It all started at the end of 2019, specifically on November 30. It was then that, in a single-family housing estate on the outskirts of Cardiff, a neighbor, concerned that her friend from the neighborhood had missed their appointment, decided to visit her at home. After a long, ineffective knock and call, a woman noticed that the back door was open, so she went inside and found her friend lying in the bedroom on the bed, covered in a pool of blood. Of course, the woman immediately notified the police.
The murdered woman was Martha Jones, a slim blonde of medium height, at the age of 25, according to witnesses, she had lived in this district for several months after she graduated with honors and her parents bought her a house as a reward. She worked in downtown Cardiff as a secretary in her father's law office and was generally liked, sometimes only her female colleges, jealous of her beauty, spread rumors about the girl's countless love affairs. At least that's what girl's closest friend - the woman who found her - thought. The rest of the neighbors mentioned that she was often visited by various men, and quite wealthy at that, many also believed that maybe one of them was married and that the murder of this girl was the work of one of the jealous wives who found out about her husband's cheating. The police obviously had to check this trail, but it was doubtful that a jealous woman could have committed such a brutal crime.In addition to countless stabs and bruises and traces on the wrists from the fact that the young woman was tied tightly to the bed with two leather straps, she also had several bites on her body. It looked as if a dog had bitten her, except that it was the marks of human teeth. Chunks of meat torn from the woman's body, some quite large, lied down scattered around the room. The woman's face suffered the most - eyes gouged out, skin cut horribly - making it impossible to recognize the face visually. Also, in every photo in the house, her face was additionally damaged. Luckily, the neighbor who found the body had photos with her friend and additional DNA testing confirmed the victim's identity. Upon closer examination of the body, it also emerged that the woman had been raped prior to the murder.After a thorough examination of the traces found in and around the house, adding the testimony of a large number of neighbors and co-workers, also checking the surveillance cameras, the version of events was as follows - on November 29, as usual, Martha returned home from work in the evening, parked her car in the driveway and went into the house, ate dinner, took a bath and went to bed with a book; but she had forgotten to close the back door of the house, as her friend from the neighborhood had always pointed out to her. And as it turned out, her friend was right doing so, because probably late in the evening the perpetrator entered her house through that door, surprised the young woman in the bedroom, tied her to the bed with leather straps, then brutally raped, and finally tortured by beating all over her body, slashing her face and biting off pieces of flesh, at the end stabbing her with a whole bunch of stabs. It was not known exactly at what point in this torture the girl died, but it certainly happened around 1 a.m.Of course, the most valuable part of all of this was teeth and sperm marks, as no fingerprints or footprints were found around the house. Unfortunately, checking the database did nothing, clearly indicating that the murderer was someone new, never recorded or punished by the police, at least not in the UK. Inquiries were sent to other countries in Europe and the USA, but that also did not bring any results. So it looked like police had to search a bit in the dark, unfortunately. In addition, the tooth traces were not as accurate as everyone initially thought - in the laboratory tests, traces of metal were found, which meant that the perpetrator used some kind of reinforcement, probably to make his bites more effective and easier for him to tear off pieces of the body. This obviously meant that he had to get such a 'reinforcement' somewhere, so all places where you could buy or order something similar were checked. Unfortunately, this did not bring the expected results, which could only mean that either the murderer had made the 'reinforcement' himself or purchased it illegally, which of course made tracking impossible.Camera footage near the victim's workplace indicated that she had been followed for some time by a hooded man of medium height, who also appeared to quite well-built. Unfortunately, that was the end of the description, because his face was not visible, and he changed clothes frequently. The man also traveled on foot and always disappeared into smaller alleys where there were no cameras. When the footage of the cameras from the neighborhood where the victim lived was carefully examined, several shots showed a familiar figure, but nothing more was visible than the same things seen on cameras in the city center. The victim's house was barely visible through the amount of trees surrounding, so it was hard to see if someone was nearby. Additionally, the fact that it all happened at night only worsened visibility, so any shadow that moved in the footage could be the culprit.Of course, the Criminal Investigation Department of the South Wales Police police in Cardiff did it's best to find some kind of starting point. The pressure was especially intense when another victim was found almost a month later, the day before Christmas Eve, on December 23. It was Marie Williams, a 49-year-old woman of medium height, slightly overweight, with chestnut-colored hair. Her body was found in a garbage container placed under the building where her apartment was located, in a narrow passage between buildings. She was wearing a coat, dress, high-heeled shoes, and an expensive purse lied down next to her. Her hands were tied with a thin rope that resembled the one on which to hang laundry. Her wrists were bound so tightly that quite deep wounds were formed on her skin. Otherwise, the injuries were the same as the previous victim's - a slashed face, gouged eyes, bitten off pieces of flesh, and a whole bunch of stabs made with a sharp weapon. As for the rape, yes, there wer
In March 2020, after another lack of breakthroughs in the investigation, the 'Mad Dog' case was transferred to a pair of young detectives from Criminal Investigation Department of the South Wales Police police in Cardiff, Esther Moore and Leopold Evans, who formed the so-called 'Amazing Duo'. Due to their young age and rather short work experience, at least compared to their older colleagues, they did not get the case right away. However, when it turned out that none of the senior detectives was able to move the case forward, the investigation was handed over to them. The Chief had high hopes for Esther and Leo, as he had always been pleased with the results of their work. However, the 'Mad Dog' case was perhaps the most difficult in the time, and he was unsure if they could handle it. But seeing the determination on Esther's face as he spoke to them in his office, the Chief became sure that transferring the case to them was the best idea he currently had.- See? This is our ch
It was September 20, another rather gloomy day, full of work. The evening was slowly approaching and Esther was sitting at her desk looking through the files of the last, so far, victim of 'Mad Dog'. It was a 55-year-old woman, mother of three. Yes, it was revealed that she was cheating on her husband with a man some 20 or so years younger, but that by no means excused the murderer. By what right this man punished women, and in such an inhumane way? He not only raped them, cut their faces, gouged out eyes and bit off pieces of flesh, but also had to stab them with a knife at the end. In many cases, victims died long before the last step, so why the hell did he stab dead bodies? Either he couldn't tell if someone was alive or not, or just didn't care. She sighed heavily, resting elbows on the desk top and hiding face in her hands.- Esther, are you okay?- she heard a familiar voice above her.- Of course not, Leo.- Esther replied sourly, looking up at her partner, who was s
The door was locked and attempts to force it down were also unsuccessful, because the door turned out to be really strong, so one of the policemen had to shoot the lock. They finally entered and headed towards the living room, from where the man's screaming came. Before they got there, however, they heard something like a gust of wind, quite strong one, because it had reached the hall, and they could hear the sound of breaking glass in the windows. And when they finally got to the living room, there were indeed glass everywhere, and the windows were broken. There was a blonde-haired man lying on the floor, and his physique matched the 'Mad Dog' description, but he appeared to be unconscious, so Esther approached him slowly, and Leo followed her like a shadow.- Look for the woman.- he turned to the other policemen, and they immediately scattered around the apartment.When Leo and Esther were next to the unconscious man, she crouched down beside him, still holding the gun i
The 'Mad Dog' case was undoubtedly the most difficult I have dealt with. He brutally raped all his victims, either directly or through some mechanical devices, slashed their faces, gouged eyes, bitten off pieces of flesh, and at the end stabbed countless times. Therefore, on this day, September 20 2020, when we got this call and finally caught him, I felt a great deal of relief and joy. However, what he was talking about then re-confused my mind. The 'Scarlet Angels'... I heard clearly - that's what he called those 'creatures' he saw before we came. My mind responded automatically to that term, so I had to ask him more about it. After all, so far I have not met anyone who has mentioned this legend, and certainly not that had seen it with his own eyes. Knowing the legend and what these Angels do, one would think that as a detective, often detaining very dangerous criminals, I should constantly hear from them about the 'Scarlet Angels'. And yet, it was only at the detention of 'M
When Esther and Leo arrived at the police station, they left the police car in the parking lot and led 'Mad Dog' inside. He was immediately taken to a cell, where he was to wait for the first interrogation, which was to take place on the same day. First, Esther and Leo prepared the documents needed for the interrogation, and handed over to the laboratory the items found on the man - a dagger and a rope. Samples of his DNA and an imprint of teeth were also collected, both before and after his metal jaw was removed, after which it was also included in the evidence. Until the results were obtained, which were to check the similarity to the traces found on the bodies of the dead victims, the detained man was to remain in a cell at the police station. As these tests has been classified as urgent, the results should be delivered in two days at the latest, the next day at the earliest. Before the results came out, however, Leo and Esther were to interrogate the suspect, as so far this stat
The next day, police reached Laurens Vermeulen's place of residence, which he was renting, and made a search. A lot of vibrators were found there, which 'Mad Dog' probably used to rape his older victims. Besides, pieces of ropes and leather belts matched the appearance of those with which the victims were tied were also found. In addition, an album of photographs of the victims taken from different angles and during several stages of torture was discovered, many of them showing alive or half-alive victims. The laptop was connected to a printer, which contained paper ideal for printing photos. It all explained why, in the inner pocket of his jacket, Laurens Vermeulen had a small digital camera, which came out during more thorough search conducted on the police station.Meanwhile, Esther, not mentioning it to anyone, not even Leo, made her way to the would-be victim's apartment where 'Mad Dog' was captured. However, she had no intention of looking for traces related to the killer
The 2nd interrogation of Laurens Vermeulen, nicknamed 'Mad Dog', was conducted this time by Leo. Esther herself gave it into the hands of her partner, because she didn't know if the killer's words would make her feel bad again. Leo was certainly less sensitive to such a sick talk. The only thing she feared was that Leo would lose his temper, but he assured her that was much calmer now. In that woman's apartment he reacted in this and no other way because of meeting 'Mad Dog' face to face for the first time and was still frustrated by the long months they had spent looking for this man. Now Leo was just glad that they have him in their hands, and lots of hard evidence, so interrogations were now just a formality for him. Besides, although in the beginning the man had mentioned the 'Scarlet Angels' more often, even to the cell guard officers, he hadn't mentioned a word about them for two days. And it seemed that Leo was most irritated by this 'crazy talk' about supernatural beings. Es