Silent Witness

Did you enjoy that?

See you. Bye-bye.

Did you get the details of everyone who had a free trial?

Thanks.

Hi, Mum, it's me.

Are you there? Can you pick up?

LOUD MUSIC PLAYS

Mum? Mum?

Mum?

Are you there?

Right, OK. Bye.

SHE SCREAMS

# Testator silens

# Costestes e spiritu

# Silencium

# Testator silens. #

DOG BARKS

I wonder who first discovered that dogs could sniff out bodies.

I guess it's because it's meat.

I think they're a bit more than that.

Hi, there. DI Hughes. Meredith.

Nikki Alexander. Hi.

Oh, I've heard a lot about you.

Good to have you on board. Thanks. It's a team effort.

This is Jack Hodgson, forensic scientist.

And I'm Dr Adam Yuen, pathologist.

I'm new.

Not new-new,

but it's my first case at the Lyell. But I have done this before.

I should hope so.

Right. Well, I'll take you to her.

You should have brought your CV.

The victim is Laura Jennings,

a swimming instructor at the local pool.

She was working there on Saturday.

A colleague rang when she didn't show up this morning.

They had concerns.

How did you know you were looking for a body?

I had my reasons.

A neighbour saw her go out on Sunday.

She was back late Sunday afternoon.

So, time of death?

Do you mind taking that? Thanks.

Rigor is well-developed, so a number of hours.

Did you know her?

Not exactly.

The ground's a mess. Right,

I need everybody out to the van,

get your boots scanned for elimination -

including yours.

It's like Piccadilly Circus in here.

What I said earlier about the bodies being meat -

I didn't mean any offence.

The dead can't take offence.

But you can. I didn't mean to give the wrong impression.

Bodies are people.

How can you cut into a person?

We all have our ways of distancing ourselves.

What are you thinking?

I'm thinking...they came prepared.

Duct tape to quieten the glass.

Looks like there's some jewellery missing upstairs, but...

..any sign of her mobile? Not yet.

Got a charger, no laptop.

Something's off here.

In a burglary, if you open drawers, you rifle through them.

These are too neat.

Scuff marks under here.

A struggle, maybe?

And then...

..blood trail.

Looks like they dragged her out.

Impact blood spatter?

You've done this before.

So, if this is our attack site, and she was hit in this chair,

then the drawers have to have been done afterwards,

otherwise she'd have seen him.

So why kill her?

Maybe he panicked? Thought he'd be identified?

SHE SIGHS

Why take time to bury her and leave the drawers open?

I think you're right - it's staged.

I need you to look for signs of sexual activity.

No need to ask. It's a given.

I'll go over every inch of this place.

Good.

I just want to get it right.

The subject is female, late 30s, well-nourished.

Blunt force trauma to the side of the head.

The cranial lesion appears to be round in shape.

Could be a hammer blow.

A distinctive mark.

A similar wound beneath it, but not as deep.

The first hit had less force? More tentative?

Makes sense.

Petechial haemorrhaging on her lower left palpebral conjunctiva,

also on the right.

Bruising on the neck.

Possible fingermarks.

Some sort of sticky residue.

Adam?

You started without me.

DI Hughes was waiting.

I'm sorry.

Is there a problem?

No. It's fine.

There are bruises on the neck, so I...

Did you check the scans?

Yes, there are two fractures present on the skull.

I applied Puppe's rule.

There are also fractures of the hyoid bone.

Manual strangulation.

Are you sure there are no signs of sexual activity or assault?

No vaginal bruising, no tearing,

no visible signs of sexual assault or rape.

But that doesn't mean that she didn't have intercourse.

She might have submitted out of fear.

We'll see if anything comes back on the swabs.

I found new semen on the sofa - it's gone off for DNA extraction.

Good.

The uterus is enlarged.

Could be fibroids.

It isn't.

She was pregnant...

..about six weeks.

PIANO PLAYS

In the water, Simon! Soften it.

You're my guardian angel.

This is the day room.

We like a communal feel.

It's not good for residents to stay in their rooms,

unless of course they're under the weather.

Our residents benefit from regular visits.

You can't just dump a parent here like it's a boarding kennel.

Bring your mum along,

see if she feels at home.

I want my...

..tree.

I want...my tree.

My Bonnie boy...

# My Bonnie lies over the ocean

# My Bonnie lies over the sea

# My Bonnie lies over the ocean

# Bring back

# Bring back

# Bring back my Bonnie to me. #

To me...

Mr and Mrs Jennings? I'm very sorry for your loss.

Are you sure it's her?

Yes.

I'm afraid I think it is.

She's our only child.

What do we do?

Mr and Mrs Jennings? I'm DI Hughes,

but please call me Meredith.

I'll do everything I can to ensure...

To what? To save her? It's too late for that!

You police - you never protected our daughter, just yourselves.

You know who did this.

You're just as bad as he is.

Oh...

He started without you? Mm-hm.

HE TUTS

Well, he's going to keep you on your toes.

I'm on my toes.

Tippy toes.

Look at him,

trying to get in your good books with caffeine.

Stop it. It's early days.

He just needs a bit of time to settle in.

Even you had teething problems.

Did I?

What did I miss?

Not quite sure.

What did Laura's father mean about the police not protecting her?

Laura was a victim of domestic abuse back in the Midlands

two years ago.

Her abuser was never charged.

She withdrew the complaint and moved away.

Hard to take that step.

Yeah. She tried.

And you think this could be him?

I need something more concrete before I can bring him in.

But, yes, I do.

I want all DNA samples run against the National Database

and the Police Elimination Database...

..in case of cross contamination.

Cross the Ts and dot the Is?

Isn't it dot the Is and cross the Ts?

We're checking cell site analysis to see

if the ex's phone hit any masts near Laura the night she was killed.

We pinged her phone - it's off.

Still waiting for call info from her service provider.

Clarissa used to do that - the cell site stuff.

According to the parents, there's no current boyfriend

and hasn't been for the past couple of years.

There must be.

Laura reported a break-in six weeks ago.

There was no sign of forced entry, nothing was taken,

so the police didn't come out.