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Steeltown Murders: Hunting a Serial Killer (BBC 1 Tuesday 6 June 2023)

Published

4 months ago

June 6, 2023

Steeltown Murders: Hunting a Serial Killer airs Tuesday 6 June 2023 on BBC 1.

In 1973, three teenage girls were brutally murdered not far from the steel town of Port Talbot. Despite a massive manhunt, the murders went unsolved for decades. The documentary Steeltown Murders: The Inside Story serves as a companion to the BBC One drama of the same name.

We learn how Wales’ first serial killer was exposed nearly 30 years after his crimes. We hear from detectives at the centre of the re-investigation as well as friends and family of the girls in emotional first-time interviews.

Sandra Newton, a 16-year-old girl from Port Talbot, was found dead in a culvert in Tonmawr in July 1973. After a night out, she was returning home when she was attacked and strangled.

Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, both 16 at the time, caught a ride home from a night out in Swansea and decided to hitch a ride with a stranger. The following morning, they were discovered in the woods, raped and strangled once more. Despite thousands of interviews with witnesses, police were unable to solve the murders of Geraldine, Pauline, and Sandra, all of whom were killed in close proximity to one another.

A small group of seasoned detectives would need a major breakthrough in forensic science decades later to reopen the case. To everyone’s shock, they found the same male DNA profile on the girls’ clothing, proving beyond a reasonable doubt that a single man was responsible for all three murders. They had shifted their focus to finding a serial killer.

Since the team couldn’t find a match in the National DNA Database, they turned to a novel approach, now known as familial DNA, in the hopes of tracking down a relative of the perpetrator and uncovering the truth.

Steeltown Murders: Hunting a Serial Killer airs Tuesday 6 June 2023 at 9.00pm on BBC 1

Featured Image Credit: BBC 1

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