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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

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exploring the case of Gertrand Singer Lander, or John Lander as he was commonly

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known. His murder, which took
place in nineteen eighty two in Nottingham,

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was an extremely brutal one which left
his wife behind and his eight children without

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a father. Despite an appeal in
twenty twelve, John's murder is still unsolved

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and I've worked with John's family for
this episode to raise awareness of his case

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and hopefully eventually the right person can
come forward with information about it. This

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episode contains descriptions of violence, which
may be distressing for some, so listener

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discretion is always advised. At around
four oh five a m. On the

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morning of the fourteenth of August nineteen
eighty two, a woman living on Cypress

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Road in Nottingham heard a car break
suddenly and make a screeching noise in the

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street. This woke her up and
she proceeded to go to the window and

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took a look outside. She spotted
a taxi picked under a street light,

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and she later stated that the car
was rocking backwards and forwards, as though

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a fight were taking place inside it. The woman was alarmed and began getting

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dressed when she heard the car door
slam. She looked back outside to see

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a man open the driver's side door
and begin rummaging around. He then shut

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the door, walked away and around
the corner. The driver got out of

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the car and staggered across the road
before slumping down in front of a garden

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wall. The witness rang nine ninety
nine and then proceeded out into the street,

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where she found the driver of the
taxi. He would unfortunately succumb to

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his many injuries. The driver was
thirty three year old Ger Choran's singer Lander

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Gerchoran was known as John by many
of his friends and acquaintances, and this

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was a name his son, Jazz
Vinda, has explained that he preferred John.

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Was a father of eight, and
according to his family, he was

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a warm and very down to earth
man. He was a well loved member

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of the community that he lived in, and his family have said that he

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was extremely kind. He was always
the first one to help anyone that needed

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it, such as filling in paperwork
or helping neighbors out with documents. He

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didn't shy away from anything like that, and others appreciated it. He was

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very family orientated and his family remember
him as being very present. He would

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take the children out, and one
of his daughters remember him teaching her to

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swim at Universe Park, as well
as a happy memory of her fifth birthday

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when her dad got her a swing
set. John is remembered as a very

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ordinary man. He enjoyed football and
was a fan of Tottenham Hotspur. He

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liked to watch old comedies such as
Last of the Summer, Wine, Dad's

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Army, and Only Fools and Horses. He was also ahead of the curve

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with technology, and his family remembered
that he was one of the first in

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their circle to have a VHS.
He was sociable and loved to have people

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around for dinner and enjoyed any excuse
for a good knees up. His family

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enjoyed spending time with him, and
it's clear that he was very much loved

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by everyone around him. In late
nineteen seventy nine or early nineteen eighty,

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John became ill and he received the
diagnosis that he had tuberculosis RTB. He

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was hospitalized for several months with the
disease, and his family recalled that their

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mum went regularly to visit him at
a city hospital. John had surgery to

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treat it, and then had to
spend time recovering. This was hard for

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John as he was always used to
working, and so the timeout was difficult

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for him. Following his surgery and
subsequent recovery, John had to work extra

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hard for the time that he had
spent in hospital and getting better, and

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so he worked as many hours as
he could for the family. After his

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recovery, John began working for Nottingham
Cars as a taxi radio operator. He

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then later became a taxi driver.
This, his family has stated was only

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around two weeks before the tragic events
that unfolded in the early hours of the

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fourteenth of August. John's daughter recounted
that the evening prior to John being killed

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in Cyprus Road was a Friday.
John had been on the taxis that day

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and had returned home for his dinner
at around six pm. His daughter explained

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that her a man was at a
wedding function that night and that she was

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helping to sort her dad's dinner out
when he returned from work. She said

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she can't recall what he had for
dinner, but knew that he had a

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can of shandy with it. She
remembers that she was in the kitchen barefoot

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and her dad had made a joke
that she better watch out or she would

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get her feet chopped off. This
was typical of her dad, as he

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was always a happy and chirpy character. She stated that after he'd eaten,

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he told her to lock the door
and wait for her mam to get home

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from the event. He then headed
back out to continue with his shift.

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She said she couldn't have imagined that
this would be the last time that they

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would get to see their dad.
The evening seemed as normal as it usually

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was, and there was nothing out
of the ordinary about it. The events

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that followed the next morning were unfathomable
and seemingly came out of nowhere. His

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family were blindsided by the news that
their father had been murdered. Why did

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someone attack John and why had it
been in such a brutal way. The

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police investigation was underway and the injuries
to John were extensive. It would be

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discovered that John had been stabbed a
total of eighty seven times, mostly in

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the chest area. This was a
brutal and over the top crime, and

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one which must have been committed by
a perpetrator with extremely violent tendencies. This

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made the hunt to find them all
the more important. Police began looking into

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the events of the previous evening to
try and figure out what may have happened

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and who John had picked up in
his taxi before his death. They spoke

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to John's colleagues who were working that
previous night, and they spoke to one

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man named Lenn Wing, who was
the radio operator on that shift. He

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explained that John had come into the
taxi office just before four am and had

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asked Lenn to find him a job
that would also take home, as his

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shift was ending and he'd been working
since the previous afternoon. John's son,

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Jazz Vinda, told me that it
wasn't John's turn to pick up a fair,

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but he asked for one as he
wanted to go home. Len stated

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in an article from The Evening Post
from nineteen eighty seven. The phone rang

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and it was a call from Peel
Street for a taxi to Mapoli. John

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lived in forest Fields. The job
was ideal for him since it was on

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the way home. It was his
last job of the shift he'd been on

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since early the previous afternoon. Len
confirmed that the man on the phone had

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said his name was Shelton, and
police believed that the call had been made

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from a payphone on that street.
John had then set out for the job,

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and once again nothing seemed odd about
it. This changed, however,

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as only around five minutes had passed
since John left the office when a call

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came in over the radio from John's
taxi. The frantic voice on the other

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end was John's saying help, help, get the police. It appeared that

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John had picked up the person from
Peel Street and had driven to Cypress Road.

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Cypress Road was only a quarter of
a mile from his home. It

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was here that the perpetrator had begun
attacking him in the taxi. John had

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had the forethought to use the radio
to try and get help. Police were

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extremely interested in who this person was, who'd made the phone call, and

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whether they could find out any more
information about them. One piece of vital

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evidence that they did have early on
in the investigation was the witness testimony from

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the woman who had found John in
the street very soon after the attack.

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This woman gave police lots of information
about what she had seen and who she

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had seen. In addition to explaining
that the taxi had stopped under the street

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light and witnessing it rocking backwards and
forwards, she also explained that as well

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as this, she heard shouts coming
from inside the vehicle. She explained in

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the same Evening Post article from nineteen
eighty seven, I could hear shouts and

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thumping noises from the car, which
was shaking violently. I heard I will

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give you the money. Then there
was a very high, desperate scream.

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This implied to police that this attack
may have indeed been a robbery that went

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wrong, given that money was being
mentioned. The witness then explained that she

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began getting dressed when she heard the
door slam, and she went back to

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the window. She said, I
went straight back to the window and could

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see the driver's door was open.
I looked inside and I could see a

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head. The person was searching the
floor for something and seemed to be in

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a great hurry. The street light
was shining into the car, and when

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he looked up I could see his
face quite clearly. The man then backed

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out of the car and walked quickly
down the road, disappearing round the corner.

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As the killer walked away. The
image that was created was of a

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man that had coldly killed John before
rummaging around to retrieve the takings, and

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then relatively calmly walking away, with
the witness stating that he looked around just

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once. The evidence appeared to be
pointing to a robbery, given that in

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recent reporting it states that takings were
stolen from the taxi in the article from

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nineteen eighty seven, however, there
is a discrepancy that takings were not stolen.

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However, I'm going to go with
the more modern reporting on this one.

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If this was a robbery, how
did it go so wrong and why

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did the perpetrator feel the need to
use such force and kill John? Excited

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Thank you for listening to this sponsor and

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for supporting the podcast. The witness
testimony is so important given that this witness

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saw the murder take place, and
not only that, but she could also

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see the perpetrator himself and could describe
him. The police took full advantage of

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this and asked the witness for a
full description, which was then made into

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a composite sketch. The description was
very striking, and it seemed at the

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time that someone was bound to recognize
him. She explained that he was mixed

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race and in his early twenties.
He was slim and about five feet ten

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inches tall. He had neat afro
style hair and wore steel rimmed glasses.

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He was wearing a light cotton,
close fitting wind cheeter type jacket with contrasting

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dark trousers. This description was not
only very specific, but also gave a

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general gist of what he had been
wearing on the evening that he fled the

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scene. This is very useful information, particularly given that this clothing may well

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have been bloodstained and may have been
guarded by the perpetrator at some point.

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This was also helpful for other witnesses
that evening, and in fact, there

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was someone else who saw a man
fitting that description. Around the time that

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the murder took place. Reg Turner
was a bush driver who was on his

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way to work at that time and
was driving down Mansfield Road. This was

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one of the busiest roads in the
city at the time, but in the

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early hours of that morning he saw
a man running down it. He said.

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The man I saw was running hard
towards Mansfield Road, past the hairdressers

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on Hucknell Road from the crime scene. Police knew that if this was the

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perpetrator, he would have already had
to cross Mansfield Road once to get to

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where he was spotted, and looked
to be trying to cross back over.

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This was interesting information because it implied
that this perpetrator, if that was who

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it was, may not have known
the area and had actually made a mistake

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when leaving the scene. The composite
sketch was distributed to the public in the

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hope that someone may know them and
may be able to help with the investigation.

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Leeds in the case, however,
were difficult to come by, and

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while the motive was most probably robbery, the identity of the perpetrator was more

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elusive. The man had only left
the name Shelton with the taxi office and

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finding a man that fit the description
given by the witness in Cyprus Road proved

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tricky. Despite appeals at the time
and a huge police investigation which took two

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thousand statements and spoke to over thirteen
thousand people, the case proved difficult to

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solve and years began to go by
without any charges being brought. It's reported

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that over the course of the investigation, eleven people had been arrested on charges

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related to the murder. However,
none of these people were charged with the

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crime and they were released. Over
these many years, John's family had to

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live life without him, and the
fact that the murder remained unsolved was something

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that also caused them pain. In
twenty twelve, thirty years after John was

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murdered, an appeal was launched to
try and solve his case. His family

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worked with Nottinghamshire Police to try and
drum up as many leads as possible.

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John's family explained how hard it had
been over the past thirty years to live

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without him and the impact that this
has had. John's eldest daughter, Satnam

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stated in a BBC article, I
remember that day in August nineteen eighty two

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so well. I got up early
in the morning and went into my mum

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and dad's room to see that Dad
wasn't there. The two detectives came around

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and my world came crashing down around
me. Thirty years on, I'm married

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with three children. My dad has
missed all this. His son, Jazz

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Vinda, explained his hope that the
appeal would lead to something, saying I'm

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pretty confident someone out there will know
something and will come forward this time.

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They have seen us suffering and hopefully
they will find in their conscience there is

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something they want to say and go
to the police. The family also released

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home video footage of John in the
hope that this would appeal to anyone who

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may have information to come forward.
Nottinghamshire Police hoped that this would help produce

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new leads, and they did announce
that the appeal had led to several anonymous

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calls and some new lines of inquiry. Detective Chief Inspector Tony Hayden said,

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we have had several positive leads from
the calls we've had from the public.

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We are going to join that up
with the review we have been conducting around

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the forensic opportunities and around the original
witnesses to the inquiry. And hopefully pull

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that up together and take the inquiry
forward, and I'm really really hopeful it

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will help us. This was certainly
positive and a step in the right direction.

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However, since twenty twelve, there
have been few leads in relation to

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the case, and unfortunately the calls
that came in did not lead to any

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arrests or any persons of interest that
the police have publicized. This, of

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course, does not mean the police
have not been given leads that they do

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not want in the public eye.
As of April twenty twenty four, John's

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murder is still unsolved and the perpetrator
may still be at large. While reading

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about John's murder, I was reminded
of other cases which I've covered on the

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podcast a while ago, and when
Jasminder contacted me, he also discussed these

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other cases. While police don't seem
to have publicly linked any other cases to

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John's, I did cover the murders
of Stephen Sylvester and par Deep Sanger.

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Both Stephen and Padeep worked as mini
cab drivers in the Hounslow area of London.

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Stephen Sylvester was murdered on November seventeenth, nineteen eighty three. He had

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taken a fair, either over the
phone as he was in the taxi office

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at the time, or someone had
walked in to ask for a ride.

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Either way, between the hours of
two thirty and three point thirty am,

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Stephen took a fare from someone who
then attacked him, forced him into the

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backseat of his taxi and stabbed him
many times before putting his body into the

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boot. He then drove Stephen's taxi
to Heathrow Airport and left it in the

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airport car park. The entrance ticket
to the car park was on the floor

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of the taxi, showing that the
killer entered at four h five am.

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Stephen's body was found four days later
in the boot of the car after he

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was reported missing. A British Army
dagger was found in the footwell of the

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passenger side of the car. However, at the time police could not say

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if it was the murder weapon or
not. Stephen's case remained and still remains

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unsolved. Six months later, part
time cab driver Pardeep Sanga was working for

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Blue Star Mini cabs in Hounslow in
London. Pardeep helped out his father in

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law driving on weekday evenings and on
Friday. The thirtieth of March nineteen eighty

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four, he returned back to the
taxi office to get another fare for the

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evening. He had already done around
a dozen jobs that day, but there

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were no radios in the mini cabs
and the drivers had to return to the

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office to get a new fair.
At about midnight, a man called from

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a phone box nearby on Great West
Road. The man wanted to go to

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Felton, which was not far from
Hounslow. At the same time, a

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soldier and two women came into the
office wanting a taxi to Felton, and

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it was not which fare Pa Deep
took first. It was possible he did

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both journeys during that time, or
that he did both and picked someone else

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up on the way. His taxi
was later found on the road close to

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the perimeter to Heathrow Airport. The
taxi had run out of petrol and sometime

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between twelve thirty and two a m
someone had stabbed par Deep to death and

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his body was slunk behind the passenger
seat. The call from the phone box

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was never traced, and neither was
the identity of the caller. A small

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amount of money had been taken,
as well as credit cards a U S

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M three knife used by American commandos
was found further along the A thirty where

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the car was found, and police
were confident that this was the murder weapon.

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The cases of two taxi drivers who
had been brutally stabbed in their own

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taxis while working in the same area
was of course a concern for the police,

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00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:06.440
and they did treat them as possibly
being connected. Given them many features

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that were similar, police did not
divulge much about possible suspects or persons of

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interest. However, in Pa Deeepsanga's
case, there were some people seen by

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the car during those early hours and
they discussed the possibility of a tall man

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being involved. Pardeep and Stephen's murders
are still unsolved today in the same way

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as John Landers. These murders all
share some distinct similarities. All three men

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were killed while doing their normal job
being taxi drivers in the towns where they

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lived within a two year period from
nineteen eighty two to nineteen eighty four.

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Whether there is a connection between the
cases is unclear, but any reason to

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discuss them and gain more publicity for
them is worthwhile, and I'm so glad

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that John's family reached out to me
to talk about his case and discuss their

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00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:03.759
own memories of him with me.
I feel privileged to be able to share

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this information with you. For those
that listen to the podcast regularly, they

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know I care about the cases,
no matter how much time has elapsed since

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00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.720
or how little information there is about
them. I believe that all cases have

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the capacity to be solved, and
I really hope that John's case will get

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00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.799
the breakthrough that it needs and give
his family the answers that they deserve.

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If you know anything about the murder
of John Lander, please contact police on

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00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:37.240
one oh one. Similarly, if
you know anything about the cases of Stephen

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00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:42.319
Sylvester or Padeepsanga, please do the
same. If you'd like to hear more

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00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:47.000
about those cases, I will link
my episode about those in the show notes.

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Thank you so much to Factor for
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our ways. I'm Caprice and this has

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00:24:34.759 --> 00:25:11.920
been unseen the s