Date that links Christopher Halliwell with two more murders… and could see man jailed for 13 years walk free

BANK worker Glyn Razzell has spent the past 13 years behind bars for murdering his wife.

In that time — nearly 5,000 days — he has maintained he is totally innocent of abducting 41-year-old Linda in broad daylight, before killing her and disposing of her body.

Now, he has got someone to listen.

Sandy Jonsson, a friend of caged serial killer Christopher Halliwell’s ex-wife, claims there is a “very strong possibility that there has been a miscarriage of justice”.

Halliwell, she says, became obsessed with Linda four years before her murder after doing building work at the Razzells’ home in Swindon.

Incredibly, the date Linda went missing in 2002 — March 19 — links Halliwell, his second victim and another unsolved case.

The date was “special” to the killer, 52, as it was the one on which he was dumped by a girlfriend in the Eighties.

It has been suggested it was no coincidence that he abducted Sian O’Callaghan on the same date in 2011.

Questions could also be asked about chef Claudia Lawrence — missing since March 19, 2009.

He would stalk Linda and do sketches of her

Halliwell, a former taxi driver, was told last month he would spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder of Becky Godden, four years after being jailed for killing Sian.

As for Linda, Halliwell became besotted with her as the dark-haired mum of four’s marriage to Razzell, now 56, was falling apart.

Sandy, who helped Becky’s mum in her fight for justice for her daughter, says: “There’s no doubt he became obsessed with Linda.

“When the work on the house came to an end he would stalk her, following Linda everywhere in his taxi.

“He even used to do sketches of her.

“I looked into Linda’s case and there is a very strong possibility there has been a miscarriage of justice.”

Former detective Steve Fulcher, the Wiltshire Police officer responsible for finding the bodies of Becky, 20, and Sian, 22, believes Razzell may be telling the truth.

He has urged cops to look into Sandy’s claims after suggesting earlier this week that Halliwell may have murdered six others.

Linda, whose body has not been found, vanished on her way to work as a learning support assistant in 2002 after parking her car.

Police maintained she was abducted from an alleyway off Swindon’s Drove Road, where her phone was later found hidden under a piece of wood.

Phone records prove Razzell, who by then had separated from his wife, took a call on his home landline at 8.24 that morning.

His supporters are adamant that had he been planning to abduct her, he could not have hung up, got in his car and driven to the alleyway, on a busy school route, in time to do it.

CCTV did not show Razzell’s borrowed Renault Laguna in the area that day, while experts accounted for every mile the car was driven. Razzell admitted walking past the city’s Westlea police station at the time

Linda was believed to have been taken but those cameras were not working.

His solicitor, Rob Ross, says: “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have claimed they’d walked past a police station if they hadn’t.

“I got to know him exceptionally well and I still find it difficult to believe that the man I got to know could have done what he was alleged to have done.”

Mr Ross believes Linda, who suffered from depression, ran away after clearing her bank accounts the day before.

Police twice searched Razzell’s car, along with sink traps at his home, and found nothing incriminating.

There was no blood, hair or fibres from Linda on his clothing and no sign that any blood or other evidence had been washed away.

But another examination of the Renault a week later, using a different forensic technique, found minute spots of blood matching Linda’s DNA in the boot and under the parcel shelf.

Despite no other evidence linking Razzell to Linda’s disappearance, he was convicted of her murder and jailed for life in 2003.

Mr Ross says the blood “was always going to be a problem, because we could not find an explanation as to why it was there”.

However, mum-of-two Sandy, 57, says: “It could have come from metal because metal gives off the same iron as blood. It wasn’t a very strong case.”

Sandy’s doubts are echoed by former cop Steve, who says there are similarities between Linda’s disappearance and Sian’s murder.

While in prison in the Eighties, Halliwell was dumped by his girlfriend. The woman confirmed the date as March 19 with Sandy.

Halliwell abducted Sian at around 3am from outside Swindon’s Suju nightclub on the same date in 2011.

He dragged her from his Toyota taxi, battered her over the head and left her body face down in a ditch near Uffington, Oxon.

Links have been made with Claudia Lawrence, 35, who disappeared on March 19 two years earlier on her morning walk to work in York.

Ex-cop Steve said: “It fits his pattern of behaviour — abducting women walking alone either late at night or early in the morning.”

North Yorkshire Police yesterday denied any link between Halliwell and Claudia.

Steve was key in bringing Halliwell to justice over drug addict Becky’s murder. Becky, who was working as a prostitute, disappeared in 2003. Everyone assumed she had simply run away to Bristol, so was not reported missing until 2007. Halliwell regularly drove her there to meet dealers.

When cops were questioning him in 2011 over Sian’s murder, he asked former Det Supt Steve: “Do you want another one?” and unexpectedly confessed to killing Becky.

Razzell should stay in prison for life

He led Steve and his colleagues to a remote hilltop in Eastleach, Gloucs, where they found Becky buried in a shallow grave — minus her hands, feet and skull.

Steve, acting on instinct after the confession, questioned Halliwell further without cautioning him and without offering him a lawyer. It meant Halliwell’s evidence could not be used as police guidelines had been breached. That meant the case took another five years to reach court. Steve quit the force soon after.

Mr Ross says: “There was no way they would ever have found that body if it wasn’t for him.

“If he had cautioned Halliwell he would have clammed up and the Godden family would never have found their girl.”

He adds: “At the time of the Razzell case no one mentioned Christopher Halliwell. If there is a link to Linda then of course it should be investigated.”

Razzell’s sister, Vicky George, believes the possible links to serial killer Halliwell are “hugely significant”.

Last Friday she drove from her home in Essex to the Category C Guys Marsh prison in Dorset, where she told Razzell about the possibility that Halliwell may be Linda’s killer.

At the time of the Razzell case no one mentioned Christopher Halliwell. If there is a link to Linda then of course it should be investigated

Vicky said: “When I told Glyn he broke down and cried, saying, ‘I always thought we would find Linda alive’.”

But Linda’s family maintain the right man is already behind bars.

Her boyfriend Greg Worrall, who was living with Linda at the time of her disappearance, said last night:

“There’s no link between Halliwell and Glyn Razzell.

“Razzell should stay in prison for the rest of his life, he’s shown no remorse. He knows exactly where Linda’s body is.

“One day he will show some remorse and lead us to her body and we can finally have a proper funeral.

“Razzell is just using the situation. Swindon’s a big place. Is there only one murderer in Swindon?”