Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher - Emerson Valley - Milton Keynes - #6

[infinit]

Why do most assume that she was grabbed by the house? Rather than the house being used to hide her body after the event? Do we assume that he was at the house every day at the same time Leah walked past? Was he living there in secret? If not where was he living at the time? Where' did he kill himself ,was it at a property or found in the open somewhere? surely if he was working at the house every day as opposed to just say checking the property every week, the neighbour next door would have been aware of this?
unless he was doing a lot of work there Why would be there so often?

The assumption is made because it is directly on one of the two most likely routes she would take to work.

 

[BrianJohnson]

Every possibility depending on the circumstances leading up to her disappearance (was he watching her), we would have to understand his mentality at the time as well, I personally don't think it was a pre planned murder, he didn't seem to be planning his own death beforehand, he was looking for work, driving around the country to evade capture etc.. I believe he had a mental problem and could not control the urges that the vast majority of us can, he acted out of instinct and that started the unfortunate chain of events, plus if he planned to kill her and was worried about the police why would he leave the body in a property that he knew the owners would be coming to in a matter of months? That would be more of a concern than an accusation of sexual assault.

All those things are true but if he had lured her into that house for forced sexual activity no way imho would she ever leave that house alive, she would go straight to the police and he would be looking at serious jail time (given the soft sentences he got in the past that is probably wishful thinking though )

 

[infinit]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but I do wonder if the parking ticket is as simple as it was part of the scheme to avoid the Police. He has clearly had some ability to avoid them, with the number of arrest attempts that have been made at places where he has not been, at least not anymore. Registering his vehicle to an address he isn't actually living at would perhaps be part of that.

 

[Macarey1973]

Thanks .Ok so we are assuming someone could track her location through her phone. Her parents? I know some do this with children's phones but seems strange to do this for an adult

Yes the police made a point of including this information in their statement because it looks suspicious - I would think that a lot of younger women still living at home and just meeting friends and not hiding anything from their parents would have some app showing their whereabouts these days, also Findmyphone would need it to be switched on, Google maps, Uber, Facebook when you are saying where you are on a photo, that sort of thing so it’s strange to turn it off on those two occasions so close to one another before she vanished. It’s more to conceal her location. Mobile phones can still be tracked by the police even if the location is turned off. Whether her phone was ultimately destroyed I am not sure.

 

[Macarey1973]

The assumption is made because it is directly on one of the two most likely routes she would take to work.

Also she was not spotted on any further cctv on her usual route to work after that area and I assume the police have most likely checked every route they can think of to be sure of no further sightings. They have a small window of the last sighting versus the time she was due to arrive at work.

 

[BrianJohnson]

Is there any real possibility that he never killed her but hid/disposed of the body on behalf of someone else?

By all accounts he was a gypsy and there was a travellers fair going on in the area not far from where Leah went missing so occured to me maybe she was killed by a fellow gypsy and given the gypsy community is close knit he disposed of the body as had a ‘free house‘ to do it

Unlikely but i do remember the travellers fair at the time and him being a gypsy may not be a coincidence

 

[Plod]

Why do most assume that she was grabbed by the house? Rather than the house being used to hide her body after the event? Do we assume that he was at the house every day at the same time Leah walked past? Was he living there in secret? If not where was he living at the time? Where' did he kill himself ,was it at a property or found in the open somewhere? surely if he was working at the house every day as opposed to just say checking the property every week, the neighbour next door would have been aware of this?
unless he was doing a lot of work there Why would be there so often?

Maybe because it’s directly on her route, it seems most logical he was there and that’s where he abducted her, rather than somewhere else on the route and then have to bring her back or murdered her elsewhere and risk being seen. I just assumed he was staying there secretly, but yes he could have been staying elsewhere. But i think it’s opportunist and he’s there in the morning and seen her regularly and he’s abducted her whilst he had the chance? I assume if he’d killed himself in house, they’d maybe have checked the rest of the house ?

 

[SpursGyal]

I Have a couple of location tracking apps, one my phones default and another that can be used with multiple model phones. One has family, My husband, my children and also my sister and parents...

One was set up in a friendship group after one of us ended up in a violent situation.. Its actually quite common for people to share their locations now.

Thanks .Ok so we are assuming someone could track her location through her phone. Her parents? I know some do this with children's phones but seems strange to do this for an adult

 

[Firstsnow4]

I can’t help but think that she met Nm the night before - don’t know where exactly. I find it weird that she should be secretly meeting a boyfriend that she didn’t want family to know about, and then be abducted by a complete stranger the next day. Idk, maybe it is possible?
Also I’m sure the police have checked every possible sex offender that might have a potential link - but did he? Did he come from but certainly his previous crime was in Newport pagnell. Until they found Leah’s body or possessions, then maybe the case just could not be solved. (I also think the secret boyfriend aspect has maybe thrown them off the scent for quite sometime, particularly as the family thought he was mixed up in her disappearance.)

Those are my thoughts too

 

[Plod]

Sounds like TVP are going to look at how they conducted the “missing person” enquiry in an “evidence-led” way. And maybe that’s fine and maybe they did conduct that search by the book.

However the issue is an extremely DANGEROUS and OFFICIALLY WANTED man was on the loose for months and the police couldn’t find him. If he was wanted on terror charges they would have used more thorough tactics.

The question isn’t really about whether TVP missed a link between NM and LC - even a tangential one - but how the wanted person system works in this country, and how, repeatedly, someone known to pose an exceptional danger to the public was not apprehended.

That is the question, whether TVP likes it or not. Regardless of him then crossing paths with LC, he should have been apprehended. It’s likely there are similar dangerous people out there right now, wanted in the Police National Computer, who could tomorrow go on and really hurt someone.

Trouble is there are sex offenders living in our community - some who have child *advertiser censored* or whatever and some who have attacked in the past. Is there away of keeping tabs on every single one of them? Once their convictions are spent too. Is he just another one who has slipped through the net like many before him? But I hope they look at this and give it an overhaul.

 

[Outside the box]

All those things are true but if he had lured her into that house for forced sexual activity no way imho would she ever leave that house alive, she would go straight to the police and he would be looking at serious jail time (given the soft sentences he got in the past that is probably wishful thinking though )

These people don't think the same as you, sometimes the "problems' they have override logical parts of the brain, they do not always think of the consequences when there need to fulfil their own desire takes over, not for one minute ruling your theory out but I just don't see a pre meditated murder, in my opinion.

 

[Petrocelli]

So using the timeline from when she left home to last seen at Buzzacott Lane, to when her phone was switched off, she would have expected to be almost exactly where it turns out she’s been all along.
Odd policing and that no neighbours might have considered this empty house that occasionally has maintenance done might be of interest given that timeline. But hindsight is great.
I think just opportunist on the day and very unlucky set of numerous coincidences. Interesting if they find her phone will probably expose what she did the night before and although probably unrelated to her death will leave someone with a lot of explaining to do.

 

[Macarey1973]

Trouble is there are sex offenders living in our community - some who have child *advertiser censored* or whatever and some who have attacked in the past. Is there away of keeping tabs on every single one of them? Once their convictions are spent too. Is he just another one who has slipped through the net like many before him? But I hope they look at this and give it an overhaul.

The child sex offender disclosure scheme, sometimes called 'Sarah's Law', allows parents, carers or guardians to formally ask the police for information about a person who has contact with their child, or a child close to them, if they're concerned the person may pose a risk.

 

[Plod]

Is there any real possibility that he never killed her but hid/disposed of the body on behalf of someone else?

By all accounts he was a gypsy and there was a travellers fair going on in the area not far from where Leah went missing so occured to me maybe she was killed by a fellow gypsy and given the gypsy community is close knit he disposed of the body as had a ‘free house‘ to do it

Unlikely but i do remember the travellers fair at the time and him being a gypsy may not be a coincidence

I guess the police will look at all possible scenarios and dna will help? Like fingerprints on her posssessions.

 

[Plod]

The child sex offender disclosure scheme, sometimes called 'Sarah's Law', allows parents, carers or guardians to formally ask the police for information about a person who has contact with their child, or a child close to them, if they're concerned the person may pose a risk.

Yeah but this doesn’t help abductions or opportunists?

 

[jackal67]

I agree, she most likely walked right past that driveway, literally metres from the front door. How he actually got her into the house we may never know.

So are you saying that he just happened to be standing on the drive way at that exact time on a cold February morning ? What would he have been doing there? Waiting for Leah to walk by ? Planned or random? Is it 100% fact that Leah did walk past that house that day or is her route an assumption?

 

[jackal67]

The assumption is made because it is directly on one of the two most likely routes she would take to work.

So it is an assumption that she walked past that house that day? If it is not 100% fact then her being dragged into the house becomes more unlikely IMO

 

[BrianJohnson]

These people don't think the same as you, sometimes the "problems' they have override logical parts of the brain, they do not always think of the consequences when there need to fulfil their own desire takes over, not for one minute ruling your theory out but I just don't see a pre meditated murder, in my opinion.

Indeed but there has been several cases recently where killers have started off with weird and creepy behaviour (Relowicz/Couzens for example) but the weird and creepy behaviour escalated to rape and murder

NM had already done the indecent exposure and moved up to sexual assaults and rapes so murder would not have been a massive step up for him

 

[infinit]

So it is an assumption that she walked past that house that day? If it is not 100% fact then her being dragged into the house becomes more unlikely IMO

These are the 2 routes she could have taken from the last CCTV sighting towards her work. There is also the fact she only had perhaps 15 minutes spare that morning if she intended to arrive at work on time, so she couldn't go much out of the way or meet up with someone for long. Also, she wasn't seen on any other CCTV elsewhere.

 

[Nikynoo]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned, but I do wonder if the parking ticket is as simple as it was part of the scheme to avoid the Police. He has clearly had some ability to avoid them, with the number of arrest attempts that have been made at places where he has not been, at least not anymore. Registering his vehicle to an address he isn't actually living at would perhaps be part of that.

Perhaps it was an address that he used to work at, or the company he did work for was based at that address?