Trial and Final Verdict

Introducing the total Solutions advantage only from Comcast Business. It's the largest fastest fiber powered network for small business, gig speeds with equipment and security included and a five year price lock No one does business like comcast business ' Switch today. Get started for sixty dollars a month for twelve months when you add an advanced solution to a qualifying internet package. Limited time offer, restestrictions apply. new customers only, requires three hundred megab per second interternet, securityedge and additional qualying service, onene year agreement paperless billing and autopay bank account required T taxes and fees extra. America is turning two hundred fifty, and that's a reason to celebrate. This fourth of July, start your celebration at total wine and more From backyard barbecues to fireworks with friends and family, Total wine and more is your go to for beer, wine, and spirits. They've got a huge selection with the lowest prices. America only turns two hundred fifty once, pick up a great bottle of wine or bourbon and cheers to this milestone Shop total wine and more today and get ready for an unforgettable fourourth of July. Spirits are not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly. Be twenty one Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. Running a business means you're always reachable until you're not. and the moment you miss that call, a competitor picks it up That's why this episode is brought to you by Quo, spepelled QUO The businessus phone system built so you never miss an opportunity All your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place. Anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G two trrusted by over ninety thousand businesses. Set up in minutes on any device. Keep your existing number, addd teammates as you grow. No IT, no hassle oe's built in AI agent even handles after hours calls and books appointments. So you're covered around the clock Money is on the line Always say hello with Quo Quo free plus twenty percent off your first six months at cQuo dot com slash tech. That's Quo dot com slash tech. july twenty eighth, nineteen ninety six sixty feet beneath the English channel off the coast of Devon, England. A fisherman was about to haul in his nets. His catch of the day would unearth a gruesome secret. Buried among the seaabass and crabs was a very large catch, a dead man with no apparent identification. The Nets had disturbed a watery grave, revealing a mystery that would cross an ocean Oh. When John Kopak, the fisherman of thirty years, pulled a dead body on board, he had a decision to make. A floater is a bad omen. I can do one or two things here. I can pull this coatline and he goes back over the side and we go on fishing. O We take him in, in which case fishher' is going to be condemned, you're going to lose a day's wages The victim was an unidentified male between the ages of forty and fifty. From the amount of decomposition, the pathologist determined that the body had been in the water for less than a week. The victim was wearing a blue and white checkered shirt, leather belt, and green cordurooy trousers with the pockets pulled inside out When I first examined the body, I noticed a tattoo on the back of the hand I thought it was a cluster of stars And that's what I said in my original report In any case, I've never seen a cattoo like that Not in British subjects, there were several injuries noted on the body brruises on his left hip and lower leg and a four inch gash on the back of the head Most likely, the head injury caused unconsciousness, but the actual cause of death was never in question The lungs are the best organs to look for droning and the al showed evidence of droning So the cause of death was not difficult. But why he got into the water and why he drowned was the difficult part The only item of note on the victim was an expensive wristwatch It was a Swiss made Rolex brand Oyster pererpetual Chronometer, which had stopped. twenty second of the month Every Rolex watch has a story Rolex keeps extxtraordinary records on their watches worldwide. Every Rolex watch comes with a serial number. It's hidden on the watch Detailed records are kept for everyone who owns that watch forever and all the servicing records The Rolex company identified the watch owner as Ronald J. Platt. The victims next of kin were contacted his brother positively identified Ronald Platt's body by the tattoo on his hand Canadian maple leaf Ronald Plad was a fifty year old television repair man who was divorced He hadn't been in regular contact with his family, which is why he hadn't been reported missing Platt had been living in Essex County over three hundred miles from Devon, where his body was discovered On his application for his last apartment rental, He listed a man named David Davis as a reference. I phoned David Davis up on his mobile phone number And unfortunately, I told him about the fact that we'd recovered a body from the sea, which we believe to be his friend, Ronald Plant Davis told police. That he and Ronald Platt had been friends, but that he hadn't seen Platt in over three months David Davis was a fifty year old retired financial advisor from Canada, who was living in England with his twenty one year old wife, Noel, and their two daughters Davis and his family lived in the small village of Woodam Walter. culled the sack at the end of Little London Lane When police went to interview Davis in person They made the mistake of knocking on the wrong door The elderly gentleman replies, No, no, no, this isn't Little London Farm. That, he says, pointing next door, That is Little London Farm So Redmond then asks, well, is that where David Davis lives And the elderly gentleman says, no, no, no, that's not where David Davis lives. There's no David Davis there. That's where Ronald Platt lives. That's where Ronald Platt lives with his lovely wife And they're two little children. I couldn't believe what he was telling me, you know, it was bizarre The guy that I had thought was dead and had been identified as dead to me was in fact alive and well and living in wooden mortar. But why was David Davis now posing as Ronald Platt? There was clearly something wrong here, and we had to put David Davis under the microscope, find out who he was. Why was he using this false identity? Was there something more sinister involved For reasons that were not at all clear, David Davis, a Canadian citizen living in England, had been posing as Ronald Platt The name of the man found at the bottom of the English channel. An investigation into Davis' background revealed some troubling information For the last three years, all of Davis' bills were paid for with checks and credit cards signed by Ronald Platt Some signed after Platt's body was pulled from the sea. Davis met the real Ronald Platt through Platt's girlfriend, Elaine Boyys, who worked for David Davis and a small investment company Davis ran in London Police also discovered David Davis owned a sailboat that was moored in Devon, only a few miles from where Ronald Platt's body was discovered Police search through David Davis' mobile telephone records which showed calls made from the same area where Platt's body was found callalls were made during the same time period in July The medical examiner said Ronald Platt drowned Davis claimed he hadn't seen his friend Ronald Platt in months, but police found witnesses who saw them together in the Devon area shortly before Platt's death He was clearly lying to us as well as using R Pat's identity, and that changed the complexion of things So I contacted Essex and told them to change the charge that they were going to arrest him for from Cze fraud to murder On Halloween Morning in nineteen ninety six armed English response team waited to arrest Davis at his home at the end of Little London Lane unexpectedly drove down the lane in the middle of the police raid Davis made a dash from the house to the taxi, which quickly took off to get past police.ally The main police car catches up. pushes the taxic cab dri driver over to the shoulder Policeman with a very big gun drawn moves out of the car, points it directly through the window at Davis' head David Davis was arrested on suspicion of the murder Ronald Platt In the house was Davis' twenty one year old wife, Noell couplees two little girls Three year old Emily and Lian who was just six months old Police allowed Noel to pack a diaper bag with items for the children One of the officers there was a little suspicious, however, about its weight and searched the bag and inside found that she'd slipped inside the baby clothes, four thousand pounds in cash and five gold bars A police headquarters No elses purse contained a treasure trove of incriminating evidence, documents in the name of Ronald Platt and Platt's girlfriend, Elaine Boyys and the children's birth certificates, which listed Ronald, Platt and Elaine boys as the parents. She gave no real explanation for that other than to say that when she got pregnant She needed medical attention I actually used Elaye booys's Iidentity cards to get that medical treatment Police are mystified by the gap in ages In fact, it seems like thirty year gap. She barely looks twenty. He looks to be about fifty. What's going on? They decide that they're going to bear down on her in questioning seeee if they can make or crack. and in fact they do. and they find out something that surprises even them, namely She blurts out He's my father Noel refused to identify the father of the children Introducing the tootal Solutions advantage only from Comcast Business. It's the largest fastest fiber powered network for small business, gig speeds with equipment and security included and a five year price lock. No one does business like Ccast business. Switch today? Get started for sixty dollars a month for twelve months when you add an advanced solution to a qualifying internet package. Limited time offer. restestrictions apply. N new customers only. requires three hundred megab per second interternet, securityedge and additionalifing service, onene year agreement, paperless billing and autoay bank account required. tax and fees extra Hey, this is Jonathan Fields, host of the Good Life Project. So there's something about summer that hits different The backyard evenings that stretch past Glden hour, the citrus and salt smell of a road trip with the windows down The moments that feel like yours Pur's Summer Fragrance Coection is designed to bring those feelings home, literally Smart diffusers, clelean Sense controlled right from your phone It's a small thing that makes your space feel more like you. Visit puri. com to explore the summer collllection. America's turning two hundred and fifty this year. Celebrate with total wine and more. For a milestone like this, you want to make sure there's something for everyone Total Wine has the largest selection. F great beer, wine, and spirits for every guest and every kind of celebration. Big moments add up, so it's good knowing you're getting the lowest prices. and if you need a recommendation, the Total wine team can help Get ready for America's two hundred fiftieth birthday. Shop total wine and more today and get everything you need at the lowest prices. Spiritss not sold to Virginia and North Carolina, drrink responsibly, be twenty one Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice message system. Running a business means you're always reachable until you're not. and the moment you miss that call, a competitor picks it up That's why this episode is brought to you by Quo, spepelled QUO The business phone system built so you never miss an opportunity All your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place. Anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. Quo is the number one rated business phone system on G two, trusted by over ninety thousand businesses. Set up in minutes on any device. Keep your existing number, add teammates as you grow No IT, no hassle oe's built in AI agent even handles after hours calls and books appointments. So you're covered around the clock Money is on the line Always say hello with Quo Try cuo free, plus twenty percent off your first six months at cuo dot com slash tech. That's Quo dot com slash tech David Davis' home on Little London Lane held a wealth of evidence Evelopes stuffed with Swiss francs, British pounds, American dollars keys to storage lockers, gold bars, expensive paintings. And in a mountain of documents, a tiny scrap of paper that would be a turning point in the investigation. and they found a seed with seven items listed on it bought from a shop called Sport and Autique in Dartmouth. on the water And in those seven items there was something that was noted. It was a ten pound plow anchor. Police went back to question John Copak, the fisherman who pulled Platt's body out of the sea in his nets D didn't notice the angle till we actually got physically got the gear on board. we got the trol on board And I didn't connect the two together until the following day ten pound zinc galvanized plow anchor found in the fishing nets with Ronald Platt's body may have been used to anchor Platt's body at the bottom of the English channel and came loose when he was dragged to the surface by fishing nets When Dr. Fernando laid the anchor next to the injuries on Platt's legs He discovered the cause of the wounds The bruise on the hip was caused by the lower end of the anchor. and the bruise on the tie was caused by the other end of the ankle The anchor had been hooked to his waistband or to his belt The anchor and Platt's belt was sent to the forensics lab for analysis On Plat's leather belt was a translucent deposit pololice asked a forensic metallurgist to determine made the mark I worked with a sample from the belt in the area of the mark. and the sample from the surface of the anchor The mark on Platt's belt was analyzed with a scanning electron microscope, and the material on the belt was identified Basically the mark on the belt was predominantly zinc as was the surface of the anchor Still unanswered was how Ron Platt's body got six miles out into the English channel Dror Bob Allen, a hydraulic engineer, analyzed the location of the body and studied the water currents during the weak plat was in the English chanel We determined what the currents were in the area But what we weren't able to say was whether those currents were strong enough to move the body without some further work doctor Allen conducted a unique experiment to simulate a drowned man anchored to the bottom of the English channel He attached a ten pound anchor to his belt. expelled the air from his lungs and sank to the bottom of an artificial channel which recreated the cold sea water and the same currents that were present when Platt's body was dumped. The anchor held the body firm Meaning it was dumped in the same location where it was found Davis' sailboat The Lady Jane was brought into the forensics lab for an inspection Inside the cabin A small hair sample was discovered on the seat cushions. And there was a plastic sport nottique bag from the same store where Davis purchased the anchor Both were sent for forensic testing to fingerprint smooth, non porous material like the sport nototique bag Forensic experts put the bag in a sealed cabinet. Inside, super gllue is heated and the fumes adhere to the finger oils on the bag which can be visualized when the bag is dipped in a yellow fluorescent dye which adheres to finger oils the fingerprint on the sport Motif bag. that of Ronald Platt DNA testing of the hair found on the boat cushion revealed the hair was also that of Ronald Platt Finally Police examined the ship's GPS The GPS from Davis' boat indicated that he shut off the navigational device just three point eight nautical miles from the spot where the body resurfaced, the date It was july twentieth The Rolex watch found on Ronald Platt was self winding whichich means it runs for forty hours after it stops moving The watch stopped on july twenty second forty hours earlier Made the date july twentieth same date recorded by the GPS on the Lady Jane Police knew that David Davis wasn't this man's real name Just who was he A man living with his daughter as husband and wife, with two small children, whose paternity was unclear And what was his motive Murder Ronal Platt.