I was trying to think why he would have wiped his phone on that particular day, at that particular time, but I remember that afternoon we were all watching the live reporting of police cordoning off and forensically processing the street corner where he had parked up on the pavement.
On March 9 at 3pm they got the breakthrough, receiving footage from a bus showing Miss Everard with a male figure standing by a white car with the hazard lights flashing.
[...]
Police arrived at Couzens' home at 5.45pm but did not arrest him for a further two hours. This allowed Couzens, who may have spotted plain-clothes officers nearby, to wipe his phone at 7.11pm.
Yesterday, Miss Goodwin defended delaying the arrest until 7.45pm saying colleagues had only known his name for a matter of hours and were still tracing the hire car movements to determine what happened.
Detective describes her horror on learning Sarah Everard's murderer Wayne Couzens was an officer | Daily Mail Online
This was our
timeline:
3:53pm – Police start searching drains in Poynders Road. Two police officers with dogs search outside nearby Oaklands Estate and gardens in surrounding streets.
4:30pm – Police cordon off a new crime scene outside Poynders Court, a block of flats on Poynders Road-side. A forensics team shows up in a van. The cordon extends for about 100 metres from Rodenhurst Road to Cavendish Road. There is an inner cordon around a parking area to the front and side of Poynders Court and a small communal garden area adjacent, on the corner of Rodenhurst Rd. Traffic is blocked in all directions. Forensics officers appear to wait for dark before searching the road and pavement and a bin area of Poynders Court with UV lamps, place down markers, and are seen photographing a drain and kerb. A sniffer dog is also used. (MyLondon photographs -
kerb/road/drain, and
sniffer dog) One (possibly uncorroborated) report in MyLondon suggests that one of the flats in the block was also of interest - "Officers were deployed to a block of flats in Clapham on Tuesday, with one property being of particular interest. A large police cordon was visible outside the complex near to the A205 while specialists combed the flat for evidence." (
SOURCE). And "MyLondon understands a particular flat within the building formed the focus of the search." (
SOURCE).
5:05pm – Police issue two photographs of Sarah (not from the night she went missing) one depicting her wearing the turquoise jacket she was last seen in and the other depicting her wearing a red waterproof jacket. (The Sainsbury’s CCTV image previously released showed Sarah’s face was mostly concealed by a facemask). Police say “we have committed significant resources to this investigation, with assistance coming from across the Met. I want to remain clear that at this time we have no information to suggest that Sarah has come to any harm and we retain an open mind as to the circumstances.” (
SOURCE Met Police. Note - Met Police links have since been removed. The MPS announcement was reported by Express and Star
here.)
8:00pm – approx. The accused and a female in her thirties are
arrested at their home in Freemen's Way, Deal, Kent, the time taken from an infographic published in the
Irish Sun. The
Telegraph reports that the arrests were made at
8:30pm. The
Daily Mail reports that the woman is aged 39. A neighbour relayed that when police arrived at the house in Freemen's Way there was some shouting and someone threw something out of a window. Police then examined the ground at the front with a torch. (
SOURCE KentLive). Police are understood to have taken a memory card as part of their investigation. Detectives are said to have found the micro SD card during a search of the semi-detached property. (
SOURCE Daily Mail). “
it was suggested last night that plain clothes officers may have been secretly monitoring the suspect's movements for days.” “Events moved quickly on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Neighbours noticed a Land Rover parked close to [the accused's] house in the Kent coastal town of Deal, and thought it was being watched. Then around 9pm, some two dozen police swooped.” (
SOURCE Daily Mail)
8:30pm – approx. Forensics officers have left the cordoned-off scene at Poynders Court. Police in forensic suits undertake a fingertip search of the grassy corner of Rodenhurst Rd. (
SOURCE MyLondon. Photographs
here)
