Silent Witness

This programme contains some violent scenes and some scenes of a sexual nature

Did you find anything keeping her down?

No, we didn't see anything.

DI Ashton.

Nikki Alexander.

What we got?

Think this is her - Lorna Katz.

How long's she been in there?

Well, there's no major skin slippage.

When was she reported missing?

Two days ago. By her ex.

Was she not weighted down?

Your diver said not.

There's a significant head injury to the frontal region.

Could've happened pre or post being in the water.

I won't be able to tell you much until the post...

Postmortem. Thanks.

Hello. Hi.

There's no current here.

Where'd you think she went in?

Could've been the Thames locally or the Lea or the Fleet.

There's dozens of rivers and waterways that flow through here.

Great!

Sorry. Just saying it as it is.

If you want more than a pass

then you need to be using the history clinics, OK?

Hey, and essays on my desk by Monday. Thank you.

Hiya.

Hello, Jean.

Excuse me!

I saw Chris last night.

And why would I want to know that?

He said he's been trying to get in touch with you.

He looked haunted, actually.

You didn't give him my address?

No. No, of course not.

She got family?

A father. Lives abroad. He's been informed.

When was she last seen alive?

Coming out of the Star and Garter

on Grafton Street about 12.30am Tuesday night.

We have the remains of binding.

Heavy-duty tape. And bites.

Scalloping and yellowing. Rat bites.

Lividity?

Well, the blood's collected here, can you see?

So she must've been lying on this bit of her back for at least

a couple of hours after death.

There's some kind of patterning on the edge of it.

What would've caused that?

Maybe she was lying against panelling... or grating.

Are those numbers?

It looks like an indentation of an H.

When did she die? Have you got a time for me?

I can't say for sure. She went missing Tuesday night?

Probably no more than a couple of hours after she was last seen alive.

OK, we've got her mobile number off her father.

The service provider's come up with a list of calls she made.

The last one was to a Kieran Vale.

I called her around midnight.

S... she left a voicemail first.

'Kieran, it's Lorna. Call me back. I'm... Just call me back.'

The time of that call?

23.46.

Er, can I ask you, how long you and Lorna were a couple?

Three years, just over. We go way back, though.

Knew each other at school.

When did you split up?

Couple of months ago. Her decision.

But she still kept in touch?

Yeah. Did she meet somebody else?

She said she didn't, but... I got all the usual bollocks about how

she loved me but not in that way.

You must've been pretty pissed off. After three years.

All I had to do was wait.

She would've come back.

Where were you when you returned her call?

At home.

Can anyone confirm that?

No. I wouldn't hurt her, OK? I never touched her!

What did you do after calling her?

I went to bed. Then about an hour later...

Yeah, here, look. Erm... 1.23.

She sent me a text saying how sorry she was and how she'd made

a mistake about us and could we meet up.

What's this?

It was with the message. I dunno.

I don't know why she sent it.

So what next? Did you text her, ring her back, go meet her?

No.

Really, no? Come on, what happened?

What? Wasn't she as sorry as you wanted her to be?

What you getting at?

Did she get down on her knees and beg you to come back?

You're sick in the bloody head!

Am I really? You've got no alibi but you've got a motive.

You don't believe me? She dumped you!

Whoa.

Check out my phone.

You can tell where I was from that, can't you?

I was home. I never went anywhere.

This is the Royal Albert Dock,

where Lorna's body was found,

and this is where she was last seen alive.

Looking at tidal patterns over the last few days, we think that

she was carried down the River Lea last night by a flood peak.

So she drowned?

Yep, she had plant debris in her lungs and bacterioplankton

matching the River Lea in her organs.

But after she drowned, her body was lying somewhere for some time,

hence the lividity, before being released into the river.

Where would that be?

Well, most likely somewhere between where she was last seen

and where the body washed up.

There were also traces of a weedkiller called Glyphosate

in her body. They use that around rivers, don't they?

Yeah, but you need permission from the Environment Agency.

It's sprayed on things like Japanese knotweed.

So we've marked on here areas where knotweed's been reported.

Where do you want to start?

If she was dumped in the river here,

the tide would had to have been high enough at the time.

If it's low tide, you'd have mud banks on either side.

OK.

Hi.

Where are you?

Good question.

Er, TQ391 816.

Oh... my favourite place.

Glad you like it.

I've got an update from the Environment Agency.

Check out...

TQ386 818.

That was only sprayed four days ago.

All right, will do. Cheers. Bye.

Ah, here we go.

Japanese knotweed.

Hey, what's that?

It's an old sewer outflow. Sewer?

Jack?

Yeah, er, that lettering in the lividity.

Could it have something to do with drainage and sewers?

Give me a second.

Maybe something.

Yeah, here we go.

"H" could be Hollis and Sons. An ironworks.

OK, brilliant. Thanks. Bye.

You ready to get smelly?

Are we going in?

Oh, yeah.

You OK? Yeah.

Er, how are we with tides, Jack?

Plenty of time.

Here it is. Huh?

Is that what made the lividity marks?

Yes, this is it. Her body was here.

The floodwaters, they've raised the body,

moving her against the pipe, rising and falling...

And cutting through the tape.

Yeah.

Right, break's over. Everyone head in.

Ali?

What are you doing here?

Do you want me to call the police?

You should see this.

You've found a body. Lorna.

You knew her, did you?

Three years ago, or thereabouts.

She was a friend of my daughter, who died then.

Not died. Disappeared.

Her body hasn't been found, but...

She was a missing person.

Right. I'm sorry. Your daughter's name?

Ruth Tresize.

She was murdered, was she? Lorna?

We're still trying to establish what happened...

Because there's no way that's a coincidence, is it?

Two young women, two friends. It has to be the same killer.

Can I ask exactly where your daughter went missing?

The banks of the River Lea.

'It was New Year's Eve.

'We were having a party.

'Ruth and I argued.

'She ran off.'

I phoned around her friends - not everybody answered.

I tried again in the morning but nobody'd seen her.

So you think she disappeared rather than...?

I think she ran off.

I think she's living her life somewhere else.

Because...? Did she get in contact?

No, just...

If she was no longer alive, I think I'd know that.

Was there ever a suspect or...

someone involved in Ruth's disappearance?

Me. My husband was physically abusing our daughter...

I slapped her. Once.

So you said.

Why have I let you drag me here?

Right, I'm going to look into this.

Are you OK to wait here?