Killer dentist Colin Howell ’s double murder cover-up was clumsy and arrogant - but he got away with it for more than 19 years because of a flawed police investigation.
Today we reveal the 15 vital clues detectives from the Royal Ulster Constabulary overlooked that pointed to the obvious.
Two decades after the double murders of police officer Trevor Buchanan and nurse Lesley Howell, the PSNI issued an apology to their families for the failures and shortcomings of the 1991 investigation.
And the police conducted a review of PSNI procedures to ensure that sudden deaths are subject to thorough investigation.
The RUC officers investigating the deaths quickly wrote them off as the result of a joint suicide pact by two lovers.
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Suicide and affairs in the RUC were not uncommon at the time but they remained taboo subjects.
The case was closed and the paperwork filed and later lost.
The clues investigators failed to feel were important:
1: Howell prompted a search of the garage
Colin Howell made THREE attempts to direct the people to the Castlerock garage where his murder victims were eventually found, claiming his wife might be there. But detectives failed to ask Howell why he thought the garage should be at the centre of the investigation.
2: Photos
Photographs Howell had grabbed of family members to lay by his wife’s dead body were intended to make it look as if they were the last things she saw as she slipped into unconsciousness. But at least two of them were facing away from her. There were no photos of the Buchanan family despite suggestions of a joint suicide pact between Lesley and Trevor.
3: The position of the driver’s seat
Trevor Buchanan was a much taller man than his killer Colin Howell who drove his body and that of his wife, to the garage in Castlerock. Howell pushed Trevor into the driver’s seat but neglected to slide the seat back first to allow for enough space for Trevor's legs fit in properly. RUC photos showed his leg was found hanging out of the car and the car door was lying open.
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4: Lesley’s shoes
Lesley was found with her trainers only partially on her feet. He had dressed her but was unable to get her shoes on. Police did not question that fact of Lesley being found lying with her feet pushed partially into her trainers.
5: Lesley and Trevor were found lying separately
Howell had planned his victims would be found in the same car so people would presume they had executed a joint suicide pact. Experts say they would likely have been in the front seats side-by-side if the pact had been real. Instead Trevor was in the driver's seat and Lesley in the boot.
6: Trevor was injured
Postmortem photographs showed injuries to Trevor's mouth and nose and what appeared to be blood coming from the back of his head. At least two people raised concerns about the injuries at Trevor’s funeral wake. Howell said there has been a minor row earlier and the RUC accepted his version of events.
7: Howell was injured
Howell had suffered a gash to his forehead as he overpowered a struggling Trevor as he fought for life. He told police he had bumped his head.
8:Lesley’s last movements were wrong
Howell’s account of his wife’s movements on the day before her death were wrong and were challenged by a number of other witnesses who had seen her - this too was dismissed during the RUC investigation.
9: Details of the affair were known
The RUC established early on that Howell and Stewart had lied to them about aspects of their affair but still accepted them as credible witnesses.
10: Drugging Lesley
Information was given to the RUC that Howell had been medicating his wife Lesley after she told friends she was sure it was happening. The claims were not investigated further.
11: Electric cable in bath
Information was given to the police which claimed Howell had once dropped an electric cable into Lesley’s bath - this was disregarded.
12: Money worries
It became clear Howell was having major financial difficulties but this situation was not delved into any further despite the possibility of a life insurance policy being triggered.
13: Police officer wanted action
The RUC failed to explore the concerns brought to them by a serving police officer about Colin Howell.
14: Blood on Trevor’s sweatshirt
Blood found on Trevor’s sweatshirt was never examined - it has never been established who the blood belonged to.
15: Lesley’s note
Howell saved a note written by Lesley which he presented as a suicide note. Experts later found discrepancies in the wording and phrasing of the hand-written missive.
In 2011 Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan slammed the original police investigation into the deaths of Trevor Buchanan and Lesley Howell and described them as “deeply flawed and lacking objectivity, subsequently letting down the families of both victims".
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