Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be delving into the case of
Speaker 1: the murder of thirty six year old Diana Moore in
Speaker 1: London in nineteen eighty eight. Her murder was hugely shocking
Speaker 1: for everyone who heard and read about it at the time,
Speaker 1: namely due to the weapon used in the attack, a crossbow.
Speaker 1: The ramifications of using such a weapon reverberated around the country,
Speaker 1: and discussions about whether these types of weapons should be
Speaker 1: more tightly regulated or had. Unfortunately, this is a conversation
Speaker 1: that we are still having to this day. This episode
Speaker 1: contains descriptions that some listeners may find distressing. Sole listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. Diana Moore was born in nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: one into a loving and professional family. Her father, Stafford,
Speaker 1: was an eye surgeon and her mother, Sheila, was also
Speaker 1: a doctor. Sheila had grown up in the Scottish city
Speaker 1: of Dundee, and Sheila's father himself had been the rector
Speaker 1: at the prestigious Harris Academy, a once private school in
Speaker 1: the city. Diana was born in Newcastle after her parents
Speaker 1: moved there from Scotland. She grew up in a happy
Speaker 1: and affluent family unit which was very close and Diana
Speaker 1: was both responsible and successful in most things that she attempted.
Speaker 1: She attended Cheltenham Girls College and worked hard at her studies.
Speaker 1: She was known by many as a dedicated person who
Speaker 1: knew where she wanted to go in life. This began
Speaker 1: to show as she grew up and gained an excellent
Speaker 1: job with the Industrial Society as a recruitment consultant. The
Speaker 1: Industrial Society had been farmed in nineteen eighteen as the
Speaker 1: Boy's Welfare Association and initially its aim was to improve
Speaker 1: the lives of boys and men that were working in
Speaker 1: the munitions factories making weapons for the war. This eventually
Speaker 1: grew into the Industrial Society and not for profit organization
Speaker 1: looking at improving everyone's working conditions and how workplaces could
Speaker 1: be designed to improve everyone's lives. This was the aim
Speaker 1: of the organization and Diana's role in this job shows
Speaker 1: her mindset and desire to help and support other people.
Speaker 1: While this role did align with Diana's values, it was
Speaker 1: also a good, solid job which enabled Diana to live
Speaker 1: quite a comfortable life in London. By the year nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight, Diana was thirty six years old and was
Speaker 1: living in a flat on Woodfield Road in Ealing. She
Speaker 1: was enjoying her job and her relationship with her boyfriend,
Speaker 1: Michael Stephens. Michael himself was also successful, working as a
Speaker 1: business executive and electrics company. The couple in the process
Speaker 1: of planning their life together and had for around six
Speaker 1: months been negotiating the purchase of a three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: pound home that they would live in together. On Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the twentieth of July nineteen eighty eight, at around eleven
Speaker 1: thirty a m fifteen year old Ali Farnan was walking
Speaker 1: along the second floor landing of Stanley cor a block
Speaker 1: of flats on Woodfield Road in Ealin. Ali noticed that
Speaker 1: a woman was laying on the floor at the end
Speaker 1: of the corridor, and he quickly realized that something was wrong.
Speaker 1: He later told reporters, I saw her lying on her
Speaker 1: side at the end of the corridor. At first I
Speaker 1: thought she'd fainted or had a heart attack. Her face
Speaker 1: was a horrible gray color. I went next door to
Speaker 1: get my friend, and when we got back, we saw
Speaker 1: a black arrow in her head. There was hardly any
Speaker 1: blood at all. Just a tiny drop. There were bits
Speaker 1: of makeup scattered all around her, and she was still
Speaker 1: holding her lipstick. This horrendous sight and discovery were so
Speaker 1: unusual for clearly not just Ali but the police that
Speaker 1: soon attended the scene. The woman was found wearing a
Speaker 1: green suit, as though dressed for work, and it was
Speaker 1: clear that she'd been on her way out to a
Speaker 1: professional job, as she'd been applying lipstick at the time
Speaker 1: of the attack, and her briefcase was strewn all around
Speaker 1: the landing of the flats. The thing that immediately struck
Speaker 1: everyone about this scene was the large arrow that was
Speaker 1: lodged in the woman's head. This victim had been attacked
Speaker 1: quickly and violently with what was later found to be
Speaker 1: a crossbow. This was an unusual and concerning murder and
Speaker 1: quickly became a large investigation. The first step in this
Speaker 1: investigation was figuring out who this woman was, and it
Speaker 1: didn't take long to discover that it was thirty six
Speaker 1: year old Diana Moore, who lived at the nearby flat
Speaker 1: at Stanley Court. They found out what they could about
Speaker 1: Diana and her life, and soon realized she was what
Speaker 1: would be described as an unlikely victim of such a crime.
Speaker 1: She was a reliable woman who had her own means
Speaker 1: to support herself and had no affiliations with anything illegal
Speaker 1: as far as the police were able to tell. In fact,
Speaker 1: Diana was so well thought of in her job that
Speaker 1: on that morning her colleagues had quickly become worried when
Speaker 1: she hadn't arrived at work at the usual time. The
Speaker 1: scene itself indicated that Diana had been attacked upon leaving
Speaker 1: her flat, the lipstick still in her hands, suggesting that
Speaker 1: she had been either applying it or about to apply
Speaker 1: it on her way out. This also suggested to police
Speaker 1: that she had been no way expecting the attack, and
Speaker 1: that she had been ambushed by her attack her. It
Speaker 1: was evident from her body at the scene that she
Speaker 1: had been shot in the back of the head with
Speaker 1: a six inch crossbow bolt. A post mortem would later
Speaker 1: establish that the bolt had severed her spinal card, and
Speaker 1: that Diana would have died instantly following the attack. This
Speaker 1: killing was so unusual that police were unsure from the
Speaker 1: outset of the motive or of how it had been
Speaker 1: carried out. Diana's family and friends soon became aware of
Speaker 1: what had happened, and nobody could understand why such an
Speaker 1: awful thing had happened to her. Everyone knew how kind
Speaker 1: and thoughtful Diana was and could not think of anyone
Speaker 1: that would want to hurt her, especially in such a manner.
Speaker 1: Both Diana's parents and her colleagues who worked with her
Speaker 1: expressed their upset and horror very quickly after her death.
Speaker 1: Diana had been due to give a speech about the
Speaker 1: innovative work she had been doing for the Industrial Society,
Speaker 1: and her colleagues all attended the meet where they paid tribute.
Speaker 1: Director of the Society, Alistair Graham stated, we're meeting under
Speaker 1: a very great shadow. The untimely, brutal and appalling death
Speaker 1: of our colleague is with us. He added, when we
Speaker 1: daily read of the violence which is around us, we
Speaker 1: never expect it to come so close. He also said
Speaker 1: that Diana was well respected and would not have wanted
Speaker 1: it to be a solemn occasion. It was clear from
Speaker 1: these comments that she was very missed by her colleagues.
Speaker 1: Diana's father spoke to the press also and the circumstances
Speaker 1: that Diana had been murdered in. He particularly spoke about
Speaker 1: the fact that a crossbow had been used as the
Speaker 1: murder weapon. He stated his anger that it was so
Speaker 1: readily available to purchase in the UK and that this
Speaker 1: was wrong. He said that as an eye surgeon he
Speaker 1: understood the injuries that could be sustained and how dangerous
Speaker 1: they really were. He stated they should only be available
Speaker 1: to clubs on a strictly controlled basis. It seems the
Speaker 1: criminal element in our society can go along and buy
Speaker 1: a crossbow over the counter. That is palpably wrong. The
Speaker 1: Crossbow Act of nineteen eighty seven had come into force
Speaker 1: the previous year, and this act made it illegal to
Speaker 1: possess a crossbow under the age of seventeen without adult supervision,
Speaker 1: or to no English sell one to someone under age.
Speaker 1: It also made it an offense to possess sufficient parts
Speaker 1: to make a function in crossbow. Police were able to
Speaker 1: detain people and search vehicles if they believed that they
Speaker 1: had these items, and could confiscate the parts. Anyone found
Speaker 1: to be in violation of the law could face up
Speaker 1: to six months in prison and a fine. The law, however,
Speaker 1: did not apply to any crossbow that had a draw
Speaker 1: weight of less than one point four kilograms, which is
Speaker 1: the number of units of force needed to draw a
Speaker 1: bow to its draw length. The law therefore stated that
Speaker 1: anyone over the age of seventeen could purchase a crossbow
Speaker 1: with no issues or extra checks. It was reported at
Speaker 1: the time that one hundred thousand crossbows were sold every
Speaker 1: year in the UK, and that a crossbow bolt can
Speaker 1: travel at around one hundred and thirty five miles per hour,
Speaker 1: making it an extremely dangerous weapon. This was Diana's parents
Speaker 1: concern and something which they quickly expressed. After the murder,
Speaker 1: Detective Superintendent Malcolm Hackett explained that the crossbow itself was
Speaker 1: a kind of toy that someone could use for target practice.
Speaker 1: It was small, around twelve to fourteen inches across and
Speaker 1: could have been concealed inside a plastic bag, a holdall,
Speaker 1: or even someone's coat. This weapon was described as a
Speaker 1: mini crossbow, and the bolt itself was an aluminium shafted
Speaker 1: steel tipped It was later confirmed on crime Watch that
Speaker 1: it was a barn At trident make with an attachment
Speaker 1: called a seventy five pound Magnum prod. This reportedly made
Speaker 1: it one of the most powerful crossbows that could be
Speaker 1: bought at the time. Detective Superintendent Hackett reported that Diana
Speaker 1: had been shot at close range in the back of
Speaker 1: the head, just below the right ear. He confirmed that
Speaker 1: she had quote no chance, and that she would have
Speaker 1: been killed instantly. The fact that the crossbow could be
Speaker 1: hidden in a bag or underneath a coat drew the
Speaker 1: police's attention, as it implied to the perpetrator could well
Speaker 1: have hidden in plain sight. This type of weapon could
Speaker 1: have been ordered through a mail order advert in a newspaper,
Speaker 1: and this indicated that it could have been widely available.
Speaker 1: All of these clues suggested that anyone had the means
Speaker 1: to be Diana's killer, However, who had the motive. The
Speaker 1: area around the landing where Diana's body was found was
Speaker 1: searched thoroughly, and it was noted that while her briefcase
Speaker 1: was still there, her handbag was not. Initially, it appeared
Speaker 1: that the bag and its contents had been stolen during
Speaker 1: the attack, and that this may have been the motive. However,
Speaker 1: a few days after the murder, a discovery was made
Speaker 1: a few hundred yards away from Diana's apartment on a footpath.
Speaker 1: The contents of her bag were recovered. The handbag itself, however,
Speaker 1: was not with the contents. There were things like business
Speaker 1: cards found which identified these contents as belonging to Diana.
Speaker 1: Detective Superintendent Hackett stated, we regard this as highly significant
Speaker 1: because it gives us the direction of the getaway route.
Speaker 1: This was a notable discovery and was particularly interesting as
Speaker 1: the ambag itself was still missing. Police spoke extensively to
Speaker 1: Diana's family and friends, including her fiancee Michael Stephens. He
Speaker 1: had initially kept out of the public eye during the
Speaker 1: beginning of the investigation, but in August he spoke to
Speaker 1: the press about how devastating Diana's murder was to him.
Speaker 1: He explained that after the murder, he still went into
Speaker 1: work in his job as an executive, despite the grief
Speaker 1: that he was feeling. He stated, I've got a very
Speaker 1: tough job to do, and I didn't want my colleagues
Speaker 1: to think that I couldn't do it properly. A chap
Speaker 1: has got to survive. Through the police's conversations with those
Speaker 1: close to Diana, they were informed of some incidents that
Speaker 1: were possibly related to her murder. In the weeks leading
Speaker 1: up to her death, Diana had been reportedly been receiving
Speaker 1: some nuisance phone calls. Diana didn't know who was making
Speaker 1: these phone calls. And on at least two of these
Speaker 1: occasions there were just long silences on the other end.
Speaker 1: Another strange event that occurred a few weeks before the
Speaker 1: murder was that Diana's briefcase had been stolen from outside
Speaker 1: of her flat. This briefcase reportedly had her name and
Speaker 1: address inside it, as well as other details. This, coupled
Speaker 1: with the nuisance phone calls, was interesting and suggested that
Speaker 1: perhaps this had not been a random muggin at all,
Speaker 1: but that Diana may have been targeted. This theory guided
Speaker 1: the investigation from that point on. The weapon was the
Speaker 1: confusing part. It was not a weapon that a hit
Speaker 1: man or someone with the intention of killing someone would
Speaker 1: usually use, as it was not accurate. Its only benefit
Speaker 1: appeared to be that it was relatively easy to conceal
Speaker 1: as far as crossbows were concerned. This became a large
Speaker 1: part of the crimewatch appeal that was produced to try
Speaker 1: and gain some more information. The weapon was unusual and
Speaker 1: it was hoped that someone had information about it. The
Speaker 1: episode aired with all the information that the police had.
Speaker 1: This included an interesting line of inquiry about a man
Speaker 1: that had been seen with a crossbow in the area
Speaker 1: of Diana's flat. The police had a photofit created and
Speaker 1: this image was distributed. He was described as being between
Speaker 1: nineteen to twenty years old, was around five feet eight
Speaker 1: inches tall, had fair hair and cold, hard eyes. The
Speaker 1: witness explained that the man had been openly carrying the
Speaker 1: crossbow around the area of the flat. This was of
Speaker 1: course of interest to the investigation and the description of
Speaker 1: the man did drum up some tips. Shortly after the
Speaker 1: crime watch appeal, a man phoned Healing police station and
Speaker 1: explained that he thought he knew the man in the photo.
Speaker 1: FI The man rang up twice, but on both occasions
Speaker 1: he hung up before Scotland Yard could arrange an interview
Speaker 1: with him. They appealed for information and the man to
Speaker 1: ring up again. They also appealed for anyone who was
Speaker 1: in the area at the time to come forward. They
Speaker 1: wanted to try and establish if Diana's handbag had been
Speaker 1: taken by the killer, or if he passer by had
Speaker 1: picked it up while it was left on the path.
Speaker 1: It's reported during their inquiries they were targeting around five
Speaker 1: to six suspects and were investigating them thoroughly. During the investigation,
Speaker 1: Diana's family were coming to terms with her death, and
Speaker 1: her funeral took place on the fifteenth of September nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight. Her parents, Sheila and Stafford, asked the Industrial
Speaker 1: Society if they would administer a bursary in her honor.
Speaker 1: This bursary would be given out to people who were
Speaker 1: disadvantaged or unemployed in the area. This, they explained, would
Speaker 1: have been something that Diana would have wanted. It would
Speaker 1: be another few months before any more developments occurred in
Speaker 1: the case. In early December nineteen eighty eight, an announcement
Speaker 1: of an arrest was made. A woman named Jane Francis
Speaker 1: Salverson was arrested and charged with Diana's murder. This woman
Speaker 1: was not unknown to Diana, and the connection between them
Speaker 1: would soon become clear. The public would come to realize
Speaker 1: that Jane Salverson was actually an ex girlfriend of Diana's boyfriend,
Speaker 1: Michael Stevens. While this in itself was not concerning enough
Speaker 1: to charge her with murder, the police stated that she
Speaker 1: had been exhibiting some very strange behaviour in the months
Speaker 1: leading up to Diana's murder. This, they explained, they heard
Speaker 1: about from several people close to Jane Salverson. Reportedly, they
Speaker 1: spoke to around three hundred people in relation to her
Speaker 1: connection to the couple. According to articles at the time,
Speaker 1: these witnesses said that Jane was very jealous of their
Speaker 1: new relationship and had possibly been stalking and following them both.
Speaker 1: They heard from friends of hers that Jane had possibly
Speaker 1: followed the couple on a trip to the theater one evening.
Speaker 1: This information, coupled with the fact that Diana had been
Speaker 1: receiving anonymous phone calls leading up to the murder and
Speaker 1: her briefcase had been stolen, led police to believe that
Speaker 1: someone must have been starking her and trying to gain
Speaker 1: information about her address or her whereabouts. This information made
Speaker 1: Salverson a person of interest and led up to her arrest.
Speaker 1: At the end of December, Salvason was granted bail, and
Speaker 1: her solicitor, Mister Brian Raymond, stated to the press that
Speaker 1: a great injustice was being done and that his client
Speaker 1: should not have been charged with any crime, let alone murder.
Speaker 1: He also cited new and powerful evidence that she had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with it. In April nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: this promise of new and powerful evidence would not be
Speaker 1: heard as it became unnecessary. The news emerged that the
Speaker 1: prosecution had dropped the case against Jane Salverson, citing a
Speaker 1: lack of evidence to continue with the case in court.
Speaker 1: Salverson's solicitor, Brian Raymond, spoke to the press shortly after
Speaker 1: the news broke that his client would not be charged
Speaker 1: with the murder. He told the press the police only
Speaker 1: had very thin, circumstantial evidence based on the fact that
Speaker 1: she was the former girlfriend of Diana Mar's boyfriend Michael Stephens.
Speaker 1: While stressing that there was no evidence against his client,
Speaker 1: he did state that Salverson told him that she had
Speaker 1: followed the couple, saying, in fact, on her own admission,
Speaker 1: she did behave badly by following the couple around after
Speaker 1: her split with Stephens, but she was guilt of nothing
Speaker 1: more than being unlucky with love. He wanted to make
Speaker 1: clear that the reason the case had been dropped was
Speaker 1: not due to a loophole, but that Salvason was completely
Speaker 1: innocent of the murder, and that the police investigation was
Speaker 1: flawed from the beginning and not based on reliable evidence.
Speaker 1: He explained that the case relied solely on eyewitness testimony
Speaker 1: from an ice cream seller who told police that they
Speaker 1: had seen a man with a crossbow. He said the
Speaker 1: witness told police that he'd seen a man carrying a
Speaker 1: crossbow and bolts in Woodfield Road on the very day
Speaker 1: that Jane Salverson was in a meeting with seven other people.
Speaker 1: Police issued a photo fit of the man, but the
Speaker 1: witness then went on to pick miss Salverson out of
Speaker 1: a lineup of women. It was clear that Jane Salverson
Speaker 1: was very relieved that the case would not be going
Speaker 1: to court, and she told the press, I am immensely
Speaker 1: relieved that the ordeal is over. I never doubted that
Speaker 1: my innocence would be proved when all the fact known.
Speaker 1: There was clearly a lack of evidence in relation to
Speaker 1: the murder charge. While Jane Salverson admitted to following the
Speaker 1: couple and being upset with Michael Stephens's new relationship, there
Speaker 1: were clearly holes in the evidence, and the eyewitness testimony
Speaker 1: certainly does not seem the most credible. The photo array
Speaker 1: of just women after the witness had said he saw
Speaker 1: a man was a definite standout. I believe that the
Speaker 1: prosecution's decision not to allow a jury to hear that
Speaker 1: evidence was the most ethical thing for them to do. However,
Speaker 1: this would not have made this decision any easier for
Speaker 1: Diana's family and friends. This meant that Diana's murder was
Speaker 1: once again unsolved and the case was back at square one.
Speaker 1: This would not, however, be the last time that Jane
Speaker 1: Salverson was in the press, and just three months later,
Speaker 1: headlines began to appear about her and Diana's ex boyfriend,
Speaker 1: Michael Stephens. A headline in the Daily Mirror read crossbow
Speaker 1: victim lover in new peril. The article read that Stevens
Speaker 1: had moved to a new secret address due to harassment
Speaker 1: that he had been facing. His yart had been broken into,
Speaker 1: a window of his home had been smashed, and there
Speaker 1: had been an intruder in the garden of his new
Speaker 1: girlfriend's home. A three page typed letter had been sent
Speaker 1: to a newspaper. The letter writer new details about where
Speaker 1: Stephens was now living with a new girlfriend. A quote
Speaker 1: from the letter was published which read, I have to
Speaker 1: admit to having a personal act to grind and for
Speaker 1: that reason alone wished to remain anonymous. Brian Raymond, Jane
Speaker 1: Salvason's solicitor, spoke for her, saying that she had nothing
Speaker 1: to do with what was happening to Michael Stevens and
Speaker 1: that she too had been receiving anonymous and menacing messages
Speaker 1: from someone unknown. The connections between Jane Salvason and Michael Stephens, however,
Speaker 1: continued into nineteen ninety. On the twenty fifth of June
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, the home of Michael Stephens in Fulham set
Speaker 1: on fire in the early hours of the morning. Luckily,
Speaker 1: Stephens was out of the country at the time and
Speaker 1: the home was empty, so no one was injured. The
Speaker 1: fire appeared suspicious to the police, and under a week
Speaker 1: after the fire had occurred, police charged Salverston was causing
Speaker 1: criminal damage with intent to endanger life by fire. In
Speaker 1: September of nineteen ninety, a charge of theft would also
Speaker 1: be added to the other charges. This was reportedly for
Speaker 1: burglary of Michael stephens yacht and the theft of a diary.
Speaker 1: She was ordered to stay away from the Isle of
Speaker 1: Wight where the boat was moored. Just a month later,
Speaker 1: in October nineteen ninety, it was announced that the Crown
Speaker 1: Prosecution Service were dropping the arson charges against Salverson due
Speaker 1: to insufficient evidence in the case. The theft charges, however,
Speaker 1: were still going to be tried in court. The court
Speaker 1: heard that Salverson had been stalking Michael Stephens and photographing
Speaker 1: him and his new wife on board his yacht. Salverson
Speaker 1: explained that this photograph was not taken by her, but
Speaker 1: had been delivered to her home. She stated, as quoted
Speaker 1: in The Daily Mirror, I thought someone was trying to
Speaker 1: rub salt in the wound. The prosecution explained that this
Speaker 1: photograph had been found in a friend's attic in amongst
Speaker 1: other items related to her relationship with Stephen's. Reports state
Speaker 1: that Salverson told the court that she was framed by
Speaker 1: a mystery man who sold her camera equipment for three
Speaker 1: hundred pounds. This equipment had actually been stolen from Stephen's
Speaker 1: yacht in August nineteen eighty nine, and that his notebook
Speaker 1: had ended up in her possession after their relationship had
Speaker 1: Endeducution stated that this story of buying the camera equipment
Speaker 1: was nonsense, something which she denied. The court heard the
Speaker 1: evidence presented and the verdict was read. Jane Salverson was
Speaker 1: acquitted of the theft charges. To this, she reportedly said
Speaker 1: thank you after these charges were dropped. Her solicitors said
Speaker 1: about Salverson, she has felt victimized by the police and
Speaker 1: their incessant involvement in every aspect of her life. It
Speaker 1: was clear that despite police having some evidence that they
Speaker 1: believed showed that Salverson had not got over her relationship
Speaker 1: with Michael Stephens, there was not enough to show that
Speaker 1: she had in fact committed any crime against him. The
Speaker 1: three investigations against Jane Salverson were fraught with issues and
Speaker 1: lack of evidence, and this ultimately led to none of
Speaker 1: them going through in coorts or into guilty verdicts. This
Speaker 1: is something which is necessary in the court system and
Speaker 1: it should be there to only try people when there
Speaker 1: is evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. In these cases, the
Speaker 1: court and the prosecution could not prove this, and so
Speaker 1: acquittal was the only route to go down. These events
Speaker 1: that followed Diana's murder were not directly linked to it. However,
Speaker 1: it did give a glimpse into the investigation which had
Speaker 1: been taking place. All of these lines of inquiry did
Speaker 1: take up time and resources and did not contribute to
Speaker 1: any charges or convictions for anyone else. It appeared that
Speaker 1: there was a real lack of physical evidence or eyewitnesses
Speaker 1: who could help to direct the inquiry to other suspects.
Speaker 1: While Diana's case has been referred to and discussed in
Speaker 1: relation to other cases, since it still remains unsolved. Diana's
Speaker 1: case brought up many problems, the biggest one being the
Speaker 1: discussion around the laws surrounding crossbows. At the time, Stafford Mare,
Speaker 1: Diana's father, urged the government to do more about access
Speaker 1: to crossbows and the ease in which people could get
Speaker 1: their hands on one. The law was not changed as
Speaker 1: a result of the murder, and since then the debate
Speaker 1: has continued. In nineteen ninety eight, these were described as
Speaker 1: the forgotten lethal weapons, given it was not necessary to
Speaker 1: register or get a license to own one. When the
Speaker 1: debate was brought up, Attacks using crossbows were generally described
Speaker 1: as rare. However, they were always devastating. In twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: pregnant Sannah Muhammad was killed by her ex husband after
Speaker 1: he entered her home and killed her using a crossbow.
Speaker 1: Her unborn child luckily survived the attack. Crossbows came into
Speaker 1: the headlines in twenty twenty one when Jaswant Singh Chaale
Speaker 1: was arrested for going to Windsor Castle with the plan
Speaker 1: to assassinate Queen Elizabeth with a crossbow. Year a reviewers
Speaker 1: commissioned into the use of crossbows and whether there needed
Speaker 1: to be more restrictions put on them. This review was
Speaker 1: ongoing when on the ninth of July twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: reports came in that three people had been murdered in
Speaker 1: Bushy in Hertfordshire. Carol, Hannah and Louise Hunt, the wife
Speaker 1: and daughters of BBC commentator John Hunt, had been killed
Speaker 1: when a man had entered their home. Hannah and Louise
Speaker 1: had been killed using a crossbow, while Carol had stab injuries.
Speaker 1: This devastating murder led to the apprehension of a male suspect.
Speaker 1: He reportedly has a serious medical condition as a result
Speaker 1: of a self inflicting injury, and as such has not
Speaker 1: been questioned about the murders as of yet. This is
Speaker 1: still an unfolding story given how recently it occurred, and
Speaker 1: so there is not much information available. Of course, this
Speaker 1: male suspect has not been charged with anything as of yet,
Speaker 1: and therefore until we have more information, cannot comment or
Speaker 1: speculate on how or if he has been involved. The
Speaker 1: importance of this case to the episode is that the
Speaker 1: use of crossbows is again in the public consciousness and
Speaker 1: once again MPs have said that a review of the
Speaker 1: law on this weapon is an urgent priority and needs
Speaker 1: looking at immediately. This is something that crossbow victims have
Speaker 1: asked for each time an attack has occurred, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure that this is something that they would all welcome.
Speaker 1: There may well be some movement on changes to this law,
Speaker 1: and I cannot help thinking about Stafford Mare and his
Speaker 1: hope that something would be done about this in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight. Hopefully this may come true for him and
Speaker 1: some justice for Diana may be done. Diana Marr's murder
Speaker 1: is a complicated one and one with many issues. The
Speaker 1: lack of evidence, the complicated investigation, and the long standing
Speaker 1: issues surrounding the weapon used. Diana Mare has not had
Speaker 1: justice and her family has never been able to understand
Speaker 1: why someone did this to her. I hope that one
Speaker 1: day this may change and some information may become available.
Speaker 1: There are many victims discussed in this case, and I
Speaker 1: hope that in the recent case of Carol Hannah and
Speaker 1: Louise Hunt, they will also get the justice they deserve
Speaker 1: when the investigation in case moves forward. If you know
Speaker 1: anything about the murder of Diana Moore, then please contact
Speaker 1: police on one oh one. Thank you for listening to
Speaker 1: today's episode. And waiting around while I took a long
Speaker 1: break over the summer. It was much needed. If you'd
Speaker 1: like to support the podcast further, then you can on
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