False texts - and lucky break for the police:
KILLER STARTED TO LAY FALSE TRAIL AFTER MURDERING WIFE SO IT APPEARED SHE WAS STILL ALIVE
He thought he committed the perfect crime but he left behind telling clues which led to his conviction
AFTER killing his wife, Darren McKie set about laying a false trail, sending texts to make it look like he thought she was still alive.
In the last, sent at 9.20pm on the day of the murder, he played the concerned husband.
“Hi hun. Your dad text me. They have not heard from you. You OK? Bit worried now. xx”
In his search for a makeshift grave, he drove to Poynton Lake, where, under cover of darkness, he dragged Leanne from the car park about 140 metres to the edge of the water, where he left her face down.
He abandoned the car nearby, walking the eight miles back to the family home.
He thought he was committing the perfect crime. But he left behind telling clues which ultimately led to his conviction for murder.
As he walked home with his hood up, he was spotted by patrolling police officers – out and about trying to snare burglars – at around 1.15am.
The officers wound down their window to speak briefly to him but allowed him on his way when he told them he was close to home, the first of very many lies he told police.
He continued his walk home but dumped his trainers, which were stained with blood from Leanne’s nose, in a wheelie-bin as he neared Burford Close.
The same officers stopped him a second time at 2.15am – and noted he wasn’t wearing shoes this time. He refused to give his surname. He was forced to admit he was a policeman when the patrol officers spotted his force-issue trousers.
McKie was driven home where the lying continued. The shocked patrol officers noted how McKie appeared ‘very cold, very emotionless and unmoved’ by the crying child who was waiting for him when he opened the front door.
He claimed to be worried because his wife had not returned from her late shift. He reasoned he couldn’t drive as he’d drunk half of the bottle of Spanish red standing on the kitchen island. So he went out on foot instead, he said. He insisted he’d thrown away his trainers as they were ‘rubbing’ on his heel – another desperate lie.
The patrol officers left the McKie home to look for Leanne and her Mini, but to no avail. McKie quickly put his clothes – which as a police officer he knew may well have collected evidence of his crime in their fibres – in the washing machine.
By complete chance, someone who had been out in Manchester and was worse for wear got off a bus and wandered towards Poynton Lake.
The man got lost, and at around 3.45am, found Leanne’s body face down and ran from the woods to flag down a passing motorist. This was a key moment of fortune for the police – otherwise the body may have remained undiscovered for days.
The police officers who had escorted McKie back to his home ended up being dispatched to Burford Close once more.
There, they banged on the front door and woke the sleeping McKie. They stopped the washing machine midcycle. In his dressing gown, McKie was arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Within a couple of hours, investigators had discovered the suspect’s blue New Balance trainers in a wheelie-bin.
Later, forensic experts would establish that the blood on them belonged to his wife.
The inspector claimed in interview he had never been to Poynton and didn’t even know it had a lake, but another expert concluded that soil found deep in the tread of his trainers came from Poynton Lake.