Fresh doubts raised over guilt of jailed killer Michael Stone, as investigation experts stress there is NO forensic evidence to link him to murders of Meghan and Lin Russell
- New Channel 5 documentary explores forensic evidence at Chillenden murders
- Experts stress lack of DNA which would tie convicted Michael Stone to scene
- READ MORE: Serial killer Levi Bellfield did NOT murder Megan and Lin Russell
Twenty seven years ago, a gruesome crime saw a mother and her young child brutally bludgeoned and killed on their idyllic walk back home, in a quiet rural town in Kent.
And despite a man spending the last 25 years behind bars for the killing, the case of Megan and Lin Russell still continues to puzzle investigators, wih a new Channel 5 documentary highlighting just how vague the DNA evidence available is.
In Who Killed Lin & Megan Russell? available on My5, professionals suggest that there was never enough evidence to place Michael Stone – who was convicted in 1998 and then again in 2001 after his original convictions were quashed – at the scene.
The former drug addict has always denied responsibility for the killings while the family trio were on a walk back from a swimming gala – but an appeal against the convictions in 2005 was unsuccessful.
Lin Russell, 45, her two daughters, nine-year-old Josie and Megan, six, as well as their dog Lucy, were tied up and beaten in the village of Chillenden in July, 1996. Pictured: Lin and Megan together
Lin Russell, 45, her two daughters, nine-year-old Josie and Megan, six, as well as their dog Lucy, were tied up and beaten in the village of Chillenden in July, 1996.
Only Josie survived, after sustaining horrific injuries, and a lack of forensic evidence and no obvious motive was a difficulty from the start.
‘I was continually reviewing the case, I was continually in discussions with Dave Stevens , the SIO, about what, anything else that can be done to review these findings, it just was never let go,’ Professor Jim Fraser, the former Head of Forensic Investigation at Kent Police, told the programme.
‘Though we’d been reviewing the case, there was no other new evidence…certainly no other new forensic evidence was used in the retrial.’
Forensic evidence proved difficult to place in the extremely rural environment, and motive was also puzzlingly unclear, Professor Jim Fraser (pictured), the former Head of Forensic Investigation at Kent Police, told the programme
Other experts pointed to the unclear timeline of events, which makes the crime scene inherently difficult to understand
The former drug addict Michael Stone, pictured, has always denied responsibility for the killings – which are thought to have occurred with a hammer
He also cast doubt over a piece of bootlace found on site, which – despite not having any of Stone’s DNA on it, was used to tie him to the crime scene as he was a heroin user.
‘If that was the killer’s tourniquet, why have we not found the killer’s DNA on it?’ Professor Fraser questioned.
‘Because, it’s very puzzling not to find DNA on an item that would have been repeatedly used by an individual.
‘Even if it was used as a bootlace…I would still expect to find DNA on it.
‘It’s not that that never happens, but it’s still very unusual.’
The documentary revealed that there were attempts to look for semen in the area, in an attempt to find out whether the attacks were of a sexual nature, but it proved to be a dead-end.
‘No one on the investigation team had encountered anything like it before,’ Professor Fraser added.
Other experts pointed to the unclear timeline of events, which makes the crime scene inherently difficult to understand, let alone link to Stone, who had by then been known to the force for his temper and penchant for violence, having been charged with other offences in the past.
‘The attacker’s use of the hammer was described as a “frenzied attack”‘, journalist Barry Keevins said.
‘The frenzied nature of it is clear in the number of blows and the brutality of it. But everything else around the scene shows that this incident must have taken quite a few minutes.
Only Josie (pictured as a young girl) survived, sustaining horrific injuries – and shockingly, recovered, despite wary outlooks on her future health
Other experts, such as journalist Barry Keevins (pictured) pointed to the unclear timeline of events, which makes the crime scene inherently difficult to understand, let alone link to Stone
‘So, the idea that it’s frenzied from start to finish just doesn’t work…there are so many different conflicting ideas of what could have happened because of the way the scene looks.
‘Whoever it was must have been there for a long time…They had to get the mum and the girls and the dog to where they were eventually killed. They had to get them to co-operate…’
Criminologist Professor Dick Hobbs also told the programme that the attack simply wasn’t within Stone’s MO, who had in past committed crimes out of feeling of revenge or anger – or if he could get some sort of value, like money, out of the offence.
Moreover, he stressed that a lot of the prosecution’s argument relied on the claim that Stone made a confession to a fellow inmate Damian Daley at Canterbury Prison – which he allegedly heard through a heating pipe.
The programme also outlined how the 1998 trial’s success – which found Stone guilty – was short lived as Barry Thompson, a key witness shortly said he had lied under oath.
Meanwhile, the ex-girlfriend Levi Bellfield (pictured) has also, in the documentary stressed that it’s an ‘absolute impossibility’ for the criminal to have also been responsible for taking the lives of Lin and Megan Russell
Joe Collings (pictured) recounted Bellfield’s alibi in the documentary, explaining that he spent the whole day of the murders with her
Josie pictured with her father Shaun. She was the sole survivor on the horrific attack to her mother and sister
A forensic expert also appeared to cast doubt at a piece of bootlace found on site, which – despite not having any of Stone’s DNA on it, was used to tie him to the crime scene as he was a heroin user
Professor Hobbs added: ‘It is a great myth that the criminal community abide by a code of honour and don’t speak to the authorities and don’t grass…that’s a myth, most of them do, particularly at the lower levels.
‘And this particular man, Damian Daley, claims that Michael Stone admitted to the killings via the heating pipes of the prison.’
‘The benefit to someone like Damian Daley would be that the prison authorities would look favourably upon him in the future,’ he continued.
‘He may get some reduction in their sentence…they may have some kind of feeling of revenge against someone else…’
Former Detective Superintendent Julie Mackay also touched on the fact that Stone – nearly 30 years later – still ferociously insists he is not guilty of the crime.
‘He’s always protested his innocence,’ she said. ‘Which, how many people go to prison and protest their innocence…for all that time…not many. So, that does make me question, have they got the right man or not.’
Meanwhile, the ex-girlfriend of notorious serial killer Levi Bellfield has also, in the documentary stressed that it’s an ‘absolute impossibility’ for the criminal, who is serving life for murdering schoolgirl Milly Dowler and two other women, to have also been responsible for taking the lives of Lin and Megan Russell – despite him confessing to it.
HOW JOSIE MANAGED TO COPE AFTER HORRIFIC EVENTS OF 1996
Josie Russell’s rehabilitation after the murder of her mother and sister was a long, slow process – it was a year before she could speak again – but Josie stunned doctors with her progress.
In 2018, it was revealed she was a successful textile artist, who had announced her engagement to her boyfriend of 12 years, Iwan Griffith, in August aged 30.
The couple met in a pub in Caernarfon on December 31, 2005, while Josie was at university.
Their romance was sparked by their love of the dramatic Welsh landscape. ‘We aren’t a lovey-dovey couple but there is love and mutual respect,’ Josie said.
Josie and Iwan now share home, in the foothills of Snowdonia, where she and Megan had lived with their parents.
In 2011, using money from a trust fund and compensation for her injuries, Josie was able to buy back the house which the couple have lovingly renovated.
Her studio is the bedroom that Lin decorated for her when she was a little girl.
She recounted his alibi in the documentary, explaining that he spent the whole day in which the murder took place with her – as it was her birthday.
The pair spent the day together, including a day at the stables in Windsor alongside lunch, and later, dinner.
Joe Collings said: ‘There’s absolutely no way from when we got up to when we went to bed, that he left my side or went anywhere, bar putting balloons on my horse’s stable door, that he could’ve driven to Kent…
‘Done what he says now that he did and what other people are saying that he did and came back without me knowing.’
She also denied having ever owned or driven a ‘beige hatchback’ – a vehicle understood to have been spotted by more than one witness in the area on the day of the Russell murders.
In June last year the Daily Mail reported that an official review was set to conclude that Bellfield did not carry out the murders of Lin and Megan Russell.
He made a formal confession earlier in 2022, claiming he also committed the horrific 1996 hammer killings.
But a Criminal Case Review Commission report was set to say that Stone, who is serving a life sentence for the Russell murders, was responsible.
After five years of exhaustive inquiries, the CCRC has found no forensic evidence to suggest Bellfield or anyone else was involved in the crime, sources say.
Stone’s lawyer Paul Bacon, who had spent 15 years trying to prove his innocence, submitted copies of Bellfield’s four-page written confession, made in February from his cell. But evidence has emerged that casts doubt on its credibility.
In comments to inmates and guards, the narcissistic killer dismissed his confession, suggesting he sees his correspondence with Mr Bacon as a game.
Experts from the CCRC promised to ‘thoroughly analyse’ Bellfield’s confession and make ‘appropriate inquiries’ to assess if he was telling the truth.
A bootlace found at the scene of the murders has also been subjected to extensive forensic analysis after going missing for 14 years in police storage.
It was hoped that a knot in the lace could contain DNA yielding the killer’s identity, but no trace was found of DNA from Bellfield, Stone or any potential suspect, sources told the Mail.
Since 2017, when the CCRC was asked to look at the case, Bellfield has been preoccupied with the Russell murders, making admissions to fellow prisoners but then denying responsibility in other correspondence.
He has given a lurid account of the attack, claiming to have kept a hair scrunchie as a macabre souvenir.
Those who have investigated Bellfield point out that a previous Scotland Yard probe concluded there was no evidence to link the former nightclub bouncer to the case.
‘Twenty six years after this crime happened, people are still arguing about this case,’ Professor Fraser concluded in the Channel 5 documentary.
‘If Michael Stone didn’t attack the Russell family here, twenty six years ago, and Levi Bellfield didn’t kill them, then the killer is still out there.’
Who Killed Lin & Megan Russell is now available on My5.
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