A group of workmen made a horrific discovery when they unearthed the body of a young girl in a shallow grave in 1989.
The remains of Karen Price, 15, were found wrapped in a carpet outside a house in Cardiff.
The teenager had vanished in 1981 after running away from care several times – but tragically no record was ever made of her disappearance, and no one had even been looking for her in the eight years that passed.
Detectives admitted they may never have realised she had even disappeared, or later come to the discovery she had been murdered, had her body not been recovered by chance.
BBC series The Dark Land, in which experts revisit historic murder cases, has now focused on the shocking case in Wales.
The body of Karen Price, 15, was discovered wrapped in a carpet after eight years – no one had ever reported her missing
A group of builders found Karen’s body when carrying out work at a house in Cardiff in 1989
The show’s team found that the police investigation into the 15 year-old’s death pioneered how murder cases are dealt with around the world.
Detective superintendent Jeff Norman, now retired, was one of the first officers on the scene after the builders made their grim discovery.
He told the programme that the house where Karen’s body was found was then combined with another property, with several different flats and bedsits being used, making it a busy area where people were coming and going all the time.
He said: ‘When I think back to that evening I think of the impact it has had not only on my career, but the advances the investigation went on to be used in investigations nationally and internationally.
‘The techniques that were used, the different ‘ologists who were involved, some of whom I had never heard of, but were all used to assist us in our investigations.’
It took two months for police to identify Karen’s remains, using an unprecedented facial reconstruction method.
Facial reconstruction expert Richard Neave was able to create a clay replica of Karen’s face based on her skull with a technique that had been used in archaeological finds, but it had never been tried in a crime investigation before.
Using the model, police were able to piece together Karen’s forgotten identity with an appeal to the public, eventually discovering that she had been living in care for much of her short life.
Police used an archaeological face reconstruction technique for the first time in a criminal case to create a bust of Karen based on her skull
Officers were contacted by members of the public after an appeal, helping them to gather crucial information about Karen’s murder
The 15 year-old’s body had lain undiscovered for eight years in the garden of the Cardiff home
A worker from the children’s centre she had vanished from contacted police after seeing the reconstruction on Crimewatch and confirmed that a missing person form was never logged by social services.
Idris Ali, who was around 15 or 16 at the time of Karen’s death, also contacted police to say he had been a friend of hers and was questioned by police.
From Ali, police discovered that a man called Alan Charlton had been living in the basement flat of the house when Karen died.
Charlton was described as ‘a man with a fearsome reputation’ on the programme, and had been working as a bouncer at the time.
Ali told police he had been the one to invite Karen to a party at Charlton’s flat.
DS Norman said: ‘We know that Idris Ali looked up to Charlton, saw him as somebody that he aspired to be.
‘Alan Charlton was having a party and he wanted some girls to come along. Idris Ali was very keen to please people, and brought two girls back to the flat.’
The second girl, who was 13 years old at the time and a friend of Karen’s, became a key witness in the case for police – known only as witness D.
Paul Bethall, a retired detective chief inspector, said that Karen and the 13 year-old were completely off the grid when they went to the party.
He told DS Norman: ‘Nobody knows they’re there, nobody knows apart from Ali and Charlton, nobody knows those two young girls are in that flat.’
DS Norman said: ‘No, and that’s the problem – they are that vulnerable because nobody’s looking out for them. The only people that are looking out for them are themselves.’
The police investigation led them to Alan Charlton, a man with a ‘fearsome reputation’ who had lived in the basement flat of the house where Karen was found
Idris Ali contacted police when he saw Karen’s reconstructed face, he revealed he had invited her to a party in Charlton’s flat along with another girl
Police discovered that Charlton had demanded the two girls pose for nude photographs for him.
When Karen refused and resisted Charlton, he struck her and she fell to the ground.
DS Norman said Karen ‘never moved once she’d hit the floor.’
He added that it was ‘clearly quite a frightening blow that Charlton had rained on her.’
Her body was wrapped in a carpet and taken outside where she was buried – and lay undiscovered for the next eight years.
The evidence gathered by police was enough to charge Charlton and Ali with Karen’s murder – and they were both later convicted.
Charlton was jailed for life in 1991 and is still serving his sentence for Karen’s murder.
Ali later had his conviction reduced to manslaughter and was released in 1994 after experts told a court he had an intelligence in the bottom 5 per cent of the population, bordering on a mental handicap.
Police were shocked that nobody had ever realised Karen had disappeared in the years after her death.
DS Norman told The Dark Land: ‘It was shocking that no one had missed her. Why hadn’t anyone missed her?
‘Why hadn’t a call been recorded somewhere, even in the subsequent years? There was nothing.’
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