#316 - Malice or Madness? (Mirella Jacklin Beechook, Rotherhithe, SE16)

Murder Mile UK True Crime

Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast

True Crime, English, Nglish, E, Uk, Crime, London, Society & Culture, Murder, Killer, True-crime, History, Personal Journals, British

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Thursday 18th of September 1985, 23-year-old Mirella Beechook, a separated mother of two girls made an emotional appeal before the cameras and spoke those words that no mother should ever utter - “bring her home, dead or alive, please just bring her home”. Her 7-year-old daughter Tina was missing, and Tina’s friend, 4-year-old Stacey Kavanagh had been found strangled. But who was the maniac in their tightknit community who had murdered them?

· Location: Flat number unstated (either 6 or 8), first floor, Sandwich House, Swan Road Estate, Rotherhithe, SE16, London, UK

· Date: Wednesday 17th of September 1985 (missing 4pm+)

· Victims: Tina Beechook & Stacey Kavanagh

· Culprits: Mirella Beechook

Murder Mile is one of the best UK / British true crime podcasts covering only 20 square miles of West London. Triple nominated at the True Crime Awards and nominated at the British Podcast Awards. It is researched, written and performed by Michael of Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast with the main musical themes written and performed by Erik Stein and Jon Boux of Cult With No Name and additional music, as used under the Creative Commons License 4.0. A full listing of tracks used and a full transcript for each episode is listed here and a legal disclaimer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The dreaded CV scrolling, the never-ending interviewing.
0:04.5	If recruiting is a bit of a nightmare, try building a dream team that works in perfect harmony.
0:13.0	Post your vacancy on Guardian Jobs.
0:15.5	It'll be seen by millions of like-minded people looking for top roles in education, charity, public sector, sustainability and more.
0:23.4	Search Guardian jobs recruiters and get £100 off your next post.
0:27.3	Quote podcast at the checkout. Teas and Cs apply.
0:32.8	Were two children brutally murdered out of malice or madness?
0:39.3	Find out a murder mile.
0:50.3	Today I'm standing in the Swan Road Estate in Rotherhide, London, SE-16. Four miles further east than we normally walk, but as the case too fascinating to pass up,
0:56.5	is not coming soon, but now to Murder Mile.
1:01.8	Mayor yards from the bank of the River Thames sits the Swan Road Estate.
1:06.7	Five five-story red brick tenement buildings built by London County Council from
1:11.4	1902 to 1908 to house the families which were displaced when the Rotherhide tunnel was built.
1:19.4	Like a ring of solid brick. On the outside sits Winchellsea House, Seaford House,
1:25.3	Rye House, Hithe House, and in the middle is sandwich house, overlooking
1:29.7	a courtyard.
1:32.8	As a tied community, this courtyard used to be a safe place, where kids played footy, squealing
1:38.6	at a pitch which deafens every dog.
1:41.6	Dad's fixed Ford escorts with a hammer and a spanner, mum's hung out skiddy
1:46.7	wife friends, and babies lay cooing in baskets thanks to its milk being laced with rum. Ah, the
1:53.7	1980s. Yet this courtyard has been little more than a parking lot for transits and hot hatches
2:01.6	ever since the abduction and murder of two of its children in 1985,
	...

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