The Spy in the Bag: Who Killed Gareth Williams?

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Spy in the Bag: Who Killed Gareth Williams?"

Podcast: Clues with Morgan Absher and Kayla Moore
Host: Crime House
Episode Date: July 22, 2026
Case: Gareth Williams, the MI6 Spy in the Bag

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Morgan Absher and Kayla Moore dissect the mysterious 2010 death of Gareth Williams, a talented British spy found dead inside a padlocked duffel bag in his London apartment’s bathtub. Was it a case of sexual misadventure, an elaborate suicide, or an international assassination? The hosts methodically trace the evidence, share theories, and amplify the many questions left unanswered by the authorities. The tone is alternately incredulous, compassionate, and skeptical, maintaining respect for Gareth’s memory while critiquing the investigations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Discovery of Gareth Williams [06:40 – 10:55]

• On August 23, 2010, police in Pimlico, London, responded to a welfare check at Gareth Williams' apartment after he’d not been seen for 10 days.
• Observations at the scene:
  • Apartment was unusually hot for August.
  • Neatly laid out electronics, an orange wig, brand new women's designer clothing.
  • Gareth's decomposing, naked body was found inside a red padlocked sports bag in the bathtub.
  • No visible injuries, blood, or signs of struggle.
• Early questions: Could this be suicide? Was it a murder staged as a bizarre accident?

2. Gareth’s Background: A Life in Shadows [10:56 – 18:27]

• A mathematical prodigy from North Wales, Gareth graduated university at 17, earned a PhD in computer science at 18, and went to Cambridge.
• Recruited to GCHQ (UK’s NSA equivalent) for his cryptographic skills and secretive personality. Later seconded to MI6 (the UK’s CIA).
• Worked on anti-terror projects, possibly against organized crime and money laundering, with links to sensitive international operations.
• Socially isolated, disliked MI6's "pub culture," and was preparing to return to GCHQ due to unhappiness with MI6.

3. The Crime Scene: Clues & Forensics [22:41 – 26:42]

• No fingerprints—even Gareth’s—on the lock, bag, or tub.
• DNA evidence scant: fragments on the padlock/zip (unusable), a hair (not his, but no root for profile), semen stains (confirmed as Gareth’s), but otherwise the scene was ‘too clean’.
• A conclusion from DCI Colin Sutton: "It was pretty bloody. Obviously, it was too clean. It was too easy. It was all there on a plate for us." — DCI Sutton [25:06]
• Heat was intentionally turned up to hasten decomposition, making time of death harder to determine.

4. Timeline of Gareth’s Final Days & Surveillance Gaps [27:26 – 32:35]

• August 11: Returns from a US trip, including the Black Hat cybersecurity conference.
• August 13-15: Last seen at a drag cabaret and shopping; CCTV shows solo activities.
• On August 16 (supposed return to work), he doesn't show, but MI6 fails to report him missing.
• Gareth's phone was wiped and showed "no service history” per the provider.
• Question: Why did MI6 do so little when a punctual, high-value agent went missing?

5. Secret Assignments & Family Testimony [32:41 – 36:41]

• Gareth’s family, especially his sister Carrie, assert he was disciplined and rule-following; would never allow unauthorized people into his government-leased flat.
• Friend Shawn Lloyd Jones claims Gareth told her he was being trained for undercover work and preparing for a new identity, possibly explaining women’s clothing and wigs.
• The flat was likely a government safe house—raising questions about who else had access.

6. Theories: Sex Game Gone Wrong vs. International Conspiracy [39:31 – 50:23]

Police Narrative:

• Emphasis on aspects of Gareth’s private life (women’s clothing, drag show tickets, occasional visits to bondage websites, a prior incident of self-tying) to suggest possible death by sex game misadventure.
• London tabloids run with this, painting Gareth as a “deviant” or closeted individual, despite minimal evidence.
• Pathology notes fast, non-violent death from hypoxia if locked in the bag.
• Quote: "It's character assassination protection for MI6 at Gareth's expense." – Kayla Moore [44:58]

Family & Colleagues' View:

• Family denies any deviant behavior, suggests possible cover-up.
• Clothing may have been gifts for friends (one, a stylist), and Gareth had interest in fashion (design course evidence).
• Lack of identified partners, but also notes about prevailing anti-LGBTQ workplace culture at the time—could’ve put him at risk if outed.

Key Incident:

• In 2007, landlords rescued Gareth who had tied himself to a bed, possibly for escapology practice.

7. Forensic and Investigative Fumbles [52:12 – 57:56]

• Multiple autopsies inconclusive; decomposition hampered results.
• No toxic substances detected—except for GHB and alcohol, likely byproducts of decomposition.
• Crucial DNA evidence later deemed contaminated by forensic team members.
• Escape artist expert Peter Faulding could not replicate Gareth’s situation after 300 attempts, arguing: “Even Harry Houdini himself couldn’t have managed it.” – Peter Faulding [59:31]
• Police promoted a single reporter’s video as proof of self-confinement, but she left prints—unlike the Williams scene.

8. Secret Memory Sticks & MI6 Obstruction [61:33 – 62:56]

• During the inquest, MI6 revealed it had withheld nine memory sticks belonging to Gareth and an inventory (including the same model of bag)—never examined by police, citing national security.
• Contradiction between claims that Gareth was a “junior analyst” and the strenuous evidence withholding.

9. Final Inquest & Unanswered Questions [62:56 – 64:33]

• Coroner rules “premeditated criminal act” but with no suspect; demands new Scotland Yard probe.
• Ultimately, police revert to assuming accidental self-confinement, explaining away forensics as “gaps in our understanding.”
  • "Gaps in our understanding is something you say about aliens." – Morgan Absher [64:08]

10. Later Developments & Theories [67:08 – 73:12]

• 2021: Scotland Yard reviews with new DNA techniques; finds only Gareth's DNA, not an unknown perpetrator’s.
• Peter Faulding alleges police pressured him to favor the accident theory; speculates Gareth may have had to live as a woman for undercover work, but evidence is thin.
• Russian defector claims Williams was assassinated with undetectable poison for refusing to become a double agent; U.S. intelligence believed Russian connection possible (BuzzFeed News, 2017).
• Rumor that the apartment door was double-locked from the outside complicates the lone escapology theory.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was pretty bloody. Obviously, it was too clean. It was too easy. It was all there on a plate for us.” – DCI Colin Sutton [25:06]
• “Even Harry Houdini himself couldn’t have managed it.” – Peter Faulding [59:31]
• “Gaps in our understanding is something you say about aliens.” – Morgan Absher [64:08]
• “It's character assassination protection for MI6 at Gareth's expense.” – Kayla Moore [44:58]

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Theories Debated

A. Solo Escapology Accident

• Proponents: Some police, supported by limited prior escapology attempts
• Problems: Forensics inconsistent, lack of prints or DNA, bag re-creation failed

B. Sex Game Gone Wrong

• Proponents: Police and media, based on circumstantial evidence
• Problems: No partners identified, family/friend counter-evidence, possibly deliberate character smear

C. Professional Murder/Cover-Up

• Proponents: Gareth’s family, some ex-police, investigative journalists
• Supporting Points:
  • Government safe house, agency interference, rapid decomposition, and wiped electronics
  • Potential Russian involvement, or silencing due to internal threat/knowledge
  • MI6 obstruction: withheld evidence, memory sticks, misleading statements

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Final Timestamps & Segment Guide

• [06:40] – Discovery of body and perplexing crime scene
• [10:56] – Gareth’s life and MI6 career
• [22:41] – Detailed evidence findings and initial hypotheses
• [27:26] – Reconstruction of Gareth’s final days
• [39:31] – Release of sex game theory, public/media fallout
• [52:12] – Forensic re-creations & failed solo bag attempts
• [61:33] – Inquest revelations: secret memory sticks
• [62:56] – Inquest findings, Scotland Yard’s conclusions
• [67:08] – Final forensic review, Peter Faulding’s accusations
• [69:33] – Russian agent theory, evidence of cover-up
• [73:03] – Reflection on gaps, surveillance, and conspiracy

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Overall Takeaway

Morgan and Kayla illuminate why Gareth Williams’ tragic end remains one of true crime's most enigmatic mysteries. The contradictions in the government narrative, the clean crime scene, evaporated digital trails, and persistent rumors of espionage give the case a shadowy resonance. The episode is equally an anatomy of a botched investigation and a meditation on how secrecy, prejudice, and bureaucracy can keep the truth forever out of reach.

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Audience Callouts

• Hosts urgently invite listener theories and sleuthing, especially concerning overlooked CCTV evidence and the possible double-lock detail.
• Closing activism mention: Liberty Human Rights and outreach to UK MPs for investigation transparency.

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For Further Listening / Action

• Follow @CluesPodcast on Instagram and @CluesPod on YouTube for visuals and continued discussion.
• For information on the Missing Person of the Week (Stephanie Dameron), see provided contact numbers and FBI tips site.

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Summary prepared by podcast summarizer AI.

Transcript

[Carter Roy]

The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking 48 hours before the trail goes cold. From A E and Crime House this is the official podcast from the famous true crime series the first 48. I'm Carter Roy. Every Thursday I revisit a landmark homicide investigation in depth with long form storytelling built for your ears. Listen to and follow the First 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts. This is Crime House.

[Kayla Moore]

A police officer is called to do a wellness check on an MI6 spy who's been missing for a week. And what he finds when he enters the apartment is baffling.

[Morgan Abshur]

Gareth Williams, the person he was supposed to be doing the wellness check on, is locked in a duffel bag in his bathroom. But as the investigation unfolds, it is not what it seems. What looks like a suicide could just be a murder. Hi guys. Welcome back to Clues, where we sneak past the crime scene tape to explore the key evidence behind some of the most gripping true crime cases.

[Kayla Moore]

I'm Kayla Moore and I'll be the one digging deeper into the timelines, the backstories and the court files released on these cases.

[Morgan Abshur]

And I'm your Internet sleuth, Morgan Abshur. I'm the one who's diving into the Reddit forums to talk about lesser known details and just pull out those threads that don't add up. Don't forget to share your thoughts on social want ad free and early access to Clues and the rest of the Crime House lineup. Subscribe to Crime House plus and get at least two bonus episodes from across Crime House every month. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the Clues page. Now let's get into Gareth Williams case and the clues that defined it. One of this week's partners is Instacart. There's nothing like summer produce. Getting those fresh peaches, corn, tomatoes. But the tough part is only good for such a limited time. With Instacart you get the freshest seasonal picks delivered right to your door. Your shopper can help select the best quality items so you're getting peak season flavor without having to hunt through the whole produce section yourself.

[Kayla Moore]

I have used Instacart for a long time now. Especially you know, being a new mom, I have very limited time to actually go to the grocery store which makes Instacart perfect. A few weeks ago for Memorial Day we actually had people over and I had nothing prepared. So it was great to be able to use Instacart to to actually get everything in time for people coming over.

[Morgan Abshur]

Save the day. You can have someone go pick up your stuff while you're panic cleaning the house.

[Kayla Moore]

Exactly. Instacart brings convenience, quality and ease right to your door so you can focus on what matters most. Download the Instacart app now and get groceries just how you like.

[Morgan Abshur]

One of this week's partners is Zazzle. Gift giving is my love language. I love giving gifts, I love getting gifts. But it can be hard to find a good gift for someone, something that feels thoughtful and personal. It's not a gift card or something straight off the shelf. You want something that's you know them, you see them, you love them. That is where Zazzle comes in. Zazzle is a marketplace where you can basically take any product, a mug, a tote, a card, a phone case, and you can make it mean something. You're not just buying a gift, you're making one. They have a million designs. Or you can start from scratch and build something completely on your own. Either way, you're the designer and everything is made on demand. So there's no out of stock. I made some Mother's day gifts on Zazzle. I actually made ornaments for both of our mom's Christmas trees with our wedding photos and they turned out so good and they're so special, so cute and so meaningful. My mom actually shed a few tears, she loved it so much. So if you want to try it for yourself right now, save 25% on your first [e-mail]. that's 25% savings on your first [e-mail]. go make something zamazing zazzle.com.

[Kayla Moore]

okay, so I have a recommendation before we dive in.

[Morgan Abshur]

You must, you must. Cuz we were talking about this at lunch.

[Kayla Moore]

We were talking about this at lunch. The last episode that we recorded is the Chloe Aing case where she was kidnapped. And then this guy pretended he was part of this big criminal organization. The watch Death, the Black Death. If you watched that episode and are looking for something else, and also if you watch this one and you're looking for something else, I did an episode on Heart Starts Pounding. I did a two part series in February of 2024 on Sandra Clifton's disappearance. And that case is very similar to the Chloe Ailing one in the sense of it was this guy who was like telling people in his life that he had a lot more power than he actually did. He convinced a woman to just self isolate in an apartment for years thinking that if she Left the apartment. Someone was going to kill her because he told her he worked with MI6 and that he was a spy. And really, he was just like a normal guy. But that story was crazy. So it's the. I did a series, it's called Love and Lies, Part one and two. There's Sandra Clifton and then the captor. But it's a really, really interesting story.

[Morgan Abshur]

It's so insane. That's why I'm like, there's so many stories out there that are so unbelievable and yet real. Like, it's clear, it happened, it's real.

[Kayla Moore]

I know.

[Morgan Abshur]

Today's case is another one.

[Kayla Moore]

It's one of those. I mean, not to call it a head scratcher, but it really. To me, it is. It's one that I is. It just doesn't make any sense.

[Morgan Abshur]

No. And there's so many clues and evidence and reenactments and it's like I spiraled. I was like, how could it be this? But then there's this piece of evidence. So I would love to know your takes and your thoughts as we go through this. And what is one piece of evidence that we talk about today that just convinced you it's this or convinced you it's that?

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

I'm not trying to give you guys any crazy spoilers, but this is a doozy of a case.

[Kayla Moore]

Yes. And so, you guys, we are definitely going to need your feedback, but if you're watching this on YouTube, you're going to see some pictures and images that will kind of help you visualize what we're talking about. And if you're listening, you can also find those same assets on our Instagram. That's at Clues podcast. You should follow us. There's.

[Morgan Abshur]

Anyways, I know we just did a crazy word association thing. We were like, very in sync.

[Kayla Moore]

I know. Yeah, I know. We've started the clues. Social team wants us to do more trends, so we've been doing that, which is kind of fun.

[Morgan Abshur]

Please come over and join us.

[Kayla Moore]

Come join us.

[Morgan Abshur]

Just a warning before we begin too. This episode does contain discussions of murder, espionage, assault and sexual fetishes. So please listen with care and with that.

[Kayla Moore]

This case starts on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010, in London, England. Police constable John Gallagher of the London Metropolitan Police is on foot patrol, and today he's walking into the Plimco district, a central London neighborhood on the north bank of the River Thames. The area has both a wealthy and an underserved population. Luxurious homes sit right next to massive public housing complexes. All of this to say it's a place where a lot goes on, especially if you're a police officer. So when Constable Gallagher gets a radio call at around 5pm, he knows he's in for something. Dispatch wants him to stop by a nearby apartment for a welfare check on a 31 year old man named Gareth Williams. His friends and his family haven't spoken to him in 10 days since August 13th. And he failed to show up to work over the last week after being gone for a six week trip overseas. What Gallagher doesn't know yet, and he could have never guessed, is that Gareth is actually a professional spy. And he's missed very important meetings with his colleagues at MI6. And Gareth lives here because Plimco is a known community for spies, since it's walking distance to the MI6 headquarters. So Constable Gallagher walks to 36 Alderney street to Flat 4, which occupies the top two floors of a five level building. A tenant lets him into the shared hallway. He knocks, no one answers. He radios base and gets a leasing agent to come over with a key. Soon someone is there to let him into Gareth's unit and Gallagher immediately knows something is off. Right when he steps inside the apartment, he just starts sweating. And it's not because he's nervous, it's actually because the heat is cranked all the way up, even though it's the middle of August. It also looks, and it sounds like no one is home in this flat. But in the living room he sees that there's a cell phone, a laptop and two SIM cards laid out neatly on the table. On a chair there's an orange wig with a woman's haircut, which he finds interesting for a man, he was told, who lives alone. Plus, upstairs in the spare bedroom is a large wardrobe of designer women's clothing and a lot of it looks like it's brand new. But there's no sign of Gareth anywhere, so he keeps walking around, just seeing if he can find anything. And in the master bedroom, the duvet is halfway off the bed and two large yellow sports bags sit on the floor. Again, no sign of Garrett. So he keeps walking into the bathroom where he spots something strange. In the tub behind the shower screen, a red holdall, sports bag padlocked. Through both zipper pulls. The bag is bulging as if it's packed with something very large. Gallagher lifts the bag a couple of inches, but it's really heavy and it also smells really bad. It's that unmissable stench of human decay that he just knows from being a police officer. And then as he's lifting it up, too. He can see that red liquid starts seeping out of it down the drain of the bathtub. And that's when Gallagher realizes that this is a possible crime scene. Because based on the smell, Gareth could potentially be inside of this bag. Now, let's take one step back. Cause I want to talk a little bit more about Gareth Williams. So few people knew Gareth Williams well, and that's really how he liked it. He was born on the island of Anglesey in North Wales on September 26, 1978. His dad, Ian, was an engineer. His mother, Ellen, worked in education. And Gareth was especially close to his sister Carrie, his first and best friend. But when he started school at age 5, he had very little interest in making any new friends. When other kids played outside, Gareth stayed in and liked to use the school computer. Both the kids and adults who didn't know Gareth sometimes mistook him for not being very bright because he was slow to answer and he always seemed like he was distracted. However, for Gareth, he was actually the exact opposite. He was so far ahead of his peers, he just couldn't really relate to them. Maths, as they say in England, was his strongest subject by far. By age 10, he had already passed his math GCSEs, which is the standardized test British students usually take at around 15 or 16 years old, which is insane. So wild.

[Morgan Abshur]

I can barely do basic math, so I'm like, at 10, insane. Genius.

[Kayla Moore]

He was just one of those guys that could like, see it all in his head and it was very easy for him. His teachers ended up moving him up to A level courses which are normally taken between 16 and 18 years old. He finished all of those in 1991 when he was just 13 years old. While I was getting like, C minuses

[Morgan Abshur]

in Algebra 1, hearing teachers talk about his brain, they were like, this is one of the brightest math brains I've ever encountered, which I love that too.

[Kayla Moore]

I love when you hear about a student that was maybe struggling a little bit or not, like, connecting to their peers, and then they find the thing that they're just really good at and they're able to do it fully. And that was Gareth in math. His school reached out to Bangor University, about 25 minutes away, and they agreed to let Gareth pursue a math degree part time. Every week. He took the train all the way to Bangor by himself. He walked into lecture halls as the only preteen boy in the room, and he went straight home when classes ended. Gareth did have a couple other hobbies outside of just math, though. He was always biking around the Welsh countryside and would eventually become a competitive cyclist. In private conversations with Carrie, Gareth opened up about his passion for things like music and theater, fashion, the arts. And then at 17 years old in 1996, he graduated from Bangor with first class honors, the highest an undergraduate in the UK can receive. And at 18, he started a PhD at just 18 years old at the University of Manchester, more than two hours from home, his first time living away from his parents outside of Wales. He settled in pretty easily, beginning a doctoral dissertation on computer game technology, building models to make light and shade look more realistic in video games. And I mean, this is the mid-90s, so it's still really early on at the time also, it's like the best time in the entire history of the world to get into like computers and video games and stuff. Like, you're just like on such a good path. Gareth earned his PhD and he considered going into academia. In 2000, he began another postgraduate course at St Catherine's College in Cambridge. But he dropped out because he was approached by a recruiter from the Government communications headquarters, or GCHQ. That's the UK's Cybersecurity and Intelligence Agency, roughly equivalent to America's NSA, and they wanted to hire him. The math that he was using to improve computer graphics turned out to be really useful when it came to code breaking. Gareth was pretty interested and it fit his personality pretty well to do things like that. He didn't mind not being able to share details of his work. I mean, he was a secretive guy to begin with. He was also quiet and reserved. He wasn't really going to go to a pub and like, tell people sitting at the bar about all the work he was doing.

[Morgan Abshur]

Not a liability.

[Kayla Moore]

Not really a liability. Yeah, yeah. My friend who actually works in like a diamond mine says that they look for people who polish diamonds that have like certain personality traits too, because they don't want people that steal diamonds. So they like, are looking for people that just like, do their work. Put it down, go home, don't talk to anyone, come back because, like, apparently that's an issue.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, Niche interest diamonds to work here. That's it.

[Kayla Moore]

Yes. Super interest. He mostly blended into the background. It was a natural fit for so called gray man spy tactics which are all about being overlooked on purpose. GCHQ's offer involved a long vetting process for him. Everyone close to him was questioned. And at 22 years old, he officially started his career as a code breaker. He moved to the town of Cheltenham, England, where GCHQ's headquarters are two and a half hours south of Manchester and about four hours from his family. He rented an apartment over a couple's garage and he told them that he worked at a foreign office. And they didn't really ask many more questions. He was so quiet that they said they would often forget he was even there. He never brought friends over. He never had dates. He never even upgraded from a twin bed. Work was his entire life. GCHQ even paid for him to continue his studies at St. Catherine's College in nearby Cambridge. But he did eventually just drop out because he was only interested in spying now. But what he really wanted to do was move to MI6, the Foreign Intelligence Service. If GCHQ is the British NSA, MI6 is more like the CIA.

[Morgan Abshur]

Think James Bond.

[Kayla Moore]

Yes, I mean that's the first thing you think of when you think of MI6.

[Morgan Abshur]

Exactly.

[Kayla Moore]

GCHQ spies on both foreign nationals and British citizens love that MI6 is only allowed to operate against adversaries outside of Britain. After 9 11, MI6 was looking for people who could decrypt communications between Islamic terrorists. Gareth applied, but he didn't initially get in. It's a really arduous and difficult process. Then in 2006, 28 year old Gareth helped foil the infamous liquid bomb plot. It was a terrorist attempt to disguise liquid explosives as soft drinks and other fluids during transatlantic flights from the UK to the US and Canada. And that is why we are not allowed to bring more than 3 ounces of liquid on an airplane. Even though didn't they just change the rule?

[Morgan Abshur]

Dude, I've been seeing some weird stuff at airports. I saw someone walk through with a water bottle, like why?

[Kayla Moore]

I think you can. I'm gonna google it really quick. Computer, can I bring liquids on planes? So now. Well, here it says containers must be 3.4 ounces. I think I've just been seeing more people bring bigger stuff onto planes. Then Gareth helped intercept and decode secret electronic communications between Al Qaeda members. And he got a lot of credit for it. He began traveling to the US frequently to work with American intelligence officials. Now working mostly on operations against foreign targets. MI6 decided they did want him, but not permanently. They arranged this three year second mint or contract, basically borrowing him from gchq. We don't know exactly when the second mint started, but he moved from Cheltenham to Pimlico at some point in 2009. His flat was just across from the Thames from MI6 headquarters. A miles drive or a 25 minute walk to work. For obvious reasons, we don't know exactly what he did there, but MI6 called him a junior analyst specializing in how data is transferred between cell phones and laptops. So take that for what you want. I imagine it's just a modern day airdrop specialist or like sniping terrorist, who knows? One source says that he was doing surveillance at foreign London embassies. I mean, that sounds much more like that's what it was.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah.

[Kayla Moore]

He's believed to have worked on a CyberSecurity project with U.S. officials to prevent large scale data theft. There's also rumors he helped on a project tracing money laundering by the Russian mob. And an evaluation on Britain's vulnerability to foreign gangs.

[Morgan Abshur]

I heard that one come up quite a bit.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Yeah. There's not a definitive answer on exactly what he was doing. But we do know one thing about Gareth. He was a workaholic. And MI6 analysts often juggle multiple projects at once. But Gareth had been so focused on proving himself to MI6, he hadn't really looked into the workplace culture before he joined. And it turned out that it was not a great fit for him. His new colleagues engaged in office politics. Gareth hated office politics. Going out for after work drinks was considered essential for bonding with management. But Gareth could only tolerate the pub long enough for one glass of orange juice and then he would just go home.

[Morgan Abshur]

Pub culture in the UK is like no other. Yeah, every pub after work is full and people are having a good time.

[Kayla Moore]

I know. If you're listening, I'm curious, are you the type that, like, when you go to work, you're like, I'm just here for a short time. I don't really want to make any friends and I just want to go straight home.

[Morgan Abshur]

You clock out.

[Kayla Moore]

I've definitely had jobs like that. And then there's other jobs where you just like, want to get up all day and then go out to drinks with everyone afterwards. But I guess it also just depends on the job you have. Gareth suspected his social habits were holding his career back despite his excellent work, though. And he felt like he was just stuck in a rat race. In April of 2010, at 31 years old, he asked to return to GCHQ early. MI6 took months to respond, but eventually they did approve his request. Gareth called his old landlady in Cheltenham. The apartment over her garage was still available, so he said he would take it and he planned to move back in on September 3rd. But just 10 days before he was due back in Cheltenham, Gareth Williams was found dead in a padlocked bag inside of his own bathtub. And really, from here, the story only gets stranger. This episode is brought to you by Minky Couture.

[Morgan Abshur]

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[Kayla Moore]

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[Morgan Abshur]

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[Kayla Moore]

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[Morgan Abshur]

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[Kayla Moore]

This episode is brought to you by Quince. The best summer pieces are typically the ones that you end up wearing on repeat. The ones that are comfortable, versatile and somehow right for almost every occasion. And that personally is why I love Quince. They make elevated essentials using premium materials like European linen, organic cotton and washable silk without the traditional retail markup. I have so many quince pieces in my closet, I talk about it all the time. If you've listened to the show, I think I've gone through every single piece that I own. But I'm looking at the website now for what I want to buy for summer and I'm seeing 100 European linen long sleeve shirts, 100 European linen sleeveless swing dresses. They also have summer sweaters like their lightweight cotton cashmere link stitch dolman sweater which is really gorgeous and comes in a bunch of different colors. And as always, I love their wide leg pants. They have these really gorgeous 100 European linen wide leg pants that I really want to get. And everything at Quint is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories. Love that and cut out the middlemen so your paying for exceptional quality not brand markup. Make your summer wardrobe feel easier. Go to quint.comclues for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q U I-n c e.com clues for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com clues now back on Monday, August 23, 2010. Constable Gallagher had a strong suspicion about who was in this bag. But he couldn't confirm it alone, so he had to call for backup. And the cavalry arrived fast. MI5 agents showed up. Detectives from the London Metropolitan Police Counterterrorism Unit blocked off the entire street to sweep it for devices. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton was the most senior officer on the scene. And after he arrived, they were able to cut open the bag.

[Morgan Abshur]

Inside was, unfortunately, exactly what everyone was expecting. Gareth Williams body was inside, which is our first clue in this case. It initially looked like Gareth might have been dismembered, since his body was in such a strange position. But upon a closer look, it revealed that it was just the effects of extensive decomposition. The process appeared to be accelerated, likely because of the heat being turned all the way up in the apartment. On top of that, Gareth was completely naked. His knees were tucked up and his hands were folded across his chest. He hadn't been stabbed, shot, or visibly injured in any way. There actually wasn't a single mark on him. There were a few small scratches inside the bag, but they looked more consistent with marks from the padlock key than fingernails, say, from Gareth trying to get out. Speaking of the key, when they moved Gareth's body, they found it nestled underneath his right buttock. Now, the type of lock this was, you didn't need the key to lock it. It was a spring lock, so all you had to do was shut it. But the key being in the bag really baffled investigators. And to them, it started posing the question of, was this a suicide? Did Gareth get in the bag himself? And if he didn't, who would have locked him in there? To start trying to figure this out, detectives turned to the apartment itself. And that is clue number two for us, Garrus. Very clean flat. And the tiny pieces of evidence found there. DCI Sutton's first thought was that the crime scene appeared to be staged. The phone, laptop and SIM cards being laid out in plain view in the living room just seemed a little too convenient. Like someone wanted to make sure that they'd be noticed In a later BuzzFeed interview, Sutton said, quote, it was pretty bloody. Obviously, it was too clean. It was too easy. It was all there on a plate for us. End quote. That feeling intensified when forensic investigators went through the rest of the apartment. They really turned this place over. And there were no fingerprints on the edge of the bathtub, on the tile walls, on the zipper of the bag, or on the padlock. Not even Gareth's own fingerprints. Obviously, someone zipped and locked the bag. And maybe they wore gloves to hide their fingerprints. But that would mean it wasn't Gareth, because he was found completely naked. There were no gloves inside that bag with him. There were tiny fragments of DNA on the padlock and a zipper toggle, but they were too small to identify. Police also found a small amount of DNA on a green towel that was found in the kitchen and a single hair on Gareth's hand that appeared to not be his. Since Gareth's head was shaved, unfortunately, no root was present on that hair, so they couldn't recover a clear DNA profile from it at that time, either. Police also found a small amount of DNA on a green towel in the kitchen. A lot of sources I saw said it said semen on the towel. Overall, this was a ridiculously clean crime scene. Sutton, guest. Whoever locked the bag also wiped the apartment, staged the electronics, and deliberately cranked the heat up to accelerate Gareth's decomposition. But after all of that effort, one thing wasn't wiped up. There was a semen stain on the bathroom floor. This was later confirmed to be Gareth's, but one thing they noted was Gareth was a very tidy person. So why, out of all things, would that not be cleaned up? There's no fingerprints. Everything else is completely wiped, but that's still on the floor. DCI Sutton's theory was that the apartment was cleaned after Gareth died, and whoever cleaned it left that semen stain there deliberately. But as the investigation continued, Sutton encountered a lot of pushback on that theory. A lot more than he expected.

[Kayla Moore]

So the first step was figuring out exactly when Gareth was last seen alive. The accelerated decomposition made a precise time of death impossible to determine via autopsy. And not only was his work classified, he was just a secretive person with very few friends who knew very little about his life. MI6 wasn't helpful either. Detectives wanted to interview Gareth's colleagues directly and inspect MI6 documents, but they were shut down for national security reasons. They didn't even have the security clearance to know who Gareth was. Had been working with the British National Counterterrorism Force handled that part of the investigation, they passed along anonymized notes stripped of anything above the police's clearance level.

[Morgan Abshur]

Which makes you think he must have been in some pretty serious stuff.

[Kayla Moore]

Of course. No, he was definitely doing really serious stuff. I mean, they. Yeah, we still don't know what he was doing, which I think says a

[Morgan Abshur]

lot, but the way they're handling it. Yeah, it makes you think it's very serious. Otherwise you just say he wasn't working on anything that big. There's nothing to share. Like they're passing anonymized notes, making sure

[Kayla Moore]

that there's nothing in there that the police don't have clearance for. And what they finally established was Gareth got back to the UK on August 11, 2010. That was 12 days before his body was found. He had returned from a six week trip to the US after attending a Las Vegas cybersecurity conference called Black Hat, which caters to law enforcement and intelligence professionals. And a little extra context. So black Hat in the tech world means a hacker willing to violate laws and ethical norms. The conference was somewhat ironically named because it wasn't really for hackers, though it takes place right before its sister event, defcon, which is for hackers. It's common enough for spies to attend DEFCON undercover that attendees have a tradition of giving out awards for outing the real identities of, quote, feds. So that year, Black hat ran from July 24 to July 29, ending 13 days before Gareth returned to the UK. But people close to him confirmed that this wasn't strange. Gareth liked to take extra vacation time before or after his US work trips to avoid separate flights, since he really, really, really did not like to fly.

[Morgan Abshur]

Same.

[Kayla Moore]

For that vacation, he apparently planned a solo road trip around the West Coast. He flew back on August 11, gave himself a few days of padding to get over jet lag, and last spoke with his family on August 13. He didn't speak with them daily, though. So even with that timeline, it was possible that Gareth was alive for a few more days after the 13th.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, and they were able to confirm that luckily after he arrived back to the uk, it was a lot easier to trace his movements thanks to CCTV footage. That is our third clue and it's what we know about Gareth's final days. Friday evening, August 13th, Gareth went to a bar and restaurant in Bethnal Green, East London. He actually went to a drag cabernet show there. He did go alone, but he made small talk with a few people and then left alone. It seemed like going out solo was something that he really enjoyed. And police even found that he had already bought solo tickets for a similar drag show in South London. For the next two weekends, Saturday, August 14, he spent time shopping in the West London neighborhood of Holland Park. Sunday, Aug. 15, was the final CCTV footage we have of Gareth. It was meant to be the last day of his vacation. He's due back to work the next day, Monday the 16th. And he spent most of this day shopping, dressed casually in a fitted red T shirt, khakis and white athletic shoes. We do have some pictures of him during this outing that you'll see on the video version. And he just looks calm, casual, browsing around. He seemed to be planning a nice dinner, buying desserts from Harrods and peppered steaks from the supermarket. The last image shows him arriving on his own street in Pimlico at 3:05pm there's no evidence that anyone joined him for dinner, though. There was some digital evidence found on his computer, though. It showed that he was browsing a cycling website at 1:03am on Aug. 16. Oddly enough, though, the cell phone that was found in his apartment had its memory completely wiped. Wiping your phone just before your death? Yeah. Right before his death, police did serve a search warrant to his cell phone provider. The response from the cell phone provider was that they had, quote, no service history, as if the phone had never been used.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Which is not. I mean, even when you wipe your phone, they have some of that information. Right. So for them to say, like, no history at all. Interesting.

[Morgan Abshur]

Very odd. And so investigators just kind of suspected that this wasn't his only phone, but it was the only one they found in the apartment. So if this is a phone that's never been used, where's his actual phone?

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

How's he calling people?

[Kayla Moore]

His parents?

[Morgan Abshur]

They also discovered that Gareth was expected to attend an important meeting his first day back at work on the 16th. Clearly, he didn't show and he actually missed multiple important meetings. Yet MI6 never reported him missing, even though he was known as being very punctual. Clearly cared immensely about work, but never reported him missing. Which is so interesting to me because he was just in the US at this cyber conference and then he's supposed to be back and he's gone. No alarm bells are ringing, which, because

[Kayla Moore]

they knew what happened, methinks.

[Morgan Abshur]

I know. And that's where my head goes.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

And I feel like it should be on the botched board, but, like, I don't want MI6 to come after me.

[Kayla Moore]

I know. I think it's botched by our standards. But I don't think they, I, I think they knew what was going on.

[Morgan Abshur]

The person that finally did report Gareth missing was actually an employee from gchq. But this was only after Gareth's sister Carrie called them, concerned because he wasn't returning her calls. From one source I saw, it actually took them another five hours to call and report him missing after Carrie called. No real sense of urgency. Based on all of this, police believed Gareth died before missing his Aug. 16 meeting, placing his time of death about one week before his body was found. But a missing spy seems like something the government would want to look into right away. And to these normal investigators, to them it's confusing. Why MI6 would not look into a missing spy more rapidly, why wasn't taken more seriously. Why would it take a week for anyone to call in a welfare check? Well, officers at the Met kind of already had a suspicion and it was because of something that GCHQ mentioned when they called in for that initial welfare check. That call is our fourth clue. Mentions of a possible secret assignment. At 4:41pm on August 23, the day Gareth was discovered, a GCHQ HR executive called the police. She said, quote, he was last spoken to on Friday 13th. He was expected in to work all of last week and did not appear. Both the landline and mobile phones are not picked up. The mobile is switched off. His sister was expecting to stay with him on Wednesday this week and she has not been able to contact him, end quote. The operator asked if there was any reason for concern. The caller replied, quote, he is going to be coming back to Cheltenham because he's just been pulled back from a job he's supposed to do and we are not sure how he's taken that, end quote. Detectives knew Gareth wasn't happy at MI6 and that he'd requested an early return to GCHQ. But this was the only mention of him being removed from a specific assignment. MI6 didn't, wouldn't confirm anything specific. They only said he wasn't working undercover when he went missing and they didn't believe his work put him at unusual risk. However, a longtime friend disagreed. 33 year old Shawn Lloyd Jones described herself as Gareth's childhood sweetheart from primary school. They'd bonded over an innocent mutual crush and stayed friends up until Gareth's death. Shawn worked as a stylist in fashion, one of Gareth's interest, and was one of the few people that he would actually speak to about his job. She claimed that in January 2010, eight months before he died. Gareth had told her that he was being trained for undercover work and was in the process of being assigned a new identity. According to her, one night she even saw him with two passports, though she didn't check the names on them. After that, he went away for a nine day training exercise and couldn't tell her any details if Sean was telling the truth. That undercover assignment could be the job that GCHQ was saying he was pulled back from. But again, that's raising a lot of other questions. 1. Did the woman's clothing in his apartment have something to do with this new identity? 2. Was he going undercover as a woman? 3. Why exactly was he taken off this project? And as detectives dug deeper, they found themselves wading into quite a bit of controversy while Garris family became convinced the British government was covering up his murder. This episode is brought to you by Groons. I am really, really prioritizing my health and I know that I wasn't getting enough vitamins and nutrients. And that is where Groons came in. Grooms are a convenient comprehensive formula in one delicious daily pack of gummy bears. This isn't a multivitamin, a greens gummy or a prebiotic. It's all of those things and then some at a fraction of the price. And bonus, it tastes great. I have a pack of Grooms in my purse pretty much constantly now. It's my little sweet treat, my snack that also makes sure I'm getting the nutrients I need. It's this perfect solution to have a daily pack of gummies because you can't fit the amount of nutrients Groons does into just one gummy. And my favorite part, they are vegan, nut free, gluten free, dairy free. They don't have artificial colors or flavors, but they do have 20 plus vitamins and minerals and 60 ingredients that are nutrient dense whole foods. They even have a low or sugar free option. Gruns has 6 grams of prebiotic fiber. That's more than 2 cups of broccoli and you may even be eligible for reimbursement with HSA. FSA and Gruyn's ingredients are backed by over 35,000 research publications. If you're ready to try it for yourself, save up to 52% off with code CLUZE@GRUNS CO. That's clus.co.

[Kayla Moore]

this episode is brought to you by Alma. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care. When you want to talk to a therapist, the last thing you want to do is fight with insurance. Figure out if someone's available. Like, the process can be so long that it actually turns you off from doing it. But Alma has built a community of over 26,000 diverse therapists. Also, clients with insurance pay $20 on

[Morgan Abshur]

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[Kayla Moore]

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[Tristan Hughes]

S 10 years after Troy, Odysseus is still lost war hero, liar, survivor, and the man at the heart of one of history's greatest stories. I'm Tristan Hughes, and all of this month on the Ancients, I'm going to be sailing through Homer's treacherous world of monsters, witchcraft and tempestuous gods, exploring the real archaeology and history beneath the myths. From Troy to Ithaca. This is Odysseus. Like you've never heard him before. Join us on the Ancients from History hit. Listen now and subscribe on your favorite podcast player.

[Kayla Moore]

So towards the end of 2010, detectives believed that they had a strong idea of what happened to Gareth Williams. And they thought that it had more to do with his personal life than his job. There are two wildly different stories about Gareth's private life. One from law enforcement and indirectly from the agencies he worked for. And then the other is from his family. But let's just start with the law enforcement version of things. So in the weeks following Gareth's death, police started releasing information, hoping to spark tips from the public. All of it pointed to a secret double life and the possibility of that he died during what they called a quote, sex game, which is crazy to

[Morgan Abshur]

start putting that out to the press when it's so unconfirmed.

[Kayla Moore]

Immediately, Immediately. I mean, we'll get into it, but I hate when people say, like, it was a different time. I mean, it really, the way that they felt about what we're gonna start describing back then was like, maybe more vitriolic than they feel now. And so maybe there was like some prejudice there. But, but let, let me get into what I'm talking about so people understand. So In December, four months after his death, they shared EFIT images, which are electronic facial identification technology, of a couple who they said had visited Gareth's apartment in June or July, implying they believed someone else was present when he died. So the senior officer now in charge, Detective Chief Inspector Jackie Sabir, gave this statement, quote, we know he was intensely private, and however difficult this might be for someone who has had any interaction with Gareth, it would really help us if they came forward. So we know if that side of his life had any relevance to his death. Police also revealed that he had visited bondage websites with guides on how to tie people up. Though it's worth noting that this didn't appear to be a major part of his life. Detectives found those sites in his browsing history just five times, with the earliest visit in 2009 and the latest a few weeks before he died. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, that he was not visiting those sites very often. And I don't know, I just feel like if you went through anyone's search history, you're gonna find stuff like, from whatever. So who. Who knows? Even the explicit reason he was visiting

[Morgan Abshur]

those sites, they're doing a lot of speculation based on very limited info.

[Kayla Moore]

Yes. So he spent about 30 minutes to an hour looking at these sites each time, and none of these were porn sites. And there were no other pornographic websites in his history at all. At all, which really says something. They also didn't find sexual messages, any evidence of past partners, BDSM related or otherwise, on his phone or laptop. Of course, as an electronic communications expert, Gareth would have known how to conceal online activities if he, like, truly wanted to. Which is partly why police didn't let limited evidence stop them moving forward with this sex game theory. Like, even after finding just, like, five hits on his laptop, they were, like, sex games. That's what killed him.

[Morgan Abshur]

It's kind of confusing because it's like you're saying he would know how to cover it up if he wanted to, but yet, why were you able to find the bondage websites in the first place?

[Kayla Moore]

I know.

[Morgan Abshur]

It's like, which way is it?

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. And. And just to, like, come forward and, like, immediately start saying that. That's like, the theory now is sus. So, I mean, there was also the semen stain that was found in his bathroom. So I think maybe they were already thinking about something sexually motivated. So based on that stain, also based on the wardrobe of women's clothing, the bondage websites, his tickets to drag cabaret shows, you know, that he was attending and the absence of any struggle in the apartment. Police believe that Gareth got into the bag voluntarily as some sort of sexually deviant act. Something like strange he was doing that. They just didn't understand.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, they were really throwing around the term. He was into escapology. He was an escapology.

[Kayla Moore]

Okay.

[Morgan Abshur]

Fanatic.

[Kayla Moore]

Like, yeah, escapology is just like. It's very. Yeah, it's weird. It's also strange to like immediately come forward with that and just now that's what everyone is thinking of when they think of Gareth. So they're. I guess they're assuming that something went wrong while he was doing this to himself and he just couldn't be released in time. Forensics experts noted that once inside, he could have suffocated from carbon dioxide buildup within just 30 minutes. And a note here is that some experts said within 30 minutes. At the inquest, the pathologist said that Gareth would have had been unconscious after two or three minutes. The independent pathologist, Ian Calder, who carried out a second postmortem, said hypercapnia, carbon dioxide poisoning would've caused a sleep like effect with gradual fading away, no pain, and an increased lack of awareness. And Calder said that this would be two to three minutes at best for the level to become toxic. So it would have been very fast inside the bag.

[Morgan Abshur]

Which would explain no scratch marks or the appearance of him trying to get out.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, he would have just kind of like, like passed out. Perhaps someone was with him and he didn't realize he was in danger until it was way too late. They could have panicked, wiped the apartment and then fled. Without reporting his death.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, I mean, something about the UK tabloids, they really run with something when they get it. We, we saw it in the Chloe Ayling case. And you again see it in Gareth's case. I mean, they ran article after article that he was a closeted gay man. They had headlines that he was a secret trans person, except then say the word trans. They were using very derogatory terms. It was character assassination one after another.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, and that's really what Gareth's family thought too. They were like, this is character assassination protection for MI6 at Gareth's expense. Because, I mean, think about it too. Like, he was the quietest guy in the office. He had not a lot of friends and family. Like he was the easiest person to be disposed of, I guess you could say. And so his family is just kind of thinking like, I don't know, it feels like he was maybe targeted or something.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, I mean, he wouldn't have any enemies on the outside, it would have to be MI6 or through his work.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, right, right. And they maybe saw him as someone that would be easy to get rid of. So his sister Carrie said Gareth would never let anyone not cleared by MI6 into his apartment. I mean, we talked about it. He's a workah. He takes his job very, very seriously. He never talks to anyone he shouldn't about work. Like, he was not just going to let people up into his apartment unless he knew who they were and they were cleared by MI6. He was very strict about waiting for this vetting process. That rule may have been even more important given the flat itself. So, according to the leasing agent, it was leased by the government, not by Gareth directly, suggesting that it may have been a Safe House, though MI6 vehemently denies this. A lawyer representing Gareth's family said that it had been occupied exclusively by MI6 or GCHQ employees since 2003, which made it a potential target for hostile spies.

[Morgan Abshur]

And it also just makes you wonder who could have had a key.

[Kayla Moore]

Right, Exactly.

[Morgan Abshur]

This has been used for years and years and years. It's known as this MI6GCHQ Safehold. Who else has a key key or

[Kayla Moore]

just knows how to get into the apartment, you know? As for the implications about his sex life, his family wasn't upset about the idea of him being gay or into drag. They were upset because they believed that there were better supported explanations that the police were ignoring, or, you know, choosing to ignore, basically. Carrie and his friend Sean both believed the women's clothing were gifts for the people in his life. Sean, who worked in fashion, noted that Gareth was too muscular to fit most of it. As a competitive cyclist, his arms and his legs were very strong, but the clothes would have fit Shawn. And he was in the habit of giving her expensive designer pieces as gifts.

[Morgan Abshur]

Gareth also took two design classes, for fashion, like this was a niche interest of his, too.

[Kayla Moore]

The designer items in the apartment were worth an estimated £15,000 to £20,000. That's a lot to buy ahead of time as gifts. But Sean said that that wasn't necessarily out of character for him. Gareth kept his cost of living very low, and he liked to shop. And he was a very, very, very generous guy by nature. As for the women's wigs, she said that he was planning to attend a costume party that October dressed as an anime character, and the wigs did match what he told her he was going to dress up as. According to Sean and Carrie, Gareth wasn't gay. And he would have told them if he were. He was just not very good at asking women out. But he really wanted a girlfriend. And Sean said that he talked to her about it all the time. She even wanted to help him meet more people now that he was back from his trip. And, you know, we've looked into this, we've researched for this case. There's not really evidence either way necessarily about his sexuality. Police never identified any romantic or sexual partners of any gender. One witness claims that he chatted with Gareth in a gay bar in May of 2010, though he said it was just a conversation, nothing physical. And other than that, no other witnesses came forward about Gareth being part of the LGBTQ or any kink communities. And if it was just one person in a gay bar, I mean, people misremember people all the time. So it wasn't necessarily Gareth or, I

[Morgan Abshur]

mean, straight person going to a gay bar because it's a good time. I mean, there's so many plausible explanations for kind of everything that doesn't just jump to, yeah, he has to be this or he has to be that.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

I do just want to make a note here about kind of where the state of affairs were in the UK for LGBTQ people at the time. While there was a lot of process, there was still quite a bit of discrimination and homophobia. So if Gareth was questioning things, it could make sense why those close to him didn't know.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Morgan Abshur]

Again, we don't know. But I did a deep dive into stonewall.org and learned a lot about the history of things like their gross indecency, which is actually what Alan Turing, another famous British code breaker, was prosecuted under and forced to go through chemical castration. A lot. Very sad history. But something I found interesting was it wasn't until 2016, when Robert Hannigan, who was GCHQ's director, actually addressed Stonewall's workplace conference and publicly apologized for the service's historic prejudice against LGBT people. So it makes you wonder if there was potentially a culture where it wasn't safe to be out.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

And again, very private person as it is, so we don't know, but they are really speculating and going off of such limited info.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

Rather than almost doing their diligence.

[Kayla Moore]

I know you have everyone speculating, Right. Because you have the police saying that, like, oh, he was gay and he was a sexual deviant, and then his family being like, no, he wasn't gay. And the sexuality, I guess we just don't know either way. But it also wasn't really a time that it was probably safe for him to come out in his workplace.

[Morgan Abshur]

Exactly. As for Gareth's possible interest in bondage, detectives learned something from his former landlords in Cheltenham. And this is our fifth clue. The alleged headboard incident. Gareth had rented the apartment over the Elliot's garage for almost a decade. Very same one that he was expected to move back into. The Elliotts adored him. He'd become like a son to them and they didn't want to make him look bad by sharing this. But they felt like the police needed to know about one incident they had. One night in 2007, the Elliotts were woken at 1:30am by Gareth screaming for help. They let themselves in his apartment and found him with his hands tied to his headboard, only wearing his boxers. Brian Elliott found a knife and cut him free. Gareth apologized over and over and explained to them that he had tied himself up to see if he could get free on his own and found out that he couldn't. Nothing like that happened again and the Elliot's hadn't thought much of it until after his death. Online comments from bondage enthusiasts did note that tying yourself up and being unable to get free without help is a very common beginner mistake in the kink community. Many mentioned either personal near misses or warning stories that they had read about where solo bondage went wrong. On the other hand, this happened in 2007 while Gareth was at GCHQ while trying to get into MI6. And there's so many different possibilities to why he could have been attempting to escape Knotts. Whether it's for preparing for undercover work, practicing escape skills, maybe practicing to save his own life one day if he was ever captured. So investigators were wondering, could he have locked himself in the bag just to see if he could get out?

[Kayla Moore]

So as 2011 began, detectives hoped to close the case. They had some evidence. They had two partial DNA profiles from the bag, one from the green towel and the hair on Gareth's hand. They also got good news from the forensic lab. Another partial DNA profile had been recovered from Gareth's hand itself, which they hoped would connect him directly to whoever had touched him right before his death. Maybe the person who zipped and locked the bag. Meanwhile, they still hoped to find the couple seen at Gareth's apartment and still had tests to run on his body. The heat related decomposition meant that it took an extra long time and multiple pathologists to reach any conclusions on the cause of death. There were three separate autopsies, but none of the three pathologists Gave a firm answer. One said, on the balance of probabilities, he was probably unlawfully killed, which is so vague. I don't know.

[Morgan Abshur]

Probably.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, probably unlawfully killed. They also agreed poisoning and asphyxiation were strong possibilities, but they couldn't prove either.

[Morgan Abshur]

Everything's a possibility.

[Kayla Moore]

Exactly. The toxicology report eventually came back with traces of alcohol and ghb, a drug commonly used to facilitate sexual assaults. Known as a date rape drug. But the pathologist explained that both are produced naturally as human tissues decays. The faint positive signals were almost certainly from decomposition and not from exposure. And because of that same decomposition, a wide range of other possible drugs or poisons, including chloroform, would have broken down completely and would not be able to be detected.

[Morgan Abshur]

I know, and that was my thought, too. I'm like, it could have been possible someone chloroformed him, he passed out, put him in the bag and just zipped them and zipped him up. And by the time he came to, carbon dioxide's building up. He then passes out from that. That's why there's no sign of a struggle trying to get out.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. And they're thinking about poison here. Like detectives knew Russian foreign agents often used poison. In London, just four years before Gareth's death in 2006, Russian exile and former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was murdered. Murdered in London using Polonium 210. It was a rare radioactive toxic compound there that was like the. I think it was. He was poisoned while he was drinking tea. But there was another one where they used to put the. Like, at the end of umbrellas, they would put needles and they would poke people that like their targets as they were going. So you could never figure out who was poisoning.

[Morgan Abshur]

And again, it sounds crazy, but clearly it's happening.

[Kayla Moore]

It is happening. Yeah. I remember when the Alexander one happened too, because he just slowly decayed over time. And they kept posting pictures of him in the news and it was so scary. And so they're thinking of that too. And so Gareth's body was tested for Polonium 210, along with many other poisons. Unlike most substances, Polonium wouldn't disappear during decomposition because it's radioactive. But all of those tests came back negative. Then the couple that they'd been looking for turned out to be a dead end. A, quote, red herring who had nothing to do with the case. And then the DNA profile from Gareth's hand fell apart completely. As detectives prepared for the spring 2012 inquest, the lab sent an apologetic message. The DNA Belonged to one of the detectives present when the body was found. It was contamination, not evidence.

[Morgan Abshur]

It's gonna get a botch.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, contamination does get a botch. I was just reading about. I do wanna do a full episode on this, but there was that one. Like the most. But they like the worst serial killer to ever live. There was like a serial killer going all throughout Europe and they could never find the person because like this, the DNA was showing up at every crime scene. Yeah. And then it was the investigator who was like, in the lab. Like her DNA was just showing up on everything.

[Morgan Abshur]

The Q tips were contaminated.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, something like that.

[Morgan Abshur]

I think the Q tips were contaminated. So their like, harvesting methods and crime scene investigative tools. It was tampered from the get go.

[Kayla Moore]

Exactly.

[Morgan Abshur]

Something weird. Yeah. So without that DNA, there was no physical evidence from another person. No signs that would have said another person was in Gareth's apartment when he died. So detectives investigated the Elliott's account. What if Gareth was alone the whole time and this was another solo escape attempt? Police ended up hiring Peter Faulding, an expert in confined space rescues and forensic searches. They wanted his help determining whether it was actually possible for Gareth to get into the bag and padlock it from the inside. Peter happened to be about Gareth's size and in shorter, actually. So if Gareth could do it, Peter should be able to do it. Peter did manage to get himself into the bag. And there are photos of him contorting himself into the bathtub that we're gonna show you guys. But he had serious trouble with the padlock after 300 attempts. 3,00. He couldn't figure out how to lock it from the inside without causing damage. And the bag that Gareth was found in wasn't damaged. Peter concluded Gareth was placed in the bag already dead, and the bag was lifted into the bathtub with him inside. Even if he had entered voluntarily, Peter couldn't find a way to do so without leaving fingerprints. In the bathroom.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Someone must have wiped down the hole place afterwards.

[Morgan Abshur]

I mean, I've tried to think about this. I'm like, would there be a way? Could you use the bag? But he didn't have any clothes on. There were no gloves found in that bag with him. And no, the shower had one of those, like, sliding doors. So that was shut. He would have had to shut that, lower himself down, contort, twist all around.

[Kayla Moore]

Like.

[Morgan Abshur]

I mean, 300 attempts and he proved impossible.

[Kayla Moore]

No way.

[Morgan Abshur]

Peter later claimed that the police were unhappy with his opinion and pressured him to change it before the inquest,

[Kayla Moore]

pressuring Pressuring. Yeah, I know. It's a botch.

[Morgan Abshur]

This is an expert.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

The police strongly believed that Gareth had put himself into the bag. And they got a key piece of evidence from an unlikely source, a female reporter who posted a video online in which she zipped and locked herself into a red North Face holdall. The piece of it that Peter had seemingly missed was that she could put the padlock on the zipper pulls from inside with the zipper slightly open. And then by tensing her body to exert pressure on the sides of the bag in just the right places, she could force the zipper closed by itself. So essentially, the zippers would be pulled into the bag. Enough of the zipper wide enough so she'd have the padlock with her, lock it, push it back through, and then from the insides of the zippers, pull them together.

[Kayla Moore]

Wow, wow, wow. Okay, so you have to really want to be locked in there.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah. And I'm curious about her size.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

Was she a lot smaller?

[Kayla Moore]

I know, yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

Was she five two? Like, what are we working with again, size wise?

[Kayla Moore]

Right.

[Morgan Abshur]

However, Peter's rebuttal to all of this was that they were missing the point in the video. The woman's fingerprints and DNA would have been all over the lock and zipper.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[Morgan Abshur]

There was no DNA on the lock or zipper. The lack of DNA and fingerprints was always Peter's main argument.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, that is the point.

[Morgan Abshur]

To pull this off alone, Gareth would have had to step into the bag, in the tub without touching the walls or rim, close the shower door screen without touching it, and then zip and lock himself in, all while completely naked. Any part of his body could have left behind skin cells with a DNA sample. I mean, were constantly sloughing cells and shedding. Peter's conclusion was, quote, even Harry Houdini himself couldn't have managed it.

[Kayla Moore]

The inquest hearing opened in the last week of April 2012, 20 months after Gareth was found dead. Since police hadn't talked Peter into their version of events, he testified that Gareth was murdered over seven days. Every aspect of the case was examined. Peter with no suspects. It was the closest thing to a trial they were likely to have. Gareth's sister testified about his unhappiness at MI6 and her family's devastation that MI6 hadn't reported him missing earlier. Regarding the women's clothing, witnesses testified that a shopkeeper had sold Gareth items he claimed were for his girlfriend, although he wasn't dating anyone. And police revealed that Gareth had taken two women's fashion Design courses in 2009 and 2010. Three of Gareth's colleagues from GCHQ and MI6 testified, but their identities were so top secret that they were only referred to as F, G and K in the coroner's court. And they were hidden behind a screen, even anonymously. They had very little to offer in this.

[Morgan Abshur]

There was also a part I saw where his line manager, when asked, you know, where did you think he was? He said, quote, he was stuck on a train and he was missing for a week. Stuck on a train.

[Kayla Moore]

Stuck on a train for a week.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah. They did question. They're like, in hindsight, should you have taken action sooner? And he basically said, yeah, absolutely.

[Kayla Moore]

Huh.

[Morgan Abshur]

But like, there was no really explanation beyond any of that.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Of course, nobody could rule out Gareth's work playing a role in his death, but there was no clear evidence that he had been killed for being a spy either.

[Morgan Abshur]

May 1, 2012 was supposed to be the last day of testimony. DCI Jackie Sabir took the stand and dropped a bombshell. Which is our seventh clue. Gareth's mystery memory sticks. She revealed that she had learned that morning that MI6 had been holding onto nine memory sticks, almost certainly USB flash drives, that were found amongst Gareth's belongings at work. MI6 had examined what they called electronic media belonging to Gareth without telling the police and had failed to turn the memory sticks over or even inform the police that they existed. They also failed to tell police about an inventory that they had taken of Gareth's work belongings, which included a red north face holdall similar to the one his body had been found in. My first thought when I heard that is, were these standard issue? Like, why was there another one found at work?

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Were they really common?

[Morgan Abshur]

I was really curious about that.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

To this day, we don't know what was on those memory sticks. MI6 claimed that they had to withhold evidence for national security, while simultaneous insisting that Gareth was just a junior analyst and that his job was low risk. The contradiction didn't sit well with Gareth's family, who heard it as a confirmation that MI6 was covering up his death at the hands of either a foreign agent or one of Britain's own spies.

[Kayla Moore]

On May 2, 2012, the coroner determined that Gareth Williams was likely suffocated or poisoned and that his death was a premeditated criminal act. Under British policing rules. This meant Scotland Yard had to conduct an entirely new investigation. Gareth's family was relieved the bondage narrative was rejected, but devastated by how obstructive MI6 had been the entire time, not to mention the investigative time. Wasted on leads like the unknown DNA profile that turned out to be a contamination issue. Scotland Yard's new investigation would end in pessimism, though. They collected DNA from Gareth's MI6 colleagues, but none matched anything from the crime scene. Though to be fair, the DNA profiles from the scene were so fragmented, it would have been impossible to conclusively match them with really anyone. Regardless, In November of 2013, 18 months after the inquest, police closed the case again. They concluded Gareth most likely zipped himself into the bag alone and died accidentally after failing to escape. As for the impossibly clean crime scene, they shrugged it off as evidential contradictions and gaps in our understanding the mysteries of the universe.

[Morgan Abshur]

Gaps in our understanding is something you say about aliens.

[Kayla Moore]

I know. Yeah, that's literally what I was thinking.

[Morgan Abshur]

Gap in our understanding.

[Kayla Moore]

It's a big government cover up, but, yeah. So I don't know, like, it just like, is so unsatisfying after, like, doing a whole other investigation. And then at the end of that, they're like, oh, like, we didn't figure it out this time. So I guess it's just something beyond our understanding. And he just did it himself.

[Morgan Abshur]

I'm just so confused where this thought process is going with him doing it himself. Why would the key to unlock the lock that's on the outside be in the bag with him?

[Kayla Moore]

Because he didn't do it himself. Like, I. I feel like taking. Like, I don't. I don't know, like, I just like

[Morgan Abshur]

laughing gas from the dentist.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah, I feel like I'm taking laughing gas from the dentist, like, loopy up to it because it's just so clear to me. I feel like that he just didn't do this to himself. But they're really insisting that that's what happened. And I am not alone in this. Gareth's family still really believed that this entire thing was cover up for something more sinister. This episode is brought to you by Whatnot. There's one thing that I learned from my mother. It is how to get a good deal. She was always doing garage sales, like, you name it. And that's why I'm excited to talk to you about Whatnot today. Whatnot is the number one live shopping app in the US where shopping happens in real time with real people. It's the absolute best place to find great deals on products you love because you almost never have to pay a full price. Plus, the amazing sellers with great taste go live 24 7, meaning that you can comment in real time. You can ask about sizing and you can see everything you want to buy up close. I went on the app the other day to put it to the test and I saw a lot of amazing things on there. I was jumping into chat, seeing what people were posting about, I was seeing what was on sale and I was also able to message the sellers and ask for close ups for them to spin products around and they're able to do it in real time because this is all happening live. You can download whatnot today and get $20 off and free shipping on your first purchase. Search whatnot. That's W H a t N o t in the App Store. Sign up and start finding the best deals on the products you love with 20 off and free shipping on your first purchase. This episode of Clues is brought to you by Furious, the Hulu Original Series Furious is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus on July 27. From Liz Meriwether, the Emmy nominated executive producer of Dying for Sex and the Dropout comes a gripping psychological thriller. Starring Emmy Rossum as Alice Black, Furious follows a rookie FBI agent on the hunt for Catherine, played by Lola Petticrew, a mysterious and calculating female serial killer. While Alice upholds justice, Catherine kills for it, terrorizing the rich and powerful men of New York in her pursuit of vengeance. As their twisted game of cat and mouse unfolds, the lines between good and evil begin to blur. With shocking crimes, tangled relationships, and secrets that change everything, Alice discovers there's a thin line between hunter and pray. Watch the Hulu Original Series Furious on July 27th. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundled subscribers. Terms apply.

[Morgan Abshur]

In February 2021, after a lot more pressure from the media, Scotland Yard agreed to take one final look at the case. It had been more than 10 years since Gareth died. DNA testing had advanced significantly in that time, so detectives hoped that samples that were useless in 2010 might now help identify a suspect. That's our eighth clue. The DNA Retest they ran a new forensic review on swabs from the bag, the zipper, the padlock, the key, and that green towel found in the kitchen. It took more than two years for the results to come out, and in November 2023, Scotland Yard got the final report. They sat on it internally for a while before going public. But in February 2024, more than 13 years after Gareth died, they announced exactly one new finding. Gareth's own DNA was on the green towel, not an unknown person's. No other items yielded new results.

[Kayla Moore]

And that is really the end of the formal investigation for now, it didn't make Peter Faulding happy. Remember, he was the expert in confined space rescues who failed to recreate the scene. He'd been mostly quiet since the inquest, but in 2025, he decided to speak out publicly.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah.

[Kayla Moore]

And he accused the Met of pressuring him into what he considered to be a cover up. He also claimed that there was a cover up of the real reason Gareth had so much women's clothing. Peter believes Gareth's undercover assignment was going to involve living as a woman and that going to drag shows was actually research before he stepped into a female Persona. I feel like that has to be a stretch, but, I mean, it's at least, like, a reason. I don't know, it just. It still also feels like a little fantastical. Yeah, I have my own theories as to what happened, but we'll get into that. That's just his theory. I mean, there was no proof Gareth ever dressed as a woman or was selected for a specific undercover assignment or that any of the clothing fit him. I mean, some sources, like Sean, say the clothes were too small for him, so it was not necessarily for him. A few people have tried to tie Gareth's death to Russia. In 2015, a Soviet defector told a British tabloid that Russian agents killed Gareth for refusing to become a double agent using an undetectable poison administered through his ear with a needleless syringe.

[Morgan Abshur]

This loose end is probably the most wild for me, probably the most believable in terms of theories for me. And I was able to find an article thanks to a Reddit thread and a Wayback Machine link. And there's a quote from the article. Defector Boris Karpichkov claims Russia had a secret agent in GCHQ and Gareth Williams knew who it was.

[Kayla Moore]

Some say that there's no compelling explanation for why killing someone at Gareth's level would have been worth the risk, unless MI6 had lied about his importance. Gordon Thomas, an author specializing in British intelligence, published an op ed arguing that Gareth was a high flyer based on what's known about his assignments. And a high flyer is an elite, extremely skilled intelligence operative who excels at navigating complex operations, taking calculated risks, or rapidly rising through the ranks. In 2017, a BuzzFeed News investigation found Gareth's death might be linked to 13 other possible killings on British soil by Russian agents. DCI Sutton, by then retired, still believed the scene was staged and cleaned by a third party. Here's one Excerpt from the Buzzfeed reporting that's worth noting. Quote, Buzzfeed News has learned MI6 was sitting on secret U.S. intelligence suggesting William's death could be connected to his work on Russia. American officials did not disclose details of the intelligence they have relating to William's death. But four high ranking intelligence sources confirmed that the information had been shared with Britain's Secret service. That is pretty chilling if true and it would help explain why MI6 was so unhelpful throughout the entire investigation.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah, maybe some truth to what Karpichkov was saying. Something I think that's interesting too and this is mentioned in a lot but I couldn't really find anything on it is they note his door being double locked from the outside. So a lot of other sources on this case basically like how is the door double locked from the outside? Yet he was in the tub. But again I wasn't able to find anything on that. If you're a good sleuther, better than me, hope you are, please put it in the comments. I'm very curious, what do you think

[Kayla Moore]

happened after you hear everything?

[Morgan Abshur]

I think MI6, I think Karpichkov was telling the truth and he discovered something maybe that he shouldn't have.

[Kayla Moore]

I also part of me wonders if he was a warning to someone else in MI6 that because he, which would explain him being a little bit lower ranking, maybe not involved in nefarious stuff or big, big spy activities but they were able to kill him because they knew that he was, I don't know,

[Morgan Abshur]

didn't have like a lot of that other person working.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. Working with someone else. And also just didn't have a lot of friends and family that were going to like cause a big like ruckus over his death necessarily. And so they killed him in a really scary way to be like look at what we can do. And so no one in MI6 could say anything because they knew that it was a warning or something. I don't know. But it like to me it's very clear that someone else killed him.

[Morgan Abshur]

It's really crazy what goes on in governments all over the world that we have no idea about.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah. And I also, with stories like this I always get really in my head about like who were the witnesses that saw him buying the clothing? Like was that all a plant? Did they try to stage some sort of oh, he was a sex maniac and like none of that really happened but it was planted by the government. I don't know, I start getting really tin hat about it when with stories like this.

[Morgan Abshur]

But it's easy to do.

[Kayla Moore]

It is really easy to do. I'M like, did anyone see him at the drag shows? Did they buy the tickets for him and put them in his apartment? I don't know.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah. Was he ever even there?

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

Especially given, I mean, the uk, we talk about this with a lot of cases there. There's so much CCTV footage. So there was no footage of him going to the show and going home from the show, like, you know what I mean? I'm like, it just feels like given the time this occurred, there should have been more video evidence.

[Kayla Moore]

Yeah.

[Morgan Abshur]

But it feels a lot of it is like being held close to the chest.

[Kayla Moore]

I. I totally agree. Someone knows what happened. I think Multiple people within MI6 know what happened.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah. And I mean, this was pre Snowden too. So Edward Snowden is a former United States National Security Agency intelligence contractor who lead classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs, essentially said that GCHQ was spying on essentially all British citizens without warrants. So whistleblower in that. And there was a lot of speculation where people were wondering, did Gareth stumble upon something like that? And maybe the government didn't want anyone to know.

[Kayla Moore]

Right, right.

[Morgan Abshur]

We don't know.

[Carter Roy]

Yeah.

[Kayla Moore]

Well, we like to end episodes with some activism and today we actually have an interesting one called Liberty Human Rights. So you can find [e-mail] It's a UK civil liberties organization that campaigns for government accountability and transparency, including in intelligence related deaths. So if you're living in the uk, you can also write to your MP urging that the case be reviewed or that the coroner's inquest findings be revisited. You can also go to Petition Parliament UK to request a new independent inquiry.

[Morgan Abshur]

And with that, let's highlight our Missing Person of the Week. The case we're going to highlight this week is Stephanie Dameron. Stephanie was reported missing by her family on September 24, 2024. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a long sleeved blue shirt and black Harley Davidson hiking boots. Sometime in the afternoon on September 23, 2024, Stephanie and one of her sisters reportedly got into an argument. Stephanie walked off and into the woods. Her parents were away at the time and only some of Stephanie's siblings and her grandfather were home. When the parents came back, Stephanie was not there. Essentially, they tried to look for her, but believed, as in previous cases, when she went for walks in the wood, she would return home within a few hours. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Stephanie's parents contacted the Maine State Police and a few days later the FBI arrived to assist. If you have any information about Stephanie, please immediately call the Maine State Police to Halton Barracks at 1-800-824-2261 or 2-07-532-5400. You can also contact the FBI at 1-800- CALL FBI. You can contact your local FBI office or submit a tip [e-mail] Stephanie at the time of her disappearance was 5ft tall, about 130 pounds with brown shoulder length hair. Stephanie will be turning 16 in October of 2026 and that is all we have on this episode of Clues.

[Kayla Moore]

Now we turn it over to you guys.

[Morgan Abshur]

Yeah. Thank you in advance for sharing all of your theories in the comments. I am beyond baffled at this one and I I need to chat with you guys in the comments. Please.

[Kayla Moore]

I know. I'm so curious what everyone thinks happened because this one is going to keep me up tonight.

[Morgan Abshur]

Absolutely. Again at Crime House. We really value your support, so share thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review, follow and subscribe. Subscribe to Clues to help others discover our show. And don't forget, for early ad free access, subscribe to crime house [e-mail] or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the Clues page. Thanks guys.

[Tristan Hughes]

Bye.

[Autotrader Announcer]

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[Kayla Moore]

Lots of them.

[Autotrader Announcer]

And guess what? They're probably on autotrader. Whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends. Did somebody say solar powered eco friendly V vegan leather wrapped aromatherapy scented disco ball equipped self driving car. If you see it on the road, you can likely find it on autotrader. Big cars, small cars, blue cars, new cars and used cars, electric cars and one day, maybe even flying cars. With millions of options to choose from, buying a car becomes a whole lot easier. See it, Find it.

[Carter Roy]

Autotrader the moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours before the trail goes cold. From A and E and Crime House. This is the official podcast from the famous true crime series the first 48. I'm Carter Roy. Every Thursday I revisit a landmark homicide investigation in depth with long form storytelling built for your ears. Listen to and follow the First 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.