BRIGHTON 1986 Cold Case Solved — Fiber Evidence Finally Reveals the Truth After 32 Years

In October 1986, nine-year-old Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway went into Wild Park in Brighton and never came home. The investigation that followed produced evidence against Russell Bishop, but in 1987, a jury acquitted him. He walked free. What nobody knew at the time was that investigators had already collected a small piece of evidence that would eventually become central to the case. A strip of adhesive tape taken from Karen Hadaway's left forearm during her post-mortem was mounted on acetate, sealed, labelled and placed in an archive. It would remain there for 28 years. In 1990, Bishop was convicted after another child survived an attack and identified him. Meanwhile, the original Wild Park evidence remained preserved. Years later, advances in forensic science gave investigators a new way to examine material that could not be properly interpreted in 1986. Then came a crucial decision. Scientists found an extremely strong DNA result on Bishop's sweatshirt, but further examination raised the possibility that the DNA had been transferred during handling or storage. The finding was therefore set aside, and investigators returned to the original tapings. The later testing of the tape from Karen's forearm produced strong DNA evidence linking Bishop to the sample. The evidence had not been newly discovered. It had been collected on the day after the murders and preserved for decades. In 2017, the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial. In 2018, Bishop was convicted of the murders of Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway. He died in prison in 2022. In 2024, Sussex Police formally apologised for failings in the 1986 investigation and for the wrongful arrest of Nicola's father, Barrie Fellows. This is not simply a story about a cold case being solved. It is the story of evidence that was there from the beginning, a legal system that changed, forensic science that advanced, and investigators who eventually returned to the evidence that had been waiting in an archive for decades. The evidence was never gone. The world simply had to catch up with it. If you enjoy carefully researched true-crime documentaries focused on evidence, investigations and cold cases, subscribe to Evidence Intel. Sources referenced in this documentary: The Court of Appeal judgment in R v Bishop and the sentencing remarks of Mr Justice Sweeney, along with identified press reporting where the court record did not provide the relevant detail. #TrueCrime #ColdCase #NicolaFellows #KarenHadaway #RussellBishop #Brighton #WildPark #CrimeDocumentary #ColdCaseSolved #ForensicEvidence #TrueCrimeDocumentary #uktruecrime