Blood Ties Podcast

In September 2012, a quiet forest road in the French Alps became the scene of one of Europe's most baffling unsolved murders. Three members of the British French al Hilli family and a local cyclist were shot dead near the village of Chevaline, close to Lake Annecy. Miraculously, the couple's two young daughters survived, one hidden beneath her mother's body for eight hours before being discovered.

More than a decade later, the s...

In October 2020, a series of brutal murders shocked the Midlands and sparked one of the region's largest manhunts. When Julie Williams reported her son David missing, she could not have known she would become one of Anthony Russell's victims. Within days, Julie and David were dead, and Russell was on the run.

As police closed in, he continued a violent trail of robbery, assault and murder across Coventry, Kenilworth and Leamingt...

In August 2010, Gareth Williams, a brilliant Welsh mathematician working for GCHQ and on secondment to MI6, was found dead inside a padlocked sports bag in a London flat linked to the security services. His death quickly became one of Britain's most perplexing unsolved mysteries.

An inquest concluded that Gareth's death was unnatural and likely involved a criminal act. Yet a later Metropolitan Police review suggested it was prob...

When two vulnerable women vanish from the streets of East London within weeks of each other, detectives uncover a chilling predator hiding in plain sight. Derek Brown, a convicted rapist and serial sex attacker, targeted Xiao Mei Guo, a mother selling DVDs to support her family, and Bonnie Barrett, a young woman struggling on the margins of society. Both were last seen with Brown before disappearing forever.

Despite extensive se...

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell examine one of the most controversial criminal cases of the 21st century: the killing of Reeva Steenkamp by South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. On Valentine’s Day 2013, Steenkamp was shot dead at Pistorius’s home in Pretoria.

Pistorius claimed he believed an intruder was hiding in the bathroom, but prosecutors argued the shooting was intentional. The ca...

On the remote Orkney island of Sanday, a love triangle would end in brutal violence. In June 2009, Yorkshireman Robert Rose disappeared after beginning a relationship with the former girlfriend of local man John "Jack" Campbell. When Rose failed to return home, a major search operation was launched. Two weeks later, his body was discovered hidden among sand dunes on the island.

Investigators uncovered a deadly act of jealousy an...

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell examine the crimes of serial killer Robert Black, whose abduction, rape and murder of young girls shocked the UK throughout the 1980s. From the disappearance of Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper to the later conviction for the murder of Jennifer Cardy, they trace the painstaking police investigation that became one of the largest manhunts in British criminal hist...

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell uncover the terrifying story of Gordon Frederick Cummins, the RAF serviceman who became known as the Blackout Killer.

Over just five days in wartime London, Cummins murdered four women and brutally attacked two others while the city lay hidden beneath the enforced blackout of the Blitz.

His victims were strangled, and several were shockingly mutilated, crimes so savage the...

Three women murdered. One city terrified. And a killer who vanished without a trace. In this gripping episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell investigate the chilling case of Bible John, the unidentified serial killer who preyed on young women in Glasgow between 1968 and 1969.

Each victim met a sharply dressed stranger at the famous Barrowland Ballroom before suffering a brutal death. Charming, intelligent and obsessed...

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell uncover the terrifying story of Gordon Frederick Cummins, the RAF serviceman who became known as the Blackout Killer.

Over just five days in wartime London, Cummins murdered four women and brutally attacked two others while the city lay hidden beneath the enforced blackout of the Blitz.

His victims were strangled, and several were shockingly mutilated, crimes so savage the...

Part 2 of this Blood Ties special with Geoffrey and Molly Wansell. Confronting one of Britain’s most chilling killers: Dennis Nilsen. Calm, calculated, and hiding in plain sight, he murdered at least twelve young men between 1978 and 1983. Luring victims back to his North London flats, he strangled them, then carried out grotesque rituals, keeping bodies for days, even weeks, before dismembering and disposing of them. It is a...

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell investigate the terrifying case of Barry Prudom, the fugitive killer known as the 'Phantom of the Forest'. An electrician turned murderer, Prudom sparked the biggest manhunt in British history after shooting dead PC David Haigh in June 1982.

Over the following days, he killed two more men while evading capture across the forests and countryside of northern England. Armed,...

Blood Ties with Geoffrey and Molly Wansell confronts one of Britain’s most chilling killers: Dennis Nilsen. Calm, calculated, and hiding in plain sight, he murdered at least twelve young men between 1978 and 1983. Luring victims back to his North London flats, he strangled them, then carried out grotesque rituals, keeping bodies for days, even weeks, before dismembering and disposing of them. It is a story that still shocks.

In this episode of Blood Ties, Geoffrey and Molly Wansell explore the shocking murder of 12 year old Leo Ross, killed in a seemingly random knife attack on his walk home from school in Birmingham.

They examine the disturbing profile of a 14 year old killer who had already carried out violent assaults on vulnerable strangers in the days before the crime. Drawing on court testimony and police insight, the episode unpicks questions...

Blood Ties with Geoffrey Wansell and Molly Wansell delves into one of Britain’s most disturbing criminal cases, the story of Joanna Dennehy. Geoffrey and Molly explore how Dennehy carried out a shocking killing spree in 2013, targeting strangers and revelling in violence.

Father and daughter bring a unique dynamic, blending journalistic rigour with personal insight as they examine the psychology, motives, and aftermath of ...

Maria Pearson is Britain’s longest serving female prisoner and one of its most unsettling cases. Dubbed the 'forgotten prisoner', she has spent decades behind bars, yet still refuses to accept responsibility for a brutal murder that shocked the nation.

In 1987, driven by jealousy and rage, she stalked and stabbed a young woman 17 times in the street. It was calculated, savage, and final.

What followed is just as chillin...

In the shadows of Louisiana’s bayous, a predator operated almost unnoticed for nearly a decade.

Ronald Joseph Dominique, later dubbed The Bayou Strangler, confessed to the murders of at least 23 men and boys between 1997 and 2006. He lured vulnerable victims with false promises of work, then subjected them to unimaginable violence. For years, his crimes slipped beneath the radar, receiving little national attention even as...

Blood Ties with Geoffrey and Molly Wansell explores one of Scotland’s most haunting crimes and the long road to justice. In 1994, Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood was shot at point blank range in a busy Orkney restaurant, shocking a quiet island community.

With eyewitness accounts, twists in the investigation, and a web of unanswered questions, the case would remain unresolved for 14 years.

CREDITS: 

Presenters...

Fred and Rosemary West looked like an ordinary couple. A home in Gloucester. A family. A life that, from the outside, seemed unremarkable. But inside 25 Cromwell Street, a house later dubbed the House of Horrors, unimaginable crimes were unfolding.

Together, they tortured, abused, and murdered young women, including members of their own family. Their victims were buried beneath the house, hidden in plain sight while the world ca...