The Rachel Nickell Murder: 6 Hidden Details That Continue to Shock True Crime Fans

‘The Murder of Rachel Nickell’ examined the disturbing murder of a 23-year-old mother

The Murder of Rachel Nickell tells the story of the tragic death of a young mother.

The Netflix documentary, which hit the streamer on June 4, includes interviews with several people involved in the investigation and Nickell’s loved ones who recount what happened to the 23-year-old mother.

On the morning of July 15, 1992, Nickell was walking with her and partner André Hanscombe’s 2-year-old son Alex on Wimbledon Common near their home in southwest London when she was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted, per The Guardian. Nickell’s body was found later that morning with Alex clinging to her physically unharmed.

The Metropolitan Police struggled to name a suspect and thoroughly questioned Alex in hopes of getting a description of the killer. Around one year after the murder, the police arrested Colin Stagg and charged him with Nickell’s killing after conducting an undercover love letter operation that they said connected his behavior to that of the killer’s profile.

However, Stagg was acquitted 13 months later, after a judge determined that the undercover operation used “deceptive conduct.” The murder went unsolved for years until a cold case team found a partial fingerprint that matched Robert Napper — a man who was already serving time in a psychiatric hospital for killing a mother and her young daughter nearly two years after Nickell’s death.

While The Murder of Rachel Nickell covers several aspects of the mother’s killing and the complicated investigation that took place afterward, it left out some information about Napper’s past crimes, the aftermath of Stagg’s wrongful arrest and what Alex and André have done in the decades since.

Here are some of the details left out of The Murder of Rachel Nickell.

Several people reported Napper to the police before he killed Nickell but he was dismissed because of his height

Robert Napper.Casey Rodgers/AP

Before Napper was linked to Nickell’s murder, he had been racking up an extensive criminal profile. While the documentary mentions that Napper was a suspect in a string of rapes, it didn’t touch on the several ways Napper was almost caught years before Nickell’s July 1992 murder.

Upon his arrest in 2008, The Guardian reported that Napper had been mentioned to the police at least seven times. He committed his first known crime (possession of an airgun) in 1986 and shortly after, he confessed to his mother that he had raped a woman in Plumstead Common. His mother called the police to report her son, but the police claimed they had no record of a rape in that area.

It was later revealed that a 31-year-old mother whose home backed onto the common had indeed reported a rape that occurred in front of her children.

By early 1992, at least three women were assaulted on the Green Chain Walk and informed the police. Authorities started to investigate the rapes and determined that there were a total of 106 crimes reported by 86 women, per the publication.

In the midst of the investigation, police received several tips — including from one of Napper’s neighbors and another community member — saying that the description of the Green Chain rapist resembled Napper. Police asked Napper to give a blood sample twice, but he never showed up.

Napper was officially removed as a suspect when a victim described her rapist as about 5′ 7″ tall; Napper is 6′ 2″. Even after he was dismissed, Napper continued coming up on police’s radar, so they searched his apartment.

Police found various firearms, ammunition, knives, diaries and maps that may have connected him to the rapes. He pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition and was given an 8-week custodial sentence and released.

In November 1993, Samantha Bisset and her 4-year-old daughter, Jazmine, were both murdered. Forensic evidence connected Napper to the murders and also finally connected him to the string of Green Chain rapes.

Psychological profiler Paul Britton claimed he didn’t write any of the Operation Edzell letters

Paul Britton in The Murder of Rachel Nickell.Courtesy of Netflix

Psychological profiler Paul Britton appeared in the Netflix documentary and spoke about his involvement in Nickell’s case. Britton explained that he was brought in by the Metropolitan Police to come up with a profile of the killer after they were struggling to identify a suspect.

After helping the police describe the personality and qualities of the murderer based on the crime, Britton said he was informed that they had narrowed in on Stagg but didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. To get Stagg to confess to Nickell’s murder, the police conducted an undercover operation.

Operation Edzell involved an undercover female police officer who wrote love letters to Stagg in hopes of either encouraging him to confess or aligning his writing to that of the killer’s profile.

Britton confirmed in the documentary that the police asked for his expertise, but he didn’t elaborate on his involvement. After it was confirmed that Stagg was wrongfully arrested, Britton both denied that he had anything to do with the letters and also criticized the police’s operation.

“Not only did I not write them but I did not see them until they had been sent,” Britton told The Independent in 2004. “It was never my notional suggestion that it would be a good idea to write the letters.”

Britton further alleged that he questioned the legality of the letter-writing operation, but claims police told him, “Please don’t concern yourself with legal issues.”

Britton originally faced seven charges of professional misconduct from the British Psychological Society but they later decided he could not be fairly tried and dismissed the case, per the BBC.

Napper apologized to Stagg after he pleaded guilty

Even though Stagg was officially acquitted of Nickell’s murder in 1994, he spent years facing criticism from the public. In the Netflix documentary, Stagg explained that many people felt like he got off on a “technicality,” so he felt “very paranoid” until Napper’s arrest.

After Napper pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Nickell’s death in December 2008, he apologized to Stagg, according to The Independent.

Queen’s Counsel David Fisher said in December 2008 that he issued the apology to Stagg after Napper asked him to do so on his behalf.

“At the time of these events, the arrest and the preliminary trial of that man, this defendant was not in a satisfactory mental state to appreciate what was going on. He is now,” Fisher said.

Stagg won a nearly $1 million settlement from the Metropolitan Police

Colin Stagg speaks to the media.Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty

In the years following his wrongful arrest, Stagg filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police seeking damages. He went on to receive nearly $1 million in compensation in 2008, per The Guardian.

While the Netflix documentary didn’t expand on Stagg’s legal win, it did include interviews with Stagg where he spoke about the toll the ordeal took on him. The doc also featured the public apology issued to him by the police after Napper’s 2008 arrest.

“I must offer you an unreserved apology for the proceedings instigated against you in 1994,” Assistant Commissioner John Yates said. “I acknowledge the huge and most regrettable impact this case has had on you for the last 16 years.”

Stagg threatened someone with an axe after he was dismissed as a suspect

Less than one year after Stagg’s case was thrown out, he was hit with new charges in an axe-threatening incident.

In January 1995, Stagg was arrested after he pulled out an axe and threatened a man during a fight on Wimbledon Common, per The Independent. During his court appearance that month, Stagg’s attorneys claimed that he felt like he was in a “pressure cooker” and faced constant paranoia that someone was after him.

“His life, in short, was a complete and utter misery,” defense attorney Ian Ryan said at the time. “He lost his sense of reality … He has been living in a completely mad environment, a mad world for a long time … What he did is not excusable but it is understandable.”

Meanwhile, the prosecutors argued that Stagg got into a heated confrontation with a man and his son and threatened him with an axe.

Stagg pleaded guilty to threatening behavior and possessing an offensive weapon and was given 12 months probation in May 1995.

Both Alex and André wrote memoirs about the ordeal

Alex Hanscombe; André Hanscombe.Courtesy of Netflix (2)

Both Alex and André appeared in The Murder of Rachel Nickell to discuss their beloved family member and how her killing changed their lives forever. While they both candidly spoke about the tragedy and their feelings on how police handled the case, they didn’t touch on their lives now.

In July 1996, André wrote about his memories from the day of the murder and how he processed the grief in his memoir, The Last Thursday in July.

More than two decades later, Alex wrote a memoir of his own, titled Letting Go: A true story of murder, loss and survival, which was published in 2017.

“Letting Go is Alex’s heartbreaking account of that morning, the aftermath, and the devastating effect on his father, the extended family and the wider community,” the book’s description reads. “Alex tells the story of the resulting media storm, the legal cases following and the peace and understanding that he has now found, as a young man. In telling his story, and the truth, this is the last stage of Alex’s incredible journey to letting go.”