Our son was murdered ...and his killer is on the loose
When his body washed up on a remote beach, police were certain Stefan Sutherland had taken his own life. But his horrific injuries, changing witness accounts and the dark world of drugs painted a far more sinister picture – as his shattered parents now reveal
IT was the bleakest of discoveries on the rocky foreshore. Amid the pebbles and seaweed a few yards from the water’s edge lay the body of a young man who, clearly, had been dead for days. He had obviously been in the sea. The question was, had he died there?
There was a catastrophic head injury, one leg was broken, his front teeth were missing and, curiously, the joints of his fingers had been pulled apart.
Few in the village of Lybster in Caithness doubted this would turn out to be the body of Stefan Sutherland, the missing 25-yearold who, police had been telling locals for days now, had probably taken his own life.
Now here was the supposed evidence: a badly smashed-up body not far from the foot of a cliff at nearby Occumster. The case, it seemed, was as good as closed.
Six years on, this tragic young man’s parents Sandy and Sandra shake their heads in disbelief at the conclusion Police Scotland formed about their son’s death – apparently before there was even a body to examine.
For the police’s view on Stefan’s demise remains entirely unaltered, even in the face of mounting evidence of criminality. Their son was depressed, detectives told his parents, when they know he was nothing of the sort.
Nor are they alone in that view. No one who knew Stefan well in the 500-strong village believes he took his own life in September 2013. Rather, they say, his life was taken from him and they know the man who did it.
Stefan’s 75-year-old father tells the Mail: ‘When the police were interviewing people before Stefan was found, they were telling them, “don’t worry, this is going to be a suicide”. They made the decision that it was suicide and then built their case around it.’
This week, concerns about Police Scotland’s handling of the investigation deepened still further as it emerged several witnesses who gave statements about Stefan believed police had failed to record them faithfully.
Witness after witness told how detectives had tried to put words in their mouths, to push them towards the conclusion that Stefan was suicidal, when no one believed he was.
The allegations could hardly be more serious – for they suggest Scotland’s then fledgling national police force not only tried to twist the truth but refused to give proper credence to the possibility Stefan was murdered. And if that is what happened, then his killer remains on the loose.
Few in Lybster doubt that is indeed the case. In fact, they go further, pointing to the suicide of a young woman from Thurso this year and claiming that Stefan’s killer was involved in her death too.
Friends and family of mother-oftwo Jenna Johnson, 27, say this man, with an accomplice, drugged and raped her and filmed their exploits. It was after the men threatened to share the film, say locals, that Miss Johnson took her life on New Year’s Day.
Police Scotland say her death was not suspicious, but they have searched two men’s homes and inquiries are continuing ‘to establish the full circumstances relating to this incident’.
The circumstances, some in Caithness now argue, are that a botched police inquiry left a killer free to rape. For their part, police remain confident the Stefan Sutherland inquiry was properly handled. The Crown Office is also satisfied Stefan’s death was not suspicious. Who, then, is right? It was on the night of Friday, September 6, 2013, that Stefan was last seen alive. He had a drink at the Bayview Hotel in his home village before heading off – for reasons unknown – to an address a few minutes’ walk away.
This was the street where the man named by dozens of locals as Stefan’s killer lived at the time – and it is known the two had history. After he was seen in this street, the trail goes cold.
There are no more sightings of Stefan alive.
COULD he have become disorientated or, in anguish, headed for the cliffs? His mother says: ‘Stefan definitely wasn’t suicidal. Nothing points to suicide and nothing points to a cliff fall.’
On the contrary, says her husband, Stefan had a sunny personality and was full of hope for the future.
Although recently laid off from his job at an egg factory, he was working at the time of his death as a labourer for his father, who had recently agreed to put up half the money for a new car for him.
His father adds that Stefan was due to receive the trophy for fans’ player of the year for his local
football team. One of eight siblings, he was also looking forward to being the best man at his brother George’s wedding.
‘Stefan was the second youngest but the loss of one feels like you’ve lost half of them,’ says Mr Sutherland. ‘He was the life and soul of the party. When we go to family reunions or weddings, it’s hellish that Stefan’s not there. It’s something we have to live with. We can’t change it.’
Frustratingly, the pathology on Stefan’s body has offered little clarity. Three pathologists – two instructed by the procurator fiscal and one by the family’s lawyer – reached varying conclusions.
The first, who carried out a postmortem examination, said Stefan had not drowned and must have entered the water dead. A second said there was water in his lungs, so he could have drowned. Neither suggested foul play.
However, the family’s pathologist, Dr Marjorie Turner, found a hole in Stefan’s skull that other experts appear to have disregarded. She said foul play could not be ruled out.
Yet for all the circumstantial evidence of foul play, police have remained steadfast in their characterisation of the death as ‘non-suspicious’.
Not even the testimony of Chris Boyd – who believes he may have witnessed the aftermath of the murder – has shaken them in that conviction. Mr Boyd, 30, a close
friend of Stefan’s, tells the Mail he went to the same address in Lybster on the night Stefan was last seen in that street. Finding the front door open, he went inside.
He said: ‘The carpet in the house was pulled up and there was a wooden box. It was just made from makeshift pieces of wood.’
There were two men and a woman in the living room, he said, and he could see the sofa had been pushed into the garden.
‘They looked shifty, pale and nervous,’ he said. They also wanted Mr Boyd to leave, which he did and thought little more about it until he learned his friend was missing.
He says now: ‘I think I walked into something they didn’t want me to see. I think they were getting rid of their furniture and carpet, and that box, and I believe Stefan was in it.
‘But when I walked in I didn’t know what I was looking at. They said it was “flooring” but it was definitely not.’ He later learned from neighbours of a ‘bonfire’ in the man’s garden – more potentially damning evidence.
For Mr Boyd, there were issues about going to the police. He had gone to the house hoping to buy cannabis there and, he admits, it was Stefan who had advised him to try that address.
But now his friend was dead and the information he had could prove vital to the police inquiry. So he went to them with his story. Bafflingly, he says, they did not take his account of what he had seen seriously.
‘I told them what I saw and they were here for four hours writing it all down,’ he says. ‘But then they came back a few weeks later with a statement that had nothing to do with what I had seen, but it had been signed by me. It said I didn’t find anything suspicious.’
In reality, it turns out, many of those who were interviewed by police about Stefan’s death found it highly suspicious.
His parents say that a family liaison officer told them that 98 per cent of those spoken to in door-to-door inquiries named the man they believed was responsible.
There was even talk of an alleged confession to a family member from one of those present in the house that night. They were said to have admitted that ‘Stefan had died on the couch’. The family member later told police there had been no such confession.
Then there was the experience of family friend Sonya Adamson, who remembers telling detectives that Stefan was irritated by the rain, which was stopping him doing gardening jobs.
She says one of the officers pointed his finger at her and said: ‘So you’re telling me that he was a manic depressive!’
She says: ‘He went further to say “Stefan was depressed, wasn’t he?” Again I replied “No”. I was really shocked by this and told them that in my opinion Stefan was anything but depressed.’
She adds: ‘The whole time they were in my house I felt really intimidated and that they had already made up their minds about what had happened to Stefan, that he was suicidal or had fallen from the cliffs.
‘I wasn’t allowed to read the statement and was rushed into “sign this as we have other things to do”. Reluctantly, I signed it.’
For the Sutherlands, it all adds up to a feeling that, at best, only lip service has been paid to their son’s death. At worst, they fear police flagrantly disregarded an obvious line of investigation even as villager after villager urged them to pursue it.
For years now, the headstone they ordered for their son has remained blank and in storage as they seek the answers they feel they need before deciding on an inscription. Mrs Sutherland, 60, said: ‘We just need the right details on the stone. We need a date of death that is correct.’
And so the Sutherlands and much of the community they live in are in deadlock with the police force that serves them. While the force believes the case is closed, many Lybster locals think the murder of a popular young man was catastrophically miscast as suicide or misadventure.
If they are right, then his killer remains at large. And trained detectives are guilty of the rookie error of ‘confirmation bias’ – the tendency to interpret new evidence in such a way that it fits existing hypotheses. If that seems far-fetched, it is worth bearing in mind that the former Northern Constabulary is already under investigation over the case of Kevin McLeod, whose body was pulled from Wick Harbour in February 1997.
At the time, detectives had no difficulty concluding he had fallen into the water drunk. Now Merseyside Police has been called in to review those conclusions – in the face of mounting evidence Mr McLeod was attacked before entering the water.
FOR its part, Police Scotland admits to no concerns about the Lybster investigation. Detective Superintendent Colin Carey said: ‘A thorough investigation was carried out into the death of Stefan Sutherland in September 2013 which found there were no suspicious circumstances. As with all sudden deaths, a report was sent to the procurator fiscal.
‘Further information received since the initial investigation has been subject to review and all findings have been shared with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
‘I would stress once again that we will continue to act on any new information which is reported to Police Scotland in connection with the death of Stefan Sutherland.
‘A significant number of people were interviewed over the course of the inquiry, which was conducted in a thorough and professional manner.’
Police Scotland offered no response when asked about witnesses who claimed their statements were not faithfully taken. Nor did they explain why police investigating a sudden death may be reluctant to allow witnesses to chose their own words.
That may come as little surprise to the Sutherlands, who are convinced the force is in ‘cover-up’ mode.
‘The whole investigation, no matter how you look at it, has been a shambles,’ says Stefan’s father. ‘There needs to be a re-investigation. We have been asking for an outside force to look at it for six years and we are still no further forward.’
He adds: ‘Only the public can help us now. We just want to find out the truth about what happened to Stefan.’