Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be
exploring the case of Gertrand Singer Lander, or John Lander as he was commonly
known. His murder, which took place in nineteen eighty two in Nottingham,
was an extremely brutal one which left his wife behind and his eight children without
a father. Despite an appeal in twenty twelve, John's murder is still unsolved
and I've worked with John's family for this episode to raise awareness of his case
and hopefully eventually the right person can come forward with information about it. This
episode contains descriptions of violence, which may be distressing for some, so listener
discretion is always advised. At around four oh five a m. On the
morning of the fourteenth of August nineteen eighty two, a woman living on Cypress
Road in Nottingham heard a car break suddenly and make a screeching noise in the
street. This woke her up and she proceeded to go to the window and
took a look outside. She spotted a taxi picked under a street light,
and she later stated that the car was rocking backwards and forwards, as though
a fight were taking place inside it. The woman was alarmed and began getting
dressed when she heard the car door slam. She looked back outside to see
a man open the driver's side door and begin rummaging around. He then shut
the door, walked away and around the corner. The driver got out of
the car and staggered across the road before slumping down in front of a garden
wall. The witness rang nine ninety nine and then proceeded out into the street,
where she found the driver of the taxi. He would unfortunately succumb to
his many injuries. The driver was thirty three year old Ger Choran's singer Lander
Gerchoran was known as John by many of his friends and acquaintances, and this
was a name his son, Jazz Vinda, has explained that he preferred John.
Was a father of eight, and according to his family, he was
a warm and very down to earth man. He was a well loved member
of the community that he lived in, and his family have said that he
was extremely kind. He was always the first one to help anyone that needed
it, such as filling in paperwork or helping neighbors out with documents. He
didn't shy away from anything like that, and others appreciated it. He was
very family orientated and his family remember him as being very present. He would
take the children out, and one of his daughters remember him teaching her to
swim at Universe Park, as well as a happy memory of her fifth birthday
when her dad got her a swing set. John is remembered as a very
ordinary man. He enjoyed football and was a fan of Tottenham Hotspur. He
liked to watch old comedies such as Last of the Summer, Wine, Dad's
Army, and Only Fools and Horses. He was also ahead of the curve
with technology, and his family remembered that he was one of the first in
their circle to have a VHS. He was sociable and loved to have people
around for dinner and enjoyed any excuse for a good knees up. His family
enjoyed spending time with him, and it's clear that he was very much loved
by everyone around him. In late nineteen seventy nine or early nineteen eighty,
John became ill and he received the diagnosis that he had tuberculosis RTB. He
was hospitalized for several months with the disease, and his family recalled that their
mum went regularly to visit him at a city hospital. John had surgery to
treat it, and then had to spend time recovering. This was hard for
John as he was always used to working, and so the timeout was difficult
for him. Following his surgery and subsequent recovery, John had to work extra
hard for the time that he had spent in hospital and getting better, and
so he worked as many hours as he could for the family. After his
recovery, John began working for Nottingham Cars as a taxi radio operator. He
then later became a taxi driver. This, his family has stated was only
around two weeks before the tragic events that unfolded in the early hours of the
fourteenth of August. John's daughter recounted that the evening prior to John being killed
in Cyprus Road was a Friday. John had been on the taxis that day
and had returned home for his dinner at around six pm. His daughter explained
that her a man was at a wedding function that night and that she was
helping to sort her dad's dinner out when he returned from work. She said
she can't recall what he had for dinner, but knew that he had a
can of shandy with it. She remembers that she was in the kitchen barefoot
and her dad had made a joke that she better watch out or she would
get her feet chopped off. This was typical of her dad, as he
was always a happy and chirpy character. She stated that after he'd eaten,
he told her to lock the door and wait for her mam to get home
from the event. He then headed back out to continue with his shift.
She said she couldn't have imagined that this would be the last time that they
would get to see their dad. The evening seemed as normal as it usually
was, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about it. The events
that followed the next morning were unfathomable and seemingly came out of nowhere. His
family were blindsided by the news that their father had been murdered. Why did
someone attack John and why had it been in such a brutal way. The
police investigation was underway and the injuries to John were extensive. It would be
discovered that John had been stabbed a total of eighty seven times, mostly in
the chest area. This was a brutal and over the top crime, and
one which must have been committed by a perpetrator with extremely violent tendencies. This
made the hunt to find them all the more important. Police began looking into
the events of the previous evening to try and figure out what may have happened
and who John had picked up in his taxi before his death. They spoke
to John's colleagues who were working that previous night, and they spoke to one
man named Lenn Wing, who was the radio operator on that shift. He
explained that John had come into the taxi office just before four am and had
asked Lenn to find him a job that would also take home, as his
shift was ending and he'd been working since the previous afternoon. John's son,
Jazz Vinda, told me that it wasn't John's turn to pick up a fair,
but he asked for one as he wanted to go home. Len stated
in an article from The Evening Post from nineteen eighty seven. The phone rang
and it was a call from Peel Street for a taxi to Mapoli. John
lived in forest Fields. The job was ideal for him since it was on
the way home. It was his last job of the shift he'd been on
since early the previous afternoon. Len confirmed that the man on the phone had
said his name was Shelton, and police believed that the call had been made
from a payphone on that street. John had then set out for the job,
and once again nothing seemed odd about it. This changed, however,
as only around five minutes had passed since John left the office when a call
came in over the radio from John's taxi. The frantic voice on the other
end was John's saying help, help, get the police. It appeared that
John had picked up the person from Peel Street and had driven to Cypress Road.
Cypress Road was only a quarter of a mile from his home. It
was here that the perpetrator had begun attacking him in the taxi. John had
had the forethought to use the radio to try and get help. Police were
extremely interested in who this person was, who'd made the phone call, and
whether they could find out any more information about them. One piece of vital
evidence that they did have early on in the investigation was the witness testimony from
the woman who had found John in the street very soon after the attack.
This woman gave police lots of information about what she had seen and who she
had seen. In addition to explaining that the taxi had stopped under the street
light and witnessing it rocking backwards and forwards, she also explained that as well
as this, she heard shouts coming from inside the vehicle. She explained in
the same Evening Post article from nineteen eighty seven, I could hear shouts and
thumping noises from the car, which was shaking violently. I heard I will
give you the money. Then there was a very high, desperate scream.
This implied to police that this attack may have indeed been a robbery that went
wrong, given that money was being mentioned. The witness then explained that she
began getting dressed when she heard the door slam, and she went back to
the window. She said, I went straight back to the window and could
see the driver's door was open. I looked inside and I could see a
head. The person was searching the floor for something and seemed to be in
a great hurry. The street light was shining into the car, and when
he looked up I could see his face quite clearly. The man then backed
out of the car and walked quickly down the road, disappearing round the corner.
As the killer walked away. The image that was created was of a
man that had coldly killed John before rummaging around to retrieve the takings, and
then relatively calmly walking away, with the witness stating that he looked around just
once. The evidence appeared to be pointing to a robbery, given that in
recent reporting it states that takings were stolen from the taxi in the article from
nineteen eighty seven, however, there is a discrepancy that takings were not stolen.
However, I'm going to go with the more modern reporting on this one.
If this was a robbery, how did it go so wrong and why
did the perpetrator feel the need to use such force and kill John? Excited
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for supporting the podcast. The witness testimony is so important given that this witness
saw the murder take place, and not only that, but she could also
see the perpetrator himself and could describe him. The police took full advantage of
this and asked the witness for a full description, which was then made into
a composite sketch. The description was very striking, and it seemed at the
time that someone was bound to recognize him. She explained that he was mixed
race and in his early twenties. He was slim and about five feet ten
inches tall. He had neat afro style hair and wore steel rimmed glasses.
He was wearing a light cotton, close fitting wind cheeter type jacket with contrasting
dark trousers. This description was not only very specific, but also gave a
general gist of what he had been wearing on the evening that he fled the
scene. This is very useful information, particularly given that this clothing may well
have been bloodstained and may have been guarded by the perpetrator at some point.
This was also helpful for other witnesses that evening, and in fact, there
was someone else who saw a man fitting that description. Around the time that
the murder took place. Reg Turner was a bush driver who was on his
way to work at that time and was driving down Mansfield Road. This was
one of the busiest roads in the city at the time, but in the
early hours of that morning he saw a man running down it. He said.
The man I saw was running hard towards Mansfield Road, past the hairdressers
on Hucknell Road from the crime scene. Police knew that if this was the
perpetrator, he would have already had to cross Mansfield Road once to get to
where he was spotted, and looked to be trying to cross back over.
This was interesting information because it implied that this perpetrator, if that was who
it was, may not have known the area and had actually made a mistake
when leaving the scene. The composite sketch was distributed to the public in the
hope that someone may know them and may be able to help with the investigation.
Leeds in the case, however, were difficult to come by, and
while the motive was most probably robbery, the identity of the perpetrator was more
elusive. The man had only left the name Shelton with the taxi office and
finding a man that fit the description given by the witness in Cyprus Road proved
tricky. Despite appeals at the time and a huge police investigation which took two
thousand statements and spoke to over thirteen thousand people, the case proved difficult to
solve and years began to go by without any charges being brought. It's reported
that over the course of the investigation, eleven people had been arrested on charges
related to the murder. However, none of these people were charged with the
crime and they were released. Over these many years, John's family had to
live life without him, and the fact that the murder remained unsolved was something
that also caused them pain. In twenty twelve, thirty years after John was
murdered, an appeal was launched to try and solve his case. His family
worked with Nottinghamshire Police to try and drum up as many leads as possible.
John's family explained how hard it had been over the past thirty years to live
without him and the impact that this has had. John's eldest daughter, Satnam
stated in a BBC article, I remember that day in August nineteen eighty two
so well. I got up early in the morning and went into my mum
and dad's room to see that Dad wasn't there. The two detectives came around
and my world came crashing down around me. Thirty years on, I'm married
with three children. My dad has missed all this. His son, Jazz
Vinda, explained his hope that the appeal would lead to something, saying I'm
pretty confident someone out there will know something and will come forward this time.
They have seen us suffering and hopefully they will find in their conscience there is
something they want to say and go to the police. The family also released
home video footage of John in the hope that this would appeal to anyone who
may have information to come forward. Nottinghamshire Police hoped that this would help produce
new leads, and they did announce that the appeal had led to several anonymous
calls and some new lines of inquiry. Detective Chief Inspector Tony Hayden said,
we have had several positive leads from the calls we've had from the public.
We are going to join that up with the review we have been conducting around
the forensic opportunities and around the original witnesses to the inquiry. And hopefully pull
that up together and take the inquiry forward, and I'm really really hopeful it
will help us. This was certainly positive and a step in the right direction.
However, since twenty twelve, there have been few leads in relation to
the case, and unfortunately the calls that came in did not lead to any
arrests or any persons of interest that the police have publicized. This, of
course, does not mean the police have not been given leads that they do
not want in the public eye. As of April twenty twenty four, John's
murder is still unsolved and the perpetrator may still be at large. While reading
about John's murder, I was reminded of other cases which I've covered on the
podcast a while ago, and when Jasminder contacted me, he also discussed these
other cases. While police don't seem to have publicly linked any other cases to
John's, I did cover the murders of Stephen Sylvester and par Deep Sanger.
Both Stephen and Padeep worked as mini cab drivers in the Hounslow area of London.
Stephen Sylvester was murdered on November seventeenth, nineteen eighty three. He had
taken a fair, either over the phone as he was in the taxi office
at the time, or someone had walked in to ask for a ride.
Either way, between the hours of two thirty and three point thirty am,
Stephen took a fare from someone who then attacked him, forced him into the
backseat of his taxi and stabbed him many times before putting his body into the
boot. He then drove Stephen's taxi to Heathrow Airport and left it in the
airport car park. The entrance ticket to the car park was on the floor
of the taxi, showing that the killer entered at four h five am.
Stephen's body was found four days later in the boot of the car after he
was reported missing. A British Army dagger was found in the footwell of the
passenger side of the car. However, at the time police could not say
if it was the murder weapon or not. Stephen's case remained and still remains
unsolved. Six months later, part time cab driver Pardeep Sanga was working for
Blue Star Mini cabs in Hounslow in London. Pardeep helped out his father in
law driving on weekday evenings and on Friday. The thirtieth of March nineteen eighty
four, he returned back to the taxi office to get another fare for the
evening. He had already done around a dozen jobs that day, but there
were no radios in the mini cabs and the drivers had to return to the
office to get a new fair. At about midnight, a man called from
a phone box nearby on Great West Road. The man wanted to go to
Felton, which was not far from Hounslow. At the same time, a
soldier and two women came into the office wanting a taxi to Felton, and
it was not which fare Pa Deep took first. It was possible he did
both journeys during that time, or that he did both and picked someone else
up on the way. His taxi was later found on the road close to
the perimeter to Heathrow Airport. The taxi had run out of petrol and sometime
between twelve thirty and two a m someone had stabbed par Deep to death and
his body was slunk behind the passenger seat. The call from the phone box
was never traced, and neither was the identity of the caller. A small
amount of money had been taken, as well as credit cards a U S
M three knife used by American commandos was found further along the A thirty where
the car was found, and police were confident that this was the murder weapon.
The cases of two taxi drivers who had been brutally stabbed in their own
taxis while working in the same area was of course a concern for the police,
and they did treat them as possibly being connected. Given them many features
that were similar, police did not divulge much about possible suspects or persons of
interest. However, in Pa Deeepsanga's case, there were some people seen by
the car during those early hours and they discussed the possibility of a tall man
being involved. Pardeep and Stephen's murders are still unsolved today in the same way
as John Landers. These murders all share some distinct similarities. All three men
were killed while doing their normal job being taxi drivers in the towns where they
lived within a two year period from nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty four.
Whether there is a connection between the cases is unclear, but any reason to
discuss them and gain more publicity for them is worthwhile, and I'm so glad
that John's family reached out to me to talk about his case and discuss their
own memories of him with me. I feel privileged to be able to share
this information with you. For those that listen to the podcast regularly, they
know I care about the cases, no matter how much time has elapsed since
or how little information there is about them. I believe that all cases have
the capacity to be solved, and I really hope that John's case will get
the breakthrough that it needs and give his family the answers that they deserve.
If you know anything about the murder of John Lander, please contact police on
one oh one. Similarly, if you know anything about the cases of Stephen
Sylvester or Padeepsanga, please do the same. If you'd like to hear more
about those cases, I will link my episode about those in the show notes.
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been unseen the s