EBM
I think i maybe read it slightly differently. (JMO).
Maybe naively, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt (even if he is not talking at the moment).
- He has nefarious sexually motivated intentions. (Indicated by possible indecent exposure and possibly other events that have not yet been discovered or processed).
- He is escalating but not necessarily with an intention to kill - he is serving police officer with some degree of vetting so (again naively) would like to think he is not a calculated psychopath (yet).
- He is as frustrated as the rest of us by lockdown so goes out to get his “kicks” by attempting to pick up a young woman. He doesn’t use his warrant card at that stage because he actually doesn’t have a kill intention and is expecting to be able to let her go, so wouldn’t risk being identified as such. He maybe uses a false cry for help (he is the father of 2 young children, maybe plays up fatherly instincts and asks for her help, or he just rapidly overpowers her without saying anything). Bundles her into the car (child and window locks the back). Has intentions of some sort of assault BUT (here is where I maybe trying to write SE as the extremely tragic but feisty hero of this story) SHE FIGHTS back. At this point he panics and does something stupid.
- And now things are suddenly FUBAR, he can’t leave her there, she’ll be found quickly in central london so drives her to Kent. He is a serving police officer, there will be evidence on her. So he dumps the body under cover of darkness and goes home.
- But, he knows it might only be a matter of time before she is discovered in tact, and he can’t “wash” her of potential traces of DNA.
- So he then goes back the subsequent night (or maybe more recently) and does what by then he thinks is is best option which is destroy ALL the evidence (fire?).
- But these subsequent movements etc are also caused on ANPR and the net has closed around him.
- he could still be staying silent on the basis that unless they can identify her, everything else is circumstantial (“so what I was in central london, I work there”, “so what I drove near here I went for a nighttime walk to clear my head”, “so what a body was found - could be anyone, quite a common body dumping ground”. While the police don’t appear to be able to identify her immediately, once they do it seems to me to be over for him - since they could only have found her because HIS suspicious movements led them there (can you see a jury believing “yes I was caught on CCTV in the exact vicinity of SE going missing in London and she turned up dead at a spot recently visited by me - but that is all coincidence). I would imagine the police were confident enough that what they found were human remains that were perhaps identifiable as having been placed there/tampered with, fairly recently. But I hope to god they DO manage to identify her (mitochondrial DNA?) because if not, then the above COULD work for him.
The alternative is that he is an arrogant psychopath who planned all this including the method of body disposal (I’ve seen mention of some documentary on Netflix about being able to essentially “cremate” a body with a bonfire hot enough to leave no personal trace) - could this have been massively, methodically planned - yes.
But for Sarah’s sake, and his children’s sake, I really, really, really hope it was the former. Unless he talks we might ever know.
(And that is also truly horrifying)
All the above pure speculation, but it makes me feel safer to imagine stupid/pathetic/impulsive/ disgusting men roam the streets rather than psychotic men.
I can believe this version too. I think he intended to indecently expose himself to her, as he’d done to someone else earlier than night and probably many times before. As a serving policeman, he’d know leaving DNA on anyone would be a serious downfall. SE didn’t react as he expected - either started to shout or took a photo, saying she’d report him (emboldened by wine and a passion for women’s rights). She was said to be a lovely woman, and I think she would have behaved assertively when she knew she was in the right. He panicked, and dragged her into darkness where he strangled her, then brought his car to discreetly collect her body.
At least in this version, her suffering ended quickly. I don’t think it was a premeditated abduction as if so, he’d have chosen somewhere quieter and someone less likely to be missed. I do think he’d chosen the dark, fairly busy location to expose himself.
My thoughts are with Sarah’s friends and family and I hope for their sake, and WC’s children’s, that he’s cooperating with the enquiry.