One of my first memories of becoming interested in crime came in 1996. I was 21 and living in the South of England, 25 miles from a village called Chillenden. Chillenden in 1996 became the backdrop to one of the most horrendous murders in UK history. In a twist, it also became the backdrop to one of the greatest survival stories.

The Chillenden Murders

At 4 pm on Tuesday, July 9th 1996, Lin Russell went to pick her two children up after a school swimming gala. The 45-year-old had two daughters, Megan who was 6 and Josie who was 9. The family dog accompanied her on the walk.

The family set off back home on their normal country walk. Being summer there was plenty of light and the weather was good.

After 20 minutes of walking, they approached Cherry Garden Lane a quiet unmade track that runs between Canterbury and Deal. It was at this point that a car drove past them, and Josie waved.

As they walked down the lane they found the same car parked across the track. The driver got out with a hammer in his hand. He demanded cash, Lin explained that she had left her purse at home and had no money.

She then told Josie to run for help. As she ran the man grabbed her and hit her over the head with the hammer. The wound was minor, worse was yet to come. The unknown man walked the family to a dense area of trees and tied them up with strips of towel and shoelaces.

With them subdued, he launched a frenzied attack on Lin, striking her 15 times on the head, her children who were blindfolded heard it all. He then turned his rage on Josie, finally hitting Megan 7 times in the head causing massive skull fractures.

When their father returned home from work, seeing his family missing he informed the police and a search was conducted. The three bodies were discovered later that day. Their father was informed that his family were dead. When doctors, went to the bodies, however, this was found not to be the case. Josie Russell had a slight faint pulse and was flown to Kings College Hospital in London.

This is the most horrific and terrible murder I have had the misfortune to come across in my 23 years as a police office — DCI Dave Stephens

Michael Stone

Stone is an ex-drug addict who lived in Tunbridge Wells. He was arrested in 1997 at 37 for the murders, following an appeal on a television program called Crimewatch. In 1997 he pleaded not guilty but was convicted on an alleged confession he made whilst on remand. Damian Daley a career criminal would stand and tell the jury how Stone confessed to him.

Stone appealed his conviction in 2001 and was once again convicted of the crime. In 2006 a High Court judge, upheld the conviction, sentencing Stone to 25 years.

A 2010 case review would once again call his conviction into question. Many legal experts have doubts about his guilt, a re-examining of the DNA evidence was called for. The original DNA evidence from both the towel and the shoelace had failed to match to Stone. There were unknown male DNA and the police argued this was from friends of Stone. The towel, however, belonged to Josie so would have never been near Stone’s friends. When the evidence was re-examined it was discovered that the shoelace had gone missing, a vital piece of evidence. The DNA on the towel still did not match Stone.

This case will become even more questionable when a convicted serial killer with the same MO, as the murders, confessed to the murder. He would later deny the confession, but he knew details that only the murderer would know.  

Josie Russell

Despite, having a titanium plate in part of her skull and having to learn to speak again. With the support of her father and mothers pony, she slowly recovered into an amazing young woman. Josie is now a successful textile artist, who is engaged and currently renovating her first family home. She was instrumental in providing some of the details about the murder to the police. During her recovering, she used sign language and pictures to help with the evidence.

She is a truly remarkable young lady, who is a true survivor of this horrendous crime.