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00:02The next few weeks will be the worst for the National Health Service as the number of COVID
00:08patients in hospitals... 56 more people have died with coronavirus in Wales taking the total...
00:13The First Minister says we'll be staying in lockdown for another three weeks.
00:20I can remember driving around the streets of Pembrokeshire and seeing that the roads were
00:24completely empty, it was like as if everyone had vanished.
00:33I'd noticed the windows open of my neighbour's flat.
00:39I said to my husband, she's an elderly lady, she must be freezing and I hadn't seen her
00:46for a long time.
00:50So, I said to my husband, I am going to phone the police up because something is not right.
01:01Police officers attended the scene, they knocked on the front door, there was no reply.
01:07They looked through the bedroom window and they were confronted by a very disturbing scene.
01:17They saw a body and fairly quickly, it became obvious that something brutal had happened
01:28in that property.
01:36When a murder is committed, it's always a race against time to find the truth, to separate
01:43fact from fiction, to catch the killer and to make sure that justice is served.
01:50But what if the truth disappears when the victim dies?
01:55I'm Dr. Richard Sheppard and I've spent my whole career as a forensic pathologist performing
02:01over 23,000 autopsies.
02:04I've learned that the dead don't hide the truth and they never lie.
02:10With the aid of a state-of-the-art laboratory and using groundbreaking technology, I'll be
02:16investigating a series of appalling crimes and examining the trail of evidence left behind
02:22on the victims' bodies, to reveal the truth behind their murder.
02:55I got a call here at the Herald Office of the Herald Office of the Herald Office of the
02:57Herald Office.
02:58Somebody was concerned about police activity in their road.
03:03They'd gone outside and asked the police what had happened and they were told, sorry, we
03:07can't tell you anything.
03:08So when the police aren't talking, what do people do?
03:11They ring the local newspaper and say, what do you know, Tom?
03:17So I got in the car and drove over as quickly as I could to see what's happening.
03:23Police and emergency service vehicles were also converging on the small town of Pembroke
03:29Dock in West Wales, where a resident was shocked to see that her street was their destination.
03:37I looked out the window and I could see these police cars, like, swarming in the street.
03:42And I could see them putting on their white suits, forensic suits.
03:47I was like, oh, God.
03:51I was over in Pembroke Dock within about ten minutes.
03:55And then I spoke to a few officers nearby, one of whom I did know.
03:59And I said, what's happening?
04:02Look, Tom, there's nothing I can say, but it is a serious situation.
04:08Unable to enter through the open bedroom window, police had forced their way into the ground
04:14floor flat.
04:22They found a body of what appeared to be a female, and that body was in a strange position.
04:33The body was in a kneeling position next to the bed with the hands rested against the mattress.
04:43And there was another chilling detail.
04:47The woman's head was covered.
04:51There was a plastic shopping bag over her head, and it had been tied on with electrical cord.
05:03The position of the body and the plastic bag meant that a natural cause of death was quickly
05:10ruled out.
05:12The vet's police say the death is being treated as suspicious and remained at the scene,
05:17working to establish the circumstances surrounding her death.
05:22Was this a tragic suicide?
05:24An accident?
05:26Or something far more sinister?
05:38My name's John Culls.
05:40I'm the deputy editor of the Pembrokeshire Herald.
05:43Pembroke Dock is a small town.
05:46It's fairly close, um, as a community.
05:50So if something happens to someone, you hear it pretty quickly.
05:56And in lockdown, with people communicating from home via social media,
06:02news that a body had been found spread even more quickly.
06:06I'd gone onto Facebook for an evening, and it was the first thing that came up in the newsfeed.
06:14At that point, I was thinking, you know, sorry for whoever it was, but, um, yeah, I was just scrolling.
06:22And then photos were put on of the crime scene.
06:25I recognised it straight away.
06:28Gemma had recognised the street her aunt lived on.
06:33I got straight in my car and I headed over there.
06:36I got there, and that's when we were greeted by the police officer.
06:41I basically said that my auntie lives in that flat there.
06:45I was just, you know, for her welfare, is she OK?
06:51And his mannerism just changed.
07:05The police were now supporting Gemma and her family as part of the identification process.
07:11Rather than being asked to view the body, they were asked whether Gemma's aunt had any distinguishing features.
07:18I knew what tattoos that she'd had.
07:21One of them was one of my drawings that I'd done when I was younger.
07:25She just, it was a dragonfly, she liked it, and she went and had it tattooed on her ankle.
07:30And that's when it was confirmed that it was Judith then.
07:35I couldn't really speak much at that point.
07:38Just completely shocked.
07:42Never in a million years would have thought that would be the case.
07:47The victim was named as 68-year-old Judith Reid.
07:55Judith had lived in her one-bedroomed flat for seven years.
08:00Judith lived next door in the bottom flat.
08:04She used to love going out the garden.
08:07So, of course, I'd come home from work and then talk over the wall to Judith.
08:14She was a lovely lady to talk to.
08:18When Judith's body was found, Wales was a month past the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic's second wave.
08:25The latest figures from Public Health Wales show 16 more people have died with coronavirus, taking the total number of
08:32deaths here to 5,205.
08:36Covid restrictions made many normal methods of investigation almost impossible.
08:41But police still pursued a vital area of their inquiry.
08:46A really important part of an investigation like this is finding out about the victim, and we call that in
08:54the police, victimology.
08:58Judith Reid, well, she'd been born in Pembrokeshire.
09:03She was married to her first husband in the 1970s, where they had their first and only child.
09:12That marriage lasted about 25 years, and there was a separation.
09:19Judith had spent most of her life caring for others.
09:25She'd been working as a carer and as an assistant social worker in hospitals, before embracing a new chapter of
09:32her life in 2007.
09:36She met her second husband and moved to Cyprus, a part of the world she really enjoyed living.
09:44But, unfortunately, the marriage came to an end, and she moved back to Pembrokeshire.
09:51Nothing really held her back. She loved singing.
09:55She was quite the karaoke queen.
09:58If there was ever an opportunity for her to get hold of that microphone, she was doing it.
10:05She used to go to choir practice, and she was into going to church.
10:11And she did really miss that in Covid.
10:14She missed meeting friends, socialising, because that was a big part of her life as well.
10:21She used to say it got her out of the flat.
10:25She was always so well-kept.
10:28Her hair was always done. Her make-up was always done.
10:31Her nails was done.
10:33She took great pride in itself.
10:37She didn't really know this, but sometimes we would refer to her as, you know, Mrs Bouquet.
10:44Because that's the appearance that you got from here.
10:47Nothing was out of place.
10:50Immaculate. Her house was always immaculate.
10:55There was nothing about Judith's life which raised suspicion and no hint of enemies.
11:03Gemma and family, initially not knowing the full details, were left questioning what had happened to Judith in her flat
11:10that had led to her death.
11:14We genuinely thought it was like a freak accident. She'd fallen hit her head and there was a complete accident
11:20that she'd fallen to her death.
11:22Did Judith die alone or was there someone else involved in her death?
11:33To find out, pathology needed to examine any marks or wounds left behind on the body.
11:39And any injuries that indicate self-defence, however small, would help rule out suicidal or accidental death.
11:51It's only human nature to try and defend yourself using an arm or a wrist, no matter who the assailant
11:57is or what weapon is being used.
12:00I look for bruising and lacerations on the arms or wrists or hand.
12:04In that respect, it's really useful to know if the victim was right or left handed, because that's the arm
12:10they will naturally use first in defence.
12:13With the case of Judith Reid, there was an apparent laceration, something that could very well have been a defensive
12:21injury.
12:22There was a wound of four centimetres, gaping to 1.5 centimetres over the back of the left hand, just
12:30above the wrist.
12:32In my opinion, this wound could be consistent with a defensive injury caused by a weapon such as a knife
12:39or a heavy instrument.
12:42The presence of this small but telling injury was compelling evidence that someone else was involved in Judith's death.
12:54Looking at this case, you'd consider, what does the scene tell us from a forensic perspective?
13:02Has there been a theft of personal belongings?
13:07You know, is this a burglary that's gone wrong?
13:10Has she been targeted by any individual for the purpose of causing her death?
13:19Attention turned to the plastic bag, tied with an electrical flex.
13:26Both items possibly indicating suffocation or strangulation.
13:33The pathologist needed to establish whether either had played a part in causing Judith's death.
13:40But the body revealed a different story.
13:45When the bag was removed, the telltale signs of serious blunt force trauma with a heavy instrument were immediately apparent.
13:54There were multiple tears, lacerations and fractures around the right ear.
13:59But there was also a complex series of lacerations around the left ear, showing that blows must have been struck
14:08to both sides of the head.
14:11Judith was in a kneeling position, and the force and direction of the blows shows that she was forced into
14:18this position during the attack with a heavy blunt instrument.
14:23These blows, possibly 14 of them, fracturing the skull and forcing the pieces into the brain, causing internal bleeding.
14:33Swelling and depriving the brain of oxygen.
14:37Leading quickly to unconsciousness.
14:41Cardiac arrest.
14:43And death.
14:46The size and shape and weight of the instrument that would do this sort of damage is easily recognisable to
14:53any pathologist.
14:57It was clearly a hammer.
15:03And lying on the floor of Judith's bedroom, investigators found the murder weapon, a hammer covered with hair and blood.
15:16The details emerging were devastating for the family.
15:21We were told that she was hit in the head no fewer than 14 times.
15:27I think we all went numb.
15:30I just heard that, you know, Judith's sisters were just hysterically crying.
15:37I didn't realise that I was, I was.
15:40It's, yeah, like an out-of-body experience because it was just so brutal.
15:45You hear of things like this happening on the TV, but you never think for one second that would happen
15:52in your family.
15:57There was now an urgency to track down an unpredictable killer who was on the loose.
16:04Those close to Judith would be vital in finding leads.
16:10Speaking to family, friends, close associates can help an investigation an awful lot.
16:20So, actually, in this case, the person that the police had to trace really quickly was the son, Dale Morgan.
16:31Dale had moved in with Judith after she had an operation on her foot in the October of 2020.
16:39And, of course, because of Covid and lockdown restrictions, he was in her bubble.
16:51In the autumn of 2020, temporary bubbles allowed adults living alone, like Judith,
16:58limited social interaction with a few close friends or relatives.
17:04It was a time when Wales was moving in and out of lockdowns in response to the rising cases.
17:10Here in Wales, we continue to respond to this global crisis.
17:16We know what we have to do. We have to reduce our contact with other people as much as we
17:22can.
17:23The Covid lockdown was pretty strictly observed in Pembrokeshire.
17:30Lockdown had been eased and then come back in fairly strongly.
17:34But even with lockdown restrictions being eased, people were still told to isolate if they were ill.
17:43They were still told to avoid too much contact with other people.
17:48Like many others, Judith was particularly vulnerable when the pandemic hit.
17:55She was asthmatic as a young girl, which later on in life then developed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
18:07Sometimes it would be really bad when she'd have to have, you know, tanks of oxygen.
18:13She did have arthritis too. So she was on quite high levels of steroid based drugs.
18:21As Judith's son had been caring for his mother, police were concerned that he hadn't been seen.
18:28He may also have been caught up in the attack at Judith's flat.
18:32So there are lines of inquiry where, well, is Dale in danger?
18:37Do we need to find him from a safeguarding point of view?
18:39Do we need to locate him? Is he injured? Is he missing?
18:42And that sparked all the police activity in Pembroke Dock.
18:46Police were rushing everywhere trying to find Dale to locate him.
18:53Contrast the quiet of Covid, quiet of the streets, but all of a sudden the streets are full of police
18:58cars.
19:03We knew that he was 42 years old.
19:05We knew that he'd been a volunteer local scout, scoutmaster.
19:10But he didn't seem to be a very well-known person in the local community.
19:14As a journalist, although I know a lot of people in Pembroke Dock area, he wasn't somebody on my radar.
19:21As cousins, Dale and Gemma had grown up together.
19:26I'm the youngest of the grandchildren.
19:29He's the next one up.
19:32Yeah, I mean, we got on really well.
19:35Back then, if you were going on a night out, he's someone that you definitely would have wanted to come
19:40out with you.
19:41Definitely the life and soul of the party.
19:48Judith and Dale had a particularly close relationship.
19:52Dale Morgan was Judith's only child and she doted on him.
19:57She protected him.
19:59He kept his mother company.
20:02They laughed and joked together.
20:04They were very musical.
20:06They both played guitar.
20:08Very, very close.
20:11She idolised him like he was a blue-eyed boy.
20:29Having moved into Judith's flat in the lead-up to Christmas, Dale had become Judith's primary carer.
20:37But neighbour Michelle was worried that the cold winter air was getting into Judith's bedroom.
20:43So I saw Dale.
20:45And I said to him, I said, oh, how's your mum?
20:48I said, I noticed the windows open.
20:51And she's not well.
20:52And he was like, oh, well, the fresh air does her asthma good.
20:57It's really playing up.
20:58It's really playing up.
21:00In the weeks that followed, Covid infection rates soared.
21:04And with friends and family unable to visit, Michelle asked after Judith over the garden wall.
21:12I said to him, what was your mum doing?
21:13And again, he said that her asthma was bad.
21:17Of course, Christmas came in.
21:20Windows still open 24-7.
21:27You have to remember, in lockdown, things continued almost as normal, but without human contact between people.
21:38Lockdown had the effect of hiding people from each other.
21:42So you have a set of circumstances where the communities are separated in a way they've not been before.
21:50A month into the new year, there was still no sign of Judith.
21:55Michelle became so concerned she phoned 101.
22:00A local police officer phoned Judith's house and spoke to Dale.
22:05Police had said, have you seen Judith?
22:08We were friends and family worried about here.
22:11Oh, yes, my mum, she's fine.
22:13She's just isolated from Covid.
22:15Everything's OK.
22:16She'll be seeing your friends again soon.
22:19It seemed there was no cause for concern.
22:22But a few days later, Judith's health was deteriorating.
22:29When I saw Dale, I asked him then, again, how was Judith?
22:33And he said to me, she's taken a turn for the worse.
22:35Turn for the worse, Michelle. She's really poorly. She's in hospital up there.
22:42Any hospital admission during the pandemic was cause for concern.
22:48One of Judith's friends was so worried that she called the local hospital to see when Judith would be discharged.
22:55And then realised that something was seriously wrong.
23:00She rang, found that no record of her admission to hospital or that she'd even stayed at the hospital.
23:06Bearing in mind that this was during Covid, then you'd expect fairly strict records to have been kept about who
23:14visited the hospital and who'd been admitted to it.
23:18There was no trace of Judith in any hospital.
23:22Unable to check Judith's flat themselves, friends, once again, called the police.
23:35This time, the police went to the flat in person and discovered Judith's body.
23:45And they're shocked to find it already in a state of decomposition.
23:52Investigators turned to pathology to establish Judith's time of death.
23:58It's always difficult to see someone who comes to post-mortem in a state of decomposition.
24:03It's hard not to think of their family who have worried about them and who have not yet been able
24:10to give them a proper funeral.
24:12Understanding time of death is difficult because there are so many environmental and physical factors that affect decay.
24:21But what we do know is that in similar conditions, all bodies decay in the same way.
24:29By ten days, gases cause bloating, the skin starts to blister and insects colonise the body and begin to feed.
24:38And the body quickly loses mass.
24:42Skin sloughs off and soft tissues begin to break down.
24:47And by eight weeks, bones and cartilage may become visible, especially if the body is left in the open air.
24:56With the case of Judith Reed, there was skin slippage of the lower limbs and drying and blackening of the
25:03hands consistent with mummification.
25:07Judith's body wasn't in the later stages of decomposition.
25:11But the cold winter air blowing in through the open bedroom window would have effectively turned the room into a
25:19fridge and have slowed down the process.
25:24In those conditions, it's possible that the body had been there for a month or even longer.
25:36This evidence from pathology provided investigators with proof that Dale had been living in the flat the entire time his
25:44mother was dead.
25:46Which meant it was very likely that he was the killer.
25:54So the fact that Dale was in the flat with the victim's body is very difficult to understand.
26:04I'm seeing a lot of avoidance behaviour here.
26:07Sometimes when someone commits a crime that they're ashamed of, sometimes people can almost pretend it didn't happen and push
26:16it to one side and try and move on.
26:18Deep down, psychologically, the likelihood is that he probably didn't want it to be real.
26:25The fact that he put a bag over her head is probably a similar pattern of thinking, of avoidance, of
26:36trying to detach from the fact that he's engaged in this behaviour.
26:43Dale was now the police's number one suspect.
26:49Initially, they couldn't track him down and his phone was turned off.
26:56But hours into their search, he turned up.
27:02Judith's son, Dale, handed himself in at Pemrodot Police Station and said,
27:10I believe you're looking for me.
27:12And he was arrested for Judith's murder.
27:19But he refused to talk to detectives.
27:24Everything was no comment throughout all the interviews.
27:27He didn't want police to look into his social media accounts.
27:30He wouldn't give his PIN numbers for his phone.
27:32He wouldn't cooperate in any way.
27:36With a suspect but no confession, investigators would need concrete evidence to present to a jury in case he pleaded
27:44not guilty.
27:45One piece of evidence found in Judith's bedroom would reveal a dark side to Judith's blue-eyed boy.
27:54Judith had a diary for as long as I can remember.
27:58Every single night for decades, she would write in that diary of what she did that day, thoughts of the
28:06day.
28:07It revealed Dale's serious problem with substance abuse.
28:13Dale Morgan was someone who was known to abuse drugs.
28:19Certainly, the police suspected that he'd been taking drugs.
28:22Well, he'd not only been taking drugs.
28:25He was taking his mother's drugs, the drugs that were intended to treat her.
28:31On the 20th of November 2020, I discovered my gabapentin box only had one card and not six.
28:39I really told Dale off, I need those tablets.
28:45To the outside world, Judith and her son were happy.
28:49But behind closed doors, she was hiding a dysfunctional relationship.
28:55We weren't aware as a family that he was stealing her medication until after her murder.
29:02That change in dynamic because of Covid that brought them together in the same house,
29:06meant that she was exposed to what he really was.
29:13The diaries also revealed that Dale had been stealing more than just the drugs.
29:20She suspected that he had been stealing money from her during lockdown while they were living together.
29:26£150 gone from savings and £142.95 from debit.
29:32I really feel betrayed.
29:33Dale has obviously gone through my drawers looking for tablets
29:36and has abused my trust with my debit card when I couldn't walk.
29:46Had the diary revealed a motive for why Dale bludgeoned his mother to death?
29:52Could he have lost control in his desperation for cash and drugs?
29:58Or did emotion just get the better of him?
30:04One thing was clear.
30:06A son murdering his own mother was unthinkable.
30:11There is a term actually for when a son kills his mother and it's called matricide.
30:18And it's extremely rare in this country for a son to kill his mother.
30:24In my years of being a journalist, I've covered quite a few murders but never a murder where it's the
30:29son is being accused of killing the mother.
30:32That was a very unusual case. That almost never happens.
30:38Usually the bond between a son and a mother is the closest of bonds.
30:43And that's what is very shocking about this crime.
30:49We do see that there is an increased likelihood of mental health in matricide cases and drug use as well
30:58sometimes.
30:59And then also the fact that the murderer is usually male as well.
31:05In Dale's case, we are seeing some evidence of mental health struggles in the past.
31:10There is an attempted suicide in the past, which would suggest that he's struggled with mental health issues prior to
31:19this offence.
31:21As far as drugs are concerned, in Dale's case, we see substance misuse for a long period of time.
31:28What drugs can do is they can decrease inhibitions, it can decrease emotional regulation, and it can decrease control of
31:37behaviour.
31:38So if you mix all those things together, then that is going to be maybe increasing the likelihood that you're
31:44going to engage in a behaviour that you wouldn't have sober.
31:47So substances don't lead to murder, but substances can lead to a situation where somebody has less control over themselves,
32:01which then may lead to things like murder.
32:08Pathology had confirmed that Judith had been dead for over a month by the time her body was discovered.
32:17Police believed her death occurred no more than the day after her final diary entry, the 2nd of December 2020,
32:27which suggests Dale had been living with his mother's body for two months.
32:33Police now had enough evidence for the Crown Prosecution Service to charge Dale with murder.
32:47In a brief hearing in Swansea Crown Court, Dale Morgan confirmed his name and his plea.
32:55A man from Nayland has admitted murdering his mother in Pembrokeshire.
32:5943-year-old Dale Morgan appeared via video link at Swansea Crown Court, where he admitted killing 68-year-old
33:05Judith Reed.
33:07There was no doubt that he knew that the game was up. He knew that the evidence against him was
33:16so overwhelming that he had to plead guilty to murder.
33:22And he would have known by pleading guilty to the murder that he would have had some recognition from that
33:30when it came to sentencing.
33:33On the 4th of October, Dale Morgan stood before the court once more, this time awaiting his sentence.
33:43The court heard the terrible details of Judith's death.
33:48The pathology proved that Judith Reed was bludgeoned by Dale in her bedroom in a prolonged hammer attack that she
33:57first attempted to parry.
33:59But he was far too strong for her, and tragically, she eventually succumbed.
34:07The pathology was also able to show how long Judith had been lying dead in her bedroom, proving that Dale
34:15had continued living in the house alongside her body, carrying on as if nothing had happened.
34:26The harrowing evidence presented in court sent shockwaves through the community.
34:33We found out that she'd been struck by a hammer 14 times to the head.
34:38We didn't know that until it was actually spoken in court.
34:42When everyone heard that, the community heard that, they were very, very shocked, shocked and saddened, I think,
34:48that a pensioner, basically, had been killed in that way by a much stronger, younger man, and she would have
34:56been defenceless.
35:00Judge Paul Thomas QC told Morgan his was a savage and sustained attack against a defenceless woman, your mother.
35:07You were your mother's only child, he said. She adored you. She stuck up for you, even when you stole
35:13from her on a previous occasion.
35:15She tried to help you with your problems. In short, you were pretty much her life.
35:20You repaid those 43 years of devotion by bludgeoning her to death with a hammer.
35:28He was jailed for life. The judge ordered that he serve a minimum term of 21 years and six months.
35:47Following a painstaking investigation, Judith's killer had been brought to justice.
35:53Judith had died during extraordinary times, with the pandemic providing a shield for Dale Morgan to cover up his actions.
36:05It gave him the opportunity to spin any number of excuses.
36:10His mother was in hospital.
36:13His mother was ill.
36:15His mother had Covid, was self-isolating.
36:18And because Judith Reid had a history of respiratory illness,
36:23that adds credibility to what he's telling other people.
36:31So Covid gives him the perfect cover to conceal his mother's death.
36:40The pandemic also created challenges for the police.
36:44When friends first raised the alarm about Judith, officers didn't visit the flat.
36:50Concerned that her serious health issues put her at additional risk of Covid, they rang and spoke to Dale instead.
36:59David Powys police say they've now improved the way they deal with concerns raised about vulnerable people.
37:06And they now make every effort to talk to them in person.
37:11Under the shadow of Covid restrictions, the community still came together to say their goodbyes to Judith.
37:21We were only allowed 30 people at a church locally.
37:27But the crowds that stood roadside and outside the church was phenomenal.
37:33They were people lined on the Clevay Bridge.
37:37Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to sing because of Covid.
37:41So, like, we played choirs, songs, like, they were songs that meant something to it.
37:46I think we definitely did it proud on her funeral.
37:49I think she would have loved it, yeah.
37:53Despite the brutality of Judith's death, her memory lives on with the gentle reminders of who she really was.
38:06This is the heart embroidery that Judith did for me.
38:10It's beautiful. It means the world to me.
38:16Just to think that she took the time to do it for me.
38:24So, yeah, it means a lot.
38:27Thank you very much.
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