A retired detective has spoken about the haunting memories of a 1993 double murder that bore chilling similarities to the Rachel Nickell case, revealing how police egos may have hindered the investigation. Detective Sergeant Roger Boydell-Smith, who appears in the Netflix documentary 'The Witness', told the Mirror about the horrific scene he encountered at the home of Samantha Bisset and her four-year-old daughter Jazmine in Plumstead, south east London.
Samantha, 27, a part-time model, had been sexually assaulted, mutilated and killed. Her daughter was found dead in her bed, suffocated and sexually assaulted. The crime scene was so disturbing that the police photographer took two years off work on stress leave. Boydell-Smith said: 'I'd say, in my 30 years, I'd never seen anything as bad as that.'
The team quickly noticed similarities to 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. Boydell-Smith recalled: 'We often said that if there were two different men out there capable of doing this, then you had two severely sick monsters on the loose.'
Forensic pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd confirmed that Samantha had suffered approximately 49 stab wounds, a near-identical pattern to Rachel Nickell. However, when the Bisset team approached the Wimbledon Common task force, they were met with hostility. The Nickell team was convinced their suspect, Colin Stagg, was guilty. Boydell-Smith said: 'They weren't really open to any suggestions. At the end of the day, egos and reputations were possibly [placed] above common sense.'
The investigation was further hampered by forensic psychologist Professor Paul Britton, who ruled out a connection because the murders occurred in different settings. The killer was later identified as Robert Napper, who also murdered Samantha and Jazmine Bisset. Colin Stagg was eventually acquitted after a flawed 'honeytrap' operation.
