UK - (Christopher Halliwell) Rebecca Godden-Edwards, 21, Swindon, 27 Dec 2002

[wfgodot]

The age on the thread topic line is an estimation as police currently do not know just when Rebecca died; she disappeared approximately eight years ago, and would have been 29 this coming Monday. Her body was located based on information from Swindon taxi driver Chris Halliwell, arrested and charged for the murder of Sian O'Callaghan. The date on the topic line indicates the day her remains were found.

Sian O'Callaghan police name second woman

The remains of a woman found buried at a farm in Eastleach, Gloucestershire, have been identified by detectives investigating the murder of Sian O'Callaghan as those of Rebecca Godden-Edwards, known as Becky to her family and friends.
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It also emerged that Godden-Edwards had been buried naked in a shallow grave about a foot deep. Her mother Karen Edwards was still searching for Godden-Edwards online last year .

On the Missing You website she posted: "Karen Edwards is trying to trace the location of Becky she has been missing for 8 years, and I need to contact her urgent or just to know that she is ok! can anyone help? she could also be in the Bristol area."
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much more at Guardian link above

Face of the second body: Sian murder detectives identify human remains as Becky Godden

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It isn't clear how she came to her death,' said Det Supt. Steve Fulcher at a press conference called by Wiltshire Police today.
'Enquiries are ongoing and part of those enquiries will be to speak to Chris Halliwell.

'What we are appealing for now is for anyone who knew Becky from 2002 onwards to come forward with information that may help the investigation.'
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more, with pictures, at Daily Mail link above

 

[Clio]

... she disappeared approximately eight years ago, and would have been 29 this coming Monday...

From Wiltshire Police website

It was Becky’s birthday yesterday and she would have been 29 years old

See http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/inde...ns-found-in-eastleach&catid=43:news&Itemid=50

Even more tragic that her parents learnt of her death on what would have been her 29th birthday

 

[Cherwell]

It seems that Halliwell was telling the truth anyway - personal problems, thought to have left the area .....

Police are looking at the suggestion that she may have worked as a prostitute though they have no proof that this is correct.

Possibly this suggestion as reported by the Grauniad comes from his description of a 'vice girl'.

 

[Clio]

Det Steve Fulcher said

Enquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding Becky’s disappearance and subsequent death. Part of these enquiries will be to speak to Chris Halliwell and we will then make a decision on any appropriate steps to take

Surely the police have been talking to CH anyway. Maybe they are hoping that now they have more details to confront him with he might say something new.

If he is charged with the murder of RGE can this be added to the existing charge and what, if anything, will that do the trial dates?

 

[wfgodot]

Possibly this suggestion as reported by the Grauniad comes from his description of a 'vice girl'.

o/t

To use Guardian 'Readers recommend' terminology, donds for the Grauniad reference.

 

[badhorsie]

o/t

To use Guardian 'Readers recommend' terminology, donds for the Grauniad reference.

O/T but lol, never thought someone in t'other side of the pond would pick that up:crazy:

 

[whiterum]

In the news conference today the detective identified the lady as Rebecca Godden and he spoke of the Godden family. It wasn't until later that the surname Edwards was added in media reports, does anyone know why?

 

[Cherwell]

In the news conference today the detective identified the lady as Rebecca Godden and he spoke of the Godden family. It wasn't until later that the surname Edwards was added in media reports, does anyone know why?

Edwards is the name of her stepfather. Some of the media have carried a photo of Becky as a bridesmaid with her mother at her wedding. The family have said that she would be known as Godden-Edwards if she were still with them.

 

[wfgodot]

Grauniad...er, Guardian has another article up, a bit more 'human interest' in scope though it covers about the same basic territory as the one posted above:

The tragic fate of Becky Godden-Edwards

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Police sources were at pains to make it clear that Becky, as she was known to her friends, was from a good, hardworking Swindon family. By all accounts, she was a bright, bubbly schoolgirl. When she was in her mid-teens, however, family and friends say she fell in with the "wrong crowd" and began using drugs.
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Home was a comfortable house in a leafy road on the edge of Swindon. But her life was becoming increasingly chaotic. Around a year after the burglary, Godden-Edwards vanished. Her family say they thought she had gone to Bristol, but police sources say that by this time she was "disconnected" from them.
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more at link

 

[Cherwell]

Surely the police have been talking to CH anyway. Maybe they are hoping that now they have more details to confront him with he might say something new.

If he is charged with the murder of RGE can this be added to the existing charge and what, if anything, will that do the trial dates?

It depends. The police may wish to keep it back as a separate charge if necessary. If a suspect is acquitted of a crime, he can be charged again with a separate offence.

 

[Distant Observer]

It seems that Halliwell was telling the truth anyway - personal problems, thought to have left the area .....



Possibly this suggestion as reported by the Grauniad comes from his description of a 'vice girl'.

I think CH honestly believed that she was a vice girl but that may just have been a natural assumption if she had approached his car on the street and showed typical signs of being a drug user.

I think LE will wish to charge CH with her murder. I can't see any reason not to unless he has a plausible story which might reduce the charge to manslaughter.

I think the feelings of loss must be unbearable for Becky's family and my heart goes out to them. R.I.P Becky.

 

[whiterum]

Police think there may be more victims and are trawling the missing person databases




[URL="http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/8957239.SWINDON_MURDERS__Family_devastated_at_death_of_Becky_Godden_Edwards/"]http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/8957239.SWINDON_MURDERS__Family_devastated_at_death_of_Becky_Godden_Edwards/[/URL]

 

[wfgodot]

Sian and Becky murders: Wiltshire Police examine five other cases

much info about those cases and more at SWNS link above

 

[Paulette]

O/T but lol, never thought someone in t'other side of the pond would pick that up:crazy:

We simply use google.

 

[wfgodot]

We simply use google.

I actually first heard it in a journalism class an embarrassingly long time ago. Guardian typesetters were a bit of an inaccurate crew.

 

[Cherwell]

Sorry, for many of us in the UK it's practically second nature to call it the Grauniad. It was given the nickname many years ago by Private Eye. As you say, notorious for its typos and errors.

 

[wfgodot]

Becky's defense at trial for the Trout Inn, Lechlade, burglary, which she admitted:

Defending, Con Fernandes said: “Miss Godden met up with a drugs dealer and he claimed her boyfriend owed him a substantial amount of money. One evening when her boyfriend wasn’t there he held a knife to her throat and demanded she accompany him to commit the burglary.”

http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/...y_Godden_Edwards_had_a_brush_with_the_courts/

 

[badhorsie]

Poignant article about Becky Godden Edwards

 

[wfgodot]

Daily Mail goes for the melodrama (or mailodrama I guess):

Rebecca, just one more lost soul cut adrift by drugs

Until a policeman knocked on their door on Monday, on the day that would have been Rebecca’s 29th birthday, her family believed she was still alive. Living in Bristol, or perhaps London. You know, somewhere out there.

good lengthy article at link

 

[wfgodot]

Mother of Becky Godden-Edwards speaks for the first time

The mother of murdered Becky Godden-Edwards has spoken of how her daughter's death had devastated her family.

Karen Edwards said her daughter's drug addiction had turned her into a 'very different person'.
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'I was told by sources close to the family, time and time again, that they had seen Becky during the missing years, so I had a strong belief and really did believe that one day she would come back home.

'I continued to buy her birthday cards, Christmas presents and cards, so that when she did come back home she knew I had been thinking of her every year since she left, hoping for one day that I would be able to give them to her.'
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(lengthy, sad account at Daily Mail link above)