Budiey
New on Crime Investigation Network (Astro 732) This 24 November 2011
New Series
Forensic Investigators
Premieres on 24 November 2011 @ 9 pm
People are fascinated, have a morbid curiosity and are drawn to stories of murder. Investigators will take you to the scenes of infamous and bizarre murders and into the enthralling investigations that follow. Footage that has never been seen outside of the courtroom will give viewers first hand knowledge of the case. All of this is done so as to unfold the drama minute by minute – just as it unfolded for the participants themselves when the victim was murdered. In some cases, viewers will come face to face with the murder him/herself.
Paul Denyer
24 November 2011 @ 9 pm
In June 1993 Elizabeth Stevens, an 18-year-old TAFE student, didn’t arrive home after leaving a note that morning to say she’d be home around 8pm. The next day her body was found in a ditch, covered by two branches that had been torn from a nearby tree. Her throat slashed and a strange criss-cross marking was on her chest.
It was pouring with rain that night, so no evidence was found. The killer was way ahead of the police.
Three weeks later Debbie Fream, a 22-year-old woman who had just given birth 12 days before, also goes missing in the same area. She had ducked down to the local shops to get some milk and never returned.
The following day her car was found abandoned. Four days after that her body was found in a paddock 11 kilometres away. Like Elizabeth Stevens, two branches covered her body. She, too, had been stabbed in the throat.
The local community were terrified that a serial killer was on the loose… a few years before two other girls had gone missing in the area – one found murdered. The police were under considerable pressure. They knew that the killer of Debbie and Elizabeth was one and the same.
And then a third girl disappears. Natalie Russell, a 17-year-old high school student doesn’t arrive home from school. Hours later her body is found in the shrub at a golf course. At the post mortem they find a piece of skin in her slashed throat. Is it possible that the killer had cut his own hand when he cut her neck?
Detectives then got a break – a car had been spotted in the area the afternoon of the night Natalie’s body was found. It lead them to 21-year-old Paul Denyer, a large pear shaped man who was unemployed. His hands were covered in scratches and his thumb was cut.
Pulled in for questioning, Denyer denied all until police asked him for a sample of his DNA. He then confessed to killing the three girls.
