“‘SHE WAS WALKING AND CRYING…’” 😳💔: The dark truth behind Rocky Marciano Price’s serial murders sends shivers down everyone’s spine as Lindsay Birbeck’s LAST 8-second CCTV footage reveals his motives and changes everything
TWISTED TRUTH
Dark truth behind schoolboy killer, 16, who strangled innocent teaching assistant before forcing body into a wheelie bin
Lindsay Birbeck’s body had been found buried in a shallow graveCredit: MEN Media
Rocky Marciano Price dumped the body of teaching assistant Mrs Birbeck in a wheelie binCredit: PA
Police and her distraught family were at a loss as to who would want to kill the popular teaching assistant.
And the local community was living in fear of a killer in their midst.
But a blue wheelie bin found abandoned close by to where Lindsay’s body was found by a dog walker gave police the breakthrough they needed.
Lancashire Police were determined to catch the mum-of-two’s killer before he struck again.
Lindsay was attacked while out on a solo walk and never returned homeCredit: MEN Media
Her shoes were discovered by Lancashire PoliceCredit: Lancashire Constabulary
And now a new True Crime documentary, Britain’s Countryside Killers, reveals how DNA and the CCTV brought her killer to justice.
Retired Senior Investigating Officer Geoff Hurst says: “Police had imagery of this young male pulling a wheelie bin towards the cemetery.
“It was quite a clear image – if you knew the person you would know who it was.
“And it is always a worry for the SIO (senior investigating officer), you don’t know what you are dealing with, and one of those worries is will this person kill again?”
Popular Lindsay lived in rural Huncoat near Accrington, Lancashire, where she worked as a teaching assistant.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes explains: “She was at a good point in life.
“She had divorced some years previously but she was getting to the point where she was dating again.
“This was somebody who was thriving, who had friends and family around her, who loved her job, and had everything to live for.”
On August 12, 2019, Lindsay and her daughter Sarah had been out shopping to celebrate the end of Sarah’s GCSE exams and to buy her some things before she started college.
They went their separate ways but had agreed to meet up later, along with Sarah’s boyfriend, to have dinner together.
Lindsay said she was going out walking, and often headed to nearby beauty spots Peel Park and the Coppice, but when Sarah and her boyfriend arrived for dinner she hadn’t returned home.
Kerry Daynes says: “Lindsay’s daughter is immediately concerned that her mother isn’t answering the door. This is not like her. They’ve got an arrangement to meet at 6pm, her mum would be there.”
The 17-year-old brutally murdered Lindsay Birbeck before hiding her body
Blue wheelie bin where body of Lindsay Birbeck was discovered in Accrington cemetryCredit: Lancs Live/MEN Media
By midnight and after several hours of trying to call Lindsay and her friends, as well as searching her house, Sarah and her dad called the police.
Lindsay was allocated as a high-risk missing from home case because the circumstances were so out of character for her.
It was feared Lindsay had fallen on her walk and was lying injured somewhere, and police found CCTV footage of her walking down the street at around 4pm.
A huge police search was launched, joined by many members of the public, but there was no sign of her.
A dog walker in the Coppice spotted a piece of red fabric that had been caught on a fence and raised this with the local police and it matched the inside lining of Lindsay’s coat.
Local journalist Kim PIlling says: “As time goes on, naturally people begin to fear the worst because there was no reason for Lindsay Birbeck to go missing of her own accord.”
But 12 days after Lindsay went missing there was a tragic breakthrough.
A walker’s dog ran off and was rummaging around in undergrowth in the local cemetery and refused to come back when called.
The mum was killed in August 2019 while on a walkCredit: PA
Lindsay Birbeck, pictured with her son Steven, was remembered as being a devoted motherCredit: PA:Press Association
Police were called to the scene and their worst fears were confirmed – the dog had discovered Lindsay’s body.
Daynes says: “This is no longer a missing person’s inquiry, this is now a murder inquiry. And the whole community has to come to terms with the fact that a woman has been killed while just taking a walk.
“It is the most everyday thing to do, and yet her life has been taken. So this is frightening for the whole community.”
A wider search of the area found some of Lindsay’s belongings in a skip and at the burial site there was a saw and a pair of gloves.
Nearby police also found Lindsay’s shoes, which had had the soles cut off.
DNA tests revealed it was a man who had handled them but there was no match found on the national DNA database.
The post-mortem examination on Lindsay’s body revealed she had died from severe neck injuries, possibly caused by being kicked, stamped or knelt on.
But tests performed by a botanist revealed that although Lindsay had been buried in the cemetery, that wasn’t where she had been murdered.
Daynes explains: “Bits of soil had been transferred with Lindsay’s body and that was traced back to the Coppice.”
But it was one out of place object that really pulled the investigation forward.
Hurst says: “A number of members of the public had reported a blue wheelie bin abandoned in the cemetery.
“When they found Lindsay’s body in the cemetery it became relevant because it didn’t belong from the cemetery, it had come from somewhere else.
Lindsay’s murder left the community shakenCredit: PA:Press Association
Lindsay had just been shopping with her teen daughter Sarah when she went missingCredit: PA:Press Association
“The SIO would have been thinking, has this been used to bring Lindsay to this place where she was left and buried. And that became really relevant from the CCTV inquiries.”
Daynes adds: “The parts of the jigsaw start to come together.
“So we have got DNA from an unknown male, now we have CCTV footage of a young man in a dark coloured tracksuit dragging a wheelie bin through the streets.
“Why would anyone need to drag a wheelie bin through the streets? Pull it down your drive by all means when it is time for the bins to be collected This is highly suspicious.”
Police released the CCTV image and soon a suspect was brought in for questioning – by his own mum and dad.
Daynes says: “They did the decent and respectable thing and brought their son in, I am sure believing he had nothing to do with this and to clear his name.”
The boy was 16-year-old Rocky Marciano Price. He was from the travelling community and lived with serious challenges, with a low IQ, ADHD and autism and he attended a special school.
When investigators sat down with Price to ask about Lindsay’s murder, in the presence of an appropriate adult, his answer to every question was “no comment”.
But he did give a prepared statement giving a bizarre explanation for why he was seen with a wheelie bin.
Pilling says: “He claimed he was in the area when a stranger came up to him and said, ‘I’ve just killed this person and I need somebody to dispose of the body, I can offer you a reward of lots of money if you do it‘.
“He said he didn’t get a clear look at this guy, he was wearing a hoody and he was very vague with his description, he was a white male, he didn’t ask his name, he didn’t ask for his contact number.
“So essentially he was admitting that yes he had moved Lindsay Birbeck’s body from the Coppice along that road past her house, to where it was eventually discovered in the cemetery..”
While Price’s story seemed unbelievable, police had to investigate if there was any truth in it.
But CCTV did not reveal anybody else who matched that description. All lines were leading to Price being the killer.
When police searched his home they found the grey tracksuit he had been wearing on the CCTV and plastic which was consistent with the material used to cover Lindsay’s body.
Forensic psychologist Dr Ruth Tully says: “It transpires that Price had gone into the Coppice before Lindsay at around 2.30pm and Lindsay went in at 4pm.
“Price had returned to the Coppice twice that evening, once just before 7pm wearing a rucksack and then left. He returned later, also with the rucksack but also with a blue wheelie bin.”
Then a key witness came forward.
She had been walking in the Coppice just before Lindsay and had noticed a young man who was oddly dressed for the summer.
She described how he was wearing all black and had his hood up and she felt uneasy about how he was behaving.
She added that, even though he was on a parallel path to her, he speeded up and very quickly came behind her and admitted that she looked around for a heavy object to arm herself with should he get any closer.
Pilling says: “It established a motive here for Rocky Price that he was actually on the prowl for lone women on that afternoon.
“It may have been that woman (that he attacked), unfortunately Lindsay was the next woman to enter the wood.”
Investigators had enough to arrest Price and he was charged with murder.
But Price’s family continued to insist he was innocent and turned up to court wearing T-shirts saying “Wrongly convicted. Free this boy.” And “Murderer still at large.”
Kerry Daynes adds: “Rocky Price’s family are still convinced to this day that he is innocent.
“And I can understand that no family wants to believe that of their child, but all of the evidence suggest that actually he is guilty.”
On August 12, 2020, Price, from Accrington, was found guilty at Preston Crown Court of her murder, exactly a year on from when she disappeared.
As he was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars, Lindsay’s heartbroken daughter slammed the killer for his ” unforgivable” actions and said “all our lives are completely ruined”.
Pilling says: “At the end of the trial Lindsay’s daughter Sarah made a point of saying that this teenager had taken their beloved mother’s life and had also, by pleading not guilty, meant they had had to endure every graphic detail of their mother’s last moments in open court for the world to hear.
“It added insult to injury and it was actually unforgivable that he had not admitted what he had done.
HAUNTING CCTV footage of a teenager pulling a heavy blue wheelie bin through the streets in broad daylight was to be the key to solving a devastating murder.
Lindsay Birbeck’s body was found buried in a shallow grave in Accrington Cemetery 12 days after she had disappeared on an afternoon walk.
“His explanation was so implausible, it was so far-fetched, it surely wouldn’t take a jury long to dismiss it. They only took four hours to deliberate, that is not very long in a trial of several weeks.”
Britain’s Countryside Killers – S2E4 Thursday, 4 June at 10pm on TRUE CRIME
