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00:04A fatal fall into a stream in the remote British countryside.
00:10The 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 my cousin said that 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.
00:42But that is not enough to provide evidence of guilt.
01:08Natalie Harker was born in North Yorkshire.
01:10She lived with her mum and dad John and Deborah and her brother Alistair.
01:16Natalie was a loving, caring sister.
01:47When we were younger we were inseparable.
01:49Natalie was described as kind, hard-working, 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 would describe 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, who 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 and Natalie said yes, despite the 15-year age gap.
02:29It was what would seem like a fairytale relationship.
02:35Natalie 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 hard-working person.
02:54She worked two separate cleaning jobs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
02:59Natalie often worked unsociable hours, but she always was really reliable and would turn up on time every day for
03:06her shift.
03:12On 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.
03:43They could see that her bicycle wasn't there and they called her mobile phone.
03:48It went straight to voicemail.
03:51John and Deborah 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 and said, you need to come home.
04:11By 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,
04:35who her friends and family were, and to find out whether she was suffering any issues.
04:40Natalie would normally finish her work about 8 a.m. 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.
04:55The police launched an urgent missing persons inquiry
04:58and 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
05:08what Natalie had done in the hours before her disappearance,
05:12particularly 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
05:25where 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 and on October morning, it was really, really dark.
05:37It was unlit, it was cold, it was wet, and it was shrouded by trees and bushes.
05:44As detectives began to build a picture of Natalie's movements earlier that morning,
05:49at 4.43pm, over three hours since Natalie's parents had reported her missing,
05:56North Yorkshire police received a distressing 999 call from Andrew Pearson.
06:03Hello.
06:04Right, Andrew, listen to me, your girlfriend, okay, what exactly happened?
06:12I've been camping for a few days and, okay, so I met Natalie and we went for a walk.
06:21There was like an open area and as we were going down there, she must have slipped and dragged me
06:31because I remember hitting my back and 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.
06:44I thought she was breathing and then I realized my tent's nearby, so I dragged her into it.
06:54Well, I thought she was breathing at this point and she seemed okay.
06:59So we did what I'm trying to do, stripped her off and we got a blanket and I stopped.
07:06And then I woke up and she was purple.
07:12So you fell asleep, yeah?
07:19I don't know, I don't know, a friend from America phoned me, I think four o'clock.
07:25Right, no problems.
07:25Did you try CPR again?
07:28She knew she was purple.
07:30No, no, no, no, just take a breath, slow yourself down.
07:33All right, okay.
07:35So when you walked back up and she was purple, you did not perform any other first aid?
07:39No, I checked, but she's here, I thought I was going.
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 and said that
08:01Natalie's body was in a tent within the wooded area.
08:03Meanwhile, Natalie's family were still frantically searching for their missing loved one.
08:09And I said to my mum and my dad, I want to go out and see if I can find
08:14her.
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 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.
08:57The police said, stand over there, please.
09:01Andrew'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,
09:16officers followed Andrew's directions into the woodland, where he claimed he'd been camping.
09:21Officers came across a thicket of wooded area, brambles, bushes, overhanging trees.
09:29And they scrambled down that towards a stream.
09:31Officers managed to get across the stream up the other side.
09:34And 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 towards her upper torso and her neck area.
09:58When the police came back from hunting around for Natalie,
10:03they told us to sit in the back of a police car and wait for my 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.
11:09The person 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.
11:53Why would Natalie have gone down into the woods at 5.30 in the morning,
11:58with 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
12:16to the millions of questions that flood their mind in that moment.
12:20An investigation into Natalie's death was immediately launched,
12:25led by Detective Inspector Steve Mingus,
12:28who 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,
12:54it wasn't long before his team uncovered a crucial piece of evidence.
12:58So when the forensic examination took place with the tent,
13:01it was found that Natalie's clothing was folded neatly
13:04in 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,
13:14not 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.
13:26A 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 Pearson had given.
13:42Based upon that information,
13:45officers 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?
13:57He is using a higher-pitched voice.
14:01He 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
14:11or 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
14:46and 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
15:03or 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 account in an 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 more 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,
18:03anything that can indicate where Andrew was
18:06before 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,
18:17to 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
18:48as 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 Prosecutor 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.
19:23The 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.
19:45The 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 investigation 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.
20:16We were 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 on suspicion of murder, OK?
20:42Do you understand?
20:43I'm just going to put some cuffs on you at the moment.
20:45But 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, detectives 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 on bail,
21:14albeit 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 were 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,
21:32as 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,
21:56detectives 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 becoming 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.
22:29Natalie 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,
23:08and just became a lot more disengaged
23:09from her social life, her 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.
23:38Pearson 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 any more,
24:13to call it quits.
24:15She texts Pearson saying the relationship was over
24:18to not get in contact with her again.
24:21And it had 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 Andrew
24:30had taken the break up really well.
24:32It was only afterwards we discovered that he hadn't.
24:36Pearson 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.
24:49He 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.
25:04This 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,
27:24not 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.
27:47She 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
27:59when she was going to or from work.
28:01It was really apparent
28:02that his behaviour was escalating
28:05quite dangerously, stalking 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,
28:33what do I do if I see Andrew?
28:35And I said to her,
28:36all you need to do is if you see him,
28:39walk away,
28:40go 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
28:47he 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
29:23as she 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.
29:32We 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
29:44about Andrew Pearson's behaviour
29:45that she warned him
29:46that she'd report him to the police
29:47if he didn't leave her alone.
29:49Unfortunately, she never did.
29:52Despite the damning testimony
29:53police had gathered
29:54about Andrew's controlling
29:56and threatening behaviour,
29:58it wasn't enough to prove
29:59that he had murdered Natalie.
30:01But then came
30:03a major breakthrough in the case.
30:05The forensic examination
30:07managed to get into
30:07Andrew Pearson's phone.
30:09What we discovered
30:11were a series of photographs
30:12that had been deleted
30:13but were managed to be recovered
30:15and that showed
30:17that Andrew Pearson
30:18had been plotting
30:19some week or so
30:20before Natalie's death.
30:22Evidence showed
30:23that he'd been photographing
30:25up the cycle path
30:26down the cycle path
30:28which gave alternate views
30:30of what he could see
30:30and what Natalie could see
30:32as she was cycling down the path.
30:34He photographed the gateway,
30:36the field,
30:37the barbed wire fence
30:38through the wooded area,
30:40over the stream
30:41and up to the area
30:43where Andrew Pearson
30:44would eventually pitch his tent.
30:45The discovery
30:46of the photographs
30:47taken from Andrew Pearson's phone
30:49was a key missing piece
30:50of the investigation.
30:52These photos just go to show
30:53exactly how obsessive
30:55Pearson was becoming
30:56because this is now someone
30:58who is not just
30:59mentally stewing
31:01on this breakup
31:02and becoming internally frustrated.
31:04This is someone
31:05who's now actively planning
31:06ways to scare
31:08and potentially hurt
31:09their ex-partner.
31:11These pictures are evidence
31:12that Pearson's initial account
31:14of what occurred,
31:15that he just had a chance meeting
31:16with Natalie along the path
31:17is total nonsense.
31:19These pictures prove
31:21that this is premeditated,
31:23this is planned
31:24and Pearson can no longer
31:26be believed.
31:27The phone data
31:28also provided
31:29critical information
31:30about Andrew's whereabouts
31:32in the days leading up
31:33to Natalie's death.
31:35Further evidence
31:36gained from the phone
31:37was cell site evidence.
31:39We can show
31:40that the morning before
31:41Natalie was murdered,
31:42he'd been in the field
31:44or at the gate
31:45watching when Natalie
31:47cycled past
31:47on her way to work
31:48so he knew exactly
31:49the time that she would pass.
31:51Almost a dry run
31:53for the events
31:54that would take place
31:54the following day.
31:55This showed
31:56that contrary to what
31:58Andrew Pearson had stated
31:59where he said
32:00that he'd been camping
32:01out in the days before
32:03he met Natalie
32:03on that cycle path,
32:05in actual fact
32:05he hadn't.
32:06The night before
32:07Natalie was murdered
32:08he was actually
32:10at home in bed.
32:11We could also have
32:12evidence from his phone
32:13that Andrew Pearson
32:14had set an alarm
32:15that morning
32:15to get down to the scene
32:17and be there
32:17in preparation
32:18when Natalie
32:19cycled down
32:20that cycle path.
32:21This was not
32:22a chance meeting
32:23with Natalie.
32:24This data shows
32:25so this is clearly
32:26someone who has
32:28methodically mapped out
32:29exactly what he intends
32:31to happen
32:31and it's really sinister
32:33it's really chilling
32:33it's very telling
32:35of his mental state
32:36at that moment.
32:37This is someone
32:38out to attack
32:40out to assert
32:41their control.
32:42As police continued
32:44to build their case
32:45another key piece
32:46of evidence surfaced
32:47from the morning
32:48Natalie died.
32:50Further examination
32:51of Andrew Pearson's
32:52mobile telephone
32:53showed that it was
32:54powered down
32:54at 7.12am that morning.
32:57Andrew Pearson claims
32:58that when he got back
32:59to the tent
33:00and having taken
33:01Natalie's clothing off
33:02he collapsed his unconscious
33:03for a number of hours
33:04due to severe back pain
33:05that he'd suffered.
33:06Even though Andrew Pearson
33:08had powered down
33:08his mobile telephone
33:09another device
33:11in his possession
33:11showed that he was
33:12actually moving
33:13around the field
33:14at a point where
33:15he claims to be unconscious.
33:16This just demonstrated
33:18that Andrew Pearson's
33:19account was completely
33:19untrue.
33:20But what police
33:21would discover next
33:22would be the most
33:23damning evidence yet.
33:25The next inconsistency
33:27in Andrew Pearson's
33:28account was that
33:29he claimed having
33:29gone unconscious
33:30next to Natalie
33:31he woke up
33:32because he received
33:33a call on his
33:34mobile telephone
33:34from a friend in America.
33:36However,
33:37the evidence showed
33:38that having powered
33:39up his mobile telephone
33:40at 3.06pm
33:42in the afternoon
33:43he actually tried
33:44to make a video call
33:45to a friend in America
33:46this video call
33:47was either rejected
33:48or not connected.
33:50Andrew Pearson
33:51then sends a text
33:52to his friend in America
33:55saying goodbye
33:56I've killed Natalie
33:57I'm going to hand
33:58myself in.
34:00Even though
34:00Andrew Pearson
34:01had deleted
34:02the iPhone message
34:03in an effort
34:04to destroy the evidence
34:05the forensic examiners
34:06were able to recover
34:07the message.
34:08The iPhone message
34:09led to his friend
34:11in America
34:11phoning Andrew Pearson
34:13then followed
34:14a long telephone
34:16conversation
34:16during which
34:17Andrew Pearson
34:18tells him
34:18that Natalie
34:20had fallen to the stream
34:21and had died.
34:22The friend
34:23tells Andrew Pearson
34:25to contact the police.
34:26As the senior
34:27investigating officer
34:28for this investigation
34:29this was a massive
34:30breakthrough.
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
34:40were finally able
34:42to piece together
34:42what happened
34:43on the day
34:44Natalie died.
34:46Had she fallen
34:47to her death
34:48as Pearson suggested
34:49or was she murdered?
34:52Based now
34:53on all this new evidence
34:54I believe
34:55that Andrew Pearson
34:56had waited
34:56down that cycle path
34:57and when she
34:58cycled towards him
34:59he jumped out
35:00dragged Natalie
35:01off the bike
35:03and then fought
35:03over the fence
35:04across the field
35:06through the thicket
35:07to the stream.
35:09I believe
35:09at some point
35:10Andrew Pearson
35:11has tried to drown
35:12Natalie in the stream
35:13he's then taken
35:14to his tent
35:15where he's stripped
35:16of her clothing.
35:18Once in his tent
35:19I believe
35:19Andrew Pearson
35:20has powered down
35:21his phone
35:21to try and hide
35:22his location.
35:23From the point
35:24of the kidnap
35:24of Natalie
35:24at 4.45am
35:26to the 999 call
35:27is some 12 hours.
35:29I believe
35:30that Andrew Pearson
35:31had to remain
35:32in the tent
35:32with Natalie's body
35:33because he was disturbed
35:34by some men
35:35working in the woods.
35:36That meant
35:36he 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
35:54we were in a really
35:54strong position
35:55to rearrest Andrew Pearson
35:56for the offence
35:57of kidnap
35:58and murder
35:58of Natalie Harker.
36:05By late October 2019
36:08Andrew Pearson
36:09was out on bail
36:10claiming that Natalie
36:12had died
36:13after slipping
36:14and falling
36:14into a stream.
36:16But behind the scenes
36:17detectives
36:18were building a case
36:20one that pointed
36:21not to a tragic accident
36:23but to murder.
36:25Police now
36:26had evidence
36:27which included
36:28the photographs
36:28of the cycle path
36:30messages
36:30which Pearson
36:31had deleted
36:32from his friend
36:33in America
36:33and also evidence
36:35from his devices
36:36which showed
36:37that he'd been
36:37on 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
36:52of 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
37:07I 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 were authorised
37:51and Andrew Pearson
37:52was charged
37:52and remanded 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 that
38:21both her mouth
38:22and nose
38:23had been submerged
38:24underwater.
38:25Natalie's cause of death
38:26was a result
38:26of strangulation
38:27and drowning.
38:29To identify the location
38:31where Natalie was murdered
38:33an isotope analysis
38:34of the water
38:35and 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.
39:02My belief
39:03is Andrew 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
39:11underwater
39:12and drowned her
39:12police 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
39:22suggested 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.
40:04We were in the courtroom
40:06we heard the 999 call
40:07that Andrew had made
40:09and I remember
40:10thinking to myself
40:11you little
40:12how dare you
40:13make yourself look
40:14like a victim.
40:16Despite
40:16all of this
40:17overwhelming evidence
40:18the fact
40:19the fact of the
40:20mobile telephone
40:20the fact of the history
40:22all of the
40:23forensic evidence
40:23Andrew Pearson
40:25continued to deny
40:26the fact
40:26that he kidnapped
40:27and murdered
40:28Natalie Harker.
40:29In court
40:30he stuck by the story
40:31that they'd met together
40:32they'd walked across
40:33the field
40:34they'd had sex
40:35in the field
40:36and then she'd fallen
40:37into the stream
40:38by accident
40:38following which
40:39he dragged her to the tent.
40:42The jury
40:43had to sit through
40:44and listen to all
40:44of the evidence
40:45first from the prosecution
40:46and then the defence
40:47it was harrowing evidence
40:49but not only the jury
40:50Natalie Harker's family
40:52had to sit through
40:52the evidence too
40:53so it was really tough
40:54for them.
40:55When we were in the courtroom
40:56listening to all the
40:57evidence brought
40:58against Andrew
40:59I kept looking over
41:01at him
41:01and I saw
41:02absolutely no emotion
41:04whatsoever
41:05no remorse
41:06no anything
41:07just a blank expression.
41:09Going into the trial
41:11I felt really confident
41:12in the investigation
41:13that the team
41:14had conducted.
41:15The evidence
41:16was overwhelming
41:17however
41:18it's a jury trial
41:19the jury have to listen
41:20to both the prosecution
41:21case
41:22and the defence case
41:23and then have to
41:24make up their 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
41:32just three hours
41:33to return a verdict.
41:37Andrew Pearson
41:38was found guilty
41:39and sentenced
41:40to life in prison
41:41with a minimum
41:42of 25 years
41:43for the kidnap
41:44and murder
41:45of Natalie Harker.
41:48When the jury
41:48came back
41:49with a guilty verdict
41:50it was a massive relief
41:51both to the investigation
41:52team and Natalie's family.
41:54When we heard the verdict
41:55I was at home
41:55with my mother
41:56and my 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
42:05both my mum and dad
42:07were feeling
42:07very very happy
42:08as 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
42:19any remorse
42:20for the kidnap
42:21and murder
42:22of Natalie Harker.
42:23As a murder detective
42:24I've investigated
42:25lots of murders
42:26however this
42:28was 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
42:35however
42:36once she got
42:37that control back
42:38he couldn't cope
42:39with that
42:40this was a matter
42:41of power
42:42revenge
42:43against Natalie Harker.
42:44This is just
42:46such a 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
43:09her memory lives on
43:11through her friends
43:12and family.
43:14We got a commemorative bench
43:16in Natalie's favourite
43:18place, the church.
43:19It's a lovely place
43:20to go and sit
43:21contemplate Natalie
43:23just think about
43:24how much of a lovely
43:25young lady she was
43:27how happy and kind
43:29she was
43:29all the friends
43:31she's left behind
43:31and the family
43:33that she's left behind.
43:36I'll go and visit
43:37the 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
43:52Natalie 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
44:02taken by her
44:03memorial bench
44:05so that it felt
44:06like she was part
44:07of the day
44:08and part of our lives.
44:11She was
44:12a kind
44:13loving
44:13human being
44:15with so much love
44:16and life to give
44:19and that's how
44:20I'd like my sister
44:21to be remembered.
44:22to be remembered.
44:59to be remembered.
45:04To be remembered.
45:05To be remembered.
45:05To be remembered.
45:05To be remembered.
45:05To be remembered.
45:05To be remembered.
45:06Gracias.
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