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You are listening to the Evidence Locker.
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Over the past five years, we have covered many unsolved cases, cases with questionable outcomes and of course solved crimes too. We are always keeping an eye on any news regarding the cases that we have covered, and follow updates as they come in.
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A case that has received a lot of renewed attention, is the Doorstep Murder of Alistair Wilson in Nairn, Scotland. The 30-year-old Banker was brutally killed at his home in November 2004. An unidentified stranger shot Alistair 3 times as soon as he stood at his front door. His young family was upstairs at the time.
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For years the case baffled Scottish investigators, but recently there has been some positive movement in the case, thanks to a Channel 5 documentary, Murder on the Doorstep, released earlier this year.
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An avenue that was not explored, was the fact that Alistair opposed the construction of a deck at a pub, that would overlook his house. Pub patrons and owners took the matter very seriously, and Alistair was not well-liked because of this.
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A copy of Alistair’s letter to council, stating his objection to the deck, was sent to pub owner, Andy Burnett two days before Alistair’s murder.
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Police travelled to Nova Scotia, Canada, where Burnett now lives, but stressed he was questioned as a witness, not a suspect.
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Detective Superintendent Graeme Mackie, new lead investigator in the case, said this of the dispute: "The Havelock pub at that time was a really popular venue. People were invested in this decking. People who attended that pub helped build it. They took a lot of pride in it."
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Police have stated that their main person of interest is a 40-year-old man. They have not named him, but it has been reported that is currently in prison in connection with drug charges.
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Causing a lot of controversy in Israel, the Tair Rada case has also been in the news. After spending more than 16 years in prison Roman Zadorov was granted a retrial.
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13-year-old Tair was murdered in the girls’ restrooms at her school in December 2006. Police arrested Roman Zadorov, a Ukrainian citizen who worked in Israel illegally. In the end, Zadorov confessed.
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He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. But the case was controversial from the start, as there was hardly any evidence linking Zadorov to the murder.
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This case has been called the ‘Making a Murderer’ of Israel, with many people believing in Zadorov’s innocence. But if he did not kill Tair Rada, who did?
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New evidence has come to light, pointing to the likelihood that Tair was killed by one of her peers. Zadorov’s defence maintains that he was framed and that the real killer was Ola Kravchenko, whose boyfriend, Adir Habani (or AH as we referred to him in the podcast) told police that she had confessed to him.
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DNA tests on a hair found on Tair’s body excluded Zadorov as the assailant, but pointed to Adir Hadani, who lived with Ola Kravchenko at the time of the murder.
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Zadorov was acquitted of all charges in March of this year. However, judges did not feel the case against Kravchencko was strong enough for a conviction. Tair’s mom, Ilana Rada, is openly critical of the prosecutors of the state of Israel, and assured authorities she will not rest until her daughter killer is brought to justice.
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One of the most unsettling cases covered by Evidence Locker, was the Nicky Verstappen case from The Netherlands.
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Sadly, investigative journalist, Pieter R de Vries, who was of great support to the Verstappen family in their quest for justice, was gunned down in Amsterdam in 2021, leaving a TV studio after an interview – his killer is yet to be identified.
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11-year-old Nicky disappeared from his tent during summer camp in 1998, and his body was discovered the next day, in a field near the site. DNA evidence led police to known offender, Jos Brech, and he was arrested while travelling in Spain, he was sentenced to 12 and a half years.
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It is still unclear why and how he killed Nicky. Brech maintained that Nicky was already deceased when he came upon him, and that only touched Nicky. This is his explanation why his DNA was on Nicky’s underpants.
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In November 2020 Brech was acquitted of manslaughter. The convictions of kidnap and sexual abuse remained. But the fight was far from over, and in January 2022, the appeal court found him guilty of manslaughter and a 16-year sentence was handed down.
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The strange, unsolved murder of the al-Hilli family and cyclist Sylvain Mollier in France have had some light shed on the case.
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In July 2022, the surviving daughter, Zainab, told police that she recalled getting out of the car at the scenic spot that day, and seeing cyclist Sylvain Mollier.
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Moments later shots rang out and her mother shouted for them to get back into their vehicle. Zainab remembered being grabbed from behind. At first, she thought it was her father, but then saw the man’s white skin and bare hands, and realised it wasn’t.
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According to Zainab the man wore jeans and a leather jacket. She was pistol whipped and blacked out.
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Despite the attacker’s appearance hinting to the fact that he was a motorcyclist, a local man only identified as Pierre C, who was on a motorbike in the area at the time of the killings, has been excluded as a suspect.
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There is another a piece of evidence that might hold the key to solving this murder. Wooden fragments of a butt of a gun, came from a pre-World War 2 Luger P-oh-six pistol.
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It has also been determined that the killer approached from a narrow track beyond the carpark, a hidden path known mostly by locals only.
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Authorities believe the gunman was a deranged local, trained in execution and that this was an isolated incident.
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Who the intended target of this brutal crime was, remains unclear.
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17-year-old Mike Mansholt was found dead at the foot of Dingli Cliffs, Malta in July 2016, four days after he was reported missing. Authorities claimed that he had fallen to his death while riding his bike, however, the cause of death was never established.
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According to Mike’s father a doctor had told him – off the record – that his son's injuries were not compatible with a fall. In fact, there were no broken bones. When Mike’s body was repatriated to Germany, many of his organs were missing.
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The medical examiner in Malta claimed that rodents could have been responsible, but a German autopsy found nothing to support this theory.
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In July 2021, Berndt Mansholt contested the findings regarding his son’s death. The Mansholt family started the process to obtain a European Investigation Order. German prosecutors have requested their Maltese counterparts to continue the investigation into Mike’s mysterious death.
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Under EU’s principals of mutual recognition, Malta would HAVE to agree.
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The aim of the EIO bid to reopen the case is to answer three questions: How did Mike die? Who was with him? What happened to his organs?
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In Canada, Albert Walker from one of our first episodes ‘The Rolex Murder’ was granted parole in August this year.
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This conman who killed his friend, Ron Platt, and assumed his identity; went on the run when authorities caught on to his crimes. He was apprehended in Brantford, England, living with his 15-year-old daughter who posed has his wife.
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She later called him evil and manipulative and severed all contact with him.
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Walker was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He served time in a British prison before returning to Canada in 2005 to serve out his life sentence.
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The 77-year-old is allowed to spend 60 days outside of jail, providing he returns every night at 9pm.
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Another prisoner that wanted to extend his freedom, was German cannibal, Armin Meiwes. Many people in the community were shocked to learn that he had already been granted day passes, but as for his request for permanent parole was denied in 2018.
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Meiwes castrated his volunteer victim, Bernd Brandes, cooked his penis and fed it to the dog after it was found to be too chewy. Brandes bled out and died in Meiwes’s childhood home in Rotenburg.
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In April of this year, it was reported that this house of horrors had burnt down. More than 80 firefighters worked to contain the blaze.
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If you have watched the Netflix special ‘Unlikely Murderer’, you’ll learn more about Swedish authorities’ ruling in the Olof Palme case. More than 130 people have claimed responsibility for the assassination over the years, but with so many secret agencies at play, did authorities finally reach an answer?
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Swedish prosecutors believe they have, and released a statement in 2020, confirming their belief that Stig Engstrom, also known as the ‘Skandia Man’, was in fact the killer.
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Engstrom ended his own life in 2000, so there will be no further procedures. This case has been closed and no other possibilities will be explored.
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A case that we always keep a close eye on, is that of Lars Mittank who went missing from Varna airport after vacationing in Bulgaria. Sightings pop up every now and again, but sadly none of the people were Lars.
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We’ll keep an eye on developments in all cases we have covered, and let you know on social media as it comes out.
Thanks for listening to our update episode. This was The Evidence Locker.