.

So with all these names out
of the frame as suspects,

we're still no farther forward.

Where next?

Well, we might not have any suspects,

but I don't feel we're at a dead end.

I just think we need to broaden the search

to find out what was happening
at the area at the time.

I'm gonna reach out to
some local newspapers

to see if we can get more information.

Good idea.

I'm gonna head to the archives

to see if any historical
newspaper reports throw up

any new leads.

Because this case is so old,

I think it's key to try to
understand that late 60s period.

Politics and attitudes towards women were

so different back then, things
could be pretty repressive.

And Rita worked on an RAF base,

a highly masculine military world.

I agree.

And you've got to ask,

did all of that have a
bearing on Rita's murder?

Three girls have been savagely
attacked in seven weeks.

One of them, Rita Ellis
of RAF Halton, died.

Ann Simmons was attacked on her way home

on November the 25th.

Janet X was the victim of a brutal attack

at Little Tring.

Another girl has been
accosted by an assailant,

and this time in Wingrave.

I've just discovered there
were a number of attacks

on women in the same area

in the three months after Rita was killed

and police at the time
clearly linked the offender

to Rita's murder.

Well, sadly, you may be able

to add another attack to the list.

Through speaking to the local newspaper,

I found a woman who was
attacked four months

after Rita was murdered in the local area.

She was only 15 when it happened
and she never reported it

to the police at the time.

She says she's happy to talk to me,

but she doesn't want to be identified.

Linda, can you tell me what happened

to you in the spring of 1968?

Well, I'd been to a discotheque

and gets very hot in there,

so I decided to go for a walk

and post a letter at the same time.

This is in Aylesbury?

In Aylesbury.

And a car stopped and he called me over.

The man, I think he was in his 20s,

was fair haired, and he
had a distinctive chin

and he was well spoken.

Well spoken?

Yeah.

He said he had medical supplies
and if he didn't get them

to Halton Hospital,
somebody was going to die,

and could I show him the way?

He opened the door and
I did get in the car.

He drove down a little lane and he said,

I've got to stop the car.

And I tried to get out the car

and I couldn't get out.

I just couldn't.

I don't know why I couldn't get out.

And he got really, really angry.

I start panicking.

I knew I was in trouble.

I'm trying to fumble around and get out,

and he just puts his
hands around my throat,

starts strangling me.

And said, you're not going
to give me trouble as well.

You're not going to
give me trouble as well?

What did that make you think?

He's done it before.

And then I immediately thought,

you're the one that killed Rita.

Linda, did you feel fear for your life?

I think he would have killed me

if I hadn't quietened down and
done what he told me to do.

He pulled me over onto his lap

and then he assaulted me.

Are you able to describe
the things he does to you?

I'd rather not.

-Too painful?
Mm.

And in the end he drove me home.

And when you got home,

did you tell anybody that night?

No.

You just didn't feel able?

No, I couldn't, no.

Linda, when did you
report this to the police?

About 12 or 13 years later.

So we're in the 1980s?

Yeah, early 80s.

Years ago, you didn't
talk about those things.

You know, I'd have been
probably frowned on.

But it was different times.

-It really was.

I'm glad times have changed

and women can talk about them now,

and you're not looked
down on or frowned on,

but years ago, you couldn't.

And I'm sure there's
other people out there

and the same thing's happened to them.

What did you find out?

You know those sex
assaults that you uncovered

-in the newspapers?
Yeah.

At the time after Rita's murder.

I've interviewed one woman,

who didn't want to be identified,

who said that she was
attacked by this man.

Now, this poor woman was so ashamed.

She just didn't feel
able to go to the police.

And indeed it took several years

before she was prepared to
report what happened to her.

Well, there are still echoes
of that today, aren't there,

where victims of sexual assault

are afraid to come forward and, you know,

from feeling ashamed or for
fear of not being believed.

And these are issues
that the Me Too movement

is trying to address.

Listen to this article that I found

which highlights the attitude
to sexual crimes in the 1960s.

This is about Rita, but
the article goes on to say,

"Some reported incidents are
really only trumped-up excuses

"by girls wishing

"to explain away
embarrassing circumstances."

That's truly, truly shocking.

And, get this, women are foolhardy

if they walk along dark lanes
at night, unaccompanied.

So, all blaming women and the victims.

I cannot stand that kind
of victim blaming approach

to criminology.

-It's awful.
-And trivialising the crimes.

If we think about all of that, though,

in relation to Rita's
case, you can, in a way,

see these sorts of attitudes playing out.

Rita's life was coldly
disposed of by her killer,

all because he wanted
sexual gratification.

But the question is, can
we unmask Rita's killer

as being the same person
who committed the string

of sexual attacks in the local area?

I want to profile these attacks

to see if they are connected to Rita.

So I'm gonna meet a local journalist

to see if he might be able to help me.

Hi.

Sam, there were a number of
attacks in the weeks and months

after Rita was murdered

around RAF Halton that have

similar characteristics to each other.

Yes, there's multiple press reports.

And Little Tring, where we're
driving to at the moment,

was the second in the sequence of attacks

after Rita's murder, was it?

Janet X, as she was known.

She was a student nurse at
West Hertfordshire Hospital

and she was visiting a friend
who lived in Little Tring.

How far away is
Little Tring from Halton?

It's about four miles.

So this is very close to the camp?

Correct.

And we're just approaching
the location now.

So Janet X was walking down this road

when she suddenly become aware

of a man walking in front of her

and he's turned around and
asked her for the time.

She immediately recognised
that she was in danger

and she started to run,
but he's grabbed her.

He's hit her with a cosh

and ultimately dragged her into the field.

Is she unconscious and he's
pulling her into the field?

Yeah, she said that she lost consciousness

and he dragged her about
300 yards into the field.

Do we have any indication

about how bad her injuries were?

No, but, I mean, the police described it

as a very brutal attack

and they said that he
must've thought she was dead.

Well, there are
similarities, aren't there,

to the murder of Rita?

The age of the victims.

What happens to the victims.

This perpetrator clearly
left Janet X for dead,

according to what you've told me.

And, of course, the timeline
is very interesting.

It's within a matter of a few
weeks after the murder of Rita

and it's only four miles
away from RAF Halton.

I've also heard from another woman

who was attacked around this time,

and she was pretty convinced

that the person who attacked
her had also killed Rita.

Do you know, you're giving
me a lot to think about.

Do we know if the victim
from here, Janet X,

gave a physical description to the police?

She actually gave a description.

So this is the photo fit
from Janet X's description?

Correct.

And this also matches the description

of the man who attacked
the girl in Wingrave.

So this might be
the face of Rita's killer.

Trilby man.

Let's run through
what we know about his MO.

We know he has access to a car.

We know that he knows the local area,

and that he uses a ruse
to get girls into the car.

He asks them for the time

or he says that he's got medical supplies.

That, to me, suggests that
he has a level of confidence

and he even looks confident,
the way he dresses.

And, of course, no one
has ever been caught

for these attacks or for Rita's murder.

And, of course, we know that
he uses a level of violence

because he used a cosh
in the Little Tring rape

and he attempted to throttle Linda.

But I still have a problem here.

If this is a sequence of attacks,

then after Rita's murder,

they've deescalated in their severity,

and, in my experience,
that rarely happens.

If you think about what happens to Rita

and then what happens to Linda.

In Linda's assault, after
the assault finishes,

he takes her to her home.

Now that's a very different MO

from the one that we've been discussing.

And even in the Little Tring
rape, he achieves coitus,

but he doesn't kill that victim.

But he left her for dead, didn't he?

So he thought that he'd killed her.

Yeah, but he's been with a victim

who's actually died, Rita,

and therefore he knows the difference

between killing someone
and leaving them for dead.

So I have real problems here.

I'm convinced Trilby man did not kill Rita

because the MOs are just too different.

So frustrating, isn't it,

not being able to pinpoint the name

of viable suspects.

Well, with the passage of time

and such limited avenues
of research, we can't.

But what we can do is, using
21st-century technology,

begin to understand how
and why she was killed.

We need to look at the murder using

the latest medical technology

to see if that offers any new
information on Rita's death.

So I've asked a leading pathologist

and an anatomy lecturer to help us.

Siobhan has set up the
digital anatomy table

with all the marks that Simpson describes.

It's absolutely incredible.

This is a real way of
piercing through some

of the myth that we've
inherited in relation

to what happened to poor Rita.

David, you've had the opportunity,

for the first time in 50 years,
to really look at this case

from a pathologist's point of view.

What have you discovered?

The description given
by the autopsy report

by Keith Simpson is quite limited,

so I suspect he sanitised
it for the jury inquest,

so not all the details are there.

But, I mean, he gave the cause of death

and he specifically talked
about the mark around the neck

and he described a ligature mark.

He describes it being at
the front of the neck,

so what he's basically saying is

that the strangulation
was probably from behind

Your revelation that she's strangled

from behind didn't really
emerge at the inquest.

She was strangled from behind.

Yeah.

That's with her own knickers.

The thing that struck me is,

if he had intended to do it,

he might've brought something
to use for strangulation

like a rope or use his own belt or a tie,

but it's quite specific,
isn't it, to use her knickers?

It's odd.

I mean, it is odd.

It does imply that that her
knickers were already off,

unfortunately, before she was strangled.

The pathologist also talks
about bruising on the knees,

will, knee bruising is sort
of collapsing forwards,

and then bruising on the toes.

Now, toe bruising tends to suggest

that she's probably dug
her feet into the ground

while she's being strangled

which would support
strangulation from behind.

Because if you're being
strangled from the front,

you then get injuries
on the back of the heels

'cause they sort of kick on the ground.

And the weird thing is,

there isn't much talk
about other injuries.

You've got just one area of
bruising on the left arm.

There's no evidence from
the pathology, is there,

of a tremendous fight being put up by her?

Not in the pathology
given at the inquest, no.

There's no vegetation marks.

Would the vegetation marks
be from running away?

Yes.

Yeah, running away through-

And you'd see scratches on her legs or...

Yup. Yup.

I think one of the police
officers talks about,

in the inquest, dense undergrowth.

So we assume there's lots of bracken,

lots of sharp bits of vegetation

which would scratch the leg.

So you'd expect to see that.

So it implies that there
isn't much of a struggle.

And does it
also imply she's likely

to have known her murderer?

That is the implication, yes.

This fact that's revealed
that she's virgo intacta,

can we take that as read

that she was still a virgin when she died?

I don't think we can.

I think there might be a degree
of massaging the evidence

for the family at the inquest.

One of the problems is you can
actually have penetrative sex

and not actually tear the hymen.

It said in the inquest

that she was a very quiet,
unassuming individual.

Maybe she went along with it

because she was a timid individual.

The knickers being off
and her being strangled

with her own knickers implies
that it was going too far,

is how I've seen things.

This isn't what I was expecting.

It's now going too far.

I'm leaving.

It implies a degree of consent

at the start of the process.

I get the impression of
this being a young man,

inexperienced, didn't set out

to do what he eventually did,

which is why he's having
to use Rita's own underwear

to strangle her.

And I certainly didn't get the impression

that we're dealing with
a putative serial killer.

I didn't get the impression
that this is the, you know,

this is somebody who is a psychopath,

which is, I believe the word-

What that the coroner said, yeah.

That the coroner used.

I just get the impression

of a dreadful five minutes of madness.

What emerges is a very different
profile of the perpetrator

from some of the things that
have previously been suggested.

It becomes obvious now, doesn't it,

that Rita knew the person who killed her?

In my life as a criminologist,

because there's a body

because there's a DNA profile,

that would normally be game over.

We'd catch the person.

This is much more complex.

We're back at Rowborough Copse

where Rita's body was found

and where we began this investigation.

53 years ago, the inquest
said that Rita was murdered

by persons unknown.

Are we any further forwards?

Have we taken our civilian investigation

as far as we can, do you think?

Yeah, and I think we've
made a little progress.

We can now establish a motive

that Rita was killed
after a sexual encounter

that went horribly wrong.

And we can say that, in all probability,

she knew the person who killed her.

Seven out of 10 women who are murdered

are murdered by someone that they know.

And when it comes to
narrowing down suspects,

I think we're back to looking
at someone who did this coming

from the camp and that Rita
knew who it was that killed her

and that culprit has never been caught.

But everyone that knew Rita says

that she was an unassuming
and trusting person.

So we just don't know what
she submitted herself to.

She may have been scared or coerced,

and this was the 60s
and women were expected

to be more compliant.

They didn't have the
voice that they do now.

And for that, it seems that, sadly,

Rita paid the ultimate price

In relation to solving
who killed Rita Ellis,

that's a mystery that still eludes us.