Original subtitles

(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 murder 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 murdered.

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 murder 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,

“Shit, 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 rifle.

You know he used to shoot 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.