A Wife Vanishes: Killing The Truth S3E3 Nightmare In Suburbia | A True Story

Killing The Truth: A wife vanishes after her husband moves his mistress into the family home. Ten years later, a yachting accident reveals the dark truth.

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Remember this image a 7-year-old girl hides in a wood and sees her father kiss a young woman who is not her mother not his wife this is where it began really for the girl I did idolize him I did have him on a pedestal he is that type of

Person but Sam’s father was to abuse her love for him a few years later her parents’ bedroom her mother’s shredded Dress A Farewell note so many different stories told to so many different people a Web of Lies the Apparently tranquil Seaside town of Bournemouth where a childhood ended where there was murder

But where beneath layers of Deceit little was as it seemed the problem with fantasist is that they get caught up with all the lies they’ve told and they forget that the truth is still the truth and no matter how much you bury it it can still find its way to the

Surface the stolen kiss in the woods was in 1976 Samantha Gillingham then seven is grown up now married with a 21-year-old son of her own then she was an only child living with her parents Russell and Veronica Pacman hers was an unsettled childhood the family Dynamics held many Clues to what was to

Come personality wise my father was very extrovert and cocky but I thought that my father was just the bee needs really as far as fathers were concerned my mother was nothing like my father my mother was stunning I wouldn’t say a trophy wife is the correct way to

Actually put it but certainly somebody that was attractive had a nice figure and maybe somebody who was submissive I was never close to my mother though there wasn’t ever a a mother daughter bond Russell’s own upbringing was Disturbed nicknamed flash Harry because of his liking for Rolex watches an

Admirer of the glamour surrounding the cray brother gangsters he had convictions for robbery in gbh and spent time in bostel but he later embarked on a successful career as a draftsman in the aviation industry my father had absolutely no qualifications in this line of work he’s quite literally blanked his way into

This business becoming very good at it he obviously was very good at it because it financed um a very nice life but on top of that he then took my mother into the industry as well and taught my mother in those days Russell and his wife were a tight team looking after Sam

Was was fitted around their careers when she was seven they went to Germany for work my parents literally just found a school and they just they just left me there and I can remember I was very very distraught I was completely abandoned foreign country foreign language in 1977

When she was nine they relocated again this time to Canada Sam had little contact with anyone save her parents my father put a huge amount of energy and effort into me you know my father and I dancing you know playing for hours upon hours I constantly had this urge to

Please him to become his Um I did idolize him I did have him on a pedestal he is that type of he is that type of person where you um you you want his Approval being idolized was important to Russell in many ways his household was his fom if you did something wrong in the house you used to have to do Bow Downs it was literally down on your hands and knees you’d literally have to do this bow down movement bow down is definitely a controlling

Thing last chance if I didn’t eat my food the plate was just on top of my head I can remember my mother having to take me upstairs to the bathroom to rinse food out of my hair there are aspects of this which are really disturbing here’s a young girl

With no friends who’s desperate for her father’s love but he’s indifferent to her most of the time and throws her a few kind of crumbs n again which he desperately clings on to the mother and the daughter are both kind of bit part players in his fantasy

He’s someone who’s prepared to use other human beings for his own psychological gratification he forced his wife to cut off all communication with her family and he didn’t like her name Veronica she changed her name to carolan and my father’s sister her name is carolan so it is quite strange

Really Russell with his record of violence knew how to deal with those who crossed him we had a German shepherd and and um the dog who became ill was messing hugely in the house I woke up to the most horrendous of fracka going on and I can remember

Coming out from my bedroom door to find just this mess and the next day I can remember my father saying to me that unfortunately you know that Panda had been very ill and yes well I’m sorry to say but Panda’s now um he’s gone to heaven well actually what actually

Transpires is is that my father had quite literally kicked that dog um to death in the 18th year of their marriage now back from Canada and with their daughter aged 15 Russell and Carol bought a home in Bournemouth things were to happen here which make it hard for Sam to

Return this is zip switch Road in the past year I’ve been back here quite a bit but I only normally stand at the bottom of the driveway and um this is the last place where I lived as a family together with my parents a fourth person appeared on the

Scene Patricia corsley was an employee at Russell’s new insurance business Patricia was older than me but younger than my parents very bubbly this is Patricia my father says that Patricia needed somewhere to stay and it was just a temporary thing and this is where Patricia stored her furniture but of

Course Patricia’s Furniture never did get moved out because Patricia never moved out all the characters were now assembled nightmare was about to Descend Russell Pacman had bought Patricia Corley into his familyes born withth home and soon was training her in aviation draftsmanship as he’d done with his wife it became clear they were having an affair but for his daughter Sam Patricia who was only 12 years her senior felt like an older

Sister was somebody who was more in tune with fashion as it were and accessories and my mother wasn’t like that my mother wasn’t that sort of person and so Patricia kind of became my pal as well so now I had my father father as a pal and I had Patricia as

Well Patricia moved into my room and my father moved out of the matrimonial bed and he moved then into the spare room and because my parents were now sleeping separately I didn’t really think there was anything really weird Patricia sneaking out of my room and sneaking into my father’s

Room unfortunately I was kind of used as like a porn really in my father’s relationship with Patricia my mother was desperately continuing as life was despite the fact that this other woman was living in her home Sam’s complicity went further she actively protected Russell and Patricia as they had

Sex my father and Patricia were in bed together while I was stood out the window looking out to protect them to make sure that my mother when they she was coming back that they wouldn’t get found in bed together just sounds so flipping perverted now you don’t realize what you’re doing

When you’re that age you don’t realize I do understand though that I was exploited in some ways for my naivity though my loyalty to my father no no loyalty to my mother there were other disturbing hints of perverse sexuality in topless photos Russell took of Sam as a child echoing a

Photo of his wife it’s the way that he’s got me to actually um hold my hair up so it’s not just a case of just a photograph of oh this is what you looked like when you were 13 how you were developing there was definitely an element of the um

Sexual Patricia’s arrival coincided with a change in Russell’s sexual habits he started to shave underneath his arms and his legs for a time it seems Carol may have tried to meet his needs my father started to wear French knickers Silk french knickers which my mother used to buy with regards to Patricia

The the driving force was definitely sexually motivated Patricia was obviously giving my father something that my mother obviously wasn’t giving him after a marriage of 20 years I think in Patricia Russell finds somebody he really needed he needs someone to fuel his narcissistic fantasies of who he is and he needs

Someone to fulfill his sexual fantasies as well there’s a photo that I saw of my father and you just think to yourself he’s in in this picture that I’ve seen he’s in a cot and he’s it’s you know full grown man in a normal cart wearing a nappy with a dummy in his

Mouth the roots of Russell’s strange sexual behavior May lie decades earlier one incident in particular may have affected him we don’t know if this is true or not but he says that he was actually raped by by a friend of his father I don’t know I think that he felt

That with his father that his father hadn’t supported hadn’t believed him so what do we know about Russell at the stage well we know that he’s completely into control but of course very very hard to stay in complete control all of the time and the whole

Dressing as an infant is about not being in control about allowing allowing someone else to be in charge of what’s going on and of course this could be connected to his rape when he was 17 because if you’ve ever been raped of course the last thing you want to do is

Allow someone else to control you in that way but of course this dressing in French knickers and so on the kind of feminine side of his behavior might also connect to the rape in a very different sense which is what happens if that rape was much more

Consensual in late 1984 Russell won a new work contract in Yorkshire here he took both Carol and Patricia with him Sam aged 16 was left to fend for herself one day her mother traveled back to check everything was okay she started to actually confiding me with regards to the situation that

She was in in Yorkshire with Patricia being there and it was the first time really that my mother and I had actually spoken well not exist since she was seven Sam had kept a secret from her mother she Russell and and a teenage girl Sonia had been walking in woods playing hide and

Seek I stepped out from the bushes and I looked back and I saw my father kissing Sonia now finally she told her mother Russell’s infidelity with Patricia was not his first but please please don’t tell him you promise you know what he’s like okay anyway she goes back up there

They have a row my mother of course has got some ammunition that she can use against my father and of course you know she uses it and the next thing is that I received my phone call that evening hello you are in serious trouble when I

Get home she promised she said that she won’t tell you well she have told me and you are going to pay Dad I’m sorry I had no further nightly phone calls I was literally just left in complete silence and fear my father just came straight up the stairs to my

Bedroom just opened up the door he came in and he just he used he has like a hard sold leather slipper and he hit me and he hit me stop it and he said right will start again he started hitting me again and when he finished he just threw me across the

Roof and my father said to me to go downstairs and go and show Patricia Patricia why the sorry but why Patricia next morning Sam was sent to fetch the papers so I walked to westborne I was I was in absolute agony I just had horseshoe ring marks all on my buttocks

Down the backs of my legs and I just came home my mother said to me there was a cup of tea in the pot if I wanted one she didn’t even ask me how it was she just took my father up his tea and toast I just ran away the next

Day Sam fled to Bournemouth seafront there she met a friend police and Social Services were called and she was taken into a children’s home that’s where she spent Christmas 1984 my mother came to see me in that time as well it wasn’t very good I was never

Close to my mother though there wasn’t ever a a mother daughter bond I don’t think I love you anymore thanks though Russell was charged with actual bodily harm he persuaded Sam to say both parents had attacked her making it harder to pin specific blame the charge was dropped and she was sent home

I loved him dearly despite what he’ done to me I wanted to go back home again but I should have maybe gone down a different Road maybe then what happened then wouldn’t have happened isolated and rejected from all sides Carol hit rock bottom I can remember one particular incident where my

Mother she was on the kitchen floor and she was literally just wailing just I wouldn’t say crying I just say just wailing like an animal and my father got a bucket of water and he took bucket of water and he pulled it on to my

Mother and I was trying to get my mother to get her up the stairs so she could be put to bed cuz she was just that’s where she needed to go it’s just terrible that somebody could be in such a young mentally just to be so desperate and for nobody nobody to help

Her I know I helped her to try and get out the stairs but the whole situation though she needed bigger help than that the mother is systematically being destroyed here she desperately needs help she needs love and support but nobody’s going to raid now can we understand this from a psychology point

Of view well we know that Sam has in some sense thrown her lot in with her father she’s identified with him she knows how powerful he is and we know that powerful figures draw in support in this way she doesn’t want to cross him because in every sense she knows what

He’s capable of he’s capable of emotional mental and physical abuse and she doesn’t want to be on the wrong side of them Carol stuck it out for a few more months but on June the 14th 1985 she told her doctor she was separating from her husband and visited her cister to

Discuss divorce and her financial position she told a friend she’d sooner burn the £40,000 house than let Patricia have her 50% share in its value the next day Russell’s solicitor Anthony ha Jones received a letter from him saying Russell intended to divorce Carol but she was being

Difficult so at this point Carol has picked herself literally up from the floor she’s going to do something about it she’s taking charge of her life again but the problem is that in this household when you go against Russell’s will that can be a very dangerous thing to

Do the exact date of what happened next is not clear my father and I were going to London do some sightseeing I don’t remember leaving the house the journey to London I do remember um being in London and I remember seeing Patricia at the window of the

Car but I don’t remember the actual Journey back memories of what she found on return are crystal clear I remember exactly going into the house went into the kitchen and there on work s was my mother’s wedding ring and a note had enough I can’t take it

Anymore take care of yourself mom I ran straight up the stairs to my parents bedroom because I obviously wanted to see how gone was gone the Wardrobe doors were all open there was a cocktail dress of my mother’s in red and the dress had been shredded no clothes or belongings

Were missing but she hasn’t even taken anything I think initially I felt indifferent which I know sounds terrible but there was kind of it was almost as if that we had been living in a pressure cooker and that the pressure had been released from the House on June the 21st 1985 Russell reported Carol missing but made it clear he wasn’t worried my father’s reaction was she’s just seeking attention she’ll be back a new normality asserted itself Russell insisted Sam get a job which she did as a chambermaid in the Tralee hotel

Now a travel lodge and in the evenings she Patricia and Russell had civilized meals together my mother had now gone and nobody seen to be particularly interested in where she might be and was she coming back but it didn’t take long for my father’s relationship and mine to actually deteriorate I actually think

It’s time you moved out you know got a place of your own fine it’s almost as if she’s just surplused requirements now that’s it please don’t go Samy not like your mother did she was useful to the father earlier on in the War of Attrition against the mother

As a useful Ally as a look at as someone who worshiped him and he needed that affirmation from her constantly but now she just reminds of him of an earlier life he’s got a new life now with Patricia and she’s no longer necessary the next day Sam returned for

Her belongings my father was stood at the top of the steps I said to him your wife’s left you your daughter’s now left you and hopefully she’ll see sense and leave you as well you end up a sad lonely old man what actually wanted was for

Everybody just to come home just for it ought to be okay it wasn’t okay Sam had nowhere to go she was on her own for Russell and Patricia life would soon take an unexpected and dramatic Twist Following The Disappearance of her mother relations between Sam and her father Russell and his lover Patricia had deteriorated she walked Out this is Bournemouth Pier the day that I left home this is where I came to this is actually underneath the pier and this was somewhere else where you could actually come where you would be safe safe you’d be dry and warm and you know yes there were other people that were

Underneath here but they never caused me any harm or So Sam lived by eating and washing at the hotel where she worked but the 16-year-old drifted into a cycle of partying drugs and shoplifting she lost her job and ended up on Social Security she met her future husband who was then a heroin addict and they stole Russell’s checkbook to buy

Cars and bikes by September 1986 both were in prison Sam rarely saw her father but released from jail she visited him and Patricia at Christmas 1987 I said have you heard anything about my mother at all and there was just this um momentary silence it’s just a fractional second

Where things just stop well yes she just walked into a police station said that she was fine and didn’t want any more to do with us it was just question answer okay fine I just accepted it later Sam told Russell she’d try to find her mother my father said to me if

You continue to try and find your mother I will never speak to you again I’d like some information please certainly Madam what’s the name please Caroline Pacman by 1989 now married Sam had lost touch with her dad but she was pregnant and wanted to let both parents

Know she did try to trace her mother through the police without success Russell had adopted Patricia’s surname Causley so as to appear married to her and changed his number police managed to trace him nevertheless and asked him to call Sam dad what do you want I thought

You might like to know you’re going to come grandfather Dad I can’t talk to you right now Sam I I I don’t want to know anything about it it the it is now 21 named Neil after his father it is quite hard to understand why someone would call you it or you

Know why he wouldn’t want anything to do with you know something that’s his own flesh and blood Sam refused to give up believing Russell would after all be happy to meet his newborn grandchild she went to visit hello he was wearing this peach colored jumper which seemed quite

Shocking it was just such an eminent color I went there to try and just talk to him and he just freaks me completely you’re always banging on about mom you have no idea about mom you don’t need to tell me useless my father just started going on about my parents sex life in

Bed she was fr I thought it was the most weirdest thing and then he slammed his hands down on the table and he said you know well you and I and I slammed my hand down the table back I said no you got up and I just

Out why did he talk so inappropriately well there’s a way of constructing himself to say look I’m an odious human being it might have been a way of wreting her out the door pushing her away why would he do that psychologically because in some sense

She’s moved on in her life no he might still want that affirmation from her he’s not getting it now because she’s with a new Partner for the next four years Sam became engrossed in bringing up her child and dealing with a sometimes turbulent married life then out of the blue she received a visit from the police which would change her life forever they said well we have some bad

News for you and I have to say it just turned my world just completely upside down 20th of October 1993 Sam was told Russell his solicor Anthony hacket Jones Patricia and another woman had hired a yacht from Hell near Southampton they’d sailed to St Peter port on gy in the Channel Island

And had lunch beside the marina that evening they’d set sail again for France at 12:36 a.m. the Coast Guard had received an SOS call saying Man Overboard the person who’d made the call was Patricia can you give us some details please how long has the person been over at the

Side what you say s how long do the person have been in the water how long we’re not sure but but we think we we think half an hour maybe an hour we don’t know the Lifeboat was launched and by 4:00 in the morning three of the four

Original occupants of the boat were in hospital on the island Russell was nowhere to be seen 2 hours later Philip Faller of gery police then a sergeant now a Chief Inspector was handed the case at first I really wasn’t that interested in getting involved in this

But actually as I started to talk to the people involved that really brought about gut reaction a gut feeling about things that weren’t right this started to unravel into a bit of a a mystery something that became all engrossing for Me Sergeant F went to see the three boat occupants in hospital I noticed uh Mr hackit Jones was making some notes on an A5 notepad writing down some figures uh I then moved on further down the warden SP spoke with Patricia I just feel so desperate and so

So upset her reactions seemed to be completely over the top banging her head on the Table she started off by making it quite clear that she was uh Russell corley’s wife and that they were married and i’ actually noted that written that down in the statement the detective asked the solicitor whether he’d kept the yacht’s log up to date while on board he said

That he hadn’t but that he had written his own notes which were made at the time during the course of the journey and produced this A5 pad showing coordinates which I believed at that time were the figures that he was writing when I came into the ward at

Midday the search for Russell was called off many questions remained unanswered by the boat’s occupants whilst at the hospital I’d arranged to meet them the following morning at about 10 10:00 here at Mo’s hotel which is where they stayed overnight I’d actually got here about 8:00 that morning because I wanted to

Meet up with somebody from the hble yach club to discuss some detail about the yacht itself which was mored in petport Harbor but to my complete surprise I found all three of them coming out this door here with their luggage going towards a waiting taxi the solic explained they were catching a flight

Home despite the continuing search for Russell they said they didn’t really want to speak with me got into the taxi the taxi turned around here and went off down the hill highly suspicious he asked his boss if he could arrest the three before they boarded their flight home but was told

Any offense would have occurred outside gery jurisdiction the state of the yacht when it was rescued had also aroused suspicion John Webster was the lifeboatman who brought the vessel lalon Noir to land what he found on board the boat similar to this one one did not suggest the occupants were genuine

Sailors the autopilot hadn’t even been switched on the VHF radio was on an obscure Channel and they seem to be having difficulty in using it the Talen noir’s ropes were just thrown over the rails and they were still hanging there as with the fenders over the side of the

Boat an admiral once said a boat at Sea with a fender out is like a lady going to a ball with her Cy Sam might never have had the visit by police a week after the incident without a chance event in the life of her Auntie Carol Russell’s

Sister this is what I wanted to show you a friend showed the aunt a news article about a Mr and Mrs corsley and a drowning accident the aunt thought gery police should know Patricia was not Russell’s real wife and that there was a daughter Sam I’d like to speak to inspector fah

Please Sam’s Auntie Carol fo me and said that in actual fact Carol was Russell’s wife and this was totally contrary to what Patricia had told me in her statement at the hospital they said your father is missing presumed dead at Sea I was just absolutely devastated I obviously

Desperately needed to speak to Patricia because she was there and I just wanted information as to what had happened and I started to find out stuff about that there sea plates and that bodies could go underneath sea plates they wouldn’t be able to get out and it’s just absolutely horrific the things

That go through your mind that somebody has drowned but when Sam finally got hold of Patricia days later she learned little it’s my dad I’ve lost my dad it’s my husband my husband I’ve lost my husband he’s not your husband he’s still married to my mom look Sam I’ve got my own grief

To deal with deeply suspicious Sergeant fer had already placed insurance companies on alert for claims relating to the yachting incident sure enough claims began rolling in lodged by the solicitor Anthony Hackett Jones on behalf of Patricia some were passed to John Saunders fraud investigator the claims totaled around £850,000

Russell Corley was allegedly buying a very expensive property near harod he applied for a large mortgage and the insurance policy he’ applied for was to cover the mortgage and I I thought perhaps it was a ruse to obtain a large life insurance policy without maybe too many questions being

Asked literally hours before he went sailing hackit Jones asked for the life insurance policy to take immediate effect that’s unusual because normally in such circumstances the policy would not take effect until that the mortgage was finalized and the purchase finalized convince the death had been faked the insurance fraud investigator and the

Detective went to see Sam she refused to believe Russell would put his family through such pain I have to say at that point I was quite offended by as to what he said but just because I just couldn’t believe that my father was actually capable of committing a fraud to fake

His own death for life insurance payouts but John Saunders found most people thought the opposite no one seemed to really believe that he had died people seem to think it was one of his little tricks one of his little scams he appear to have a reputation what was interesting I spoke

To a jeweler in Bournemouth who said that now that Russ if Russell Cory was dead then he’d lost a valuable Customer because it transpires that uh most years when Russell went on holiday he appeared to lose a gold Rolex and the insurance company replaced it via the Jeweler

Which was ironical in that Patricia corsley also submitted a claim um for the jewelry and I think it was also a gold Rolex that he was wearing when he allegedly fell over board from the Y John Saunders and Sergeant fah questioned Patricia once again she displayed extreme emotion she wept

Throughout the interview and I didn’t believe a word she said in fact the the following day I have I received a phone call I think it was from her doctor saying that she was very suicidal if she should kill herself then I would be held responsible well that was ridiculous the

Fraud Squad in London took over the inquiry but Sergeant fah continued working on the case in gery I spent a lot of personal time on this inquiry and there were people that constantly reminded me that I was probably getting it wrong but I would often come out here walking and come to

The to this particular place here where looking out is the actual location where Russell would have had his accident being lost at sea you start to realize the man that you’ve idolized for such a long period of time isn’t the man that you thought that he was investigators were convinced

Patricia would lead them to Russell 4 months after the yachting incident the pair were observed ruing in a pub perhaps fearing they were being watched they left separately Patricia drove off but Russell left on foot to be met by waiting police officers I was well naturally delighted

But I had a strong urge to go and have a few words with Patricia corsley about her Suicidal Tendencies it emerged on the day of the incident Russell had caught the ferry to the mainland while the others went out on the yacht he’d then gone to ground in

Brighton living as a woman the full extent of the fraud became clear on top of the yachting scam there were false claims for a robbery at home plus thousands of pounds worth of lost luggage in March 1995 at Souther Crown Court Russell admitted conspiracy to defraud and was sentenced to 2 years

Patricia was given a one-year suspended sentence Russell’s solicitor Anthony Hackett Jones against whom the Causley testified was given 3 years the weight of the law coming down harder on someone PID to uphold it no he think that he thinks to himself well I wasn’t dead was I so what’s your

Problem you know I’m alive and well now get over it but he doesn’t understand mentally just what damage that that actually does to you to Sergeant fah this wasn’t the end of the case he was determined to find out what had happened to Sam’s mother Russell corsley was in prison but the investigators hadn’t finished Sergeant Phil fer of gery police was increasingly suspicious about The Disappearance of Russell’s wife Carol the more I looked into where she might be the more it seemed that she no longer existed the last confirmed sighting was

The visit a decade earlier to her solicitor inquiring about a divorce I made inquiries with with passport office register for births and deaths her own medical records lots and lots of inquiries with Canada Italy Germany through her old work colleagues Sam helped police with their search if you leave a footprint no

Matter what it is that you’re doing and one by one we couldn’t find any record of my mother Phil went to interview Patricia Patricia mentioned that some three years previously she’d spoken with Carol but I more specifically asked where I could perhaps find Carol at that moment in

Time at which point Patricia turned to me and looked me directly in the eye and said to be honest with you Sergeant F I don’t think you will ever find Carol and for a moment that’s stunned me because that was quite a chilling statement to make Dorset police took up the case

Working with Sergeant Phil fer it emerged a mother and daughter claiming to be carolly and Sam had gone to a police station to say that Carol didn’t want to be found of course I was daughter and I for a fact had not been into the police station with my mother

It was never proven who that woman was however Patricia had previously pretended to be Carol to get a permit to work with Russell in the aviation industry in Canada after The Disappearance colleagues who’ known the real Carol rumbled the deception informed the Mounted Police and the couple fled back to

Bournemouth Patricia also disguised herself as Carol at a firm of solicitors in order to change the name on the Deeds to the house over to Patricia from Carol and this then meant that Patricia had every rights uh to the house jointly with Russell whoever investigators spoke to among Russell’s acquaintances a

Different account had been given to explain Carol’s disappearance so some it would be that she’s now in Germany to others that she was now working in Canada Italy with some it would be that she’s gone off with another man it seemed to me that he lived a life of

Deceit and fakery really so many different stories told to so many different people a Web of Lies investig tigators were convinced that the secret Russell was hiding was that he had killed Carol we could prove that Carol no longer existed and there was mounting suspicion and increasing evidence that

She’d been murdered but at that stage we had insufficient to charge anybody with her murder it was Russell himself perhaps through his inability to resist concocting fanciful stories who sealed his own fate it emerged that whilst in jail he’ boasted to three fellow inmates about murdering his wife the first

Conversation at Brixton prison was with Michael leemond Russell was asked why he was on remand to which he told him that it was for fraud but then he went on to say that thank God it was for fraud and nothing else and when pressed on the point Russell then went on to explain

That he’d killed his wife and that arranged for her body to be buried in a cemetery in a freshly dug grave scientists from Bournemouth University probed graves in local cemeteries but found no evidence to back the claim the second conversation was at Ford open prison near arendel in West Sussex where

Russell approached an inmate called Murphy knowing that he had some knowledge of the effects of acid he’ asked him whether or not acid would burn away bones Murphy felt that acid wouldn’t affect human bones to which Russell responded that the acid that he’ used would uh have been strong enough to

Completely dissolve any trace of any human body he said that it was painless for her because he gave her a shot of gas put a plastic bag over her head and then dissolved the body completely right down even to any traces of hair the final conversation was at

Exitor prison Russell spoke to an inmate called Briggs he said that he had chopped the body up with an axe and then put the body parts into plastic bags and then disposed of them down a m shaft in the New Forest there was now finally unignorable evidence to charge Russell with the

Murder of his wife and on the day of his release from prison after serving his sentence for the fraud the police were waiting took him in and later charged him with the offense 11 and 1 half years after Carol’s disappearance Russell corsley stood trial at Winchester Crown Court he

Denied murder I was petrified I had to give evidence against this man it’s very difficult to have to do that when your father is sat there in the dock smirking at you whilst you’re actually doing this and I believe me when I gave evidence against my father I was absolutely trembling

In December 1996 without ever revealing how he killed Carol and what he really did with the body Russell was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 on the basis that the inmate’s evidence was unsound he won a retrial but the following year at exter Crown Court with the inmates evidence excluded

He was again convicted of murdering Carol by unanimous verdict on circumstantial evidence alone but many questions are left for those this inquiry touched want to have a man-to-man conversation with him nothing to do with policing I’d want to talk to him as a father to father and try and

Understand why it is to this day he can’t speak with his own daughter why he can’t tell her what really happened I mean after all he’s he’s served or serving his sentence but why can’t he as a human being as a father bring himself to speak with samanther and tell her exactly what

Happened as he say I quote from grandfather’s lips if he knew how much of a pain and how much of a my mother would have been he would got rid of her as well at the same time he was just a selfish greedy man that only

Wanted what he could get he didn’t care who he hurt in the process or what he done to get it and you know that was achieved by killing my grandmother he had a beautiful wife he had a daughter a nice house you know he had everything and he threw it

Away the council have planted a tree in memory of Carol within sight of the house she shared with Sam Patricia and Russell he may soon be considered for parole Sam has written to the Prime Minister objecting Russell has never admitted guilt never said where the body

Lies you tell me where my mother is you allow me to bury my mother and to be able to put her somewhere where I know where she is instead of a tree my mother’s been missing now for 25 years years and just because my father is convicted of my mother’s

Murder um she still needs to be found and um I can’t do anything about it I can’t change it but just because it’s 25 years doesn’t mean to say the um that it means any Less