On November 25, 2004, a court in Manila, Philippines, was engaged in a heated trial of a murder case, and after several rounds of verbal battles between the prosecution and the defense, the judge finally announced that the defendant had been sentenced to 40 years in prison and not on parole.
An old couple in the audience stood up, their faces in tears, their hands folded, very excited, and their mouths kept chanting something. So who is this couple? What do they have to do with this case?
The old couple were none other than Steven's mother, Margaret Davis, and stepfather, Alan.
Just two years ago, on July 18, 2002, Margaret and Allen had just eaten breakfast in england when the home phone suddenly rang, and Margaret had just picked up the handset and there was a hysterical cry from a man: Steven had been killed, by three strange men.
Margaret was taken aback to hear the news, a little unable to believe her ears, knowing that just the day before, she and her husband, Alan, had just spoken to Steven.
However, when Margaret was relieved, she immediately booked two tickets from England to the Philippines. What's going on here? Let's take a look.
Steven
Steven,whose full name is Steven Alstom Davis, was born in the small town of Bingham, Nottinghamshire, England. There are three children in the family, he is the eldest in the family, there are two younger sisters below, his father died of illness in junior high school, as the only male in the family, the young Steven took on heavy family responsibilities. But the experience didn't last long, because their mother found them an upright stepfather, Alan.
Perhaps in the subconscious of ordinary people, the stepfather or stepmother will always give a bad impression, but Alan is a good person, he is not only very good to Margaret, but also to the three Steven brothers and sisters, and the family gets along very well.
Because of this, Steven was able to devote all his energy to learning again.
After graduating from university, he joined a large international company, but soon after he was transferred away from the British headquarters to the Hong Kong branch, he was far away from home. Fortunately, Margaret and Allen often went to Hong Kong to see him, which made him not too lonely.
Although far from home, the income is much higher than in the Uk, and it is relatively free, which gives Steven the opportunity to realize his childhood dream of flying an airplane. Whenever the company had a long vacation, he would rush from Hong Kong to the city of Angeles in the Philippines to participate in pilot training.
Angeles was once the largest U.S. military base abroad, and the United States only withdrew its troops after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, but the influence of the U.S. military at that time remained.
The nightlife is rich and varied, and the local bars are a favorite place for foreign tourists.
Every time he came to Angeles, Steven would ask his friends to go to the bar with him. Once, at a bar, he met a young girl named Evelyn Bohol. At that time, Evelyn's enchanting dance instantly attracted his attention.
Most of the girls who work in the bar come from poor families, and they are forced to choose to work here, and they make very little money, and girls like Evelyn dance in the bar for a night and earn only 1 pound (about 8 yuan).
Therefore, the best way to change your fate and get rid of the status quo is to get the favor of foreign guests and then follow each other out of here, so when Evelyn found a handsome and tall English man looking at her with interest, she immediately went forward to talk with him.
Under the premise that Lang had a concubine's intentions, the two quickly became warm, and a few days later Steven redeemed Evelyn for £500 and then took her back to Hong Kong.
It was a small thing to Steven, but Evelyn felt like a dream. In the 1990s, Evelyn's hometown of Durham was so backward that she didn't even have electricity, and she left her hometown at the age of 13 to make a living in a bar in Angeles.
For Evelyn, she was like the real Cinderella, Steven was the Prince Charming who redeemed her, and the prince wanted to spend the rest of her life with her, and she was a little overwhelmed with joy.
Not long after returning to Hong Kong, Steven took the opportunity of his parents to see him, formally introduced Evelyn to them, and held a simple wedding ceremony in the presence of his family.
It wasn't until the wedding day that Steven learned that his wife Evelyn was only 17 years old, a full 10 years younger than himself. Steven developed a stronger desire to protect his wife, and has always treated Evelyn as a little princess after marriage, and Evelyn is also very grateful and caring for Steven, and the two have a very sweet life after marriage.
Shortly after his marriage, Steven saw the prospects of the Philippines, and since it was his wife's hometown, he resigned from his job after careful consideration and signed up a computer company with several colleagues in Angles, Philippines.
After several years of hard work, the company has become well-known in the local area. During this time Evelyn gave birth to a son, a daughter and two children.
At that time, they had been living in the apartment rented by the company for employees in order to facilitate work, but with the birth of the child, Steven felt the need to change the living environment, so he rented a luxury villa in an upscale community, and also hired several maids to take care of the family's daily life.
Because the villa is far from the company, it takes more than three hours to go back and forth, so Steven decided to live in the original apartment when he went to work, and only came here to spend time with his family on the weekend, but unexpectedly, misfortune suddenly fell on Steven.
On the evening of July 18, 2002, Steven returned to the apartment as usual, when mike, his roommate and colleague who shared the room with him, arrived home first, and after dinner together, they went back to their rooms to sleep.
Late at night, the apartment was silent, and most of the residents fell asleep, but at this moment, a loud sound of breaking the door broke the silence.
Mike opened his eyes in confusion and was instantly awake when he saw the scene in the room, and 3 strange men appeared in the bedroom, and they were holding their weapons against his head.
Then one of them was heard asking, "Is it him?" Another said, "No! Then the three of them quickly exited the room and forced their way into the next bedroom. Soon after, four loud noises were heard, and then everything was calm.
Then Mike ran to the next door and saw a scene that he would never forget... He immediately called the police and informed Steven's mother, Margaret, and his stepfather, Ellen.
Although the case took place in Angeles, since Steven was British, the Philippines assigned the Makati Police General Service in Manila to investigate the case.
Because the Philippines was facing a tricky workers' strike movement at the time of the crime, the first thing that came to the police's mind was a labor dispute, but this conjecture was quickly ruled out. Because Steven's salary is much higher than the local average, coupled with his good temper and humor, the employees like him.
In addition, there is a most critical problem, although the 3 suspects are covered in faces, if they are acquaintances of the company, It is impossible for Mike as a witness not to recognize, and if it is an acquaintance who commits a crime, the other party cannot let Go of Mike.
Therefore, the police believe that the suspect is likely to be a stranger, which is a random burglary. However, after investigating in this direction, they did not find any clues.
Meanwhile, steven's parents arrived in the Philippines and asked Mike about the circumstances of the crime. They believe that this cannot be a random case, but when they question the police, the police simply ignore it.
In fact, from the process of the crime, it can be seen that the suspect is obviously going to Steven, and the other circumstances at the scene can better illustrate this. First, the suspect forced the bedroom door, but the apartment door was intact; second, there was no valuables lost at the scene.
Through the above two points, it can be seen that this case is likely to be a hired murderer, but the police turn a blind eye to it, still look in the direction of the burglary, and after a period of time, the case has not progressed, and the police actually did not investigate.
Private investigator
Faced with this situation, the mother, Margaret, made the surprising decision to seek justice for her son herself.
Through a friend's introduction, Margaret hired a private investigator. The detective was originally a police officer, but because he was not accustomed to the bad style of his colleagues, he chose to resign and go it alone. Margaret asks him to investigate Steven's private life first.
A few days later, private investigators found a videotape in Steven's desk, and the footage in the video was indeed incomprehensible. The footage shows Steven and Mike and nearly 20 young girls drinking and partying at home and playing various games for minors.
But oddly enough, depending on the timing of the film, Steven was supposed to be on a business trip that day, at least that's what he told his wife Evelyn.
In addition, through the investigation, it was learned that after Steven came to the Philippines to open a company, the annual income was about 60,000 pounds. In addition to the family's daily expenses, he would give Evelyn £1,000 a month in pocket money. However, in the months before the crime, Steven gave her less and less pocket money, and then there was no more.
According to the results of the investigation, it is necessary to make people suspicious of the couple's feelings, as if something has gone wrong. But Margaret knows her son well, and Steven has been a very responsible man since she was a child, so she thinks it's a bit strange.
In addition, the last time she and her husband visited their sons in the Philippines, they noticed that their daughter-in-law Evelyn would often avoid them and hide in a corner to call or text. She didn't care at the time, but now that she thinks about it, it's a little weird. Therefore, Margaret gave the detective the task of investigating her daughter-in-law.
The detective was very conscientious, and while monitoring Evelyn 24 hours a day, he also launched a side attack on her friends and neighbors, and only two days later there were new clues.
Evelyn's eldest daughter, Jessica, is in kindergarten, and Steven plans to send her to the best aristocratic kindergarten in the area, but because he is busy, he leaves the matter to his wife. After that, except for the regular payment of tuition fees to his wife, he did not ask about it.
It happened that Steven's neighbor's children were also enrolled in this kindergarten, but the neighbor had never seen Jessica at school. By chance, the neighbor informed Steven of his doubts about the weekend, and when he heard that Steven went to the school to verify, he found that Evelyn had not sent her daughter to school at all, and the high tuition fees had been taken away by her.
Wedding Ringweding Ring
Because of this incident, Steven simply stopped Evelyn's pocket money. Soon after, Evelyn actually sold her wedding ring to a pawnshop.
It was so suspicious that according to the income of the local residents, the annual income was only about 1,000 pounds, and Steven would give Evelyn 1,000 pounds of pocket money every month, plus her harsh tuition fees, and theoretically she could not be short of money to sell rings.
So where did Evelyn spend her money?
Detectives then followed Evelyn for two days, and he discovered that Evelyn had been meeting with two men. In order not to scare the snakes, the detectives just secretly took pictures of them and did not take any action.
Margaret went to Find Mike after getting the photo, and he was shocked to see it because he recognized one of the men in the photo, who had broken into the apartment that night.
Margaret was a little excited to hear this, and finally could bring the murderer to justice. But when she submitted the clues to the Philippine police to investigate the two men, they ignored them. However, Margaret was well aware of the crux of the matter, and after dotting and promising to reimburse the costs incurred during the investigation, the police finally took action.
According to the police investigation, the two men were Arnold and his colleague Alexander, whose professions were security guards, and the person recognized by Mike was Arnold. In addition, the police also found that Arnold's usual consumption level was very high, which clearly did not match his income.
Combining the above two points, the police immediately arrested Arnold and Alexander.
At this time, the private investigators asked the Margarets to leave the Philippines quickly, because there were 3 suspects in the crime, and only two of them had been caught, these people were outlaws, and once they found that their companions were arrested, they were likely to jump the wall.
Although Margaret also believes that the detective's concern is not unreasonable, but the case found this, it must be inseparable from the daughter-in-law, so when she left the Philippines, she wanted to take away her granddaughter Jessica and grandson Joshua. Fortunately, the previous investigations had been conducted in secret, and Evelyn was unaware of this, so she had no defenses against Margaret.
One morning, Margaret lied to her daughter-in-law that she wanted to spend the weekend with her two children, and asked her to take this opportunity to go out for a walk, and Evelyn agreed without hesitation.
However, Margaret only saw her granddaughter Jessica, because after Steven's accident, the grandson Joshua was sent to her grandparents' house to take care of, if she wanted to return at this time, it would definitely cause Evelyn's suspicion, and in desperation, she could only return to England with her granddaughter and her son's ashes.
But the occurrence of this incident also indicates that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law have completely pulled down their faces, so in this case, how can we bring the grandson back to The Uk? The private investigator went to Evelyn's hometown, the very backward island of Durham, where he met Joshua's grandfather, Marsaleno.
He told Marsaleno that Durham was a poor and backward place and that it would be difficult to have a good future if the child grew up here, but if he was sent to his grandparents in England, they would send him to school and provide him with all his daily needs, and Marsaleno was convinced.
Just two months after leaving the Philippines, Margaret met her grandson Joshua at London Heathrow Airport.
However, at this time, the case actually made no progress, Arnold and the two did not confess Evelyn after being arrested, nor did they reveal the identity of the third suspect, and the police were not interested in further investigation.
In fact, Margaret had long been mentally prepared for this result, no matter what the police calculated, she would never let Evelyn go, not to mention that now that her grandson had returned, she had no scruples. In addition, in the process of rescuing his grandson, the detective found many clues.
Because Steven was not only kind to Evelyn during his lifetime, but also generous to her family, in addition to financial assistance, he also funded the construction of a brick house for his father-in-law and mother-in-law on Durham Island. At that time, the residents of Durham Island lived in thatched huts, which were the most luxurious residences on the island, and Evelyn's family was grateful to Steven. Because of this, when the detective went to the island to ask for the child, Evelyn's family was very enthusiastic.
Her cousin Gina revealed key information to him, saying that the arrested suspect, Arnold, was actually her sister's lover, and that Evelyn was obsessed with him and spent almost all her money on him. Later, Steven learned of this, so he cut off Evelyn's pocket money and warned her not to contact Arnold again or divorce her.
Upon learning this clue, Margaret believes that this may be the reason for Steven's murder, and if Steven dies, then Evelyn will inherit the inheritance and then fly with her lover. But this is only a guess, and there is no substantial evidence, not enough for the police to arrest people, and more direct evidence needs to be found.
To this end, Margaret, who is far away in the UK, constantly communicates with Evelyn's family through mobile phone text messages, trying to get more useful clues from these people. In the process, she and Evelyn's aunt Asunción reached a good friend, and I really did not expect that it was Asunción who became the key to solving the case in the end.
After Steven's case, the Philippine police did some routine questioning of Evelyn and her family, but every time the police went to question, one person was always absent, and then after Arnold and the two were arrested, this person disappeared directly.
The police did not pay attention to this matter at all, but in the eyes of the private investigator, this person is likely to be a thief with a weak heart.
This man is Robin, the husband of Evelyn's cousin Gina, and it happens that Gina is Yasunsen's daughter, which means that Robin is Asunción's son-in-law.
Margaret hoped that Asunción would come forward to find Robin and find him if it had anything to do with Steven's murder. As a mother, Asunción understood the pain of the loss of her son, and she not only accepted the commission, but also successfully completed the task.
After a long time of persuasion from Robin, Robin finally spoke.
Robin said that on July 18, 2002, at about 11:00 on the night of the crime, Evelyn suddenly said that she would take him to a job to earn money.
He followed Evelyn into the car and found two other people in the car, Arnold and Alexander.
He didn't know what to do at the time, and when the car came downstairs in an apartment, Evelyn took out a key and told the specific floor and house number. Then she said that Steven was a millionaire, and as long as he died, then all the money would be mine.
Just like that, Robin inexplicably followed Arnold upstairs, and Evelyn stayed in the car to look out. The one who really did it was Arnold, and when it was all over, the 4 drove away from the scene.
As a result of Robin's testimony, Arnold and Alexander were sentenced to life in prison, while Evelyn was arrested pending trial. Although Robin was also arrested for his involvement, he was released after only one year in the detention center because of his meritorious disclosure.
On November 25, 2004, two years after Steven's case, Evelyn's trial began.
In court, Evelyn insisted that she was innocent and had no lover relationship with Arnold, and Robin's testimony was nonsense, and she had been sleeping at home on the night of the crime and had never been out at all.
But no one paid any attention to her, because Margaret had prepared 14 witnesses for her, and combined with the testimony of these people, it could prove in all aspects that Evelyn was the mastermind behind the scenes.
Eventually, the judge convicted Evelyn of the crime and sentenced her to 40 years in prison without parole.
The case came to an end, and after two years of hardship and spending £55,000, Margaret finally got justice for her son, but they did not have the joy of victory, because Steven could never come back.
Today's story ends here, for this case, if you have other ideas, write them down in the comment area, we will discuss it together!
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