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 the murder of forty seven year old Vera Holland in Reading
in nineteen ninety six. The way in which Vera was discovered and the brutal
way in which she was killed, as well as the mystery behind her movements
after she left her home, all seems to have contributed to the fact that
to the present day, her murder is still unsolved. This episode contains descriptions
that some listeners may find distressing. Soul listener discretion is advised. Shinfield is
a village which is located just south of the town of Reading in Berkshire.
It's a small village, however, has good connections between in the nearby towns
of both Redding and Wokingham. It was in Shinfield in nineteen ninety six that
Vera and Brian Holland lived with Vera's fifteen year old daughter Claire. The couple
were known as a loving and happy couple and they also worked together. They
ran a milk ground in the nearby town of Wokingham and This was something that
they seemed to enjoy. They worked together and lived together, and this seemed
to be successful for them. Forty seven year old Vera was known as a
friendly and happy person who had now finally found love and happiness with her third
husband, Brian. Vera had two other children as well as Claire, from
her previous marriages, who had grown up and moved on by this point.
However, Vera was known to be a loving and warm mother and friend.
By all accounts, Vera and Brian worked hard and were just your average couple.
Therefore, nobody at all thought it was odd. On the evening of
Thursday, the fourteenth of November that Veria decided to head out to get some
food for them. It was around six ten pm and Veria was planning on
making the shop walk to their local KFC shop to get their dinner. Vera
sat out of the house and headed on her way. This journey should not
have taken Veria long, given the close proximity of the shop to their home.
However, the time began to tick on and soon Brian was worried about
his wife. I was began to pass without Vera returning home, and considering
she'd only popped out for food. This was worrying. It was close to
eleven PM when Brian decided that he'd had enough of waiting and he needed to
let someone know his concerns. He made the choice to ring the police and
report her missing. If she had only popped out for food and intended to
be home, then why had she not yet returned. It wasn't like her
and had certainly not been in her plan to go anywhere else that evening.
Police knew at this point that Vera had left the home to make the five
minute journey wearing a green tart and skirt, a black jumper and black shoes,
as well as a pink coat. If she made it to KFC and
had been seen walking, then this description was certainly helpful. The hours,
however, began to pass, and then Thursday turned into Friday, and Friday
turned into Saturday. Without any sign of Vera, and without her returning home,
Brian and her family simply had to wait and try and figure out where
she could have gone why. This wondering, however, would turn into horror.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a fire was discovered on route
between Shinfield and Arbor Field. And as it was seen on an illegal flight
tip side, firefighters believed that they were attending a rubbish fire. They came
prepared for this and when they got there they began to extinguish the flames.
It was at this point that they realized this was not what they expected.
In amongst the flames, the firefighters saw the remains of a body. This
was a huge shock and police and emergency services were dispatched to the scene.
It was clear from the remains that this was a female. However, who
she was or how she had ended up there was initially unclear. The woman
was only wearing a petticoat and a suspender belt, and there was little available
to help identify the body. This had to be done later through dental records,
and it was at this point that it was discovered that it was the
body of Vera Holland. It soon emerged to the police that Vera had disappeared
on the Thursday evening and had not been seen since. Her body had then
been recovered having been set a light early on the Saturday morning. The circumstances
of how this had occurred were a misty, and police needed to try and
figure out what happened to Vera after she left her home in Shinfield just after
six pm, and how she came across someone that wanted to harm her.
The body has been described as being at the end of a lover's lane,
around a mile from Vera's home and close to the entrance of a farm and
the A three two seven road. People would pass by the area frequently and
so the fire was noticeable. However, it didn't seem to be a place
that people would know about unless they knew the area. Vera's body had been
placed under tires and rubble and had been then set alight, and so whoever
this was who was involved in this attack had concealed her body before attempting to
remove any evidence. The fact that Veria had been found with clothing missing was
also a concern for police. Where were her coat and her shoes and other
items of clothing. Police began to process the scene and Vera's he was sent
for a postmartem. This postmartem was initially inconclusive, but it would later be
established that she had been strangled and that was her cause of death. BEA's
family had to now come to terms with the fact that their wife and mother
had been brutally murdered, and this must have been absolutely devastating for them.
The fact that Vera had just been going about her normal business on the evening
that she disappeared must have felt incomprehensible. She was simply heading to a local
KFC to pick up dinner, and what could have possibly gone so wrong along
the way that someone wanted to harm her. Beia's husband, Brian, also
couldn't understand it. He told the press that he couldn't believe that it had
happened at all. He stated, it hasn't sunk in at all yet when
people talk about it, it's like they're talking about someone else. I've told
my family I don't want to talk about it yet. I'm not ready.
I'm still half expecting Vera to walk through the front door. Police did speak
to Brian early on in the investigation, as he was her husband and obviously
had to be eliminated. He was questioned, and Brian later told the papers
that a hundred forensic samples had been taken from their home. Police, however,
quickly eliminated him from their inquiries, and Detective Superintendent Michael Shart later said
Vera Holland and Brian seemed to be an extremely hard working and normal couple.
It appeared that Vera was not a high risk victim. Police quickly established that
Vera had not made it the short distance to the KFC restaurant, and so
this helped them narrow down where she may have been intercepted. They could find
no witnesses who saw her at the KFC, and there was no evidence that
she arrived there. Detective Superintendent Short stated that they did not have any concrete
theories about what could have happened to her, given that there were no actual
sightings of her after she left her home. A female police officer retraced Vera's
steps that evening in an effort to drag people's memory of her, her clothing,
and her movements. However, this did not seem to drum up any
leads. Police began trying to drum up leads in the area that her body
was discovered, in the hope that someone saw something suspicious. Between Thursday evening
and Saturday morning, detectives stop people on Shinfield Road in an effort to find
someone who may have seen her. A. Motorists were given a questionnaire to
fill out, asking for information They were hoping that someone who traveled through the
area regularly had seen something odd or strange that could kickstart the investigation. By
November the twenty six, twelve days after Vera went missing, sixty leads had
been phoned into police about vehicles that had been seen parked on the A three
two seven close to where Vera's body was found. Police appealed for anyone that
was parked in that area between those days to come forward to be eliminated.
Another road check was then made in the area in the hope that someone could
help. There were some vehicles of interest that were called into police. One
of them was a white orbaige Ford Fiesta that was seen in the area on
two occasions in the early hours of the morning on Saturday the sixteenth, close
to where Vera was found. On one of these occasions, it sped off
at a great rate of speed. A white transit van had also been seen
in the area on Friday the fifteenth. It was unclear if these vehicles were
involved with the murder. However, there was a severe absence of any other
evidence or lines of inquiry. This changed, however, around two weeks later,
when an arrest was made in the case, it was announced that two
people had been arrested for the murder, a fifty year old man and a
forty two year old woman. This seemed to come out of the blue,
however, must have been welcome to Vera's family. The shocks continued, however,
when two days later it was announced that two people arrested were actually at
Vera's ex husband, Richard and his wife Kay. The evidence that police had
to arrest them has not been published by police, however, it's known that
they were released on bail after twelve hours questioning. It's clear that police did
not have enough information or evidence to hold the couple and therefore they of course
should have been released. This was an interesting development, however, it seemed
to beg more questions than answers. The case seemed to hit a stumbling block
after this, and a couple of months went by with little being published about
the case. In February of the following year, police decided to take an
unusual step. They put up a sign where Vera's body was. This sign
read Thames Police Murder of Vera Holland did you pass this location between Thursday the
fourteenth and Saturday the sixteenth If so contact the incident room. It was hoped
that this sign would once again drum up some leads and encourage people to come
forward. As well as this, they appealed for information about a black Ford
Granada and a light colored Ford Escort van that had been seen in the area
at the time. The response to this appeal was reportedly promising. However,
unfortunately it did not provide the break in the case that police had hoped.
Police decided to announce another piece of evidence, and this was a description of
a blood stained carpet that was found close to Vera's body. It was thought
that this had something to do with the crime. However, police hoped that
someone recognized it. It was described as being fawn colored with a phone back
and was of bedroom quality. It was nine feet by eight feet. This
appeal was quite successful, with forty people ringing in tips about the carpet,
but despite these leads, nobody appeared to have the information that police needed.
The investigation had now been going on for several months and this must have been
taking a toll on everyone involved. Veriah's husband, Brian, announced his dissatisfaction
with the police investigation, saying that too much pressure had been put on him
and Veria's fifteen year old daughter. He stated that he had lost faith in
the investigation as a result, and that he was considering taking legal action.
Police responded to this allegation by stating that they never wanted to distress the family
and just wanted to find Vera's killer. This lack of progress, but continued
pressure on everyone involved must have added to the trauma that Veria's family were feeling.
In October of nineteen ninety seven, the inquest into Veria's murder took place
and some more information was released. It was stated at this inquest that there
was no evidence of sexual assault and that bruising was found on Vera's face.
It was also announced that the perpetrator had actually returned to the site where they
had left Vera's body and rekindled the fire shortly before it was spotted by passing
motorists. This implies the perpetrator may have been sat watching or knew that the
fire had not removed all evidence, and so had returned to the site.
Police also stated that one thousand, six hundred and sixty nine interviews had been
conducted and seven hundred and seventy seven statements had been taken. It was also
said that three people had been arrested for the murder and since released. Who
this third person was is unclear, as it does not seem to have been
reported in the press at the time. The inquest ruled murder by person or
persons unknown. Vera's sister in law were spoken to at the time and she
stated, I have lost my best friend and my best mate and someone has
got away with it. The police have done everything they can, but they
can't prove anything. This sums up the problem that has continued to plague this
investigation from start to finish. There is so little evidence and that seems strange.
Considering how Veria's body was left. Nobody seems to have seen anything at
all. This is how Varia's case was left until two thou sixteen, when
police made a fresh appeal for information about the case. Peter Byrne, who
was head of the police's Major Review team at the time, stated that he
hoped that people would now come forward after all this time that has passed.
He stated the public did assist and come forward with information in nineteen ninety six.
However, I do feel that there are people who have some information who
for whatever reason have not spoken to the police. It might be the allegiances
have changed in the last twenty years, or you know something now that you
didn't know at the time. Bearer's family have waited a long time for justice.
With your help, we can find out what happened and bring those responsible
to justice. Bearer's family have been waiting for answers for decades, with her
three children having to live their lives without knowing what happened. In a statement
provided to the press in two thousand and sixteen, her two eldest children,
Andrew and Dawn, described their mother's murder as callous and stated, twenty years
ago today, someone murdered our mum. In doing so, they robbed us
of the love and care that she brought to our family, our children,
her grandchildren never got to know her properly, and Mum never had the opportunity
to see her grandchildren grow. What made Mum's death even more difficult for us
was the callous way her body was dumped amongst rubbish and then set fire to
it. Robbed her of any dignity. Words to our anguish is not knowing
who was responsible for this horrific crime that they've been able to carry on with
their lives. For the last twenty years, we have had twenty years of
not knowing who did this. There must be someone that have information that can
help the police. We appealed to you to think of how you would feel
if it was your mum that had been killed in such a way, and
ask that you contact the police with any information, no matter how small,
as it may help. It's reported that some new information did come in.
However, since then there has been little published in a few years. Vera's
murder will have happened thirty years ago and she deserves justice and some closure.
Her family deserved to know what happened to her, and I hope the police
continue to appeal for information and that someone who knows something finally reveals the information
that they do know. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd
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You can also subscribe and listen to my other podcast, ten Minute True Crime,
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But people on the go or who just like the facts find that wherever you
listen, and in the show notes, as always, I'm Caprice and this
has been unseen