Show’s new discoveries in unsolved Rita killing
A TOP criminologist believes he has identified two “persons of interest” in the unsolved murder of an RAF servicewoman more than 50 years ago.
David Wilson, along with Silent Witness actress Emilia Fox, made the breakthrough while investigating the case for Channel 4’s In The Footsteps of Killers.
Rita Ellis, 19, was murdered in an attack on November 11, 1967. Her body was found by a dog walker near her base in RAF Halton, Buckinghamshire.
She had been due to babysit for Wing Commander Roy Watson and his wife on the evening she was sexually assaulted and strangled.
Wilson already had an interest in the case as he lives in the area. He said: “The local paper, Buckingham Live, had continued to do updates on the case. So when the series was commissioned I suggested it because it was obvious a DNA profile of the killer had been generated.”
The DNA profile is thought to have been made from the victim’s clothing kept as evidence.
However, case files and other evidence have been locked in the National Archive until 2070.
Wilson has ruled out a serial killer: “I think it was a one-off attack that could be explained by something happening in the camp itself.”
Wilson’s team interviewed men and women from the base at the time: “We found two people who really needed to be ruled out at a level we wouldn’t do as a TV documentary.”
Rita’s family did not co-operate with the show. Thames Valley Police appealed for further evidence in the case late last year as Wilson was preparing the show.
He said: “We did want to work with the police. We made our case but they didn’t want to engage with the programme.”
He continued: “The killer did something wrong that night. Things got out of hand and, because of good luck, he was able to evade justice.
“By the end of our process we were working out if we could go to a foreign country to doorstep someone we’d identified as a likely suspect.”
Thames Valley Police said: “While Professor Wilson clearly has valuable insight as a criminologist, police forces have to ensure that investigations are carried out by trained investigators.”
Wilson also revealed a new lead from an earlier show, involving the disappearance of David Spencer and Patrick Warren, 13 and 11, last seen alive on Boxing Day, 1996, in Chelmsley Wood, West Midlands.
The show speculated that Brian Field, a child killer and prolific sex offender, could have been involved.
Wilson said: “I interviewed a friend of Field in Chelmsley Wood.
“He had encountered Field digging two trenches there, who told him ‘ **** off! Don’t come near me’.”
The incident happened on January 2, 1997, he claimed.
In The Footsteps of Killers, Channel 4, Wednesday, 10pm
‘I think it was a
one-off attack’