The mystery of the murder in the woods
It was Monday night and Emma was getting ready to head out. She put on her black top and skirt, black tights, a brown sheepskin-style jacket and boots.Emma had taken heroin that day, same as every day. She kept it hidden in a book under her bed at the city’s Inglefield Street Hostel. The 27-year-old had been living there for two years.
But the Caldwells had suffered more than their fair share of tragedy. Margaret and Willie’s first grandson died in infancy. And their eldest daughter Karen died of cancer when Emma was 20.She was introduced to heroin while working at the stables, with the promise that it would help dull the pain.It led her to sex work on the streets of Glasgow.
“She wasn’t tough enough. She was kind of naive, too trusting. Emma was just hurting through losing her sister.CCTV shows Emma leave her hostel for the final time. The 32-year-old had been selling sex since she was 17. Like Emma Caldwell, Natalie’s path to working Glasgow’s streets was driven by heroin addiction.
It was a dark, lonely, isolated place. There were hills to the left, fields to the right, no houses nearby and no street lights. She recalls him flying into a rage, shouting and screaming, and shaking her. She felt certain he was going to attack her. Iain Packer, age 51, is from Glasgow and has had multiple former partners. He used to work for a firm putting up signs and neon lights, but was since made unemployed.
“It was like a business transaction,” he says. “If you go into a shop, you pay your money for what you get. One says that under the guise of a “run in the car” he would drive her around the city’s red light area. Another packed her bags after finding him at home with a prostitute.But Iain Packer did tell police he took Emma Caldwell there.The dog walker couldn’t quite believe it was a body. Emma Caldwell was in a shallow drainage ditch 20 metres into the dense forest. She’d been lying there for five weeks.
Emma had been missing since that Monday night in April. Her parents had been frantic. Night after night they went out in the car, searching the streets. The whole spectrum of society was on that list - bankers, doctors, tradesmen, company directors, students, priests and a police officer. It soon became apparent that most sex workers in the city had been paid for sex at the Turkish cafe, including Emma. The police thought they were on to something and raided the cafe.At the Turkish cafe a covert surveillance operation was launched. Just half a mile away, a 60ft image of Emma stared down at the city from the side of a tower block.
It also quickly became clear that the Turkish cafe had been a hub for prostitution. After the cafe closed and the shutters were pulled down, women would be brought in. It was often a terrifying experience for them.The Turkish cafe became the focus of the murder investigation.She says: “I just found it really uncomfortable because I thought there was only going to be the one guy there that had picked me up, and there would be other people there.
They even installed an undercover policeman in the cafe where he would watch football and play cards. For two years the police recorded thousands of hours of conversations and had them translated by officers of Turkish descent. “But it transpires it was talk among men who’d been interviewed by police, and had come back and relayed what they’d been asked about.
Because of this knack of hers, Natalie was able to direct two police officers to the spot where she says she’d been told to strip. One officer drove and the other took notes. Natalie started to cry when she saw the fir trees.And she remembered as the car rattled over those bumps on the road. She says there was a turn-off after hills on the left. Her distress heightened. She told the police to turn right at the farm and they’d go over “wee bumps”. The car rattled over the cattle grate.
The news that another sex worker said she was taken to the remote location where Emma’s body was found seemed hugely significant. She ran out from behind the billboards crying and told her friend and her friend’s boyfriend that she’d been raped. The client ran to his van and drove away.Det Con Allan Richmond was told about the incident after Emma was found dead. He checked the crime reports from around that time and discovered something.
The police also say Iain Packer agreed to take two officers to the woods. He tells them Emma was the first woman he’d taken there and that they went six times in total.That’s what he told the police back in 2007 when he was repeatedly interviewed as a witness - without a solicitor. He was never interviewed under caution as a suspect.
There was a glimmer of hope when the murder investigation led police to the Turkish cafe. But when those arrests were made it was bittersweet for Margaret.Margaret Caldwell makes another police appeal in 2017. Detectives hadn’t spoken to Iain Packer since 2007, when he was interviewed as a witness, and they went together to the woods where Emma's body was found.
Police Scotland sent a new report to Scottish prosecutors in June 2018, with a summary of previous inquiries and the findings of a reinvestigation into Emma’s death. Iain Packer’s ex finds the courage to tell officers how she’d been stalked and attacked by him. He pleads guilty and in February 2020 he is jailed for two years.
Seventeen years after Emma’s body was found in the woods, Iain Packer is finally charged with her abduction and murder. Prosecutors confirm she is just one of many women who suffered at his hands. A retired officer tells the jury how Natalie had a panic attack - “crying, hysterical, hyperventilating” - when they arrived at the same spot where Emma was murdered.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Man jailed for murdering his partner and brother in CoatbridgePeter Duffy killed brother John Paul and partner Emma Baillie in separate incidents in 2022.
Read more »
Emma Caldwell accused admits sex worker visits to woodsIain Packer says he made six trips with sex workers but not to the spot where the 27-year-old's body was found.
Read more »
Jury told Emma Caldwell accused committed 'appalling' crimesThe prosecutor says Iain Packer showed a pattern of violent behaviour which culminated in the murder of Emma Caldwell.
Read more »
Emma Caldwell murder accused says sex was 'consensual'Iain Packer, who denies Ms Caldwell's murder, said he did not stop immediately when she told him to.
Read more »
Emma Caldwell murder accused says women are lyingA court hears that 11 women have described how Iain Packer put his hands on their throats.
Read more »
Sonia Bompastor: Chelsea Women approach Lyon head coach to replace outgoing Emma HayesChelsea have approached Lyon head coach Sonia Bompastor to become their new manager.
Read more »