Vultures

From an early point in the police's investigation it became clear that Riley and Carr Burstow had many friends in Trowbridge, they mostly shared in common a link. They had met at a charity in the town for homeless young adults, The Amber Foundation. It offered young people a safe place to stay whilst trying to give them the skills to find work so that they could support themselves.

I don't know the full details of how Riley a local man found himself homeless after-all his mother and brother lived only a few miles from Trowbridge in Bradford on Avon. During the case one witness eluded to the fact that he was not welcome at the family home due to his constant fallings out with other family members.

Carr Burstow on the other hand was from Harleston, Norfolk. His father died when he was 6 months old or 2 years (there seemed some disagreement between him and his mother) anyway he lived there until he was seventeen. I don't know why he left Norfolk to move to Wiltshire, but I got the firm impression it was because he too was no longer welcome at home or in the community. He had already been arrested numerous times, something we were to learn about later in the trial. Carr Burstow went to live with his step sister in Wiltshire. Soon she and her husband decided because of overcrowding in their home; they had five children of there own, that he could no longer stay. Carr Burstow moved to the Amber Foundation.

Here the two men met and became homosexual partners, it was also here that they met and became friends with Stephen Gurner, Laura Elvin, Darren Lee Jackson, Jack Isaacs and Daniel Faulkener. A community of drug users who went on to help Riley and Carr Burstow, and this is where my difficulty lays. These individuals probably knew what Riley and Carr Burstow had done and they choose to say nothing.

It's is hard enough to comes to terms with the murder of my mum but it is compounded by the knowledge that during the investigation many people played a part however small in this crime, this was not a crime done in secret, the profits was spread about. A television, jewelry, clocks all found across town, all at the addresses of Riley and Carr Burstow's friends. Meals eaten, drugs bought, alcohol consumed all with the gains from mums murder. Fun together on a games console bought with mum's money, cigarettes and pizzas, good times for all!

Steven Gurner had the biggest role in this, he had the flat at 30 Orchard Court the place Carr Burstow and Riley visited almost on a daily basis and it was he who went out with Carr Burstow on the night of the 8th of January. That night Carr Burstow told Gurner that "They had killed the landlady." and that "Marc had hit her on the head and they had dumped her in the river.” A drug fueled Gurner choose to believe that Carr Burstow was ‘pulling his leg’ and carry on as if nothing had been said for the next three weeks. We are also to believe that he never told his girlfriend Laura Elvin during this time? Elvin who on more that two occasions used my mothers credit card to order pizza, saying she believed Riley's story that the cards with the name Guarino on was Riley's mothers. I don't believe people were ignorant of what had happened at best they buried the heads in the sand and it makes me sick that they did nothing to bring this crime to anybody's attention. I believe that like vultures feeding on the kill of others, they enjoyed the pickings of my mothers death too much to even ask.

Gurner after spending four days in custody finally told the police what he knew, the Crown Prosecution Service decided that in order to secure a conviction he would not be prosecuted for aiding but convinced him that he should give evidence of the night of the 8th of January, the night that Carr Burstow confessed the killing to him. It was in the public interest and for the good of justice that the murderers be convicted not the profiteers. Likewise Jackson and Isaacs who had sold mums Toyota and were convicted of handling stolen goods, again the CPS decided that the charge should be simple 'Handling' and no attempt was made to discover if these two knew of the origin of the Toyota less what they said could endanger the case against Riley and Carr Burstow. It seems to me that all involved escaped punishment or received light sentences in order that the prosecution of Riley and Carr Burstow should not be jeopardised.

You may recall that Carr Burstow bought a red Ford Fiesta, this was the car that he was sat in when arrested on the 27th of January and had been in a police compound ever since. Just before the verdicts were read out on the 1st of October the final vulture swooped down to try and feed, it was Carr Burstow's stepfather who asked one of the policemen at the court if he could have the Fiesta to drive back to Norfolk in as it was in David’s name. What a douchbag! What kind of world do they or should I say we live in?

He was told that the car was evidence and at any-rate the proceeds of a crime not his to do as he pleases.