UK UK - Julie Pacey, 38, Grantham, Lincs, 26 Sept 1994

An actor who played the suspect in the 1994 sexual assault and strangulation of Grantham, UK mother Julie Pacey has now had a dna sample taken after the 'Crimewatch' show was re-aired. 53-year-old Steve Watson, who lived only 15 miles from the crime scene, bears a startling resemblance to the police sketch issued at the time.

Watson says he was told back in '94 that his face would not be shown but a glimpse of it was and he was immediately accused by locals of being a killer and an officer even tried to arrest him during filming. After the show aired again last month as part of a cold-case investigation, people called in with his name.

Watson says he was happy to provide police with the dna sample as they are only doing their job - butt he wishes he had been warned the show was being aired and guesses he will be a suspect until the results are in and clear him.

The photo shows Watson acting the role.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ctor-murder-suspect-reconstruction-aired.html

Here's the sketch of the suspect issued in 1994:

http://metro.co.uk/2015/09/10/murde...ppeared-in-crimewatch-reconstruction-5385686/

That would be a real bummer if you didn't do it. Trying to help (presumably) and that's the thanks you get.

Startling resemblance alright.

From my casual television watching observation, most actors hired to portray suspects really don't resemble the suspect that closely...but are more anecdotal in appearance. I think it's extremely strange to have an actor re-enacting a crime that looks nearly identical to the sketch of the suspect.

• Holly Christodoulou, 24 Aug 2024
• ''At 4.15pm, Julie's daughter returned home from school to find her mum strangled to death on the bathroom floor.
  
  Her tights and underwear were pulled down and a ligature mark was found around her neck.
  
  There were no signs of a break in, no indications of a struggle and the only missing item was the cheap watch.
  
  The Overalls Man was spotted the day after Julie was discovered dead kicking grass nearby as though he was looking for something.
  
  He has never been traced despite an e-fit being issued during the large-scale police investigation.
  
  To add to the confusion, it later emerged a blue BMW had been seen parked on Julia's driveway next to the family's Audi on the day she was killed.
  
  Some witnesses also reported seeing Julia driving the car in the days leading up to the murder - despite her husband being adamant she did not have access to a second car.''

Here's a skeleton timeline that I've put together from the entry in Wikipedia:

Friday 23rd September 1994
around 3:30 pm - three days before Pacey was killed, a local girl, who came to the Pacey's home as usual after school to wait until her own mother returned from work, saw the Overalls Man walking into the Pacey's driveway.

Monday 26th September (the day of the murder)
around 2:45 pm - Pacey returns home in her Audi
about 2:50 pm - the 5-series BMW turns into Pacey's drive
approx 3.15 pm - Pacey leaves home bound for the shops in the Audi; she's seen in Highcliffe Road (near to her home) where the Overalls Man walks into the road causing Pacey to brake
around 3:20 pm - the BMW was seen twice speeding away from the scene of the murder
around 4.15 pm - Pacey's daughter arrives home from school to discover her mother dead

If these timings are close to correct, then the Overalls Man was not the driver of the BMW (and nor was Pacey). And the BMW left the scene of the murder prior to the crime being committed.

The Crimewatch reconstruction:


My transcript:

A strange blue car and a stranger in blue dungarees - these are the two main clues in our next case - the murder of Julie Pacey and detectives can't work out who the man is, where the car comes from or whether the two are in any way connected; maybe you can help.

It happened five weeks ago with the Paceys' home in Grantham in Lincolnshire.

"How's it going things, almost ready, you could put the bread out."

"Okay coming; Matthew - tea's on the table in a minute."

"We always ate together every night, always in the dining room. We got married in 1977 exactly the same date as my mum and dad got married on. Julie was a wonderful person, she yeah she got on with everybody she was so kind and caring and considerate that's the sort of person she was."

Friday the 23rd of September and Julie was at home as usual, because on most days a local girl stops at the Paceys' after school until her own mother got back from work.

"I was walking down on Cliffe Road from my school when I saw a strange man walking into Mrs Pacey's driveway. When I turned into the drive I saw the man coming back; he was wearing blue dungarees, workman's boots which were brown. He looked to be around 35; he was a fairly chubby man with a big round face and it was all pink."

"I thought it was you so I said come in."

Julie later told her family how the man had asked for directions to Eskdale Road. Was that workman you? If so, for obvious reasons please call and eliminate this line of inquiry.

Three days later, after the weekend, Monday the 26th of September, and that morning Julie was at her part-time job.

"Julie had been working at the nursery since December 93. She was a a very happy bubbly person she liked the children and because she played so actively with them they responded very well to her. That particular day I remember very vividly seeing Julie playing with a group of children they were all very happy and they were playing chasing bubbles in the garden."

Julie came home at about 2:45; though the family car is an Audi 80 several people insist that mysteriously on other occasions they'd also seen her in a 5-Series BMW; in fact at around this time not far away an acquaintance of Julie's was on her way out and she's certain she saw the BMW again.

"Driving along Longcliffe Road towards Manthorpe Road. I came up behind a blue gray BMW; it was indicating to turn into Julie's driveway; I presumed it was Julie driving as I had seen her in a BMW before; as it turned into her driveway I had to slow right down, as I glanced up the driveway I saw her Audi parked there."

Julie left the house again that day - she was seen in Highcliffe Road around the corner from her home.

"I was just about to get into a taxi having been visiting a friend on Highcliffe Road. I saw this man coming towards me in blue overalls. The car stopped for a moment and then carried down towards the junction of Longcliffe Road and indicated left. The man looked as though he was going to continue up Highcliffe Road but ran back down towards the junction."

An hour later Julie's daughter Helen was on her way home from school.

"Hi mom, I'm home! Mum. Mum?"

Her mother had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Superintendent Billingsly, this guy in blue dungarees - you've obviously got to eliminate him; he's been seen in this area over a period of several days.

Yes he has, that's right, between the Thursday before the murder - that's the 22nd - and the day after the murder, which is the 24th on the Tuesday, he's been seen on a number of occasions on that estate and also in Grantham dressed in the overalls and that's really the predominant feature - that he should be dressed in those with the particularly red-faced - most of the witnesses describe him as.

He's wearing brown workman's boots. I gather, he's about five foot eight fairly normal sort of height, thinning hair as as we can see; he was asking directions a number of times.

Yes that's right and it was particularly interesting, I think, on the Thursday because he was asking directions for an industrial estate that was far away from that Manthorpe Estate - the other side of Grantham. He didn't ask for any repeat directions which is abnormal. There wasn't a vehicle seen and he went away and again he was wearing these blue overalls.

And he was seen on the Thursday, on the Friday; not then over the weekend Saturday and Sunday. He was seen, as we just saw on the reconstruction, running back after the car that had missed him on the Monday just before Julie Pacey was murdered but again he was seen here on the Tuesday.

Yes he was that's fairly interesting because it's between the Manthorpe Estate and the next residential estate which is the orchard tree estate a man was seen at ten to nine - that's the following morning after the murder - kicking the grass as if he's looking for something and again later that day in Grantham town going into a shop and acting totally suspicious by the shopkeeper in his actions and again dressed in the boiler suit or that type of overall blue overall and again with the red face.

It might might be obviously entirely innocent as might this blue BMW - quite bizarre this - that the family is adamant that Julie never had access to a blue BMW and so many people in the estate say they've seen her in it - sometimes I think one was seven or ten days before the murder.

Yes that's right you're absolutely right the family are adamant that there is no association that they can tell me about which puts the BMW with that household and yet there are people who knew Julie, who knew Julie's car - the Audi - albeit that it was the same colour, they know that she had an Audi they've seen the Audi next to the BMW in fact on the driveway and there's no doubt about the existence of that.

And on the afternoon of the murder that's Monday the 26th of September a BMW of that description - blue perhaps blue-grey - seen speeding away from the estate towards Grantham.

Yes on two occasions: at twenty past three on that day, leaving the estate and as you say pulling off towards the Grantham and then again just before four o'clock another car again described as a 5-Series BMW driving fast along Longcliffe Road.

Very fast.

Very fast.

I take it if somebody comes forward and says: 'that was me' you're not doing them for speeding then.

Absolutely not.

We need to eliminate as well and if you can tie any of these events together either the man - if that was you - or if you have any idea who that might be or the car you can explain that. Here's our freecall number .....

Roger Billingsley (in charge of the original investigation) seems to cast doubt, in this Youtube video, on the key points in the investigation. He seems to suggest that the accuracy of the description of the Overalls Man and the reports of his behaviour were influenced by the public's desire to help and were not reliable. He also questions the role of the BMW and says that it probably never existed.