01x01 - Episode 1

[bunniefuu]

(dramatic music)

AMANDA EALES: I think you could pretty
much go up to anybody in Coventry and say,

“Nicola Payne” and they’ll tell you
what happened that day.

MAN: It’s one of the greatest
unsolved crimes in this country.

REPORTER: Nicola Payne had left
her boyfriend

and baby son to go to her parents.

She simply vanished into the mist.

GARRY PAYNE: It’s just hitting home
that summut serious

has happened to my sister.

REPORTER: A team of police officers

today began a yard by yard search

of the waste ground where Nicola
was last seen.

MALCOLM ROSS:
It was the biggest search

that West Midlands Police
had ever encountered.

Every effort, it seems, is being made

to find Nicola Payne.

If anybody is holding Nicola

just take her somewhere,
or to just phone anybody.

I kept thinking,
where’s my Nicola gone?

Where’s me Nicola?

REPORTER: The incident room,
which buzzed with activity

when Miss Payne first disappeared
is now quiet.

MAN: The longer the time went on,
the less hope that you had.

REPORTER: Nicola vanished one
year ago.

-MAN: It’s two years now.
-REPORTER: Four years ago...

REPORTER: The last twelve years...

MAN: The investigation was not over.

They’d both been charged with the
m*rder of Nicola Payne.

MAN: After that DNA was thrown out,
the whole case was finished.

MAN: Our family are devastated
with today’s verdict.

MAN: I feel totally let down by
the justice system.

MAN: What happened to Nicola could
happen to any woman.

JESS PHILIPS: At least every two to
three days in our country

a woman is
m*rder*d.

MARTIN SLEVIN: It saddens me women
can’t go about their daily activities

without fear of being attacked.

AMANDA EALES:
How can an 18 year old disappear

and just never be seen again?

It’s just a never ending
real life horror story.

NIGEL PAYNE: The truth.
That’s all we want is the truth.

If it was your sister,
when would you give up?

(theme music)

I’m John Payne,
I’m Nicola’s Father.

We were a pretty strong family.

Yeah, good, strong family.

Me and Marilyn got the four lads

and then Nicola come along at the end
and we were good, all together.

She was my little girl,
and that was it.

SCOTT PAYNE: She was the apple of my
dad’s eye, being the young girl.

And it was a girl
my mum always wanted.

'Cause my mum was always a very natural,
caring mum.

We always got a lot of love
from my mum.

You know, we didn’t have a lot
growing up, but we always had love.

When Nicola come along,
it completed the family.

I can remember
when she was born.

We found out it was a girl.

After having all boys,
it was quite exciting,

you know, to think, oh,
you’ve got a sister.

My name’s Garry
and I’m Nicola’s brother.

She was always a confident girl.

Always very confident and happy.

And if she wanted summut,
she’d set her heart on it,

and she would,
she’s get it.

DALE PAYNE: Quite tomboyish, I’d say.

Very strong minded.

Would mix it with the boys
quite often

and a bit of rough and tumble
and that.

I suppose having four older brothers,
she was used to all that.

NIGEL PAYNE:
We lived on Woodway Close.

It was an estate. There was just two roads
on that estate.

Woodway Close and Woodway Walk.

It was a council estate there,
very working class.

Back in them days me dad worked,

my mum generally was looking after us,

but, you know, had an evening job.

Everyone knew everybody.

We all looked out for each other.

AMANDA EALES: I don’t remember there
ever being much trouble.

I mean, I was obviously only
ten, eleven at the time.

I always remember it feeling
quite safe.

We’d walk to school and back.

There never seemed to be anything
to worry about.

Everybody seemed friendly.

Neighbours were great, you know.

DALE PAYNE: Nicola used to like her
music quite a bit.

(pop music playing)

Then she’d be hanging out,
playing with her mates, really.

She was out quite a lot with them.

My name’s Adele Duncan

and I knew Nicola Payne since the age
of six years of age.

I’m Rachel Moffitt and I grew up
with Nicola on the estate.

We met when she was a teenager
and we were friends ever since.

ADELE DUNCAN: We used to spend nights
over at each others.

We were just on a big adventure and
at that stage it was just starting.

We used to swap clothes a lot.

And she used to borrow her brother’s
clothes quite a lot. Dale’s.

And so she was top end of trend,
I guess.

DALE PAYNE: Nicola was definitely one
for borrowing T-shirts, jumpers.

In the end I ended up having to put a
little lock on me door to keep her out.

RACHEL MOFFITT: Well, we used to hang
around on the estate,

go to the pubs,

we used to go down to The Red Lion
or The Peacock.

ADELE DUNCAN: As we got older,
we were introduced to boys.

We’d hear the motorbikes and we’d be
like, right, coats on, let’s go.

ADELE DUNCAN: And then she met Jason.

NIGEL PAYNE:
I didn’t know Jason much at all.

They were friends at school

and I think they broke up once
and then they got back together.

SCOTT PAYNE: When we found out

she’d been going out with him
for about six months.

'Cause she knew that we wouldn’t approve.

We didn’t get on with
the Cooke brothers.

There was never
a good relationship there,

but Jason, Nicola always
said was different.

And he wasn’t the sort of person that
we thought he might be, you know.

And him and Nicky, when you saw them
together, they were happy.

DALE PAYNE:
They seemed to get on really well.

They both liked
a lot of the same things,

and they seemed to be really
good together, yeah.

RACHEL MOFFITT:
The relationship was fine.

Jason was funny.

And, yeah, they were just a normal,
regular couple.

When she found out she was pregnant
with Owen,

they seemed to be really happy.

(soft music)

JOHN PAYNE: We were probably a little
bit disappointed

that Nicola got pregnant so early in life,
like, you know.

'Cause we experienced it when we were
kids, when we got married,

me and her mother got married.

But she was brilliant with Owen.

She loved him.
She really loved him.

DALE PAYNE: Nicola was just besotted
with Owen.

That was it, that was all, her whole
life was just Owen, Owen, Owen.

SCOTT PAYNE: Nicola looked at Owen

as this is the one thing nobody can ever
take away from me.

You know,
this is now the love of my life.

RACHEL MOFFITT: It was a massive
change for anyone at 18.

They bought a house,

and between them, they...

and Nicola’s dad,
they done it all up for her.

JOHN PAYNE : New bathroom tiles
and all the decorating and all that.

Took about three months, four months
to get it all done.

She was looking forward to her first
Christmas in the house,

just her and Jason and Owen.

She couldn’t wait.

The moving in date was December.

It was sort of like, wow, you’re
gonna move in just before Christmas.

I thought you’d be waiting till after.

But she wanted to wake up
Christmas morning in their own house.

She had all these plans.

Trees, she’d picked out trees and
that already for what she wanted.

She’d been doing a bit of shopping
and got all the things.

Yes, she was really
looking forward to it.

(sinister music)

REPORTER: Freezing fog and black ice
have led to treacherous road conditions

throughout the region.

Overnight visibility fell to 30 yards
in rural parts of Warwickshire,

prompting police to warn people not
to use their cars today

unless absolutely necessary.

The weather that day
was very misty, very foggy.

ADELE DUNCAN: It was a grey day.

It just seemed a very solemn day.

(dramatic music)

SCOTT PAYNE: Nicola was supposed to
meet my dad at my mum and dad’s.

He had a last couple of little jobs
to do in the house,

and she was gonna
take the keys to him

from Jason’s house.

JOHN PAYNE: I went to work as usual
on Saturday morning.

I got home just about half 12.

Looking for Nic.

She weren’t there.

I thought, well, that’s not unusual.
She was always late.

I then phoned Jason’s house.

I asked for her and they said,
“Well, she left here at 20 past 12.”

I thought, well, it’s only a six-minute
walk, so she should be here by now.

NIGEL PAYNE:
I was due to be playing rugby

and, you know, they said,

“Well, we can’t even see
the end of the pitch,

so yeah,
we’re gonna call it off.”

So, I thought I’d call
in and have a cup of tea with me mum

or something on me way home.

And as I’ve gone through the gate,

me dad’s just looking out the window
at the door.

“What’s the matter, you alright?”

He said,
“No, it’s your sister.

She’s supposed to have been back ages
ago and she hasn’t turned up.”

I said, “Well, she’d be down Nanu’s shop,

or she’d be stopped, talking to
somebody,” you know.

I said, “She’d be at me auntie’s or
you know, she’d be somewhere.”

I said, “Come on,
we’ll have a walk down there.

You know, let’s have a look.”

So, we walked down the path she would
have walked down from Jason’s.

Walked up by the shop,
asked the shopkeeper there.

He sees everyone coming in and out
the estate anyway.

He’s always at the window there.

No, not seen her.

Not seen her.

So, we went walking across the Black Pad,
it’s a five minute walk.

(dramatic music)

The Black Pad, it was just like
a mud track

where people walked between the
two different estates.

And it’s somewhere
where we all just played.

We all climbed the trees there,
we built the dens there.

We played football
on the grass parks there.

It was sort of like the bit of
playground area

where you got sort of
a bit more adventurous,

where the trees were a bit more wild
and a bit bigger.

We were all very familiar with it.

You know, it was where we grew up.

NIGEL PAYNE: The Black Pad used to be
an old railway line,

so it come from
Binley and it led up to the canal.

Up Woodway Lane.

So it was the old railway track there.

So, obviously the coal used to
fall off the tracks

and all the soil was black.
Everything was black.

It was just always commonly known as
the Black Pad.

We got across the Black Pad,
and nothing, can’t see her.

So, we walked up, spoke to Jason
and his brothers.

They were sitting in their living room.

And I just said, “Have you seen Nic?”
And it was like, “No, no.”

“We seen her go towards the Black Pad,
waved her goodbye and that was it.”

(soft music)

SCOTT PAYNE: I remember Nigel sort of
like saying afterwards

how calm they were.

My mum came home from work.

My mum instantly was in a panic.

And she said, “There’s summut
happened, summut happened.”

NIGEL PAYNE: 'Cause it’s foggy,
she might have walked round.

So, me dad went back, I walked round
the long way there to see if she’d gone.

I met me auntie then.

She was out looking.

My Uncle John had phoned my mum
and said, “Is Nicola with you?”

Because our house at the time

was literally on the edge of the Black Pad

and it would be natural if there was a
problem for her to come to us first.

I remember my mum shouting for me to,
you know, put a jumper and a coat on,

“We’re gonna go and look for Nicola.”

I know the Black Pad
really well, even as a child,

because I would walk it almost every day
to go and visit my nan and granddad.

So we went out, we had a little walk.
We didn’t see her.

And then the only thing I really can
remember after that

was walking up Henley Road
and seeing a shadow,

because it was so foggy.

A sort of figure in the fog coming
towards us.

And my mum actually,
I can remember her saying to me,

“Here she is,” you know.
“Panic over.”

But as the figure in
the fog became closer,

it was actually Nigel,
Nicola’s older brother.

And I remember both of them looking
at each other as if to say,

we’ve got a massive problem here.

It’s hard to remember
what went on that day.

I kept thinking about it.

I really started panicking.

I started walking down the field
and I just walked over the field.

And she weren’t down there.

And we started to phone
different people up.

See if she’s gone there like,
you know.

DALE PAYNE: Started looking in all
the bushes.

Just searching round.

Thinking of anywhere you could think
of she might have gone.

Started fearing the worst.

SCOTT PAYNE: It was starting to dawn
on you that this ain’t right,

you know, like this ain’t happening.

You know, no, this can’t happen.

This isn’t happening.
You know, it’s not gonna happen.

But as each hour went by,

you were getting that horrible
sinking feeling

and panic sort of like coming over you.

I’m feeling it even now.

And I’m getting all the goosebumps and...

and it’s like, yeah, I’m almost
reliving them moments

and you just think, we’ve gotta find her,
gotta find her, gotta find her.

ADELE DUNCAN:
Everybody was in shock.

Everybody was just wondering
where on earth she could be.

There’s no way Nicky
would have just took herself off.

Her family were everything to her.

They were very, very, very close.

And they knew where Nicky was
at any one time.

It was just completely out of
character.

(dramatic music)

After about another hour had passed,
starting to get dark then.

And we were starting to
get a bit panicky.

After we’d phoned all her friends,
and no-one had seen her.

More people was turning up
to the house.

Obviously, as the day’s going on,
getting a bit more concerned.

Then it was just like, we’re gonna
have to inform the police.

This is getting late now.

It was about three o’clock time when we...

so we said, do you think we should
call the police?

And somebody called the police and...
(police siren blaring)

they’d come straight out, like.

(dramatic music)

GARRY PAYNE: I was working.

I was driving back from London.

And when I got home, I went straight round
Mum and Dad’s house.

Went straight round there.

When I was seeing the police,

so many police turning up,

it just like started this to know
what was happening.

It was like (exhales)...

It was hard. Really kind of...

you didn’t know what to think,
you didn’t know what to say.

'Cause I could see how upset
Mum and Dad were.

It’s just starting hitting home

that summut serious has happened
to my sister.

SCOTT PAYNE: The police,
with it being the weekend,

we had officers and that come,

but the general search
was basically organised by ourselves.

(upbeat music)

DALE PAYNE: As soon as it was light we
went out and started searching again.

A bit further afield, a bit wider.

Me mum and dad’s house was like
the central hub then.

Everyone was in and out from there,

conducting searches, going off
here and saying, oh, I’m gonna...

I’m thinking about this,
so we’ll go off here.

The whole estate was out looking.

There was hundreds of people

looking through the bushes
and long grass.

People were just going over and over
the same ground.

But we was all looking everywhere.

We were wading through the
brooks and ditches,

looking to see if someone
had done anything to her.

And we’d come across a sheet of
corrugated iron that was in there.

And we all looked at each other,
and I bent down and picked it up

and there was nothing underneath,
and it was such a relief.

All family and neighbours and everyone’s
been out searching, looking.

Just a case of keep trying and hoping.

That’s all we can do.

NIGEL PAYNE: Jason and his family
come across the Black Pad

but they drove across in their car.

(car engine starts)

Just drove up the path.

Was just looking out the windows.

DALE PAYNE: Then they got out and they
just come over and said, “Any luck?”

And I said, “No, nothing, nothing.

Nothing here.
I ain’t found anything yet.

But I’m gonna keep searching here.

And then they just ambled back to
the car,

got back in the car
and drove off.

At that time, you were too busy
searching,

your mind was on searching
for Nic.

And I didn’t even think about what
they were doing.

While everyone else was in bushes
down in hedges and walking,

you know, all over the place there,

'cause it’s quite thick brush land there.

JOHN PAYNE: The Cooke family,
they didn’t really give us a lot of help.

You’d have thought Jason would have
been down there every day,

but he weren’t.

They just kept themselves to themselves
and that was it.

DALE PAYNE: But it ain’t until later
you think back

and think that he wasn’t helping us search
as thoroughly as we were.

RACHEL MOFFITT: They weren’t out as
much as Nicola’s brothers were,

but they were out, they were helping
police with their enquiries.

They seemed to stick together, as in,

you know, they were a close family.

Obviously they had Owen to look after
as well.

I think they were out,
they just wasn’t out as much.

JASON COOKE: If she is watching,
I just wanted to say,

just contact me
if she’s thinking anything.

But me and the bab are mis-missing
her terribly, you know what I mean?

Just a mystery.

I and a cameraman went to
the Cooke family home.

Knocked on the door,
they agreed to let me in.

And that was the only time
I ever did an interview

and I don’t think many other people
have ever spoken to Jason.

Everybody says that she doesn’t leave baby
Owen here for more than a few minutes.

JASON COOKE: That’s right, yeah.
That is right.

That’s what I can’t understand.

Unless she is feeling something inside

and she’s just gone off anywhere,
but it’s not like her at all.

PETER WILSON: Jason looked very
tired and very quiet.

Certainly I got the impression
from him

that he thought that she was
out there

and was gonna get in touch,
was gonna come back.

NIGEL PAYNE: There was an
understanding with a lot of the police

that she was just a runaway,

and didn’t take it very seriously
to start off with.

Up to the one occasion, which it
still haunts my mum now,

one officer leaning up against the wall
just says,

“Look, I dunno what you’re
worried about.

She’s run away.

She’ll come back.”

My mum just melted,

'cause she knew she’s not
that sort of person.

Wasn’t until the Monday,

when Malcolm Ross come in and says,
“No, this is out of character,"

and, yeah, that is when it really started
to take shape.

MALCOLM ROSS: I was contacted by
the duty detective

to say that she’d
gone missing.

And by the Monday morning, when she
still hadn’t attended,

things started
to become suspicious.

And I decided then that I was gonna
take charge of that investigation.

ANDY GRANT: Malcolm Ross
was a very thorough person.

A very likeable person.

He would ask you your opinion.

You’d give him that opinion and he
would, you know, listen to you.

MALCOLM ROSS:
I spent 20 months in Coventry,

during which time,
I dealt with 17 murders,

so it was a very busy division
of West Midlands Police.

REPORTER: The headlines in
Coventry papers say it all.

Mugging is back on the front pages

and behind those headlines,

the ominous fact that Coventry’s violent
are increasingly the young,

remorselessly pitting their boots
and fists against the old and frail.

REPORTER: Coventry, the city
which, three years ago,

bounced back from factory closures
with a new wave of pop music,

is now under threat
from a wave of crime.

ANDY GRANT: I think the city
obviously struggled really.

I remember in the '80s there was
a lot of trouble,

a lot of rioting.

You had the miners’ strike,

there was a lot of trouble
in the city centre.

There was a lot of hatred
towards the police.

So the '90s, I remember the
m*rder rate was quite high.

I was told that it was higher than
certain areas in America.

It was a horrendous time, really.

MALCOLM ROSS: So, I used to have to
drive from the north of Birmingham

into Coventry every day,
to my office in the city centre.

And when I arrived there,

I was briefed by the detective inspector
that had been on duty over the weekend

and made a note of what
had been done

and then considered what
needed to be done,

and agreed a plan
and a strategy then.

JOHN PAYNE: He’d come to see us,
to explain everything.

Like, you know, what would happen
and it was ticking over.

I thought, well, at least the police
are moving now,

like, you know,
getting something done.

From day one, she was
treated as a missing person.

But at that stage there was so much
confusion going on.

There were quite a few reports.

There was a lot of alleged sightings
of her.

There was someone said they saw
Nicola on Woodbay Lane by a bus stop,

walking towards Ansty Road.

There was a seven year old lad

who thought he saw Nicola Payne
in the Black Pad,

trying to find something
in the bushes.

Somebody else sees her.

Another sighting of her,

or somebody else has said, yeah,
I bumped into her,

or I spoke to her, you know,
so it was quite confusing, really.

RACHEL MOFFITT: Nicola’s mum,
Marilyn, I always knew her as ‘Maz’.

People were saying to Maz that,

well, they’d seen her leaving with a
suitcase and they actually wasn’t.

They were just trying to make Maz
feel better

to think she’d gone on her own accord
instead of being forced.

Lots of people said they saw her.

There was very random theory stories
flying round.

AMANDA EALES: There was a witness
that was fixing his car

right on the perimeter of the Black Pad
on Winston Avenue,

who felt that Nicola had
walked past him

while he had
his head under the bonnet.

He gave us a statement to say
that he came from under the bonnet

and looked up the road, and saw Nicola
walking towards him, in effect.

And thought, that’s the girl
with the baby.

He goes back under the bonnet,

she passes him,

and then a few minutes
later he comes,

stands up again and
looks towards the Black Pad

and sees
her disappear into the fog.

So, he was the last person to see her.

I’m Melanie and I’m Nicola’s auntie.

So, Patrick Carter was my neighbour

and I asked my son to go round and
ask him to borrow a torch,

so that we could carry on searching,

because by
then it had got dark.

He was talking to Patrick
and he said,

“Pat said he saw a car this afternoon,
when he was walking his dog.

And with two men acting suspicious.

NIGEL PAYNE:
One’s come out of the bushes.

Patrick was a bit scared,
'cause he’s not a big man.

He’s not that sort of person.

So he’s like trying to get away.

And he’s apparently heard what
he thought was a female scream.

(ominous music)

So, we went straight up
to Marilyn and John,

by which time
her brothers were there.

Garry said, “What sort of car was it?”

And we described it,
it's quite a particular car.

It was a blue Capri.

And it, it had been adapted
or whatever you call it.

It was quite a distinctive car.

He seemed to know whose car it was.

She described the car to
having skirting all round it,

which was quite unusual for a Ford Capri
to have skirting like that.

So I was just like,

“sh*t, I know someone
who's got one of them.

Nigel Barwell.”

JOHN PAYNE: So we told the police.

I thought, just let the police
deal with it.

I’d heard the name before.

The lads knew him.

As soon as they heard the name
they said, “Oh, no, not him,

'cause we know
what his reputation was.”

DALE PAYNE: He was, yeah, he was
quite a character, yeah.

[LAUGHS] He was in trouble
with the police a lot.

Nigel Barwell was always
in trouble.

Yeah, he was a mixed up lad, you know.

He had no respect for anybody.

Anything that was sort
of like, thought would give him a name

and that like carrying
sort of like air r*fle.

You know he used to sh**t that
over the fields.

NIGEL PAYNE: I think he was accused
of burning a school down one time

and numerous other things that was
going on in the area.

GARRY PAYNE: He was always getting
into fights with people

and he just thought it was good
to get into a fight.

And even if he’d come off worse,

he’d just walk round
and thought it was big.

Yeah, he’s one of them sort of guys

that you just didn’t have anything
to do with.

So, you just kind of kept him at
arm’s length, if you know what I mean.

MALCOLM ROSS:
He was known to the police.

Let’s put it like that.

He’d got previous convictions
for offences of arson

and some offences of violence.

SCOTT PAYNE: So, Jason’s brother,
Mick Cooke and Nigel Barwell,

they were good friends from,

as far as I know, from about
the age of 13, 14.

And they lived not far apart from
each other.

They were a similar age and they just
hooked up together.

DALE PAYNE: Nicola would probably
have known Nigel Barwell.

She would have seen him

round the Cooke’s at least
once or twice, I’d say.

We had several people come forward and say
that Barwell was often at the house.

And Mick was often fixing
his car.

(tense music)

We heard that Barwell had been took
into the police station

and somebody
else had been took in.

A Detective Sergeant Fairfield
did some enquiries.

A local officer.

And traced Barwell’s associate,
who was a man called O’Reilly.

GARRY PAYNE:
Barwell was married to O’Reilly’s sister.

I’d just heard it was
his brother-in-law.

So, it was kind of all coming together.

SCOTT PAYNE: I’d never really heard
of Thomas O’Reilly

until when the police sort of like put him
together with Nigel Barwell.

As I say, I always associated
Nigel Barwell with Mick Cooke.

But I think with Mick Cooke getting
married, having kids,

he couldn’t run round
with Nigel Barwell anymore.

MALCOLM ROSS: Similar to Barwell,

known for previous convictions,
but far less serious.

A car theft and, you know, [UNCLEAR]
stolen car, that sort of thing.

They knew each other well.
They associated together.

A detective sergeant asked them to
come to the police station

on the Sunday evening
to be interviewed voluntarily.

They were there before Mr Carter was
asked to go to the police station

to make a statement about
what he’d seen and heard.

And as he arrived at the police
station, he sees the Capri and says,

“That’s the Capri.”

So, there was something to go on then.

They gave an explanation that they
were in Rugby on the evening.

They had had a drink
and fell asleep in the car park.

They said the car had broken down,

was trying to start it,
couldn’t start it.

Gone back to sleep.

And then, in the morning it started
and they drove home.

So, that needed to be looked at.

But at the end of Sunday evening,

Barwell and O’Reilly were allowed to
leave the police station.

Because at that stage,
the detective sergeant interviewing them

had no cause for them
to be detained as such.

I was a little bit disappointed.

I understand the reason,

but I was concerned that we’d perhaps
missed an opportunity

to have the car
forensically examined.

By Monday things had changed.

She still hadn’t been found.

And we’d made some preliminary
enquiries with Warwickshire Police.

And the suspects’ explanation
didn’t fit.

And of course, the suspicion
was rising.

So, you know,
I declared it a major incident.

And I instructed that Barwell and
O’Reilly be arrested then

for suspicion of abduction.

(light music)

I came Monday afternoon,
soon as I could, really.

It’s always good to come to the scene.

Sort of walked onto the Black Pad
here.

Got a feeling for it.

And then decided then the
parameters of the search

and in my mind, putting, piecing together
what do we need

to actually carry out
this investigation?

On the Monday,
the whole thing changed.

They started bringing
teams of police in to find out,

go through everything, you know,
that was when things started to happen.

More searches, more police contact.

Everything seemed to be
a bit more important,

you know,
a bit more of a priority.

Yeah, and then it just, it ramped up
big time then.

REPORTER: A team of police officers
from throughout the West Midlands

today began a yard by yard
search of the waste ground

where Nicola was last seen on Saturday.

The initial searches
were on the ground.

Searching through the scrubland,
waste land, looking for anything.

Nicola is well known in the area

and if anybody knows her or
saw her to come forward...

We had hundreds of officers up here
over a period of weeks.

Initially there were mounted officers,

who, of course, could sit
above the weeds and the undergrowth.

But before we could do that,
we had to have it all cut down.

They’re gonna cut everything,
'cause it’s so hard.

We’ve tried.
Everybody's trying.

MALCOLM ROSS: We were looking for
anything that related to Nicky, of course.

We knew that when she left her
boyfriend’s house

she was wearing a necklace.

So, we were looking for that
sort of fine detail.

And that’s why we cut it right back.

Right to the ground, you know.

It was like a billiard table
when we’d finished.

REPORTER:
The two square miles of open land

will take several days to properly...

The police have been
working day and...

Every effort, it seems, is being made
to find Nicola Payne.

MALCOLM ROSS: At that time, was the
biggest search, I think,

that West Midlands Police
had ever encountered.

The police plan to bring in special
heat seeking equipment

normally used
by the Fire Service,

in order to search several
nearby buildings.

I think the first time
I really, really thought this is bad,

my mum had opened the net curtains
to the front room,

which was literally
on the edge of the Black Pad.

And we could see the helicopters
going round.

There was police everywhere.

And my mum stood there
in floods of tears.

GARRY PAYNE: When I’d seen
helicopters were out

with the heatseeking machines
and dogs were out,

it kind of hit home then and it
was like, (exhales)....

really hard to take.

And this is serious.

(dramatic music)

I looked at my mum and dad

and how grief-stricken
and panicked they were.

And it was 24/7.

Every moment, every phone call,
everything.

The panic.

MARILYN PAYNE: If there was any way at all
Nicola would get to a phone somehow.

Definitely.

She definitely would get to
a phone and...

-She wouldn’t just go off like that.
-There's no way.

-She wouldn’t just go off and leave.
-Not without phoning.

Not without leaving the babby.

She just wouldn’t go without him.

MELANIE EALES: It was awful.

They wouldn’t go to bed.

They stayed up.

John wouldn’t lock the door,

because he said she might
just walk in.

If anybody is holding Nicola,

if they could just..
just stop and think,

she is a young mother and she’s
worrying about her child,

and to just take her somewhere
or to just phone anybody.

I don’t think Maz
left the front room.

She didn’t wanna be out.

She wanted to be by the telephone.

It’s really hard.

Really hard.

I just couldn’t think
straight and then nothing.

I kept thinking just where’s my Nicola?
Like, where’s me Nicola?

And er...

just...

that’s all I could think of like,
you know.

Just complete panic.

(police sirens blaring)

MALCOLM ROSS: So, Barwell
and O’Reilly had been arrested

and they were taken to different
police stations.

Myself and the sergeant
at the time, Terry Robinson,

we interviewed O’Reilly.

Where two of the other officers,
they interviewed Barwell.

I found him to be, yeah, very nervous.

He would tell us, I think,
what he wanted us to hear.

Especially when he came to talk about
his movements etcetera.

I got the impression that they came...

or he came up with
a rehearsed alibi.

MALCOLM ROSS: Well, they were
full of denials.

They stuck to their story.

ANDY GRANT: O’Reilly said that
he and Nigel Barwell

went to a car park in Rugby,
where they stayed overnight.

Which I found a bit odd, really,
'cause the pair of them,

living in Coventry,

why would you go
and drive all the way over to Rugby

and park next to a public house,

public car park
and spend the night there?

You know,
I found that a bit strange, really.

And if I’m brutally honest,
I didn’t believe them.

So, we went to the car park,

myself and Terry Robinson,

the Detective Sergeant and O’Reilly,

who sat in the back with Terry.

I drove, and in the front passenger
seat was O’Reilly’s solicitor.

And O’Reilly directed us
to the car park.

We’re on the car park

where O’Reilly said that he and Barwell
obviously parked that night.

This is next to a public house.

I mean, it’s changed a bit.

I say, when we brought him here,

we parked just over there
looking into the car park.

And O’Reilly said that they parked here,

facing outwards
up against the wall.

Their alibi was that they weren’t in
the area where Nicola disappeared.

They said they visited friends during
the day before they came here.

But definitely said they
spent the night in the car

sleeping rough that
weekend.

And the car was a distinctive blue
Ford Capri.

So, an action was raised to go and
see I think a member of the council.

Somebody who would go round
visiting the car parks,

checking for the
expiry on the tickets.

That person who was interviewed said
that he didn’t see a Ford Capri

parked on this car park that night.

(light music)

Verbal statements that they gave to us
in interview was full of holes.

We could actually write off the fact
that they said they’d been to Rugby,

because they hadn’t been
where they said they’d been.

We don’t know where they were,
so they remained suspects.

We knew that they were not
telling the truth,

but we couldn’t take it
any further at that stage,

because there was insufficient evidence.

So we were obliged to release them
on bail.

Of course, that was very, very upsetting
for the Payne family, you can imagine.

SCOTT PAYNE: They were just released,
no charge.

You know, you were like how come?

Why? What, why were these
things happening? You know.

Surely, you know, you can hold someone
even back then for 48 hours,

you know, with no charge.

And we’d got a missing person.

MALCOLM ROSS: The search, of course,
for Nicky was still going on.

The hope was that we would
find something

to incriminate Barwell
and O’Reilly.

So, at the same time,

the enquiries into their movements
was still continuing,

as best as we could with the little
information that we knew about them.

The arrangement was that they would return
to the police station the following week

and stand on an
identification parade.

They should have gone back the
following week.

(dramatic music)

When the police helicopter was used,

they could see something on the banks
of the river.

REPORTER: Nicola Payne’s parents
organised a poster campaign

after a clairvoyant told them that
Nicola was alive and well.

(phone ringing)

CALLER: This girl was...I saw her
being carried by a man

at the side of the road.
I think he had a moustache.

MARILYN PAYNE: It was a man’s voice
and all I heard him say was,

“Dead or alive.”

MALCOLM ROSS: And I’m convinced that he
knows something of Nicola’s disappearance.