Transcript of 999 call

Sunday, 10 December, 11.23 p.m.

Female Caller: She’s got a knife. Please hurry.

Operator: The police are on their way. Can you get out of the house?

Female Caller: No.

Operator: Is there somewhere you can hide, somewhere with a door that locks?

Female Caller: I’m in the bathroom... Downstairs. Please hurry. I can hear her coming.

Operator: Stay on the line with me.

[0:31:44 – unclear – indistinct crying]

Female Caller: [whispered] I think she’s outside the door... I can hear her. Oh god, please, hurry up.

Operator: The police will be there any minute. Stay on the line with me. Can you tell me what’s happening? Who is it that’s got the knife?

[0:44:16 – unclear – series of bangs – followed by a crash]

Female Caller: No!

Operator: Hello? Are you there?

[0:53:33 – screams]

Female Caller: No! Get off me... She’s going to kill me!

[1:05:33 – unclear – sounds of a struggle]

Operator: Hello? Are you there? Hello?

Female Caller: Hello?

Operator: Are you OK? What happened? The police are pulling up outside now.

Female Caller: She’s dead. I think she might be dead. Oh god. Oh god... please... oh my god. She’s not moving. There’s blood. A lot of blood.

Operator: Is she breathing?

Female Caller: I don’t know.

[2:04:16 – whimpering – panting]

Operator: Can you check for a pulse?

Female Caller: I... oh god... I don’t know. Please can you send an ambulance?

Operator: It’s on its way. You need to stay calm. Can you do that for me?

Female Caller: Yes. Yes, I think so... Oh my god.

Operator: What’s your name? Can you give me your name?

Female Caller: She came at me... with a knife. She just came out of nowhere. I think she’s dead... I think I’ve killed her.

Part One

Partial transcript of police interview with Miss Elizabeth Crawley, subsequent to filing of Missing Persons Report

PC Kandiah – Sunday, 10

December Have you ever had one of those Facebook friends – more of an acquaintance really, like a colleague or an old school friend – who you accept a friendship request from and then wish to god you bloody hadn’t? We all have, right? You don’t want to unfriend them just in case they realise, even though they’ve got like seven hundred friends so the chances are they’d never know. But if you’re honest, you’re also a little bit intrigued by their life and sometimes, maybe after a couple of glasses of wine, when you’re tired of trawling through Netflix to find something to watch, you find yourself randomly Facebook-stalking them. Admit it, you’ve done it.

Next thing you know, you’re falling down a rabbit hole and feeling like a bit of a voyeur. It’s funny, isn’t it? The whole time you’re scouring their feed, you’re waiting for someone to tap you on the shoulder and shout Ha! Caught you! Even though you haven’t done anything wrong. I mean, they wouldn’t put it all out there unless they wanted you to read it.

You want an example of Becca’s social media posts? OK. She was one of those people who hashtagged every post with something like #gratitude or #blessed or #yolo. Oh, and also, #bestboyfriendever. That was her favourite. You know the kind of person I’m talking about. You’re smiling. You know someone just like it.

She was forever posting selfies of herself at the gym, you know the kind, complaining about having eaten too many pies and needing to work off the extra pounds, while at the same time showing off her abs. Or posting a thousand photos of herself on holiday in Ibiza – and every shot was taken from a lounger, framing the setting sun through her thigh gap.

Mandie

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