Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher - Emerson Valley - Milton Keynes - #7

[WiseOwl]

I've covered this in previous post, I worked on numerous properties through online advertising where I never met in person the owner of the property, once a 3 month renovation of a flat, keys posted to me, invoices paid and keys posted back.. some people just take people at face or voice value and even online messages now without necessarily thinking of any possible problems.. if he had been in contact with the owner he would of known their plans and what he told them was probably just a bunch of lies...

Yes but you were legit and not on the run from the police while you were doing your job!

What hasn't been said by the police is when (or if) the owner got his keys back and if Maxwell had completed the maintenence work he was supposed to have carried out.

It needs someone from MSM to interview the owner, hopefully the MK Citizen will do this in the coming weeks.

 

[Outside the box]

Yes but you were legit and not on the run from the police while you were doing your job!

What hasn't been said by the police is when (or if) the owner got his keys back and if Maxwell had completed the maintenence work he was supposed to have carried out.

It needs someone from MSM to interview the owner, hopefully the MK Citizen will do this in the coming weeks.

Personally I believe they were left somewhere or he was asked to gain access and change locks with keys arranged to be left somewhere on completion, I'm guessing works were meant to take days/weeks rather than months and NW could of been telling the owners anything, just speculation of course.

 

[Cherwell]

Maybe the ladder was to climb up and look at a ceiling? Tap on a ceiling? In other words not for looking in the loft. Good question though!

Ladders are mostly used for outside maintenance, such as gutter clearing. There might have been a ladder kept in the garage, NM wouldn't necessarily have needed to bring one.

 

[Onetruesaxon]

<modsnip: rumor/no source link>

LC being seen upset/crying morning of disappearance could be due to finding out NM was a sex offender.

Prior to potentially discovering that, maybe NM trusted and confided in LC that he was on the run, especially if they were involved intimately.

Perhaps LC enters the house of her own free will and from that point:

1. An argument breaks out where NM fears LC is going to call police and as he is on the run, panics and kills her.

2. NM kills her deliberately for some other reason.

3. NM keeps LC hostage for undisclosed amount of time.

Interesting

 

[Dakock420]

Hi, I'm new here too, & for myself (just thinking out loud), I think the tvp press conference has raised a lot questions. Such as, was NM contracted directly by the family (rather than a maintenance company), how was he paid (as I can't imagine it would have been cash in hand as the family live abroad), what happened to the key he had? Had the work been completed & he'd given it back to someone? Had he completed the work or told he was no longer needed by the owner which then prompted him to take his own life knowing he couldn't get access to where he'd left her body?
Or is this possibly a red herring by tvp to avoid alerting another suspect who'd possibly flee, & they're awaiting forensic confirmation to link them?

Also not sure if this attack is relevant at all, but was a month after LC went missing, & a month before NM took his own life.Man attacks teenage girl near KFC and ASDA in Bletchley

 

[WiseOwl]

Personally I believe they were left somewhere or he was asked to gain access and change locks with keys arranged to be left somewhere on completion, I'm guessing works were meant to take days/weeks rather than months and NW could of been telling the owners anything, just speculation of course.

He could have just left them at the property i guess, as the owners would have been returning in the summer (I presume they had their own set of keys).

As you say, he could have told them anything.

 

[pedronz06]

<modsnip: rumor/no source link>

LC being seen upset/crying morning of disappearance could be due to finding out NM was a sex offender.

Prior to potentially discovering that, maybe NM trusted and confided in LC that he was on the run, especially if they were involved intimately.

Perhaps LC enters the house of her own free will and from that point:

1. An argument breaks out where NM fears LC is going to call police and as he is on the run, panics and kills her.

2. NM kills her deliberately for some other reason.

3. NM keeps LC hostage for undisclosed amount of time.

Or she gets upset about a phone call with someone else, turns the phone off/ smashes it/ throws it if it's a burner phone and then wanders around for a few hours not wanting to go to work or go home and probably passes him several times (going to shop area/ lake or where there is no camera), he picks up on this and her distress/ mood and invites her in for drink or a place to chill/ calm down/ talk etc.

 

[pedronz06]

Hi, I'm new to this...
I have a few questions.
If nm was on the run from the police and he didn't want to go to prison again, why would he start employment the same month he sexyally assulyed someone?
Unless he needed somewhere to hide out for awhile.
Second question... in one of the news reports it states someone arrived at the address with a ladder! So how then did she get in the loft?

We visited the ladder question in thread six. In addition, I assume this was a loft and not a loft converted into a room which would explain why there was no ladder on site.

 

[pedronz06]

Did anyone find out who was living at No 4 from Nov 2018 till it was sold in 2019? They are quite possibly the best and only witness to the comings and going at this address. I'm wondering if No. 4 was looking after the property after the family left and then when they put theirs on the market and told the owner they were moving on, they handed them to NM as instructed by No 2 owners.

These two owners must have known and trusted one another as they've both owned their properties for a long period of time.

If there were others involved with or without NM, the perps could have been revisiting this property for years up until last week, especially if the locks weren't changed. If they weren't into doing anything official, I'm sure changing the locks probably wasn't on their list either.

 

[Cherwell]

Hi, I'm new here too, & for myself (just thinking out loud), I think the tvp press conference has raised a lot questions. Such as, was NM contracted directly by the family (rather than a maintenance company), how was he paid (as I can't imagine it would have been cash in hand as the family live abroad), what happened to the key he had? Had the work been completed & he'd given it back to someone? Had he completed the work or told he was no longer needed by the owner which then prompted him to take his own life knowing he couldn't get access to where he'd left her body?

Some of these details may emerge later.

Or is this possibly a red herring by tvp to avoid alerting another suspect who'd possibly flee, & they're awaiting forensic confirmation to link them?

No.

 

[BrianJohnson]

Did anyone find out who was living at No 4 from Nov 2018 till it was sold in 2019? They are quite possibly the best witness to the comings and going at this address. I'm wondering if No. 4 was looking after the property after the family left and then when they put theirs on the market and told the owner they were moving on, they handed them to NM as instructed by No 2 owners.

If there were others involved with or without NM, they could have been revisiting this property for years up until last week, especially if the locks weren't changed.

Very unlikely, if she had been wandering around for long period she would have turned up on more CCTV cameras, door cameras etc, the last sighting of her was near the lake car park area

 

[tedtink]

I cannot accept that LC was in a relationship with NM.
He may have chatted to her or noticed her as she'd walked past the house. He'd had the keys since November by all accounts.

I do wonder whether NM thought that LC was a student? The clothing she was wearing and her black rucksack could have easily been mistaken for a school uniform and she did look younger than her years. His previous, the crimes we know of, it seems he has a predilection for younger teenage girls.

It would be interesting to know more detail regarding his previous convictions and his MO, but if this is true (below), it sounds like he had poor impulse control for starters.

'He was well known in the area for trying to pin down girls and force himself on them... Eventually everyone kept away from him.'

JMO

Leah Croucher murder suspect Neil Maxwell 'once tried to strangle ex'

The prime suspect behind the disappearance of 19-year-old Leah Croucher tried to throttle his ex girlfriend.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[pedronz06]

Very unlikely, if she had been wandering around for long period she would have turned up on more CCTV cameras, door cameras etc, the last sighting of her was near the lake car park area

If that was the case, how did she get to his house either directly or via furzton lake on foot from the last known CCTV sighting without being seen by a single CCTV and this includes the shopping area i.e. Tesco express. I think its fair to surmise there were not many working CCTV systems in this entire area in 2019.

Or she was picked up shortly after this last CCTV sighting.

We also can't discount that after turning off the phone she walked to the bus stop outside his house from furzton lake and waited there for a bus and that's when he approached her. I wonder if buses had cameras back then, maybe one passed her that wasn't hers or was going in the other direction and this recorded her.

I wonder if they kept a map of all the working CCTV cameras in this area back in 2019 to rule out where she didn't pass.

 

[jackal67]

Would the police have forensic evidence that NM had been in the house before naming him as a suspect?

I just wonder why it didn’t appear to have cropped up after he died from suicide? I thought suicides were investigated by LE?

I wondered this too. What proof would there be that he had been in the house apart from owner saying he had the keys?

 

[jackal67]

Already discussed: the police said they spoke with the owners of the property and traced NM through him doing maintenance for them.

https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2022/october/10-10-2022/update-on-leah-croucher-investigation-from-dc-supt.-ian-hunter--milton-keynes/

but that isn't proof is it? The owners gave his name but they lived abroad so how could they know he had actually been in the house? Who gave him keys?

 

[jackal67]

Things are not adding up for me regarding the keys to the property at Loxbeare Drive.

This is from the MK Citizen (14 October 2022):

Maxwell had been employed by the home owner to carry out some property maintenance at the house. And police say Maxwell had keys to the property from November 2018.
Police have revealed, though, that Maxwell has previous convictions for sexual offences against females and was wanted in connection with a sexual assault in Newport Pagnell in November 2018.

The sexual assault was reported to Bedfordshire Police on 29 November 2018 and the case was transferred to Thames Valley Police the same day. We first attempted to arrest Maxwell in connection with the sexual assault the following day, 30 November 2018, at an address in central Milton Keynes, but Maxwell was not present.

During this time, we established that Maxwell was at an unknown location in Scotland at one stage, but further arrest attempts were continually made throughout the UK at various different addresses. Maxwell knew he was wanted in connection with the sexual assault and was travelling across the UK and making concerted efforts to evade arrest, including using false names and changing his mobile phone and vehicles. He is likely to have known that he would be returning to prison if he was arrested and convicted.

Why did Maxwell have the keys to the property as early as November? From his activities, it doesn't seem he would have had much time to do any work at all during November & December. As well as commiting a sexual assault in Newport Pagnell, he was in Scotland and other unknown places avoiding the Thames Valley Police at this time.

When did he actually start work at the property? Did the owner keep in touch with him to see how the work was progressing? Was he a lone worker, being paid cash-in-hand? If he was, how did the owner know who he was to employ him? Had he worked for him before? The fact that Maxwell was in possession of the keys for at least 3 months suggests a level of trust between them.

none of this makes sense to me. If I lived abroad and owned a large expensive house overseas, I would be very careful about who had access to that property? I would want references at the very least? How was he paid and by whom also.

 

[Beckxsy]

Going back to this image. That white vehicle could be a white pick up truck. Very difficult to tell but perhaps if this is the case could that vehicle have been found at the address in garage and knowingly belonging to nm. Hence the connection as far as aware I'm not sure whether the white pick up was moved out of garage or was the matienance guy. It looked pretty green like it had been stood as opposed to the latter. Hope this helps and makes sense

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

We visited the ladder question in thread six. In addition, I assume this was a loft and not a loft converted into a room which would explain why there was no ladder on site.

I'm puzzled about what the issue is with a ladder? These incidents (estate agents requesting a ladder to check something sus with a ceiling this week and NM allegedly placing LC in loft) happened 3.5 years apart for a starter!

As for the rest of this case, I'm really glad Leah was found and her family can lay her to rest. I do fear the case will conclude with many questions unanswered.

 

[Miss_French]

Very unlikely, if she had been wandering around for long period she would have turned up on more CCTV cameras, door cameras etc, the last sighting of her was near the lake car park area

Do you have a source, because AFAIK that has never been confirmed?

The last physical sighting was allegedly near Tellytubby Hill.

 

[jackal67]

I've covered this in previous post, I worked on numerous properties through online advertising where I never met in person the owner of the property, once a 3 month renovation of a flat, keys posted to me, invoices paid and keys posted back.. some people just take people at face or voice value and even online messages now without necessarily thinking of any possible problems.. if he had been in contact with the owner he would of known their plans and what he told them was probably just a bunch of lies...

I don't doubt your word but still find it strange anyone would do that? I am guessing they may have been people with property Portfolios ? How were you paid ? Did you provide references? Bank details ,address etc? Was your work checked by anyone on completion?