The Hunt for the Silver Killer (Pt 1): Murder-suicides
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 May 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and references to suicide.
In 1996 in the small town of Wilmslow in Cheshire, an elderly couple were found dead in their bedroom.
Today and tomorrow in two episodes, we tell the story of a long-running investigation by The Sunday Times' Northern Editor, David Collins, into a string of murder-suicides in north west England. Could they be the work of a serial killer, operating undetected since the mid-nineties?
This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.
Book: The Hunt for the Silver Killer by David Collins (published May 26, 2022).
Guest: David Collins, Northern Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | No one likes tidy in our path to DIY, or cleaning up the dirt that autumn brings. |
| 0:06.0 | So get yourself a carature wet and dry vacuum. |
| 0:09.0 | It's perfect for all those messy jobs, and indoor vacuum can't handle. |
| 0:12.8 | Like tidying a patio, cleaning up a car boot, or dealing with a washing machine leak. |
| 0:18.1 | The carature wet and dry vacuum saves you time and effort. |
| 0:21.8 | Get it installed from B&Q from £57, or search for carature on DIY.com. |
| 0:27.9 | Subject to availability. |
| 0:57.9 | Before we begin a warning, today's episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and references to suicide. |
| 1:11.9 | In 1996, in the small town of Wilmslow in Cheshire, an elderly couple were found dead in their bedroom. |
| 1:26.9 | To the authorities, it looked like a murder suicide, the husband killing his wife horribly violently, and then taking his own life. |
| 1:36.9 | Three years later, in 1999, the exact same thing happened again, in the same town. |
| 1:44.9 | But despite the similarities, no one linked the deaths. Well, almost no one. |
| 1:52.9 | So it might have been cases closed. |
| 1:56.9 | Except that when two coroner's officers began to piece together the evidence, the pattern it seemed to reveal suggested another possibility. |
| 2:04.9 | A third party serial killer. |
| 2:08.9 | This one day, Christine opens the door and says, do you want to come in here, staff, and then I've got something I want to show you. |
| 2:17.9 | The Sunday Times invested reported David Collins has been following the story and has now written a book about the case. |
| 2:25.9 | The feeling was that the person who killed her hated her. There was a hatred involved in a crime like that. It was sadistic. |
| 2:34.9 | You're listening to stories of our times and the times and the Sunday Times. I am David Aronovich. |
| 2:39.9 | Today, the hunt for the silver killer, part one, murder suicides. |
| 2:48.9 | So my name is David Collins. I'm the northern editor for the Sunday Times. I'm an investigative reporter. |
| 2:55.9 | And I've been investigating a series of murder suicides which happened in Cheshire in the mid 90s and late 90s. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Times, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Times and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.