What's up guys? My name is Sam and I'm the creator and host of Creme de la Crime podcast.
The mission of this show is to bring awareness to unsolved missing persons cases from all across the country.
In the United States, 600,000 adults and children are reported missing every single year.
Although most are quickly found, there are still tens of thousands that remain missing for more than one year.
As of 2022, there are still more than 17,000 unsolved missing persons cases and 13,000 unidentified body cases across the United States that remain open.
For the first year, I'm going alphabetical order by state and talking about cases involving all ages, races, and backgrounds.
Don't forget to subscribe and join me every single Thursday to hopefully help bring these people home.
Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started, I just wanted to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals and or humankind.
Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Deb.
And I'm Shelby.
And oh my gosh, you all, that's right. It's been a while since Shelby's been here to help me out with this podcast.
So Shelby with cats, I am so excited that you are here today.
Wow, it's been a long time. How are you?
It has been. I'm excited to be back. Gosh, I wish I remembered which episode we did last, but you know, excited to be back, excited to hear the story and can't wait.
Okay, so I wanted to welcome our listeners to episode number 29 of our podcast Dying to be Found.
We are so glad that you're taking your time out of your day to day to be with us.
And Shelbs, what have you been up to since you were here last?
Oh my goodness, episode 29. That is just crazy. Life's been crazy. Kids are getting, you know, back into school and we're starting with cheerleading.
I've got a middle schooler who's going to be doing basketball and football cheerleading and then a elementary school child who's going to be doing cheerleading.
So that's our life right now. Sad the summer's coming to an end.
They're following in their mother's footsteps.
Yes, I miss those days.
Are you, are you showing them any cheer moves?
I have, yes. Tried to. I'm not as good as I used to be.
Is it like an old song where you don't forget the words?
I can't say I remember any, any actual cheers, but I'm pretty quick at picking up what my oldest daughter is doing.
So I like to do her cheers around the house and she rolls her eyes at me and says, Mom, or tells me that's not how you do it.
So it's, it's fun embarrassing her a little bit now.
That's so cute. Yeah. Well, she's at that age rolling her eyes. Payback.
Yes, it is.
So I wanted to give a big shout out to creme de la crime podcast.
You guys may have heard that at the very beginning of this episode.
This is a podcast that I began listening to this summer and Sam does an excellent job in researching.
What I really like about this podcast is that she dedicates her research to unsolved disappearances.
So if you have a moment, go check it out. Yeah, definitely.
I also wanted to give a shout out to our listener base because we have a large audience in the UK.
Thanks so much for believing in our podcast.
We really do try to cover the stories that you guys can relate to.
So today, Shelby, we are taking a little trip across the pond to talk about a well-known account of Sarah Everard.
So I really do hope that we can do this justice.
Shelby, I'm really glad that you are here today with me because this is the case of a young woman,
very close to you in age, who was abducted on her way home from a friend's house.
I was really feeling that this is something that you need to know about so that you can be aware of the dangers that occur against women.
It does not have to happen in the United Kingdom. It can happen anywhere.
And you had mentioned, Shelby, that you've been jogging lately, so you really need to be aware of your surroundings.
But you just won't even believe who the perpetrator is in this story.
Again, I'm just so glad that you're here so that I can bring awareness to you.
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. Like I said earlier, I'm super excited to hear the story.
Walking home, walking around my neighborhood, it does kind of hit close to home.
Good. This incident is a very high profile case out of England and took place just last year in 2021.
Today, Shelby, I'm going to first talk about Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive who lived in Brixton, England,
which is located in the southern region of London.
Now, on March 3rd, 2021, Sarah spent the evening with her friend who lived in Clapham, which is another suburb located in south London.
Sarah left her friend's house at 9 p.m. that night and began making her way back to Brixton on foot,
which was somewhere around a two and a half mile or four kilometer trek, and it took her about 40 minutes to take that walk from doorstep to doorstep.
So 40 minute walk in the evening. That's a long walk for it being nine o'clock at night. That's true, especially if you're by yourself.
Sarah had been seen walking briskly along her path around 828 p.m.
And I say that, Shelby, because while I was doing my research, I actually looked up the videos and I could account for minute by minute where her pathway was when she was walking.
A lot of closed circuit TVs were capturing her on her path. Oh, wow.
And at 932 p.m., Wayne Cousins was seen just four minutes earlier driving a white sedan along the same streets that Sarah was walking on.
And it was not until later that police discovered that he was driving aimlessly, Shelby, scouting for a lone victim that he could attack.
And just 12 minutes later, at 934 p.m., Cousins was seen by a passerby handcuffing Sarah and placing her inside his vehicle. Oh, my goodness.
I'm going to put that video in the show notes because it's really important for people to see what video this onlooker took, because as I was doing my research, I was wondering, why is this person even videotaping this?
But I mean, they were driving past pretty quickly past Sarah and the police officer. So I kind of wondered, were they thinking that something was up and why would they be recording this as they're driving down the street? That to me made no sense.
Right. OK, so get this, Shelbs. Cousins had just finished a 12 hour shift at the U.S. Embassy just that morning and then went on to pick up a white rental car from Dover, which he had drove over to London to use in Sarah's abduction.
So he rented a car after he got off of work and specifically went over to Sarah's neighborhood looking for someone. And Sarah just happened to be the one on his path.
Yeah, I wonder if that's because either he had a very recognizable car or was just not wanting his license plate to appear. I think there's two different scenarios that he could have had for doing that.
He sure did have a recognizable car. And I'm going to tell you what kind of car it was in just a moment. Oh, OK. Yeah, you're going to be real surprised.
So as Sarah was walking home, Cousins waved her towards his car, quickly showed her his police credentials, handcuffed her and stuffed her into his rental car. Shelby, this abduction took less than five minutes.
Oh, my goodness. I mean, I think that's the way if you're abducting somebody, it's going to be fast.
And it seems to me like he put a lot of thought into this. It was very well planned out if he knew what he was doing. Yeah, premeditated for sure. Yep.
Sarah was known to take very well lit paths on her walking routes and video surveillance captured her standing in a well traveled stretch of her journey.
She was talking to a police officer who, according to witnesses, looked to be showing her his warrant card. So he was showing her credentials, Shelby, that he was a public servant serving the community in the capacity of a police officer.
Yeah. How many witnesses would there actually be that late at night? Well, remember, there was a lot of CC camera footage. Oh, looking at the footage. OK. Yeah.
There were not a ton of bypassing witnesses, but they did eventually capture a lot of this on closed circuit videotapes.
The police officer that was interacting with Sarah was a 48 year old off duty police officer. His name was Wayne Cousins.
And he had stopped Sarah to say that she was in violation. Remember now we're in 2021. She was in violation of COVID-19 restrictions. Oh, my goodness. That's unbelievable.
Yeah. I mean, people will use any ruse that they can to pull people in, to lure people. And it just so happened that because of the sign of the times and COVID-19, I mean, in 2021, I think you can agree we had a lot of restrictions.
Absolutely. Yep. This policeman had stopped her to say that she was violating the curfew and she should have been home by now. And so that's why she was seen talking with him.
Now, passersby who videotaped Sarah and Cousins together believe that this man was an undercover police officer because one, he wasn't in uniform.
And two, they noted that Sarah did not resist arrest when they drove by. And thirdly, Shelbs, they did not see a police car anywhere around them.
Police officers later stated that Cousins was given the duty to enforce COVID rules and use terminology that police training likely got Sarah to comply because she was at the threshold of the regulations for the evening.
Remember, she was out walking past nine o'clock and surveillance footage also caught Cousins talking with Sarah, handcuffing her and putting her inside that rental vehicle.
He then drove to South London to Dover, which is a 60 mile or around 97 kilometer drive and transferred Sarah into his own vehicle.
He then drove her to a rural area where he raped her and left her for dead after strangling her with his police belt.
That's terrible.
Shelby, you look perplexed.
I know nothing about this story.
How's it make you feel right now knowing that you go out jogging?
That's very scary.
Yeah.
You know, I know to be aware of my surroundings and I don't always hear cars come up from behind me, but I'm definitely looking around.
I'm looking back behind me.
And I mean, that's a 60 mile drive.
She has to be wondering why are we in the car for so long?
She's got to be questioning him as to where, you know, he was taking her.
And that's very scary.
And if she was forced in the car Shelbs, she probably at that point probably had a good idea that he was not in the up and up.
That's so disheartening.
Well, at 2 30 the next morning, Cousins calmly stopped at a convenience store like nothing had happened.
And you could see him at the counter ordering some drinks.
Then he eventually went back to where he had left Sarah.
The next morning, Cousins could be seen picking up a coffee at a local convenience store at 8 16 a.m.
Now remember, she was abducted at 9 30 the night before.
So 11 hours later, he was stopping at a convenience store to pick up his morning coffee like nothing ever happened.
And then two days later, he was again caught on surveillance driving his own vehicle at a local petrol station,
which I don't know if you know the terminology, Shelby. Petrol is another name for gas gasoline.
No, I wasn't aware.
OK, so he was caught on surveillance at the petrol station and he was filling up a gas can that he would later use to burn Sarah's body in an old refrigerator.
Oh, that's awful.
Just one hour after he was seen at the gas station, Cousins called his vet to schedule an appointment to take his dog in for a checkup.
OK, so he is just doing everyday chores, minus the fact that he's picking up gasoline.
He's doing everyday chores because after the vet, he then went to be in queue, which Shelby, I'm going to say that's like a UK version of Home Depot.
OK, so he went to the be in queue to buy rubber bags that he later used to dispose of Sarah's body.
And Cousins dumped Sarah in a nearby pond located on his own property in Hoades Wood, Ashford,
then proceeded to take his own family on an outing that day, Shelby.
And unbeknownst to any of his family members, they had been taken to the same woods where Cousins had taken Sarah and his children were playing close by, just yards away from where Sarah had been dumped.
So he's one of these creepy jerks who has to be close to his victim.
And he is getting such a high off of this right now that he is taking a big risk by taking his family.
Oh, my goodness.
Who knows if they would not stumble upon Sarah.
Exactly. Now, what about the gas really quick?
Well, he had used that to burn her later.
OK, yeah.
And then dumped her.
Yep.
So on March 8th, Cousins had called in sick to work, but was arrested at his home in Deal, Kent the very next day on March 9th.
Remember now they had a ton of close captioned video, CC videos.
So they were able to track him down really quickly.
And during this arrest, while sitting in his own living room, Cousins told police that an Eastern European gang had made him kidnap Sarah and hand her over to them after he had underpaid a prostitute the week before.
So they wanted him to just kidnap somebody random.
I'm just trying to process all of this.
Yeah, he seems like he's trying to come up with, you know, an alibi as to make himself.
What's the word I'm looking for?
Sure. Take the heat off of himself.
Yeah, exactly.
He showed visible concern that his family might be in danger with his arrest, Shelby.
So he's going to take this story of a local gang as far as he can take it.
He's saying that he's in danger if he's arrested because they had threatened to take his family away from him if he did not do what he was told.
Cousins explained that this is why he had kidnapped Sarah, drove her to London, and handed her over to three men.
But Shelbs, he went further than that.
Think about it, though.
He's doing backwards of what he said he was going to do.
He literally took her from London, but he's saying he dropped her off in London alive and uninjured.
Right.
So he just easily passed her over.
I mean, that's not even believable.
No, it's like he just said, here you go, and my hands are now clean of this.
That doesn't sound right.
No, but I sure do feel in danger because you're going to come after my family next just because he underpaid a prostitute.
I mean, that's ridiculous.
Yeah, that doesn't make any sense.
Well, Cousins eventually told police that although Sarah's abduction was random, he had planned an attack well beforehand. And it sounds like he did, Shelby, because he picked up the car.
He drove that distance from his own hometown all the way to London.
And so obviously this was premeditated.
Like you had mentioned, he had spent at least one month prior to this incident with Sarah traveling back and forth to London now from his home in Deal, Kent, in order to conduct research on how to carry out his crimes.
So he was doing his homework.
He was probably seeing how long the drive was.
Yeah, I wonder if he was using a rental car each time he was traveling back and forth or if that was his special occasion for getting the rental car.
That is a good point. I never thought of that. Maybe.
Well, on March 10th of 2021, Sarah's remains were discovered in some woods near Cousins' property in Ashford, Kent, and her autopsy had revealed that Sarah had died by compression of the neck.
And I had mentioned that he had strangled her with his police belt.
So obviously she was strangled, which is very unfortunate.
And I don't know the timeline from the time that she was put into the car until he had done that.
I could not find anything, but that was just so unfortunate.
Very so sad.
Yeah. And during this investigation, an independent office for police conduct or IOPC uncovered some things that were quite questionable because Cousins had a checkered past.
Beginning his career in law enforcement in 2002, background investigations failed to turn up to prior incidents where he was linked to acts of indecent exposure in February, just before Sarah's attack.
So he had gotten arrested for indecent exposure. Now he's a police officer. So that's a big red flag.
Exactly.
Kent police also failed to investigate another incident where Cousins flashed somebody back in 2015.
Yes.
Rumors were even circulating around the match that Cousins earned the name rapist from some of his colleagues.
And he also had a reputation of using drugs and engaging in pornography.
So he's bragging to his coworkers what he's doing on the side, but nobody's taking the steps to turn him in, are they?
No, it doesn't seem like they were really taking him too seriously.
Yeah, that's true because big talk, right? Anybody can talk.
Yeah, exactly. But I would assume, you know, if drugs were involved.
Now, I don't know how police officers get random drug screens, but that would certainly pose as a red flag, I would say.
Well, in July of 2021, and this was just last summer now, I'm just trying to say like in perspective, this was just last summer.
Yeah.
Cousins pled guilty to Sarah's kidnapping, rape and murder.
He then went on to participate in a two-day sentencing hearing.
And on September 30th of 2021, he was sentenced to a whole life term behind bars, meaning that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Well, good. That's where he deserves to be.
Yeah, absolutely. And this sentence is considered to be the most severe under British law.
Throughout his trial, Cousins kept his head down and refused to make eye contact to anyone around the room.
And during their impact statements, Sarah's parents demanded that he look them in the eye.
And following the trial, they stated their relief that Cousins would be behind bars until he died.
While the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Dame Crisita Dick, stated that Cousins had brought shame upon her department,
that he was a coward and acted in a gross betrayal of trust for everything that their department stood for.
Absolutely.
I'm glad that they came forward and at least did that.
Following this statement, the Commissioner publicly apologized for Cousins crimes on behalf of that department.
I suppose that yes, for the purpose of making a public apology, that is a good thing.
But honestly, I mean, you can't really do much with just an apology.
I mean, it's a public apology, so they're doing the right thing.
But that would be hard to live with.
Yeah, knowing that one of their own was the one that had caused all of this, that's just very unimaginable, I'm sure on many levels.
Yep.
Following her abduction, a candlelight vigil was organized by a nonprofit group called Reclaim These Streets,
whose members brought awareness to police brutality in the area.
Because Shelby, this is not the only case I'm actually going to talk about today.
There's more to it than this.
And Sarah was the one where I think that it was almost like the turning point.
The public had enough and so they wanted to reclaim their streets.
So the nonprofit organization called off a vigil due to COVID restrictions.
But another group came in and held the vigil anyway.
And during this vigil for Sarah Everard, police were videotaped making physical altercations during some of the arrests,
which spurred public outcry and demonstrations all the way up to Parliament.
So think about going to Washington, DC and making a statement there, Shelby.
That's what they're doing.
And as it stands today, the local government is working on legislation to crack down on public demonstrations due to the violence that it can entail.
Sarah's abduction, rape and murder caused action from the community to advocate for women's safety against the brutality of police officers.
And regardless of the COVID lockdown, several demonstrations were organized to stand up to violence against women.
By July of 2021, Shelbs, the British government announced harsher penalties toward offenders, which is a good thing.
So that's what standing up and demonstrating is all about, is you're trying to make a change.
So they did the right thing.
Now, from my understanding, it didn't seem to me like any of the demonstrators were engaging in violence.
It was all police violence.
Now, I'm going to take us to April 27th of 2021.
And Shelby, this is following Sarah Everard's case because Sarah went missing on March 3rd, 2021.
Julia James was a 53 year old mother of two.
She was just out walking her Jack Russell terrier in Snowden, Kent when a 22 year old,
Kaila Wheeler attacked her with a railway jack along a wood line near Julia's neighborhood.
She was out for a walk Shelbs taking her dog.
Oh my goodness.
So I'm going to flip the script for just a moment because we started this episode talking about how a police officer used his credentials to attack Sarah Everard.
However, Julia James was a police community support officer or PSCO.
And I know you don't know what that is, Shelby.
So I did take the time to look this up.
Well, thank you.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
You know me. I love my research because I have to know to inquiring minds need to know.
I need to know this stuff.
Well, the PSCO is a task force that the London metro area installed to increase the visibility and presence of police officers to make the community a safer place.
So in its own right, Julia was a support system for the police department.
So is it, you know, on a volunteer basis?
No, it's a paid position.
Okay.
It's just an extension of the police department.
Okay.
And this is the group that goes out and is visible in the community, forming relationships so that they can build trust.
Okay.
Does that make sense?
Yes. Yep.
PCSO officers support the regular police force by going out and talking to locals, managing traffic and just creating that presence to build the relationships that I had mentioned within the community.
Julia was off duty when she encountered Kailom Wheeler on one of her daily walks.
And the sad thing here, Shelbs, is that several months earlier, Julia had been out on one of her walks.
And when she got home, she told her husband that she had encountered a weird individual while she was out walking that day.
And this person turned out to be Wheeler.
Oh, my goodness.
So she had already encountered him one time.
You know your gut.
You know when somebody is a little off and she went home and she told her husband about it.
Yeah.
It almost seems like this might be a premeditated event as well.
Oh, yeah.
Sure was.
Okay.
So you're catching on.
You're paying attention.
That's good.
Well, on April 27th, Wheeler lay in wait, Shelby.
Lay in wait.
Do you know what that means?
I would assume he's probably just laying, you know, where he can't be seen and ready to attack when they least expect it.
Oh, yeah.
He knew what he was going to do.
He had picked a spot.
He got up that morning.
He knew what he was going to do.
He went to the tree line close to Julia's home, had the purposeful intent to attack a woman that day,
went ahead and hid himself in that tree line and waited for a woman to come along who was walking by herself.
And that day, Shelby, it happened to be Julia.
She was taken by surprise and attempted to run.
That's just awful.
Oh, yeah, it is.
Evidence showed, Shelby, that Julia was taken by surprise and attempted to run,
but either lost her footing or was knocked down as Wheeler struck her continuously with a railway jack.
I'm not really sure what that is.
I'm not sure what a railway jack is either.
Police later found her smartwatch, which gave an accurate recording of the location and time that she was attacked.
It recorded her heart rate.
Oh, Shelby, this one really hurts my heart because do you have a smartwatch?
I have the one that you gave me, the Fitbit.
Oh, so her smartwatch recorded her heart rate during her outing.
So when you're exercising, you know what your heart rate is.
Right.
The watch provided authorities with information on a change in pace and sudden change in direction from where she had been walking.
So the smartwatch had a GPS on it.
It captured Julia's heartbeat leaping from 97 beats per minute, Shelby, to 145 beats per minute.
I have goosebumps everywhere.
Yeah, that's the part that hurts my heart.
I was just like, oh, God, I mean, why am I reporting this?
It's just so heartbreaking.
Yeah.
What's going through her head for her heart rate to jump up that high in such a small amount of time?
And sometimes small details like that, you know, that's just even more hurtful to the family too when they find out something like that.
Yeah, I didn't think of that.
I mean, if I'm getting all choked up thinking about this, I mean, I am so sorry for this family.
I can't even cannot even imagine.
Yeah.
Julia was later found face down at the edge of a field near the hamlet of Sowdown.
I'm sorry if I'm chopping this up.
It's Sowdown, which is located in Kent, England.
She had her Jack Russell terrier by her side, Shelby.
Are you OK?
Yeah, that poor thing.
Yeah.
Her dog was sitting at her side when police came along.
And the family that found her while they were out for their own walk said that Julia's phone was ringing when they came upon her.
And according to phone records, she had sent out her last text message about five minutes before she was murdered.
Julia died with severe injuries to her head, and when examined by the pathologist, he had noted that this was the worst attack he had ever seen in his 12 year career.
Oh, my goodness.
So just to let you all know, if you don't know what a hamlet is, it references a small town or village that you would pass through, but don't necessarily stop to go shopping for anything.
Basically, it's just a pass through town.
You'd have to go to the next county or the next town over to get your groceries.
Sounds familiar.
I think that kind of makes sense because it seems to me like when you were growing up, that's what we had.
We lived in a town like that.
Yes, I remember.
The day after Julia's murder, a dash cam captured Wheeler being confronted by a gamekeeper who encountered him while he was walking in the same field by the wood line.
Gamekeeper, that would be like a Forest Ranger Shelbs.
During the police investigation, CCTV captured almost 7,000 hours of neighborhood footage that provided them with enough images of Wheeler, who soon became the main suspect for this case.
That's a lot of hours.
Yeah.
How many days is that?
That truly is. This guy's been hanging around this neighborhood for quite some time, and he's probably doing the same thing that Cousins was doing.
He's just mapping out a plan on what he plans to do.
Yes, he's just scoping things out.
I wanted to give you just a brief background on Wheeler.
Kaleb Wheeler was a high school dropout who had moved to South London to live with his dad after his parents had divorced. He was unemployed and spent the majority of his days watching TV and playing video games.
If you guys catch episode number 28 that we just finished, you will hear a very similar story about someone who spent their days video gaming, and it really did not turn out very well.
Yeah, I haven't listened to that one yet, but I think that it's very important to limit video game usage for any age, honestly.
Agreed.
Since we're talking about that, I know that Cory played video games growing up, and he probably still does now. I'm pretty sure we've talked about that. But how many hours a day did he put in?
Hours and hours, with the exception of his extracurricular sports and hockey and things like that, or cleaning his room.
That's true. He was certainly not doing his homework, was he? No, I'm not going to throw you under the bus, Cory. I know you did your homework.
So Wheeler was unemployed, spent the majority of his days watching TV and playing those video games. He was considered a loner, had absolutely no friends, and could not even have a decent relationship with his own brother.
On May 7th, 2021, Wheeler was arrested at his home. He did, however, resist arrest by barricading himself in his own bedroom.
Where are you going to go, dude? You're going to take your sheets off your bed and shimmy down the window? He's going to create a pillow fort.
Well, the railway jack, Shelby, that he had used to attack Julia was found in his bedroom. Wow, that took a long time. Yeah. Well, they had to investigate. They had to find that 7,000 hour CCTV footage, right? Yeah.
And unfortunately, the railway jack still had Julia's blood on it. Oh. Police also discovered multiple porn sites on Wheeler's computer, as well as a Google search on how to conduct rape. Yeah, he was definitely doing his homework.
It kind of seems like a common denominator as well. It does, from the very first case with Sarah. Absolutely. I'm sure there's an MO, and that's what we have all this profiling about now. It's really not much different from what Cousins did before he attacked Sarah. Right.
Eyewitnesses said that they had seen Wheeler walking aimlessly with the railway jack near Julia's home just the day before he had attacked her. And Wheeler later told police that he deliberately went into those woods with the intent to rape and kill a woman.
He did not have a specific victim in mind. He was doing the same thing as Cousins. He just knew that he was going to attack someone that day. He gave no clear reason or motive as to why he attacked Julia.
Other than telling police officers that quote, I sometimes do things I cannot control, and you can't go into the woods and expect to be safe, unquote. I think there's something mentally wrong with this one. Yeah, I do too.
I totally agree with you on that. Well, while awaiting trial, Wheeler exposed himself to a police officer and told the jail personnel that if he were to be released, he would indeed go out and kill and rape again. So he had no remorse.
None at all.
Wheeler received a life sentence for Julia's murder and was ordered to serve a minimum of 37 years before being considered for parole. Why are they even considering him for parole?
I don't understand, especially since he said he would do it again.
Exactly. Okay, some of the cases that Aunt Beth and I have been talking about, that's the one thing that I noticed between the United States Penal System and I would say with the British Crown. They have definitely some different stipulations on this.
And even though they're serving a life sentence, at some point in time, they get out on parole. I think that, and I don't know this for sure, I haven't done the exact research on this, but I feel like a life sentence is 25 years because I do believe when I was living there, I feel like I knew something along the lines of 25 years, and then you can be paroled.
It just makes no sense. Here in America, if you have a life sentence, you are there to die, as well you should.
Yep, exactly.
In the meantime, it only took 73 minutes for the jury to decide Wheeler's fate in this case.
Wow.
At least he is getting 37 years behind bars.
Yeah, exactly.
Before parole, and I hope he never gets out, you know?
Yeah, me neither. He doesn't deserve to be out.
Mm-hmm. He sure does not. I'm going to move on to another case of a young woman named Sabina Nessa, who was a 28-year-old grade one elementary teacher.
As this violence continues, Shelbs, it was just six months later in September of 2021, which was the same month that Cousins was sentenced to a whole life behind bars in Sarah Everard's case.
Sabina Nessa, the 28-year-old elementary teacher, was attacked in the Kiddbrook suburbs, also located in southeast London. So there is a lot going on in the south end of London.
There is.
Sabina's case was heavily compared to Sarah Everard's murder due to the ongoing violence against women in this area. Sabina was taking a five-minute walk through the park to meet up with a friend, and this friend believes that Sabina took a shortcut through a park because she was running late and this was the quickest way to get to their designated meeting spot.
Sabina was attacked during this five-minute walk through the park, and the attacker was caught on CCTV surveillance and was later identified as Koki Salamaz.
He was a 36-year-old mechanic and pizza delivery man who, just like Wayne Cousins, traveled to London with the intent to randomly attack a woman.
So this is an epidemic. It's not just one person doing this. There are a lot of people doing this.
Yeah, it's kind of like copycats. It's the same area. It's just London doesn't seem like a place I would like to go anymore.
Yeah, I know. I'm definitely going to be a little bit more aware when I go over there because that's on my bucket list.
The reason that Salamaz decided that he was going to attack a woman, Shelby, was pretty much initiated because he had been estranged from his wife.
So he and his wife were separated. He was angry about it, and so he decided he was going to take action his own way and lash out at somebody else.
Police theorize that Salamaz might have had concerns about remaining in the UK if he had divorced his wife. He was probably there on papers because he had immigrated from Albania illegally, but was allowed to stay in the UK since his wife was a citizen.
Oh yeah, and here's something else, Shelby. Why do you think his wife left him? I'll tell you. It was because he had violent attacks on her as well. So domestic abuse.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I would probably leave him too. Well, during Sabina's attack, surveillance video showed a hooded man passing by her in the park, stopping to look back toward her, then ran towards her and hitting Sabina in the head at least 34 times with a traffic triangle.
Oh my goodness. So he walked past her, probably made eye contact with her, turned around and looked at her while her back was toward him, and then he attacked.
Salamaz then dragged Sabina out of surveillance view, then reappeared somewhere around 10 minutes later to pick up his weapon and to use tissues to clean up a nearby park bench at the crime scene. So he absolutely 100% knew what he was doing. Didn't seem like he was as prepared as the others though.
I mean, he had a traffic triangle with him walking through the park. Who does that? So he had intent. He was just scouting. I mean, he scouted. He was scouting the area, knew what he's going to do, and once he got sights of Sabina, that was it. He knew what he was about to do.
Based on camera footage, Salamaz was arrested in Eastbourne near Sussex a few days later, and he pled guilty to Sabina's murder just this February of 2022. And during his testimony, he also admitted to strangling Sabina and dumping her body near a community center inside that same park.
He was sentenced to 36 years behind bars. 36 years. Oh my goodness. That just doesn't seem like it's long enough. No, not when you take a life away. No, not at all. So I'm not done yet because I found another case, Shelby, of Zara Alina, who was age 25.
And like Sarah Everard, Zara was walking home from a nightclub when she was attacked on Cranbrook Road in East London. So not the same area that these other attacks occurred, but still in the London metro area.
Zara was just a minute or two away from her front door when she was dragged, beaten, and stomped on by Jordan McSweeney at 2 17 in the morning on June 26 2022. Again, this summer. Oh my goodness. That wasn't even two months ago.
No, it wasn't. So I guess my issue is here, Shelby, is that even though the police are aware of the violence that's happening towards women in the London area, this has gone on for more than a year already. Why has the violence not stopped yet?
Right. And it seems to me that they've got the cameras up and the, you know, security or security systems in the public places, but it's still just not stopping anything from happening. Yeah, you're right. I mean, cameras can only do so much. Sure, they can catch somebody on video.
But what are you doing to prevent this from happening in the first place? Exactly. Zara was discovered by a passerby at 2 44 in the morning, which was just under 30 minutes from when she was attacked. McSweeney had also robbed Zara and attempted to rape her.
And like Sabina Nessa, this case is compared to the Sarah Everard case. So obviously the awareness is there and they are comparing everything to the fact that these women are being attacked. I mean, nobody, they're not differentiating anybody here. They're just all kind of grouping these victims together.
And Zara was very aware of what had happened to Sarah, Shelby. She was very aware of what had happened to Sarah. I need for this to sink in and was to have even mentioned to her friends that they need not worry because this would never happen to them. So they talked about it in her social circle. She was aware and it still happened, which is so tragic.
That is very. In Zara Alina's case, a vigil was held in her honor where hundreds of people wearing white gathered where Zara had been killed. Oh gosh, Shelby, here I go again. They finished Zara's walk home. They finished the two minute walk back to her house. Isn't that just heart wrenching?
Why? Stop doing this to me. I mean, I want you to be aware of your surroundings, please. I just, you know, like I said, Shelby, I'm so glad that you were with me today because people are so easy to say this can't happen to me. But it's just, I mean, it's a crazy world we live in. So every, you just have to be very aware. I don't care what size town you live in and how comfortable you are with the people, your neighbors. You have got to be careful.
Yeah, you're making me second guess my run after this.
I'm going to say don't. Not today. The sun's going down. You need to stay put. Okay, so here's the deal. Based on just these three cases that I covered, public outcry in England has intensified on the violence that continues to occur against girls and women, and particularly that of black and minority groups. The general public believes that police agencies have done nothing to protect women from predators.
I'm going to have to agree with that because this has gone on for well over a year. And I know it went on way before this, but public outcry, if there's been demonstrations for the past year, something's got to be done.
Yeah, I agree too.
Sarah Everhard's case has helped to gain some traction, but they still have a long way to go. And one organization is called Justice for Gaia, which recognizes a then 17 year old girl who in 2015 was raped. So again, I told you this has already gone back further than 2021.
And Gaia had reported her rape to the police, but they never investigated and refused to prosecute because she knew who attacked her and police refused to prosecute.
Show me. Here we go.
Wow.
That's just terrible. Well, in 2020 Gaia went missing and was found less than one mile from where she had disappeared.
Oh my goodness.
I would say that she died of hypothermia, but others feel that her death was suspicious. So Shelbs, the list can go on and on and on and we only have a little bit of time to talk about this.
Absolutely. The list goes on about cases of brutality against women in the UK, and it does not matter how old you are, where you are, or where you're headed. And that's why I wanted to bring this to your attention, because you absolutely have to be aware of your surroundings and become a voice in your own community.
I don't know what's going on in your community, Shelbi, but if anything happens that's anywhere close to this, be the voice. Somebody's got to be.
Absolutely. It's terrible. And no matter how big or small your community is, you don't want to think about something terrible like this happening, but it is. It's happening everywhere, unfortunately.
Yeah, it is. All right. So with that being said, the title of this podcast today is about Sarah Everard, but it's not just Sarah. It's so many more women before and after her, and it just simply has to stop.
It really does. So thank you so much for letting me be a part of this podcast today. I think that it's certainly opened my eyes to, although I thought I was always aware of my surroundings, that sometimes thought that I was being careful.
Everything that was going on in my surroundings, but sometimes you just can't be too careful. Absolutely. And I guess Aunt Beth usually asks you what the teachable moment is, so I guess it's my turn.
So, Mom, what is your teachable moment for this episode? I don't have one.
I think that it's always important, no matter where you go, no matter how old you are, tell somebody where you're going. Use Life360.
Oh my gosh, because I'm so glad you brought that up. I want to know why you're on pause.
I'll turn it back on.
Yeah, no, I do have a teachable moment, Shelby, and that's to use the buddy system, especially if you know that you are going to be in an isolated area, but not always though, because Sarah was on a public pathway, going back to her house on a public sidewalk.
So have you heard where more accidents happen within less than two miles of your own home? Have you heard that?
Yes, you're the one that told me that. Yeah. So do you know what I mean by that? What does that mean though?
It means that people are so comfortable in their environment, and especially if you go along the same path day after day, you go to work, you come home, you go to work, you come home, you go to eat dinner, you come home, you have the same paths.
You don't need directions. You don't need a GPS. So people who tend to be in the area where they know where they're driving to without having to really pay attention, they're not paying attention.
That's when accidents happen. So my teachable moment today is that no matter how comfortable you are, you have got to be aware of your surroundings.
And some of this will stop as long as we advocate. So that's one of the reasons why I did this story today is to bring awareness not only to you, Shelby, but to our public.
And so if you have an opportunity, by all means, just reevaluate how you guys travel from point A to point B. And that's really all I've got.
I agree. I thank you very much for letting me be a part of this. I think that was a wonderful teachable moment and I will certainly pay more attention.
And stay indoors tonight.
Yeah, if I don't, I will turn on Life 360 and you'll just see me doing circles around the neighborhood.
Okay, Shelby's on a health kick. I love it. All right. Well, if that's all we've got today, Shelby, thanks for listening to our podcast, everyone.
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Thank you, guys. Can't wait to be back next time.