Latest news with #forensicinvestigation
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Telegraph
Mystery as ‘multiple bodies' found in woods
Multiple dead bodies have been found in woodland in Cornwall, a police and crime commissioner has claimed. Devon and Cornwall Police have been searching Paramoor Woods, near Sticker, since the body of missing man Daniel Coleman was found there earlier this month. On Friday, Alison Hernandez, the police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall, said multiple bodies had been found at the site. She added that officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and other police forces were involved in the investigation. However, the claims were denied by Det Supt Jon Bancroft, of Devon and Cornwall Police, who said only one body had been found in the woodland. Ms Hernandez told a policing panel: 'We've got a huge forensic tent down there, lots of forensics officers. Obviously, we've found dead bodies in that wood. 'We're just trying to establish how many there may be at this point in time and whether we are aware of who they are or what might have happened to them. So we also don't know how long they may have been there, some of them.' 'Some of the elements of that operation I can't speak about, but some of the things are very obvious. 'As you know, there is a large crime scene that has been identified in Cornwall that is requiring a lot of effort to even scene guard the area. 'The level of expertise, some of the mutual aid we've brought in, is expertise in specific types of investigations that we didn't have. The National Crime Agency is supporting the organisation at the moment. 'I want to thank all the other forces that are coming in at a very busy time for themselves to offer mutual aid. It's largely investigative mutual aid that we've brought in. Until some of those elements have been established of exactly what we're dealing with there, it will be made public at that time.' But Det Supt Bancroft rebutted the claims, saying: 'I can categorically state that we have recovered remains believed to be those of Daniel Coleman only from an area of woodland in Sticker. No other remains have been located at this scene to date. 'It is imperative that we continue to respect the integrity of the formal court process and ensure the administration of justice is not compromised in any way. We hope members of the public understand that, for this reason, we cannot comment further on the defendant or the investigation.' James Desborough, 39, was charged with the murder of Coleman earlier this month and is due to appear before Truro Crown Court on Aug 8. It is alleged that Coleman, from St Austell, was killed between June 2 and July 7. He went missing on June 1. A large crime scene was in place at the woodland on Friday. According to Cornwall Live, the police force has put private security, a 'temporary air exclusion zone' and a large cordon in place to protect the scene. An area was also cordoned off by red tape, which is usually used to demarcate dangerous or high-risk scenes that need to be preserved. However, an officer from Staffordshire Police told Cornwall Live that the tape was in place to mark an area for 'officers' training'. A spokesman for Staffordshire Police confirmed that its officers were assisting the investigation. West Mercia Police previously confirmed that its officers are also assisting at the scene. Det Supt Kev Till, of Devon and Cornwall Police, has also said Home Office-approved scientists and NCA experts were involved in the investigation. Police are also investigating the discovery of the body of Lee Hockey, 50, who was found in woodland between Truro and Probus on July 1. A third murder inquiry is under way following a fatal fire at a residential property in Newquay on July 22. The body of a man in his 30s was found at the property, and a 33-year-old man from Bolton was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Yahoo
RCMP forensics examining pink blanket found during search for missing N.S. children
Nova Scotia RCMP say they are forensically examining items found during the search for two young children who went missing from a rural Nova Scotia community 2½ months ago, as units from multiple provinces work to find out what happened to the siblings. Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, were reported missing on the morning of May 2 when police received a 911 call saying they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax. The disappearance sparked days of extensive searches of the property and surrounding woods. Two boot prints were located on the driveway of the property and on a nearby pipeline trail, and a piece of a blanket was also found on a nearby road. In a news release Wednesday, RCMP said the major crime unit is leading the investigation with help from units in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, along with the National Centre of Missing Persons, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and provincial and municipal police agencies from other parts of the country. The release said a pink blanket that was seized on Lansdowne Road during the search is being forensically examined. The children's stepfather, Daniel Martell, previously told CBC News that the blanket belongs to Lilly. The Mounties said they are reviewing about 5,000 video files obtained through a video canvass of Lansdowne Station and the surrounding areas. They have formally interviewed more than 60 people, some of whom were given polygraph tests. Martell has confirmed he participated in a polygraph test last month, and that he was told he passed. The Mounties are also following up on more than 600 tips from the public, and are "submitting judicial authorizations to seize and examine materials and devices that may provide information useful to the investigation." "Right now, there are more than 800 tasks associated to this investigation," Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, the acting officer in charge of major crimes and and behavioural sciences. "A tremendous amount of careful, deliberate investigative work is underway by people here at home and in other parts of Canada. Our collective efforts will continue every day until we determine with certainty the circumstances surrounding Lilly and Jack's disappearance." MORE TOP STORIES
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Yahoo
RCMP forensics examining pink blanket found during search for missing N.S. children
Nova Scotia RCMP say they are forensically examining items found during the search for two young children who went missing from a rural Nova Scotia community 2½ months ago, as units from multiple provinces work to find out what happened to the siblings. Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, were reported missing on the morning of May 2 when police received a 911 call saying they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax. The disappearance sparked days of extensive searches of the property and surrounding woods. Two boot prints were located on the driveway of the property and on a nearby pipeline trail, and a piece of a blanket was also found on a nearby road. In a news release Wednesday, RCMP said the major crime unit is leading the investigation with help from units in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, along with the National Centre of Missing Persons, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and provincial and municipal police agencies from other parts of the country. The release said a pink blanket that was seized on Lansdowne Road during the search is being forensically examined. The children's stepfather, Daniel Martell, previously told CBC News that the blanket belongs to Lilly. The Mounties said they are reviewing about 5,000 video files obtained through a video canvass of Lansdowne Station and the surrounding areas. They have formally interviewed more than 60 people, some of whom were given polygraph tests. Martell has confirmed he participated in a polygraph test last month, and that he was told he passed. The Mounties are also following up on more than 600 tips from the public, and are "submitting judicial authorizations to seize and examine materials and devices that may provide information useful to the investigation." "Right now, there are more than 800 tasks associated to this investigation," Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, the acting officer in charge of major crimes and and behavioural sciences. "A tremendous amount of careful, deliberate investigative work is underway by people here at home and in other parts of Canada. Our collective efforts will continue every day until we determine with certainty the circumstances surrounding Lilly and Jack's disappearance." MORE TOP STORIES Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17-07-2025
- Yahoo
RCMP forensics examining pink blanket found during search for missing N.S. children
Nova Scotia RCMP say they are forensically examining items found during the search for two young children who went missing from a rural Nova Scotia community 2½ months ago, as units from multiple provinces work to find out what happened to the siblings. Lilly Sullivan, 6, and Jack Sullivan, 4, were reported missing on the morning of May 2 when police received a 911 call saying they had wandered away from their home in Lansdowne Station, about 140 kilometres northeast of Halifax. The disappearance sparked days of extensive searches of the property and surrounding woods. Two boot prints were located on the driveway of the property and on a nearby pipeline trail, and a piece of a blanket was also found on a nearby road. In a news release Wednesday, RCMP said the major crime unit is leading the investigation with help from units in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario, along with the National Centre of Missing Persons, Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and provincial and municipal police agencies from other parts of the country. The release said a pink blanket that was seized on Lansdowne Road during the search is being forensically examined. The children's stepfather, Daniel Martell, previously told CBC News that the blanket belongs to Lilly. The Mounties said they are reviewing about 5,000 video files obtained through a video canvass of Lansdowne Station and the surrounding areas. They have formally interviewed more than 60 people, some of whom were given polygraph tests. Martell has confirmed he participated in a polygraph test last month, and that he was told he passed. The Mounties are also following up on more than 600 tips from the public, and are "submitting judicial authorizations to seize and examine materials and devices that may provide information useful to the investigation." "Right now, there are more than 800 tasks associated to this investigation," Staff Sgt. Rob McCamon, the acting officer in charge of major crimes and and behavioural sciences. "A tremendous amount of careful, deliberate investigative work is underway by people here at home and in other parts of Canada. Our collective efforts will continue every day until we determine with certainty the circumstances surrounding Lilly and Jack's disappearance." MORE TOP STORIES
Al Jazeera
14-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Excavation of child mass grave at church-run home begins in Ireland
Excavation has begun in Ireland at an unmarked mass burial site to identify the remains of about 800 infants and toddlers who died at a church-run home for unmarried mothers. The digging of the site on Monday marked the beginning of a two-year investigation planned by Irish and foreign forensic archaeologists and crime scene experts in the western city of Tuam. The probe comes more than a decade after Catherine Corless, an amateur historian, first uncovered evidence of a mass grave there, forcing the government to form a commission to investigate the matter. The commission found that the remains of 802 children from newborns to three-year-olds were buried in Tuam from 1925 to 1961 as it discovered an 'appalling' mortality rate of about 15 percent among children born at all of the so-called Mother and Baby Homes, which operated across Ireland. Subsequent test excavations from 2016 and 2017 found significant quantities of baby remains in a disused septic tank at the location, which now sits within a housing complex. Ireland's Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT) will undertake the excavation with experts from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States. It will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and reinterment of the remains found, Director Daniel MacSweeney said at a recent news conference in Tuam. 'Denied dignity and respect' 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime as were their mothers,' Anna Corrigan, whose two siblings may have been buried at the Tuam site, told reporters this month, the AFP news agency reported. 'And they were denied dignity and respect in death.' The Tuam home, run by nuns from the Bon Secours Order, was demolished in the 1970s and replaced by a housing estate. Significant quantities of human skeletal remains were found in chambers along with babies' shoes and nappy pins underneath a patch of grass near a playground during the test excavations. Corless found records that show as many as 796 babies and children died at the Tuam home over the decades that it operated. State-issued death certificates compiled show that various ailments, from tuberculosis and convulsions to measles and whooping cough, were listed as the causes of death. 'It's been a fierce battle. When I started this, nobody wanted to listen. At last we are righting the wrongs,' Corless, 71, told AFP in May. 'I was just begging: Take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied.' A six-year inquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period. It also concluded that 9,000 children had died in the various state- and Catholic Church-run homes nationwide. Catholic nuns ran the so-called mother and baby institution from 1925 to 1961, housing women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and were shunned by their families. After giving birth, some children lived in the homes too, but many more were given up for adoption under a system that often saw church and state work in tandem.
