UK UK - Ann Heron, 44, found at home with throat cut, Darlington, 3 August 1990

[Jen Jarvie]

The CPS have a weird percentage system which they use to determine who is suitable for prosecution.
I know who you mean, but unfortunately I don't think any suspect is anywhere near the CPS threshold, or likely to ever confess.

The CPS have a two-code test. The first is the likelihood of conviction, and the other is the public interest. There is no way a conviction could be secured with no evidence and a suspect with an alibi.

 

[Jen Jarvie]

And when does Peter's full alibi get established?

Is it in 1990, or is it fifteen years later when the police arrest PH and try to charge him?

1990

 

[Westchester76]

Can't think of what further evidence can be unearthed. Weapon never found, and Heron's DNA will be all over the house as he lived there. His alibi about off-site meetings would of been confirmed by witnesses in the past, I would presume.
No CCTV tracking his car either. Unless it's another suspect...

 

[WiseOwl]

Unfortunately, Peter Heron was seen on his 'long way round' back to the office - one such witness was an off-duty police officer. This is not speculation but a verified fact.
You are entitled to your opinion but the facts you're giving are not correct at all.

Hi,

I have asked you this question before back in December but you didn't reply.

Did the witnesses who saw Mr Heron drive 'the long way back to the office' come forward with this information before or after he changed his statement about the route he took that day?

TIA

 

[dotr]

Kirsten Robertson Aug 5, 2023 rbbm

The unsolved murder of a mum killed while sunbathing at home 33 years ago

Ann Heron's children are searching for the 'missing puzzle piece' on the anniversary of her death.

metro.co.uk

Witnesses said they saw a blue car parked outside the house, possibly a Vauxhall Astra (Picture: Rutger van der Maar)

''Ann was said to have been fearful of being home alone.
She often missed her children from her previous marriage, who were still living in Scotland.
But on August 3, her demeanour was nevertheless described as cheery by a friend who called her at 2.30pm.''
''An hour later, a different friend on a passing bus spotted Ann sunbathing in her home’s front garden.
It was to be the last confirmed sighting of the mum alive.''

''Witnesses had initially reported seeing a blue Vauxhall Astra near the property, while others spoke of a blue Leyland Sherpa van.''
''Police tracked down the owners of 3,500 blue cars, but the car has never been found or identified.''
Peter told police he had left a meeting at Cleveland Bridge at 4pm and drove a route back to his office through the village of Croft-on-Tees and Middleton St. George.
This wasn’t the most direct route, and police initially felt he had a missing amount of time which could not be accounted for between 4pm and 5.50pm.''

''Durham Police say they are continuing to use advances in forensic technology to review items recovered from Ann’s home in their search for answers.''

 

[Jen Jarvie]

Hi,

I have asked you this question before back in December but you didn't reply.

Did the witnesses who saw Mr Heron drive 'the long way back to the office' come forward with this information before or after he changed his statement about the route he took that day?

TIA

Hi, sorry I missed this. There were many that came forward but mainly after Peter Heron clarified his account

 

[WiseOwl]

Hi, sorry I missed this. There were many that came forward but mainly after Peter Heron clarified his account

Thanks for replying.

At what point did Mr Heron change his account of his drive from the meeting that day? We know that a week after Ann's murder the story of his affair with the barmaid became known but when did he tell the police that he had driven back to the office through Croft village instead? Did the police make this known to the media at the time that he had changed his story?

If there were a few witnesses to his drive back through Croft that afternoon, then presumably he must have seen them too? So why not just tell police that he had seen a few people on his way back to the office who could vouch for him from day one? It doesn't make sense that he chose not to do this.

I know you have spoken to Mr Heron & his daughter regarding this case, but have you ever spoken to Ann's family at all during your investigations?

TIA

 

[WiseOwl]

Hi, sorry I missed this. There were many that came forward but mainly after Peter Heron clarified his account

Hi again.

In my previous post i did mean to ask you the following question:

Mr Heron said that he drove back from Cleveland Bridge via Croft to his office in Middleton St George that afternoon, so at what point in this journey home did the first witness see him and also what time was it?

Thanks again.

 

[tes1984]

The documentary didn't portray Peter as he actually is. I agree he didn't come over well. He was hoodwinked to give a story of 80s misogyny which when edited didn't look great on him - times were very different then.

I don't know if Peter Heron is guilty on not, but his behaviour just before/after the murder is quite suspicious. Please correct me if any of the following isn't accurate...

He's caught lying about his affair with the woman from his golf club around August 10th.

Within the next few days Peter puts up a £500 reward to find the killer.

£500 seems like a token gesture to me. That's somewhere around £1500 - £2000 these days. Not much for a haulage firm manager, who is also the director of another haulage firm.

PH tries to sell the house in 1992 for a very ambitious £220,000. A month later he takes his new girlfriend for a romantic break to Tenerife. This is the woman he meets after his affair with the barmaid has 'petered out'.

He doesn't try to increase the reward money. Instead he plans the romantic holiday and his next wedding. He doesn't even increase the reward in the late 1990s when he becomes a director of Stillers. Or in 2001 when he finally sells the house for £210,000.

The house is currently valued at around £617,000. So in modern terms a man with a 600k property only puts up a £1500 reward.

 

[tes1984]

The reward is later increased to £5000 by a local community trust.

Interestingly none of Peter's bosses or business partners seem to offer to help boost the reward amount.

 

[tes1984]

I wonder what Peter's earnings were for 1990, and whether Ann had life insurance, and a will. If she did have a will, then who were the beneficiaries?

Like I said, PH may well not be guilty of the murder, but it's easy to see why the police have kept him as a strong suspect for so long. It's like he can't see how bad he makes himself look to others (or just no longer cares).

It reminds me a bit of the Ann Myring 'disappearance' in 1997, and how AM's husband behaved in the aftermath.

 

[CSIAngus]

Sorry to disappoint you - but this is just not the case at all. Durham Constabulary do not have 'lots of evidence' This is pure speculation on your behalf and just not true.

So why was PH arrested in 2005 for Ann's murder and the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to charge him? Couldn't have been on the basis of no evidence, surely.

 

[CSIAngus]

So why was PH arrested in 2005 for Ann's murder and the Crown Prosecution Service agreed to charge him? Couldn't have been on the basis of no evidence, surely.

PH's sperm in AH's throat is still a show stopper for me. I still do not see how that can be explained away. Old sperm off the carpet where it just happened they had sex downstairs randomly on the same spot as a random serial killer struck, or a *advertiser censored* at lunchtime every day before he went back to work leaving stains inhaled by a dying AH. A woman who wanted to leave him, and he admits to an affair with a girlfriend (including in his alibi), would she blow him out every lunch time? I don't think so. More likely to bite it off.

 

[CSIAngus]

PH's sperm in AH's throat is still a show stopper for me. I still do not see how that can be explained away. Old sperm off the carpet where it just happened they had sex downstairs randomly on the same spot as a random serial killer struck, or a *advertiser censored* at lunchtime every day before he went back to work leaving stains inhaled by a dying AH. A woman who wanted to leave him, and he admits to an affair with a girlfriend (including in his alibi), would she blow him out every lunch time? I don't think so. More likely to bite it off.

Oral sex is a feature in this case so I don't know why mods are censoring my comment. Perhaps you don't understand the case.

 

[Westchester76]

PH's sperm in AH's throat is still a show stopper for me. I still do not see how that can be explained away. Old sperm off the carpet where it just happened they had sex downstairs randomly on the same spot as a random serial killer struck, or a *advertiser censored* at lunchtime every day before he went back to work leaving stains inhaled by a dying AH. A woman who wanted to leave him, and he admits to an affair with a girlfriend (including in his alibi), would she blow him out every lunch time? I don't think so. More likely to bite it off.

Was it ever disclosed she wanted to leave him? So he came home unannounced (after already being back for lunch) - Demanded / Got a BJ and then slit her throat? Then drove around / had meetings to bulk up his alibi. I'm far from convinced that PH is innocent, but I am not buying that scenario. Wasn't it proved she was killed after 3-4pm? So PH couldn't of committed the crime on his lunch break.

 

[WiseOwl]

Was it ever disclosed she wanted to leave him? So he came home unannounced (after already being back for lunch) - Demanded / Got a BJ and then slit her throat? Then drove around / had meetings to bulk up his alibi. I'm far from convinced that PH is innocent, but I am not buying that scenario. Wasn't it proved she was killed after 3-4pm? So PH couldn't of committed the crime on his lunch break.

Mr Heron's lunch break that day was between 1 - 2pm.

The police have stated that Ann was killed between 4 - 5pm, so definitely not during the lunch hour.

Mr Heron's drive home after the meeting at Cleveland Bridge has always come under suspicion, as there have been many different times given over the years of the time he left the meeting until the time he arrived at his office. In the 2022 documentary he apparently left the meeting around 4.20 and arrived back at the office around 5.00. This would seem to support his version of the drive through the village of Croft to Middleton St George.

Looking at Google Maps, from where Cleveland Bridge was to Croft is around a 10 minute drive, and then from Croft to Middleton St George (including driving past the Golf Club) is around 13 minutes, so, if we add a couple of minutes to that, gives a total of a 25 minute drive back to the office. If he did leave the meeting at 4.20, then he should have arrived back at the office at 4.45 - not around 5.00. So, potentially, there could be a missing 10-15 minutes from that drive.

Could he have had time to drive from the meeting to Aeolian House (literally a 2 minute drive), commit the crime, then back in his car, head towards Cleveland Bridge and then journey throught Croft back to his office?

The answer to this is what time did the first witness see him on his drive back to Middleton St George and where did they see him?

 

[tes1984]

I don't think going over the timeline is anything that the police won't have done to the nth degree. However, getting a confirmed timeline for PH should be achievable in this case.

In my opinion there are three possibilities for this murder...
1. 'Crime of passion' by someone very close to Ann.
2. Lunatic stranger kills Ann.
3. Hitman (possibly, but not definitely linked with option 1).

 

[WiseOwl]

I don't think going over the timeline is anything that the police won't have done to the nth degree. However, getting a confirmed timeline for PH should be achievable in this case.

In my opinion there are three possibilities for this murder...
1. 'Crime of passion' by someone very close to Ann.
2. Lunatic stranger kills Ann.
3. Hitman (possibly, but not definitely linked with option 1).

IMO the timeline has always been problematic for the police, simply because over the years there has been different versions of it given by Mr Heron. The police have seemingly always been suspicious of his drive back to the office that afternoon.

Lets not forget that Mr Heron gave a different version first to the police of his drive back to Middleton St George (presumably saying that he drove past Aeolian House), before he changed it to driving back through the village of Croft.

 

[shadwell]

Mr Heron's lunch break that day was between 1 - 2pm.

The police have stated that Ann was killed between 4 - 5pm, so definitely not during the lunch hour.

Mr Heron's drive home after the meeting at Cleveland Bridge has always come under suspicion, as there have been many different times given over the years of the time he left the meeting until the time he arrived at his office. In the 2022 documentary he apparently left the meeting around 4.20 and arrived back at the office around 5.00. This would seem to support his version of the drive through the village of Croft to Middleton St George.

Looking at Google Maps, from where Cleveland Bridge was to Croft is around a 10 minute drive, and then from Croft to Middleton St George (including driving past the Golf Club) is around 13 minutes, so, if we add a couple of minutes to that, gives a total of a 25 minute drive back to the office. If he did leave the meeting at 4.20, then he should have arrived back at the office at 4.45 - not around 5.00. So, potentially, there could be a missing 10-15 minutes from that drive.

Could he have had time to drive from the meeting to Aeolian House (literally a 2 minute drive), commit the crime, then back in his car, head towards Cleveland Bridge and then journey throught Croft back to his office?

The answer to this is what time did the first witness see him on his drive back to Middleton St George and where did they see him?

he arrived back at the depot at about 4.50pm. His colleague, Paul Stiller, had just taken delivery of a new car and they went together to see it.

‘The gazelle is fighting for its life. That’s what it felt like’

In the third part of our exclusive series about one of the North-East's most notorious murders, Debbie Simpson tells Chris Lloyd about seeing…

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

 

[Jen Jarvie]

I don't know if Peter Heron is guilty on not, but his behaviour just before/after the murder is quite suspicious. Please correct me if any of the following isn't accurate...

He's caught lying about his affair with the woman from his golf club around August 10th.

Within the next few days Peter puts up a £500 reward to find the killer.

£500 seems like a token gesture to me. That's somewhere around £1500 - £2000 these days. Not much for a haulage firm manager, who is also the director of another haulage firm.

PH tries to sell the house in 1992 for a very ambitious £220,000. A month later he takes his new girlfriend for a romantic break to Tenerife. This is the woman he meets after his affair with the barmaid has 'petered out'.

He doesn't try to increase the reward money. Instead he plans the romantic holiday and his next wedding. He doesn't even increase the reward in the late 1990s when he becomes a director of Stillers. Or in 2001 when he finally sells the house for £210,000.

The house is currently valued at around £617,000. So in modern terms a man with a 600k property only puts up a £1500 reward.

Hi,

The reward was £50,000 - it was misquoted in the press. The holiday was not with his girlfriend but his wife and daughters, their partners and children for his retirement. I hope that clarifies.