999 Murderer Calling

To the outside world, 34-year-old Luke D'Wit seemed to be a harmless IT geek. In reality, he was a scheming psychopath who spent years earning the trust of his millionaire neighbors in order to murder them and inherit their business. After lacing Stephen and Carol Baxter's drinks with the lethal painkilling drug fentanyl in 2023, D'Wit laid a false trail on his call to police, suggesting there had been a gas leak at their Essex home. But the call, punctuated by the harrowing screams of the Baxters' daughter, gave detectives their first clues in bringing the poisoner to justice.

The disappearance of a young mother goes unsolved for seven years before a late-night emergency call sparks a three-year investigation. Darren Osment admits that he was behind the killing of his ex-partner Claire Holland, but retracts his confession, claiming he was drunk. An undercover officer then lures Osment into revealing how he’d murdered the mother of his son. In secretly filmed interviews, Osment takes the bait and hands the police the evidence they need. Also, the heartbreaking death of a 10-month-old baby and how his parents lied in their emergency call.

Mitesh Patel appeared to have it all: a happy marriage, a successful business and a luxury home in the leafy suburbs. But secretly he yearned for a very different life, 12,000 miles away in Australia with his lover. In May 2018, the 37-year-old pharmacist set out to get it, strangling his wife Jessica and ransacking their Middlesbrough home to make it look like a burglary gone wrong. In his tearful call to emergency services he claimed to have discovered her body after returning home from work. But unknowingly, he also left vital clues that helped detectives identify him as the killer.

A man calls emergency services to report he’s found his wife battered to death. David Pomphret says he discovered Ann-Marie’s body at the family stables. Detectives struggle for clues until they retrieve the murder weapon from a nearby pond. When CCTV footage shows secret comings and goings, the focus tightens on the husband. Finally, five months on, the crucial breakthrough -- Pomphret’s clothes are seized and microscopic signs of blood are detected on his unwashed socks. Also, the online grooming of an innocent teenager. A schoolboy gaming group is targeted by a predator, with fatal consequences.

When Natalie Harker cycled to work on a dark October morning, her former boyfriend Andrew Pearson was lying in wait. After kidnapping his 30-year-old victim near Catterick in North Yorkshire, he strangled, drowned and sexually assaulted her. In a tearful and rambling call to police, Pearson claimed Natalie had accidentally fallen into a stream as they went for a walk through remote woodland where he’d been camping. By comparing his story with forensic and mobile-phone evidence, detectives were able to prove it was all a pack of lies -- and that Pearson was a cold and calculating killer.

Flames engulf a village workshop, killing owner David Twigg. Police hunt for two masked intruders, who were reported in a call by David's partner, Julie Dixon. When investigators discover the shocking state of the couple’s business, however, they establish that Julie hid the paperwork and kept David in the dark. Then, a house search finds a single eyebrow hair belonging to Julie and her coverup is exposed. The Judge says Dixon’s call is worthy of an Oscar nomination. Also, a fatal stabbing shocks Glastonbury, the town of peace of love. Is it self-defense or murder?

As a former Commando, Collin Reeves was trained to kill. In November 2021, he employed his skills to chilling effect, breaking into Stephen and Jennifer Chapple’s home and stabbing them to death as their two young sons slept upstairs. Reeves had a long-standing grudge against his neighbors due to a dispute over parking outside their homes in the Somerset village of Norton Fitzwarren. In court, he claimed he murdered them while suffering a psychotic episode as a result of his Army service in Afghanistan. But his cool and calm call to police immediately after the stabbings told a different story.

A man calls police claiming a piece of concrete has been thrown through his back window and is told police officers will be there within the hour. Unknown to police, the caller is Dale Cregan, on the run after committing two murders. Now, he is laying a trap. When two unarmed female constables arrive at the house, Cregan comes out shooting, firing 32 rounds in 30 seconds and exploding a hand grenade next to their dying bodies.