GUILTY UK - Sarah Everard, 33, London, Clapham Common area, 3 Mar 2021 *Awaiting Sentencing*, #15

[Newthoughts]

"It was the height of the coronavirus lockdown, and police were questioning people who were out.

Only Couzens knows whether he used an excuse to get Everard into his car, or whether he forced her inside. However, police sources suspect he initially showed his warrant card to give the false impression he could be trusted. It took three minutes to execute his plan.

A bus camera image at 9.35pm shows the pair standing beside the Astra. At 9.38pm, when another bus drove past, the figures had disappeared into the car, and the front and passenger doors were open.

Detectives tracked the vehicle using CCTV and ANPR motorway cameras and it immediately headed out through south London towards Kent."

How Wayne Couzens lied to cover up plans to kill in days before abduction of Sarah Everard | News | The Times

My opinion would be he tricked her into the car rather than forced based on the timings of the two bus cams.

It was the height of lockdown and police were prowling around and asking people why they were out. They were unusual times. Friends were stopped and asked were they in the same bubble. He was a serving Police officer with a warrant card.

I also wonder if the mystery of the hire car could be explained by that trick? Could he have thought it would look more like an official vehicle than his family car?

 

[JuicyLucy]

It's in My London

"Even though Couzens' phone was wiped, cell site data linked him to both the place she was abducted and the area where her body was eventually found in woodland near Ashford in Kent, which is around 100 metres from land owned by Couzens.

His phone was located there in the early hours of March 4 and in the days leading up to his eventual arrest on March 9."

B&Q trip helped police prove Sarah Everard killer Wayne Couzens was guilty

So it sounds like - Astra was picked up on camera leaving London heading for Kent and then about 3 and a half hours later at Tilmanstone half an hour before he got home.

The rest of his whereabouts came from his cell data from his phone. So in that case the Investigators must know which route he took from his cell data. And all they've said is he transferred her to his own car on the south coast and it sounds like they assume she was already dead by then as they say the car analysis may give answers as to where she was raped and murdered (maybe soil samples from Hoads wood eg?) as well as anything else they've found. They must be using special scientific equipment to analyse samples or something.

What a complete idiot. He disabled or disposed of her phone but left his on and kept it with him from start to finish? You'd think your average teenager would know that's a stupid idea, never mind a forensically aware serving police officer.

JMO

 

[Parker Knoll]

Yes I was thinking about the fact that he will no longer receive a salary. He just wants to save what’s left of his miserable skin now. A guilty plea will mean he takes it to his grave. I think the full facts or what the police have deduced will be beyond bloody awful. In fact there are no words bad enough for him.

 

[CptShadow]

What a complete idiot.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. IMO...

 

[CptShadow]

What's the significance of the "bungee cargo net"? (I had to look up what this was!)

 

[CptShadow]

Something else that's bothering me. We know Sarah's body had to be identified by dental records. It took a long time for them to either figure out (or publicly release) that she had died by 'compression to the neck'.

His admission that he abducted her (pretty obvious from the evidence) makes sense. But the admission that he raped her - was that volunteered BY him? Or did the autopsy establish this, so he was left with no choice - as advised by his counsel - but to plead guilty to this?

 

[cestmoi]

His admission that he abducted her (pretty obvious from the evidence) makes sense. But the admission that he raped her - was that volunteered BY him? Or did the autopsy establish this, so he was left with no choice - as advised by his counsel - but to plead guilty to this?

I wondered the same thing - I don't think anything has been publicly released about the circumstances of the rape admission. Similarly I wondered about him offering up the detail about using sex workers. I know it formed part of his story about being under threat from the exploitation gang, but it seems like a pretty foolish thing to bring up as it can point to a secretive deviant lifestyle that they would want to dig further into. Is this either stupidity or desperation? My vote goes for desperation and cracking under the pressure of interrogation.

 

[CptShadow]

Is this either stupidity or desperation? My vote goes for desperation and cracking under the pressure of interrogation.

I think I'd vote for both. He really doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

 

[Dotta]

What a complete idiot. He disabled or disposed of her phone but left his on and kept it with him from start to finish? You'd think your average teenager would know that's a stupid idea, never mind a forensically aware serving police officer.

JMO

I think he, even in his wildest dreams, didnt suspect he would be captured! And he was caught by a miracle - 2 buses' cameras. It seems Fate was finally fed up with him.

 

[candlemaker808]

It is a horrible, horrible crime, but I would be wary of ascribing too much competence to the perp, or even to attempt to piece his actions together into a coherent whole.

JMO, obviously, but everything about this says to me that he harboured certain desires for a while, built up to acting on them with associated but more minor offences, and even prepared for what he eventually did on a practical level in advance - but then was completely unprepared for what murder entailed in reality versus his fantasy. Hence the apparent subsequent psychological unravelling, the request to be removed from armed service, the apparently illogical discrepancies in behaviour, and so on. This is not a criminal genius, and I honestly don’t think we’ll find he’s killed before.

Again: JMO.

 

[Dotta]

I think I'd vote for both. He really doesn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

He seemed to be absolutely driven by his deviant urges oblivious to anything else. Like an alcoholic needing desperately another glass of vodka. He is an addict.

 

[Tortoise]

What's the significance of the "bungee cargo net"? (I had to look up what this was!)

I had to look it up as well. Looks like it's for safeguarding/containing loads that are being transported in an open truck. I wonder if it was a plan to transport her body in the builder's bag, in a trailer? I've no idea really, perhaps it was unconnected with the crime and he needed it for something else.

 

[Dotta]

Isnt it strange that WC comitted this atrocity when nearly 50 years old? Sex driven murderers are usually young I think. Even De Angelo (also a cop) finished his murderous sprees when hit 40.

 

[Lottiedealite]

So the logical route coming in from Dover from London via Ashford is M20/A20 along Dover seafront where Enterprise is (for BCB you would need to turn off at Aycliffe and go down Military Road but this roundabout is before the seafront and Enterprise)

Anyway you carry along the seafront up jubilee way where the ferries are and down the Deal/Dover Road (a258). There is a new ANPR camera there which would have tracked him if he came down there. The time from Dover to Deal is about 15 minutes maybe 20 minutes if traffic is heavy but I would imagine its not busy at that time.

If he went from Dover to Tilmanstone he would need to get to Whitfield which he could either do by going into the town or up jubilee way but then he would need to travel towards Canterbury. There is a turn off on this road (near where b and q ironically is) that he would need to go around a couple of roundabouts and down the A256 then as I said either country lanes or continue towards sandwich and then down the deal/sandwich Road into Deal.

I live a few streets away and I would come home the a258 to get to my address as its the easiest direct route. Unless he didn't know there was ANPR at Tilmanstone (and to be honest I didn't but I'm not police or a criminal so would never think to look) and was avoiding the new one on the a258 that has been made quite public knowledge is my only reasoning he didn't take the direct route....apart from wanting to hide something.

I can't see where his car would be in Dover. Bcb is a good 30 minute walk from Enterprise. It's not the closest car hire agency and is also quite busy. Its near a shopping centre St James and the seafront. There is no on street parking and I'm sure if his car was there it would have been picked up him transferring SE. I think his bike may have been what he used to get to and from Enterprise especially as his wife may not have realised it was missing if it stayed in the garage and his car and the hire car was stored somewhere else for the 3 days... I would assume if the wife worked full time and took the kids and he worked shifts he would be able to move vehicles without her knowledge of what was going on.

 

[Gemmie]

No it doesn't! Maybe the area of land he owned though and the immediate vicinity - or some kind of ground detector used to see what else is buried there.

I wouldn't think the entire land would be necessary. I'm thinking some areas would look recently disturbed and others not at all disturbed. They could (obviously) focus on the places where the land looks disturbed. Likely already have.

 

[Dotta]

I wouldn't think the entire land would be necessary. I'm thinking some areas would look recently disturbed and others not at all disturbed. They could (obviously) focus on the places where the land looks disturbed. Likely already have.

But whose "grave with a cross" was there? Sorry, but it is bizarre for me. The place for the dead is in cemetery. What if you want to sell a land? Who is going to buy a graveyard? And will you leave the grave of your loved ones? Besides isnt it a health hazard to bury the dead wherever you want?

 

[CptShadow]

But whose "grave with a cross" was there? ... isnt it a health hazard to bury the dead wherever you want?

The story was that he had bought the land so that his wife could scatter the ashes of deceased loved ones there (which is still pretty bizarre if you ask me).

There was also the story of the men who saw him on that land in the days after the murder, when he said he had buried his father there.

Which brings me to another thought - we have to be careful about taking all the 'exclusive "I met/knew WC" stories' at face value...

 

[Gemmie]

But whose "grave with a cross" was there? Sorry, but it is bizarre for me. The place for the dead is in cemetery. What if you want to sell a land? Who is going to buy a graveyard? And will you leave the grave of your loved ones? Besides isnt it a health hazard to bury the dead wherever you want?

Just a guess but it could be a pet someone wanted to bury. That seems very likely to me. I don't think he's very bright but if I was WC I for darn sure wouldn't put a marker on the spot where I buried a person. Might as well erect a blinking neon arrow pointing to the spot that can be seen from town.

That's where I'm placing my bets (on it being a dead pet). We're allowed to bury them here if they are 3' under. My parents property had all sorts of pets buried on it. 2 of mine, several of their city friends, and all the dogs they lost the 25 yrs they lived there. My father built a beautiful bench from fallen trees out back and placed it next to the graves of my cats, and put bird feeders in the branches overhead to attract birds to the spot. When they moved I took the bench to my new house and planted catnip in the corner behind it.

 

[Gemmie]

The story was that he had bought the land so that his wife could scatter the ashes of deceased loved ones there (which is still pretty bizarre if you ask me).

There was also the story of the men who saw him on that land in the days after the murder, when he said he had buried his father there.

Which brings me to another thought - we have to be careful about taking all the 'exclusive "I met/knew WC" stories' at face value...

It's possible... but seems a tad expensive just to spread some ashes of your loved ones. I had a friend scatter her mom out back on the property I mentioned in the thread just above this one. And my mother scattered my father out where they'd go yearly to mushroom hunt. No need to buy property just to scatter ashes. Maybe it's different in the UK. I'm in America.

 

[Dotta]

The story was that he had bought the land so that his wife could scatter the ashes of deceased loved ones there (which is still pretty bizarre if you ask me).

There was also the story of the men who saw him on that land in the days after the murder, when he said he had buried his father there.

Which brings me to another thought - we have to be careful about taking all the 'exclusive "I met/knew WC" stories' at face value...

I doubt that his Ukrainian wife would bring the "ashes of her loved ones" to the UK and scatter them at the site turned into a rubbish site. Orthodox Church is very strict about burials, the dead are buried in consecrated land in cemetries. Besides, she visited Ukraine often and could pay respect to her dead loved ones then.