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00:04A fatal fall into a stream in the remote British countryside.
00:09The police said there had been some sort of an accident involving Natalie.
00:15A young woman's life cut short in an instant.
00:19She was breathing.
00:22And then I woke up and said, and she was beautiful.
00:27Was it just a tragic accident?
00:30Andrew Pearson gave an account.
00:32He'd gone for a walk with Natalie and she'd fallen and slipped into a stream.
00:37Or murder.
00:38All the police have at this point is suspicions.
00:41They've got questions.
00:41But that is not enough to provide evidence of guilt.
01:08Natalie Harker was born in North Yorkshire.
01:11She lived with her mum and dad, John and Deborah, and her brother Alistair.
01:17Natalie was a loving, caring sister.
01:20When we were younger, we were inseparable.
01:23My uncle used to call us the gruesome twosome.
01:26One day, me and Natalie were out playing in the fields and the farm that we lived on.
01:31And my sister dared me to sit on an ant hive.
01:34So I did.
01:35And then evidently got my bit.
01:38This was typical of what me and Natalie would get up to.
01:41We were like cats and dogs.
01:43We were always scrapping, but we were always close and loving brother and sister.
01:49Natalie was described as kind, hardworking, loved by all of her friends and the community that she lived in.
01:56She was really popular.
01:57She didn't talk to anyone about anything.
02:00Everybody described her as a bright, happy, bubbly character who'd help anybody out.
02:07In early 2018, Natalie was living at home with her mum and dad when she began dating an older man
02:14named Andrew Pearson,
02:15who she'd met when they both worked at a local supermarket.
02:20And a few months after Andrew had quit his job, he came back in the store and asked her to
02:24be his girlfriend.
02:25And Natalie said yes, despite the 15-year age gap.
02:29It was what would seem like a fairy tale relationship.
02:34Natalie would talk in length about Andrew, that he was so kind and how amazing he was.
02:42By October 2019, 30-year-old Natalie had left her job at the supermarket and was working as a cleaner.
02:51Natalie was a really hardworking person.
02:54She worked two separate cleaning jobs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
02:58Natalie often worked unsociable hours, but she always was really reliable and would turn up on time every day for
03:06her shift.
03:11On October 9th, 2019, Natalie left her parents' house at 4.30 a.m. to cycle to her first cleaning
03:20job of the day.
03:24Natalie told her parents that she had a medical appointment at 10 a.m. after she finished work and she
03:30said that she would be home after that.
03:33But by 1 p.m. there was no sign of Natalie.
03:39Natalie's parents were becoming increasingly concerned at this point.
03:42They went out into the back garden, they could see that her bicycle wasn't there.
03:46And they called her mobile phone, it went straight to voicemail.
03:51John and Debra were worried that maybe Natalie had got into some kind of accident.
03:56And they went to where she was meant to have had her appointment that day, but Natalie had never shown.
04:01At about half past two that day, I got a phone call from my dad saying Natalie had gone missing,
04:07didn't know where she'd gone.
04:08And said, you need to come home.
04:10By this point, they thought something was seriously wrong.
04:14They called 999 and within 10 minutes, officers were at the house.
04:21Detective Inspector Steve Mingus of North Yorkshire Police was on duty that day.
04:27So the first responders arrived at Natalie's home.
04:30Those officers did a risk assessment to find out what Natalie's routines were, who her friends and family were, and
04:37to find out whether she was suffering any issues.
04:39Natalie would normally finish her work about 8am in the morning.
04:43She would then cycle back home and rest before her second shift.
04:48It was established that Natalie hadn't arrived at work and she certainly hadn't arrived home.
04:54The police launched an urgent missing persons inquiry and they asked the family to share some recent pictures of Natalie,
05:02which they then shared on social media.
05:05To help with their search, the police really needed to piece together what Natalie had done in the hours before
05:11her disappearance, particularly the route that she had taken to work.
05:15Natalie would normally use the main road.
05:18However, a few months before, she'd fallen off her bike and injured her ankle.
05:22And she was really scared that she might fall into the road where there might be passing traffic.
05:26So she chose to use a cycle route close by, which bypassed much of the road.
05:33The cycle path is quite narrow.
05:35And on October morning, it was really, really dark.
05:37It was unlit.
05:39It was cold.
05:40It was wet.
05:41And it was shrouded by trees and bushes.
05:44As detectives began to build a picture of Natalie's movements earlier that morning, at 4.43 p.m., over three
05:52hours since Natalie's parents had reported her missing, North Yorkshire police received a distressing 999 call from Andrew Pearson.
06:03Hello.
06:04All right, Andrew, listen to me, your girlfriend, OK?
06:09What exactly happened?
06:12I've been camping for a few days.
06:16And, OK, so I met Natalie and we went for a walk.
06:22It was like an open area.
06:23And as we were going down there, she must have slipped and, like, dragged me, because I remember hitting my
06:33back.
06:34And then I realised she's in the water.
06:36And I just dragged her out.
06:41I'm first aid trained, so I did what I could.
06:45I thought she was breathing.
06:46And then she seemed OK.
06:59So we did what I'm trying to do, stripped her off, and we got on blanket.
07:04And then I woke up and she was purple.
07:12So you fell asleep, yeah?
07:14And then I woke up and walked up.
07:15And then I woke up.
07:15What time did you wake up?
07:18Just take your breath.
07:20I don't know.
07:21A friend from America phoned me, I think, at 4 o'clock.
07:25Right, no problem.
07:25Did you try CPR again?
07:28She knew she was purple.
07:30No, no, no, no.
07:31Just take her breath.
07:32Slow yourself down.
07:33All right.
07:34OK.
07:35So when you walked back up and she was purple, you did not perform any other first aid?
07:40No, I checked.
07:41But she's here.
07:42I felt only gone.
07:43No, no, no, no.
07:45Following Andrew's 999 call to report that Natalie had died after falling into a stream,
07:51officers arrived at the scene.
07:54They found Andrew Pearson.
07:56He then directed him down the cycle path to a gate where he pointed across the field
08:00and said that Natalie's body was in a tent within the wooded area.
08:05Meanwhile, Natalie's family were still frantically searching for their missing loved one.
08:10I said to my mum and my dad, I want to go out and see if I can find her.
08:15Mum came with me.
08:16We drove round for about 10, 15 minutes looking in all the places we thought she maybe was.
08:21And I'd said to mum, we'll go and see if she's falling off the bike.
08:26So we went down to the lane where Natalie would sometimes go on the way back from work,
08:32then walked down the lane, heard a load of sirens that the police are coming.
08:36So we ran out to be greeted by Andrew Pearson and two police officers.
08:45The police said that Andrew had called and said that there had been some sort of an accident involving Natalie.
08:52Andrew was jumping round hysterically saying, this is the family, this is the family.
08:56The police said, stand over there, please. Andrew's found Natalie.
09:02In that moment, we had no idea what was going on.
09:06Both me and mum heard the air ambulance coming over and thought she was being saved.
09:11While Alistair and his mum, Deborah, awaited news on Natalie,
09:15officers followed Andrew's directions into the woodland, where he claimed he'd been camping.
09:22Officers came across a thicket of wooded area, brambles, bushes, overhanging trees,
09:28and they scrambled down that towards a stream.
09:31Officers managed to get across the stream up the other side,
09:35and they came across Andrew Pearson's tent, which was a highly camouflaged tent,
09:39which was underneath a tree canopy, which made it really difficult to be found in the first instance.
09:45Inside the tent, Natalie's naked body was found underneath the sleeping bag.
09:52Officers could see straight away that she had some severe bruising
09:55towards her upper torso and her neck area.
09:58When the police came back from hunting around for Natalie,
10:02they told us to sit in the back of a police car and wait for me father to come down.
10:07In that moment, we didn't know what was going on.
10:09The police said nothing to us.
10:11When my father arrived, a police person came up and said,
10:15we found a body and we believe it's Natalie.
10:24After North Yorkshire police discovered the body of 30-year-old Natalie Harker inside a tent on October 9th, 2019,
10:32they proceeded to question Andrew Pearson, who had called emergency services,
10:37claiming his girlfriend's death had been a tragic accident after she'd slipped and fallen into a stream.
10:45Andrew Pearson gave an account they'd met on the cyclopath.
10:49He'd gone for a walk with Natalie and during that walk, she'd fallen and slipped into a stream.
10:55He then stated that he'd pulled Natalie from the stream, given a CPR,
11:00and then dragged her to a tent that he'd pitched nearby in some woods.
11:03Andrew told the officers whilst in the tent, she was obviously cold and wet,
11:07so he took her clothes off to try and get her warm.
11:09Pearson says that he felt unconscious from the pain of his back injury,
11:14and when he woke, he found Natalie dead.
11:18And he said that the only thing that woke him up was a call from a friend in America.
11:23This was some 12 hours after Natalie had cycled to work that morning.
11:27Her body was now found naked in a tent with some severe injuries.
11:32Natalie's brother, Alistair, and their parents were waiting at the scene
11:36when detectives confirmed they'd found Natalie.
11:40Mum and Dad both cried during this time.
11:43We were very, very angry.
11:46I felt numb all day and every day for about a week after.
11:51Nothing added up in our heads.
11:54Why would Natalie have gone down into the woods at 5.30 in the morning with it being dark?
11:59I thought it was a very, very strange behaviour for Natalie.
12:03It's, of course, going to be very unusual for a family to be live at the scene itself.
12:08A family stumbling across the death of a loved one is going to be so distressing,
12:13so confusing, and there's not going to be any answers to the millions of questions
12:17that flood their mind in that moment.
12:21An investigation into Natalie's death was immediately launched,
12:25led by Detective Inspector Steve Mingus, who began to scrutinise Andrew's story.
12:31Andrew Pearson claimed to have met Natalie down this dark, dingy cycle path.
12:38In actual fact, the route from her home address went down the main road,
12:42and there were several places where Andrew Pearson could have met Natalie in a well-lit area,
12:47but he chose to meet her down this cycle path.
12:51As the investigation got underway, it wasn't long before his team uncovered a crucial piece of evidence.
12:58When the forensic examination took place with the tent,
13:01it was found that Natalie's clothing was folded neatly in a zipped storage compartment within the tent.
13:07However, I would have expected from Andrew Pearson's account
13:09that had he taken Natalie's clothing off to get her warm,
13:12that clothing would have been in a bundle, not stored, in a storage compartment neatly folded.
13:18But that wasn't the only discovery that set off alarm bells.
13:23A number of items were found within Andrew Pearson's tent.
13:27A lot of survival items, dried food, axes, knives.
13:30But willingly, what was found was some gaffer tape,
13:34which was very suggestive of a gag having been used on Natalie.
13:38Officers immediately became very suspicious of the account that Andrew was going to be given.
13:42Based upon that information, officers determined that Andrew Pearson should be arrested on suspicion of murder.
13:49You're under arrest on suspicion of murder, OK?
13:52Do you understand?
13:54Right.
13:55I'm just going to put some cuffs on you at the moment.
13:57OK?
13:58He is using a higher-pitched voice.
14:00He is sort of trying to show off some body language of being really quite timid.
14:06And I have to question whether that is his natural reaction or whether that's quite intentional.
14:13Pearson looks very distressed.
14:15He looks very shocked.
14:17None of that naturally indicates guilt on its own.
14:20What it could be is that he's stumbled across a really awful scene
14:24and he's distraught at the loss of Natalie.
14:27Or it could be a tactic to try and garner some sympathy from those arresting him.
14:33Following his arrest, Andrew was taken to Harrogate Police Station.
14:38I felt a lot of anger towards Andrew when I found out he'd been arrested.
14:43Because I thought he was a kind, decent person and that he wouldn't have hurt Natalie.
14:49It's hard to describe, but it's sort of a numb feeling in your head
14:55that you just can't process anything.
14:58The police now just had 24 hours to either charge Andrew Pearson or to let him walk free.
15:05They were desperately hoping he could expand on that first 999 call he made.
15:10I would have thought that, given Andrew Pearson's original account,
15:14that Natalie found this stream, and this was a complete accident,
15:18leading to her death.
15:19Having then been arrested on suspicion of murder,
15:21that he would have been very keen to give an accounting interview.
15:25However, in the police interview,
15:27Andrew almost disengaged from the police officers
15:29and refused to answer any questions.
15:31That became suspicious for me as the senior investigating officer.
15:35It's a real contrast from that first 999 call where he's desperate for help
15:40to now somebody that looks really disengaged
15:43with helping the police understand what's just happened
15:46to somebody who he claims that he loves.
15:49It's relatively common that when someone has experienced a significant trauma
15:53that they go through a period of shock.
15:56And that can be an immediate shock, or it can be prolonged.
15:58And that can lead to displays of various different behaviours,
16:02including a kind of panic response where actually they entirely withdraw.
16:07You can also imagine if this is a case of someone innocent who's been arrested
16:12and, you know, is being questioned as if they had something to do with this death,
16:17that alone would be really traumatising.
16:19It can make you, you know, totally withdraw into yourself.
16:23It could really make you question how safe you are.
16:28Whilst naturally you might think that if someone's girlfriend
16:31has had an accident and died in front of them
16:34that they would be, you know, trying to provide as much information
16:37and context as possible to an investigation.
16:41But you also have to remember that trauma can do really unusual things to a person.
16:46There's even conditions like selective mutism,
16:49where people struggle to communicate at all verbally.
16:52And so what Pearson is doing here, whilst maybe looks unusual,
16:57is not entirely unheard of and cannot be enough to evidence their guilt.
17:03While police struggled to get information from Andrew,
17:06a forensic post-mortem was being carried out on Natalie's body.
17:11Natalie had suffered some external, internal bruising
17:15to her upper torso and to her neck.
17:17But Andrew Pearson's account was that he'd given CPR to Natalie
17:20at the point of taking her from the stream and at the tent.
17:24So that could partially account for some of the injuries that Natalie had received.
17:28Police would have to wait for the post-mortem report
17:31to find out if it would provide further information about how Natalie died
17:35and whether she had fallen into the stream, as Andrew claimed,
17:39or if she had been pushed to her death.
17:42All the police have at this point is suspicions.
17:45They've got questions.
17:46But that is not enough to provide evidence of guilt.
17:50And so they need a lot more information
17:52before they can start truly answering any of those questions.
17:56They're going to be looking for alibis.
17:58They're going to be looking at the timelines.
18:00They're going to be looking at the crime scene.
18:02Things like phone records, anything that can indicate
18:05where Andrew was before and during the event of Natalie's death.
18:09With Andrew Pearson still in custody,
18:11police decided to look into his cell phone,
18:14which had been seized during his arrest,
18:16to see if it could provide any clues as to how Natalie died.
18:24Andrew Pearson was asked for his PIN number to access that phone.
18:28He refused to give that PIN number,
18:30even though he was told it could be an offence
18:32and he could be prosecuted for not providing the PIN number.
18:35Again, that raised even more suspicion
18:36as to why Andrew Pearson wasn't assisting the police.
18:39I believed at that point that that phone
18:42could be really key to our investigation.
18:44It was really key that that phone was forensically examined
18:47as soon as possible
18:49to try and provide some evidence to support the investigation.
18:52While Andrew was still in custody,
18:54the post-mortem results came in.
18:58At this stage of the investigation,
19:00the Crown Prosecuted Service would have asked for a cause of death.
19:04Unfortunately, the forensic post-mortem was inconclusive at that time.
19:09The initial post-mortem examination
19:11confirmed that Natalie had several broken ribs,
19:14consistent with Andrew's account that he administered CPR,
19:18but was not able to confirm a definitive cause of death.
19:24The forensic pathologist needed some more investigation to be conducted,
19:27which included histology, toxicology,
19:30and also to check for isotopes that may have been in Natalie's body.
19:35Isotopes are unique to different bodies of water.
19:38And obviously, if Natalie had been in the stream,
19:40I would expect isotopes from the stream to be in Natalie's system.
19:44The police were still no closer to discovering
19:48if this had been a terrible accident
19:50and Natalie had fallen into the stream, as Andrew claimed,
19:53or if she had been pushed.
19:56I was left in a very difficult position.
19:58Andrew Pearson's account was partly supported
20:01by the forensic pathology report.
20:03However, more investigations needed doing.
20:06Those investigations were going to take days, weeks, and months.
20:09For myself and the investigation team,
20:12it was really frustrating that we were not in a position
20:14to charge Andrew Pearson with Natalie's murder.
20:17We're now left in a position where I had to bail him
20:19with safeguarding conditions
20:21until those investigations could take place.
20:31In October 2019,
20:33Andrew Pearson was arrested for the suspected murder
20:36of his girlfriend, Natalie Harker.
20:39You're under arrest or suspicion of murder, OK?
20:41Do you understand?
20:43I'm just going to put some cuffs on you at the moment.
20:46But when questioned, he wouldn't talk.
20:48And with no clear cause of death,
20:50police were forced to release him on bail.
20:54Behind the scenes,
20:55detectives raced to uncover the truth.
20:58Had Natalie slipped and fallen into the stream,
21:01as Pearson claimed,
21:02or had Andrew pushed her to her death?
21:06It was a really tense time for the investigation team
21:08and for myself as a senior investigating officer.
21:10We knew that we'd potentially had a really dangerous man
21:13on bail, albeit with safeguarding conditions,
21:16that we had to work really hard to get back into custody.
21:19At this point, all the police had to go on
21:21were their suspicions.
21:23But of course, that is not enough.
21:24They needed hard evidence.
21:25And they wanted to try and piece together a timeline, really,
21:29from locations, phone records,
21:31as a way of trying to establish the facts of what happened.
21:35We all felt a lot of anger
21:37when we found out that the police had placed him,
21:39because we all had a feeling that he'd maybe done it.
21:42We were all worried as to how or what Andrew was going to do
21:46when he was released from police custody.
21:49While police awaited further post-mortem tests
21:53and the forensic results from Andrew's cell phone,
21:55detectives began digging into Natalie and Andrew's relationship.
22:02What we discovered was that within a few weeks or months
22:05of Andrew Pearson and Natalie Harker
22:07becoming involved in a relationship,
22:09Andrew lost his job.
22:10And he spent most of his time gaming on games consoles.
22:14And he became more and more dependent on Natalie
22:16while Natalie was securing the finances with two jobs.
22:20She would pester him to try and get a job,
22:22but he refused to do so.
22:24He even told a friend
22:25that he wouldn't be told by Natalie to get a job.
22:28Natalie got sick and tired of always having to pay
22:32for the cinema, meals out, days out,
22:35and things like that,
22:37as he never had any money.
22:39As police continued to question friends and family
22:42about their relationship,
22:43some concerning information came to light.
22:47We found out that Andrew Pearson
22:49started separating Natalie from her friends and her family,
22:51and he became very controlling over Natalie.
22:53He determined when she could see people,
22:56who she could see,
22:57and really controlled a lot of her life.
23:00Natalie's friends definitely noticed a change in her.
23:03They said that she changed her personality,
23:06the way that she dressed,
23:07and just became a lot more disengaged from her social life,
23:11her church,
23:12which she had been really heavily involved with
23:14in the community.
23:15During the course of the relationship,
23:17Pearson becomes increasingly reliant on Natalie,
23:21financially, emotionally,
23:23and then on top of that,
23:24he starts restricting her freedom of movement.
23:27And you often see that in relationships
23:29that involve coercive control,
23:31people do this to isolate their partner intentionally
23:35so they can have greater control over them.
23:39Pearson is clearly insecure about the fact
23:41that he's not bringing anything to this relationship.
23:44And so by coercively controlling,
23:46by manipulating her,
23:47he's able to feel some power
23:49when he's actually probably feeling quite powerless
23:52in the rest of his life.
23:5318 months into her relationship with Andrew,
23:57Natalie had turned to her family for advice.
24:00Natalie had come to me, mum, and dad,
24:03and spoken to us about
24:04she wasn't feeling happy in the relationship.
24:07So the three of us and Natalie all decided,
24:11if she wasn't happy anymore,
24:13to call it quits.
24:15She'd text Pearson saying the relationship was over
24:18to not get in contact with her again.
24:21And it'd taken a lot for her to get to this point.
24:23She was really optimistic,
24:25looking forward to a fresh start in life.
24:28At the start, we thought that
24:29Andrew had taken the break up really well.
24:32It was only afterwards we discovered that he hadn't.
24:37Pearson bombarded Natalie's phone with text messages.
24:40He refused to accept her decision
24:43and he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
24:45He would get friends and family to message her.
24:48He would send her messages on social media
24:51and actually bump into her to and from her workplace.
24:55Natalie is understandably trying to fully disengage at this point.
25:00She's not responding to any of the messages.
25:02And you can understand why.
25:03This needs to sort of be a cut and dry moment.
25:07People normally go through high emotional stress periods
25:10and then it sort of just starts to fade out.
25:13That's the normal way of a break up.
25:15But in the case of Andrew Pearson, this does the opposite
25:19because this isn't so much about the break up or the loss of love.
25:23For him, this is the loss of control.
25:25And so now, not having even the ability to raise a response from Natalie,
25:31that's going to be infuriating to someone like Andrew Pearson.
25:35When Andrew's tactics failed to win Natalie back,
25:39he posted a message on social media.
25:43In that message, he portrayed Natalie to be the bad person,
25:48the person who was stringing him along, using him,
25:50and that he was a perfect gentleman in that relationship.
25:53What he was trying to do, in my view, was to soil Natalie's name
25:58so that if he couldn't have her, nobody else would want her.
26:02Andrew Pearson is clearly narcissistic.
26:05He has these extreme senses of sort of grandiosity.
26:10And so someone like that being broken up with
26:13shakes them to their core
26:15because what are internal feelings of inadequacy?
26:18It brings them to the surface.
26:20And anyone who exposes that inadequacy
26:23is immediately an enemy to someone like Pearson.
26:27What he's doing at this point
26:28is just another way of him trying to assert control over her,
26:33over the narrative of their relationship,
26:35and positioning himself as the victim.
26:39When Natalie didn't respond to the message,
26:42Andrew's behaviour took a turn for the worse.
26:46Andrew Pearson's attitude towards Natalie completely changed.
26:50It now escalated to sending her really nasty text messages
26:53to upset her and to blame her
26:56for the breakup in the relationship.
26:58Andrew was saying that he was going to reveal
27:01that Natalie had been sleeping around during their relationship.
27:03I could not get my head around by anybody,
27:06let alone somebody that claimed to love them,
27:09would do that.
27:11It made me really, really angry.
27:13This resulted on the 18th of September,
27:16Natalie sending in Andrew Pearson a message
27:18saying that the relationship was finished
27:21and pleading with him to leave her alone,
27:23not to contact her and not to turn up at her work.
27:27In the aftermath of the breakup,
27:30Natalie tried to move on with her life.
27:33Friends of Natalie saw a real positive change
27:35in her whole demeanour,
27:37having ended the relationship with Andrew Pearson.
27:39She was wearing make-up,
27:40she was doing more things socially,
27:42she was going to church more,
27:43going to church events.
27:44But Andrew continued to harass her.
27:48She mentioned to a number of people,
27:49friends, people from church, work colleagues,
27:52that Andrew Pearson was concerning her
27:55by turning up unexpectedly at her workplace
27:58or bumping into her when she was going to or from work.
28:01It was really apparent that his behaviour
28:04was escalating quite dangerously,
28:06stalking behaviour.
28:09Natalie told her family and friends
28:11that she thought when she cut off contact,
28:13this would all just kind of go away.
28:15But Pearson was really relentless.
28:18He would not leave Natalie alone
28:20and she was getting frightened.
28:21She told friends that she never knew
28:24what he was capable of
28:25and that he had a really volatile personality.
28:29After Natalie had finished with him,
28:31she'd said to me,
28:32what do I do if I see Andrew?
28:35And I said to her,
28:37all you need to do is if you see him,
28:39walk away,
28:39go to somewhere where there's lots of people
28:41and you'll be all right.
28:43At this point,
28:44I felt very angry towards Andrew
28:46as I didn't know why he wouldn't leave Natalie alone.
28:49And now Natalie has fully cut contact with Andrew.
28:53He is now escalating his behaviour even further
28:56because this is just another step
28:58of his control being challenged.
29:00He's obsessing over the end of this relationship,
29:04this loss of control.
29:05And so this is his way
29:07of trying to strike fear into her.
29:09And it's working.
29:11We didn't know at the time
29:12that Andrew was stalking Natalie
29:15and turning up at her workplace.
29:18Natalie was a very independent person.
29:20She didn't tell us about what was going on.
29:23She felt that we were going to start
29:25not letting her go out on her bike
29:27and taking her to places
29:29and that would have taken her independence away.
29:31We now had a really good understanding
29:33of Andrew Pearson's behaviour towards Natalie
29:37and he developed a motive to harm Natalie.
29:42Natalie was so concerned about Andrew Pearson's behaviour
29:45that she warned him that she'd report him to the police
29:47if he didn't leave her alone.
29:49Unfortunately, she never did.
29:51Despite the damning testimony police had gathered
29:54about Andrew's controlling and threatening behaviour,
29:58it wasn't enough to prove that he had murdered Natalie.
30:01But then came a major breakthrough in the case.
30:05The forensic examination managed to get into Andrew Pearson's phone.
30:09What we discovered were a series of photographs
30:12that had been deleted but were managed to be recovered.
30:15And that showed that Andrew Pearson had been plotting
30:19some week or so before Natalie's death.
30:22Evidence showed that he'd been photographing up the cycle path,
30:26down the cycle path,
30:28which gave alternate views of what he could see
30:30and what Natalie could see as she was cycling down the path.
30:34He photographed the gateway, the field,
30:37the barbed wire fence,
30:39through the wooded area, over the stream,
30:41and up to the area where Andrew Pearson
30:44would eventually pitch his tent.
30:45The discovery of the photographs taken from Andrew Pearson's phone
30:49was a key missing piece of the investigation.
30:52These photos just go to show
30:53exactly how obsessive Pearson was becoming
30:56because this is now someone
30:58who is not just mentally stewing on this breakup
31:02and becoming internally frustrated.
31:04This is someone who's now actively planning
31:06ways to scare and potentially hurt their ex-partner.
31:11These pictures are evidence
31:12that Pearson's initial account of what occurred,
31:15that he just had a chance meeting with Natalie along the path,
31:17is total nonsense.
31:19These pictures prove that this is premeditated,
31:22this is planned,
31:24and Pearson can no longer be believed.
31:27The phone data also provided critical information
31:31about Andrew's whereabouts
31:32in the days leading up to Natalie's death.
31:35Further evidence gained from the phone
31:37was cell-site evidence.
31:39We can show that the morning before Natalie was murdered,
31:42he'd been in the field or at the gate
31:45watching when Natalie cycled past on her way to work,
31:48so we knew exactly the time that she would pass.
31:51Almost a dry run for the events
31:54that would take place the following day.
31:55This showed that, contrary to what Andrew Pearson had stated,
32:00where he said that he'd been camping out in the days
32:02before he met Natalie on that cycle path,
32:05in actual fact, he hadn't.
32:06The night before Natalie was murdered,
32:09he was actually at home in bed.
32:11We could also have evidence from his phone
32:13that Andrew Pearson had set an alarm that morning
32:15to get down to the scene
32:17and be there in preparation
32:18when Natalie cycled down that cycle path.
32:21This was not a chance meeting with Natalie.
32:24This data shows,
32:25so this is clearly someone
32:27who has methodically mapped out
32:29exactly what he intends to happen,
32:31and it's really sinister, it's really chilling,
32:34it's very telling of his mental state at that moment.
32:37This is someone out to attack,
32:40out to assert their control.
32:42As police continued to build their case,
32:45another key piece of evidence surfaced
32:47from the morning Natalie died.
32:50Further examination of Andrew Pearson's mobile telephone
32:53showed that it was powered down
32:54at 7.12am that morning.
32:57Andrew Pearson claims that when he got back to the tent
33:00and having taken Natalie's clothing off,
33:02he collapsed his unconscious for a number of hours
33:04due to severe back pain that he'd suffered.
33:06Even though Andrew Pearson had powered down
33:08his mobile telephone,
33:10another device in his possession
33:11showed that he was actually moving around the field
33:14at a point where he claims to be unconscious.
33:16This just demonstrated that Andrew Pearson's account
33:19was completely untrue.
33:20But what police would discover next
33:22would be the most damning evidence yet.
33:25The next inconsistency in Andrew Pearson's account
33:28was that he claimed,
33:29having gone unconscious next to Natalie,
33:32he woke up because he received a call
33:33on his mobile telephone from a friend in America.
33:36However, the evidence showed
33:38that having powered up his mobile telephone
33:40at 3.06pm in the afternoon,
33:43he actually tried to make a video call
33:45to a friend in America.
33:46This video call was either rejected or not connected.
33:50Andrew Pearson then sends a text
33:52to his friend in America
33:55saying,
33:55goodbye,
33:56I've killed Natalie,
33:58I'm going to hand myself in.
33:59Even though Andrew Pearson
34:01had deleted the iPhone message
34:03in an effort to destroy the evidence,
34:05the forensic examiners
34:06were able to recover the message.
34:08The iPhone message
34:10led to his friend in America
34:11phoning Andrew Pearson,
34:14then followed
34:14a long telephone conversation
34:16during which Andrew Pearson tells him
34:18that Natalie had fallen to the stream
34:21and had died.
34:23The friend tells Andrew Pearson
34:25to contact the police.
34:26As the senior investigating officer
34:28for this investigation,
34:29this was a massive breakthrough.
34:31This suggested to me
34:32that this was a pre-planned,
34:34pre-meditated
34:35kidnap and murder
34:36of Natalie Harker.
34:40Investigators were finally able
34:42to piece together
34:42what happened on the day
34:44Natalie died.
34:46Had she fallen to her death,
34:48as Pearson suggested,
34:49or was she murdered?
34:52Based now on all this new evidence,
34:54I believe that Andrew Pearson
34:56had waited down that cycle path.
34:58And when she cycled towards him,
34:59he jumped out,
35:00dragged Natalie off the bike,
35:03and then fought over the fence
35:04across the field
35:06and through the thicket
35:07to the stream.
35:09I believe at some point,
35:10Andrew Pearson
35:11has tried to drown Natalie
35:12in the stream.
35:14He's then taken her to his tent,
35:16where he's stripped of her clothing.
35:18Once in his tent,
35:19I believe Andrew Pearson
35:20has powered down his phone
35:21to try and hide his location.
35:23From the point of the kidnap
35:24of Natalie at 4.45am
35:26to the 999 call
35:27is some 12 hours.
35:29I believe that Andrew Pearson
35:31had to remain in the tent
35:32with Natalie's body
35:33because he was disturbed
35:34by some men working in the woods.
35:36That meant he couldn't emerge
35:37from the tent
35:38or fear of being seen.
35:40With all the evidence
35:41from the breakup
35:42of the relationship
35:42between Andrew Pearson
35:44and Natalie,
35:45from the evidence
35:46of Andrew Pearson
35:48stalking Natalie
35:49to the mobile telephone
35:50which showed
35:51the movements
35:52of Andrew Pearson,
35:53I felt that we were
35:54in a really strong position
35:55to rearrest Andrew Pearson
35:56for the offence
35:57of kidnap
35:58and murder of Natalie Harker.
36:05by late October 2019,
36:08Andrew Pearson
36:09was out on bail
36:11claiming that Natalie
36:12had died
36:13after slipping
36:14and falling
36:14into a stream.
36:16But behind the scenes,
36:18detectives
36:18were building a case,
36:20one that pointed
36:21not to a tragic accident
36:23but to murder.
36:25Police now had evidence
36:27which included
36:28the photographs
36:29of the cycle path,
36:30messages
36:31which Pearson had deleted
36:32from his friend
36:33in America
36:33and also evidence
36:35from his devices
36:36which showed
36:37that he'd been on the move
36:38when he claimed
36:39he'd been unconscious.
36:41And the police
36:41also had the evidence
36:43of their breakup
36:44as the motive.
36:45So all the jigsaw pieces
36:47were there
36:48for them
36:48to rearrest
36:49and charge Pearson
36:50with the kidnapping
36:52and murder of Natalie.
36:54I deployed officers
36:55early one morning
36:56to go to his family home
36:57to make that arrest.
36:59Those officers told me
37:00he'd made no reaction
37:01to that arrest.
37:02When I found out
37:03that Andrew
37:04had been rearrested
37:05on charges of murder,
37:08I felt very, very happy.
37:09I thought to myself,
37:10they've got them.
37:13Andrew was taken
37:14to Harrogate Police Station
37:15and interviewed
37:16by detectives
37:17who presented
37:18the overwhelming evidence
37:20they had against him.
37:21that they believed
37:22proved Pearson
37:23had pushed Natalie
37:24to her death.
37:27He continued
37:28to be disengaged
37:29from the interviewing officers
37:30and failed to respond
37:31to any of the questions
37:32posed with him
37:33despite all this new evidence
37:34that was put to him.
37:36This continued
37:37to demonstrate to me
37:38that Andrew Pearson
37:39was guilty
37:39of this offence.
37:41Following those final interviews
37:43with Andrew Pearson,
37:44we approached
37:45the Crown Prosecution Service
37:46asking for charges
37:48of kidnapping
37:48and murder
37:49of Natalie Harker,
37:50those who were authorized.
37:51and Andrew Pearson
37:52was charged
37:52and remained into custody.
37:55In the months
37:56that followed,
37:57police continued
37:58to build their case
37:59to try and prove
38:00that Andrew
38:01had kidnapped
38:02and killed Natalie
38:03in cold blood.
38:05But there was still
38:06no definitive cause
38:08of death
38:09until the forensic
38:11pathologist's full report
38:12finally came in.
38:15The evidence
38:16showed that Natalie Harker
38:18had died as a result
38:19of neck injuries
38:20and the fact
38:21that both her mouth
38:22and nose
38:23had been submerged
38:24under water.
38:25Natalie's cause of death
38:26was a result
38:26of strangulation
38:27and drowning.
38:29To identify
38:30the location
38:31where Natalie
38:32was murdered,
38:33an isotope analysis
38:34of the water
38:35in her lungs
38:36had also been carried out
38:37and examined.
38:39The isotopes
38:40within Natalie's system
38:41matched those
38:42from the stream
38:43close to where
38:44Andrew Pearson
38:44had pitched his tent.
38:46The pathology results
38:48concluded
38:49there was no evidence
38:50of a brain injury,
38:51despite Andrew's claim
38:53that she had fallen
38:54into the stream.
38:56All of the forensic evidence
38:57and the evidence
38:58gained from the scene
38:59didn't show
39:00that Natalie
39:01had fallen into the stream.
39:03My belief is
39:03Andrew Pearson
39:04dragged Natalie
39:05to that stream
39:06and tried to drown her.
39:08Armed with evidence
39:09that Andrew
39:10had pushed Natalie
39:11under water
39:12and drowned her,
39:13police received
39:14further devastating
39:15details about
39:16Pearson's actions
39:17on the day
39:18Natalie died.
39:20So the initial
39:21post-mortem report
39:21suggested that
39:23there had been
39:23some sexual activity
39:24that had taken place.
39:26Pearson raping Natalie
39:28is just another way
39:29that he is yet again
39:30trying to insert
39:31control over her
39:33because he is
39:34physically in that moment
39:36dominating her.
39:39And I think this is
39:40just another element
39:41where you're seeing
39:42how insidious
39:43and how controlling
39:45this person really is.
39:47Pearson was in the tent
39:49with Natalie
39:49for hours
39:51and this was a person
39:52who he claimed
39:53to have loved.
39:56At Teesside Crown Court
39:58in November 2020,
39:59almost a year
40:00after his arrest,
40:01Andrew Pearson
40:02stood trial
40:03for the murder
40:03of Natalie Harker.
40:05We were in the courtroom,
40:06we heard the 999 call
40:07that Andrew had made
40:09and I remember
40:10and I remember thinking
40:11to myself,
40:11you little,
40:12how dare you
40:13make yourself look
40:14like a victim.
40:16Despite all of this
40:17overwhelming evidence,
40:19the fact of the mobile telephone,
40:21the fact of the history,
40:22all of the forensic evidence,
40:24Andrew Pearson
40:25continued to deny the fact
40:26that he kidnapped
40:27and murdered Natalie Harker.
40:29In court,
40:30he stuck by the story
40:31that they'd met together,
40:33had walked across the field,
40:34that had sex
40:35in the field
40:36and then she'd fallen
40:37into the stream
40:38by accident,
40:39following which
40:39he dragged her to the tent.
40:42The jury had to sit through
40:44and listen to all
40:44of the evidence,
40:45first from the prosecution
40:46and then the defence.
40:48It was harrowing evidence,
40:49but not only the jury,
40:51Natalie Harker's family
40:52had to sit through
40:52that evidence too,
40:53so it was really tough
40:54for them.
40:54When we were in the courtroom
40:56listening to all the evidence
40:58brought against Andrew,
41:00I kept looking over at him
41:01and I saw absolutely
41:03no emotion whatsoever,
41:05no remorse,
41:06no anything,
41:07just a blank expression.
41:10Going into the trial,
41:11I felt really confident
41:12in the investigation
41:13that the team had conducted.
41:15The evidence was overwhelming.
41:17However,
41:18it's a jury trial.
41:19The jury have to listen
41:20to both the prosecution case
41:22and the defence case
41:23and then have to make up
41:24their own minds
41:25based on the evidence
41:26as to what they believe.
41:27The jury heard evidence
41:29for over three weeks
41:30in this trial,
41:31yet they took just three hours
41:33to return a verdict.
41:37Andrew Pearson
41:38was found guilty
41:39and sentenced to life
41:40in prison
41:41with a minimum of 25 years
41:43for the kidnap
41:44and murder
41:45of Natalie Harker.
41:47When the jury came back
41:49with a guilty verdict,
41:50it was a massive relief
41:51both to the investigation team
41:52and Natalie's family.
41:53When we heard the verdict,
41:55I was at home with my mother.
41:56My father rang me
41:57and said,
41:58they've got him
41:59and I jumped up
42:00and I said,
42:01we've finally got justice
42:02for Natalie.
42:03They've got the little...
42:06Both my mum and dad
42:07were feeling very, very happy,
42:09as was I,
42:09but we were all still
42:10very numb
42:11and very hollow.
42:13At no point
42:13through this whole process,
42:15from Andrew Pearson
42:16being arrested
42:16to the point
42:18he was sentenced
42:18by a judge,
42:19did he show any remorse
42:20for the kidnap
42:21and murder
42:22of Natalie Harker.
42:22As a murder detective,
42:24I've investigated
42:25lots of murders.
42:27However,
42:27this was quite striking
42:29in the fact
42:29that Andrew Pearson
42:30sought revenge
42:31on Natalie.
42:32Andrew Pearson
42:33controlled the relationship
42:34with Natalie Harker.
42:36However,
42:36once she got that control back,
42:38he couldn't cope with that.
42:40This was a matter
42:41of power,
42:42revenge
42:43against Natalie Harker.
42:44This is just such
42:46a tragic
42:47and upsetting case.
42:49You have this young woman
42:51that was trying
42:52to leave this relationship
42:53with such an abusive man
42:55and you just hope
42:56that the verdict
42:57gave her family
42:58a real sense
42:59of justice
43:00and closure.
43:06In the years
43:08following Natalie Harker's death,
43:10her memory lives on
43:11through her friends
43:12and family.
43:15We got a commemorative bench
43:16in Natalie's favourite place,
43:18the church.
43:19It's a lovely place
43:20to go and sit,
43:22contemplate Natalie,
43:23just think about
43:24how much of a lovely
43:25young lady she was,
43:27how happy and kind she was,
43:30all the friends
43:31she's left behind
43:32and the family
43:33that she's left behind.
43:36I'll go and visit the bench
43:38on Natalie's birthday
43:40or the anniversary
43:41of when she was killed
43:42and think about
43:43how bright
43:44beautiful
43:45and amazing
43:46of a sister
43:47she really was.
43:50When me and my wife
43:51Amanda got married,
43:53Natalie would have been
43:54a big part of this.
43:56But with her life
43:57being so cruelly taken,
43:59we decided
44:00that we'd have
44:01some photos taken
44:03by her memorial bench
44:05so that it felt like
44:06so that it felt like
44:07she was part of the day
44:08and part of our lives.
44:11She was a kind,
44:13loving human being
44:15with so much love
44:16and life to give.
44:19And that's how I'd like
44:20my sister to be remembered.
44:51knew what I'd like最後
44:51and I think
44:52what I'd like
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