New BBC true crime series investigates Llanelli cold case murder

Dark Land: Hunting the Killers

The unsolved murder of a schoolgirl, whose body was found near Llanelli, has been reinvestigated by an expert team hoping to shed new light on Welsh cold cases.

The team, led by former Chief Constable of Dyfed-Powys Police, Jackie Roberts, re-examines the 60-year-old murder and abduction of Carol Ann Stephens in the second episode of new true crime series Dark Land: Hunting the Killers which will air on BBC One Wales on Sunday 8 November at 10.30pm. 

On 7 April 1959, Carol Ann was sent to the shops by her mother when she was abducted near their home on Malefant Street in Cardiff. She had been seen approaching a green car before getting in. Her body was then found two weeks later 60 miles away in a water culvert in Horeb, a hamlet near Llanelli. The pathologist confirmed the cause of death as suffocation but the case was never solved.

In a bid to identify a prime suspect to present to the police, the team visit Horeb and make a key discovery which could be crucial to finally cracking the cold case that has long cast a shadow over Wales.

The team is made up of experts in a variety of fields including DCI Paul Bethell, the former head of the South Wales Cold Case Unit, geographic profiler Dr Samantha Lundrigan, forensic psychologist Professor Paul Britton and criminal historian Dr Nell Darby.

The episode is just one in a four-part series with each episode focusing on a different cold case.

Dr Lundrigan said: “With cold cases, especially the sorts of cases we’re looking at that go back to the 1940s, it’s a real challenge to see how new technology can help and potentially uncover new lines of enquiry.”

The series is also now available to stream on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000p5p8/episodes/player