Police Interview Transcript
Interview reference: LF/2711/04
Location: Interview Room 2, North District Police Station
Date: 27 November
Interview commenced: 09:14
Present:
Detective Sergeant Rachel Shaw
Police Constable Daniel Morris
Mr Thomas Renshaw
SHAW: For the recording, could you state your full name?
RENSHAW: Thomas Edward Renshaw.
SHAW: And your address?
RENSHAW: Low Fell Farm.
SHAW: Low Fell?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: How long have you lived there?
RENSHAW: Fifty-six years.
SHAW: Thank you. Before we begin, I want to make it clear that you’re not under arrest.
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: You’re here voluntarily.
RENSHAW: That’s what the officer said.
SHAW: And you’re free to leave at any time.
RENSHAW: Am I?
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: Right.
SHAW: Is there some reason you don’t believe me?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: You smiled.
RENSHAW: Did I?
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: Sorry.
SHAW: Mr Renshaw, we’re trying to establish what happened in Low Fell during the night of Friday the sixth of November.
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: In your statement you described what happened as a…
[Papers moving.]
SHAW: …need-fire.
RENSHAW: That’s right.
SHAW: What is a need-fire?
RENSHAW: Fire you make when you need one.
SHAW: That’s not particularly helpful.
RENSHAW: It’s the answer.
SHAW: Let’s try again. Why did the residents of Low Fell extinguish their fires?
RENSHAW: Because Elsie told us to.
SHAW: Elsie Mercer?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Ninety-two years old?
RENSHAW: Ninety-three next February.
SHAW: And when a ninety-two-year-old woman told an entire village to turn off its heating in November, everyone simply did it?
RENSHAW: Eventually.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Animals were dying.
SHAW: What animals?
RENSHAW: Sheep. Cattle.
SHAW: Animals die on farms.
RENSHAW: They do.
SHAW: Was there something unusual about these deaths?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: I’d rather not.
SHAW: Mr Renshaw, you agreed to answer our questions.
RENSHAW: I agreed to come here.
SHAW: Your statement mentions a lamb.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: What was wrong with it?
RENSHAW: It didn’t have any eyes.
SHAW: They were damaged?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Diseased?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Then what do you mean?
RENSHAW: I mean it didn’t have any eyes.
[Pause.]
SHAW: A congenital abnormality?
RENSHAW: Maybe.
SHAW: You don’t sound convinced.
RENSHAW: Would you be?
SHAW: I’m not a vet.
RENSHAW: Neither am I.
SHAW: What did you do with the lamb?
RENSHAW: Killed it.
SHAW: And then?
RENSHAW: Buried it.
SHAW: Where?
RENSHAW: Bottom field. Church side.
SHAW: Beside St Bartholomew’s?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Why is that significant?
RENSHAW: Because of the gate.
SHAW: The lychgate.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: We’ve seen it.
RENSHAW: Have you?
SHAW: We visited Low Fell yesterday.
RENSHAW: Did you go through it?
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: The lychgate.
SHAW: Is that relevant?
RENSHAW: Did you?
MORRIS: We went into the churchyard, yes.
RENSHAW: Through the lychgate?
MORRIS: Yes.
RENSHAW: Both of you?
SHAW: Yes.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Mr Renshaw?
RENSHAW: What time?
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: What time did you go through it?
SHAW: Approximately half past four.
RENSHAW: Afternoon?
SHAW: Obviously.
RENSHAW: What time did the sun set yesterday?
SHAW: I have no idea.
RENSHAW: Neither do I.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Why does it matter?
RENSHAW: It probably doesn’t.
SHAW: Probably?
RENSHAW: Can we carry on?
SHAW: You buried the lamb beside the churchyard wall.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Then what happened?
RENSHAW: Elsie told me to move it.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: She said you don’t bury things between the field and the gate.
SHAW: Why not?
RENSHAW: I didn’t know then.
SHAW: Do you know now?
RENSHAW: Sort of.
SHAW: Explain it to me.
RENSHAW: Walls keep things apart. Gates let things through.
SHAW: That’s what Mrs Mercer told you?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: And you believed her?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: But you moved the lamb.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because it had already moved once.
[Pause.]
SHAW: I’m sorry?
RENSHAW: I dug it up.
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: Except I didn’t.
SHAW: Mr Renshaw –
RENSHAW: The hole was still there. Earth packed down. Nothing disturbed. Sack was on the other side of the wall.
SHAW: Someone moved it.
RENSHAW: Maybe.
SHAW: Obviously.
RENSHAW: If you like.
SHAW: Who?
RENSHAW: Don’t know.
SHAW: Did you report it?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Why not?
RENSHAW: What would I say?
SHAW: That someone had entered your property.
RENSHAW: To steal a dead lamb?
SHAW: Apparently they didn’t steal it.
RENSHAW: Exactly.
SHAW: You’re suggesting something else happened.
RENSHAW: I’m telling you what happened.
SHAW: Let’s move to Friday the sixth.
RENSHAW: All right.
SHAW: According to the statements we’ve taken, virtually every household in Low Fell participated.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Residents extinguished fireplaces, wood burners, cigarettes, candles –
RENSHAW: Boilers.
SHAW: Boilers.
RENSHAW: Don’t forget the boilers.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because we missed one.
SHAW: We’ll come to that.
RENSHAW: We should come to it now.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because that’s why you’re here.
SHAW: You don’t know why I’m here.
RENSHAW: Yes, I do.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: You’ve found someone.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Who told you that?
RENSHAW: Nobody.
SHAW: Mr Renshaw, who told you?
RENSHAW: Nobody needed to.
SHAW: This interview concerns several matters.
RENSHAW: You’ve found someone who shouldn’t be there.
SHAW: What does that mean?
RENSHAW: Dead person.
MORRIS: Jesus.
SHAW: Constable.
RENSHAW: Is it a woman?
SHAW: I’m asking the questions.
RENSHAW: Older woman?
SHAW: Mr Renshaw –
RENSHAW: Or looks older?
SHAW: Enough.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Tell me about the fire.
RENSHAW: Every flame had to go out before midnight.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because you can’t make a new fire while an old one is still burning.
SHAW: You can.
RENSHAW: Not this one.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Ask Elsie.
SHAW: We have.
RENSHAW: What did she say?
SHAW: We’re discussing your statement.
RENSHAW: She wouldn’t tell you.
SHAW: Why not?
RENSHAW: She doesn’t like police.
MORRIS: Why?
RENSHAW: Her dad got done for poaching in 1948.
[Brief laughter.]
SHAW: Can we stay on the subject?
RENSHAW: You asked.
SHAW: How was the new fire made?
RENSHAW: Friction.
SHAW: No matches?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: No lighter?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because that would be old fire.
SHAW: A match creates a new flame.
RENSHAW: Take it up with Elsie.
SHAW: And once the fire was burning?
RENSHAW: Everyone took some home.
SHAW: You distributed fire around the village.
RENSHAW: Sounds stupid when you say it like that.
SHAW: How would you say it?
RENSHAW: We carried it home.
SHAW: What difference does that make?
RENSHAW: More than you’d think.
SHAW: Your statement says you saw something beneath the lychgate.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Describe it.
RENSHAW: I can’t.
SHAW: Try, Mr Renshaw.
RENSHAW: It had four legs.
SHAW: A dog?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Fox?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Deer?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: What then?
RENSHAW: I said I couldn’t describe it.
SHAW: Yet you knew it had four legs.
RENSHAW: I can count.
SHAW: Was it an animal?
RENSHAW: Depends what you mean by animal.
SHAW: Something alive.
RENSHAW: Then no.
[Pause.]
SHAW: It was standing beneath the gate?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: And when the fire caught?
RENSHAW: It went back.
SHAW: Into the churchyard.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: So this fire somehow repelled it?
RENSHAW: That’s what I thought.
SHAW: You don’t think that now?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because Elsie’s mother explained it.
SHAW: Elsie’s mother.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Mrs Mercer’s mother died in 1963.
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: Yet you claim you spoke to her.
RENSHAW: No, I’m telling you she spoke to me.
SHAW: On what date?
RENSHAW: Twenty-seventh.
SHAW: Today is the twenty-seventh.
RENSHAW: Last year.
[Pause.]
SHAW: You didn’t mention that in your original statement.
RENSHAW: You wouldn’t have believed me.
SHAW: And you think I believe you now?
RENSHAW: I think you’re closer.
SHAW: Let’s talk about number seventeen.
RENSHAW: Crowthers’.
SHAW: Daniel and Lisa Crowther.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: You serviced their boiler?
RENSHAW: Three weeks after the need-fire.
SHAW: And discovered a pilot light.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Still burning.
RENSHAW: It had never gone out.
SHAW: You cannot know that.
RENSHAW: Daniel turned the heating off. Didn’t turn the gas off. Didn’t know it had a permanent pilot.
SHAW: So one flame remained.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: And what consequence do you believe that had?
RENSHAW: Believe?
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: You still haven’t told me who you’ve found.
SHAW: Because that information hasn’t been released.
RENSHAW: But you’ve found someone.
SHAW: I didn’t say that.
RENSHAW: You didn’t have to.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Tell me what happened at Mrs Mercer’s house.
RENSHAW: Her mother was there.
SHAW: A woman Mrs Mercer believed was her mother?
RENSHAW: No. Her mother.
SHAW: Who had been dead for sixty-three years.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: What did she look like?
RENSHAW: Old woman. Grey hair. Blue cardigan.
SHAW: Decomposed?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Injured?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Ghostly?
RENSHAW: What does ghostly look like?
SHAW: You’re the one claiming to have met a dead woman.
RENSHAW: She looked like somebody’s mum.
SHAW: And what did she say?
RENSHAW: She said we’d nearly put all the fires out.
SHAW: Nearly.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Then?
RENSHAW: I asked what happened if one stayed lit.
SHAW: What did she say?
RENSHAW: That something had to carry the old fire.
SHAW: What does that mean?
RENSHAW: Don’t know.
SHAW: You expect me to accept that?
RENSHAW: She said something else.
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: I thought the need-fire kept them out.
SHAW: Them?
RENSHAW: Whatever they are.
SHAW: And?
RENSHAW: She laughed.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because the fire doesn’t keep them out.
SHAW: What does?
RENSHAW: The gate.
[Pause.]
SHAW: The lychgate.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: And the fire?
RENSHAW: Tells it which side you’re on.
[Long pause.]
MORRIS: I’m sorry, but what the hell does that mean?
RENSHAW: I don’t know.
MORRIS: You’ve just spent nearly an hour telling us this stuff.
RENSHAW: Doesn’t mean I understand it.
MORRIS: You’re asking us to believe that because one boiler pilot light wasn’t switched off—
RENSHAW: I’m not asking you to believe anything.
MORRIS: – dead people started coming back?
RENSHAW: No.
MORRIS: That’s exactly what you’re saying.
RENSHAW: They’re not coming back.
MORRIS: You said Elsie’s dead mother was sitting in her kitchen.
RENSHAW: Yes.
MORRIS: Sounds pretty bloody back to me.
RENSHAW: She wasn’t resurrected.
SHAW: How do you know?
RENSHAW: Because Elsie remembered her dying.
SHAW: After she came back?
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Explain that.
RENSHAW: Can’t.
SHAW: Try.
RENSHAW: She came home when Elsie was eight. Died when Elsie was twenty-nine. Far as Elsie’s concerned, both things happened.
SHAW: But that would mean –
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: No, Mr Renshaw. I don’t think you do.
RENSHAW: I don’t think any of us do.
[Interview suspended 10:02.]
[Interview resumed 10:19.]
SHAW: Mr Renshaw, during the break you asked PC Morris whether he has children.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: He went through the gate.
MORRIS: So did you.
RENSHAW: Never after dark.
MORRIS: It wasn’t dark.
RENSHAW: You sure?
MORRIS: It was half four.
RENSHAW: In November.
MORRIS: It was daylight.
RENSHAW: All right.
MORRIS: Why ask if I’ve got kids?
RENSHAW: Just wondered.
MORRIS: I’ve got two.
RENSHAW: Boys?
MORRIS: One of each.
RENSHAW: How old?
SHAW: That’s enough.
RENSHAW: Fair enough.
SHAW: We need to discuss why we asked you here.
RENSHAW: Finally.
SHAW: At 06:40 this morning, officers responded to a report from Low Fell.
RENSHAW: Where?
SHAW: St Bartholomew’s churchyard.
RENSHAW: Who called?
SHAW: A dog walker.
RENSHAW: What did they find?
SHAW: A woman.
[Pause.]
RENSHAW: Alive?
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: How old?
SHAW: Approximately thirty.
RENSHAW: Approximately?
SHAW: She has no identification.
RENSHAW: Where was she?
SHAW: Beneath the lychgate.
[Long pause.]
RENSHAW: Which side?
SHAW: Excuse me?
RENSHAW: Which side of the gate?
SHAW: Why does that matter?
RENSHAW: Road or churchyard?
SHAW: She was under the structure.
RENSHAW: Feet where?
SHAW: Mr Renshaw –
RENSHAW: Her feet. Which side?
[Papers moving.]
MORRIS: Churchyard.
RENSHAW: Head?
MORRIS: Road.
RENSHAW: Christ.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: What did you do?
SHAW: Paramedics took her to hospital.
RENSHAW: Through the gate?
SHAW: The ambulance was on the road.
RENSHAW: So you pulled her through.
SHAW: Obviously.
RENSHAW: Who did?
MORRIS: I helped.
[Pause.]
RENSHAW: Right.
SHAW: The woman was confused but otherwise healthy.
RENSHAW: What did she say?
SHAW: Very little.
RENSHAW: Name?
SHAW: Eventually.
RENSHAW: What name?
SHAW: Mary Renshaw.
[Silence.]
SHAW: Mr Renshaw?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Your mother was called Mary Renshaw.
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: We checked.
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Mary Elizabeth Renshaw. Born 1948. Died 2014.
RENSHAW: I know when my mother died.
SHAW: The woman at the hospital claims to be Mary Elizabeth Renshaw.
RENSHAW: She’s not.
SHAW: She knew your full name.
RENSHAW: Doesn’t matter.
SHAW: She knew your date of birth.
RENSHAW: Doesn’t matter.
SHAW: She described Low Fell Farm as it was before the extension was built.
RENSHAW: Stop.
SHAW: She knew your father’s name.
RENSHAW: Stop.
SHAW: She asked whether you still had the scar on your left knee from falling off a hay trailer when you were seven.
[Chair movement.]
SHAW: Sit down, please.
RENSHAW: I need to go.
SHAW: You’re free to leave.
RENSHAW: You said that.
SHAW: We would like you to come to the hospital.
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: To identify her.
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: Because my mother’s dead.
SHAW: I understand this is distressing.
RENSHAW: You don’t understand anything.
SHAW: Then help me.
RENSHAW: Did she ask to see me?
SHAW: Yes.
RENSHAW: What exactly did she say?
SHAW: I don’t see –
RENSHAW: Exactly.
[Pause.]
SHAW: She said, “Tell Thomas his mam’s waiting.”
[Long pause.]
RENSHAW: That’s not my mother.
SHAW: Why?
RENSHAW: She never called herself Mam.
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: Not once. Couldn’t stand it. She was Mum. Always Mum.
MORRIS: That’s your evidence?
RENSHAW: No.
MORRIS: Then what is?
RENSHAW: My mother knocked on my door last year.
[Silence.]
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: Three times.
SHAW: After she died.
RENSHAW: Twelve years after.
SHAW: And?
RENSHAW: I didn’t let her in.
[Pause of approximately thirty-one seconds.]
MORRIS: Sergeant.
SHAW: What?
MORRIS: Sorry. My phone.
SHAW: Turn it off.
MORRIS: It’s my wife.
SHAW: We’re recording an interview.
MORRIS: She’s rung four times.
SHAW: Then step outside.
MORRIS: Sorry.
[Chair movement.]
RENSHAW: Don’t.
MORRIS: What?
RENSHAW: Answer it here.
SHAW: Mr Renshaw –
RENSHAW: Put it on speaker.
MORRIS: Why?
RENSHAW: Because you went through the gate.
MORRIS: This is ridiculous.
RENSHAW: Please.
[Phone handling.]
MORRIS: Sarah?
FEMALE VOICE: Dan?
MORRIS: Yeah. I’m at work. What’s wrong?
FEMALE VOICE: It’s Chloe.
MORRIS: What about her?
FEMALE VOICE: She’s here.
MORRIS: What?
FEMALE VOICE: Chloe’s here.
MORRIS: Course she’s there. She’s off school today.
[Pause.]
FEMALE VOICE: No.
MORRIS: Sarah?
FEMALE VOICE: The other Chloe.
[Silence.]
MORRIS: What are you talking about?
FEMALE VOICE: She’s standing in the garden.
MORRIS: Who is?
FEMALE VOICE: Chloe.
MORRIS: Chloe’s eight.
FEMALE VOICE: This one’s grown up.
[Pause.]
FEMALE VOICE: Dan, she looks like me.
MORRIS: Don’t open the door.
RENSHAW: Good.
FEMALE VOICE: What?
MORRIS: Sarah, listen to me. Lock the doors.
FEMALE VOICE: She says she’s our daughter.
MORRIS: Don’t let her in.
FEMALE VOICE: She knows things.
MORRIS: I don’t care.
FEMALE VOICE: Dan –
MORRIS: Do not open that door.
[Three knocks audible through telephone.]
[Silence.]
RENSHAW: That’s why I asked if you had children.
MORRIS: What do I do?
RENSHAW: Nothing.
MORRIS: She’s knocking on my bloody door.
RENSHAW: Then don’t answer it.
FEMALE VOICE: She’s crying.
RENSHAW: They do that.
MORRIS: How do you know?
RENSHAW: Because they know what works.
SHAW: Mrs Morris, move away from the door.
FEMALE VOICE: Who’s that?
SHAW: Detective Sergeant Shaw. Take your daughter upstairs and –
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: Keep the little girl where you can see her.
MORRIS: Why?
RENSHAW: Because if you’ve got two of them, you want to know which one’s which.
[Three further knocks audible.]
FEMALE VOICE: Dan.
MORRIS: I’m coming home.
RENSHAW: Don’t.
MORRIS: That’s my family.
RENSHAW: Exactly.
MORRIS: What the fuck am I supposed to do?
RENSHAW: Wait until daylight.
MORRIS: It’s nine forty in the morning.
[Silence.]
RENSHAW: Is it?
[At 10:47 the recording equipment registered a loss of signal lasting eleven seconds.]
[When recording resumed, PC Morris was no longer present in Interview Room 2.]
SHAW: Where’s Morris?
RENSHAW: I don’t know.
SHAW: Daniel?
RENSHAW: Don’t go outside.
SHAW: He was sitting there.
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: Daniel!
RENSHAW: Sergeant.
SHAW: What?
RENSHAW: How many people came into this room?
SHAW: Three.
RENSHAW: Sure?
SHAW: You, me and Morris.
RENSHAW: Look at the chairs.
[Pause.]
SHAW: There are four.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Was that there before?
RENSHAW: I don’t know.
SHAW: You were sitting opposite it.
RENSHAW: I know.
[Three knocks.]
SHAW: What was that?
RENSHAW: Door.
[Three knocks.]
SHAW: Daniel?
RENSHAW: Don’t.
SHAW: It could be Morris.
RENSHAW: Then he’ll have a keycard.
[Pause.]
[Three knocks.]
FEMALE VOICE: Rachel?
SHAW: Who’s that?
RENSHAW: Don’t answer.
FEMALE VOICE: Rachel, open the door.
SHAW: Mum?
RENSHAW: Sergeant.
SHAW: My mother’s in Spain.
RENSHAW: Good.
FEMALE VOICE: Rachel, love.
SHAW: That’s my mother’s voice.
RENSHAW: No, it isn’t.
FEMALE VOICE: I’ve brought Dad.
[Pause.]
SHAW: My father’s dead.
RENSHAW: I know.
SHAW: How do you know?
RENSHAW: Because otherwise it wouldn’t have brought him.
[A second voice is audible outside the interview room.]
MALE VOICE: Rach?
[Chair movement.]
RENSHAW: Don’t you dare.
SHAW: Nobody called me Rach except him.
RENSHAW: That’s the point.
MALE VOICE: Rach, sweetheart. Let us in.
[Three knocks.]
RENSHAW: Sit down.
SHAW: That’s my dad.
RENSHAW: Your dad wouldn’t ask you to open that door.
[Pause.]
SHAW: No.
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: He’d tell me off for staying at work.
RENSHAW: There you go.
[Long pause.]
MALE VOICE: Clever girl.
[Footsteps receding.]
SHAW: Mr Renshaw.
RENSHAW: Yes?
SHAW: What do we do?
RENSHAW: I told you.
SHAW: Tell me again.
RENSHAW: Every fire goes out.
SHAW: Here?
RENSHAW: Everywhere they’ve crossed.
SHAW: How many places is that?
RENSHAW: Depends how many people went through the lychgate.
SHAW: Police. Paramedics. Scenes-of-crime officers.
RENSHAW: Anyone else?
SHAW: Hospital staff didn’t.
RENSHAW: But Mary did.
SHAW: We took her there.
RENSHAW: Then the hospital too.
SHAW: This is insane.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: Boilers. Cigarettes. Gas hobs.
RENSHAW: Candles. Pilot lights. Everything.
SHAW: Then make another fire.
RENSHAW: Yes.
SHAW: And that stops them?
RENSHAW: No.
SHAW: Then what the hell is the point?
RENSHAW: It tells them which side we’re on.
SHAW: And the lychgate?
RENSHAW: Holds the boundary.
SHAW: Except we dragged your mother across it.
RENSHAW: Yes.
[Pause.]
SHAW: Thomas.
RENSHAW: Yes?
SHAW: I think we’ve made this considerably worse.
RENSHAW: Yes.
[Three knocks.]
SHAW: Ignore it.
RENSHAW: That’s not the door.
SHAW: What?
[Three knocks.]
SHAW: Where’s that coming from?
RENSHAW: Cupboard.
[Pause.]
SHAW: There isn’t a cupboard in this room.
RENSHAW: There is now.
[Three knocks.]
SHAW: Thomas?
RENSHAW: Don’t open it.
SHAW: I wasn’t going to.
RENSHAW: Good.
SHAW: Thomas.
RENSHAW: What?
SHAW: There’s smoke coming underneath it.
[Long pause.]
RENSHAW: Sergeant?
SHAW: Yes?
RENSHAW: I think we’ve found the old fire.
Interview recording terminated automatically at 10:53:17.
No further audio recovered.
Supplementary note, added 30 November:
At 06:12 on 28 November, a fire was reported on open ground at Low Fell.
Attending officers found approximately sixty residents gathered around a newly lit fire on the village common.
No source of ignition was recovered.
All residents declined to provide statements.
Detective Sergeant Rachel Shaw was among those present.
PC Daniel Morris was not located.
At 07:03, officers searching St Bartholomew’s churchyard discovered a man beneath the lychgate.
He was conscious and uninjured.
He identified himself as Daniel Morris.
He appeared to be approximately seventy years old.
When asked where he had been, he reportedly replied:
“Waiting for them to put the bloody fires out.”
A second individual was subsequently observed standing among the graves.
The attending officer described him as resembling PC Morris at his current age.
The officer did not enter the churchyard.
At the request of Thomas Renshaw, the lychgate has been temporarily secured.
A handwritten notice has been attached to the road-facing side.
It reads:
KEEP THE FIRE NEW.
Beneath it, in different handwriting:
AND DON’T OPEN THE FUCKING GATE.
;
