(Christopher Halliwell. Picture credits: Mirror)
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul and if you look into the eyes of the individual pictured above, what do you see? Do you see warmth in those eyes? compassion? care? or do you see the eyes of a dark soul, an evil man who has done so many evil things that none of us could (or even want to) dare to imagine.
In my first true crime post of 2022, I'm going to be focusing on a cold-blooded killer who has been described as potentially one of the worst Serial Killers the UK has ever seen. I've been doing a lot of research on this monster known as Christopher Halliwell. His name was on my list of requests and I have to admit that I didn't know a lot about him but my interest in the case came to the front of my mind when I was given the book 'Catching A Serial Killer' (written by the former detective who was responsible for putting Christopher behind bars. It's a fascinating book and I will leave a link for it at the end my post) and so I decided to look more into it.
From the get-go, I always felt that Christopher Halliwell was responsible for more deaths, he is often described as a Serial Killer although all we know so far is that he admitted to two murders & hinted at others. He has toyed with the police for years and seems to think that he's clever as a lot of these cold-blooded killers often do. They seem to enjoy the pain and suffering that they've inflicted on others and enjoy prolonging that suffering for the families of their victims as well as basking in the attention they get.
Christopher was born in 1964 in Swindon, England, not much is known about his childhood other than he spent some time living in Scotland before returning to Swindon. This is a complex case dealing with quite a twisted and manipulative individual so we are still trying to find out who Christopher Halliwell really is and how many murders is he responsible for exactly? During my research on Christopher, quite a few criminologists pin pointed an event in the 1980s in Christopher's past which may have triggered his taste for murdering women. He had apparently been dumped by an ex-girlfriend that he was in love with, this soured his view of women. He still had other relationships and even had children of his own but for some reason or another he just couldn't shake that anger from that event.
Christopher Halliwell is a puzzle for most people, he holds all of his cards close to his chest. As I mentioned earlier, we know of two murders he is responsible for and serving time for. Christopher had done various odd jobs here and there but settled on being a taxi driver in Swindon. Beautiful 22 year old Sian O'Callaghan had been on a night out with friends and had decided to walk home where her boyfriend was waiting for her in the flat they shared. Sian never made it home and her boyfriend was frantic as he couldn't reach her on the phone. Christopher Halliwell had abducted Sian in the early hours of the 19th of March 2011 and drove her to an area called Savernake Forest. Her cause of death was said to be head injuries and a further examination determined that she had not been sexually assaulted.
(Sian O'Callaghan. Picture credit: Heart)
We often complain about mobile phones, especially when they are in our faces at a concert but in murder cases especially those involving abduction, mobile phones can be invaluable. Sian had her phone with her that night and this enabled Detectives to track her movements from the nightclub to the forest. They were able to determine that in the short space of time that the phone was pinging at certain locations it must have been a journey by car.
Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher was head of the investigation and he was one of those cops that really cared about his job and wanted to make a difference, to help people. He was well respected and popular in the force and he was determined to leave no stone unturned in the effort to bring Sian (hopefully safe and well) back to her family. Knowing how time was running out in the search for Sian, Detective Fulcher decided to make a few decisions that were later to land him in hot water with his superiors. He knew the clock was ticking so made a few statements to the press about the net closing in on the suspect and that they had significant leads. This was designed to frighten Christopher so he'd feel like the net was closing in and he would have to possibly hand himself into the police and release Sian.
Members of the public joined the police in the search for Sian and a financial reward was offered to anyone with information on her whereabouts. Information posters were up everywhere. CCTV footage was carefully combed through and a vehicle was spotted. The car's make and model was identified and a sticker at the side of the car door determined that this was indeed a taxi. The trail quickly led to Christopher Halliwell and Detective Fulcher arranged to have some of his officers surveil him.
Christopher was spotted putting information posters about Sian up in his cab as well as cleaning the vehicle and burning items, it was clear that he was trying to get rid of any evidence. Officers continued to keep a close eye on him and reported back to Detective Fulcher that Christopher had just left a store with a bunch of pills, they took this as an indication that he was going to take his own life.
Detective Fulcher realised that if Christopher was to take his own life then they would never know what happened to Sian, she could still have been alive at that point, there could be other victims. They needed Christopher Halliwell alive so they arrested him.
What was to happen next was a bizarre chain of events which cost Detective Stephen Fulcher his career. It was decided that Detective Fulcher and a female colleague (who was taking notes) were to get into a car with Christopher and somehow see if he would open up and lead them to Sian. Because no lawyer was in attendance and Christopher was unaware of his rights this was frowned upon in the eyes of the law and went against police procedure. Detective Fulcher was determined to find Sian and to put Christopher behind bars so nobody else could come to any harm.
Stephen's plan had worked, Christopher confessed that he had been responsible for what happened to Sian and then out of nowhere he said to the two officers ''Do you want another one?''.
(Becky Godden Edwards. Picture credit: Mirror)
At this point, the correct procedure would be to take him back to the police station and have a formal statement made but Detective Fulcher didn't want to risk Christopher going quiet on them especially now that he was actually talking and giving them valuable information. Stephen didn't want to walk away from this unidentified victim that Christopher has spoken of and agreed to be taken to the site where the body was.
On the way back to the police station Christopher made it clear that he wasn't going to repeat what he'd said beforehand but by then there was DNA evidence on Sian who was sadly found deceased which matched him. The situation with the other victim was tricky, the victim was female and had been at the location since 2003 which also sent alarm bells ringing, just exactly how long had Christopher Halliwell been abducting and killing women? The victim was a 20 year old girl named Becky Godden Edwards and she had fallen into a substance addiction which led her to working on the streets of Swindon as a sex worker.
Becky was a beautiful and lovely young girl but she couldn't shake her addiction, her family had tried to help her for years but it was all to no avail and Becky refused to go and stay with her family until she was 100% clean.
Police officers continued to search Christopher Halliwell's property and car and found a shocking collection of women's items. There was said to be 60 items of clothing and amongst them was a cardigan that belonged to Becky and one of Sian's boots. The other items have so far not been identified with their original owners. Knowing that Becky had been a sex worker, one wonders if this was another case of easy prey for someone like him. It was clear that he targeted vulnerable girls who were either working the streets or going home after a few drinks. Being a cab driver (as I have written about in previous cases on this blog) gave him access to vulnerable women and the fact that he had an official taxi licence on display inside and outside of his car you would forgive someone for thinking this was a safe option after a night out.
I think back to the number of times I have gotten into a cab by myself when I was younger either after a night out with friends or missing the last train and just trying to get home after a late shift at work. Seeing a cab back then was a sigh of relief cause you thought you'd get home safe. Abduction in these circumstances can so easily happen and I don't mean to frighten anyone when I say this but unfortunately in this world some people don't always have your best intentions at heart.
So, Detective Fulcher felt that he had done his job to the best of his ability, he helped make the streets of Swindon safer and had a horrible murderer put away so that he couldn't harm any more innocent people. At first when the news broke that they had their man, Stephen was applauded for all that he had done but that soon changed. Because he didn't follow the correct procedure with Christopher Halliwell it was seen as a real sore point and he was accused of unprofessionalism and disrupting the case. The whole situation ended with Stephen walking away from the career that he worked so hard for all of those years. The families of Sian and Becky supported him and were disgusted with how he had been treated.
Also, convicting Christopher Hallliwell fully wasn't so straight forward either. He had been found guilty of Sian's abduction and murder 100% but with Becky's case there was confusion because of the circumstances and the way the confession was delivered so they threw it out. Becky's family were devastated. The police dragged Christopher (not physically - but it would have been great if they did) back into the interrogation room and asked for more information about Becky. Being the twisted and conniving individual that he is, he told the cops that if he was to provide information on that particular victim then he would like to make a deal that they don't come back to him years down the line and question him about other murders (which he had hinted about and he knew that the police were already trying to connect him to other unsolved murders & disappearances of young women in Swindon and elsewhere. He also knew that the police wanted the origins of the women's clothing collection that they found in his house which they viewed as his 'Trophies' from potential victims).
He put the police in a difficult position and he enjoyed it, all the attention, knowing that he had all of the power and the information that everyone wanted. The police refused his offer but eventually there was justice for Becky and her family.
Christopher Halliwell was originally sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years for the murder of Sian O'Callaghan but this was later changed to a whole life order when he was also found guilty of the murder of Becky Godden Edwards. Christopher Halliwell will never leave prison.
Justice was done for Sian and finally for Becky but what of the other numerous families out there who may not even know that their loved one was a victim of his. So far he's suspected of 27 other murders but that number keeps changing depending on what article or book you read on the case. He was also suspected to have killed
Claudia Lawrence (for more info on Claudia's case, check out my post
here).
With him being in prison for the rest of his natural life there's no pressure on him to tell anyone the truth, he's got nothing to gain from it in his eyes. He's a monster, pure evil, but he could show some kind of thought for the families by telling people what really happened and who's items of clothing were in his house?
Will we ever get the whole truth from him? Maybe we will find out after he's gone? Who knows?
I just know, as do Stephen Fulcher, the police, the writers of the books on this case and anyone who has ever read about Christopher Halliwell, that he is responsible for more murders than we know of.
The families of Becky and Sian have revealed that as well as the wonderful support and sympathy from the public, they have also had women contact them who have been victims of Christopher Halliwell but managed to escape. Becky was murdered in 2003 and Sian was murdered in 2011, that's a huge gap of time, what was he doing for all of that time?
A former friend of his told the police that back in the 1980s, Christopher Halliwell asked him ''How many do you have to kill to be a Serial killer?''
(Former Detective Stephen Fulcher. Picture credit: Bradford Zone)
After his career as a detective ended, Stephen Fulcher began a different path in conflict resolution in Somalia and Libya. Working to reform police forces, he also wrote a book 'Catching A Serial Killer' about the Christopher Halliwell case.
Stephen believes that had he been given more time with Christopher Halliwell he would have been able to possibly get more information about other victims. Stephen has never gotten over the sour note in which his career as a Detective ended and has continued to urge his former colleagues to keep investigating Christopher's possible connection to other unsolved murders.
Further Reading & Sources:
RIP Sian, Becky and all those other unidentified women who lost their lives to Christopher Halliwell.
Thank you for checking out my latest case. I wish all the best for you as we continue with 2022. See you in the next post x
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