The real-life murder case that will haunt Kym forever

‘If the story in my new TV documentary was a drama you’d think it was impossible,’ says former Corrie star

THE DETAILS of some of the murders chronicled in a new four-part series fronted by Kym Marsh are so harrowing that the actress still can’t get them out of her mind. And there is one murder victim in particular who the former Coronation Street star will never forget: Margaret Fleming.

The teenager had been dead for nearly two decades before anyone realised she’d been murdered – by a couple entrusted by her father to look after her.

“Margaret was missing, but nobody noticed for years,” says Kym, still visibly shocked by the case. “And that to me is just so tragic – nobody actually knew that she’d even gone. It’s just heartbreaking.This particular case is beyond evil.”

Long after filming finished on Murder At My Door with Kym Marsh, the victims live with her still. “I will remember these stories and these people forever,” she says.

The absorbing four-part series examines the tragic cases of innocent British people killed by a person they believed they could trust.

Kym, who has three children, 25-year-old David, Emilie, 23 (who has a one-year-old son) and nine-year-old Polly, stresses how much these stories haunt her.

“It’s difficult because you go home afterwards and you think, ‘That story was horrible’. Then I might relay it to someone and say, ‘This is what I did today,’ and they sit there going, ‘Aaaw, that’s awful!’”

At the same time, the 44-year-old presenter believes the experience of recounting the stories to other people can be cathartic.

“I think talking about it and telling somebody else is always the way to get it off my chest a little bit.”

The other thing that keeps her grounded is her daughter Polly. “I do have a crazy nineyear-old who just wants her dinner when I get home, so that’s a way of putting it to bed.

“Polly is just not bothered by what I’ve been doing. She doesn’t care. I literally walk through the door and she goes, ‘Mum, can I have a drink?’”

Talking over Zoom, Kym reveals that the story of Margaret Fleming, told in the first episode, “really sticks out for me”.

IT STARTED when Margaret’s father, Derek Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Concerned about the future of his vulnerable teenage daughter, who had learning difficulties, he asked family friends Edward Cairney and Avril Jones to look after her. When Derek died, Margaret went to live with the couple in 1997.

Two years later, then 19, Margaret disappeared from the village of Inverkip on the Firth of Clyde where she had lived with Cairney and Jones. They told worried relatives that she had run off with travellers and over the next few years, letters would arrive, allegedly from Margaret, sent from different parts of the country, reassuring family members that she was alive and well.

But when the social security system was overhauled in 2016, it emerged that Cairney and Jones had been secretly claiming benefits for Margaret for nearly two decades.

The pair were arrested and in June 2019, they were found guilty of murdering her, fraudulently claiming £182,000 in her name and perverting the course of justice. They were sentenced to life.

Kym still finds it hard to come to terms with the shocking details of this case. “Margaret’s father had entrusted this girl to family friends to take care of her after he passed away. And not only did they not do that, but they must have done some terrible things to her and mistreated her horribly.” When Murder At My Door was first broadcast last year, it proved popular: “A lot of the time when we were filming this series, we sat there and said, ‘If you were watching this on a crime drama, you’d be like, No, that would never happen, it’s not possible’. But it actually has,” says Kym. “Watching true crime, we try and get into the psychology of it. It’s almost like we want to understand. But we will never understand

‘Nobody knew that she’d gone. It’s just heartbreaking. This case is beyond evil’

TRAGIC: Kym was shocked by the background story to the death of Margaret Fleming

TRUSTED FRIENDS: But Avril Jones and Edward Cairney killed Margaret and pocketed her money

COBBLED TOGETHER: Kym played Corrie favourite Michelle Connor with Simon Gregson as Steve McDonald