How They Caught... The Jigsaw Man murderer

On 22nd March 2009, a farmer was ploughing his field in Cottered, Herfordshire when he noticed a green holdall had been dumped on his land. Certain it hadn’t been there the day before, he was immediately suspicious, and called police.

Attending officers were shocked to confirm that it was in fact a human leg. It had been severed and wrapped in rubble sacks before being deposited on the field. The case was passed to the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit and a murder investigation was launched.

Over the next 20 days members of the public made four other grisly discoveries, all in rural areas. Just days after the first find, a left forearm was recovered in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire. On 31st March a human head was found in Asfordby, Leicestershire. On 7th April, a right leg cut in two was discovered in Puckeridge, Hertfordshire. Four days later, the fifth and final gruesome find was made again in a location known as Plashes farm near Standon in Hertfordshire; a torso, bound in bags inside a suitcase and left in a dyke. The torso revealed that the victim had been stabbed in the back.

Although the skull had been stripped beyond basic recognition, a team of experts were called in to look for clues on the victim's identity. Having already identified the victim was likely to be male, forensic and pathology teams were able to further confirm this given the shape and size of the skull. They could also estimate his build and age and even from the first find could establish that he was Caucasian or Asian. This information was released to the media, in the hope that the victim would be identified. Experts were also able to ascertain that whoever had carried out the dismembering had a high level of expertise and a good knowledge of anatomy.

Jeffrey Howe

DNA confirmed that the human remains did belong to the same victim. Detectives knew they had to identify the victim before they could find the killer. But with the body parts now scattered across the country, the search for the missing person went nationwide. The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit and Leicestershire Constabulary worked together, and distributed the enormous workload.

Police scoured databases of 100s of names on missing persons lists, determined to identify the victim. Leicestershire Police and the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit set about trawling through CCTV, looking for clues as to who had dumped the body parts. Media appeals publicised what they knew about the victim. But on 19th April, a breakthrough came. A concerned family member reported a missing relative that fit the description of the victim.

Jeffrey Howe, a 49 year old kitchen salesman, had been missing for weeks. A loving and devoted son, his family were concerned that he had not phoned his mother for weeks, which was usually a regular occurrence. The relative reported that Jeffrey’s friend Stephen Marshall, then 37, and his girlfriend Sarah Bush, then 20 had moved in with Jeffrey. Immediately alarm bells rang.

Stephen Marshall

Background checks on Marshall showed he had previous ties with both Plashes farm, the deposition site of the torso, and Wheathampstead, where the left arm had been found. But perhaps more damningly, Marshall was known to police. He had bail conditions not to contact Sarah Bush, who had accused him of assault. Straight away, a detective sergeant and a uniformed officer attended Jeffrey’s home, and found Bush and Marshall there together. They claimed to have not heard from Jeffrey, stating that he had a while ago leaving them to rent his home.

Despite not having yet identified Jeffrey as the victim, police knew that Bush and Marshall’s accounts didn’t add up and the couple were arrested on suspicion of murder.

The pressure was on to find enough evidence to charge them. Whilst Bush and Marshall were questioned, the human remains were compared with Jeffrey’s dental records – confirming that he was the victim. Forensics then began the painstaking search of Jeffrey’s home. They lifted the carpets and the shower tray in the en suite bathroom. Blood stains confirmed where the murder and dismemberment had taken place. Fibres found on the duct tape used to wrap some of the body parts matched a green t-shirt owned by Marshall, found in Jeffrey’s house. CCTV images at a bank showed Marshall wearing the damning green shirt whilst paying a cheque from Jeffrey’s bank account to his own. The forensic evidence against Marshall was compelling. Detectives knew he was guilty. But it was only when they looked at Jeffrey’s finances that the extent of Marshall’s murderous plot was uncovered.

Sarah Bush

The motive was money. The day after Jeffrey was killed, Marshall texted his employer, asking for the day off. Almost immediately he and Bush began plundering Jeffrey’s finances. They settled bills and ordered takeaways using his money and sold his car through an ebay account set up in Jeffrey’s name. When the spending spree was over, the couple set about disposing of Jeffrey’s body. Bush was heavily implicated when images revealed her in the passenger seat of a car, next to Marshall, travelling towards Leicestershire where the skull was found.

With the evidence stacking up, Bush and Marshall were charged with the murder of Jeffrey Howe.

Although united in the cover up, when the case came to trial in St Albans Crown Court in January 2010, Bush and Marshall blamed each other for Jeffrey’s murder. It wasn’t until three weeks into the prosecutions case that Marshall knew the game was up, and changed his plea to guilty, thereby admitting that Bush was not involved in the murder. But how was Jeffrey’s body been dismembered with such skill? A shocking revelation was to come. Through his barrister, Marshall went on to admit to a gruesome past in which he’d cut up four other bodies.

On 1st February 2010, Stephen Marshall was found guilty of the murder of Jeffrey Howe and sentenced to life imprisonment. He will serve a minimum of 36 years. Sarah Bush was found guilty of perverting the course of justice for her role in distributing the body parts and sentenced to 3 years and 9 months.

Police are now investigating Marshall’s criminal past.