A former detective has revealed how the murder of a mother and her four-year-old daughter in south east London in 1993 continues to haunt him, as the case bore chilling similarities to the Rachel Nickell killing 16 months earlier.
Detective Sergeant Roger Boydell-Smith, who investigated the murders of Samantha Bisset, 27, and her daughter Jazmine, said the crime scene at their Plumstead flat was the worst he had seen in 30 years. Samantha had been sexually assaulted, mutilated and stabbed around 49 times, while Jazmine was found dead in her bed, suffocated and sexually assaulted. The police photographer took two years off work on stress leave.
Boydell-Smith told the Mirror that the team immediately suspected the killer was not a first-time offender. They noted parallels with the murder of Rachel Nickell, 23, who was stabbed to death on Wimbledon Common in July 1992 in front of her two-year-old son. Both victims were blonde mothers in their 20s, killed in frenzied knife attacks alongside their young children.
Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd, who had examined Rachel Nickell, conducted a second post-mortem on Samantha and confirmed a near-identical pattern of stab wounds. However, when the Bisset team approached the Wimbledon Common task force, they were met with hostility. The team was convinced Colin Stagg was the killer, and a high-profile forensic psychologist ruled out a connection, arguing the different locations meant the crimes could not be linked.
Boydell-Smith said egos and reputations were placed above common sense. The killer was later identified as Robert Napper, who was convicted of the murders of Samantha and Jazmine Bisset and the manslaughter of Rachel Nickell.
