UK UK - Ann Heron, 44, found at home with throat cut, Darlington, 3 August 1990

[ctaylor]

I found an article from 1991 from Hauxwell's trial which states he drove a knife through his victim's throat, similar to Ann Heron. This is someone who lives 10 minutes from Ann Heron's house as @Darlo84 says. He seems a much more likely suspect than Michael Benson ever was. I wonder if @Jen Jarvie can let us know if he was ever in the case files she saw?

 

[Darlo84]

I found an article from 1991 from Hauxwell's trial which states he drove a knife through his victim's throat, similar to Ann Heron. This is someone who lives 10 minutes from Ann Heron's house as @Darlo84 says. He seems a much more likely suspect than Michael Benson ever was. I wonder if @Jen Jarvie can let us know if he was ever in the case files she saw?

Be interesting if someone can get hold of her to ask.

 

[Stitches]

I kinda have a sort of crazy Idea, is there any public evidence viewer software? I think maybe if I had access to evidence I could help solve cases better.

 

[Stitches]

I kinda have a sort of crazy Idea, is there any public evidence viewer software? I think maybe if I had access to evidence I could help solve cases better.

And if not, then We'll have to get as much evidence compiled into a PDF for people to look at.

 

[Darlo84]

I kinda have a sort of crazy Idea, is there any public evidence viewer software? I think maybe if I had access to evidence I could help solve cases better.

I wish there was, I'd love to see evidence of crimes. Police don't know how lucky they are. I know one thing, every year they do an appeal, they insist on wanting to find the suspect, yet I don't think they want to hear about any other suspect as they originally charged Peter and don't want to be seen as wrong. Look at Jarvie certain it's Benson, the police don't seem to be bothered, the police can appeal all they want, I believe they aren't or haven't even looked into any of this for years, their focus is on one man only and once he's no longer here, the case is completely closed but this is just my opinion.

 

[Stitches]

well I say go with my PDF Document idea. Make a PDF Doc with all the evidence we currently have then post it in the thread and people can look at it and try to figure out the case.

 

[Darlo84]

well I say go with my PDF Document idea. Make a PDF Doc with all the evidence we currently have then post it in the thread and people can look at it and try to figure out the case.

I'd be up for that

 

[Spoof]

I wish there was, I'd love to see evidence of crimes. Police don't know how lucky they are. I know one thing, every year they do an appeal, they insist on wanting to find the suspect, yet I don't think they want to hear about any other suspect as they originally charged Peter and don't want to be seen as wrong. Look at Jarvie certain it's Benson, the police don't seem to be bothered, the police can appeal all they want, I believe they aren't or haven't even looked into any of this for years, their focus is on one man only and once he's no longer here, the case is completely closed but this is just my opinion.

This isn't true. The police looked into Benson and ruled him out some time ago.

 

[CSIAngus]

How can sperm be cross contaminated into a dead woman's throat? That doesn't make sense and it obviously didn't to the police. <modsnip: Don't be rude>

I've no idea what was snipped or was rude but I watched an episode of Bloodline Detectives (I think Series 1 Episode 11) the other day when it was stated by one of the detectives that the mouth is such a hostile environment for semen that any trace would mean that it would have been deposited close to the time of death. PH's semen was found in AH's throat which I think deserved much more weight, IMO.

 

[CSIAngus]

This isn't true. The police looked into Benson and ruled him out some time ago.

I think they said he was never a person of interest in the case.

 

[CSIAngus]

well I say go with my PDF Document idea. Make a PDF Doc with all the evidence we currently have then post it in the thread and people can look at it and try to figure out the case.

You could construct a timeline only page on here like Tortoise expertly did for the Bernadette Walker case.

 

[CSIAngus]

I found an article from 1991 from Hauxwell's trial which states he drove a knife through his victim's throat, similar to Ann Heron. This is someone who lives 10 minutes from Ann Heron's house as @Darlo84 says. He seems a much more likely suspect than Michael Benson ever was. I wonder if @Jen Jarvie can let us know if he was ever in the case files she saw?

Surely, the difference with Hauxwell is that he was in a relationship with his victim. There is no suggestion that he was a random attacker. MOO

 

[tes1984]

Surely, the difference with Hauxwell is that he was in a relationship with his victim. There is no suggestion that he was a random attacker. MOO

He had a long history of violent attacks. He stabbed his ex partner five years earlier.

He also had two convictions for ABH and one for malicious wounding. Not sure how well he knew these victims beforehand.

 

[rvlvr]

I’m actually a bit wary of the ‘semen in the throat’ thing because the source for that seems to be Wikipedia, and their source for that is the Channel 5 documentary - what’s 5’s source? These sorts of Wikipedia pages all seem to be quite similar in that they often just reference TV documentaries, some of which you can’t even watch anymore, so actually getting to the source is difficult.

This is how the DNA evidence is described in a Northern Echo article in 2015:

The reason for Mr Heron’s arrest, all those years down the line, was a tiny speck of DNA evidence found on Ann’s body from 15 years before. It was so tiny that it had to be ‘grown’ in laboratory conditions over a period of many years so that a genetic fingerprint could be taken.

Peter Heron: 'Police banged on my door to accuse me of murder - and my life was destroyed yet again'

THERE was the early morning bang on the door, the five-strong team of a police, the famous little speech, ‘we’re arresting you on suspicion of…

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

I’m certainly not a forensics expert but this doesn’t strike me as evidence of… well, anything, really.

The thing is, if you try to theorise what might’ve happened in a way that points the finger at PH, then trying to shoehorn in some sort of sexual encounter prior to the murder makes it even more of a stretch, imo. He swings by the house around an hour before finishing work to engage in consensual sexual sex… then kills her? Or she rebuffs him, so he assaults her, then kills her? Or he returns simply with the aim of killing her, but can’t help himself and assaults her, either peri or post mortem?

All a bit convoluted, imo.

 

[Spoof]

I think they said he was never a person of interest in the case.

Yeah that's what I thought. Why people keep putting him forward when he's clearly got nothing to do with it seems a bit odd.

 

[Spoof]

Surely, the difference with Hauxwell is that he was in a relationship with his victim. There is no suggestion that he was a random attacker. MOO

It seems as if all theories, other than PH being the killer, are for a random attacker which isn't supported by any actually evidence, just assumptions supported by circumstantial ideas devoid of any hard facts.

 

[Spoof]

I've no idea what was snipped or was rude but I watched an episode of Bloodline Detectives (I think Series 1 Episode 11) the other day when it was stated by one of the detectives that the mouth is such a hostile environment for semen that any trace would mean that it would have been deposited close to the time of death. PH's semen was found in AH's throat which I think deserved much more weight, IMO.

I agree. One of the arguments by those trying to suggest PH isn't the killer is the lack of blood on his clothes. I don't think the nature or details of the fatal wound are in the public domain but i wonder if a throat could be cut/stabbed in a way that doesn't leave blood on the killer. Surely there must be?

 

[Spoof]

I wish there was, I'd love to see evidence of crimes. Police don't know how lucky they are. I know one thing, every year they do an appeal, they insist on wanting to find the suspect, yet I don't think they want to hear about any other suspect as they originally charged Peter and don't want to be seen as wrong. Look at Jarvie certain it's Benson, the police don't seem to be bothered, the police can appeal all they want, I believe they aren't or haven't even looked into any of this for years, their focus is on one man only and once he's no longer here, the case is completely closed but this is just my opinion.

How do you know that "the piloce haven't looked into any of this for years"?

 

[Stitches]

...I reaaallly need to be active more often... But anywho! Didn't the police rule out Benson? (I could be misrembering.)

 

[tes1984]

The police have looked at MB and haven't found anything to link him to Ann's murder.

They seem to think he was abroad when Ann was killed.

The police say MB was never a 'suspect', but that doesn't mean he wasn't someone who was traced/eliminated.