All language subtitles for Murder Case The Digital Detectives - S01E02 - Episode 2

Police have said they're treating the
discovery of a man's body in Angus as

suspicious.

The discovery was made at the Canordie
Nature Reserve near Kirrymuir early

yesterday morning.

I've been in the police for 26 years now
and this is definitely the most violent,

sustained attack I think I've ever been
involved in.

They thought they were being clever with
the burning of the body, the burning of

the vehicle.

And whilst people can often lie, there's
digital footprint.

It's like a key that unlocks the full
truth.

I could be listening to your calls. I
could be looking at your text messages.

I could be watching where you are right
now, and you wouldn't know.

23,000 lines of Snapchat data.

1,980 voice notes.

That mobile phone can incriminate him.

Showing off his knife, he was 13.

There's vast amounts of data coming in.

Everyone's waiting for the analysts to
come up with the goods.

You can't afford to waste a minute.

It was just chaos.

And even if you've not been told the
truth, a digital footprint can't be

disputed.

It was a Thursday morning.

Up around about half past five in the
morning, and I saw that there had been

an incident up in Canordie Nature
Reserve, which was in Tayside.

It struck me at that time, you know, it
was a really remote location.

Really remote.

A short distance out of Kirrimere, but
completely off the beaten track.

You know, crimes of this type, crimes
generally, don't actually happen in

Kirrimuir. You know, it's a very quiet
agricultural town.

Three people who were RSPB workers had
gone to the nature reserve around about

four o'clock in the morning.

They'd seen what they thought was a male
body adjacent to a vehicle that had been

set on fire.

I've been a police officer for 18 years
and what I saw at the crime scene at

Canardie was probably one of the most
shocking scenes I've ever seen in my

career.

He had severe injuries to his face,
neck, body and legs.

They were like very serious cutting
injuries.

What was the motive for this?

And who is this? Who is it we're dealing
with?

The identification of the deceased was
challenging.

Now, ordinarily, we would go through
that person's pockets, look for marks

that might lead us to identifying the
owner of the vehicle.

But a lot of the material was burnt, so
in a case like this, the digital team

are crucial to finding out exactly
what's taking place.

Our digital detectives operate in the
background.

Especially if they're able to tap into
aspects of our lives that not even we

ourselves know about.

I think we all carry a small digital
device that tracks your movements,

record all your communications.

As we go through digital devices, that's
where the art of violence comes in,

where they start to layer all these
pieces of data together to give that

complete picture.

A mobile phone is like a black box when
it comes to an investigation.

So one of the initial priorities was to
identify whether or not the deceased had

a phone and to locate that phone.

The hand that they had recovered had
been badly burnt and we made some

attempts to try and switch it on but we
couldn't get it to come alive.

Not having that, presents a real
difficulty.

The car was completely destroyed.

There was no registration plate so we
couldn't identify the vehicle.

So we look for other identification
marks which are on the vehicle.

It wasn't so badly destroyed that we
weren't able to recover an engine

number.

related to a white BMW 1M.

This vehicle was particularly rare.

Why is a person with clearly active to
significant amounts of money given the

vehicle that was involved come to their
demise at this strange location?

Given the level of violence and the
attempts to destroy the evidence which

could have been related to organised
criminal activity, some drug-related,

Kind of crime.

The vehicle's registered to Stephen
Donaldson.

Stephen was a 27-year-old male who
worked offshore and lived with these

parents in Argrove.

It's DVD.

Everyone used DVD.

You know?

I met Stevie Boyd about seven or eight
years ago.

He was always a carry-on with Stevie.

He was just laughing and joking and
taking the mickey out of each other, you

know.

He was very popular, yeah. I don't know
anybody who would say a bad word against

him.

So what we still didn't know at this
time was the body next to the car,

Stephen Donaldson, or was that somebody
different?

One of Stephen's friends actually came
to our house.

He asked if we had seen Stephen.

We said we hadn't because Stephen, he
does what he wants and we just let him

get on with it.

We found out later in the day that his
body had been found up in Currymuir.

And we were a bit worried because we
were informed that he went up there the

night before.

We thought, no, that can't be him.
Surely not.

And we just drifted through that day not
really knowing what to do.

Obviously, the longer they went, the
more worried we got and the more

concerned about it.

When the missing person report was taken
from Stephen's family, they described

tattoos on his legs, which were
identical to the tattoos on the male at

Connaughty Lock.

This is now a murder investigation.

And I can confirm that the deceased is a
27-year-old male from the Arbroath area

of Angra.

Stephen Donaldson.

The victim of a sustained and brutal
attack.

So it's absolutely critical that we
identify who is responsible for this.

Delivering news like that to a family
and getting that confirmation that

actually he was deceased.

would have been horrific for the family.

I can't find anything out about those
dates, how I got through them, what I'd

done. Anything.

It was an absolutely horrendous time and
I would never wish that upon anyone.

It's tragic, it's absolutely tragic for
a family.

For me, this particular investigation
was one that I spent a lot of time

mulling over as I was driving home in
the evenings and then, you know, waking

up in the middle of the night and
thinking to myself, you know, why has

this happened?

Some investigations we just can't solve.

I didn't want this to be one of them.

A forensic pathologist who examined Mr
Donaldson's body said he died after his

spinal cord was cut by repeated blows to
the back of his head and neck with a

weapon like an axe or machete.

She said he'd suffered a series of other
stabbing and slicing wounds and there

were signs he'd tried to defend himself,
possibly as he sat in a car.

What must this person have done for the
level of violence and injuries to have

engulfed his body?

I had to decide the quickest way to find
me the answers of what happened to

Stephen Donaldson.

We went and spoke to Stephen's friends
from Arroth to build up a bit of

victimology, understand who he was, what
his lifestyle was.

Initially, at the outset of this murder
inquiry, it looked like some kind of

gangland drugs-related murder.

However... Digging further into
Stephen's background was looking less

and less likely.

He was a young lad, had a good job,
great social circle of friends and a

lovely family and really just living his
best life.

I was surprised that putting Stephen
with the person who was lying up at

Canardie Lock, they didn't fit together.

That was the point that you're like,
this is just bizarre.

Stephen's friend also told us that his
mobile phone was broken and he visited

the Apple Store in Aberdeen to go and
get his phone fixed.

And that's what took him to the Apple
Store.

When I first found out about him being
at the Apple Store, I was fairly

confident that they would have CCTV.

It's a fairly new all-singer,
all-dancing shopping mall in Aberdeen.

I could see that Stephen came in with
his friend and he hands over his Apple

phone to the member of staff.

You know, that's a flag for me because I
then know that there's a chance that

Apple have downloaded his phone, which
we will have access to.

That would take us to his movements
during the day, who he'd been in contact

with, his text messages.

Whatsapps, you know, us obtaining that
obviously opens up lots of doors.

The store assistant in the Apple store
was able to tell us that Stephen had

backed up his old mobile phone to
another device.

Finding that device was absolutely
paramount and a high priority to get the

answers to ultimately who killed Stephen
Donovan.

Then the forensics team were able to
recover a backup of his iPhone data on

his laptop and it gave us details of
communications that he had made up until

the day before the murder.

It was exciting to learn that we had
managed to get that data after we'd lost

the phone.

The messages showed that Stephen had
been in a relationship with a young girl

called Tasman.

Tasman Glass, she was a 19-year-old from
Kirremuir.

She had been a student in Glasgow.

She'd also been a singer and an actress
as well.

I've known Tasman since she was in a
pram.

So, all her life, you know.

There's nothing I didn't like about
Tasman. She was silent, nice, funny.

Just a 19-year-old laugh, I say.

They two hit it off quite quickly. He
obviously bandied that, didn't he? He

was really keen on her.

So quite quickly turned into a
boyfriend-girlfriend situation.

stating that she went swimming with
three friends during the evening of the

6th of June, Callum Davidson, Stephen
Dickey and Claire Ofston.

After swimming, the four of them went
back to Callum Davidson's house at

Marywell Bray.

Later on, Tarzan was going to meet
Stephen up at Peter Pan Park, which is a

local park up in Kirrimuir.

It's roughly a five-minute drive away
from Connaughty Loch, a nature reserve.

She made her way up there around 11pm on
the night of the murder.

When she got there, Stephen was gone, so
she just went home and didn't contact

him again until the following morning
when she was text done.

She told us that she was back in her
house just after 11 o'clock where she

spoke to her mum before going to her
bed.

You then go away and cross-check all
that stuff to see if what you're being

told is the truth.

When you have a router at home, some
devices are automatically set to connect

to that router.

There's a log created which gives us a
time and date and allows us to narrow

down timelines.

We looked at Tasman's devices and her
router at her home address and her

Apple Watch indicated that she got home
just after 11 and it recorded Tasman's

heartbeat and there was no change in
rhythm, so that suggests she went to

sleep.

It seemed unlikely that Tasman could
have been responsible for the death of

her current partner, Stephen.

But everybody was a witness until her
suspect is identified.

All we wanted to do in the really early
stages is clarify that what Tasman was

telling us was the truth. And the
quickest way is to speak to Stephen

Dickey, Callum Davison and Clare Ogden
because they were all people that were

in Tasman's company in the hours leading
up to when she was to meet Stephen

Dorson.

Their statements were very similar.

They said that they'd come back to
Davidson's house, had a couple of tins

of beer and then fell asleep about half
past midnight.

I reflected on what we were dealing
with. We had a remote location with a

lack of CCTV and nobody coming forward
to give us any indication as to what the

motive may be.

for Stephen Donaldson's murder that
really did start to give me a high level

of concern.

It causes you to reflect on your own
performance.

Ultimately, would we be able to get some
justice for the family?

By day three, we were still no closer.

to finding who it was that killed
Stephen Donaldson.

We see somewhere in the region of 15, 20
phones, phones from Stephen's friends,

Tasman Glass and others.

It's a complex bit of work, but it's the
only way to work through and really

evaluate who people are and corroborate
what they're saying.

Anyone is able to go and delete.

the call log or the message log on a
handset but a record of that call or

message will still be recorded on your
call data so if the police were to

obtain this data then there would still
be a record of the call or text message

being sent or received.

As my team of digital investigators were
beginning to download the information

from the phone it started to really
change the course and direction of the

investigation.

Stephen Dickey's phone showed that there
was no calls or messages sent or

received for about a two-week period
prior to the murder.

The call data obtained from the phone
company did not marry up with the data

saved on the phone, suggesting that some
data had been deleted from the handset

itself.

It's one of those moments where you
start to think there is something going

on here. You know, if somebody starts
deleting their phone record.

You've got to start asking the
questions, why is that?

The digital forensic team can get more
than just text and call data from your

phone. The mobile phone logs things all
the time in the background.

That could potentially be the fast track
to where the answers lie.

On Apple phones, there's a setting which
is called significant locations.

And if you have that on...

Your movements will appear on your
significant location list.

Stephen Dickey had his significant
location set up as on, on his device,

and that was quite exciting because that
opened up the possibility of being able

to trace his movements more closely.

On the evening of the murder...

Both Stephen Dickey and Callum Davidson
stated that they were both asleep.

But significant locations for Stephen
Dickey's phone registered that between

0039 hours and 0051 hours, the phone was
at a location

close to the health centre in Kirrimuir.

He said he was sleeping and never left
the house.

However, we had a handset that showed
that that wasn't the case. So we had an

inconsistency.

What we were able to then do is task
Davey Budd and his team of CCTV

coordinators to recover the CCTV near to
the health centre.

Because Kerrymure is such a rural place,
there's not much happening after 11 o

'clock. There isn't many people going
about at all.

We did have a sighting on the CCTV of
two figures. They were crossing from the

health centre.

at 12.49.

That correlated with that significant
location, which gave me confidence

to say that that sighting of the two
figures was Stephen Dickey

and potentially Callum Davidson.

We had to ask ourselves, why is it that
Stephen Dickey would be lying about

this? After a time when they had both
giving accounts that they were sleeping

within Mary Wilbray.

You know, is this something he's
overlooked?

Or is he somewhere involved in the death
of Stephen Donaldson?

I then start to dig deeper into their
backgrounds to understand what type of

people they are.

What we found was a massive shock.

Stephen Dickey and Callum Davidson were
both quite violent individuals.

who threatened lots of different people
in Kirremuir.

Callum Davidson's got a previous
conviction for a felt severe injury, so

we know he's then got a propensity for
violence.

Why would Stephen Dickey and Callum
Davidson have a grudge against Stephen

Donaldson?

I was asked to go and re-interview
Tagman Glass as a witness.

I went to Lee's Cafe where Tasman was
working.

During this time, Tasman's behaviour, I
would say, was quite bizarre.

She continued to make up sandwich
fillers and bread rolls and have general

chit-chat with us. Bearing in mind, this
is her boyfriend.

He'd been brutally murdered and she's
standing there mixing up her tuna and

onion.

And then she said she needed to tell me
something.

She was in a sexual relationship with
Stephen Dickey.

As far as we were aware, Stephen
Donaldson believed that Tasman was his

girlfriend.

However, she was providing information
to state that she was actually the ex

-girlfriend that was split up in April.

That did raise...

several red flags.

Tasman Glass was clearly leading a
different life to the account that she

provided to the police.

We started to focus in on the fact that
the motive could be this new

relationship between Tasman Glass and
Stephen Dickey.

But pretty quickly I got the news that
Callum Davidson's girlfriend Claire

Oxton was about to tell us a fuller
version of events.

That was a crucial moment.

She was able to tell us that on the
evening of the murder, Tasman had become

upset because she'd had a number of
calls from Stephen Donaldson.

Rather than everybody staying within
their dress, Stephen Dickey and Callum

Davidson left with Tasman.

She also said that they didn't return to
the early hours of the morning.

Crucially to the investigation, Stephen
Dickey and Callum Davidson had told

Claire Augustine that they had attacked
Stephen Donaldson and at the start of

that assault, Tasman Glass was present.

The statement was absolutely key to this
investigation because she was the first

person that was able to properly put
Stephen Dickey and Callum Davidson at

the scene and involved in an altercation
with the deceased.

I knew now that I was in a position to
arrest Tasman Glass, Stephen Dickey and

Calvin Davidson for the murder of
Stephen Donaldson.

Do you want to speak to the lawyer in
private before being questioned by the

police?

The reason you've been kept in custody
is an allegation of murder.

Okay. The time is now 00.06 hours on

Friday the 15th June.

You have been arrested on the suspicion

of Stephen's murder.

Okay? How did he deserve to be left in
that car park with these injuries?

So we had Tasman, Callum Davidson and
Stephen Dickey in the police station

under RF.

But the statement that was provided by
Claire Augustine was just not enough on

its own.

I needed evidence to enable me to prove
exactly what happened to Stephen

Donaldson so that we could charge him.

Now that we had this account from
Claire, what could we do to corroborate

that in the next 12 to 24 hours so we
could present a compelling case to

court? so that we wouldn't let them out.

We'll go through the phones very
closely, and we'll look at CCTV and

movement.

OK? You understand that?

So I asked the team to dig further into
what devices we had, and is there

anything we can do through location
data, data sessions, anything that we

can possibly use that might... help us
to tie them to the scene where Stephen

Normson was killed.

I wasn't too hopeful of that, to be
fair.

It wasn't something we'd ever done in
the past.

I looked at the handsets further to
establish if there was any way that

could interpret the health app data.

So a health app records a variety of
data, including the number of steps

taken, the distance travelled and the
number of flights climbed.

But when you look at that, you're not
really sure just from that data what it

means. We needed some time to work out
if that corresponded with being at

our crime scene.

Is there going to be any forensic
evidence linking you to the murder of

Stephen Donaldson?

Will your phone have any information on
it? Any evidence or material relating to

the murder? No.

We knew that Stephen Dickey had Apple
Health data on his phone.

We could see that there was activity
during the night of the murder when

he said he was home in a sleeping bed.

Around 11 o'clock for a 10-minute
period, 11 flights were climbed, 416

metres were travelled and 585 steps were
taken.

This was a real eye-opener.

When he said he was lying sleeping in
Claire Oxton's house at Marywell Bray,

his bones were showing that he was
highly active.

So we knew that there was information on
there, that there was activity.

but we needed some help to interpret
that data to allow us to use that as

evidence.

We had officers carry out walking and
running and also cycling those distances

to try and see what the results might
yield in terms of using health app data

to recreate the journeys travelled.

I think we knew at this point that it
was fairly groundbreaking and that

nobody else had done this work within
the UK.

Reconstruction revealed that it was a
similar distance between Canardie Nature

Reserve, where Stephen Donaldson's body
was found, and Marywell Bray, the home

of Callum Davidson and Claire Ogden.

It was clear evidence that Stephen
Dickens was involved in the murder of

Stephen Donaldson.

This provided various CCTV opportunities
to be looked at for areas and times that

hadn't previously been covered, based on
the Health App data.

CCTV for this investigation was a
massive job. I had a team of 10 who were

just reviewing CCTV, you know, 10 hours
a day.

I was in my office and it's one of the
guys who came through and he said, I

think we've got Callan Davidson cycling
through Kirremuir on his bike at two in

the morning.

I was like...

I thought it was a joke, like, I thought
he was having me on, you know.

Were you out on the bike on the early
hours of the morning?

He'd said he'd never been out.

The play, and lo and behold, here's
Callum Davidson cycling through the one

-way system.

Not a care in the world on this bike.

That bike was later examined by the
forensic and blood was found on the

handlebars of that bike matching Stephen
Donaldson.

So... He must have had contact with
Stephen for this to have happened.

It was such a moment.

That was probably one of the best
moments I've had in the job.

This was a really big moment.

Clearly it implicated Callum Davidson.

At this stage, we still don't have an
obvious motive for the murder of

Stephen.

Why would they want to murder Stephen?
They didn't know him, they'd never met

him. The violence Stephen sustained
against two males who were unknown to

him would have been hard to comprehend.

Tasman said that Stephen Dickey was
present when Stephen Donaldson phoned

her. Stephen Dickey is jealous and angry
at the fact that she's being contacted

by her ex-boyfriend.

We've been told that you were unhappy
that Tasman was speaking to Stephen

Donaldson. Were you jealous of their
relationship?

I don't know, as I told you from the
start.

I think it is a bit of jealousy.

I think you're not happy that she's
matching up with Stephen Donaldson and

you're speaking to him on the phone.

To take us to the next stage.

We needed evidence to show that Tasman
was involved in Stephen's murder.

And that's the myth and piece in the
jigsaw.

Potentially, that was going to be key in
understanding the motive.

I was present at the interview with
Tasman Glass.

It was led by Nicola Annan.

All I want to know is what happened to
Stephen.

Do you realise how serious this is?

Because it didn't look like it to me.

Pardon me.

There's vast, vast amounts of data
coming in and there's a real pressure

that you then become the bottleneck in
that process.

Everyone's waiting on an iPad for the
analysts to come up with the good.

It's not always easy to recover all the
stuff.

We make it sound like it's all nice and
simple, but it's not. Sometimes you

can't recover any deleted text.

We looked

at

Tasman's phone data, which showed a
number of calls and text messages that

Tasman had made to Stephen Donaldson, to
Stephen Dickey and others.

But when we looked at her device
download, that information was not

there. It had been deleted.

It's a red flag for the inquiry team
when only certain messages have been

deleted.

They thought they were being clever by
deleting some of the data, not having

the knowledge that once it's there, it's
there.

Even though you delete information from
your handset, the police can still

obtain that information other ways.

When I saw what the team had uncovered
on Tarzan's phone, I couldn't believe

it.

She billed you £1,000 for the car that
Stephen Donaldson had given her.

Stephen had bought her a car that she'd
written off and she hadn't given him all

the money back from the insurance
payout.

Someone said that you were just giving
£1,000.

Have you got financial difficulties?

No comment.

Still going for the money? No comment.

They told Callum that you couldn't get
Stephen the money back as your bank

account had been frozen.

They'd been contacting you for a while
asking for it.

According to Harry, he was hounding her
for the money and she was probably on

the ropes a little bit by this point.
She was in financial difficulty.

She'd also promised to turn up with the
money that was outstanding to meet with

Stephen at Peter Pan Park and pay him
the money that he was due.

There is absolutely a buzz of
anticipation as we're starting to

formulate a picture.

We're looking at a series of text
messages between them when they're

arranging to meet.

Stephen is very keen that he comes to
her house to meet her.

And she's having none of that. She was
so adamant that the park had to be the

location. And obviously we now know why.

I think at this stage that she is more
involved in the murder of Stephen

Donaldson than we first thought.

Her demeanour, I would say, didn't
really change at all.

She was still calm, collected.

Whilst people can often lie, her digital
footprint can't be disputed.

The deleted text, the fact that she was
involved in a new relationship, and the

money that she owed.

There was multiple reasons why Tasman
Glass wouldn't have wanted Stephen

Donaldson in her life moving forward.

She is a very devious, deceitful
individual.

If you listen to the community, she led
a normal life, if you like, but that's

far from how I would describe her.

She set Stephen up for this to happen to
him.

Horrendous. For a grand, for a thousand
pounds, is that what he was worth?

A thousand pounds?

There was no doubt in my mind now that
all three were responsible for the

murder of Stephen.

I knew now that I was in a position to
hand it all over to the prosecutors.

And that's exactly what we did.

The time is now 03.48 hours.

In June last year, Stephen Donaldson's
dead body was discovered in the car park

of this Angus Nature Reserve.

Tasman Glass was his on-off girlfriend,
one of three people now on trial for

murder.

For me, the biggest part of this case is
the trial.

What happens in the court is outwith my
control.

Court! When we present the evidence, do
we think we'll get a conviction?

Phil definitely gave me a leap of faith.

What we think happened that night is
Tasman set the wheels in motion.

I think the phone was probably going
constantly from Stephen Donaldson asking

to meet Tasman.

I think in Tasman's head, she'd moved
on.

She started a new relationship at this
point with Stephen Dickey and I think

Stephen Dickey and Callum Davidson
decided to take matters into their own

hands.

Tasman Glass, Callum Davidson and
Stephen Dickey drove halfway up the hill

to Peter Pan Park where Stephen
Donaldson has already went and he is

there waiting on Tasman Glass.

She's let Davidson and Dickey out of the
car.

Part of the way up the hill and then she
drove up to make sure that Stephen

Donaldson is there.

Callum Davidson and Stephen Dickey have
ran up on foot the rest of the way.

He would have put his doors open and
they've got in that car.

Once the attack was in progress and
Stephen Donaldson was incapacitated, I

think she got in her car and left and
was able to go home calmly, engage with

her mother.

And then the health app shows she was
able to then go to her bed and sleep

that night.

All of the time while Stephen Donaldson
was being murdered by Callum Davidson

and Stephen Dickey.

You carried out the attacks in two
different locations.

Initially, you overpowered Mr Donaldson
at the Peter Pan play park.

He would have been totally ambushed
and...

Probably then put him in the back of the
car or in the boot of the car and drove

that car out to Canorby where they've
continued the attack on him.

You renewed your thoughts on him with
unrestrained ferocity.

He tried to escape and to defend
himself, but you cut him down without

mercy.

Dragged Stephen's body underneath the
car and set it on fire to destroy any

evidence that would link to them to his
murder.

They've then left and went back to Mary
Welbury.

The help app data and the significant
location data on Dickie's phone

corroborated this.

It was really important in terms of
building the case and then presenting it

in court.

The two former friends tried to blame
each other for the killing.

Dickie told their trial Davidson was the
muscle who sorted people out.

Davidson said Dickie struck Stephen 12
times with a baseball bat and he had a

knife.

We were uncertain whether or not all
three would be convicted or just one

or two or none.

So it was a nervous week.

He was a loved and admired young man.

He had many years of life to look
forward to.

The wickedness of your crimes caused
shock and outrage.

No sentence that I can impose will
repair the grievous hurt and loss that

you have each caused by taking the life
of this young man.

On the steps of the High Court, Stephen
Donaldson's grieving family, their son's

killers. Convicted just a few minutes
earlier.

The verdict was read out by the jury and
Tasman Glass was convicted of culpable

homicide and Stephen Dickey and Callum
Davidson were both convicted of murder.

For me, the question that remains
unanswered is, you know, it's just why?

At first...

I felt that that was amazing work by the
police to actually get them but deep

down it was like it doesn't really
matter because I've lost

Stephen and whatever happens to them
I'll never replace them

full story, the full ins and outs of it
all, but all I know is my mates are

here.

That's it.

We usually go to Stephen's grave at
least once a week.

We go up to Canardie Lock now and again,
but on special occasions. It's birthday

and

The date of his murder, we will be up
there.

We know we're never going to see him
again.

I just want to remember Stephen as the
kid who gave us lots of enjoyment and

great things, great memories.

He'll never be lost in our memory.

As long as I can find you.

Rescue Extreme Medics is next tonight.