CS: Do you remember anything that looked personal recently – anything handwritten?
KP: Actually there was something. Must have been four or five weeks ago.
CS: A letter – or a postcard?
KP: A letter. Quite big handwriting. Confident-looking, you know?
CS: Do you by any chance recall if the letter came from abroad – was there an Airmail sticker or anything like that?
KP: Now you mention it, there was. I remember thinking the Swanns had never got foreign post before. Not in my time, anyway.
CS: I don’t suppose you remember where it was from?
KP: Sorry, mate – the envelope was a bit of a mess. The postmark was all smudged.
CS: What about the stamp? Do you remember what that looked like?
KP: Now you’re asking. That was all messed up too, I think. Could have been a face? That probably doesn’t help much, does it. Afraid I only saw it for a minute – Mrs Swann was just coming out of the door with the rubbish so I handed it straight to her.
CS: That’s very interesting. How did she react to it?
KP: She frowned, if I remember rightly.
CS: So she didn’t look happy to receive it?
KP: No, definitely not. In fact, she tore it up and shoved it in the rubbish bag there and then.
CS: She definitely didn’t open it?
KP: No, she just ripped it up.
CS: Do you think she did that because she recognized the writing?
KP: Impossible to tell, to be honest – sorry.
CS: Not at all – you’ve been an enormous help. If you remember anything else, or if you recognize that stamp somewhere else, please get in touch straight away.
* * *
Adam Fawley
25 October
13.35
Even if the A417 wasn’t the most obvious route back I’d have asked Quinn to take it: I wanted to go exactly the same way Camilla Rowan said she went the day her baby disappeared. I’m sure it’s more built-up than it was in 1997, but it’s still pretty rural, even now. Every lay-by we pass, I think, is that it? Is that where she gave her child away?
The phone goes. Nina Mukerjee. I put her on speaker.
‘I just wanted to update you on where we’ve got with the familial DNA.’
‘Oh yes?’
‘Nowhere fast, is the short version. I’ve found no close relatives at all. The closest match thus far is three people who are fourth cousins, but that’s pretty distant in terms of tracking someone down. It basically means the dead man and the person on the database shared one set of great-great-great-grandparents.’
‘How many fourth cousins would you typically have?’
‘Around a thousand.’
‘Three doesn’t sound a lot, on that basis.’
‘This database is a pretty narrow sample, remember, but you’re right – even allowing for that I’d usually expect to find around thirty matches at this stage. I’ll have a closer look at the three we’ve found, but like I said, they probably have nothing to do with the man you’re after.’
Quinn makes a face and shakes his head. And I get it.
My phone’s beeping now. ‘OK, thanks, Nina. Can you keep at it? I have another call coming in so just let me know if you get anything.’
I press end and quickly check the number that’s now come up on my screen.
This isn’t good.
‘DI Fawley,’ says a woman’s voice. A voice I know only too well. ‘Could you hold for Superintendent Harrison? He needs to speak to you. Urgently.’
* * *
News Last updated: 13:40 GMT, 25 October 2018
EXCLUSIVE NOT GUILTY? Shock and disbelief as news emerges that Milly Liar did NOT murder her newborn child. Missing for 20 years, Camilla Rowan’s son has now been identified – as a DEAD MAN. Does this mean that after 15 years in prison Britain’s most notorious ‘baby-killer’ will now be freed?
BY LINDA LOMBARD FOR MAILONLINE
More than twenty years since he was last seen leaving hospital in his mother’s arms, Camilla Rowan’s infant son has finally been found, the Mail has learned. Rowan, now 38, was sentenced to life for murdering the baby at a sensational Old Bailey trial in 2003, but evidence has now come to light that casts doubt on the validity of that conviction. The baby’s remains were never found, and despite several appeals and a Criminal Cases Review Commission review, Rowan has remained in HMP Heathside. But that may be about to change.
Earlier this week Thames Valley Police posted a picture on their Twitter feed, asking for the public’s help in identifying a young man (shown below) arriving at Oxford station last Sunday. No further details were given, but it was widely rumoured that the man had been shot and killed at a large country house on the outskirts of the city a short time later that evening. Local residents have identified the property as owned by an elderly couple who’ve lived there for at least ten years but ‘always kept themselves to themselves’. The Mail can now reveal that DNA tests have proved conclusively that the dead man is Camilla Rowan’s missing baby.
Rowan always insisted that she never harmed the child, saying that she gave it to its biological father, whom she named as ‘Tim Baker’. However, no Tim Baker ever came forward, nor, despite exhaustive searches by South Mercia police, has he ever been conclusively identified. Speculation is now rife that Rowan may have been telling the truth all along, and there are bound to be calls for an inquiry into the way the original investigation was conducted. Nothing is known about the identity the dead man has been using, or where he’s been living for the last twenty years.
Thames Valley Police have not yet issued a comment, nor has there been a statement from Rowan’s legal team. But surely it’s only a matter of time before they make an official request for her immediate release.
1,687 comments
Rob__8991
Remind me – exactly how many kids did that woman have? 4? 5? And no-one knew about ANY of them. So how do we know this isn’t yet another kid no-one knew about and she palmed off to someone else? Doesn’t mean she didn’t kill that other baby, just like they said. I hope the police are onto this though that’s probably too much to ask. Thickos, the lot of them. She’s just going to run rings round them. AGAIN
DawnG667788
I don’t trust that woman further than I could spit – there’s something fishy about this whole thing
AnaGram5__1984
So is she getting out then?
99AnnieBL99
If you ask me I never thought she did it – its unnatural a mother killing her child. Quite apart from the fact that there wasn’t enough time to get rid of the body – not without the police being able to find it
2002SpottheBall
She’s going to make MEGA bucks out of this #justsaying
GayZeeBo88
Holy shit this is going to put the cat among the pigeons
LineofDutyfan665
So who are these old people in Wytham anyway – has no-one asked what the hell this bloke was doing there?
TickedBoxforNoPublicity44
I know someone who used to work at Heathside – do you know what they call her there? Only the effing DUCHESS. You couldn’t make it up LMFAO
AllieCatz76
I don’t believe Camilla Rowan is innocent. I never have. It’ll be more complicated than it looks, just you wait. And whatever it is that woman is in it up to her neck