WEBVTT

1
00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:15.119
Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

2
00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:20.640
people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

3
00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:25.079
exploring the case of the murder of
forty seven year old Vera Holland in Reading

4
00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:30.160
in nineteen ninety six. The way
in which Vera was discovered and the brutal

5
00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:33.840
way in which she was killed,
as well as the mystery behind her movements

6
00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:38.039
after she left her home, all
seems to have contributed to the fact that

7
00:00:38.079 --> 00:00:44.560
to the present day, her murder
is still unsolved. This episode contains descriptions

8
00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:52.320
that some listeners may find distressing.
Soul listener discretion is advised. Shinfield is

9
00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:56.119
a village which is located just south
of the town of Reading in Berkshire.

10
00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.079
It's a small village, however,
has good connections between in the nearby towns

11
00:01:00.119 --> 00:01:07.040
of both Redding and Wokingham. It
was in Shinfield in nineteen ninety six that

12
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.680
Vera and Brian Holland lived with Vera's
fifteen year old daughter Claire. The couple

13
00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:18.400
were known as a loving and happy
couple and they also worked together. They

14
00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:22.480
ran a milk ground in the nearby
town of Wokingham and This was something that

15
00:01:22.519 --> 00:01:26.760
they seemed to enjoy. They worked
together and lived together, and this seemed

16
00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:33.640
to be successful for them. Forty
seven year old Vera was known as a

17
00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:38.640
friendly and happy person who had now
finally found love and happiness with her third

18
00:01:38.760 --> 00:01:44.480
husband, Brian. Vera had two
other children as well as Claire, from

19
00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:48.000
her previous marriages, who had grown
up and moved on by this point.

20
00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:52.079
However, Vera was known to be
a loving and warm mother and friend.

21
00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.680
By all accounts, Vera and Brian
worked hard and were just your average couple.

22
00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:01.439
Therefore, nobody at all thought it
was odd. On the evening of

23
00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:06.719
Thursday, the fourteenth of November that
Veria decided to head out to get some

24
00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:10.719
food for them. It was around
six ten pm and Veria was planning on

25
00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:16.280
making the shop walk to their local
KFC shop to get their dinner. Vera

26
00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:22.080
sat out of the house and headed
on her way. This journey should not

27
00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:24.960
have taken Veria long, given the
close proximity of the shop to their home.

28
00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:30.879
However, the time began to tick
on and soon Brian was worried about

29
00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:36.479
his wife. I was began to
pass without Vera returning home, and considering

30
00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:40.680
she'd only popped out for food.
This was worrying. It was close to

31
00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:45.639
eleven PM when Brian decided that he'd
had enough of waiting and he needed to

32
00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:50.479
let someone know his concerns. He
made the choice to ring the police and

33
00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:54.439
report her missing. If she had
only popped out for food and intended to

34
00:02:54.439 --> 00:03:00.560
be home, then why had she
not yet returned. It wasn't like her

35
00:03:00.599 --> 00:03:04.199
and had certainly not been in her
plan to go anywhere else that evening.

36
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.439
Police knew at this point that Vera
had left the home to make the five

37
00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:15.120
minute journey wearing a green tart and
skirt, a black jumper and black shoes,

38
00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:19.280
as well as a pink coat.
If she made it to KFC and

39
00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:23.840
had been seen walking, then this
description was certainly helpful. The hours,

40
00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.039
however, began to pass, and
then Thursday turned into Friday, and Friday

41
00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.639
turned into Saturday. Without any sign
of Vera, and without her returning home,

42
00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:38.680
Brian and her family simply had to
wait and try and figure out where

43
00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:43.439
she could have gone why. This
wondering, however, would turn into horror.

44
00:03:43.479 --> 00:03:47.919
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a fire was discovered on route

45
00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.960
between Shinfield and Arbor Field. And
as it was seen on an illegal flight

46
00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:59.039
tip side, firefighters believed that they
were attending a rubbish fire. They came

47
00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.759
prepared for this and when they got
there they began to extinguish the flames.

48
00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:06.400
It was at this point that they
realized this was not what they expected.

49
00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.120
In amongst the flames, the firefighters
saw the remains of a body. This

50
00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.079
was a huge shock and police and
emergency services were dispatched to the scene.

51
00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.959
It was clear from the remains that
this was a female. However, who

52
00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:28.040
she was or how she had ended
up there was initially unclear. The woman

53
00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:31.160
was only wearing a petticoat and a
suspender belt, and there was little available

54
00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:36.800
to help identify the body. This
had to be done later through dental records,

55
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.920
and it was at this point that
it was discovered that it was the

56
00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:46.120
body of Vera Holland. It soon
emerged to the police that Vera had disappeared

57
00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:50.879
on the Thursday evening and had not
been seen since. Her body had then

58
00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:58.439
been recovered having been set a light
early on the Saturday morning. The circumstances

59
00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.639
of how this had occurred were a
misty, and police needed to try and

60
00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:04.879
figure out what happened to Vera after
she left her home in Shinfield just after

61
00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:09.720
six pm, and how she came
across someone that wanted to harm her.

62
00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:14.920
The body has been described as being
at the end of a lover's lane,

63
00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:18.079
around a mile from Vera's home and
close to the entrance of a farm and

64
00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:25.720
the A three two seven road.
People would pass by the area frequently and

65
00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:29.639
so the fire was noticeable. However, it didn't seem to be a place

66
00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:34.279
that people would know about unless they
knew the area. Vera's body had been

67
00:05:34.279 --> 00:05:39.800
placed under tires and rubble and had
been then set alight, and so whoever

68
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.480
this was who was involved in this
attack had concealed her body before attempting to

69
00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:48.959
remove any evidence. The fact that
Veria had been found with clothing missing was

70
00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:54.519
also a concern for police. Where
were her coat and her shoes and other

71
00:05:54.600 --> 00:06:00.519
items of clothing. Police began to
process the scene and Vera's he was sent

72
00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:06.120
for a postmartem. This postmartem was
initially inconclusive, but it would later be

73
00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:13.759
established that she had been strangled and
that was her cause of death. BEA's

74
00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:15.879
family had to now come to terms
with the fact that their wife and mother

75
00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:20.120
had been brutally murdered, and this
must have been absolutely devastating for them.

76
00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:25.720
The fact that Vera had just been
going about her normal business on the evening

77
00:06:25.720 --> 00:06:30.360
that she disappeared must have felt incomprehensible. She was simply heading to a local

78
00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:34.720
KFC to pick up dinner, and
what could have possibly gone so wrong along

79
00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:41.199
the way that someone wanted to harm
her. Beia's husband, Brian, also

80
00:06:41.279 --> 00:06:45.199
couldn't understand it. He told the
press that he couldn't believe that it had

81
00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.839
happened at all. He stated,
it hasn't sunk in at all yet when

82
00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:54.240
people talk about it, it's like
they're talking about someone else. I've told

83
00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.040
my family I don't want to talk
about it yet. I'm not ready.

84
00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:02.839
I'm still half expecting Vera to walk
through the front door. Police did speak

85
00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:08.000
to Brian early on in the investigation, as he was her husband and obviously

86
00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:13.560
had to be eliminated. He was
questioned, and Brian later told the papers

87
00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:17.800
that a hundred forensic samples had been
taken from their home. Police, however,

88
00:07:17.879 --> 00:07:24.480
quickly eliminated him from their inquiries,
and Detective Superintendent Michael Shart later said

89
00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:29.759
Vera Holland and Brian seemed to be
an extremely hard working and normal couple.

90
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:38.000
It appeared that Vera was not a
high risk victim. Police quickly established that

91
00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:41.959
Vera had not made it the short
distance to the KFC restaurant, and so

92
00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:46.879
this helped them narrow down where she
may have been intercepted. They could find

93
00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:49.279
no witnesses who saw her at the
KFC, and there was no evidence that

94
00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:56.680
she arrived there. Detective Superintendent Short
stated that they did not have any concrete

95
00:07:56.720 --> 00:07:59.879
theories about what could have happened to
her, given that there were no actual

96
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:05.839
sightings of her after she left her
home. A female police officer retraced Vera's

97
00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:09.720
steps that evening in an effort to
drag people's memory of her, her clothing,

98
00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:13.160
and her movements. However, this
did not seem to drum up any

99
00:08:13.240 --> 00:08:18.319
leads. Police began trying to drum
up leads in the area that her body

100
00:08:18.360 --> 00:08:22.000
was discovered, in the hope that
someone saw something suspicious. Between Thursday evening

101
00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:28.360
and Saturday morning, detectives stop people
on Shinfield Road in an effort to find

102
00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:31.840
someone who may have seen her.
A. Motorists were given a questionnaire to

103
00:08:31.919 --> 00:08:37.039
fill out, asking for information They
were hoping that someone who traveled through the

104
00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:46.360
area regularly had seen something odd or
strange that could kickstart the investigation. By

105
00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:50.000
November the twenty six, twelve days
after Vera went missing, sixty leads had

106
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.039
been phoned into police about vehicles that
had been seen parked on the A three

107
00:08:54.159 --> 00:09:01.039
two seven close to where Vera's body
was found. Police appealed for anyone that

108
00:09:01.120 --> 00:09:05.080
was parked in that area between those
days to come forward to be eliminated.

109
00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:09.399
Another road check was then made in
the area in the hope that someone could

110
00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:16.399
help. There were some vehicles of
interest that were called into police. One

111
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.320
of them was a white orbaige Ford
Fiesta that was seen in the area on

112
00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:24.080
two occasions in the early hours of
the morning on Saturday the sixteenth, close

113
00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:28.600
to where Vera was found. On
one of these occasions, it sped off

114
00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:33.720
at a great rate of speed.
A white transit van had also been seen

115
00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:39.440
in the area on Friday the fifteenth. It was unclear if these vehicles were

116
00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.960
involved with the murder. However,
there was a severe absence of any other

117
00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.519
evidence or lines of inquiry. This
changed, however, around two weeks later,

118
00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:52.679
when an arrest was made in the
case, it was announced that two

119
00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:56.279
people had been arrested for the murder, a fifty year old man and a

120
00:09:56.360 --> 00:10:01.559
forty two year old woman. This
seemed to come out of the blue,

121
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:07.399
however, must have been welcome to
Vera's family. The shocks continued, however,

122
00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.080
when two days later it was announced
that two people arrested were actually at

123
00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:16.720
Vera's ex husband, Richard and his
wife Kay. The evidence that police had

124
00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.440
to arrest them has not been published
by police, however, it's known that

125
00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:26.080
they were released on bail after twelve
hours questioning. It's clear that police did

126
00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:30.440
not have enough information or evidence to
hold the couple and therefore they of course

127
00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:35.120
should have been released. This was
an interesting development, however, it seemed

128
00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:41.799
to beg more questions than answers.
The case seemed to hit a stumbling block

129
00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:45.759
after this, and a couple of
months went by with little being published about

130
00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:56.320
the case. In February of the
following year, police decided to take an

131
00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:01.720
unusual step. They put up a
sign where Vera's body was. This sign

132
00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:07.159
read Thames Police Murder of Vera Holland
did you pass this location between Thursday the

133
00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:13.600
fourteenth and Saturday the sixteenth If so
contact the incident room. It was hoped

134
00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:16.200
that this sign would once again drum
up some leads and encourage people to come

135
00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:20.639
forward. As well as this,
they appealed for information about a black Ford

136
00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:26.000
Granada and a light colored Ford Escort
van that had been seen in the area

137
00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:30.960
at the time. The response to
this appeal was reportedly promising. However,

138
00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:33.720
unfortunately it did not provide the break
in the case that police had hoped.

139
00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:39.320
Police decided to announce another piece of
evidence, and this was a description of

140
00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:45.320
a blood stained carpet that was found
close to Vera's body. It was thought

141
00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:48.799
that this had something to do with
the crime. However, police hoped that

142
00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:54.919
someone recognized it. It was described
as being fawn colored with a phone back

143
00:11:54.039 --> 00:12:00.440
and was of bedroom quality. It
was nine feet by eight feet. This

144
00:12:00.519 --> 00:12:03.679
appeal was quite successful, with forty
people ringing in tips about the carpet,

145
00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:09.120
but despite these leads, nobody appeared
to have the information that police needed.

146
00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.799
The investigation had now been going on
for several months and this must have been

147
00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:20.799
taking a toll on everyone involved.
Veriah's husband, Brian, announced his dissatisfaction

148
00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:24.879
with the police investigation, saying that
too much pressure had been put on him

149
00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.759
and Veria's fifteen year old daughter.
He stated that he had lost faith in

150
00:12:30.799 --> 00:12:33.759
the investigation as a result, and
that he was considering taking legal action.

151
00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:39.799
Police responded to this allegation by stating
that they never wanted to distress the family

152
00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:46.919
and just wanted to find Vera's killer. This lack of progress, but continued

153
00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:50.360
pressure on everyone involved must have added
to the trauma that Veria's family were feeling.

154
00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:58.039
In October of nineteen ninety seven,
the inquest into Veria's murder took place

155
00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.799
and some more information was released.
It was stated at this inquest that there

156
00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:07.000
was no evidence of sexual assault and
that bruising was found on Vera's face.

157
00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:11.840
It was also announced that the perpetrator
had actually returned to the site where they

158
00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:16.360
had left Vera's body and rekindled the
fire shortly before it was spotted by passing

159
00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:22.080
motorists. This implies the perpetrator may
have been sat watching or knew that the

160
00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:26.440
fire had not removed all evidence,
and so had returned to the site.

161
00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.960
Police also stated that one thousand,
six hundred and sixty nine interviews had been

162
00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.600
conducted and seven hundred and seventy seven
statements had been taken. It was also

163
00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:43.840
said that three people had been arrested
for the murder and since released. Who

164
00:13:43.879 --> 00:13:46.039
this third person was is unclear,
as it does not seem to have been

165
00:13:46.039 --> 00:13:52.440
reported in the press at the time. The inquest ruled murder by person or

166
00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:56.919
persons unknown. Vera's sister in law
were spoken to at the time and she

167
00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.039
stated, I have lost my best
friend and my best mate and someone has

168
00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:05.679
got away with it. The police
have done everything they can, but they

169
00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:11.120
can't prove anything. This sums up
the problem that has continued to plague this

170
00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:16.759
investigation from start to finish. There
is so little evidence and that seems strange.

171
00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:22.919
Considering how Veria's body was left.
Nobody seems to have seen anything at

172
00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:28.159
all. This is how Varia's case
was left until two thou sixteen, when

173
00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:33.159
police made a fresh appeal for information
about the case. Peter Byrne, who

174
00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:37.519
was head of the police's Major Review
team at the time, stated that he

175
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.440
hoped that people would now come forward
after all this time that has passed.

176
00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:46.519
He stated the public did assist and
come forward with information in nineteen ninety six.

177
00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:50.320
However, I do feel that there
are people who have some information who

178
00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:56.480
for whatever reason have not spoken to
the police. It might be the allegiances

179
00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:58.840
have changed in the last twenty years, or you know something now that you

180
00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:03.879
didn't know at the time. Bearer's
family have waited a long time for justice.

181
00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.919
With your help, we can find
out what happened and bring those responsible

182
00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:15.320
to justice. Bearer's family have been
waiting for answers for decades, with her

183
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:20.639
three children having to live their lives
without knowing what happened. In a statement

184
00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:24.519
provided to the press in two thousand
and sixteen, her two eldest children,

185
00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:30.799
Andrew and Dawn, described their mother's
murder as callous and stated, twenty years

186
00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:35.240
ago today, someone murdered our mum. In doing so, they robbed us

187
00:15:35.240 --> 00:15:39.080
of the love and care that she
brought to our family, our children,

188
00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:43.879
her grandchildren never got to know her
properly, and Mum never had the opportunity

189
00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:48.159
to see her grandchildren grow. What
made Mum's death even more difficult for us

190
00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:52.480
was the callous way her body was
dumped amongst rubbish and then set fire to

191
00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:58.480
it. Robbed her of any dignity. Words to our anguish is not knowing

192
00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:03.399
who was responsible for this horrific crime
that they've been able to carry on with

193
00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:07.000
their lives. For the last twenty
years, we have had twenty years of

194
00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:11.200
not knowing who did this. There
must be someone that have information that can

195
00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:15.960
help the police. We appealed to
you to think of how you would feel

196
00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:19.159
if it was your mum that had
been killed in such a way, and

197
00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:23.480
ask that you contact the police with
any information, no matter how small,

198
00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:30.840
as it may help. It's reported
that some new information did come in.

199
00:16:30.039 --> 00:16:36.679
However, since then there has been
little published in a few years. Vera's

200
00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:41.159
murder will have happened thirty years ago
and she deserves justice and some closure.

201
00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:45.360
Her family deserved to know what happened
to her, and I hope the police

202
00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:52.200
continue to appeal for information and that
someone who knows something finally reveals the information

203
00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:57.600
that they do know. Thank you
for listening to today's episode. If you'd

204
00:16:57.639 --> 00:17:02.919
like to support the podcast for then
you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive

205
00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:07.359
polls to get extra bonus episodes every
month. You can also get access to

206
00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:10.880
new episodes early and add free.
You can use the link in the show

207
00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:15.160
notes to visit Patreon and see what
we offer. You can also support us

208
00:17:15.160 --> 00:17:18.519
by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and also just share

209
00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:23.920
the episodes. You can subscribe on
YouTube and follow us on social media.

210
00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:29.079
You can also subscribe and listen to
my other podcast, ten Minute True Crime,

211
00:17:29.319 --> 00:17:32.799
which tells infamous crimes in a short
form, bite size ten minutes.

212
00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:37.319
But people on the go or who
just like the facts find that wherever you

213
00:17:37.400 --> 00:17:41.480
listen, and in the show notes, as always, I'm Caprice and this

214
00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:42.759
has been unseen