Holywell is a small village in the north-east of England in a really pretty spot just north of Newcastle and around three hundred miles north-east of London. The village is a small and quiet one, close to the town of Seaton Delaval which is where Raoul Moats rampage of terror actually began back in 2010. It was in Seaton Delaval that he committed an armed robbery on a takeaway shop before going on to commit the other crimes that destroyed so many lives. Astonishing to think that was fifteen years ago when I had a full head of hair. Sort of.
When we pick up the story today, Tina Casey lived in this village. She was the youngest of five children, born in an RAF hospital in Germany. Having a father working in the army came with it the inevitable displacement and regular home-moving which come as standard in this line of work and can often be so challenging for children growing up. When Tina’s dad finally left the army, they wanted a different sort of life, and the family moved to the Isle of Man for what they hoped to be a much more peaceful way to spend their time. In 1997 though, aged twenty-six, Tina decided that things were perhaps a little too peaceful and decide to leave the Island and instead set up home on Tyneside in the northeast of England. Shortly after arriving in the north-east, she was able to secure work with Proctor and Gamble locally. Tina worked as a contractor for Meridian at the site – Meridian having entered into partnership with the group some years earlier, and Tina very much enjoyed her role. With a job sorted, Tina also managed to secure a terraced house for herself in Wallridge Drive in the centre of the village. And soon, she began dating a local man, Keith Emmonds. The relationship was not always a particularly smooth one – except for the make-believe ones on Facebook which ones in reality are – but in the main things were good, particularly in the early stages of the romance. During the tougher times it was often Keith’s mum Heather, who lived close to Tina, who was able to hold things together between the pair and offer support to both.
I’m sure we all know what it can be like with in-laws living in close proximity – sometimes be a blessing, other times a hindrance. When Tina gave birth to their son Keith, having a doting and loving grandmother was of course be a huge help to new parents – especially when like all parents they were struggling for any quality sleep. Indeed, Tina would regularly describe her would-be mother-in-law (she and Keith were not married), as her ‘rock’. Tina’s relationship with Keith though was not always as constant and steady, with things ultimately declining into something described as nothing more than an ‘on-off’ relationship. Around 2012, when she was forty-two, Tina began to flirt with the idea of returning to the Isle of Man. When this news was relayed to Heather Emmonds, the thought of not being close to her grandson and watching him grow up really upset her. And from that day onwards, the close relationship enjoyed by the two women was in decline.
On 25 January 2013, Heather Emmonds had made dinner for the whole family, a chilli which Tina believed to have tasted like ‘paracetamol.’ Heather disagreed saying that what Tina could taste was an Indian herb. Whatever the truth in this, Tina was violently sick that night. A week later on 1 February, a sweet and sour dish given to Tina again tasted odd, so much so that it prompted her to call police and alert them to the fact that she believed that she was being poisoned by her mother-in-law. She felt that is Tina’s planned return to the Isle Of Man came about, the prospect of not being able to see her grandson, coupled with the likelihood that her own son Keith would not be able to see much of his son, appeared to lead fifty-eight year old Heather Emmonds to act in an extreme way.
Then the morning of Monday 4 February, at approximately 11 am, officers were called to a road traffic accident where a Vauxhall Cross car had crashed into a lamppost near Heather’s home. Police discovered the driver collapsed across both of the front seats in the car. It was Heather Emmonds. They found her to be alive but unconscious and unresponsive having taken an overdose of sleeping tablets. This was bad enough. However, it was a stash of written letters found in her car that caused the most concern. In total, there were ten scrawled letters found in the car addressed to various people. One addressed to the police themselves read: ‘I didn’t intend to kill Tina Casey, it was a moment of madness and impulse. The knife and my clothes are in the boot of my car. There was no preconceived plan. It just happened. I went onto auto-pilot, not eating or sleeping, I have never harmed anyone in my life. I am ashamed of my actions.’
It seemed that Heather Emmonds, this mild-mannered grandma had committed murder and subsequently made an attempt to end her own life. Armed with this batch of confessional letters, bloodied clothes and a knife also found in the car, police immediately looked into Tina Casey and realised that only days earlier she had contacted them and provided a statement in relation to the suspected poisonings. Dispatching officers to her address in Holywell, they were surely dreading what they would find. Quickly forcing access to the property, their worst fears were indeed confirmed where they found the bloodied body of Tina Casey lying dead on her sofa.
Crude efforts had clearly been made to try and clean the scene of the crime, meanwhile, the only suspect police needed to speak to was already being taken to hospital still unconscious. Tina was just forty-two when she was killed, and her death was a massive shock to the local community.
As the rumour mill whirred, people were stunned to hear of the who the suspected killer was – this apparently kind, friendly grandma. The day after Tina’s body was discovered, a post-mortem examination was carried out. It confirmed that she had died from multiple stab wounds, one of which severed a main artery in her neck. This knowledge, in conjunction with initial police questioning of Heather Emmonds when she regained consciousness, led to her being formally charged with murder on the evening of 7 February, just three days after Tina’s body was found. She was to appear before South East Northumberland Magistrates Court on Friday 8 February. From here she was remanded into custody and held there until she was required to appear before Newcastle Crown Court the following Tuesday.
The sentencing powers of magistrates of course, fall way short of being able to deal with crimes of this seriousness – some would say rightly so for this unaccountable group of amateurs – I wonder what you think and if you are happy with these volunteers handing out real justice?
Several more appearances at the Crown Court followed throughout the summer of 2013 prior to a trial date being set, but justice isn’t quick in the UK as we know, and in the interim detectives revisited Tina Casey’s statement about the possibility that she was being poisoned by Heather. Having been able to examine the remnants of the second dish given to Tina, they found that it had indeed been laced with extra strong sleeping tablets. Tina had been correct about her suspicions. Under police interview, Heather admitted to having crushed up these tablets and mixing them into Tina’s food. She confessed that she had merely wished to make Tina unwell, so that she would then have to rely on her and not leave for the Isle of Man. She also told police that Tina had been threatening to take her grandson away for ‘the last three years’ and called her a ‘scheming, evil woman who made my life a misery.’ Certainly, there appeared to be no love lost between Tina and Heather at this point to say the least. That once strong relationship crumbled.
Heather Emmonds admitted to having killed Tina but claimed that she was guilty not of murder, but manslaughter instead, owing to ‘diminished responsibility and not being in control of her actions.’ The trial at Newcastle Crown Court began in November 2013 with five women and seven men forming the jury for the case.
The jury were told of how the discovery of a slumped and unconscious Heather in a crashed car had led to the discovery of the body of Tina Casey. Of the ten letters which had been found in the car, one had been addressed to her grandson. As it was read out to the jury, Heather wept. It read: ‘My special boy, please don’t hate me for what I have done. I really thought it was the best for you. I know it won’t look like it, but dad is a great dad for you so be good for him and gramps. I will always love you.’ In another letter, this one addressed to police, she wrote: ‘The knife was mine, but I lent it to Tina Casey,’ the note continued: ‘There was no preconceived plan. It just happened. I have never harmed anyone in my life. I am ashamed of my actions.’ The prosecution said the note was simply a ‘very devious and cunning attempt to explain away’ how her knife had been used. The court was told that the harsh reality was that Heather ‘went quite deliberately armed with a knife knowing full well what she was doing’.
When Heather Emmonds herself took to the stand, the court waited in anticipation to hear her version of events. There was an almost audible hush as Heather told the court that she had ‘had enough of Tina Casey,’ after she had called her a ‘bad grandmother’ during a particularly heated row. As the argument continued, it spilled over into financial issues, as Tina had apparently wanted to borrow money to settle some debts. Heather said: ‘She started getting agitated, saying I was not thinking about her you grandson and I had done nothing to help her, when I had actually done an awful lot to help over the years. She then said I was a bad grandmother because I wouldn’t help her and my grandson.’ She then portrayed how the killing itself had unfolded. ‘I was fed up; I had had enough. I just thought it was all ‘me, me, me.’ As Tina lay on the sofa dressed only in her dressing gown, heather told how she has picked up a knife. ‘I don’t remember picking the knife up,’ she said. ‘Tina was talking but I don’t know what she was saying – I stabbed her in the neck and stomach. I don’t know what the trigger was to pick up the knife. I won’t know until I die, I have no idea.’ Tina was knifed three times in the abdomen and twelve times in the head and neck. The jury heard that she also had defence injuries on her body, showing that she had certainly fought for her life. There was also evidence that Heather had tried to burn her bloodied clothes in a chocolates tin afterwards. When interviewed by police, Heather had admitted putting her hand over Tina’s mouth to stop her screaming and that after the killing she had made efforts to clean up blood at the scene using bleach.
Heather told the court that she had felt ‘numb’ after the murder, and then considered setting fire to Tina’s home with her dead body inside to mask her actions, but claimed that she was put off doing this, saying that she had ‘seen too many CSI’s on TV to know it doesn’t really work.’ Instead, she placed a quilt over Tina’s body before going upstairs and telling her grandson – who had been here playing on his X-Box during the attack – that his mummy was asleep on the sofa. She took him out of the house and dropped him off at his dad’s house, before…wait for it….going to play bingo with her husband.
The prosecution completely weren’t having the account from Heather that the attack had been impulsive and unplanned. The QC said: ‘At no stage did she seek help for Tina Casey, she didn’t call an ambulance or tell anyone else what she had done. Instead, she went to play bingo with her husband and mother-in-law.’ The prosecution case then zeroed in on the fact Heather had already made previous attempts on Tina’s life with her poisoning actions. ‘These were deliberate attempts to poison the food. They failed, the knife attack did not.’
On day two of the trial, statements were ordered to the court which testified to Heather’s good character. Friends of Tina told the court that Heather was usually a quiet and helpful grandma but that she was stuck in the middle of rows between her son and Tina. Lori Boyd, who used to live with Tina at her home in Holywell, said: ‘Heather was always stuck in the middle, she went from pillar to post. I’ve never in my whole life seen Heather lose her temper, she was usually a hard-working, quiet, middle-aged woman who did her best for her family.’ Lori said: ‘Tina just wanted to go back to the Isle of Man for a holiday, to see her family. I think she threatened she wanted to go for good, but I don’t think she really meant it. She had gone to move before, and Heather and Keith got a court order preventing her from leaving. She felt trapped and her relationship with Keith was getting worse.’
On Thursday 28 November the jury were asked to reach a verdict as to whether or not Heather Emmonds was guilty of murder, or the lesser charge of manslaughter. After only two hours of deliberation, the foreman of the jury announced their verdict – they believed her to be guilty of murder. As the verdict was returned, Heather put her hand over her mouth and wept silently as the gravity of her actions came crashing down around her.
The Judge said: ‘You have been convicted of murder. The only sentence I can pass on you is one of life imprisonment.’ Aggravating factors had to be considered by the Judge when coming to his decision as to the term he would set Heather. He said: ‘You drove to her home armed with a knife, you had taken a change of clothes and gloves. With Tina Casey lying unsuspecting on the sofa, you attacked her from behind driving the knife into her neck.’ He told her that she must serve a minimum tari of 20 years – meaning that she would be 78 years old before she had any chance of being released from the life sentence. Heather stared straight ahead before being taken down to the cells.
Outside court, the lead detective said: ‘This crime has had a devastating effect on the family of Tina Casey. This was a horrific attack which resulted in the death of a mother and has left her family bereft. We welcome the decision of the jury and hope that it brings some closure for the family to know Heather Emmonds will spend a substantial period behind bars. My thoughts are with them at this difficult time.’
After the trial Tina’s family said in a statement: ‘We’re really going to continue to miss Tina, especially her children and the rest of the family, both now and in the future. No one has won in this case, both sides of the family have lost a mother, one has died, and another is in jail, through tragic circumstances. We now hope everyone now can start to get on with their lives and put this behind us.
I am afraid the next but is the part that none of us like to read, so I will keep it brief. It is the inevitable enquiry and lessons learnt. It was some three years later, in 2016, that a domestic homicide review – or DHR – was commissioned by the Safer Northumberland Partnership in line with Home Office guidance which seeks to establish what lessons can be learned. Why does everything take quite so long to get done in the UK? Anyway, the review found that until less than twenty-four hours prior to the killing none of the agencies involved had any information to indicate that Heather presented any risk of harm either to Tina Casey or any other individual. It concluded that ‘there was not an opportunity to directly predict or prevent this homicide’. The DHR did find that had the available information about the family been reviewed from a “more holistic” perspective by all agencies, it may have prompted professionals to focus more clearly on Tina Casey as a victim of domestic violence. This in turn, may have enabled Tina to recognise controlling and coercive behaviour from Heather Emmonds, and actively seek support. Whether or not this could have ultimately saved her life we can never know but recognition of the negative aspects of the relationship may have helped her to manage risk more effectively. It also identified six ‘learning points’ which agencies could learn from. Councillor Liz Simpson, chair of the Safer Northumberland Partnership, said: ‘This was a distressing and very unusual case, and our thoughts and sincere condolences continue to go to the families involved. Learning from Domestic Homicide Reviews is used to revise systems, policies and procedures to improve partnership responses to support families. The Safer Northumberland Partnership accepts both the recommendations and findings of the review, and as a result multi-agency working in the county has developed further. These recommendations were put into actions in a joint action plan and have now been completed and continue to be overseen by the partnership.’ I barely understand what that means, do you? And will it stop more lives being lost, once again, I am not full of confidence.
So, what do you make of what we have heard today.
It is certainly a most unusual case which saw two families utterly broken by the events of that day in Holywell. What do you make of Heather then, do you have much sympathy? Hmmmm, nor me, I think it is very hard to do so. And of course, as you listen to this, she is still in a prison cell – and the irony of course is that there she will have next to no contact with her Grandson and will miss out on him growing up. It makes me wonder whether this was actually the issue at all, or whether it was really about the relationship between Tina and her son. But we will never know for sure.
We often talk about how the fallout from murder ripples through generations. A couple of years after the murder, Tina’s sister Tracey spoke about the devastating impact of Tina’s death upon the family. She said: ‘Our mum is 68 and she now has dementia. She has to live through what happened almost every day. If she asks about where Tina is she has to be told again what happened – it is just not fair.’ For the surviving members of Tina’s family, they must live with the pain and heartache of her murder every day. I couldn’t agree more. But the very nature of the length of this podcast means we have been unable to explore some of the questions we have about this case, all based on the relationships between Tina, her partner and his mum. And also, Heather’s husband lived with Heather, but it is unclear what his involvement was – or wasn’t – with the breakdown of the relationship between his wife and Tina. Like we often say, we never really know the reality of families and how they work. And that is certainly true in this tragic case today, where we can all just wish Tina’s family, and especially her son, all the very best for the future.
This story was originally released as episode 427 of the UK True Crime Podcast, and the following sources were used:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25156032
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25143345
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/tina-casey-murder-heather-emmonds-6352000
https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/lessons-could-be-learned-over-murder-422562
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/death-holywell-mum-tina-casey-11342215
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2515166/Heather-Emmonds-Grandmother-murdered-daughter-law–stabbing-15-times.html
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/heather-emmonds-stabbed-tina-casey-2850210
https://www.isleofman.com/news/view/21984335/woman-murdered-manx-mum-1
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3253300/Grandmother-murdered-ex-daughter-law-stop-moving-200-miles-away-grandson-son-custody-child.html
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/heather-emmonds-tina-casey-murder-2867053
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/14/gran-stabbed-daughter-in-law-after-she-called-her-a-bad-grandmother_n_7354064.html