Finding Julie and Final Closure

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Acast. com cold February afternoon in twenty eighteen, a forty seven year old woman was captured on CCTV doing something completely ordinary She was inside an Aldi supermarket on Glasgow's south side, picking up some bits and pieces, blending into the background like any other customer going about their day. Nothing about the footage suggested anything out of the ordinary was about to happen. Nothing that would make you look twice. But just days later, she would miss an appointment she would never normally ignore. Then another And then another Slowly, concern began to build among the people who knew her best until a missing person report was filed, and police Scotland began asking the question noody ever wants to hear. Where has she gone In this episode of British Murders with Stuart Blues, we're looking at the murder of Julie Riley It's a case that begins with a quiet disappearance in Glasgow, but quickly unfolds into a complex investigation, involving CCTV, forensic breakthroughs, and a trail of events that would ultimately reveal a far darker story hiding in planned site Before we get into today's case, I've got a quick favor to ask. If you're listening to British murders on a podcast player, please follow the show. It doesn't cost a thing, but it really helps the podcast reach more people who care about these stories Ratings and reviews make a huge difference too, so thank you if you've already left one And if you'd like add free episodes, early access and a load of exclusive content you want here on the main feed, you can find all of that over at patreon. com forward slash British Murders. Julie Reiley was forty seven years old during our main timeline in twenty eighteen She was a mum of four, a grandma, a daughter, a sister, an auntie And based on my research, someone who cared a lot about the people around her Julie originally came from Afleck in East Aria That's a former mining village in Scotland, which has been linked with the Boswell family from the early sixteenth century Boswell family being a prominent Scottish clan with a rich history and significant contributions to Scottish culture and society if you weren't aware. By the time our story unfolded, Jula had been living in Glasgow for well over fifteen years She lived on Shield Hall Road in Gon, which sits on the south bank of the Rriver Clyde and has a proud working class history tied closely to Glasgow's shipbuilding industry It's one of those places where families often have roots stretching back multiple generations. Julie's mom was Margaret Hanlan, and a younger sister was Lynn Bryce Over the years, Julie had also been known by a few different surnames, including Hanlon, Martin and Collins And like many people whose stories we share on this podcast, Julie's life wasn't straightforward. She'd faced more than her fair share of heartache, much of which could be traced back decades earlier In nineteen ninety three, Julie suffered every parent's worst nightmare when her baby daughter, Rox San tragically died from cght death or sudden infant death syndrome as it's properly known. one hundred and eighty eight babies die from SIDs every year in the UK And it relates to the sudden and unexplained death of an infant where no cause is found after detailed postmortem The current unexplained infant death rate in the UK for live births is one per three thousand four hundred and ninety five. It's difficult to put into words what that kind of loss must do to someone Losing a child changes people drastically And while some manage to find a way to work through the grief, others spend years carrying it around with them For Juliet, the loss became a turning point in her life The trauma contributed to her spiraling into drug addiction And over time, that addiction damaged the relationship she had with her surviving children The years that followed Roxan's passing were difficult and often chaotic to say the least But despite her struggles, Julet never stopped trying to rebuild a life optimistically hoped that things could get better But then another major setback arrived years later In twenty sixteen, Julie suffered a serious brain injury Following the breakdown of her marriage, she had taken an overdose, the result of which deprived her brain of oxygen, causing lasting damage She spent six months receiving treatment at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, one of Scotland's largest. From there, she moved to Graham Anderson House, a specialist neuro behavioral assessment and rehabilitation unit that helps people recover from serious brain injuries The injury left Julet with memory problems, speech difficulties, and slower reactions, which are things many of us take for granted in regular life. For Julie, suddenly those fundamental things became much, much harder. Those challenges also made a vulnerable. During her recovery, she stayed in regular contact with her family Previously lived in Penny Lee, a housing scheme on Glasgow's southwestern edge And throughout her time in hospital and rehabilitation, she spoke to her mum Margaret most days on the phone. Even after returning to the communer, she remained on daily medication In twenty seventeen, Juliet was back living independently That was something she was determined to achieve. So it was a big victory for someone who had experienced so many setbacks in her life She'd fought hard for that independence There was far more to Jewulie than what we've just discussed though Those who knew her remembered it for something entirely else kindindness. Again and again, those closest to her described her as someone with a heart of gold She had a good soul and would help people out even when she didn't have much a self. She was someone who always seemed willing to give others another chance when nobody else would the sort of person you'd want in your corner if life wasn't going yourhere. Nonetheless, as we'll see throughout this story, Trusting nature would leave Julie exposed to people who didn't deserve her kindness She always tried to see the good in people Perhaps because she knew what it felt like to make mistakes and had spent years trying to rebuild her own life By early twenty eighteen, she was firmly looking forward rather than back. become a grandmother, and her beloved grandson had celebrated his first birthday in February of that year For Julie, that little boy represented something precious chance to make new memories after so many difficult years It was the fresh start she'd dreamed of for so long But she had no way of knowing that within weeks, her life would cruelly be cut short The last confirmed sighting of Julie was on february sixth, twenty eighteen At around five PM CCTV cameras captured her inside an Aldi supermarket on Paisley Road West in Card Donald, a district in the southwest of Glasgow. It's a busy part of the city, with major roads leading toward Persley. There are plenty of shops, housing estates and local businesses dotted around the area. When Julie appeared on camera, she was wearing a pink jacket, jeans and aqua colored trainers But nothing about the footage appeared unusual And there was no obvious sign that anything was wrong Nobody looking at those images could have known they would become the last confirmed record of Julie alive Days quickly passed following that supermarket visit, with nobody in Julie's close circle hearing from or seeing her As we've established, Julie valued her independence and wasn't somebody who was in constant contact with her family. According to a mum, it wasn't unusual for Julie to disappear off the radar completely for a while before suddenly getting back in touch out of the blue. The last message Margaret received from her daughter had actually been on Christmas Day just over a month earlier It was a simple text which read Merry Christmas At the time there was no reason to think anything of it. as the cold days of February rolled on, concern slowly started to build On the fifteenth, alarm bells properly started to ring after Julie failed to attend a hospital appointment On its own, that might not sound particularly significant People miss appointments all the time for a variety of reasons But staff knew Julie had recently missed several appointments somethingomething that was becoming increasingly unusual It wasn't like her at all Given her medical history and the support she still received following her brain injury peopleeople were concerned, and Margaret later recalled receiving a phone call from the hospital informing her that Julie hadn't turned up Call would prove to be a crucial one NHS staff became worried enough to contact police Scotland and ask officers to carry out checks to make sure Julet was safe and well When nobody could locate her, Julet was officially reported as missing leading to police Scotland launching a missing persons investigation At first, detectives approached the case as they would for any other disappearance They checked hospitals, spoke with agencies and support services, and looked into Julie's last known movements They wanted to establish where she had gone after that final sighting of her in Alde A week after she was reported missing, officers returned to the supermarket in Cardonald They were hoping somebody in the community might hold the missing piece of the puzzle and offer some insight as to where Julie was Sting alongside officers were Margaret and Lynn Both women desperately wanted answers They hoped someone would recognize Julie's face and come forward with information Lynn threw herself into the search effort by sharing missing person appeals across social media particularly in local community groups connected to Govern and the southwest of Glasgow. The family believed somebody out there had seen Julie because she wasn't exactly the sort of person who blended into the background Julie with her dyed blonde hair talalking to people. And she could strike up a conversation with just about anyone She regularly visited the Alde and charity shops in the area and was known throughout the local community. So the family hope that familiarity would work in their favor As the investigation continued, officers gathered information from financial institutions and other agencies in an attempt to trace Julie's movements, which is standard practice in miss in person cases What they discovered only deepened the mystery David Lame, not to be confused with the UK's current deputy Prime Minister revealed that Julie's travel pass hadn't been used since early February There was no sign she had boarded buses or travelled around the city using her usual means Investigators also learned that Julie often spent time in Glasgow City Center prompting officers to distribute missing person posters throughout support organizations, charities and community networks The charity missing peopleeople joined the search effort too Peel carried a direct message to Juliaselflf It read Jile We are here for you whenever you are readyady We can listen you through what help you need pass a message for you and help you to be safe It was a message rooted in hull Because at that stage, police still didn't know what had happened had Julie chosen to disappear H she become confused and lost Or was something far more disturbing going on Aeals generated several reported sightings But unfortunately, none of them led anywhere Inspector Lamy later explained that members of the public had genuinely tried to help Every lead investigators followed, eventually, it's a dead end As winter turned into spring, the uncertainty became harder to ignore In April, two months after Julie vanished, detectives were becoming increasingly concerned Publicly, they maintain that there was still no direct evidence pointing towards foul play Privately They weren't so sure Detective Chief Inspector Mark Bell from the major investigation team, said officers could not rule out a sinister explanation for Julie's disappearance Specialist forensic teams carried out searches at her home near Shield Hall Road Police stressed these searches were precautionary and that there was no wider threat to the public But they wanted to make absolutely certain nothing untoard had happened there. Detectives then cast the net wider than ever A police underwater unit became involved Search dogs were deployed especially search offices worked through potential locations Officers even spoke to passengers on Glasgow's number two hundred one six bus route, a service Julie regularly used Those inquiries produced a handful of potentially useful leads, all of which were followed up Yet Julet still remained missing And the longer the investigation continued, the more troubling the situation became DCI Bell openly admitted that Julie's disappearance didn't make sense Despite the challenges she'd faced throughout her life, she'd never gone missing before Not even once perhaps most concerning of all couldn't identify any obvious reason why she would suddenly vanish without telling anyone For Julie's family, each day without answers felt longer than the last Somewhere in Glasgow, the truth was waiting to be uncovered. The problem was that nobody yet knew just how horrific that truth would turn out to be We're going to take an ad break now. When we return, we'll discuss a shocking discovery that took the investigation in a completely different direction. See you soon Monday. com AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. I stay in the loop only when it matters. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday. com. While every other channel is fighting for your customers' attention, podcasts are where they've already given it No one accidentally listens to a podcast for forty five minutes. They choose to be here. They trust the voice in their ears, and when that voice talks about your brand, it doesn't sound like advertising. It sounds like a recommendation from a friend. ACast gives you that trust at scale. Digital precision, host read authenticity, and performance data that proves it worked Don't fight for attention. buuy it with ACast. Learn more by visiting Acast d. com slash advertise Welcome back. Let's now carry on with the story In april twenty eighteen, everything changed. On the nineteenth of that month, a member of the public was doing a bit of gardening at his home on Ardschill Road in Glasgow's Cessnik area Spring had arrived and he was tidying up his garden after the winter months. Behind a bush, he spotted something out of place which looked like a large animal bone At first he didn't think much of it. But when he took a closer look, he realized there was still flesh attached The discovery was reported to the police immediately and subsequent forensic examinations would confirm the bone was in fact Julie Rilly's right femur AKa, her right thigh bone After more than two months of searching Investigators finally had confirmation that Julie was no longer a missing person. She was the victim of a murder The location of the discovery made the find all the more concerning Chessnick sits only a short distance from Julie's flat in Gon. Whoever had left the remains behind had done so virtually on the doorstep of the community where she was known Four days later, on april twenty third, police Scotland publicly confirmed that Julie had died. Dives remained tight lipped about exactly what they had found and where they had found it. Still, it was clear the investigation had entered a completely different phase, with the search operation intensifying almost overnight Officers appealed to the public for help tracing two suitcases, believed to contain evidence linked to Julie's disappearance and death. which they thought had been discarded somewhere on Glasgow's south S side. Peel cast a wide net across Card Donald, Cessnk, and Govn Investigators suggested the suitcases could have been abandoned almost anywhere Beside a roadway along a garden path in a park on waste ground Anywhere, somebody might hope they would go unnoticed for as long as possible At the same time, forensic teams descended on areas close to Julie's home A patch of wastelanding governed came under scrutiny Police tents appeared and roads were coned off, while several police vehicles lined Damoin Drive Residents watched as officers painstakingly searched the area. Police initially refused to confirm whether the various scenes were connected to one another Meanwhile, rumors spread through the local community One resident later claimed a body part had been discovered near the entrance to Perie Park. And for those living nearby, it was impossible not to notice the growing police presence And before long, another shocking discovery was made A second bone, Julie's left femur, was discovered This time from Dramon Drive So whoever had killed her had gone to extraordinary lengs to conceal what they had done Police thankfully didn't have to wait long to catch the person responsible On april twenty fourth, just one day after publicly confirming Julie's death Detectives arrested a forty one year old man called Andrew Wallace on suspicion of her murder The following day, Wallace appeared at Glasgow's Sheriff court He made no plea, and the court remanded him in custody while the investigation continued Behind the scenes, detectives began questioning Wallace extensively But he wasn't talking He opted to go down the ultra frustrating route of repeatedly answering no comments to any question posed to him during police interviews Most frustratingly of all for Julie's family, was that Wallace refused to provide any information about the whereabouts of the rest of her remains The man sitting in custody wasn't a stranger to the police either nor was he an unknown figure who had suddenly appeared on their radar? Long before Julie Rileilly entered his life, Wallace already had blood on his hands during a time when he was known as Andrew Leedam, though his friends often called him Drew He had trained as a butcher when he was younger And that was a detail which would later take on a deep unsettling significance. The first known killing happened when he was still a teenager On june third, nineteen ninety two, a fifteen year old Andrew Leedam, who I'll still call Wallace just for the sake of clarity armed himself with a knife and targeted a fifty one year old hotel laundry worker named Carolyn Packer at her home in Springfield Road, Dalmanark Caroline was a moment to her daughter and was simply at home when Wallace attacked her on her own doorstep The teenager stubbed her repeatedly in the head shoulder and chest in a savage and pointless attack, completely devastating Caroline's family At the time, Wallace had been abusing solents, so said the newspaper reports H plan had been to rob Caroline and steal money from her so he could run away with his fourteen year old girlfriend Essentially, it was a robbery that went badly wrong After seeing the amount of blood he'd caused, he panicked flee in the scene empty hundreded Investigators later learned that he'd recently got into trouble at the residential home where he was staying and feared being moved elsewhere in the country Being moved had him worried that his relationship would end And rather than accept the potential consequences He chose violence So despite taking a woman's life, Wallace was not convicted of murder Psyiatrists concluded his responsibility had been diminished because of his solvent abuse The crown accepted those findings As a result, he was convicted of culpable homicide Culpable homicide is distinguished from murder by the absence of intent to kill The court ordered Wallace to be detained for ten years at Palmont Young Offenders Institution But even behind bars, troubles seemed to follow him In november nineteen ninety five, another inmate attacked him with boiling water before striking him over the head with an electric kettle leaving Wallace seriously injured In nineteen ninety seven, while still serving his sentence, Wallace skipped a class at Falkirk College and traveled to visit a thirty five year old social worker at her home The woman worked part time for Sterling Council. Authorities quickly learned of the visit and prison officers tracked Wallace down shortly afterwards The social worker was then suspended while a full investigation took place. Eventually, Wallace was released and shortly after changed his surname from Leadham to Wallace in an attempt to distance himself from his past Whether it was him trying to start afresh or simply hide his history is open to interpretation. Isn't, however, is the picture that a former partner later painted of what life with him was like. The pair met in nineteen ninety nine, while Wallace was out on home leave shortly before his release after a mutual friend asked if she could provide him with a shirt to wear on the Daga out But their first meet in Wallace told her he'd been imprisoned because of his involvement in a gang fight where someone had been stabbed She believed him and had no idea he'd actually killed a woman The relationship moved quickly On the day he left custody, Wallace went straight to this woman's house and basically never left Soon after, they were living together as a couple What followed, she later said, was nine years pure fear According to her account, Wallace repeatedly assaulted her threatened her with knives and told her he would kill her She described him as a man who became a completely different person after drinking alcohol and taking heroin Calm one minute and explosive the next She compared him to Scottish author Robert Louis Stehvenson's characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde On one occasion, Wallace's ex said he smashed every window in their home before punching her so hard that one of her teeth was driven up through her lip Even Wallace's own mum allegedly warned this woman to leave him before he murdered her Another attack saw him repeatedly punch her before smashing the electricity box, plunging the property into darkness. Terrified, she ran from the house She went on to describe one incident where Wallace had spent three straight days taking heroin. And as he shouted threats at her, she noticed he was holding a knife At that moment, she genuinely believed she was about to die. So she fled Eventually, after years of abuse, she ended the relationship in two thousand eight The final struck him when Wallace allegedly pulled out a blade and snarled I'll slit your fucking throat Looking back on her time with Wallace after Julie's murder, his ex reflected on a moment that haunts her One night, Wallace had passed out drunk and started choking on his own vomit So she did what she thought was the right thing and rolled him onto his side, saving his life Years later, she admitted she wished she'd done nothing By then, another woman was dead at his hands. As we take our focus back to the investigation Theors were beginning to piece together exactly what Wallace had done to Julie Riley We first need to rewind a bit to understand the full context of how the pair knew each other A couple of months before Julie disappeared, Wallace had found himself needing somewhere to stay splitting up with his girlfriend in late twenty seventeen, he moved into Julie's flat as a lodger And for the latter, it seemed like a practical arrangement which could be mutually beneficial She was still living with the effects of her brain injury and remained vulnerable in many ways Fily members later believe she hoped Wallace could provide a degree of support and companionship around the home. essentially becoming her carer Peers Wallis had something entirely different in mind though Prosecutors would later suggest he viewed Julie as someone who could be manipulated and exploited Margaret certainly wasn't convinced by the arrangement from the moment she heard about it. During a phone call with her daughter, she made it clear she didn't agree with Wallace moving in Whether Julie listened or not, she'd always been somebody who wanted to help people and helping the wrong person cost her everything When detectives from the major investigation team took over the inquiry, Wallace quickly became a person of interest The breakthrough came via a combination of CCTV footage, financial records, and good old fashioned detective work. Investigators discovered that Wallis had actually been with Julie on the very day she was last seen alive. The CCTV footage from Alde on Paisley Road West showed the pair seemingly shopping together on february sixth Though, as we know, there was nothing suspicious about the footage at that point But what happened afterwards caught detectives' attention Because in the days that followed, Wallace appeared on CCTV alone He was seen using Julie's bank card at supermarkets, including Azda and Alde buuying groceries and everyday essentials. cart holder was nowhere to be seen As suspicion grew, forensic specialists turned their attention to Julie's flat on Shield Hall Road At first glance, the property looked entirely ordinary, with nothing appearing out of place There were no signs of violence, no obvious clues or bloodstains on the walls. The furniture was where it should be. So all appeared normal. But forensic scientists don't rely on first impressions They rely on evidence And as specialists began examining the property in greater detail, they slowly peeled back the layers of what had happened inside those walls What they eventually uncovered painted a horrifying picture Months later, in september twenty eighteen Prosecutors revealed the full extent of the allegations against Wallace. He would stand trial accused of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice. Because according to the Crown, Wallace murdered Julie sometime between february sixth and fifteenth After killing her Prosecutors alleged he dismembered her body using a knife, an axe or similar implements Using his expertise as a butcher, he severed her legs and placed parts of her remains into plastic bags and suitcases. Then he buried them at locations around Gon and elsewhere in Glasgow Crying out these grim tasks, Wallace was also allegedly creating a false trail of evidence He told people Julie had moved away and was now living in Penny Lee to anyone asking questions, that was his go to explanation The lie bought him some time, but far from enough financial evidence created even more problems for it Prosecutors accused Wallace of fraudulently claiming three hundred and sixty eight pounds in benefit payments deposited into Julie's bank account He was also accused of stealing more than four hundred pounds directly from her account At a preliminary hearing, Wallace pleaded not guilty The trial was scheduled for february twenty nineteen, which was expected to last around two weeks But then, completely out of the blue and shortly before proceedings were due to begin Everything changed again In early february twenty nineteen, Wallace admitted what he'd done There would be no trial now. No lengthy battle over the facts or dramatic courtroom revelations. He pleaded guilty yet despite finally accepting responsibility, Wallace offered no meaningful explanation. He provided no motive and expressed zero remorse He didn't even have the decency to apologize to Julie's devastated family Even with that admission, a big problem remained Most of Julie's body was still missing The two femurs with her earie body parts recovered, so her family still couldn't properly lay it to rest The court also heard details of Wallace's efforts to cover his tracks The day after killing Julie, he told a friend he needed to get rid of a body Over the next few days, witnesses saw him transporting heavy suitcases And when one friend asked what was inside, Wallace produced a bizarre explanation. claimed he'd accidentally hit a deer with his car. As a trareined butcher, he said he hadn't wanted the meat to go to waste According to Wallace, he was simply looking for somewhere to store the carcass before selling the meat to a local shop While that was going on, investigators had uncovered evidence showing just how hard Wallace had worked to conceal what he'd done spent weeks cleaning Julie's flat in an attempt to remove traces of the murder but modern forensic science proved far more effective than a mop and bucket and some bleach Using luminol, a chemical that reacts with even tiny traces of blood, Specialists examine the flat room by room The results were astonishing Photographs taken after the chemical was applied revealed extensive blood staining that had been completely invisible to the naked eye Wallace had cleaned up after himself but not well enough Investigators also examined his phone and computer His search history included phrases such as Fast and fatal knife strikes and to kill someone with a knife Officers also discovered images of hunting knives, as well as a photograph demonstrating the professional method of severing bones taken together, the material suggested preparation Planning and intent. When Wallace eventually appeared for sentencing, Judge Lady Ray raised a question that had been weighing heavily on everyone's minds Would he finally tell them where the rest of Julie's remains were? His defense counsel indicated that Wallace was prepared to consider assisting officers And for Julie's family, that offered the faintest glimmer of hope. Wallace ended up receiving a life sentence for murder in Ju, with a minimum term of twenty eight years being handed down reduced from third because of his guilty plea The sentence alone wasn't enough for Julie's family though They still needed Julie back so they could properly lay it to rest