Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher - Emerson Valley - Milton Keynes - #6

[Skigh]

amazing a property owned from aboard with owners very rarely visiting ..being rented by and maintained by two different sex offenders

Neither rented the property. One was living with his parents who rented the property;the other was hired to do maintenance work and might have been there at times when not carrying out jobs.

 

[Rusty Braincells]

Poor, poor Leah; truly the stuff of nightmares. And her poor family, we were all desperately hoping that they would at least get some answers after all this time. Barring accessing things like NM's search history posthumously for example I doubt we will ever know for sure the true sequence of events, unless he confessed to someone before he died who has kept quiet about it up until now.

His occupation certainly seems to answer a lot of our questions, as does the fact he is no longer alive – perhaps his intention had been to return and move at least her possessions once the search had 'cooled down', but he took his own life before that point was reached.

In terms of how he managed to get her into the house, I can well imagine that if she'd walked past him regularly on her way to and from work and they'd perhaps said hello/briefly chatted before, that her guard would have been down if he'd asked her for her help with something inside the house – just off the top of my head, someone saying to me 'there's a wounded bird/animal in the garden and I need someone's help to rescue it' would quite possible override my own alarm bells if it wasn't a total stranger.

It’s really frightening. NM could have planned this for weeks or months and gradually established a rapport with Leah. Equally, he could have feigned an emergency and asked for help and then snatched her, or skipped the subterfuge and just waited for a quiet day to overpower her off the street. NM’s history needs looking at in detail along with other addresses he had access to.

 

[tedtink]

Also - guys is likely to have serious mental health issues or be a drug addict or alcohol. Sex offenders tend to have other issues, not just a regular guy. I’d it all got to much then sure he’d Kill himself.

It's interesting that he took his own life just 16 days after this appeal on April 4 2019.

Appeal to trace man wanted after sexual assault in Newport Pagnell

Police are appealing for the public’s help to trace a man who is wanted from Newport Pagnell. Officers want to speak to Neil Maxwell, aged 49, in connection with an incident of sexual assault w...

totalmk.co.uk

 

[Kinners_D]

Poor, poor Leah; truly the stuff of nightmares. And her poor family, we were all desperately hoping that they would at least get some answers after all this time. Barring accessing things like NM's search history posthumously for example I doubt we will ever know for sure the true sequence of events, unless he confessed to someone before he died who has kept quiet about it up until now.

His occupation certainly seems to answer a lot of our questions, as does the fact he is no longer alive – perhaps his intention had been to return and move at least her possessions once the search had 'cooled down', but he took his own life before that point was reached.

In terms of how he managed to get her into the house, I can well imagine that if she'd walked past him regularly on her way to and from work and they'd perhaps said hello/briefly chatted before, that her guard would have been down if he'd asked her for her help with something inside the house – just off the top of my head, someone saying to me 'there's a wounded bird/animal in the garden and I need someone's help to rescue it' would quite possible override my own alarm bells if it wasn't a total stranger.

Great post. I agree with the last paragraph totally, it's not difficult to prey on a persons kindness.

I do wonder if his access to the property was removed before he could go back to remove things, perhaps he was reaching the end of his contracted time there. To me that could also be the trigger for events, he had the keys for ~4 months, seeing Leah every day or at least at frequent times, he was no longer going have access to see her. JMO

Edited for spelling

 

[pedronz06]

If this was a snatch-and-grab attack, anyone familiar with MK will be familiar with the pedestrian underpasses everywhere. The is one about 50 metres from 2 Loxbeare Drive, as shown in this photo from Google Images...

Possibly in the driveway but not at the underpass, that's a quite a distance to grab and take her back to the house in broad daylight and she knows taekwondo. I assume if window was broken at back he had got her into kitchen for a drink with some fake politeness and this is where the assault took place and hence damage to window. Forensics will reveal this.

 

[Bluebear15]

Several killers have ended their own lives after committing a murder before being arrested, Alice Gross’s killer for example. I’m sure dozens of other examples could be found. It doesn’t point away from NM at all.

The killer of Rory Blackhall in Scotland is another.

 

[Skigh]

It's interesting that he took his own life just 16 days after this appeal on April 4 2019.

Appeal to trace man wanted after sexual assault in Newport Pagnell

Police are appealing for the public’s help to trace a man who is wanted from Newport Pagnell. Officers want to speak to Neil Maxwell, aged 49, in connection with an incident of sexual assault w...

totalmk.co.uk

I wonder if he thought neighbours or locals would recognise him from his photo and connect him to number 2.

 

[Kinners_D]

Possibly in the driveway but not at the underpass, that's a quite a distance to grab and take her back to the house in broad daylight and she knows taekwondo. I assume if window was broken at back he had got her into kitchen for a drink with some fake politeness and this is where the assault took place and hence damage to window.

Has the broken window been confirmed, I have seen it mentioned a lot but never verified. Would be good to get a date for when it was broken too as it could be relevant for the reasons you have said, if it was the right time.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Well, this was not at all what I expected!

I wonder if LE has named him as a suspect because his fingerprints were on the belongings of Leah's that were found. Or they fast tracked DNA testing and got a fast match.

JMO but the basis of naming him was that the property owner stated he had the keys.

I don't think it's got as far as testing and forensics tying him to it, could be wrong.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

We don't know enough about him to judge the state of his mental health or what motivated him to commit suicide.

Agreed, I am curious to know a lot more details.

 

[Willowy]

Quite a few posts asking why the house is suddenly being sold (assumption from estate agents visiting). I don't think there's anything suspect about it.

Thinking the house was almost certainly an investment piece for the owners. The owners have recently got wind of the fact the UK housing market is getting rocky, plus they have barely been here for a couple of years due to Covid. Probably finding it hard to keep the place maintained. So they have decided to sell up.

 

[Kinners_D]

Quite a few posts asking why the house is suddenly being sold. I don't think there's anything suspect about it.

Thinking the house was almost certainly an investment piece for the owners. The owners have recently got wind of the fact the UK housing market is getting rocky, plus they have barely been here for a couple of years due to Covid. Probably finding it hard to keep the place maintained. So they have decided to sell up.

Where has suddenly come from, unless people know the owners then that can't be known. This is probably not a snap decision but due to many factors, not least the state of the UK economy right now.

Edited to add words

 

[Rusty Braincells]

The killer of Rory Blackhall in Scotland is another.

And the murderer of Sally Geeson in Cambridge in 2005, again that’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure some people do consider that they have gone too far or can’t do the prison time.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Cambridgeshire | Soldier killed Sally, tests show

 

[infinit]

Possibly in the driveway but not at the underpass, that's a quite a distance to grab and take her back to the house in broad daylight and she knows taekwondo. I assume if window was broken at back he had got her into kitchen for a drink with some fake politeness and this is where the assault took place and hence damage to window. Forensics will reveal this.

I did martial arts for 12ish years, there are situations where it's very difficult to overcome an assailant e.g. someone surprises you from behind with a weapon. It's made even worse if they have a height, weight and strength advantage over you. There is a reason the mantra in most martial arts is if you can, don't engage in the conflict.

The underpass doesn't make much sense because it's not on her way to work. But I could see her potentially either being dragged from the road into the driveway/garage area. Or as you say, somehow she has been persuaded in.

 

[tedtink]

I wonder if he thought neighbours or locals would recognise him from his photo and connect him to number 2.

Yeah, pure speculation but maybe he knew his time was up? The appeal, then knowing the owners might be back at the house in the summer and might discover LC.

 

[Miss_French]

I think those that are on this thread and live in Milton Keynes know how much pressure was on this case. Photos of Leah were all over the bridges, underpasses, shops, billboards, on peoples cars, you would hear people talking about her in shops.. he obviously killed himself knowing that he wasn’t going to get away with this for very long and wasn’t going to be able to outrun it. What I can’t understand is how he got her into the house without anybody seeing though.

I wasn't aware of the information that Leah's phone turned off near the Premier Inn. So maybe nothing happened at the house, she was snatched at another location, and taken elsewhere and brought back under cover of darkness. She may have been unconscious when taken into the house, wrapped in something. She may have been hidden in the boot and found to be dead at the house.

 

[SpursGyal]

I wonder if he thought neighbours or locals would recognise him from his photo and connect him to number 2.

I think he probably did feel like the net was closing in, Leahs photo was everywhere, even right outside the house, if he returned to the house, he would have been greeted by police calling cards, then his photo being cirulated.

IMO, it has to be him, the police obviously have more information that what they are releasing too. Its not the outcome anyone wanted, and its sickening for Leahs family that all this time she was so close, they probably passed that house at some point over the years, and justice will never be done. I hope they find some peace in being able to lay her to rest.

 

[Willowy]

It's interesting that he took his own life just 16 days after this appeal on April 4 2019.

Appeal to trace man wanted after sexual assault in Newport Pagnell

Police are appealing for the public’s help to trace a man who is wanted from Newport Pagnell. Officers want to speak to Neil Maxwell, aged 49, in connection with an incident of sexual assault w...

totalmk.co.uk

Exactly, I've been trying to find out whether the police were closing in on him around the time of his suicide. Or maybe people he knew had shopped him or threatened to.

 

[Kinners_D]

I wasn't aware of the information that Leah's phone turned off near the Premier Inn. So maybe nothing happened at the house, she was snatched at another location, and taken elsewhere and brought back under cover of darkness. She may have been unconscious when taken into the house, wrapped in something. She may have been hidden in the boot and found to be dead at the house.

It's really hard to qualify what "near the premier inn" really means. With gps/location turned off then they'd have to be relying on pinging off mobile towers and that kind of location tracking leaves a huge area, which likely includes the house.

 

[Miss_French]

There is still a large question to answer here: How was this man employed? How did the owners/managers of the property find him? Especially pertinent if he lived an itinerant lifestyle.

He will obviously be connected to people locally in some form to have been employed in this way, and he may have been - IMO - employed in a similar way in other properties.

Fake documents, fake references; that's why people fall for cowboy builders because they don't do the obvious checks, like visiting the owners of previous work claimed to have been done.