Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher, 19, Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes, 14 Feb 2019 #4

[WiseOwl]

WiseOwl many thanks for your extensive work and information reviews.
I hope you don’t mind if I ask for clarification of a couple of points so I can amend my key issues notes.

You mentioned in your last chronological review that on the 15th her phone was turned off at the Eastern
Part of the Lake. I thought it was at the Northern end somewhere between the longer bridge and Hotel. I thought on Valentines night they said she turned her phone off on the Eastern side of the lake. That would make sense to me as it would be dark at that time of night and she may have walked along Bilbrook as it has street lights otherwise she would have been walking along a very dark unlit lakeside path.
The other point is something HollyHunter and I could not find. You mentioned that when she went out on Valentines night she turned her location setting off and they were never turned back on. We felt knowing if it was turned back on later that night or the next morning was important as an indicator of her mindset and any planning she may have been making. We could not recall that being said, but then I probably need to review my case notes in greater detail.
I would be grateful if you can help with those two points.
There is yet another programme on TV about Suzy Lamplugh who went missing 35 years ago.
Why can’t a TV company get interested in this current and even more frustrating disappearance now and put some top resource and researchers on it. Not in 35 years time. It’s so frustrating!

Hi @LINEOFDUTY - Yes you are correct, it was the northern end of the lake where Leah's phone was switched off:

CCTV lost contact with Leah somewhere along the mile-long stretch between Buzzacott Lane in Furzton and Furzton Lake, and her phone was switched off or disconnected at exactly 8.34am at the northern end of Furzton Lake, close to the Premier Inn Hotel. (MK Citizen 31 December 2020).

I also checked again to see if there was any mention of Leah's location settings being turned back on again but I couldn't find any mention of this.

Hope this clears things up for you.

 

[LINEOFDUTY]

Hi @LINEOFDUTY - Yes you are correct, it was the northern end of the lake where Leah's phone was switched off:

CCTV lost contact with Leah somewhere along the mile-long stretch between Buzzacott Lane in Furzton and Furzton Lake, and her phone was switched off or disconnected at exactly 8.34am at the northern end of Furzton Lake, close to the Premier Inn Hotel. (MK Citizen 31 December 2020).

I also checked again to see if there was any mention of Leah's location settings being turned back on again but I couldn't find any mention of this.

Hope this clears things up for you.

Thanks WiseOwl. There is a coms mast in the roundabout just behind the Hotel. Several other roundabouts have masts in them so I hope a fair degree of accuracy. Not sure if any members have contacts at OpenReach as it would be valuable to
know the overall Zone where they have confidence the phone was turned off.

 

[LovelyLAM]

Maybe we're not giving the police enough credit in this case and he wasn't involved at all and nor were any members of his family. We just don't know how deeply they were investigated, mainly any brothers he or his now wife has. Honour is very important in their faiths especially with the male family members.

Yes that’s what I thought ... could there have been a loss of honour in their eyes as to what was happening between her ex and herself.

If he had an arranged marriage, that is quite extreme in itself and suggests strict cultural ‘protocol’. I wondered therefore if perhaps it may have been an honour killing.

Thé ex may Indeed be innocent and another male family member involved.
Just a thought.

 

[LovelyLAM]

Maybe we're not giving the police enough credit in this case and he wasn't involved at all and nor were any members of his family. We just don't know how deeply they were investigated, mainly any brothers he or his now wife has. Honour is very important in their faiths especially with the male family members.

Yes that’s what I thought ... could there have been a loss of honour in their eyes as to what was happening between her ex and herself.

If he had an arranged marriage, that is quite extreme in itself and suggests strict cultural ‘protocol’. I wondered therefore if perhaps it may have been an honour killing.

Thé ex may Indeed be innocent and another male family member involved.
Just a thought.

 

[Miss_French]

I agree about X, Skigh, but am keeping an open mind to other possibilities that could be disproven if eg WC was at work.

WC was a member of the Met and based in Bromley when Leah disappeared. He only moved to the PaDP in Feb 2020 and was still working in London.

Yes, there's TA in Milton Keynes, but for a completely different branch to that WC was in, so he would not have been involved with them directly. Unlike Dover, MK is not, nor ever was, a strategic location and didn't need tunnels and fortifications; the coastal ones date back centuries anyway.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

WC was a member of the Met and based in Bromley when Leah disappeared. He only moved to the PaDP in Feb 2020 and was still working in London.

Yes, there's TA in Milton Keynes, but for a completely different branch to that WC was in, so he would not have been involved with them directly. Unlike Dover, MK is not, nor ever was, a strategic location and didn't need tunnels and fortifications; the coastal ones date back centuries anyway.

You're right that WC didn't start with PaDP until February 2020. There's one more thing left to say about WC regarding this however, which is the geographical profile. He has a clear "anchor point" established in Oxfordshire 2011-2018, as this was the headquarters and training centre for the CNC. He would regularly have been there. Profilers consider anchor points to be long-lasting, even after they've stopped being actively used.

We have to be careful not to decide on a suspect that we never rule out even when evidence suggests we should, but it's worth one more like at WC for this, based on this anchor point.

You can see it illustrated in this slide.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Gotta ask, why would a young woman switch off her location settings? She must have been aware that someone else was watching her movements (either with agreement - parents/boyfriend, or without).

 

[sundaaaay]

There could be a connection to WC as he seems to have turned off his victim SE’s phone promptly, but if I remember correctly in this case, it is believed her location settings were turned off the previous night also.

I still suspect it has something to do with her location being visible to friends on Snapchat maps. I can’t see another reason for it to be turned off. Even if she was planning on a voluntary disappearance, would she care to turn off her location settings.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

I've not had much detail on this case and haven't followed it closely. But I just had a look at the geography of it.

Firstly, the night of the 14th when LC was out for 75 minutes. Here are two isochrone maps, which tell you how far you can get at a given speed. One shows how far she could have got by foot for 35 minutes (i.e. accounting for there-and-back) and the other is how far she could have got in a car 35 minutes (there-and-back).

Realistically she wouldn't have travelled for 35 minutes and turned around, but this shows the bounds.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Ok now the most obvious theories based on crime profiling, and the geography of the area:

- She switched location off on the 14th to meet someone for sex. 75 minutes is 'enough' to meet someone for that and return home. possibly for money, possibly a bf/acquaintance, or sugar-daddy type arrangement;

- If her phone location was being watched by a possible boyfriend, perhaps a suspicious one (rightly or wrongly), and location is unknown until the next morning, he would have likely intercepted her on her known route to work;

- If the above point isn't true, then she's walking to work and is intercepted by a stranger. If this is the case I'd say most likely in the sports/play area around the lake, or the Premier Inn across the lake;

- Out-of-home disappearances are overwhelmingly stranger-related, though not always. Anyone in MK on business staying at the Premier Inn would be checking out approx. 7-9am, and would have either been a stranger or someone LC has loose acquaintance with (again thinking sugar-daddy);

- MK attracts a lot of daily business visitors. 99% of people who stay in hotels near motorway junctions do not live in the area. Connecting the out-of-home disappearance, the girl's profile, this location, and the fact that a hotel would be emptying of people from miles away, suggests an abduction;

- Friend/family murders tend to leak, or bodies (or other evidence) gets found. The absolute vanishing of LC again suggests stranger;

- Play area next to Furzton Sports Ground is particularly shady looking, the kind of place you might go to have sex (possible either for the 14th night or to re-meet/intercept someone on the 15th);

- Whatever theory, I'm certain the A5 and A421 are critical to LC's disappearance;

- If she was spontaneously murdered on her route, there's an obvious area where her body would likely be found, illustrated in the attachment.

 

[dotr]

Ok so I've not had much detail on this case and haven't followed it closely. But I just had a look at the geography of it.

Firstly, the night of the 14th when LC was out for 75 minutes. Here are two isochrone maps, which tell you how far you can get at a given speed. One shows how far she could have got by foot for 35 minutes (i.e. accounting for there-and-back) and the other is how far she could have got in a car 35 minutes (there-and-back).

Realistically she wouldn't have travelled for 35 minutes and turned around, but this shows the bounds.

Thanks for the maps, interesting!

 

[StillDiggin]

Reward to find Leah has increased to £20,000.
Facebook

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

How do the parents know she got up after they left and that she followed her exact routine if they weren’t there to witness that?

For all we know she snuck out after 10pm and came back for fresh clothes after they left for work the next day. For all we know.

 

[WiseOwl]

How do the parents know she got up after they left and that she followed her exact routine if they weren’t there to witness that?

For all we know she snuck out after 10pm and came back for fresh clothes after they left for work the next day. For all we know.

Because she was seen at 8.15 the following morning on CCTV in Buzzacott Lane on her way to work. Her normal routine was to leave home around 8.00 so she would be in Buzzacott around 15 minutes later which was one of her normal walking routes to work.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Because she was seen at 8.15 the following morning on CCTV in Buzzacott Lane on her way to work. Her normal routine was to leave home around 8.00 so she would be in Buzzacott around 15 minutes later which was one of her normal walking routes to work.

But all that means is she was seen then and there on CCTV. We can’t deduce from that where she was the 10 hours before that.

 

[WiseOwl]

But all that means is she was seen then and there on CCTV. We can’t deduce from that where she was the 10 hours before that.

Why are you trying to deduce where she was at 10.00pm the previous night for?

Also in your post #693 you said that how did the parents know she got up after they left well surely the CCTV footage of Leah on her way to work at 8.15 would support the fact that she left home around 8.00 as per her normal routine - where do you think she'd been then?

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

Why are you trying to deduce where she was at 10.00pm the previous night for?

Also in your post #693 you said that how did the parents know she got up after they left well surely the CCTV footage of Leah on her way to work at 8.15 would support the fact that she left home around 8.00 as per her normal routine - where do you think she'd been then?

I'm just saying that the parents stated as fact that LC got up after they left. So did they know she was in the house when she left for a fact, or did they assume because that's the routine?

That's all I'm saying - not casting aspersions, but in a case like this everything considered a fact should be questionable.

 

[Atoz]

If I remember correctly, her half sister saw her leaving for work that morning. We don't know whether that was in person. I suspect it was virtually via Snapchat or something.

 

[dotr]

I'm just saying that the parents stated as fact that LC got up after they left. So did they know she was in the house when she left for a fact, or did they assume because that's the routine?

That's all I'm saying - not casting aspersions, but in a case like this everything considered a fact should be questionable.

Fair enough, as a teen i sometimes filled a laundry basket with my coat boots and purse, cover it with actual laundry, then slip into the basement and out the window, to see who i was not supposed to see - then back in my bed before my parents woke up in the morning.

 

[ApparentlyInDenial]

I’m just asking questions. I really don’t understand the sarcasm and hostility. A bit odd and definitely a surprise.