2.1 Senior Investigating Officer – police briefing

Good morning. And welcome to this briefing on the recent murder carried out in Chadborough. Now my name is Lyndon Harris. I work for Falldershire Police Force. I am the senior investigating officer on this case. Now during this briefing, I’m going to talk you through everything we know so far about this incident. And obviously, we are in a rapidly evolving situation. And we will receive further information as we go through the investigation. You must take notes in whatever way you see fit about this case, because you are part of the investigating team. And it’s important that you are aware of all the case details that follow. The deceased is Leonard Anderson.

His body was discovered at 10:30 AM, Tuesday the 11 February, 2020. I will tell you a bit about his background and then I’ll move on to talk to you about how the body was discovered. Leonard Anderson is 70 years old. He’s retired. He was formerly in the army. Leonard lives in a semi-detached three-bedroom house in a suburban area of Chadborough. He lives alone. He was previously married but his wife, Eve passed away at 61 from cancer. He has a social life, which is largely centred around the bowling club which is in walking distance from his house. He is independent and generally travels on local buses and trains, no problem.

He has two children, Caroline, 45, who lives in Australia where she’s a teacher. And he has a son, Neale, 40, who lives in Chadborough, the same town as our victim. Now, Leonard’s health has not been too great. His health complaints are centred around angina, and other heart problems. The discovery of the body was in slightly unusual circumstances. The first we became aware of something having happened is when our officer, Sandra Ashton, was flagged down whilst returning to the police station after another call out. She was flagged down by Neale Anderson the son of the victim Neale Anderson is a 40-year-old Business Development Manager for a small management consultancy. The company is co-owned by 3 directors of whom Neale is one.

Neale drives an executive saloon car. He has a long-term partner who he lives with, Jane Gardner. Neale Anderson flagged down officer

Ashton approximately 10:20 AM. And he said he had turned up for a prearranged meeting with his father at his father’s house. On arrival for the meeting at the house, his dad appeared not to be in. There was no answer at the property. He was concerned as his father was very reliable. He also noticed that the upstairs blinds were still closed, which at 10:20 AM was very unusual. He said he tried to gain access to the house but was unable to and asked officer Ashton to accompany him to the house, which she did. Onto the body then. As you will see in this body map, the deceased had a puncture wound to the right hand side of the neck, 4 centimetres deep, 0.4 centimetres wide, with bruising around the wound. Now it’s believed that this is consistent with a stab wound from a screwdriver, bradawl, or similar tool.

Estimates placed a time of death approximately between 7:00 and 10:00 PM on Sunday the 9 February, 2020, which is the Sunday prior to the body being discovered on the Tuesday. Currently, our officer Sandra Ashton is preparing and submitting a statement about how the body was discovered. Likewise, Neale Anderson is a significant witness and he will be interviewed. There is a scheduled witness interview coming up, which will be handled by DS Sund, who is part of our investigation team. At this present time, no weapon has been located. We have no suspects in mind. And scenes of crime officers are searching the premises. I’d like you to please make notes of what I’ve told you so far. And be prepared and ready for further updates.