Found Deceased UK - Leah Croucher - Emerson Valley - Milton Keynes - #6

[Officer Dibble]

Just found this. Apologies if already posted.

Datchet man jailed for rape​

19th June 2009

A MAN from Datchet has been jailed for four years and ten months after pleading guilty to rape.
Neil Maxwell, 39, of Horton Road, appeared at Reading Crown Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty and was sentenced at the same hearing.

https://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/news/13431053.datchet-man-jailed-for-rape

http://Thank you so much. Claudia went missing in March 2009 on her way to work.

I think he may be asked for help, feigned a medical emergency? asked to use her phone? Or perhaps she had slipped/injured herself with it being a frosty morning and he had offered to help her.

I do think, it was an opportunist attack, and unfortunately for Leah she was in the area.

But if it was her crying by the lake then why?

 

[Officer Dibble]

These are the 2 routes she could have taken from the last CCTV sighting towards her work. There is also the fact she only had perhaps 15 minutes spare that morning if she intended to arrive at work on time, so she couldn't go much out of the way or meet up with someone for long. Also, she wasn't seen on any other CCTV elsewhere.

All along we said she had to have got into a vehicle

 

[Officer Dibble]

I think another possibility is “my dog is sick can you help me get him in van” or some such scenario may have lured her. But we’ll never actually know . (And I’m not saying he has a dog!!)

I thought the same tbh. JMO

 

[BrianJohnson]

Has there been any mention of where NM’s body was found or what the cause of death was?

 

[Nikynoo]

It is true to guy said to the police look its postmarked today. I could not see the document myself, wish I had I would have tried to take a photo but certainly the WPC was interested and went inside the tent to discuss with a colleague and copy it. I would have thought it came from a dept collecting agency who deals with whichever car park he was in when he recieved the ticket. The only aspect of interest for me was it lets the police know a particular vehicle he was driving at that time. So I was not able to see the documents but he told me what it was about and i stood next to him as he then showed it to the police and explained he recieved it today and said your can see its date stamped today.
If I can find out where he lives I will see if he will allow me to photo the documents. By the way I live in Furzton and our postman is not on strike and seems to be delivering every day. Mainly mail shots we do not want!

This is interesting and reminded me of an earliar post. Did the neighbour appear to be familiar with NM (ie, did they give indications that they knew of them)?

I am also wondering which neighbour it was as there was a property services company at a nearby address at the time Leah went missing.

 

[Nikynoo]

Has there been any mention of where NM’s body was found or what the cause of death was?

In the attic. No COD yet.

 

[Officer Dibble]

Is there any real possibility that he never killed her but hid/disposed of the body on behalf of someone else?

By all accounts he was a gypsy and there was a travellers fair going on in the area not far from where Leah went missing so occured to me maybe she was killed by a fellow gypsy and given the gypsy community is close knit he disposed of the body as had a ‘free house‘ to do it

Unlikely but i do remember the travellers fair at the time and him being a gypsy may not be a coincidence

I got poo pooed for suggesting this yesterday. Also another point of view - I also would love to know WHO found the body - im sure they are innocent but just suppose, they knew the house was to be sold and just suppose their DNA/prints were already on the body and belongingings what better way to say 'this is how my prints got all over it'? I know its probably not the situation at all but its worth considering. Just my own opinion. JMO MOO.

 

[Petrocelli]

He could have been driving to the property around 8.20 as either staying at another address or picking up materials, seen Leah as he passed her at start of Loxbeare Drive, parked his van right on the edge of the driveway and just waited behind or in it for her then to pass right by, therefore grab her very quickly out of sight of anyone. Especially if she had headphones on she would have been taken completely by surprise.

 

[Plod]

http://Thank you so much. Claudia went missing in March 2009 on her way to work.

But if it was her crying by the lake then why?

I guess we don’t know for sure it was her crying by the lake? To expand, it could have been anyone staying in area, out jogging or walking and received a bad phone call? Maybe they don’t live in area or not been aware of the media after she disappeared so never came forward to be ruled out?

 

[BrianJohnson]

In the attic. No COD yet.

I don’t think he was found in the house? his body was discovered 3 years before Leah’s was

 

[CoverMeCagney]

So are you saying that he just happened to be standing on the drive way at that exact time on a cold February morning ? What would he have been doing there? Waiting for Leah to walk by ? Planned or random? Is it 100% fact that Leah did walk past that house that day or is her route an assumption?

Nothing is 100% known, obviously, but there were only two routes and one goes literally right past that house. At the point Leah would’ve reached the Prem Inn bit of the lake, she was really near her office.

 

[LammyTheRobot]

Should we be looking at this abduction, November 2018, of a teenage girl in Milton Keynes a bit closer?

Milton Keynes schoolgirl kidnapped by man in van

'This was a distressing and frightening incident,' says police officer

www.independent.co.uk

“
A 14-year-old girl in Milton Keynes has been bundled into the back of a van by a man on her way home from school, then dumped more than three hours later in a lay-by, police have said.

The teenager was emerging from an underpass in Bletcham Way, Milton Keynes, shortly after 3.40pm on Thursday 15 November when a man pulled her into a dark blue van parked in nearby Elgar Way.

She was found by the side of the A5 near the Flying Fox pub in Potsgrove, Bedfordshire, about six miles from where she was taken, at 7pm that evening.”

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Should we be looking at this abduction, November 2018, of a teenage girl in Milton Keynes a bit closer?

Milton Keynes schoolgirl kidnapped by man in van

'This was a distressing and frightening incident,' says police officer

www.independent.co.uk

“
A 14-year-old girl in Milton Keynes has been bundled into the back of a van by a man on her way home from school, then dumped more than three hours later in a lay-by, police have said.

The teenager was emerging from an underpass in Bletcham Way, Milton Keynes, shortly after 3.40pm on Thursday 15 November when a man pulled her into a dark blue van parked in nearby Elgar Way.

She was found by the side of the A5 near the Flying Fox pub in Potsgrove, Bedfordshire, about six miles from where she was taken, at 7pm that evening.”

Yes. One of Leah’s routes included walking through an underpass to work. There is CCTV footage of her on that route from, I think, the day before (or at least soon before)

Edit: Or no. Because the other suspect didn’t look like NM.

 

[Embobaggins]

Sooo many questions still remain.

Am I right in thinking that NM is prime suspect based solely on the word of the property owner? That seems a bit dodgy given that the same owners were said to be spending the summer at the property while LC’s body was (presumably) lying in the loft and they didn’t notice anything.

I hate to say this and sorry to be grim but surely, SURELY, there would be some sign of decomposition over the summer months and subsequent years to come that would have been impossible to ignore by anyone in that house? I’m sure most of us has had the odd occasion when some chicken has been left in the bin a little too long and the whole house smells foul so just imagine..

If they say NM was the only key holder then what happened after he died? Did they know he killed himself? Who took on maintenance responsibilities for the house afterwards? SOMEONE must have cleared mail/junk mail, or cleaned, serviced boilers, read meters etc in the three years since NM killed himself.

I just can’t get my head around how 1. The owners didn’t notice a smell that summer, because if NM was indeed responsible then there was DEFINITELY a decomposing body in the loft. And 2. How it has gone unnoticed for over three years? I can only assume that anybody who had access to the house since the murder knew that she was there. And NM is dead.

JMO

 

[Outside the box]

Indeed but there has been several cases recently where killers have started off with weird and creepy behaviour (Relowicz/Couzens for example) but the weird and creepy behaviour escalated to rape and murder

NM had already done the indecent exposure and moved up to sexual assaults and rapes so murder would not have been a massive step up for him

Indeed it is a massive step up, so massive that he took his own life, NW has been this way since he was a teenager from all accounts, yes people do progress sometimes but at 49 years old and a history of deviance from a young age the probability is this behaviour would of escalated sooner, as I said wouldn't rule it out but his actions weeks later tell a story.

 

[Curiousobserver]

Sooo many questions still remain.

Am I right in thinking that NM is prime suspect based solely on the word of the property owner? That seems a bit dodgy given that the same owners were said to be spending the summer at the property while LC’s body was (presumably) lying in the loft and they didn’t notice anything.

I hate to say this and sorry to be grim but surely, SURELY, there would be some sign of decomposition over the summer months and subsequent years to come that would have been impossible to ignore by anyone in that house? I’m sure most of us has had the odd occasion when some chicken has been left in the bin a little too long and the whole house smells foul so just imagine..

If they say NM was the only key holder then what happened after he died? Did they know he killed himself? Who took on maintenance responsibilities for the house afterwards? SOMEONE must have cleared mail/junk mail, or cleaned, serviced boilers, read meters etc in the three years since NM killed himself.

I just can’t get my head around how 1. The owners didn’t notice a smell that summer, because if NM was indeed responsible then there was DEFINITELY a decomposing body in the loft. And 2. How it has gone unnoticed for over three years? I can only assume that anybody who had access to the house since the murder knew that she was there. And NM is dead.

JMO

I am not sure there would need to be signs of decomposition. The loft could be very hot and the remains desiccated quickly. This is based solely off my experience with mummified squirrels in my own loft so I am no expert.

I think the property owners are off the hook however because who would hire cleaners/renovators knowing there was a body in the house?

 

[LammyTheRobot]

The above referred-to abduction of a 14yo in Bletcham Way on 15 November 2018 was a 10-minute drive (5 miles) from Loxbeare Drive, and incidentally a 13-minute drive (6.3 miles) from where NM’s recorded sexual assault happened in broad daylight in Newport Parnell the same month.

These reference points and associated dates are a geoprofiler’s gold.

 

[BrianJohnson]

The above referred-to abduction of a 14yo in Bletcham Way on 15 November 2018 was a 10-minute drive (5 miles) from Loxbeare Drive, and incidentally a 13-minute drive (6.3 miles) from where NM’s recorded sexual assault happened in broad daylight in Newport Parnell the same month.

These reference points and associated dates are a geoprofiler’s gold.

I don’t think NM had anything to do with this case, the victim said that the attacker had a ‘tunnel piercing’ through his ear, basically cutting out the ear lobe and wrapping it around this massive circular thing with a hole

In the pics released by police yesterday of NM his ears were normal

 

[hulkhogan]

I find it incredibly unlikely that the crying girl by Furzton Lake was Leah. In all liklihood, the murderer managed to get her to come freely into the property and from there it's not difficult to imagine a grown man overpowering a teenager - martial arts experience or not. Reading true crime over the years, sexual offenders tend to get more brazen as time goes on and the ramping up to murder was probably a matter of time. He could have been at the point where he was willing to take any risk to satisfy his urges - including taking a young girl walking by on a busy street. The suspects eventual suicide is unlikely remorse or guilt, but a lack of control from not being able to dispose of the body adequately to hide his crime, and the police attention for other crimes. For all he knew his time could have been up any day and suicide was probably a better option than being imprisoned for the murder of a teenage girl. In my opinion, the case is as simple as that. I don't see any of Leah's actions in the lead up to her disappearance as strange when compared to others in her age group.

 

[Embobaggins]

I am not sure there would need to be signs of decomposition. The loft could be very hot and the remains desiccated quickly. This is based solely off my experience with mummified squirrels in my own loft so I am no expert.

I think the property owners are off the hook however because who would hire cleaners/renovators knowing there was a body in the house?

I’ll take your word for it, I’m not an expert either, just something about this case really doesn’t seem to fit right.

I’m not suggesting that the owners were directly responsible but on that subject there have been so many conflicting reports about who flagged this up to the police last Monday. First cleaners, then a plumber, then estate agents, this in itself seems odd. It could just as easily have been an attempted robbery at the address and the thief decided to do the right thing and report it? Has it ever been stated as fact that the owners appointed whoever it was that found the belongings?