At the beginning of the 20th century, new medications were being discovered and created. The term ‘miracle drug’ was coined to describe the sudden positive effect of newly discovered remedies for once untreatable diseases and conditions. But, one person's cure can be another person's poison… 

Becoming a doctor takes years of dedication and ongoing training. Patients who are physically or mentally unwell, rely on medical professionals, trusting them implicitly to guide them back to health when they are at their most vulnerable. Nonetheless, there are instances when appearances can be deceiving, times when the family doctor isn’t a doctor at all, using a medical title they are not qualified to claim, and ruthlessly risking the safety of unwitting patients for personal gain… 

The bodies of five vulnerable women who went missing from the streets of Ipswich were found over a ten-day period. Suffolk Police launched the most extensive investigation in the force's history, and within a week of the last two victims being found, they had a positive DNA match — not the profile of the prime suspect, but a man who had flown under the radar despite living in the epicentre of the disappearances... (Part 2 of 2)

Five young women vanished off the streets of Ipswich during a five-week period in late 2006. Working in one of the oldest professions put the missing women at risk. The secrecy required to operate in the red light district meant there were no witnesses… (Part 1 of 2).

By night, in the late nineties, The Bandbox club and Splitz bar had countless coatless young people lining up outside the doors to get inside. Often, the wait was cold in the biting North Sea air; partygoers shuffled slowly in the queue as bouncers decided who could get in, but this didn’t deter people from hanging around. By day, Felixstowe in Suffolk is more slow-paced — tourists and retirees enjoy fish & chips, ice cream and blue flag beaches. Life is peaceful. Be that as it may, a senseless murder in 1999 was one of the biggest and most complex cases officers in the port town ever had to investigate…

In December 2017, Birmingham was hit by a storm that left up to 12 inches of snow on the ground, forcing schools to shut and public transport to grind to a halt. Temperatures had been dropping rapidly, and people across the West Midlands braced themselves for a brutally cold winter. Two weeks earlier, amidst a cold snap in the city, the discovery of a vulnerable child’s body outside of a house in Nechells raised questions about the efficiency of the UK’s child protective services…

Six months after the murder of 54-year-old widow Beatrice Alice Rimmer in the hallway of her Liverpool home, two young men from Manchester were facing the possibility of being executed. The prosecution's case was based on the evidence of informants who claimed to have seen Edward Devlin and Alfred Burns in the area at the time the crime was committed, and some alleged to have heard them plan a break-in at the victim’s home. After a week of legal proceedings, the accused were given the chance to plead their case and try to prove their innocence... (Part 2 of 2).

The brutal murder of a reclusive widow sparked one of the largest murder inquiries Liverpool had seen in years. After following numerous dead-end leads, the investigators turned their attention to a pair of petty thieves on the word of criminal informants. The case against them was purely circumstantial… (Part 1 of 2).

A quiet nun in a central Aberdeen Cathedral was dealing with some paperwork when she had a visitor. She neither knew the person nor did she have any way of knowing she wouldn’t leave her office alive...

The weather was still warm at 2:30 am, and unusually, a married local couple decided it was a good time to go for a scenic stroll past the mansion and gardens in Valentines Park. They walked down Cranbrook Road until the pair reached the junction opposite Cranbrook Rise — that’s where they saw something that didn’t seem right amongst the large white houses that lined the street. The couple noticed someone lying awkwardly on a grey brick driveway. The woman was covered in blood and struggling to breathe…

The ground was too uneven for George to attempt to follow the route to the stream that flowed 30 feet below, so he watched as his dog sniffed the ground behind large rocks. The animal was fixated on a black bin liner, and from George’s perspective, two logs sticking out of it. A faint whimpering sound echoed up from the stream. George strained his eyes and realised that the bundle he assumed was rubbish was actually a boy, who was crying for help... 

It was a typical room for a teenage boy in the 1980s; football programmes on his desk with his homework, a well-used Amstrad HI-FI system with a tape cassette and radio, used to record the top chart hits on a Sunday, hitting the pause button before the DJ fades back in. Posters of his favourite musical acts covered the walls; Mel and Kim, T'Pau, Madonna, Samantha Fox — standard fare in 1988. His single bed, pushed against the wall of his cosy room, with his black pyjama bottoms tucked neatly under his pillow to wear the next night, but there would not be a next night…

Emergency responders arrived within minutes and approached the two-bedroom cottage. Joanne was waiting for them at the door, before leading them upstairs to her grandmother's bedroom. The paramedics pulled back the quilt and found the frail pensioner lying on bloody sheets. Blood spatter covered the walls near the bed. Due to the highly suspicious nature of Annie’s death, the police were immediately contacted… 

The summer flowers were in full bloom when Edith Ford and her teenage daughter Doreen strolled to the bottom of the long and narrow communal garden to pick a bouquet of wildflowers. Their eyes were drawn away from the plants and foliage, towards the ground. Two tiny bare legs protruded from the other side of a hedge near a public works yard. Was this the child so many people had spent the night looking for? Just two doors down from Edith Ford’s home, neighbours heard screaming. Edith was wailing, “I can't have seen it. I can't have seen it”...

Women in southwest London lived in terror after a string of sex attacks on lone commuters travelling from Waterloo to Kingston. The police were desperately trying to locate a man believed to be responsible for half a dozen rapes over a three-month period in late 1988. Just days before Christmas, it seemed the rapist had crossed another line: he was now a murderer…

A man in his early twenties stood at the side of the road waving at the passing cars to get attention — eventually, a vehicle with two men inside parked up beside the desperate motorist. The would-be rescuers jumped out of their car and approached the man who stopped them. He opened his mouth to speak, something that he would come to regret. The smell of alcohol from his breath hit their nostrils. They knew he had been drinking, and the two police officers were going to do something about it… 

One of the most horrific murders in Birmingham’s history occurred two days before Christmas in 1959. During the seven weeks that followed, hundreds of officers interviewed thousands of men in what was then the most extensive murder inquiry the city had ever seen. The investigators utilised a number of unprecedented techniques to try and track down the killer, but it seemed as though a routine house call was all that was needed to break the case… (Part 2 of 2).

On the evening of December 23, 1959, a young woman named Margaret Katibeh was getting ready to leave her hostel lodgings to see her family for the festive period. As she was packing her suitcase, she heard a scream… (Part 1 of 2)

The Railway Tap on Bishops Bridge Road in West London was often the scene of drunken fights in the late 1970s and early 80s. Despite its reputation, it was one of the most popular pubs in the Bayswater area. When a barman failed to turn up to work, the pub landlord had an inkling that something didn’t seem right… 

The latter years of a person’s life unfortunately involve making arrangements for when they die. These arrangements typically include organising their finances, writing a will, and planning a funeral. Thankfully, services exist that can assist in these situations, but as is often the case during this time, a vulnerable person can be susceptible to being exploited. Some people are willing to prey on the elderly in order to better their own situation, and some will go even further than taking money…