Rachel Nickell: The Case Behind the Netflix Documentary

Rachel Nickell: The Case Behind the Netflix Documentary

June 4, 2026 · 50 min

About this episode

This episode covers the tragic murder of Rachel Nickell and the subsequent police investigation that led to a miscarriage of justice.

Netflix is dropping a documentary today called "The Murder of Rachel Nickell," and if you want the full story before you watch, you are in the right place. On a warm morning in July of 1992, a young mother named Rachel Nickell was walking with her two-year-old son, Alex Hanscombe, on Wimbledon Common in southwest London. In broad daylight, an attacker emerged and brutally murdered Rachel. Little Alex was left alone in the woods, clinging to his mother and trying to wake her. The crime shocked the United Kingdom and put immense pressure on the Metropolitan Police to find the killer.What followed became one of the most controversial investigations in British history. Desperate for a lead, detectives focused entirely on an innocent local man named Colin Stagg and launched a manipulative undercover sting known as Operation Edzell to trap him into confessing. Meanwhile, the real killer, Robert Napper, remained free to commit more violent crimes, including the tragic murders of Samantha Bisset and her daughter, Jazmine Bisset. In this episode, we cover the devastating details of the attack, the police failures that led to a massive miscarriage of justice, and the long road to healing…

People in this episode

Host: Moms and Mysteries Podcast

Topics covered

Keywords

Sponsors

IQBAR, PAKA

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Metropolitan Police, Netflix

Books & works: The Murder of Rachel Nickell

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