[narrator] Every 90 seconds, someone is reported missing.
Many return to their families,
but for others something has gone seriously wrong.
A woman visits a solicitor about divorcing her husband.
The next day, she disappears.
I thought it was just kind of like I've had enough.
I don't want anything more to do with you guys.
[narrator] A mother is missing,
and then yet another devastating blow.
Police came to my house.
And, um, they said, "I'm really sorry to tell you we've got some bad news
and that your father is missing at sea."
[narrator] What happens in the police investigation that follows?
In any other murder inquiry, you've got a body.
We didn't have a body.
To prove that someone's dead with no body and no paper trail,
literally zero evidence whatsoever, is damn near impossible.
[narrator] What happens to the family at its heart…
[Sam] I never knew that there were such depths of, um, sadness
that you're capable of actually going through.
[narrator reading]
[Sam] My mother, she was quite an introverted person.
My father is, um, the complete opposite.
A lot more gregarious, a lot more controlling.
Uh, a lot more the orchestrator of us,
how he wanted things to be in the house,
what he wanted to do.
Um, I can remember reading Ladybird books.
My father teaching me times tables
and testing me every single night.
He'd handwritten out all of my times tables.
We'd go to the New Forest, Sunday, after lunch,
with the dog for a nice walk,
playing frisbee in the park.
Or when we were abroad and then, you then had other games.
Swimming a huge amount.
Um, skiing a huge amount.
Chasing each other down the mountains in Canada.
So my grandfather was very much described as someone that was very driven,
strong-willed, strong-minded.
Russell worked as a draftsman, electronics draftsman
in the aviation industry.
They traveled a lot, they worked abroad.
Um, it was quite lucrative.
It was a privileged upbringing to a certain degree.
Um, they lived all over the world.
[narrator] But at the heart of what seems to be perfectly normal family life
is a worrying character.
[Neil] He was very, very ruthless.
Would cut you down as quickly as he could.
[Joanna] Well, it had been obvious to Carole's parents
that Russell was a controlling,
unpleasant character right from the beginning.
[Joanna] Carole left school at 15
and met Russell at a factory in Reading.
Carole was head over heels in love.
And despite the fact that her parents detested him,
they ended up getting married.
He caused a lot of arguments
and the rest of the family didn't like him.
Carole's mother, Mary,
found out that he had a conviction for grievous bodily harm.
Russell didn't want his wife
to have anything to do with her parents after that.
[narrator] Carole doesn't see or speak to her parents for years,
during which time she has her daughter, Sam.
Then, out of the blue, Carole calls her mother.
Carole said that they were living in Southampton at that stage.
They had an Alsatian puppy.
They'd been at work and then came home
and the puppy had made a mess or ripped something up.
Russell completely lost it and beat up his wife.
He kicked the puppy to death.
Carole's mother wanted Carole to just leave,
she begged her to leave and she wouldn't.
He seemed to have control over Carole.
[narrator] Russell's control isn't just over Carole.
[Neil] Very much do as I say not as I do.
And that was very much how my grandfather brought up my mum.
I was heavily disciplined from a very, very young age.
A wooden spoon across my backside, a wooden coat hanger
um, or being put into isolation for days.
And literally not spoken to.
Food just brought to my room.
But my father was definitely, he was the one who meted out the punishment.
When I was 14 we came back from Canada for the final time.
[narrator] With the family back in the UK,
Russell sets up a new business.
[Sam] Patricia started to work for my father in 1983.
The business was now being run from effectively our kitchen,
dining room table.
Financially things weren't going absolutely great.
[narrator] Russell has an unconventional solution
to his money problems.
The idea was was that Patricia would sell her flat.
She then injected some cash to my parents
to enable them to be able to pay off
some arrears on the mortgage that were obviously in place,
so that they could actually save the house,
so that they didn't lose the house.
Within a matter of months,
Patricia was then living in our house.
She was completely the opposite to what my mother was.
Um, she was very confident.
I don't think my mother was particularly overly welcoming.
You know?
She obviously switched on a few buttons
with regards to my father, completely.
It just gave my father basically,
he brought his lover into the house.
You have to bear in mind just how much
that if my father wanted something, how much my father,
that was it, that's what was happening.
Russell continued this affair
under the roof of the family home.
So disrespectful.
[narrator] Family life is now increasingly strained.
Bad things were starting to happen in the house
as far as rows were concerned,
as far as my mother's mental stability
and how she was starting to cope
with the reality of having Patricia in the house.
As to how much she was aware
of how much the affair was going on, I don't know.
That wouldn't have been something
that she would have discussed with me.
[narrator] Sam decides to share a secret with her mother.
And I said to her, "You do know that this isn't the first time
that this has happened.
I know that he's done this before."
I said to her, "Don't tell my father."
Unfortunately, my phone call that evening was from my father to say to me,
"just you wait, you know, until I get home."
I was petrified.
He comes in, opens up the door,
comes straight up the stairs,
comes straight into my room, turns my light on.
Had a hard-soled leather slipper.
Uh, takes me out of bed, puts me over his knee
and literally just starts beating me.
I'm screaming, I'm crying.
He throws me to the other side of the room,
to the base of where the bed, and I had some wardrobes.
This arm here was literally
absolutely battered black and blue.
I'll never forget it.
I was so scared.
[narrator] It's 1985.
And Carole and Russell's relationship is at breaking point.
She was living under the same roof as her husband
and his mistress.
[Sam] As far as my mother was concerned
this was now irretrievably broken down.
She was about to turn 40.
Life begins at 40 is the old saying.
You watch this space, you know,
I'm going places now and I'm getting out of this.
[Joanna] She saw a solicitor and talked to him about a divorce.
Because her life by then must have been intolerable.
[Sam] She had obviously, herself,
was starting then to make the normal inquiries
that you normally would to normally start to dissolve the marriage
and to split up the assets that the house had.
Because I'm going to divorce you.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] It's the day after Carole visited a solicitor
to discuss divorce proceedings.
My father and I went to London.
I don't know if I expected my mother to be there when we got back.
Because when I walked into the kitchen,
there was a note on the side by the back door
from the kitchen, handwritten, very short.
And just saying, um, that she's had enough,
that she's leaving
and that she doesn't want anything more to do with us.
With her wedding ring just sat on top of the note.
And then obviously, then I was quite concerned
because I think that because of the way that then,
I then ran upstairs
because I wanted to know how gone was gone.
I can remember walking into the master bedroom
and all the wardrobe doors were all wide open.
And nothing had been taken.
And looking back at my father who was now stood in front of me
just leaning against the door,
and he said, "She'll be back."
I didn't think when she went missing that, [stutters]
that meant missing missing.
A lot of adults go missing for various reasons.
And the majority of them are found safe and well.
My mother wasn't reported missing straightaway.
There was nothing untoward
or nothing that we had to be concerned about mental health-wise.
People do go missing.
And, that sometimes they go missing
with the full intention of not ever wanting to be found.
And I went to the police station,
to Bournemouth Police Station with my father.
Um, I can remember us taking a photograph with us.
[Paul] At that stage, it would then be assessed.
And then, inquiries would then be made,
places that they may have gone, friends that they'd know about.
And it would move from there.
But Russell, as always, had an explanation.
Russell told a few people that his wife had left.
It was as if she wasn't missing.
It was as if nothing had happened.
And that everything just continued as you were.
So, therefore nothing particularly was gonna be done
about actually looking for her.
[Joanna] Patricia and Russell continued living together in it
and they also had Sam living there.
But things became increasingly strained
between Sam and her father.
One evening, sat at the dining room table, my father says,
"I don't think I want you to live in the house anymore."
And I said, "Okay."
And I got up went upstairs, went and got my coat.
Patricia's at the bottom of the stairs
and she's doing her dramatic of, "Oh, Sammie, please don't go.
Please don't leave like your mother did."
I can remember walking down the drive,
my father stood up at the door.
He said to me, "You'll be back."
And I said to him, "Your wife has left you,
your daughter's now leaving you,
and hopefully one day she'll see sense,
she'll leave you as well
and then you'll end up as a sad, lonely old man."
I've got this big, massive blue suitcase.
My school bag over my shoulder.
Teddy bear with me that I'd had ever since I was a baby.
And she was effectively homeless.
She, I believe she slept under the pier in Bournemouth for a while.
How I actually managed to stay alive I do not know.
I did wonder where she'd gone,
um, but I think though from the time of when I left home…
I just started to go off the rails.
Didn't speak to my father at all.
Didn't speak to Patricia at all.
Because that was completely broken now.
[narrator] Two years pass before Sam contacts her father
to ask if he's heard anything from her mother.
He said, um, that yes, he had.
[Paul] A lady giving details of Carole Packman
had gone into Bournemouth Police Station to say words to the effect
that I understand you've got me down as a missing person.
I just want to say I'm safe and well
but I don't want my family or friends or anybody to contact me.
And I believed that.
My impression was that this was literally just a temporary thing.
That she would come back, she would turn up one day.
[narrator] With Carole no longer in the family home,
Russell's relationship with Patricia is able to flourish.
They were a fully-fledged couple.
There was no stopping them now.
Because they could openly just say, "Well, it is Russell and Patricia now,
not Russell and Carole anymore."
[Joanna] They lived in a very nice house.
They had nice things and they spent a lot of money
that they probably didn't have.
[narrator] It appears everything's going well
for Russell and new girlfriend, Patricia.
But things take an unexpected turn
when the couple head out on a boat trip with their solicitor.
[Phil] I came on duty as the shift sergeant at 6:00 a.m.
on the 21st of October.
And was told by the duty inspector
that there is a person reported missing at sea,
having gone overboard from a yacht
which was on charter from the south coast of England.
And so, um, I was asked to commence inquiries into that.
Russell Causley had somehow gone overboard this yacht
in the middle of the night.
And his solicitor, who was on board,
Anthony Hackett-Jones made a Mayday call.
[Phil] When somebody goes missing on land it's fairly straightforward
in that you would work on information,
where they were last seen, places that they frequent,
and any other information that you get from family or relatives.
Whereas at sea it's slightly more complicated.
Because you need to have a position
where they were last known
and then work back with tide and wind.
And calculate then, what the direction of travel they maybe
if they are floating in the sea.
The lifeboats and fishing vessels
all were called in to help search for Russell.
The air search aircraft was also scrambled
and that carried out a search as well.
[narrator] Initial searches find no trace of Russell.
One of the first things to do in these investigations
is to make contact with next of kin and I found out that that was Sam.
[Sam] Police came to my house.
And, um, they said, "I'm really sorry to tell you
but we've got some bad news
and that your father is missing at sea."
Completely broke down.
Her father was missing at sea,
presumed dead by this stage.
And, of course, that was a great shock to her.
I said to him, "We need to find my mother,
we've got to find my mother and we've got to tell her
what has happened to her husband."
Because my father was now dead.
[narrator] It's now been eight and a half years
since anyone's had contact with Carole.
Sam had told me that her mother,
she believed her mother had started a new life
somewhere else in the world.
And so, I then started to make inquiries to trace her.
Starting with, the UK, Passport Office, doctors' surgeries,
the usual sort of places that you might expect to find a record.
No trace in the UK.
And then various other places around the world
where she'd worked previously such as Canada, Germany.
And I just couldn't believe
that a mother wouldn't make contact with her daughter
over the years that followed her disappearance.
[narrator] The press are quickly onto the story.
[Joanna] I was working as a reporter
in the town center in Bournemouth.
And it was just an ordinary day.
And you never know what the news is gonna throw up.
But we had a report of this local man
who'd gone missing in the Channel Islands
and was presumed drowned, he'd gone off a yacht.
So my news editor sent me around to his house
to try and talk to his wife or widow, as we thought she was.
Her reactions were like none I'd ever seen before,
for somebody in that situation.
She didn't behave normally.
So that alerted my suspicions.
This woman that I'd been to see
actually wasn't Russell's wife.
And this is when we found out that nobody had actually seen
or heard from Carole since 1985.
My gut instinct as a reporter
was there was something abnormal about the whole thing.
[narrator] Russell's solicitor, Anthony,
and Russell's girlfriend, Patricia,
appear to be acting suspiciously.
Meaning things aren't stacking up for Guernsey police either.
[Phil] Anthony and Patricia were regularly contacting me,
wanting me to wrap up the investigation.
Despite being under pressure,
um, I told Anthony that it could take months
before a body could materialize.
The increased pressure was really heightening my suspicions
that a crime had been committed.
But I wasn't sure whether it was Russell
being pushed overboard or whether it was a large fraud.
Or that he'd faked his own death.
After they returned to England,
I then put the insurance companies on notice.
I wanted to know if there was any life cover on Russell.
And within a matter of days,
Anthony had made a claim on Russell's life in,
somewhere in the region of a million pounds.
Working on that assumption, I then carried out inquiries with the local ferry
that runs between the Channel Islands and the mainland UK.
And I was able to find out that on the night
that the Le Talon Noir left Guernsey,
that at roughly the same time,
a Mr. R. Russell had booked a ticket
to travel back on the ferry, back to the UK.
[Sam] My father was missing, presumed dead for four months.
And I was desperate, really, really desperate,
to find my mother.
[narrator] The police investigation is gathering pace
and Sergeant Phil Falla decides to interview Patricia again.
[Phil] I asked Patricia why she mentioned in her statement
that she had made, that she was the wife of Russell…
when I knew now that Carole was actually his wife.
And I particularly wanted to know from Patricia
if she might have any idea where I could find Carole
because I needed to speak with her about this incident.
And then she said to me, and looked me directly in the eye,
and said, "Sergeant Falla, I don't think you'll ever find Carole,"
which sent a shiver down my spine.
[narrator] The police are becoming more and more suspicious
that Russell may not be lost at sea.
[Phil] At some point during the investigation,
surveillance was put on Patricia
in the hope that at some stage
she would lead the investigators to Russell Causley.
[Joanna] So after those months of everybody thinking
he might be dead, he was found alive and well…
having lunch with his girlfriend.
And officers were called and arrested both of them.
I'd investigated on a number of missing persons reports
but this was the first one that I'd dealt with
where somebody had faked their own death for an insurance claim.
I didn't believe that my father could actually do that sort of thing,
and to completely dismiss my feelings of as to what effects that would have.
[narrator] Sam's father, Russell,
his girlfriend, Patricia, and his solicitor, Anthony,
now face a trial for insurance fraud.
But the whereabouts of Russell's wife, Carole,
remains a mystery.
[Joanna] Patricia Causley pleaded guilty
to the conspiracy to defraud.
And she was given a suspended sentence.
[Phil] Anthony pleaded not guilty.
He went to trial and he was found guilty
and he was sentenced to three years imprisonment,
because he'd pleaded not guilty
and the fact that he was a solicitor.
Following Russell's arrest, he pleaded guilty to fraud
and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
[narrator] For the police and Carole's family
there are still questions to be answered.
If he was capable of lying to his daughter about that,
then he's capable of lying to her
about the disappearance of his wife.
Something was wrong, something was very wrong.
Because this was a lady who was a person of habit.
And all of a sudden, from June, 1985 everything had stopped.
You then think to yourself, is there the possibility
that actually something really bad has happened?
And we, we had no idea.
Alarm bells were starting to ring
because we were not getting a consistent story.
Everybody we spoke to was giving us a different story.
And bearing in mind these stories had come from Russell.
He was the focal point of this inquiry.
[narrator] DC Paul Donnell had already interviewed
Russell and Patricia before they were convicted of fraud.
The first question I asked him,
I just said, "Right, I want to explain to you first of all
the reason why we're here,
it's not usual for CID officers
to be investigating a missing person.
We've come to you for help to try and trace your wife.
And then we can put this matter to bed
and then we won't need to bother you any further."
And he sort of went,
"Well, yeah, she's gone to Canada."
"Well how do you know she's gone to Canada?"
"Well I got a phone call from her."
And I said "Well have you received anything else from her?"
"Yes, I got a letter from her in '91."
"Great. Can we see the letter?"
"No, I've destroyed it."
I think if it was me I'd want to keep something
to show the authorities that this was what had happened.
I then turned to Patricia who was there listening to all of this.
And I said, "Well, okay, that's fine." I said, "Right, Patricia."
And he interrupted and he said,
"Well she can't help you with anything."
And I said, "Well, actually we'll be the judge of that.
And we want to ask her some questions because she was there
and we'd like her to answer those not you."
And he said, "Well, no, I'm not happy with that.
You know, she's got nothing to say."
That in itself was very unusual.
[narrator] For daughter, Sam, and her family,
their fears and concerns are reaching new heights.
Where is Carole?
[Sam] Person you think is dead is now alive.
And the person you think is missing,
it's not looking good as far as initial traces trying to find her.
But it's, it's really not easy.
It tears people apart, it literally just breaks you.
[narrator] For the police though,
everything is becoming clear.
[Phil] After a year of looking for Carole and not finding any trace of her,
for me, that moved from being a missing person inquiry
to a murder inquiry.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Carole Packman hasn't been seen
since the 15th of June,1985.
Police now believe they're investigating her murder.
We're now in the situation,
having interviewed both Russell and Patricia,
this is no longer a missing person inquiry,
it's a murder inquiry and what we've gotta do is prove it.
Russell was serving a sentence.
He'd now been convicted of the fraud
and he was serving two years' imprisonment for that fraud.
[narrator] Russell has lied about faking his own death.
And the police also think he's lying about what's happened to his wife.
You start to realize, um,
just the tone of the investigation that it's now going into.
But, of course, this is now eight and a half years on.
Uh, and you have no idea of the length of the road
that's ahead of you.
I can't begin to think what Sam was going through.
It was so stressful.
I really felt for her.
We believed that we could still find a body.
And as a result of what the prisoner
had told us at the time, we made extensive inquiries
and searches in the New Forest.
Storm drains, et cetera, there.
We also got the help of a forensic archeologist
to do some work in a local cemetery,
'cause information came to us that he may well have placed her
in a new grave in that area.
[narrator] For the time being though, the police face an uphill struggle.
All we had was circumstantial evidence,
we didn't have the body.
We knew that we needed to build a case
good enough for us to arrest him.
We had to have reasonable suspicion
that he'd been involved in her death.
So that's what we set about doing.
They spoke to people in Germany and Canada,
all over the place.
We took witness statements from all the neighbors,
the friends and the work colleagues that we could.
[Joanna] This kind of pattern emerged
that Russell had been telling all these different versions
of what had happened to Carole.
It was like a jigsaw that gradually built up
and built up and built up to satisfy ourselves
in our own mind that she was no longer alive.
[Joanna] Russell was completely arrogant.
He thought the police didn't have anything on him.
Think he thought he was untouchable.
[narrator] Things are starting to unravel for Russell.
We were contacted by a prisoner,
uh, who stated, Causley had had many conversations with him
about how he'd got rid of his wife.
We also received another phone call from a guy
saying that he'd been a cell mate of Russell Causley's.
And he was saying that one day Russell asked him
"If I was gonna get rid of a body,
what do you think would be the best way to do it?"
And he then said that he admitted to killing his wife.
[narrator] This is the break the police need
to make their move on Russell.
[Paul] Myself and my work colleague went to Dorchester Prison.
Because our intention is to arrest him,
take him out of their custody,
he'll be then in the police custody,
and to interview him on suspicion of murder.
And we were stood in a corridor waiting,
and he was being brought through from the actual prison area itself.
And the prison officers bring him,
were bringing him through.
In a situation like this, under normal circumstances,
any prisoner has the, especially a convicted prisoner,
has the right not to speak to the police.
He's told, that the police are here to speak to him,
and if he decides he doesn't wanna speak to them
he doesn't have to do it.
But on this occasion that was different
because we were gonna arrest him.
He didn't know that.
And as he's being brought down the corridor,
I could see down the corridor
and he's turned to the prison officer and he said,
"Well I don't want to speak to these guys."
And the prisoner officer says,
"Well you haven't got any choice on this occasion, Causley, go up there."
And I think the realization hit him then.
Because as he was walking towards us
you could see the color drain from him.
And it was the first time
that we'd seen any reaction from him.
And I arrested him on suspicion of murder
and we took him to Bournemouth Police Station.
[narrator] Paul and his colleagues
also need to speak to Russell's girlfriend.
[Paul] Patricia was given an opportunity
and came forward with nothing.
Patricia's not talking to anybody.
[Paul] The CPS decided that there was not enough evidence
against Patricia to proceed against her.
[narrator] With Patricia out of the frame,
all eyes are on Russell
who's been arrested for Carole's murder.
You know, for you then to realize
after all of that time that actually now
that somebody was now gonna be charged with the murder.
[narrator] The police are now able to take their next step.
Russell had been charged with the murder of Carole.
I know every stage so intricately well but I've never met her
and she feels like such a stranger to me.
That hurts me.
It upsets me that my grandfather threw it all away.
Why did he throw it all away?
He had everything that most people dream of.
[narrator] Despite Russell being charged,
everyone knows this case isn't going to be easy.
In any other murder inquiry you've got a body,
we didn't have a body.
To prove that someone's dead with no body
and no paper trail, literally zero evidence whatsoever,
is damn near impossible.
[Sam] My mother had now been missing for 11 and a half years.
I've now got a person who has the capability
to be able to tell me where she is.
But that person won't speak to you.
That person just remains just utterly silent.
We wanted to get him convicted 'cause we believed he killed his wife.
On the eve of the trial, December '96,
we're obviously feeling a little bit concerned
that this could fail.
[narrator] Without Carole's body
and any associated forensics,
the outcome of this trial is far from a foregone conclusion.
Russell was denying
that he'd had anything to do with Carole's disappearance
or with the alleged murder.
The challenges of prosecuting without a body are monumental,
because the body is the main source of evidence,
i.e. scene-wise and forensically,
that you'll always have in a murder inquiry.
[narrator] A guilty verdict with no body
is going to be very difficult.
[Paul] So right from the outset we had to make it clear
to everybody concerned, the jury, the judge, everybody,
that we did not have any forensic evidence
and that we were going to try to convince them
that he'd killed her, through his demeanor
and the circumstantial evidence that we'd gathered.
It was a mammoth, mammoth challenge.
[narrator] Causley's trial lasts three and a half weeks,
during which the jury hear that Carole's body
has never been found and there's no forensic evidence.
The case rests largely on testimony from prisoners
who Causley allegedly confessed to.
Finally, the jury are ready to give their verdict.
[Paul] This was now obviously the crucial time.
And we were, we didn't know what to think really.
And two hours later, which we were very surprised at,
we all got called back in.
Russell was convicted of murder
despite the lack of any material evidence.
[Paul] Russell's reaction to it was he actually went to sit down,
his legs went from underneath him.
And when he got convicted I don't think he could quite believe it.
It sounds terrible,
but it was almost the euphoria at the end of it
that we'd actually succeeded, that he was found guilty.
[narrator] Despite the lack of Carole's body,
Russell is finally brought to justice.
He's sentenced to life, with a minimum of 16 years.
It's an investigation helped
by an extraordinary sequence of events.
[Phil] And looking back on it, I think to myself, well,
had I not have investigated the original fraud,
uh, this might not have ever led to Russell
being convicted of the murder of Carole.
[Paul] Now Sam had to get her head round the fact
that A, her mother was dead in law,
and B, her father had just been convicted
of her mother's murder.
[narrator] Russell's not going down without a fight.
Appeal processes went forward after that,
as we expected because of the nature of the actual trial,
and the fact that we'd had to use convicted criminals
as evidence and witnesses.
To make us go through that all over again,
all of that emotional trauma again, all that fear again,
having to give evidence again.
If I hadn't suffered enough
why was it correct then to then put me through that again?
He still has control over Sam's life.
[narrator] Sam and her family's ordeal continues.
In 2003, Russell's conviction is quashed.
In 2004, there was a second trial at Exeter Crown Court.
And again, Russell was convicted of the murder.
We were the first people
to convict on twice of murder with no body.
He was then sent back to prison
to then continue his original sentence,
which was life with a minimum term of 16 years.
[narrator] Russell's imprisonment isn't the end of the story.
Sam still doesn't know what happened to her mother
or where her body is.
You always do hope that one day
you will actually get the knock at the door
where they will say,
"we have found some credible remains."
The one person that could end all of this is Russell.
[Paul] I personally would be very surprised
if Russell Causley ever says anything about it.
That's the type of guy he is.
Do I hope that he will ever tell me?
Of course I do.
Do I think he will? No.
You never get closure
if you haven't got the remains of the loved one that's missing.
Because you'd still think at some stage,
they're out there somewhere
or their remains are there somewhere waiting to be found
and it's just not happened.
[Sam] There's lots of things that will remind you
and different things.
It's a different type of grief to somebody dying.
You're never free of it,
birthdays, Christmas, family occasions,
Sam must be thinking about that all the time.
What her father has put her through
is nothing short of torture.
It has overshadowed her son, Neil's life as well.
Neil's just been absolutely paramount for me.
But it's tested us as well at times.
But I think though that it's fortunate
that we have the relationship that we do.
This isn't his problem but this has affected his life hugely.
And unfortunately it's always been there in the background
from the age of almost four.
It is difficult.
And if we could close this book the rest of our lives
would be so much, so much easier.
This has been a huge thing for Neil
to actually cope with himself from a very young age.
But he's my biggest supporter.
He's got my back, absolutely, 110%.
Um, I love Neil to bits.
We've been through enough tragedy,
enough upset over the last three decades,
that I think we can just about cope with anything
that was to be thrown at us.
[narrator] Sam and her family also face the reality
that Russell could be released from prison.
[Sam] In August, 2014,
we had my father's first proper oral parole hearing.
I've been completely against the fact that my father should be released
and should be considered for parole.
Until he actually tells us what he did with my mother
and shows some sort of form of rehabilitation
by actually acknowledging the harm
and the distress that he's caused,
is it, he should stay where he is.
I still think that he's a danger to society.
Come on.
Help me find her.
I still maintain to this day that justice
has not been fully served on behalf of my mother.
[Paul] Well Sam has never, never been free of it,
she's never been free of it since her mum disappeared.
I mean, it, it's horrendous.
And she still hasn't got closure.
Because at the end of the day,
all it's done is reaffirm the conviction of her father for murder,
but her mother's remains have never been found.
Like nothing else can shape your life.
But I'll never ever allow you to break me.
[Neil] I think that emotionally in terms of the turmoil
that you go through it's that there is no end.
You can't turn the page of that chapter and go,
you know what, I've put that book down now.
I've finished it. I understand what happened
and I can slowly adjust
and come to terms and come to grips with that
and accept it, come to that acceptance point.
We don't have any of that.
So, for us, it's constantly evolving.
The story just gets worse and worse.
And as it gets worse and worse it twists and twists more.
[Sam] I have tried so hard
just to say sorry to my mother.
I'm sorry.
I don't know what else I can do for you.
I don't know.
Um…
[sighs] I don't know.
[sniffles]
I've just tried so hard.
[dramatic orchestral music playing]