Killer at the Crime Scene - Season 4 Episode 5 -
Connor Lyons
#CinemaJourney
Connor Lyons
#CinemaJourney
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00I'm sorry, please, what's your emergency?
00:02I think I found a dead body.
00:04I'm sorry?
00:05Dead body.
00:06There's a dead body?
00:07Yeah.
00:09Is that someone slipped in and drowned?
00:11Or actually, is this a murder scene?
00:13It looks like a teenager.
00:15Looks like a teenager.
00:16Why was a young man's life taken in such a tragic way?
00:21There's something dark going on underneath that relationship.
00:24It's about status, power, control.
00:28It's reckless and it's intentional.
00:31We have a two-hour time period
00:33when we don't know where they've been and what they've done.
00:35Is Red Killer on the loose?
00:37We need the evidence to tell us.
00:59Red Killer
01:12A dog walker going along the banks of the River Hull
01:15spotted something which looked to them suspicious.
01:19Can you tell if it's a male or a female?
01:21That may not be.
01:23When they took a closer look,
01:25they could see that it was the body
01:27just on the edge of the riverbank.
01:34It's obviously a young person,
01:37probably aged between 16 and 20.
01:46Police cordon off a stretch of the River Hull.
01:49It's not yet clear how the teenager died.
01:53The body isn't fully submerged.
01:54The head is slightly, but the majority of the body
01:56is just lying on the riverbank.
01:58Supposed to pass by,
02:00it may have appeared as if this is somebody
02:02who had got into difficulties in the river itself.
02:06No obvious signs of murder.
02:09No visible signs of a struggle
02:13or stab wounds or anything like that.
02:16A whole number of options come to mind,
02:20but you must go with what the forensics tell you.
02:24You always have to treat any scene where a body is
02:27as a suspicious scene.
02:29Is the death natural causes?
02:31Is it suicide?
02:33Has someone fallen in the river?
02:35Have they been drunk and fallen in?
02:37Or is it murder?
02:39The role of a crime scene manager
02:41is to rule out the different hypotheses.
02:43A pathologist is called to the scene.
02:45The first thing to do is identify the body.
02:48Often, once you know the identity of a body,
02:51the rest of it falls into place.
02:53CSIs search the cordon,
02:55but find no personal belongings.
02:57The main way that we can identify someone
02:59quite quickly is on fingerprints.
03:01If someone's known on police record,
03:03you only need a small bit of fingerprint
03:05to be able to identify who they are.
03:07The teenager's fingerprints are sent off
03:09to be run through the database,
03:11while police check missing persons reports
03:13and call on nearby homes.
03:16There's quite a large housing estate
03:18on one side of the riverbank.
03:20Your job, as well as to investigate
03:22and bring closure for the loved ones,
03:24is also to, if you like, reassure the public.
03:29Just hours after finding the man,
03:31the fingerprints hit a match.
03:34He's identified as Connor Lyons.
03:38He was 17, but probably looked about 15 or 16.
03:42He's extremely a popular young lad.
03:45He was a local boy, a local teenager.
03:47Really at the cusp of adulthood.
03:49He was just about to make those big moves,
03:52leaving school, starting work.
03:55We knew that there would have been
03:56a lot of interest in the area from that community
03:59because it wasn't really clear
04:01how he was there, why he was there.
04:05He's on the fingerprint register,
04:08so he's got a criminal conviction.
04:10But the criminal conviction is for low-level social crime,
04:15so nothing earth-shattering.
04:17He's not a career criminal.
04:19He's just a young lad
04:21that's probably lost his way a little bit.
04:24He'd turned a bit of a corner
04:26and was more focused on what he wanted to do,
04:28and he was going to go to college
04:30and learn to be a plumber.
04:32So he had a career in mind,
04:35a well-paid career as well.
04:38He was kind-hearted,
04:40and no one had a bad word to say for him.
04:44Connor lives less than a mile from the crime scene.
04:47The police have the awful job of going round to his parents
04:50to confirm that they've found his body.
04:54It's very difficult to tell the family
04:57that their loved one has died in suspicious circumstances
05:03when you haven't come to any conclusions yet
05:06because they want answers.
05:07They want to make sense of it.
05:09Connor's family tell them he went out around 8pm.
05:13He was riding his bike,
05:15with his loyal companion Callie by his side.
05:18From speaking to family, Connor had a dog called Callie,
05:21and his dog literally was by his side day and night,
05:25and he had a lead for him.
05:27The time that Connor went missing,
05:30the dog also goes missing.
05:32Callie was found alone later that night,
05:35hungry and nervous,
05:37helping narrow down Connor's final movements.
05:41CSIs at the river look for clues as to what has happened.
05:45The victim, Connor, was missing a gold bracelet, bike,
05:49and his mobile phone.
05:51There was a gold bracelet that had been bought for him as a present.
05:54It did raise a suspicion
05:57as to whether or not there had been some form of foul play.
06:02The fact that these are missing
06:04tends to point towards, was this a robbery?
06:07Amid the uncertainty, speculation is rife.
06:11This would have caused a ripple effect within the community.
06:14Hearing the news of a young person
06:16known well within the community,
06:18knowing the family within the community,
06:20people start talking,
06:21and people start coming up with their own theories
06:23and their own conclusions
06:25to what was going on in that situation.
06:28There'll be all sorts of stuff on the rumour mill.
06:30It's a two-way street.
06:32The public want to know what's going on,
06:34but equally the police want to harvest
06:36any information or intelligence there is
06:38that might help their inquiry.
06:40There was a rumour circulating.
06:42He was talking about suicidal tendencies.
06:45There was this seed of potentially
06:48Connor got into problems with others
06:51potentially involving drugs,
06:53and that he may have been harmed by those people.
06:57With rumours swirling,
06:59the team urgently needs to determine how Connor died.
07:03If this is murder,
07:04how can the crime scene tell us the story
07:07as to what has happened?
07:08Is it a suicide?
07:10Is it foul play?
07:11Lots of question marks at the moment,
07:13and no real answers.
07:25The body of 17-year-old aspiring plumber
07:28Connor Lyons
07:29has been found on the banks of the River Hull.
07:32The reaction in the newsroom was obviously
07:34one of sympathy for the people involved,
07:37but also you switch into a professional gear.
07:40It's a big news story
07:42with a lot of interest in the area
07:44because he formed part of the community where,
07:46sadly, he died.
07:48The questions being asked were
07:50how on earth did it happen?
07:52Why did it happen?
07:53And really, is it a safe place for my children to go?
07:57But after finding no obvious injuries,
08:00forensics still need to determine how he died
08:03and if anyone else is involved.
08:05Until you've had a post-mortem examination on the body,
08:08you don't really know what you're looking for.
08:10You have to set your parameters quite large.
08:13There's a lot of mud around.
08:16I would expect that the suspects would be covered in mud
08:21or at least have mud on their lower clothing,
08:23their footwear and the bottoms of their trousers.
08:26Soil samples are a really important sample
08:28to take from these kind of crime scenes
08:30because they may link back to an offender.
08:33If you find a pair of shoes or clothing with soil on them,
08:36you can match that.
08:37Soil can be really distinctive to a particular area.
08:41The soil samples will be taken from multiple areas
08:44around where the body's been found.
08:46You're not looking at a really deep soil sample
08:49because if there's any transfer of material,
08:51it's going to be the top surface.
08:53They also focus on finding Connor's missing phone,
08:57bike and a gold bracelet he was wearing.
09:00There is a possible motive of robbery.
09:03If someone's been found on a riverbank,
09:05there may be items that have been thrown into the river
09:07close to where that body is
09:09or items might have fallen off the body.
09:11Police divers enter the water.
09:13Searching a riverbed in the UK is very difficult.
09:18It's a long, laborious process.
09:20The visibility in the water is virtually zero
09:23and so the police divers would be doing a fingertip search.
09:27It's a scientific process to try and determine
09:30how wide an area they need to search.
09:32Depending on how fast the river's flowing
09:35and how strong the current is,
09:36that could wash away evidence, it could move evidence.
09:39With rumours flying around about how Connor died,
09:42they need to know more about his life.
09:46Straight away, the police have got to do an intelligence search
09:50to find out what they know about Connor
09:52and who his known associates are
09:54because that may well point to foul play.
09:58There's clearly evidence that Connor was a very popular,
10:03nice young man.
10:05Connor moved to the Bransholm estate in Hull three years ago.
10:09The Bransholm estate sits on the outskirts of the city
10:12to the east of the River Hull.
10:14The estate was built in the 1960s and 70s
10:18and at the time it was described
10:20as the biggest council estate in Europe.
10:23But despite its size, I would say it still retains a village feel.
10:30It had its own shops, had its own pubs,
10:32had its own churches, schools.
10:34There is a strong community identity.
10:37It tends to be very much a case of
10:40everybody really knows everybody else.
10:43Connor was a very well-known character on the Bransholm estate.
10:48We quickly became aware of his popularity through social media.
10:54Shocked by his death,
10:56Connor's devastated friends post tributes to him on social media
11:00and flowers from the community build at the crime scene.
11:04The support Connor's family gave to each other
11:08and from the community.
11:10There's a lot of sympathy as well, losing somebody so young.
11:15He turned his life around from having difficulties.
11:19He'd had a nasty accident a couple of years beforehand.
11:24Police discover that Connor was badly injured in a serious bike accident.
11:31Somebody's going through a traumatic experience,
11:33their vulnerabilities are going to be heightened.
11:36That accident had a significant impact on his body
11:39and would have had a significant impact on his mental health.
11:42And through that traumatic experience,
11:44we've seen a decline and a change in Connor's behaviour.
11:48And what we start to see is a trajectory of change,
11:51getting involved in things that they shouldn't.
11:54They've shut down all the youth clubs and there's nothing for kids to do.
11:58Boredom amongst young people is an interesting factor.
12:01We're talking about economic climates
12:03and we're talking about lack of opportunity,
12:06we're talking about lack of resources.
12:08Unfortunately, sometimes getting caught up in the law.
12:10Connor's family tell police he's been putting the past behind him.
12:14But in recent weeks, he hadn't been his usual self.
12:18Connor was distracted.
12:20That could indicate he was having some difficulties with friends.
12:25It's important to speak to their peer group
12:29to find out what they were interested in, who their friends were.
12:34Because normally, if someone's murdered,
12:37they will be known to the perpetrator.
12:43To build up a picture of who was in Connor's life,
12:46detectives take statements from his associates
12:49and study their social media and quickly have a lead.
12:54There was a social media post
12:56in relation to the sale of Connor's missing bike.
13:00Connor had a quite distinctive bicycle that he took everywhere.
13:04Everyone knew what it looked like.
13:07Digital experts trace the seller.
13:10Comes back to a guy called Cole Jarvis.
13:16Jarvis lived on the Brownstone estate in the same area as Connor.
13:22They were, in fact, living quite close to each other.
13:25He was somebody who had a group of friends,
13:28many of whom were significantly younger than he was.
13:32Connor was one of them.
13:34Police learn Connor met 21-year-old Jarvis around six months ago
13:39after approaching him for help fixing up a dirt bike.
13:42Young people make relationships quite quickly.
13:45Both of them like bikes, both of them like motorcycles,
13:48and it's those things that may have that initial connection.
13:52They're members of the same peer group
13:54and it would seem that the common interest they had
13:58is playing video games, lamping,
14:01which is hunting for things like rabbits and stuff like that.
14:07Digital forensic investigators find Jarvis has made several attempts
14:11to sell Connor's bike on social media.
14:15On the face of it, it's evidence of suspicion of theft.
14:19So let's get him in, hear what he has to say.
14:22And it's very important in a murder investigation,
14:24you get a story from a suspect as quickly as you can
14:27so that you can either corroborate it or otherwise.
14:33Cole Jarvis is arrested on suspicion of theft.
14:36He said, well, I don't know what you're talking about,
14:38I haven't got the bike, and says, I don't know Connor that well at all.
14:41He's, you know, moved in beside me,
14:44and we're acquaintances more than friends.
14:46It's when the police start delving into the peer group
14:50and what they've witnessed and what they've heard from Jarvis,
14:53they realise that Jarvis is telling a pack of lies.
14:57With Jarvis in custody, an associate gives a statement.
15:02He saw Jarvis after 11pm wearing wet and muddy trainers,
15:06riding Connor's distinctive bike.
15:10One of the peer group says that he had squelchy shoes,
15:15which indicates he's been near water.
15:18His explanation for that was, oh, cos I'd taken the dog out for a walk.
15:22What is damning for him, he was seen riding that bike on the evening.
15:27When confronted, Jarvis' account takes a U-turn.
15:31He then changes his tune,
15:33and he tries to change the narrative in another direction.
15:37Now Jarvis tells police he and Connor are in fact friends,
15:41and he did have his bike because Connor sold it to him.
15:46Of all the items that went missing, this was the, in many senses,
15:50one of the more important ones, if not the most important,
15:53because it was a bike that was important to Connor
15:57and would have been unlikely that he would have been trying to sell it.
16:03What we see with Jarvis, he's continued to go out into the community
16:07and try and sell the bike. It suggests that he may be involved.
16:11Why else did he sell the bike?
16:13Cos he knows Connor won't need it cos he's dead.
16:16That's my conjecture.
16:18Detectives ask Jarvis if he went to the riverbank
16:21on the night of the 18th of January.
16:23He denies ever being there.
16:27Now, it's not an offence to tell a lie to a police officer,
16:31but what it is is good circumstantial evidence
16:35if you can prove that that suspect has lied to you,
16:39that his account or his narrative can't be relied upon
16:43because all these witnesses say this is actually what happened.
16:47Intelligence officers scrutinising the rumours spreading across the estate
16:52about how Connor died have found further evidence that Jarvis has been lying.
16:58When the police start questioning the peer group,
17:00it suddenly starts to dawn on them that the one starting these rumours
17:04is actually Jarvis, and why is he doing it?
17:08One involved the suggestion that he had been with Connor
17:13much earlier in the evening,
17:15when Connor had described wanting to hurt or kill himself.
17:20He also, to another friend, raised the possibility of Connor
17:24being looked for by people involved with drugs.
17:27There wasn't one clear picture.
17:29None of which was true, of course.
17:31He's sowing a seed of disinformation, if you like,
17:35to go along with his narrative.
17:38And in a sense, that implicated his worldliness.
17:42We're starting to get a bit more of a picture about a possible suspect,
17:46or certainly a person of interest.
17:48He doesn't say he's a murderer, but he's got questions to answer.
17:54Needing to know more about Jarvis,
17:56detectives interrogate his digital footprint.
17:59He claims to have lost his phone,
18:01so they request his records from the network.
18:05Meanwhile, forensic search teams have recovered Connor's bike
18:09from inside a relative's shed.
18:17The problem with the bike is that it's free for other people
18:21to touch and handle.
18:23Jarvis was actually known to the victim.
18:26He had legitimate access to the bike,
18:28so finding their DNA and fingerprints on there
18:30isn't really going to take the case that much further forward.
18:33The team still needs forensics to tell them
18:36what happened to Connor on the riverbank.
18:39You have to prove the cause of death,
18:41and the only person that can say that person died
18:45as a direct result of that action is a pathologist.
18:49They're the forensic experts.
18:52The day after Connor was found, the results are in.
18:56The cause of death wasn't straightforward.
18:59The initial indication was that Connor had died by drowning,
19:03which remained the case.
19:05That is how he died.
19:07But as the post-mortem was carried out and took place,
19:11there were other findings as well.
19:14There was damage and bruising around the neck area,
19:17which indicated a ligature may have been used.
19:20He also had teaky eyes,
19:22so that's the little blood vessels around your eyes and inside your lip
19:25which can rupture on pressure being applied to the neck.
19:28Those injuries were not immediately apparent on the surface.
19:33One possible scenario that the pathologist came up with
19:36was that Connor had been strangled and then left to drown.
19:40So he'd been left in the water knowing that he was going to drown
19:44because he'd been rendered unconscious.
19:48The second possible scenario was that he'd been strangled
19:51and then held forcibly under the water to drown.
19:55Whichever way, the strangulation was an integral part to his death.
20:03With a callous enough just to leave him there to die, it matters not.
20:07In law, there is no difference.
20:10Humberside police officially have a murder investigation on their hands.
20:14Now this is a murder inquiry, there's a massive shift in the investigation.
20:19What was used to strangle Connor?
20:22It's really important to try and find the ligature.
20:25Being able to find that vital piece of evidence may lead them to the offenders
20:30because they might well have their DNA as well as the victim's DNA.
20:35The pathologist suggests that Connor may have been strangled with a rope
20:39over his waterproof jacket,
20:41which would explain why there are no visible markings on his skin.
20:45A piece of rope had some significance
20:47because one of the witnesses had described Jarvis
20:50as making a reference to a piece of blue rope
20:53in the context of using it to tie people up.
20:58Maybe Jarvis showing people the blue rope
21:00is just him showing what he's prepared to do.
21:03This time, when police ask Jarvis about Connor's death, he answers no comment.
21:09It can be tremendously frustrating
21:12because they can't really get to the root of the murder.
21:17There's lots of circumstantial evidence pointing to him as a person of interest
21:22and he can't be eliminated, but he's implicated,
21:26but there is insufficient evidence to charge him with murder.
21:30The team needs more time to find a forensic link between him and the crime scene.
21:36There's a sense of urgency now.
21:38They haven't got an open-ended clock.
21:40What you have to do is prove the lies and prove the truth.
21:52Police in Humberside are running out of time
21:54to question 21-year-old Cole Jarvis
21:57about the murder of his friend, 17-year-old Connor Lyons.
22:02A post-mortem has found that Connor was strangled
22:04before drowning in the river Hull
22:06and circumstantial evidence points to Jarvis as his killer.
22:10But the team still needs a direct forensic link between him and the crime scene.
22:16There's loads of circumstantial evidence,
22:18but there's nothing to put both of them at the murder scene.
22:24There's very little evidence at that crime scene,
22:26so you have to then look at further types of evidence,
22:29so digital evidence, CCTV evidence.
22:32The clock is ticking all this time.
22:34You've got to be resilient. You've got to keep pushing away.
22:37Hull Magistrates Court grants the team a 36-hour custody extension.
22:42Using CCTV and phone data, police track Connor and Jarvis' movements.
22:48The pathologist determines Connor lay dead for several hours before he was discovered.
22:53Time of death is crucial for forming the parameters of harvesting CCTV.
23:00So instead of doing a wide sweep, almost a fishing expedition,
23:05you've got time parameters that you can go to.
23:09Unfortunately, there's no CCTV of the actual murder scene,
23:15but you can look at when was the suspect and the victim last seen.
23:20Were they seen together?
23:23After leaving home, Connor meets up with Jarvis
23:26and they're seen out on the estate together.
23:29At around 8pm, CCTV captures two figures walking towards the crime scene.
23:36The closest point to the river from the estate is only a 5-10 minute walk.
23:42You're able to see a dog there which matched by description, Connor's dog.
23:48It was not possible from the footage itself to necessarily make very clear identifications.
23:56A lot of time was spent analysing different pieces of CCTV footage to piece them together.
24:04You're able to see parts of the clothing which police were able to match up
24:11with some of the clothing that we know either Connor or Jarvis were wearing on the night.
24:17The figure that was identified was wearing a green parka-style jacket,
24:21but they had very distinctive trainers which covered reflective area that the CCTV picks up.
24:28When you put them all together, you can start to say,
24:30well, this must be Connor and this must be Jarvis.
24:37In this case, it indicates Connor would have gone there of his own volition
24:43and we know that Connor and some of his friends were into lamping,
24:47which is basically hunting wildlife at night.
24:51And it may well be perfectly legitimate for him to go to that area by the riverbank late at night to do some lamping.
24:59And I suggest that's how he was lured to that area.
25:05Officers continue to track the men on CCTV.
25:09Meanwhile, digital experts analysing phone data have discovered
25:13that Jarvis has been telling more lies about his friendship with Connor.
25:18The data indicated that there were quite abusive text messages, that relationship was deteriorating.
25:26The relationship between Connor and Jarvis was a volatile one,
25:32which was capable of erupting into violence at times.
25:38The overall picture we had was that Jarvis appeared on the evidence
25:44to be the dominant person within that dynamic.
25:48Jarvis is slightly older than the peer group he's mixing with.
25:53And I think people can draw the conclusion that he was a bit of a bully,
25:59that he tried to coerce younger kids into doing what he wanted them to do.
26:06My conjecture would be that he mixed with younger boys
26:13because he liked to be in control.
26:17He liked to be the boss, if you like.
26:20He's going to have a little bit more knowledge
26:22as opposed to those young people that he may engage in.
26:25So it's almost like currency.
26:28Status hierarchy and control play a role in friendships.
26:32In every group and in every friendship group,
26:34there is going to be individuals that want to take lead, that want to be drivers.
26:39Jarvis being the leader of the pack in that type of environment,
26:43it would have definitely stroked his ego.
26:47Where Connor was slightly different is that he was an individual with a strong personality
26:52and we know of loads of incidents where they clashed.
26:55The team needs to find out if one of their fights turned fatal and why.
27:00Shortly after 8pm, the figures are captured again on CCTV crossing John Newton Way,
27:06heading towards the river hull before they disappear from view.
27:11At 10.20pm, only one figure reappears.
27:17Connor is not in that CCTV.
27:22There's a gap of two hours which is consistent with what the pathologist says at the time of death.
27:28You can conclude that Connor's either dead or dying by the side of the river.
27:37Detectives are convinced the grainy figure on CCTV is Jarvis fleeing the crime scene.
27:44He's seen heading back towards his home, but they still need further proof it's him.
27:49With the custody clock running out, a new key witness comes forward with incriminating evidence, just in time.
27:56There was an eyewitness who was driving along Thomas Clarkson Way on his way to work at around 10.20pm.
28:06He's driven past, he's seen this person with a dog.
28:10The area off Thomas Clarkson Way towards the river is pretty much open countryside, woodland if you like.
28:18No CCTV, no street lighting. Large areas that isn't covered by any lighting at all.
28:24It's quite a desolate spot. There isn't any reason, good reason perhaps, to be in that area on foot at that time of night.
28:36He was able to give a description of a man wearing broadly similar clothing which was worn by Jarvis that night,
28:44and was with a dog that matched the description of Connor's.
28:49The eyewitness was able to pick out Jarvis on an identification parade, albeit he could not be sure.
28:57It fits the next sighting of the defendant on CCTV, heading back towards his home area, only minutes from that sighting.
29:05It was one of the most remarkable pieces of evidence in the sense of, I've no idea how he remembered seeing this person and the timing.
29:14It was quite extraordinary.
29:17Investigators cross-referenced the CCTV and eyewitness testimony with Jarvis' phone data.
29:23At various stages on the CCTV footage, you could see that the person was using the telephone.
29:31When they match the data, he's trying to sell the bicycle on the mobile phone. Now, that's very callous.
29:40Humberside Police arrest Cole Jarvis on suspicion of Connor's murder. A warrant is secured to search his home and related addresses.
29:49There's certain things in an investigation that you would want to look for.
29:52In this case, you'd be definitely looking for any muddy clothing, any muddy shoes, because potentially you can tie that muddy clothing up to the riverbank where Connor was last seen alive.
30:11If an item is really muddy or really wet, the DNA may be inhibited because of the contamination.
30:19The bacteria may be from the mud and also from the wet, say if it's been in water, a river or something.
30:28These shoes are quite heavily mud-stained. They've got quite a lot of soil on the tops, on the uppers and the lowers of them.
30:35The forensic scientists might be able to ascertain where the soil has come from.
30:40And if they've got a soil sample from a site, they can compare the two and see if this soil from the shoe has been at the scene.
30:51The trainers and mud samples collected at the crime scene are sent for comparison to soil expert Dr. Rosie Everett.
30:58My role on the case is to understand whether there is any forensic ecological evidence that can help the police understand whether the suspect has been at the scene.
31:10The key pieces of evidence that I examined was a pair of trainers. They were caked in mud right up to the laces.
31:18We want to understand what is that mud, where has it come from and whether there's anything microscopic that we can use to link the scene and the suspect.
31:31Back at HQ, the intelligence team are still trying to understand what triggered Jarvis to kill Connor.
31:38When you looked at the relationship between them and looked at the communications between them, what it did show is a volatile relationship where they were capable of issuing threats to each other, at times fighting like cat and dog.
31:56The team discovers that three months ago tensions boiled over after Jarvis sold a bike belonging to Connor without his permission.
32:03Connor confronts him and says, where's my money for my bike? And Jarvis refuses to give it to him.
32:11So at that stage, I would suggest it's when it really starts to turn toxic because he's basically stealing from Connor for whatever reason.
32:20There were messages in which it appeared Connor was making quite significant threats towards Jarvis.
32:30What was also apparent is that when you look at the messages, Jarvis had no fear of Connor.
32:38And you had messages from Jarvis to Connor saying, carry on testing me, you'll see what would happen.
32:45There were text messages where Jarvis says that Connor is a cheeky, gobby little rat.
32:51I think that maybe his power was challenged. I think that he felt that control he was losing because he's seen in Connor that he's an individual that didn't want to toe the line anymore.
33:05But when you have another individual that then stands out from the pack and says, no, I don't like this. No, I'm not going to follow your instruction.
33:12I'll actually meet you at some point with conflict. It changes the whole dynamic.
33:18And when it changes that whole dynamic, then someone like Jarvis now has to demonstrate authority, now has to demonstrate control.
33:27A witness tells police Jarvis showed them a video of him whacking Connor on the leg with a boat paddle, causing Connor to cry while he laughed.
33:36Jarvis was older and he was more well developed. There would also be a physical imbalance.
33:44There is evidence that he's stolen from Connor in the past.
33:49There is evidence of Jarvis's propensity to use violence and to be forceful in forcing Connor to do what he wanted him to do.
33:59If you put it all together, it's starting to show Jarvis's potency for violence and the violence is against Connor, who's younger and weaker.
34:12It shows some intent.
34:15With the theft of Connor's bike the possible motive, searchers at Jarvis's home move into the garden.
34:21Clearly you're looking for a murder weapon.
34:23A piece of blue rope was recovered, secreted or hidden in a garden area.
34:30Intelligence has revealed that the offender's been boasting about using a rope to injure somebody. Is this the same rope?
34:38You have to kind of put your mind in the mindset of the person doing the attack and think, if I was going to strangle someone with a rope, how would I do it?
34:49And therefore that makes it easier for us to then target specific areas on an item for DNA transfer.
34:57The ends of the rope might have the offender's DNA on and then the center of the rope might have the victim's DNA on.
35:04The trouble with this is it's got mud on it and also it's been wet, so it might inhibit any DNA.
35:11So you need to try and avoid the areas of mud, which on something like this is quite difficult.
35:17Really get the swab into the nooks and crannies of the rope.
35:21DNA samples from the rope are sent for profiling.
35:25That rope was found to have the DNA of both Connor and Jarvis on, but in locations which would have been consistent with it being held as a ligature and potentially used on Connor.
35:40A rope really is intimate, it's really close, and he would have seen and heard every emotion that would have came with it.
35:48So that level of violence really stands out.
35:52That is evidence, good forensic evidence.
35:56If there's a rational or lawful explanation for the offender's actions, that is evidence.
36:03That is evidence, good forensic evidence.
36:07If there's a rational or lawful explanation for the offender's actions, that is evidence.
36:12Quite damning I would say.
36:15And it's becoming quite a compelling case for the prosecution.
36:21Cole Jarvis is charged with Connor's murder.
36:24But it doesn't stop there. The police, up to the day of the trial, are still investigating and still asking questions because he could come up with a cock and ball story saying, well I've touched the rope, and so has Connor, because we're friends.
36:40With Jarvis changing his story at every turn, police can't afford to leave a jury in any doubt.
36:46They still need to forensically link him to the crime scene.
36:49If we don't get that crucial evidence at that scene, we potentially might lose the case at court.
36:56The initial thoughts are there's not much at that crime scene.
36:59But after examining Jarvis' trainers, Dr. Rosie Everett has made a breakthrough.
37:04My particular field is an area called diatoms.
37:08Microscopic single-celled algae, so nothing you can see with the naked eye, but a piece of evidence that forms in water and soils.
37:18The suspect was very clear that they'd never been to that part of the river hull.
37:24Actually, this evidence proves that they have.
37:27It was a lightbulb moment in the course of the investigation.
37:4221-year-old Cole Jarvis has been charged with murder.
37:45A rope recovered from his garden has returned a DNA match to 17-year-old Connor Lyons,
37:52consistent with the pathologist's findings that he was strangled before drowning in the river hull.
37:58And now, microscopic forensic evidence has tied him to the crime scene.
38:03Part of the reason that diatoms have become such an interest as a forensic evidence type
38:10is that if they come in contact with clothing, they get into the fibers and they lodge themselves between your fibers.
38:17And it's the same with footwear as well.
38:19We can look at them down the microscope to identify them to species level based on their shape,
38:26based on their size and based on the features that they have as part of their structure.
38:31Diatoms are unique to particular habitats.
38:34So there are diatoms that are specific to the sea.
38:37There are diatoms that are specific to different river types.
38:40And there are different diatoms that grow within soils.
38:43So we can use that information to build a picture of where they've come from.
38:48The river hull is a really interesting environment from a diatom perspective.
38:53It's a big estuary system.
38:55So the fresh water runs into the Humber estuary, which then obviously runs out into the North Sea.
39:03And it's a huge tidal system.
39:05And it means that you have quite a distinct diatom population from all three of those environments.
39:12What we can do, if an item of clothing or footwear has those diatoms on them,
39:18then we can try and make a link between, for example, a suspect and a scene.
39:23Samples from Jarvis's trainers are compared to mud and water from the crime scene.
39:28So when you're examining a piece of evidence,
39:31we have to be able to demonstrate, if there are diatoms in that evidence,
39:37that it's not just a quick contact, that it's across the shoe.
39:41In total, there were six samples.
39:44So one from the sole, one from the toe cap, one from the rear of the trainer,
39:49and then three systematically moving up the laces.
39:55Looking at the trainers under the microscope, they were covered in diatoms.
40:00This demonstrated that this shoe had been absolutely caked up to the laces in wet mud
40:07and had come in contact with all of these different diatom populations.
40:11And these diatoms matched exactly to the scene.
40:15It's crucial because it directly points to Jarvis being at the murder scene,
40:21i.e. on the riverbank where Connor's body was found.
40:25It actually links him. The first bit of evidence actually links him physically to that riverbank.
40:34Eight months on from Connor's murder, Cole Jarvis's trial begins.
40:39The atmosphere in any case where somebody has died is always tense and intense,
40:49and a whole range of emotions, from anger to frustration, to anxiety, to worry,
40:55to fear floating around the courtroom.
41:01In a close-knit community like Branson, it's always very, very sad that a case like this
41:07can divide and split friendships.
41:11It does add to the pressure, and it's those emotions that are there we also have to
41:18try to shield the jury from, because emotion isn't part of their decision-making.
41:26In court, Jarvis showed a lack of remorse.
41:29He was straight-faced, just stared at the wall, was totally disinterested.
41:34He thought he was going to get away with it.
41:37Jarvis's defense claimed he has nothing at all to do with Connor's murder.
41:41This case has got really good, compelling forensic evidence.
41:45You've got diatoms that have been found on the shoes and the clothing that was found in the river.
41:50You've got Connor's DNA on the rope, and also you've got CCTV
41:56that puts the victim with the offender at a certain time.
41:59All those three bits of compelling forensic evidence corroborate with each other,
42:03so you've got evidence that will link to other evidence to create a really compelling picture.
42:10The only people that know what actually happened on the riverbank
42:14is Connor, who's dead, and Jarvis, who's made no comment.
42:19Now, if he had an explanation, it would have been in his interest to give it, but he never did.
42:24Now, if he had an explanation, it would have been in his interest to give it, but he never did.
42:30After hearing the evidence for three weeks,
42:33it takes under five hours for the jury to come to a verdict.
42:37Jarvis is found guilty.
42:41When the guilty verdict was announced in court, there were gasps from the public gallery.
42:46There was also a lot of tears, and emotions were running high.
42:51And it spilled out after the court,
42:54into words, shouts, screams,
42:59between the two sides on the courtroom steps outside.
43:03Jarvis is sentenced to a minimum term of 21 years.
43:08The judge, in his summing up, alludes to the fact that he believed
43:13that Jarvis lured Connor to the riverbank,
43:16probably saying, let's go lamping, which was popular with them both.
43:20He's gone there, and the intention was to rob him of his gold bracelet and his bicycle.
43:25But ultimately, we don't know what was in Jarvis' mind,
43:30because he's never told anybody.
43:32He was invited to, but he never did.
43:35He never gave evidence in his own defense.
43:38If he'd got away with this, I think he would have escalated his offending.
43:43When we think about toxic relationships, in any form,
43:47people may ask the question, you know, why does a person stay?
43:50But oftentimes, there may have been elements where they did have, you know, connection.
43:54There may have been elements within their relationship where they had a bit of a laugh.
44:01This is very sad.
44:03Connor was loved and respected by all.
44:06That's, you know, replicated in the number of people that turned up at each funeral.
44:12There were hundreds of people there.
44:14Amid COVID restrictions, 300 vehicles drive in convoy in his honor.
44:20The memory of Connor is one that is beautiful, one that is inspirational, one that shows change.
44:30He had plans for the future, and who knows where that have led.
44:34Sadly, we'll never know, because his life was taken from him before he could realize his ambitions.
45:04For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov