Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / True Crime Documentary - Heartbreaking Murder of Josh & Chloe Bashford
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: This time on killers. Caught on camera in the UK,
- 0:15Speaker 1: a man claims to be involved in a double homicide.
- 0:19Speaker 2: He said he's much two people.
- 0:21Speaker 3: Somebody had walked into the police station and said that
- 0:23Speaker 3: it killed two people.
- 0:25Speaker 2: I can remember.
- 0:25Speaker 3: My first question back was have they and in the US.
- 0:31Speaker 4: I murdered my girlfriend.
- 0:33Speaker 5: You'll need to use forceful untry to get into the house.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Tensions mount as police track a killer.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Just sounds like something bad is happening to her.
- 0:48Speaker 6: We know what happened because the video tells what happened.
- 0:51Speaker 2: I heard him gunshot.
- 0:53Speaker 6: I mean there it's again.
- 1:00Speaker 2: Camera doesn't lie.
- 1:07Speaker 1: In the UK, in East Sussex, New Haven.
- 1:13Speaker 3: Sussex, it's a varied county. There are pockets who quite
- 1:16Speaker 3: built up in urban areas. It's relatively rare for there
- 1:20Speaker 3: to be a homicide. I think that we would anticipate
- 1:23Speaker 3: no more than ten the year. Homicide is a crime
- 1:26Speaker 3: that is very varied. One of the things that I say,
- 1:29Speaker 3: there's no such thing as a typical murder.
- 1:35Speaker 1: June ninth, twenty twenty three, an elderly man walks into
- 1:39Speaker 1: a police station and makes a shocking confession.
- 1:44Speaker 2: Are you right, what's happened today?
- 1:49Speaker 7: You've killed two people.
- 1:50Speaker 3: Okay, I can remember it very well. I've just got
- 1:54Speaker 3: home from work. My phone rang. The caller told me
- 1:58Speaker 3: that somebody had walked into the police station and told
- 2:01Speaker 3: the counter officer that they'd killed two people. I can remember.
- 2:04Speaker 3: My first question back was have they.
- 2:07Speaker 1: The officer noticed the man's right hand was injured.
- 2:12Speaker 7: What's that from a knife?
- 2:16Speaker 2: If you've got a knife on you?
- 2:18Speaker 7: Okay?
- 2:19Speaker 1: The whole scene seems really surreal. In my head, I'd
- 2:23Speaker 1: be going, is this man having a psychotic break? Does
- 2:29Speaker 1: he think that he has killed somebody when he hasn't?
- 2:31Speaker 1: Is he imagining this? Is he illucinating? Is he confused?
- 2:35Speaker 7: A man in the front office is bleeding from his
- 2:37Speaker 7: right hand. He says it's from a knife, of course.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Then the next question is, well, where did this happen?
- 2:42Speaker 7: He said, he's murdered two people and he's closed and
- 2:44Speaker 7: the knife are at the address that it has happened at.
- 2:49Speaker 3: Two officers were dispatched immediately. If there is any chance
- 2:53Speaker 3: of saving anybody's life, that's going to be the focus.
- 2:57Speaker 1: Police arrived at the address.
- 3:00Speaker 3: They were able to gain access to the property from
- 3:02Speaker 3: an insecure window in the kitchen.
- 3:07Speaker 1: The officers at the scene confirmed there were in fact
- 3:11Speaker 1: two people dead inside the house.
- 3:15Speaker 3: This wasn't a typical who'd done it. It was quite apparent
- 3:17Speaker 3: who'd done it, and what we were looking for is
- 3:20Speaker 3: to understand how the events had unfolded.
- 3:25Speaker 1: The victims were identified as Chloe and Josh Bashford. They
- 3:35Speaker 1: lived with their four children in the coastal town of
- 3:38Speaker 1: New Haven. For Josh, it was love at first sight.
- 3:47Speaker 8: He came in and he staid, old, just to let
- 3:50Speaker 8: you know, Mom, I have met a young lady. He
- 3:56Speaker 8: was over the nome was yeah, perfect, very he was ecstatic.
- 4:05Speaker 8: He was just smitten by Chloe.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Josh was thirty three years old and worked as a
- 4:12Speaker 1: broadband engineer.
- 4:14Speaker 8: He absolutely loved his job.
- 4:17Speaker 9: He's very proud of that end of fact that you
- 4:20Speaker 9: could climb up telegraph poles.
- 4:23Speaker 8: Particularly when you take photos when he's up the telegraph
- 4:26Speaker 8: pole of himself.
- 4:30Speaker 1: Josh and his brother Billy were extremely close.
- 4:34Speaker 10: I think Georsh was the only person ever really who
- 4:36Speaker 10: got me, who understood me, and I think I was
- 4:38Speaker 10: the only person who undertoo him.
- 4:40Speaker 11: We definitely had that brother connection.
- 4:43Speaker 8: No, Billy, I camod camera, we.
- 4:52Speaker 9: Haven't got one.
- 4:59Speaker 11: These were your which was warhammer figures.
- 5:02Speaker 10: He used to collect them when we were younger, and
- 5:04Speaker 10: I used to sit down and watch him painting them
- 5:06Speaker 10: two early hours in the morning and he would just
- 5:07Speaker 10: sit there with all these different figures and just painting.
- 5:11Speaker 11: So that was his happy place really.
- 5:13Speaker 10: I suppose he found it very therapeutic and he just
- 5:15Speaker 10: loved doing it, and I could see how happy he
- 5:17Speaker 10: was in the joy in his face.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Josh and Billy bonded over their love of football.
- 5:24Speaker 11: Football was a massive part of our relationship.
- 5:27Speaker 10: He was a Crystal Palace fan and I was a
- 5:28Speaker 10: Brighton fan, and that was one of the biggest part
- 5:32Speaker 10: of our relationship.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Chloe Bashford ran the family home. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday.
- 5:44Speaker 10: To Chloe's very jocable person should like outgoing, and so
- 5:50Speaker 10: was Josh. They are very bubbly, very outgoing. I think
- 5:52Speaker 10: they're in a laugh together, smacking one gree.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Derek Martin was Chloe's sixty four year old stepfather. Recently,
- 6:08Speaker 1: he'd been spending more time at the house in new
- 6:10Speaker 1: Haven and helped Chloe with the school run.
- 6:14Speaker 3: Derek Martin had been married to Chloe's mother, but they'd
- 6:18Speaker 3: long separated and divorced before Chloe was born.
- 6:23Speaker 1: Derek and Chloe had become close in recent years.
- 6:28Speaker 10: People said that he wanted to have a new sort
- 6:29Speaker 10: of connection with the family and start again a new chapter.
- 6:33Speaker 11: He was giving him a lot of help. I think
- 6:35Speaker 11: they needed it.
- 6:38Speaker 1: On the evening of June eighth, Derek sent Chloe a text.
- 6:48Speaker 1: The next morning, Derek stopped at a coffee shop on
- 6:51Speaker 1: his way to the house before joining Chloe for the
- 6:55Speaker 1: school run. He was dressed head to toe in white.
- 7:01Speaker 3: This is footage of Derek Martin coming into Costa Coffee
- 7:05Speaker 3: wearing a light colored t shirt and light colored trousers.
- 7:10Speaker 3: He would often buy Chloe a drink before he went
- 7:14Speaker 3: to the home to help her with the school room.
- 7:17Speaker 1: After they'd dropped the kids off at school, Chloe and
- 7:20Speaker 1: Derek went for breakfast.
- 7:23Speaker 3: This footage shows Chloe and Derek at the bar of
- 7:28Speaker 3: a local hub where they had breakfast together. There's nothing
- 7:32Speaker 3: about it that suggests anything untoward has happened or is
- 7:37Speaker 3: going to happen. Both appear relatively calm.
- 7:42Speaker 1: This to me seems like a very normal interaction between
- 7:44Speaker 1: his stepdad and his stepdaughter. There's certainly no signs saying
- 7:48Speaker 1: something terrible will happen, which is also one of the
- 7:50Speaker 1: reasons that perpetrators get access to victims in the first place,
- 7:54Speaker 1: because the victims, at least initially still trust the perpetrators,
- 7:57Speaker 1: especially when we're talking about intra familial a stepdad in
- 8:00Speaker 1: this case, killing his stepdaughter. After breakfast, Chloe and Derek
- 8:07Speaker 1: went to the supermarket.
- 8:09Speaker 3: The plan for the day was that they would do
- 8:11Speaker 3: housework at the home, and Chloe was buying cleaning products
- 8:15Speaker 3: and other things to enable them to do this.
- 8:20Speaker 1: They arrived home at around ten thirty am. Two hours past.
- 8:32Speaker 1: At one o six pm, Chloe's eldest daughter texted her mom,
- 8:38Speaker 1: but Chloe never replied to her daughter's message. At two pm,
- 8:45Speaker 1: it was Derek who sent a text back to Chloe's
- 8:48Speaker 1: eldest daughter. An hour later, Derek picked up the youngest
- 8:53Speaker 1: two kids from school and took them to the coffee shop.
- 8:56Speaker 1: They were joined by the two eldest children, but Derek
- 9:01Speaker 1: looked different.
- 9:03Speaker 3: You can see there's been a change of clothes. He's
- 9:06Speaker 3: now in shorts and a T shirt. Derek ordered the
- 9:10Speaker 3: children a drink.
- 9:13Speaker 1: Derek Martin is out with the kids. He's not distressed,
- 9:17Speaker 1: he's not nervous. After not hearing back from her mother,
- 9:22Speaker 1: Chloe's eldest daughter started to worry. Derek then took the
- 9:29Speaker 1: children for some food. Derek Martin walks into McDonald's like
- 9:34Speaker 1: it's just a normal day. If I were to see
- 9:36Speaker 1: this interaction, I would assume this is a grandfather out
- 9:39Speaker 1: with his grandkids. Everything is normal, everything is calm. After
- 9:46Speaker 1: they left McDonald's, Derek drove the kids to Brighton and
- 9:51Speaker 1: dropped them off at their grandmother's. A few minutes later,
- 9:57Speaker 1: Derek went to a local shop to buy beer and cigarettes.
- 10:02Speaker 3: Having bought the beer, he went and sat on the
- 10:05Speaker 3: beach in Brighton, where he contemplated what his next step was.
- 10:12Speaker 1: And it almost feels like he is saying goodbye to
- 10:15Speaker 1: the outside world. He is saying, I'm going to enjoy
- 10:17Speaker 1: this moment on the beach, and in my head, all
- 10:20Speaker 1: I can think is probably because he thinks it's his last.
- 10:24Speaker 1: While he was figuring out what to do, Derek sent
- 10:28Speaker 1: a message to the children's grandmother. The children were now
- 10:41Speaker 1: extremely concerned. Derek made the decision to hand himself in.
- 10:54Speaker 2: What's happening today, You've killed two people, okay.
- 11:00Speaker 1: After officers were sent to Chloe and Josh's home. News
- 11:04Speaker 1: spread fast amongst the family.
- 11:09Speaker 11: I looked at my phone and I had fifteen miscalls.
- 11:12Speaker 11: My heart dropped. I knew that it would be something
- 11:14Speaker 11: really bad.
- 11:16Speaker 10: I got to his house us possible, and I remember
- 11:18Speaker 10: pulling up as a pulled up on the drive where.
- 11:20Speaker 11: I just saw about eight police cars.
- 11:25Speaker 8: They said that it was Josh and Chloe, and they
- 11:29Speaker 8: said that Josh had been stabbed to death and that
- 11:35Speaker 8: it was Derek Martin. Oh god, I really that is
- 11:44Speaker 8: just when the guilt of us knowing that he was
- 11:54Speaker 8: at that house every day. Had I known how violent
- 12:03Speaker 8: that man was, I would have gone to drug my
- 12:07Speaker 8: son out.
- 12:09Speaker 12: But we didn't know.
- 12:10Speaker 8: I didn't know, didn't know anything.
- 12:17Speaker 1: Chloe and Josh were confirmed dead inside their home. Derek
- 12:22Speaker 1: Martin was arrested and taken into custody.
- 12:26Speaker 2: The time is now seven twelve.
- 12:30Speaker 7: Okay, you're under rest on the suspicion of murder times two.
- 12:33Speaker 7: The reason for this is that you've stated you've murdered
- 12:35Speaker 7: two people. Officers have attended your address and have.
- 12:38Speaker 2: Found two bodies. Okay, don't understand all that.
- 12:41Speaker 6: Okay.
- 12:44Speaker 1: The police started a murder investigation and the Bashford's family
- 12:48Speaker 1: home in New Haven was made a crime scene.
- 12:52Speaker 3: Chloe clearly had sustained a number of injuries. She was
- 12:56Speaker 3: lying in a downstairs bedroom. She clearly had been involved
- 13:00Speaker 3: in a significant physical altercation upstairs in the master bedroom.
- 13:06Speaker 3: Josh was lying on the floor. He appeared to have
- 13:08Speaker 3: injuries to his front and back.
- 13:12Speaker 1: Derek Martin was interviewed by police to try and work
- 13:16Speaker 1: out how a morning's housework turned to murder.
- 13:20Speaker 12: Told me through exactly what happened at the house.
- 13:23Speaker 6: What told you think you got back to the house
- 13:27Speaker 6: eleven or something?
- 13:29Speaker 12: And who was it at the house at that point
- 13:31Speaker 12: when you got that?
- 13:36Speaker 6: Okay? And then what happened.
- 13:39Speaker 2: Too?
- 13:41Speaker 12: So you've got the cup of tea and you were
- 13:42Speaker 12: chatting and then what happened.
- 13:45Speaker 13: Then suddenly oh well three, yeah much? You think he
- 13:57Speaker 13: was a play one.
- 14:00Speaker 12: You haven't a chat generally about money and she wanted
- 14:03Speaker 12: to go shopping and things like that.
- 14:05Speaker 6: Let him what happened?
- 14:08Speaker 13: Yeah, okay, money, money come.
- 14:17Speaker 1: So what he's saying here is that Chloe was constantly
- 14:20Speaker 1: talking about money. The police officer was leaning into his tone.
- 14:23Speaker 1: Is trying to be comforting, is trying to help him
- 14:27Speaker 1: continue to be cooperative.
- 14:31Speaker 13: Money money, How we help, We help, power help.
- 14:37Speaker 3: He said that Chloe had been going on about money
- 14:42Speaker 3: and for some reason that caused him to lose his temper.
- 14:49Speaker 1: Money or fight over money, is one of the most
- 14:52Speaker 1: common motives for murder, and it doesn't need to be
- 14:56Speaker 1: a lot of money. It can be a couple of dollars.
- 14:58Speaker 1: It could be a couple of pounds. It's quite triggering
- 15:01Speaker 1: for people. It can lead to a fight that gets
- 15:03Speaker 1: out of control. What it doesn't fit with is what
- 15:06Speaker 1: we want murder to be justified by. We think that
- 15:09Speaker 1: murder needs to have a big reason, a big fight,
- 15:12Speaker 1: a long standing issue. But it can just be someone
- 15:16Speaker 1: who reaches in their minds some sort of tipping point
- 15:20Speaker 1: and then decides to make a terrible decision and goes
- 15:24Speaker 1: ahead and murder. Somebody lost what happened.
- 15:31Speaker 6: Fear.
- 15:35Speaker 3: A pathologist undertook a post mortem examination of Chloe, and
- 15:39Speaker 3: it was established that she had been struck multiple times
- 15:43Speaker 3: on her head. She had also sustained eight stab wounds
- 15:52Speaker 3: to her front and back in various places. It was
- 15:57Speaker 3: in fact the stab injuries that were were the cause
- 16:00Speaker 3: of her death.
- 16:02Speaker 2: An conspective I think.
- 16:09Speaker 6: As all.
- 16:15Speaker 3: The forensic pathologist found that Josh had sustained four stab
- 16:19Speaker 3: wounds to the front of his chest.
- 16:23Speaker 13: That's okay, something on my neck.
- 16:32Speaker 3: He had what was described as an incised injury to
- 16:35Speaker 3: his back, which looked like a raking type injury, so
- 16:38Speaker 3: something coming down his back. He also had an injury
- 16:43Speaker 3: to his neck, and some other signs that were indicative
- 16:48Speaker 3: of him being strangled.
- 16:51Speaker 1: The brutality of this is, of course, in new relation
- 16:54Speaker 1: to what the disagreement was about. In criminology, we call
- 16:59Speaker 1: it the victimization gap. When you have the victim on
- 17:03Speaker 1: one side and something catastrophic has happened, and then you
- 17:05Speaker 1: don't have a sufficiently strong motive on the other side,
- 17:08Speaker 1: and so that gap between what the perpetrator experiences and
- 17:12Speaker 1: what the victim experiences are so wide that the only
- 17:15Speaker 1: way you can feel that you can bridge it is
- 17:16Speaker 1: by having a really good reason, and this is not
- 17:21Speaker 1: a good reason, never mind for the extent of the
- 17:24Speaker 1: harm and the injuries that he did.
- 17:30Speaker 3: Within the forensic examination, there were a number of features
- 17:34Speaker 3: that did become useful to understanding what had happened. The
- 17:39Speaker 3: door handles to both the door of the room that
- 17:42Speaker 3: Chloe was found in and the room that Josh was
- 17:45Speaker 3: found in had been taken off. Derek Martin later gave
- 17:49Speaker 3: an account that he'd taken the handles from the doors
- 17:52Speaker 3: to protect the children from seeing what had happened to
- 17:55Speaker 3: their parents.
- 17:58Speaker 1: CCTV footage showed Derek Martin moving the Bashford's family car
- 18:04Speaker 1: just after he'd killed Chloe and Josh.
- 18:08Speaker 3: We can see that Derek Martin by this point has
- 18:11Speaker 3: changed his clothes, is now wearing the gray T shirt
- 18:14Speaker 3: and blue shorts, and he's moved the car from outside
- 18:19Speaker 3: of the address to a nearby street. The reason he
- 18:22Speaker 3: gave for doing so was so that the children would
- 18:25Speaker 3: be unaware of what had happened.
- 18:29Speaker 1: Derek Martin's actions post murder to me, speak of someone
- 18:32Speaker 1: who is trying to clean up what he did. He
- 18:35Speaker 1: I think might in his own mind, be unclear about
- 18:38Speaker 1: what he wants at this point. He's not running away,
- 18:40Speaker 1: he's not escaping. He's he is taking some steps, but
- 18:44Speaker 1: not that many steps to try and get away with
- 18:47Speaker 1: the crime entirely. Derek also took Chloe's mobile phone from
- 18:51Speaker 1: the crime scene and threw it in a bush before
- 18:55Speaker 1: taking the kids to McDonald's. He later field where the phone.
- 19:01Speaker 3: Was hidden he wrote a letter which was given to
- 19:04Speaker 3: one of his prison guards that was passed to the investigation.
- 19:10Speaker 1: A police team was sent to the exact location and
- 19:14Speaker 1: found Chloe's phone.
- 19:16Speaker 3: We also were able to support that with CCTV and
- 19:19Speaker 3: indeed that showed him in the bushes where the phone
- 19:22Speaker 3: was For some time.
- 19:24Speaker 1: Chloe's mobile phone had saved crucial images from the doorbell camera.
- 19:32Speaker 3: We were unable to get any moving footage, but we
- 19:35Speaker 3: did get a number of still images. This is a
- 19:38Speaker 3: photograph of Derek Martin removing the ring doorbell that had
- 19:41Speaker 3: been on the front door. You can see an injury
- 19:48Speaker 3: on his finger. That injury was caused by the knife
- 19:52Speaker 3: that he used to kill Chloe and Joshua. And we
- 19:57Speaker 3: did also later discover the ring doorbell in a bush
- 20:01Speaker 3: within the garden of the address.
- 20:06Speaker 1: After Derek killed Chloe and josh he picked up the
- 20:10Speaker 1: kids from school as if nothing had happened.
- 20:16Speaker 10: After watching all the CCTV, I just think, after what
- 20:20Speaker 10: he's just done, it's like the most barbarrack thing I've
- 20:22Speaker 10: ever known to happen. And I think he's got their
- 20:26Speaker 10: kids in front of him, and how he's acting, I
- 20:29Speaker 10: don't know how a person's brain can process to acting
- 20:34Speaker 10: normal and driving around with the kids in the car,
- 20:36Speaker 10: acting normal, and even watching him going and buy beer
- 20:40Speaker 10: and go sit on the beach after what he's done
- 20:41Speaker 10: before he takes himself into the police station.
- 20:44Speaker 11: I think you're sitting there whilst these two.
- 20:46Speaker 10: People have been brutally, brutally killed in their home makes
- 20:50Speaker 10: my blood boil. And the more I think about it,
- 20:52Speaker 10: the more it makes my head spin, because it's just
- 20:56Speaker 10: it's so bizarre.
- 20:58Speaker 3: What Derek Martin has said is that he was trying
- 21:02Speaker 3: to make things as normal as possible for the children
- 21:07Speaker 3: and that he wanted to protect them.
- 21:14Speaker 6: Okay from markaming.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Derek Martin says that he wants to take care of
- 21:22Speaker 1: the kids and that these grandkids are his top priority.
- 21:25Speaker 1: But he's of course also the reason why they are
- 21:28Speaker 1: now orphaned. So as much as he can say I
- 21:32Speaker 1: did it for the kids, what exactly about the situation
- 21:36Speaker 1: was for the kids. In August twenty twenty three, Derek
- 21:44Speaker 1: Martin pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter
- 21:49Speaker 1: on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
- 21:53Speaker 3: In this case, Derek Martin put forward a defense of
- 21:57Speaker 3: diminished responsibility on the basis that at the time of
- 22:01Speaker 3: killing both Chloe and Josh, he was suffering from a depression.
- 22:05Speaker 1: When you plead insanity, usually what you're trying to do
- 22:08Speaker 1: to say I didn't understand what I was doing at
- 22:10Speaker 1: the time. The only way that that can be even
- 22:12Speaker 1: argued is if you say I didn't understand what was
- 22:16Speaker 1: real and what wasn't. Depression can change your perception of
- 22:20Speaker 1: what is real and what isn't. But what it doesn't
- 22:23Speaker 1: do is make you think that murder is okay, that
- 22:26Speaker 1: it's not harmful, or that it might not have long
- 22:28Speaker 1: term consequences. No form of depression is going to erase
- 22:33Speaker 1: that knowledge and data found on Chloe's phone revealed a
- 22:38Speaker 1: meticulous and precise gap between the two killings.
- 22:43Speaker 3: We were able to show the points at which Chloe
- 22:46Speaker 3: had been attacked, It happened around twelve sixteen, and we
- 22:51Speaker 3: were also able to prove that Josh hadn't arrived home
- 22:54Speaker 3: until twelve twenty one, so there was at least a
- 22:57Speaker 3: five minute window. The time between the two killings meant
- 23:01Speaker 3: that that wouldn't be something that he could say was
- 23:05Speaker 3: as a result of his depression.
- 23:08Speaker 1: The fact that he pauses gets another weapon pauses for
- 23:12Speaker 1: multiple minutes, Josh comes home, and then he attacks Josh.
- 23:17Speaker 1: That isn't a pattern that's consistent with someone who loses
- 23:21Speaker 1: control once. That's someone who feels like they've lost control
- 23:24Speaker 1: or let their negative thoughts overtake them once, but then
- 23:26Speaker 1: allows it to happen again, and allows to happen again.
- 23:29Speaker 1: And that's very different than it happening once. But the
- 23:38Speaker 1: question still remained, why did Derek Martin kill Chloe and
- 23:43Speaker 1: Josh Bashford.
- 23:45Speaker 3: The only thing he said is that there had been
- 23:49Speaker 3: some dispute between he and Chloe over money, and that
- 23:53Speaker 3: that had led him to essentially lose his temper and
- 23:56Speaker 3: lose control, causing him to act in the way that
- 23:59Speaker 3: he did.
- 24:07Speaker 8: The fact that Derek Martin has not expressed and why
- 24:10Speaker 8: he killed Joshua that is just heartbreaking. And I think
- 24:17Speaker 8: that had we not been a family, I don't think
- 24:22Speaker 8: we'd have got through it, got through it.
- 24:29Speaker 12: At all.
- 24:35Speaker 8: All I'm doing now is I'm writing to Derek Martin
- 24:39Speaker 8: at the prison once a week, ask him why he
- 24:44Speaker 8: murdered our son Josh. I don't expect an answer.
- 24:51Speaker 1: In twenty twenty five, Derek Martin was found guilty on
- 24:57Speaker 1: two counts of murder.
- 25:00Speaker 14: I knew the Bashford family well. You were in Chloe
- 25:02Speaker 14: and Joshua's home because they had welcomed you into their lives.
- 25:06Speaker 14: The jury rejected the partial defense of diminished responsibility as
- 25:09Speaker 14: available to you, and considered you should bear full responsibility
- 25:13Speaker 14: for your actions on each account of murder. The sentence
- 25:16Speaker 14: is life imprisonment.
- 25:20Speaker 10: I think Derek's taken a lot more than I think
- 25:23Speaker 10: he knew. He's taken not just a brother away, but
- 25:26Speaker 10: for me, my best mate, everything I see, everything I hear.
- 25:32Speaker 10: I still now think I'd love to go and tell him,
- 25:34Speaker 10: but I can't. I miss him more than life yourself.
- 25:39Speaker 10: It's such a massive, massive al behind.
- 25:45Speaker 8: That's the Crystal Palace top looks extremely worn, but there's
- 25:51Speaker 8: so many memories.
- 25:55Speaker 9: Joseph's memorial in a Crystal Palace football club. It was
- 25:58Speaker 9: a worry about. It was a good memory.
- 26:02Speaker 8: It was just amazing all of us dressed. I had
- 26:06Speaker 8: his Crystal Palace football shirt on, and on the thirty
- 26:11Speaker 8: third minute of them playing football, his photo came up
- 26:16Speaker 8: on the big screen and everyone just stood up and
- 26:21Speaker 8: everyone in the stadium, they was singing.
- 26:31Speaker 9: I feel like a normal day and amongst all the horrible.
- 26:34Speaker 8: Days, it was lovely, very special.
- 26:43Speaker 12: Illo.
- 26:45Speaker 8: This is where I like to come to for some
- 26:48Speaker 8: peace and quiet, and it's where I like to come
- 26:50Speaker 8: to think about things and to think about Josh. This
- 26:53Speaker 8: is where he liked to be. He was just a
- 26:57Speaker 8: lovely son. To have really missed him.
- 27:17Speaker 1: People always want there to be a sufficiently big reason
- 27:21Speaker 1: for murder. The problem is that rarely is that actually
- 27:26Speaker 1: the case. Murder often happens for quite banal reasons, like
- 27:31Speaker 1: a fight over money that gets out of control. That
- 27:34Speaker 1: can be enough to get someone to react incredibly strongly
- 27:37Speaker 1: and to say this is the reason I did it.
- 27:39Speaker 1: But really what it ends up being is just that
- 27:42Speaker 1: person is allowing their emotions to take hold and is
- 27:45Speaker 1: acting on those negative feelings rather than controlling them. In
- 27:55Speaker 1: the US, in Ohio, Columbus, your.
- 28:02Speaker 5: Emergency, I would like to turn myself in.
- 28:06Speaker 15: Okay, what's going on there?
- 28:08Speaker 4: I murdered my girlfriend.
- 28:10Speaker 5: You'll need to use forceful entry to get into the house.
- 28:16Speaker 1: Officers were immediately sent to the address where the suspect
- 28:20Speaker 1: said he'd murdered his girlfriend.
- 28:23Speaker 2: Callers a fowl, so we don't even know if you
- 28:27Speaker 2: killed some money.
- 28:29Speaker 1: The dispatcher tried to keep the suspect on the call
- 28:32Speaker 1: so they could trace their location.
- 28:35Speaker 15: Do you want the police to come to you?
- 28:38Speaker 5: I'm very mentally unstable, and I'm worried that I'm going.
- 28:42Speaker 4: To commit by cop if the cops come and.
- 28:44Speaker 2: Pick me up. He's going to do it my cop.
- 28:52Speaker 1: Police arrived at the suspected murder location.
- 28:58Speaker 15: Where are you at?
- 29:01Speaker 5: And I don't want to be tricked into being picked up,
- 29:04Speaker 5: and so I'm going to refuse to answer that.
- 29:09Speaker 2: Poor feltres can I kick the door and go there
- 29:11Speaker 2: for the door?
- 29:12Speaker 9: Thank you please?
- 29:16Speaker 2: She said, she's right here. We got her. Oh, lady,
- 29:19Speaker 2: here the house, let's go.
- 29:21Speaker 1: The victim in the house was identified as twenty nine
- 29:24Speaker 1: year old Shannon Hyatt.
- 29:27Speaker 12: She'd been stabbed more than thirty times in what appeared
- 29:29Speaker 12: to be a frenzied attack. She'd been stabbed on her chest,
- 29:32Speaker 12: on her back, and her throat had been slit.
- 29:36Speaker 2: Bouncers is clear.
- 29:41Speaker 1: Shannon was a fraud investigator, thoughtful, generous, and tenacious. She'd
- 29:46Speaker 1: graduated in twenty seventeen with a bachelor's degree in psychology.
- 29:52Speaker 12: Shannon was the bright light. She was much loved by
- 29:56Speaker 12: her friends. She was very active in the local muse sixteen.
- 30:01Speaker 12: She loved the arts and her passion was rescuing stray cats.
- 30:07Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, Shannon met twenty six year old
- 30:12Speaker 1: Chance Donaho.
- 30:15Speaker 12: Shannon and Chance had an off again, on again relationship,
- 30:19Speaker 12: but after about a year they had a serious falling out.
- 30:22Speaker 12: When Shannon told her mother that Chance had stolen from her,
- 30:27Speaker 12: she blocked his accounts on social media. She blocked his phone.
- 30:31Speaker 12: She was clearly trying to signal to Chance that it
- 30:34Speaker 12: really was over.
- 30:37Speaker 16: Shannon Hyatt seemed like a very together person, not someone
- 30:42Speaker 16: who would be at the mercy of someone who's very unstable,
- 30:46Speaker 16: and she's the one that ended the relationship when it
- 30:50Speaker 16: turned out his behavior wasn't acceptable, so she had boundaries.
- 30:54Speaker 16: He began to violate the kind of norms of a
- 30:57Speaker 16: healthy relationship, and Shannon was not willing to tolerate that
- 31:01Speaker 16: kind of behavior.
- 31:04Speaker 12: After the breakup, Shannon went so far as to warn
- 31:08Speaker 12: other women about him. She went on a Facebook group
- 31:13Speaker 12: called Are We Dating the Same Guy? And posted about
- 31:17Speaker 12: him saying that basically he comes across as nice, but
- 31:20Speaker 12: he's not. He stole from me, he stole money, he's
- 31:23Speaker 12: on tinder don't trust him.
- 31:25Speaker 17: She's not slighting his character in any way.
- 31:28Speaker 16: She is just pointing out the facts of his behavior,
- 31:31Speaker 16: so she doesn't put him down.
- 31:34Speaker 17: She's not slagging him off.
- 31:35Speaker 16: She's literally just saying, these are the events that happened
- 31:39Speaker 16: that were not okay. She's going to take the risk
- 31:42Speaker 16: to post something negative about Chance for the benefit of
- 31:46Speaker 16: other women, not for her. So it's quite a positive
- 31:49Speaker 16: marker but Shannon's personality.
- 31:53Speaker 1: After the breakup, Shannon changed the locks and got her
- 31:57Speaker 1: mom to return Chance's belongings to avoid any further contact
- 32:01Speaker 1: with him.
- 32:03Speaker 16: Shannon seemed really switched on and she was doing all
- 32:06Speaker 16: the right things to protect herself.
- 32:10Speaker 1: On the evening of August twenty eighth, twenty twenty three,
- 32:14Speaker 1: a friend was visiting Shannon because she didn't want to
- 32:17Speaker 1: be alone in the house. Shannon's friends car can be
- 32:22Speaker 1: seen parked in the driveway at eleven eleven pm. Chance's
- 32:28Speaker 1: car was captured on camera outside Shannon's home.
- 32:34Speaker 16: It's certainly worrying behavior. It's showing that he's not able
- 32:38Speaker 16: to contain his feelings.
- 32:39Speaker 17: He has to act them out.
- 32:41Speaker 16: He sees a car that doesn't belong to her. He's
- 32:44Speaker 16: going to create a story in his head. So in
- 32:46Speaker 16: a way, he's frothened the milk of his own emotions.
- 32:48Speaker 16: He is activating and triggering himself and building himself up
- 32:54Speaker 16: to act and do something about it.
- 33:00Speaker 1: But a short while later, Shannon's friend's car was gone
- 33:05Speaker 1: and Chance's silver car was parked on the driveway. At
- 33:11Speaker 1: one fifty eight am, a security camera pointing at Shannon's
- 33:16Speaker 1: front window captured something alarming.
- 33:20Speaker 12: First, a hulking shadow appears, and then within seconds, a
- 33:27Speaker 12: bloody hand.
- 33:32Speaker 1: A few minutes later, Chance Donahoe appeared on camera outside
- 33:38Speaker 1: Shannon's home.
- 33:40Speaker 16: Chance there is pacing back and forth. He's not standing
- 33:43Speaker 16: outside calmly having a cigarette, so it shows that he's
- 33:46Speaker 16: in some kind of distress.
- 33:49Speaker 1: Four hours passed then Chance donaho called nine one one.
- 34:00Speaker 15: Of your emergency.
- 34:01Speaker 5: I would like to turn myself in.
- 34:04Speaker 15: What's going on there?
- 34:05Speaker 4: I murdered my girlfriend.
- 34:09Speaker 1: Officers on the ground were immediately notified, while the operator
- 34:14Speaker 1: did everything she could to keep Chance on the line
- 34:17Speaker 1: so they could track him down.
- 34:19Speaker 5: I plan on taking myself to the police station after
- 34:22Speaker 5: the sphone call.
- 34:23Speaker 15: Do you want the police to come to you?
- 34:27Speaker 12: That operator kept the suspect on the call so that
- 34:30Speaker 12: they could try and track him down, because at that
- 34:33Speaker 12: moment they must not have known whether he was telling
- 34:36Speaker 12: the truth or not.
- 34:41Speaker 15: Can I come to you.
- 34:43Speaker 5: I would like to turn myself in because I'm very
- 34:46Speaker 5: mentally unstable and I'm worried that I'm going.
- 34:49Speaker 4: To commit by cop if the cops come and pick
- 34:51Speaker 4: me up.
- 34:52Speaker 5: So I need to go into the station for my
- 34:54Speaker 5: safety and the police officer's safety.
- 34:58Speaker 16: There was a dissonance between I mean what he was
- 35:01Speaker 16: saying and the tone of his voice. It doesn't sound
- 35:03Speaker 16: like someone who's not well and not very stable. He
- 35:07Speaker 16: sounds pretty coherent.
- 35:10Speaker 12: Please ascertain that the suspect had gone to his mother's
- 35:14Speaker 12: home and called them from there.
- 35:17Speaker 15: Do you have any weapons on you chance?
- 35:19Speaker 4: I have them murdered a weapon with me. It's a knife.
- 35:22Speaker 15: Are you able to leave that in your apartment?
- 35:26Speaker 5: I live with my mother and she's standing right next
- 35:29Speaker 5: to me, holding me accountable for.
- 35:31Speaker 4: Making this phone call.
- 35:32Speaker 15: Okay? Can we put the knife on tab of the refrigerator.
- 35:35Speaker 5: Yeah, that's fine.
- 35:36Speaker 15: Okay. I want you to put it on there, not
- 35:40Speaker 15: your mother. I don't want your mother to touch it.
- 35:42Speaker 4: Okay.
- 35:44Speaker 16: I think the dispatcher did really well at keeping him calms,
- 35:48Speaker 16: keeping him engaged, and yet still being firm enough to
- 35:51Speaker 16: give him very specific instructions.
- 35:55Speaker 1: Officers were closing in on Chances location.
- 36:00Speaker 5: To give my mother one last tug before this all starts.
- 36:02Speaker 15: Okay, all right, go ahead and do that.
- 36:05Speaker 4: I'm going to go to prison now.
- 36:08Speaker 1: The dispatcher tried to stall Chance so the police could
- 36:12Speaker 1: reach him.
- 36:13Speaker 15: You're fine, I'd just let you take a couple of
- 36:15Speaker 15: deep breaths, all right, okay.
- 36:18Speaker 12: The police operator kept him on the phone. She kept
- 36:21Speaker 12: talking to him, kept soothing him.
- 36:25Speaker 15: Where are you at?
- 36:28Speaker 5: I don't want to be tricked into being picked up,
- 36:31Speaker 5: and so I'm going to refuse to answer that. But
- 36:35Speaker 5: I'm in my car. The car has started, and now
- 36:37Speaker 5: we'll not disconnect this call until I reached the jail cell.
- 36:40Speaker 5: And you have spoken with an officer.
- 36:42Speaker 15: Okay.
- 36:43Speaker 12: She kept talking to him even as he drove and
- 36:45Speaker 12: his paranoia grew.
- 36:47Speaker 15: Do you want to go ahead and drive to the
- 36:50Speaker 15: police department and I'll stay on the line.
- 36:52Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 36:54Speaker 1: Police, We're given a description of Chance's car and we're
- 36:58Speaker 1: scouring the neighborhood looking for him. Meanwhile, another team of
- 37:03Speaker 1: officers arrived at Shannon's house right here?
- 37:16Speaker 2: Can I kick the door and go there for the door?
- 37:18Speaker 17: Please?
- 37:19Speaker 2: She said, she's right here. We got her. There's the house.
- 37:23Speaker 2: Let's go.
- 37:27Speaker 1: Across. Columbus police patrols were looking for Chance's car.
- 37:33Speaker 2: I think I got him right here.
- 37:36Speaker 1: Finally they got him in their sights.
- 37:40Speaker 12: He became aware that the police were behind him.
- 37:44Speaker 5: There's a cob right behind me. I know that I'm
- 37:47Speaker 5: being followed. If you have this officer on dispatch, I
- 37:51Speaker 5: need you to tell him to just follow me to
- 37:53Speaker 5: the police station.
- 37:54Speaker 15: Can you just pull over and let him put you
- 37:57Speaker 15: in the back so he can take you to the
- 38:00Speaker 15: police station. It makes it so much easier, Chance, It
- 38:04Speaker 15: would just make it be done right now.
- 38:07Speaker 5: Okay, okay, yeah.
- 38:10Speaker 1: Chance conceited and slowly pulled into a gas station.
- 38:20Speaker 12: When police pulled over the suspect, they knew they had
- 38:25Speaker 12: to handle the whole situation carefully.
- 38:27Speaker 2: Hey, Chance, you can hear me take your car off.
- 38:31Speaker 12: They didn't want to inflame the situation.
- 38:35Speaker 2: Chance. Can he put both hands out the window for me?
- 38:39Speaker 12: They knew he might be very unstable.
- 38:43Speaker 16: Takes away, face away, slowly start walking backwards.
- 38:48Speaker 12: They knew that he might commit suicide by cop.
- 38:51Speaker 2: Back towards the sound of my voice. Keep walking back,
- 38:55Speaker 2: back towards me, towards the sound of my voice, keep
- 38:58Speaker 2: walking back slow.
- 39:10Speaker 12: When they arrested Chance Donahoe, the police discovered that there
- 39:14Speaker 12: were lacerations to his hand that have been wrapped in
- 39:17Speaker 12: a sort of makeshift bandage.
- 39:19Speaker 2: Are you injured at all, Chance? Beside?
- 39:21Speaker 18: Your finger?
- 39:22Speaker 4: Uh, just a.
- 39:23Speaker 6: Little stretched from the sutherd but your other named your.
- 39:26Speaker 18: Elaceration on this cant When did that happen during the attack? Okay?
- 39:33Speaker 1: Police needed to check his car for any evidence. Good
- 39:37Speaker 1: side doors open, he's got gloves, Yeah, but it looks
- 39:42Speaker 1: like it.
- 39:45Speaker 17: Got any think anybud Nope, I hear nothing.
- 39:48Speaker 2: Nothing.
- 39:48Speaker 4: That's got twenty five bucks in won't talk here, okay.
- 39:52Speaker 1: Chances shoes and socks were covered in blood and taken
- 39:56Speaker 1: as evidence.
- 39:58Speaker 12: At that point, Chance donahoe was charged with murder and
- 40:01Speaker 12: he was taken to the Franklin County Jail.
- 40:07Speaker 1: Police went to Chance's mother's house to look for the
- 40:10Speaker 1: murder weapon.
- 40:12Speaker 2: How are you mom? We have yeah, we went voluntarily. Okay,
- 40:21Speaker 2: a man, is there a knife?
- 40:24Speaker 12: They went straight to the kitchen, checked the top of
- 40:27Speaker 12: the refrigerator, and there they found a blood covered knife
- 40:32Speaker 12: exactly where they'd asked him to put it.
- 40:40Speaker 1: Chance Donaho sat down with police to offer his explanation,
- 40:45Speaker 1: Why don't you just kind of.
- 40:47Speaker 16: Take me through yesterday, leading up to last night and today,
- 40:52Speaker 16: like what happened.
- 40:54Speaker 18: Me and Shannon are going to a really bad breakup
- 40:57Speaker 18: right now, right because I took advantage of her luck
- 41:02Speaker 18: and so we broke up, and she's been just like
- 41:06Speaker 18: making all these Facebook posts about like our breakup.
- 41:10Speaker 17: He's looking down. He doesn't sound upset or remorseful or shocked.
- 41:17Speaker 17: He he sounds almost victimy.
- 41:21Speaker 18: I'm unable to not steal and unable to not like
- 41:27Speaker 18: take advantage of people that are on.
- 41:29Speaker 16: Me, and it's like, uh, I couldn't help it kind
- 41:34Speaker 16: of behavior.
- 41:36Speaker 6: On my way home, I had like this weird thing
- 41:42Speaker 6: that was just like, well, if.
- 41:45Speaker 18: She wants you in it back and you can't get
- 41:46Speaker 18: her back, you can like take your life force and
- 41:54Speaker 18: then you'll be together forever.
- 41:58Speaker 16: Chances of admitting or acknowledge that he has some very
- 42:01Speaker 16: disturbed beliefs that are not connected with ordinary reality. There's
- 42:06Speaker 16: a disturbed way of thinking of possession that definitely points
- 42:09Speaker 16: to a psychotic thought process that if I can't have
- 42:13Speaker 16: what I want and told us take their life force. I, oftentimes,
- 42:17Speaker 16: whenever I'm experiencing episodes of psychosis, think that I'm a god.
- 42:25Speaker 16: These revealing snippets of his mental state, as if that
- 42:28Speaker 16: was the most natural thing in the world.
- 42:30Speaker 17: Clearly he's a disturbed young man.
- 42:34Speaker 18: I went home and I changed my clothes and no
- 42:37Speaker 18: hole black and I grabbed a knife and I went.
- 42:41Speaker 6: Over to her house. I slammed my chiuldern in too
- 42:48Speaker 6: the door. That didn't say anything. I didn't do anything.
- 42:51Speaker 18: I just started stabbing Shin And she didn't even realize
- 42:55Speaker 18: what was happening until I had stabbed her a couple
- 42:57Speaker 18: of times.
- 42:58Speaker 6: She said, are you kidding me? What the chance? Stop? Wait?
- 43:05Speaker 6: Please stop, I'm dying.
- 43:09Speaker 18: I love you, I love you, and then she didn't
- 43:12Speaker 18: speak another word.
- 43:16Speaker 16: To have an ex partner the stabbing you to death,
- 43:19Speaker 16: that's an unimaginable horror. It could just be a tremendous
- 43:27Speaker 16: desire for revenge and to get back. It could be
- 43:31Speaker 16: symbolically trying to silence her to kind of literally she
- 43:34Speaker 16: can't speak.
- 43:35Speaker 17: But either way, it's a very cold, cruel thing to do.
- 43:44Speaker 1: Almost a year after Shannon was murdered, Chance Donaho pled
- 43:48Speaker 1: guilty to murder.
- 43:51Speaker 12: In the trial, prosecutors said that Chance Donahoe killed Shannon
- 43:56Speaker 12: because he was jealous. He was angry. I knew she'd
- 44:00Speaker 12: posted about him on social media, which might have interfered
- 44:03Speaker 12: with his ability to date other women. He knew she
- 44:06Speaker 12: might be seeing someone else. Now. The murder, they said,
- 44:09Speaker 12: had nothing to do with anything he'd used as an excuse.
- 44:13Speaker 12: It was jealousy and it was revenge. In his defense,
- 44:17Speaker 12: Joans Donahoe told the court he had mental health problems
- 44:22Speaker 12: that hadn't been treated well, and that he had not
- 44:24Speaker 12: been taking his medication and that was the cause for
- 44:27Speaker 12: his behavior. But in the trial, prosecutors dismissed all of that.
- 44:31Speaker 12: They said the murder had nothing to do with his
- 44:33Speaker 12: mental health. It was a pure act of violence.
- 44:38Speaker 1: At the sentencing, Chance spoke directly to Shannon's family.
- 44:44Speaker 6: I'm truly sorry for all the pain I had caused.
- 44:47Speaker 6: I wish I could take it back. I hope that
- 44:50Speaker 6: the verdict reached day serves justice for the loss I've
- 44:53Speaker 6: waited through.
- 44:58Speaker 1: Chance Donaho was sentenced to life in prison, with the
- 45:02Speaker 1: possibility of pearl after thirty one years.
- 45:07Speaker 16: Shannon's murder for me indicates that even if you are strong,
- 45:12Speaker 16: you have good boundaries. Even in doing all the right things,
- 45:15Speaker 16: were still very susceptible and vulnerable. It's sad but true
- 45:20Speaker 16: that there is no guarantees even if we do everything right,
- 45:23Speaker 16: we could still be the victim of a horrific murder.
- 45:26Speaker 17: It's really tragic.
- 45:29Speaker 12: I think Shannon's friends and family will remember her as
- 45:32Speaker 12: this bright, sunny presence, a lover of music, somebody who
- 45:37Speaker 12: devoted her spare time to rescuing stray cats and making
- 45:41Speaker 12: sure that they had a good life, who loved vulnerable creatures.
- 45:46Speaker 12: That I think is one of the things that really
- 45:49Speaker 12: marks her character. She was very loving in