About this episode

The episode explores the investigation into the disappearances of Sian O'Callaghan and Becky Godden, focusing on Detective Steve Fulcher's controversial methods to solve the cases.

At just before three in the morning on Saturday the 19th of March 2011, a 22-year-old woman named Sian O'Callaghan left a nightclub in the centre of Swindon, Wiltshire, and began the 800-metre walk home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend. She never arrived. Within days, Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher of Wiltshire Police had identified a suspect. Within a week, he had made a decision that would save one family from years of wondering, deliver another family a second set of remains that had been missing for eight years, and destroy his own career in the process. Fulcher took the suspect, a local taxi driver named Christopher Halliwell, to an Iron Age hill fort north of Swindon. He deliberately broke the Police and Criminal Evidence Act to interrogate him. And there, without a solicitor present, Halliwell led him first to Sian O'Callaghan's shallow grave in an Oxfordshire field, and then, on the drive back to the police station, offered him a second body. This is the story of two young women who died eight years apart, the detective who broke the rules to find them, and the spade in a Swindon shed that eventually put their killer behind bars for the rest of his life…

People in this episode

Host: Jack Laurence

Topics covered

• true crime
• murder investigation
• detective work
• unsolved cases
• criminal justice

Keywords

• Sian O'Callaghan
• Becky Godden
• Steve Fulcher
• Christopher Halliwell
• true crime
• murder
• investigation
• Swindon
• Oxfordshire

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Swindon, Oxfordshire

More episodes of Crime at Bedtime

• The Thing on the Hill: The Flatwoods Monster · July 21, 2026 · 29 min
• The Biggest Lie: Bernie Madoff · July 19, 2026 · 36 min
• An Adventure: The Versailles Time Slip · July 14, 2026 · 28 min
• The Disappearance of Ray Gricar · July 12, 2026 · 32 min
• The Springfield Three · July 8, 2026 · 30 min
• The Lost Cosmonauts · July 7, 2026 · 31 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Crime at Bedtime podcast page.