Tobin search: like something out of TV crime drama - only it's for real

Published on Friday 30 July 2010 15:53

IN AN age when so much detective work relies on forensic analysis, experts such as the archaeologists working on the Peter Tobin case are vital.

Archaeology South-East is just one of several teams scattered around the UK that specialise in this type of work, and previous high-profile cases have involved schoolgirl Sarah Payne and make up artist Diane Chenery-Wickens.

Like the characters out of the popular US drama Bones, they can often be seen at crime scenes advising detectives piecing together a murder case.

In many ways, it is they, as much as the detectives, who are locked in a game of chess with the killer.

The archaeologists focus on the soil, its make up and colouring, where the chalk or cement lies, and whether there are any differences from one patch of earth to another. Where other people see ground and dirt, they can trace an entire history.

And for the archaeologists themselves, working on a live murder inquiry is a welcome opportunity to use their skills on something that affects the here and now, rather than the distant past.

Lucy Sibun said: "Forensic archaeology is very satisfying, doing something much more relevant to the present time. It's helpful and useful, and very satisfying whether you find anything or not."

Of the Tobin search, she said: "We had to establish what the ground should be like in that location. We dug test trenches to establish the levels of the soil."

Ms Sibun carried out similar work on behalf of police when they uncovered the bodies of Vicky Hamilton, 15, and Dinah McNicol, 18, in Margate, Kent, in 2007. That search followed the murder of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow in 2006 - the first murder for which Tobin was convicted.

Aside from searching for possible victims of Tobin, her most high-profile case has been the discovery of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne. She was part of a team of forensic archaeologists who discovered the schoolgirl's body in a field near Pulborough, 15 miles from Kingston Gorse where she had disappeared. It led to the trial and murder conviction of paedophile Roy Whiting.

Aside from digs, the most common type of work she does for the police involves bodies found on the surface that cannot be immediately moved because mud, dirt and leaves have gathered around them.

Forensic archaeologists are called in to clean up the bodies to ensure they are not damaged in the recovery.

One such case followed the murder of Diane Chenery-Wickens, a 48-year-old make-up artist, by her husband David, 52, a spiritualist minister, in 2008.

Her decomposed body was found in Sussex woodland four months after she disappeared.