Gum trapped killer
It took 35 long years to get justice
Arriving home early from my nursing shift at a hospital in the Midlands, UK, I surprised my daughter Nova, 17.
‘Mum!’ she cried. ‘Er, there’s someone I want you to meet.’
In my kitchen was a scruffy young man with long, dirty hair – Osmond Bell.
‘I’ve come to talk to you about Nova,’ Osmond, then 18, grinned.
It had to be a fib. They’d not expected me home.
‘I’d like to take her to a movie,’ Osmond said arrogantly.
Nova was the apple of my eye. Clever, popular, loving – but I had a gut feeling Bell was bad news.
‘No,’ I replied. ‘Leave, and never come back here.’
Nova was upset, but I put my foot down. ‘He looks like a killer,’ I said. ‘You always tell me not to say bad things about people,’ she shouted back.
I told her Bell wasn’t right for her, but she refused to listen. When she turned 18, she moved in with him.
I worried about her, but she seemed happy and, in time, they had two sons who I adored.
But, one day in early 1981, she came round sobbing.
‘Osmond strangled me,’ she wept to me as I hugged her, begged her to leave him. ‘I will,’ she promised. Shortly after, I tracked down my long-lost dad, in Miami. We’d lost touch when I was young, so I flew out to visit.
But Dad was seriously ill, so I stayed in the US to look after him. Back in Birmingham, Nova had left Osmond, easing my worries.
He was desperately trying to win her back, but Nova stayed strong.
Only, one night in July 1981, I was getting ready for a night shift at my new nursing job when a feeling came over me – in the pit of my stomach, as if I’d lost part of myself.
‘Something’s not right,’ I told my younger daughter Dawn, then 18, who was visiting. I must call Nova, I thought. I picked up the phone, started to dial, before realising it was 3am back in England.
‘I’ll call her in the morning,’ I said.
Yet, sitting in my car, I felt a terrible heaviness and burst into tears.
After my shift I dashed home to call Nova… No answer.
I tried everything, but I couldn’t reach my daughter.
Three weeks passed – and I was beside myself. Then one of Nova’s neighbours called.
‘I think you should sit down,’ she said to me.
Nova had been missing. Milk bottles had piled up at her door. Neighbours had complained of
a terrible smell coming from the building, and authorities had investigated.
They’d found Nova dead. She’d been strangled, stuffed in the cupboard under the stairs.
Straightaway, I knew who’d killed her. I broke down. ‘It was him, Osmond,’ I wept. He’d been arrested. Distraught, I flew back to England. And, in a daze, I began arranging my girl’s funeral.
Only, Osmond was released without charge.
‘He’s getting away with it,’ I sobbed.
Dawn said Osmond had been violent towards Nova more than once. ‘Why didn’t she tell me?’ I wept. ‘She was ashamed,’ Dawn said. I also found out she’d recently started seeing someone new, was happy, moving on.
Devastated, I began to investigate Nova’s death myself.
I slipped a tape recorder in my pocket, confronted Osmond.
He claimed that Nova dropped off the boys, then 6 and 2, and had gone out dancing with her new man. But that she’d never come back to pick them up.
To me, it was obvious he was lying – Nova would never choose
to leave her beloved boys. ‘Why didn’t you report her missing?’ I raged.
‘I thought she might be visiting you in America,’ he shrugged.
An anonymous, handwritten letter had been sent to one of Nova’s friends.
The writer claimed to have seen Nova fighting with her new boyfriend in her kitchen – three weeks before her body was found.
Neighbours said they’d heard Nova crying, arguing with someone. But police were sure it wasn’t her new boyfriend.
Someone who lived near Nova told me that they’d heard a loud bump at 3am on the night Osmond said she’d dropped off the kids.
The exact time that I’d had that feeling something awful had happened.
Osmond Bell had killed her, I knew it. But the police didn’t have enough evidence. The case was dropped.
Devastated, I flew back to America. Months turned into years but I never stopped grieving, unable to say goodbye, to move on.
Bell had custody of Nova’s boys, so we lost touch. I was heartbroken, but I never gave up hope we’d get justice for Nova.
Then, in September 2014, a detective called. A cold-case team was re-examining evidence using new forensic techniques not available back in 1981. They’d tested DNA on a piece of chewing gum used to seal the cupboard where Nova’s body had been hidden.
And they’d found a one-in-abillion match: Osmond Bell. ‘They’ve got him,’ I sobbed. So, would Nova’s killer finally pay the penalty..?
DNA on the envelope of the anonymous letter matched Bell’s, too.
And after 34 years, he was re-arrested, charged.
This February, at Birmingham Crown Court, Osmond Bell, 60, went on trial for murder.
He denied everything. Claimed he’d been subjected to a ‘dark and terrible’ four-day police interrogation in 1981.
Determined to get justice, I went to the local court, and gave evidence via video link.
I told the jury Nova had said Osmond had hurt her before they’d split. And the court heard there was a background of domestic violence.
That Bell had flown into a jealous rage during a row about Nova’s new man, strangled her.
Osmond Bell was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. He was jailed for 12 years.
I sobbed when police told me. It’d been a long time coming – but finally, it was some justice for Nova.
Now I’m back in touch with my grown-up grandsons. They were distraught when they found out their father had killed their mother.
But after 36 years, we can move on. And Nova can rest in peace at last.
I never stopped grieving, unable to move on...