Forgive Me Father DAVID

Spencer Park

The crime scene tape had been taken down but the police was still patrolling the park and the streets around the area, it was a a dog walker who first noticed the remains. The dog was circling a suitcase which the owner thought was just some waste that maybe some inconsiderate person had tipped there. He thought the dog was trying to find somewhere to pee but after the dog accidentally tore the suitcase, he could smell something like a rotting animal. The dog walker was 58 year old Peter Stenton, a local resident nearby. When the dog wouldn’t leave the trash, Peter went over to take a closer look and noticed what looked like human hair inside of the bag. He knew not to touch or move anything, it could damage or contaminate critical evidence.

That’s when Peter called the New South Wales police. When the police arrived, he directed them to the crime and told them exactly what he had witnessed answering all of their questions. Peter wanted to speculate to help the officers but he knew just to tell them exactly what he knew. Detectives and canine unit searched Spencer Park in Soldiers Point trying to work out exactly how this person had died. Neighbours was looking for answers, walking through the park in the morning and the night was now scary especially with the children playing out there.

Police had not got the results back as to when this person died, all they recovered from the suitcase was a badly decomposed body which had been mutilated and a bent hacksaw.

The most important function of the medical examiner was to determine the cause, mechanism, and manner of death. First, he at how the cause of death came about. Was it natural, accidental, suicidal, homicidal, or undetermined. Only deaths from disease are natural and seeing as the corpse had been mutilated, he didn’t think it was a natural cause.

As the post mortem got underway, the forensic examiner stated that no illegal substance was present in the victims’ blood, however, there was presence of alcohol

The New South Wales police formed a dedicated group of investigators to take on an organised and methodical approach. Sergeant Pulley said ″Clear objectives is vital to provide direction to our line of enquiry which may become resource intensive. The elements of our house to house strategy is and whilst he’s talking, he wrote them on the white board ″Setting the objectives; Identifying the location parameters; Setting time parameters; Setting subject parameters; Timing house to house enquiries; Identifying resources; Fast-track house to house enquiries. There are three main reasons for carrying out house to house enquiries 1. Identifying suspects, 2.Identifying witnesses, 3. Gathering local information and intelligence″

The hacksaw was sent to the forensics lab and investigators established the identities of all those living or working in and the premises in the park’s location and obtained accounts of their movements at times relevant to the investigation. They had knocked on several doors and was told the same thing – no one had seen or heard anything.

The following day, the forensics results had come back from the hacksaw. Fingerprints had been found on the handle of the hacksaw and after running the fingerprints through their database, had matched to a ‘David Snell’. The medical examiner had also come to a conclusion and passed on his report to Sergeant Pulley. ’Female, Caucasian, between 30 – 40 years of age. She had a tattoo of a football club in Grimesby, England, on her left shoulder blade.

Sergeant Pulley had a hunch, and decided to make a call to the Grimesby Birchin Way police station. Maybe the tattoo meant something? After dialling, a voice answered ″Hello, Grimesby Birchin Way how may I help?″ ″Ah hi I’m Sergeant Pulley from the New South Wales police, Australia″ said the officer. ″I have a case here involving a deceased female who has been dismembered. The medical examiner wrote in his report that the female had a tattoo of a football club in Grimesby and I was wondering if you have any missing persons or similar cases?″ said Pulley. ″No, I don’t think so, but if you give your email address, I will contact you if we receive anything″. ″

Sergeant Pulley felt a twinge of disappointment.. ″Sir, what about doing a press release first thing in the morning″ asked one of the detectives. ″Yeah I think we need to get the public’s interest in this one″

The Police Spokeswoman for New South Wales gave the following statement on National TV;

″A lady aged between 30 and 40 years who was suffocated to death and then mutilated was found by a local man walking his dog two days ago. 58 year old local resident Peter Stenton made the emergency call to New South Wales Police after making the gruesome discovery. The body had been dismembered and then placed inside a suitcase in Spencer Park close to Soldiers Point

This was an exceptionally serious violent attack, which cost one woman her life. Police are working meticulously through large amounts of CCTV and footage in and around the Spencer Park in Soldiers Point to establish what had happened and bring charges against those responsible for this appalling event. Sadly this case shows that knife crime and its appalling consequences are not confined to large cities and vividly highlights the impact that carrying knives can have on people’s lives

The woman is aged 30 – 40, Caucasian, 5′ 4″ tall with a slim build. She had a tattoo of Grimesby FC on her left shoulder blade

The police are treating the death as suspicious and would like to speak to David Snell in connection with the murder. Anyone with information about this crime or knows of David’s where about, please contact New South Wales Police

Thank you″

Late that evening, Sergeant Pulley received a call from a guy called Greg. ″Hi Greg, what can I do for you?″ asked the Sergeant. I saw one of your officers on the news today and mentioned my friend’s name″ Greg said in anticipation. ″What is your friends name Greg?″ Greg told the sergeant about his friend, David Snell, ″It’s probably a completely different Dave though″ Greg continued. ″If you’d like to give me your contact number Greg, and I’ll get an officer to call you back in the morning?″ ″Please, I’d rather get it sorted now or I’ll be panicking″ Greg replied. ″OK, if you don’t mind an officer calling round to see you late at night, I can send someone over as soon as they become free″ said Sergeant Pulley.

Just under two hours later, an officer arrived at Greg’s address. ″Hi, come on in″ Greg said, showing the officer into the living room. Officer Unwin took a seat on the sofa, took out his notebook, ″So Greg, you believe you know David Snell″, ″Yes″ Greg answered, ″But it’s probably a totally different guy″. ″Maybe you could tell me more about your friend, where does he live?″ ″I’ve not seen him in over eight months since he moved out. He was living in England but him and his girlfriend, Avril I think she was called came to visit me for a short while, just to catch up that kind of thing. We didn’t see much of each other with him living over the water″ explained Greg, ″When did you, ″Sorry to but in, her name was April not Avril″ Greg added.

″When did you last see your friend″ asked Unwin. ″Like I say, it must be around eight months since I saw him. We kind of had a falling out, he was shagging a lass behind April’s back. April had gone out into town and Dave had brought this ugly bird to my house to shag her″ Greg said. ″I told him I wanted him out of my house, he was treating it like a knocking shop. I don’t think I gave him chance to round up all of his stuff, I found his suitcase and a few bits of clothes a few days later. I totally forgot about them until I needed my own suitcase, but seeing as I didn’t know where Dave had gone too, I got rid of them″ ″Can you remember what the suitcase looked like? What colour, how big was it, that kind of thing?″ asked Unwin.

″It was a huge black thing, I remember thinking why did he need such a huge suitcase just for the two of them″ said Greg. Officer Unwin asked if there was any distinctive features on the suitcase such as a logo, or a name etc. ″The only logo was a green diamond on the front near the handle″ explained Greg looking puzzled. ″Greg, can you remember where you disposed of the suitcase after David left?″ ″It was outside for a few days, could have even been a week. But that, the clothes and then some of my own rubbish was making the lawn look a mess. I can’t really afford a skip so I put it in a bin in the park″ Greg explained. ″OK Greg, well, you’ve been a great help. If you think of anything else, let me know″ said Unwin as he stood up to leave.