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

[Spoof]

Benson had family ties to the area, 5 miles from the crime scene and visited regularly.

Why do the police reject Benson then?

 

[ctaylor]

Benson had family ties to the area, 5 miles from the crime scene and visited regularly.

I have a hunch that an escaped prisoner probably wouldn't be hanging about in the family area but you never know. The police have ruled this man out. As far as I can tell from your podcast appearances and interviews, this seems to the case that you hang your hat on as some sort of result, but it's not solved. No harm to you at all Jen but you a verified expert on Websleuths. Under your name it says "Verified Expert Cold Case Investigator" which would lead us to believe you have solved cold cases? Which ones?

 

[tes1984]

I have a hunch that an escaped prisoner probably wouldn't be hanging about in the family area but you never know. The police have ruled this man out. As far as I can tell from your podcast appearances and interviews, this seems to the case that you hang your hat on as some sort of result, but it's not solved. No harm to you at all Jen but you a verified expert on Websleuths. Under your name it says "Verified Expert Cold Case Investigator" which would lead us to believe you have solved cold cases? Which ones?

Being a 'verified expert' doesn't mean you have necessarily solved cold cases. It means you have insider knowledge about a specific case, which Jen most certainly does in terms of the Ann Heron case.

 

[ctaylor]

Being a 'verified expert' doesn't mean you have necessarily solved cold cases. It means you have insider knowledge about a specific case, which Jen most certainly does in terms of the Ann Heron case.

I have no doubt she has insider knowledge but whatever it is, it hasn't solved this case. Repeatedly saying for years on various forums that Michael Benson is the likely killer when the police have ruled him out, doesn't scream expert to me, on this case at least. Maybe she has solved other cases but they aren't on her website. Benson was on the run from prison and found in Scotland 10 years later. Other than him being a tanned man that happened to be on Crimewatch one month before Ann's Crimewatch episode, I'm not seeing any other link. If there is some insider knowledge that links him to it, then the police know it and they don't think it's him, to the point they arrested the husband.

 

[tes1984]

Benson doesn't look a particularly strong suspect to me either. I think there are quite a few better ones. However, I do appreciate that Jen posts here, as she has seen a lot of the case documents and interviewed people close to the case.

If there is additional evidence against Benson then I'd like to see it. Otherwise IMO he's just a minor POI.

 

[tes1984]

10 Nov 2005

The potato knife killer who slit an unsuspecting woman's throat

The horrific murder of Margaret Wilson shocked the country

www.hulldailymail.co.uk

''Margaret Wilson, 66, was brutally murdered in a random attack when her throat was slit down a country lane in February 1995.''

Derek Christian was an ex-soldier, who was based 70-80 miles from where Ann lived (in 1995 at least). I can't find a location for him in 1990.

He appealed against his life conviction because one of the key witnesses lied on oath.

The female witness was jailed for 6 months for perjury. She pretended that she had seen a car because she wanted her husband and neighbours to pay her more attention.

Despite a key witness being convicted of perjury, Christian lost his appeal and continued to serve his life sentence.

 

[wtiger]

my own view only here...

i've never seen any claim that Jen Jarvie is an independant investigator - this would certainly explain the apparent bias towards constantly protesting the innocence of Peter Heron

perhaps going at this in a more balanced way could be more productive?

this is no slight on anyone but the investigator does not always come across as having an open mind regarding this case

 

[rvlvr]

She doesn’t have to be independent, does she? In the same way that police can take a view, and (fruitlessly) pursue someone on that basis, so can anyone else.

I have to say that this forum is supposed to be ‘victim friendly’ but it’s quite sad how often that rule seems to go out of the window when it comes to pointing the finger at ‘the husband’. Is Peter Heron not a victim in this case?

 

[rvlvr]

Derek Christian was an ex-soldier, who was based 70-80 miles from where Ann lived (in 1995 at least). I can't find a location for him in 1990.

He appealed against his life conviction because one of the key witnesses lied on oath.

The female witness was jailed for 6 months for perjury. She pretended that she had seen a car because she wanted her husband and neighbours to pay her more attention.

Despite a key witness being convicted of perjury, Christian lost his appeal and continued to serve his life sentence.

An interesting case I hadn’t heard of before.

Regardless of whether Christian was Margaret’s killer, I think what this case shows is it’s perfectly possible for someone to be driving around a rural area in broad daylight looking for an unsuspecting person to murder, for apparently absolutely no reason. Happens very rarely, of course, but these sorts of predators obviously do walk among us.

 

[tes1984]

I have to say that this forum is supposed to be ‘victim friendly’ but it’s quite sad how often that rule seems to go out of the window when it comes to pointing the finger at ‘the husband’. Is Peter Heron not a victim in this case?

The 'real' police always look at the husband as a suspect, particularly when the husband finds the body, lies about his movements, is discovered to be having an affair, leaves his semen at a crime scene containing no foreign DNA etc.

PH may well be a victim in this case, but the police seem to have had their attempt at prosecuting him rejected after involvement from medical experts, not because of alibi or timeline evidence.

I can't rule him out until I've seen a complete timeline of his movements, yet I still haven't seen the timeline and it's not from lack of asking.

 

[tes1984]

It wasn't really a typical day for the couple, as Ann was going to a party that evening with her new and much younger friends. She was an attractive woman, so could she have attracted the attention of an associate of her new social group? Or could her newish independence and partying have caused tensions closer to home?

 

[rvlvr]

All fair points, but I always think we should start with the presumption of innocence. There’s no evidence, to my knowledge, that PH killed his wife, nor is there any solid evidence of a motive. All we know for sure is that he found his wife murdered in their home, which is an unimaginably awful thing to happen to anyone. The ease with which certain individuals on this forum are happy to accuse people in PH’s position of murder is incomprehensible to me (not to mention probably against the forum’s rules). It takes all sorts, I suppose.

 

[tes1984]

The police seem to treat it more like everyone is potentially guilty (until traced, interviewed and eliminated from enquiries).

With PH they will have looked for motive and means. In terms of motive, they probably see an unhappily married man who is has a new lover and wants to avoid a costly divorce. In terms of means, they probably see a man who can be placed nearby and has gaps in his timeline/movements, knows Ann is home alone, and would be able to approach her without causing fear.

The police also look at post offence behaviour, and whilst PH wasn't repairing damaged fences, or sneaking off to drain Ann's bank account, I find his behaviour very suspicious. JMO though and certainly not proof he's guilty.

 

[tes1984]

If Benson is burgling the house, why doesn't he realise there's an occupant there? Doesn't he notice the door is open and the radio is on?

When he encounters Ann, why doesn't he just do a runner? He's not local and she won't have recognised him.

Is he worried she will notice his car in the driveway? Has he been driving the stolen vehicle for months without putting fake plates on it?

And once he's killed her, why does he stage it as a sex crime? If he is caught that would blow a burglary gone wrong defence in court, and he would be spending his life sentence as a sex offender.

And wasn't Benson a heavy smoker? Ann's killer didn't even take her cigarettes.

 

[tes1984]

Is Ann ambushed outside the house and forced inside?
Or is the initial encounter an ambush inside the house?
Or does she willingly let the person into the house before things turn nasty?

 

[rvlvr]

Why would a divorce have been costly?

They’d been married only a few years, they shared no children, and he’d owned the home prior to meeting Ann.

He’d also divorced his first wife (the mother of his children) apparently without any bother.

In any case there’s no evidence either of them wanted a divorce. If that’s meant to be the motive then it’s pretty flimsy imo.

 

[Spy Versus Spy]

I've followed and observed the Thread/Case for a while now. Even though I have my own opinions on the case, Ive always respected other lines of opinion. Im always interested in JJ's posts and respect her opinion, engagement and conviction. Surely there is no financial or credibility gain for JJ to believe any narrative one way or another? X

 

[rvlvr]

Trying to nail down some sources for some of the claims made against PH, do we have a solid reference for the ‘semen’ thing? If you Google it you’ll get plenty of hits but nothing I can trace back to any sort of official source.

This is how the Northern Echo described the DNA issue ten years ago:

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

This is obviously quite different to finding semen on her body, so I’m at a loss as to where this has come from?

 

[rvlvr]

The other issue is the timeline. According to most sources PH returned to the office after popping home for lunch around 2pm. We know Ann was alive at 2.30 as at this time she spoke on the phone to a friend. At 3.30 she was apparently sighted by someone else, who was passing the Herons’ home on a bus, but this obviously couldn’t be confirmed in the same way that the phone call was.

In a letter to police by PH published by the Echo in 2015 PH set out his movements that afternoon:

At about 3pm I received a telephone call from a client, Cleveland Bridge, who asked me to attend his office to discuss a contract my company was tendering for. As requested by him, I left the office shortly after 3pm and made the short journey to Cleveland Bridge and was in front of the client and two of his colleagues by about 3.15pm. I left the meeting at about 4.30pm and returned to the office via Croft and through Middleton St George village arriving back in the office at 5pm, returning home at 6pm to find Ann dead on our living room floor. Each and every step of my movements as I’ve described are corroborated by witness statements in Durham Constabulary’s own prosecution bundle of ‘evidence’ presented to my solicitor.

The drive from Cleveland Bridge to the office should’ve taken 5-10 minutes, so if PH had left at 4.30 he should’ve been back in the office at 4.40. Instead he says he took a more circuitous route back through Croft, which would’ve taken around 25 minutes, hence his return to the office around 5pm.

The gap in the timeline only occurs if he didn’t take this circuitous route - there’s probably a 15 minute window in which he could’ve stopped off at Aeolian House, killed Ann, then left again, which I think is doable.

Presumably his movements in and out of the office and at Cleveland Bridge could be verified, through CCTV, visitor logs, minutes of the meeting, stuff like that. Corroborating his movements between 4.30 and 5 is, I guess, where the ‘gap’ materialises. If he was sighted by a witness in Croft, for instance, then could that witness be wrong? Maybe they saw him on another day? Maybe it wasn’t actually PH that they saw? And so on. But PH and his family, and JJ, seem confident that the corroborating evidence is solid. Without having access to the ‘receipts’ it’s difficult to make a judgement. It would’ve been interesting to see this part of the case tested in court.

Source for PH’s letter: I am innocent, it's time to clear my name - Peter Heron's letter to Durham police chief

 

[tes1984]

Why would a divorce have been costly?

They’d been married only a few years, they shared no children, and he’d owned the home prior to meeting Ann.

He’d also divorced his first wife (the mother of his children) apparently without any bother.

In any case there’s no evidence either of them wanted a divorce. If that’s meant to be the motive then it’s pretty flimsy imo.

Maybe some divorce law experts can chime in, but I would have thought she would have been due a sizeable settlement, regardless of marriage length or children.

We don't know if either of them wanted a divorce, but we do know that PH was having a secret affair for quite a while.

If Ann found out about the affair, then I reckon there's a good chance she would have demanded a divorce. It doesn't seem like she confronted her husband about anything that lunchtime though, as she was cheerful on the phone to her friend at 2.30pm. You never know though.