The Netflix drama 'The Witness' and its accompanying documentary 'The Murder of Rachel Nickell' revisit the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common. The only witness was her two-year-old son Alex, who was unharmed but traumatised. His description of the attacker—a young white man in a white shirt, blue trousers, and brown shoes, with a belt over his shirt—matched a sighting by a local woman.
Police initially focused on Colin Stagg, who resembled the artist's impression on Crimewatch. Despite a search of his home revealing zodiac signs and survivalist equipment, a lack of forensic evidence led to his release. A controversial honeytrap operation ensued, with an undercover officer corresponding with Stagg to elicit depraved fantasies, resulting in his arrest 13 months after the murder.
However, in November 1993, Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine were murdered in their South London home. Detective Superintendent Mickey Banks pushed for re-testing fingerprints at the Bisset scene, as all prints had been accounted for. This eventually led to the identification of the true killer, Robert Napper, who was already in Broadmoor Hospital for a previous offence.
Napper, who had been detained indefinitely in 1995 for attacking a woman with a knife, was linked to the Nickell and Bisset murders through DNA and fingerprint evidence. He was convicted of the manslaughter of Rachel Nickell and the murders of Samantha and Jazmine Bisset in 2008. The case highlighted police failings and the impact on Alex Hanscombe, who grew up in the shadow of his mother's murder.
