Adam Whelehan | World’s Most Evil Killers | Forensic Files

[audio logo] [unsettling music] narrator: On the 3rd of October, 2012, Natalie Jarvis left her family home in Kent for a late night
rendezvous with Adam Whelehan. - It was a casual relationship. If anyone asked whether Adam was her boyfriend,
she would say no. narrator: That cold autumn night, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
- "Shlaters," she used to say, which meant see you later. Love you. Bye. And that was the last thing she said.
narrator: Just 30 minutes later, Natalie Jarvis was dead. - A member of the public driving down the road
saw her body face down on the pavement. narrator: Natalie's violent death made no sense to her loved ones.
Mark Jarvis: Why would it be Natalie? She loved everybody, and everybody who knew her loved her.
narrator: When the devastating facts of Natalie's final moments were revealed,
her so-called friend, Adam Whelehan, would be exposed as one of the world's most evil killers.
[theme music] ♪ ♪ [somber music] In October 2012, 22-year-old Adam Whelehan walked
into Bexleyheath police station in Southeast London with blood on his face and hands and a well-rehearsed
story ready to tell. Khaleda Rahman: Adam Whelehan turned himself in at Bexleyheath police station at about
3:00 AM on October the 4th. He said that he thought he had killed someone. narrator: Whelehan insisted he had not been the aggressor.
Ian Acheson: He said she brought the weapon and she produced it and she'd attacked him.
And whatever happened to her was self-defense on his part. narrator: It was a story full of holes,
told by a man who seemed completely unmoved by the part he'd played in his friend's violent and lonely death.
Geoffrey Wansell: This is a man who appears to have no concept of a conscience, no concept
that he might be doing something that is utterly wrong. It makes him a very remarkable killer.
narrator: Though he believed he could get away with murder, a jury of Adam Whelehan's peers would see through his facade.
This killer's story begins in February 1990. Adam John Whelehan was born in the borough of Bexley
in Southeast London. Living in the area through his childhood and youth, by his early 20s, he seemed to be an ordinary young man with
a normal suburban lifestyle. Geoffrey Wansell: Adam Whelehan had worked in a supermarket,
but was now training as a BT engineer for the telecom company. Ian Acheson: He'd always been in employment.
He'd never been in trouble in all of his adult life. He'd been in work. narrator: Nothing about Adam Whelehan and his closest
friends raised eyebrows or caused concern for the people who knew them. Khaleda Rahman: Adam Whelehan had a very
close group of male friends. His best friend, Tom [muted], he had known since he was five years old.
Rather than friends, they saw each other as brothers. They had a very close bond.
He and his other male friends all spent time together regularly. He messaged them on social media and in text messages
very regularly. Ian Acheson: These were normal people in their early 20s. They'd go and meet down the pub, chat to each other,
and they'd do what youngsters with jobs who got money do in the pub, they'd drink.
narrator: In this atmosphere of revelry is where a young woman called Natalie Jarvis first crossed
paths with Adam Whelehan. Geoffrey Wansell: She'd first met Adam Whelehan in 2008
in a local pub, but they were both in other relationships, and so there was no connection.
Khaleda Rahman: They didn't begin their relationship until four years later, in the summer of 2012,
after she noticed on Facebook that he had become single. After that, they began communicating.
narrator: In June 2012, 23-year-old Natalie was living with her parents in Swanley, Kent, just four miles from
Whelehan's home in Sidcup. She was born on the 28th of April, 1989, to mom, Adele.
Adele Jarvis: Natalie's my youngest daughter. Gemma was four or nearly four when Natalie was born.
There's nearly four years between them. And she loved having a little sister. They grew up very close.
Gemma Jarvis: Even though there was four years between us, we were just always together.
Whenever I came out, me and my sister came as a pair. She was just fun, outgoing, bubbly, loving.
And whenever Natalie was around, you would hear her before you saw her. narrator: When Natalie and Gemma were still small,
their family was completed by Adele's new partner, Mark. - I came into Natalie's life when she was four years old.
And she was one of those children that you just looked at and fell in love with straight away.
She was a larger-than-life character, and more friends than you could shake a stick at.
narrator: As she headed towards adulthood, Natalie's zest for life showed no sign of abating.
Adele Jarvis: Natalie was all about makeup and modern clothes and looking good and dressing good.
Gemma Jarvis: When Nat was old enough to come out with me, we'd go to bars and stuff.
She'd spend a lot of time on the gay scene with me, so we'd go, like, in and out of clubs, Brighton, London.
When we were out, we'd be dancing, we'd be chatting, just be enjoying ourselves.
And like, everything was fun. It was always fun. It was loud. We'd get up to mischief.
narrator: In 2011, Natalie suffered a heartbreak that challenged her usually sunny, optimistic outlook.
Adele Jarvis: Natalie was in a relationship, a serious relationship with a guy. And he got her pregnant, but he didn't
want her to have the baby, so we obviously spoke to her about it and she made the decision.
She didn't want to be a single mom. And she chose to have an abortion. - They split up, they got back together, they split up again.
Adele Jarvis: He broke her heart. The relationship broke up. After that, we supported her as much as we could.
She appeared to be going out and enjoying herself, but she wasn't the same person that she was.
- We said, come on, Nat, you've got to move on from this. And she did. Or she appeared to move on.
She started meeting other people. We thought she'd eventually got over this guy.
narrator: It was around this time that Natalie reconnected with 22-year-old Adam Whelehan, whom
she'd first met back in 2008. - I think she was very vulnerable when she met Adam.
And I think she saw him as someone to help her through the pain that she was going through.
- In the early summer of 2012, they were both unattached. And a relationship began.
Adele Jarvis: His name was being mentioned quite regularly. And he was picking her up from the house,
taking her out, going to the cinema, eating out, doing those type of things. I'd ask her numerous times, is he your boyfriend, Nat?
And she goes, no, mom, he's just a friend. We're just friends. But I know there was more to it.
I know they were being intimate. narrator: Though Natalie said she was happy with the status
quo, there were signs she may have wanted more from the relationship. - I don't think he was as serious about her
as she might have been about him. narrator: There appeared to be an imbalance in Natalie
and Whelehan's ongoing relationship. Jane Monckton-Smith: In what's called a situationship suggests that this
is an agreement between two people that they're only going to hook up now and again, probably
for sex, and then just go about their lives and not be in any kind of committed relationship.
That's all very well and good. But in a lot of cases, one party wants the situationship and the other party
wants something more committed. narrator: Natalie's family had little opportunity
to get to know the young man she was spending time with. Adele Jarvis: To be honest with you,
I don't really know a lot about Adam at all. I would love Natalie to have brought Adam home so that we
could meet him properly. But because she said there wasn't a label on their relationship, perhaps
he was reluctant to meet us. I know he came to our house when we weren't here, but we never actually met him.
Mark Jarvis: He didn't come to the door when he came to collect her. Natalie'd say, I'm off out.
And off she'd go. Adele Jarvis: There was nothing that Natalie ever said about Adam that made me think there was anything wrong
with him, dodgy about him. She was very confident woman and trustworthy. And I trusted what she said.
Gemma Jarvis: I think one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't know anything about him.
Because if I had known a bit more about him, I may have been a bit more like Nat,
you know, a bit more hesitant, like, watch what you're doing. Be careful. narrator: Natalie Jarvis's family
had no reason to worry about her safety when she spent time with Adam Whelehan.
They had no way of knowing that the man Natalie was seeing had another personality, a dark and dangerous side
that would eventually be revealed with devastating consequences. [dramatic music]
In the summer of 2012, 23-year-old Natalie Jarvis was a happy-go-lucky young woman living
with her parents in the town of Swanley in Kent. - Natalie got a job at McDonald's and
seemed very happy there. That, for her, was like a social life as well as her job.
Gemma Jarvis: I don't think she really aspired to be anything. She just wanted to have fun.
To be honest, I think she probably would still be working at McDonald's now if she was still alive.
I would imagine she'd be a manager of some sort, but I think she would have stayed where she
was because people liked her. Mark Jarvis: When she walked into a room, it was like a social hand grenade.
Everything stopped because Natalie had walked in. And the noise levels went up, and
the population went up as well when she was around, because people just flocked to her.
narrator: While Natalie was popular with customers, her family, and her many friends,
the one person who seemed not to appreciate her was the man she was in a casual relationship with,
22-year-old Adam Whelehan. Khaleda Rahman: Adam Whelehan did not seem to think very highly of Natalie.
He and his friends would refer to her as JC, which was a cruel reference to the actor, James Corden, who they seem
to think that she resembled. narrator: Whelehan's friend, Tom, first came up with the jibe.
- It was something like, yeah, she looks like JC, and I'd rather shag James Corden than her.
And that set the tone for what were grotesque series of boys saying dreadful things about girls
that they never imagined would be seen. Jane Monckton-Smith: Natalie was spoken about and treated as if she was
of no importance to anyone. Ian Acheson: I imagine that many of those texts were sent when she was just sitting
over there waving at them. It was just callous, laddish, uncaring offensiveness.
narrator: Natalie had no inkling of the way Adam Whelehan and his friends talked about her
in their private messages. But in July 2012, she got her first taste of how unpleasant he could be.
Khaleda Rahman: Just a few days after they first slept together, Natalie texted Adam Whelehan
to say that she was pregnant. He did not react well. narrator: Despite the revelation via text,
no one is sure whether or not Natalie really had been pregnant in July 2012. Jane Monckton-Smith: When Natalie told him
that she thought she was pregnant, I think we have to consider, one, that maybe she thought she was; two, that she was testing
to see if the things that he was saying to her, are they true or not? Where one person wants something different
from the relationship to the other person always creates an imbalance. The person who doesn't want the relationship
always has far more power. And they could be quite manipulative. He may have been giving her messaging
that he liked her a lot more than he actually did. narrator: If Natalie was hoping to discover
Whelehan's true feelings for her, she may have been disappointed by his response.
Ian Acheson: He wasn't happy about the idea. I think that was the first point at which a sour note
came into his text messages. He sent the sort of ugly messages that young men in that situation
can send, namely, well, it's nothing to do with me, you'll have to prove it, and, I don't want it, et cetera.
narrator: Though it was perhaps not the response she was hoping for, Natalie pursued her relationship
with Adam Whelehan. Ian Acheson: There were the best part of a thousand texts sent by Natalie to Adam.
And he either ignored them or sent a rebuff. narrator: Instead, Whelehan sent frantic messages
to female friends, asking how he could find out if Natalie was telling the truth about the pregnancy,
and text to his male friends complaining about the bind he was in. - It started, and this is not uncommon,
with the bloke complaining to his friends that she's just badgering him and she's a blight on his life.
It's getting him down. And then he starts claiming that it's getting him so down that he's ideating suicidal thoughts.
Jane Monckton-Smith: For people like Whelehan who believe that they are in charge of the relationship,
he is the type of person who's going to respond really badly when that control is
taken away from him. narrator: For Professor Jane Monckton-Smith, an expert on violence and control within relationships,
Whelehan's reaction to Natalie's news, though extreme, was not uncommon. Jane Monckton-Smith: If she's saying she's pregnant,
that's a massive challenge to his control over his own life, over that relationship, over everything.
Very often, actually, in those circumstances, somebody like Whelehan's thoughts are going to go straight to death.
Quite often, this does start with, well, I'm going to kill myself. And that can move to, I'm going to kill you.
For me, Whelehan is showing me exactly who he is. And he is the type of person that, in his relationships,
he's going to become dangerous. narrator: And while Adam Whelehan never got a firm answer on whether or not Natalie really
was pregnant, it's clear that his thoughts about her began to take a dark and violent direction.
Geoffrey Wansell: On the 23rd of July, about 10 days after Natalie had told Adam she was pregnant,
Adam tweeted, "It's all right to kill someone these days, isn't it? Think I might just do that."
It is an extraordinary reaction, and one which is indicative of a lack of any kind of empathy.
- Just about a week later, he tweeted again, ♪ "I think I might do it, hashtag #murderousmind.
narrator: As the summer of 2012 went on, Whelehan's dark musings about killing Natalie Jarvis
continued. And before long, his friends, the ones who'd exchanged misogynistic messages about Natalie,
were also drawn into the fantasy. Geoffrey Wansell: On the 6th of September, Adam's friend,
Tom, texted him, saying, why don't you just get on and kill her? So they'd obviously been talking about it
throughout the summer. On the 17th of September, Tom sent another message to Adam on Twitter saying,
"The end is nigh for JC. The end is nigh." - His friends seem to goad him and encourage him.
Some of them would ask him whether he had killed anyone. And he would respond saying only in his mind.
- On the 19th of September, Adam texted another friend saying, "I'm going to do JC tomorrow."
narrator: Whatever Whelehan meant by that, nothing happened. But the exchange of messages fantasizing
about Whelehan harming Natalie continued. Ian Acheson: I don't recall at any stage
any of the male friends putting in a dissenting text saying, hold on, Adam, what are you talking about, you idiot?
Khaleda Rahman: If anything, they seem to encourage him. Jane Monckton-Smith: Quite probably, they didn't believe
that he would actually do it. This was just more misogynistic banter that they were all
getting involved in together. And they probably really believed that he wouldn't
take it to the next step. narrator: As summer turned to autumn, Whelehan and his friends continued
to exchange sinister messages about Natalie Jarvis's fate. She, in the meantime, was oblivious to
Whelehan's true intentions, intentions that were coming closer and closer to being realized.
Khaleda Rahman: On the 1st of October, Adam Whelehan had driven Natalie and a friend
to go to visit a Burger King. Afterwards, the friend was dropped off, and Whelehan and Natalie drove around
for a few hours in the car. narrator: Whatever the two of them talked about, something seemed to have happened during that drive
to spook Natalie. Adele Jarvis: Natalie posted something on Facebook, saying that she was being kidnapped.
But I didn't really use Facebook a lot back then and I hadn't seen it. I think he took her somewhere that she may
have not known where she was. And she may well have said to him, I want to go home.
Khaleda Rahman: When her sister messaged her about it, she made light of the situation and said it was just a joke.
narrator: Whether Natalie's post was in jest or in earnest, it seems to have saved her life.
For that day at least. - Natalie didn't seem to know how close she had come to death that evening.
Adam Whelehan messaged a friend that he had been close to doing it, but what stopped him
was Natalie's Facebook post. He said that he had his knife ready and everything.
narrator: Once again, Whelehan's friends might have taken his words as a joke. But in fact, he was deadly serious, and next time there
would be no backing down. On the 3rd of October 2012, Adam Whelehan suggested another late night liaison with Natalie Jarvis in Swanley,
Kent. Around 6:30 PM on that Wednesday evening, Adam Whelehan met friends for after-work drinks in Sidcup,
Southeast London. - Adam and his friend, Tom, are drinking in a local golf club.
They leave the golf club and go to another pub. narrator: At a third pub, by this time, several drinks in,
Whelehan set the wheels in motion for what was to come. At 9:40 PM, he sent a message to Natalie Jarvis.
[phone notification] - He asked if she wanted to meet up and talk and have sex. Ian Acheson: There was an exchange
between him and Natalie, where she expressed, well, how am I to believe you? You've been mugging me off all this time.
And he went, no, no, we'll go and talk and we'll have fun. narrator: At the same time as Natalie
was agreeing to Whelehan's plan, his friends were exchanging cryptic messages about what might happen next.
[phone notification] - The spiral of text exchanges where no one's throwing a spanner in the works.
I genuinely don't think they thought he was telling the truth. narrator: As Adam Whelehan and his friend, Tom,
left the pub on Sidcup High Street, Natalie Jarvis was coming to the end of her shift at work.
Mark Jarvis: Natalie was working at the local McDonald's. About halfway through the evening,
she rang Adele and said, I'm finishing early. Can mom come and get me? Adele Jarvis: When she came home from work, had a shower,
and she didn't bother to put clothes on again because it was like 10:30 at night.
So she put pajamas on and a pink dressing gown and her slippers. Had a cuddle and a chat with me and said,
I'm going out for a fag for a bit. narrator: At 10:32 PM, Whelehan messaged Natalie, "Outside."
- And she texts Adam Whelehan, "Two mins." Adele Jarvis: And basically, she said,
bye and "shlaters," as she used to say, which meant see you later. Love you. Bye.
And that was the last thing she said. [somber music] Mark Jarvis: She shouted up the stairs to me, love you.
And that was it. And obviously, I shouted down. And thank Christ I did. ♪ ♪ narrator: Carrying just her phone and keys,
Natalie got into the passenger seat of Adam Whelehan's car. Geoffrey Wansell: What Natalie doesn't know
and what Adam hasn't told her is that his friend, Tom, is concealed in the boot.
Jane Monckton-Smith: I think it's really frightening that Whelehan manipulated Natalie
to get in the car with him and there's a second male in the boot. That, to me, is a terrifying situation.
Why was that person in the boot? There's no reasonable explanation. Ian Acheson: He was in the boot of the car sending messages
to a girl who knew everyone from the pub saying, oh, my goodness, I'm in the boot of the car.
He can't be about to do it, but he might be about to do it. Words to that effect.
And he tried to send her a photograph of his hand in the black, the darkness of the boot of the car.
Adele Jarvis: And Natalie just sat in the car with him and they drove to Swanley Village.
I believe they've been there before where they parked up. And she might have just thought that they
were just going for a chat. The radio was on and everything was just normal. Khaleda Rahman: During the drive,
she seemed to be aware that a warning light was on, indicating that the boot was open.
Mark Jarvis: And by the time they got to Burton Street in Swanley Village, Natalie insisted he stopped the car.
And she got out of the car and she goes to the boot of the car to chuck it shut.
narrator: This was the moment the sick joke between friends became a reality. In a secluded country lane, Adam Whelehan
had carried out the horrific act he'd been boasting about for weeks. - He just started stabbing her in the throat.
Geoffrey Wansell: In the end, he inflicts 20 stab wounds on her neck, one of them four and bit inches deep, almost
severing her carotid artery. Khaleda Rahman: She fought back. The evidence shows that she had defensive wounds on her hands
and on her arms. narrator: Natalie staggered towards a lit window in the village, but fell to the ground
before she made it there. Adam Whelehan pursued her and carried out one final devastating act against her.
- Natalie said to him, I'm dying. Please ring my mom. And he threw her phone away.
- He simply took it out and threw it over a hedge. - So that she had no way of contacting
anyone, of getting herself to safety, or saving her own life. - She just died on the road, and he got back in the car
and drove off with his friend. - Adam Whelehan returned to the car covered in blood.
Tom, at this point, was in the driver's seat of the car. narrator: Together, they drove in the opposite direction
from where Natalie lay alone. As they headed back towards Whelehan's hometown, he messaged his friends, "Done.
Not lying. Covered in blood. So sorry I let you boys down." Just a few minutes later, a driver
spotted Natalie Jarvis lying at the side of the road in Swanley Village. - Realizes that she's been brutally attacked,
calls the paramedics. Khaleda Rahman: The passerby gave her CPR and tried his best to keep her alive until paramedics arrived.
Geoffrey Wansell: They get there quite quickly at about 11:25. But sadly, they cannot revive her and
she's declared dead at 11:30. narrator: Seven minutes later, Whelehan and his friends
were eight miles away in Eltham, buying beer and cigars. Khaleda Rahman: They went and picked up a friend of theirs.
Together, they drove to a Tesco Express. Adam Whelehan stayed in the car. He was covered in blood.
But he gave his credit card to his friend. They bought alcohol, cigarettes, cigars, lottery scratch cards.
narrator: While Natalie Jarvis's family slept, oblivious to the fact their lives were
about to be forever changed, Whelehan told his friends he really had done what the four of them
had been discussing for weeks. Jane Monckton-Smith: After the murder, Whelehan joined up with his friends,
smoking cigars, drinking, bragging about what he's done. Geoffrey Wansell: It absolutely defies belief.
You're sitting around in a house with a man who is covered in blood, who's just admitted
that he's killed his girlfriend, and you all just have another drink. narrator: But before long, the camaraderie turned to horror
for Whelehan's friends. They urged him to go to the police and admit what he'd done.
Khaleda Rahman: Adam Whelehan turned himself in at Bexleyheath police station at about
3:00 AM on October the 4th. He said that he thought he had killed someone in the Swanley area.
At the time, he did not know if Natalie was dead, but he told officers that he had slashed her neck
and left her. [dramatic music] Jane Monckton-Smith: That was definitely an act of self-preservation.
It was going to take the police five minutes to link Natalie to him. Loads and loads of people knew anyway.
So the best thing for him really is to say, yes, it was me, but I was defending myself.
Ian Acheson: He was interviewed under caution, and he set out what was his defense,
namely that she'd attacked him with a weapon that she'd brought, and he disarmed her.
And that was how she'd come to be stabbed 20 odd times in the throat. Geoffrey Wansell: When the forensic team searched
Adam's car, they found the multitool sheath with his fingerprints on it. And they also found his bloody tracksuit bottoms.
narrator: Natalie's phone was recovered from a field close to where her body lay.
As Adam Whelehan sat in a police cell in Bexleyheath, just seven miles away in Swanley,
Natalie Jarvis's family were waking up to discover their daughter was nowhere to be found.
[birds chirping, sad tune] - The 3rd of October is when Natalie died. But the day my world come crashing down was
actually the 4th of October. It was waking up on that morning and she wasn't in her bed.
The worst thing going through my head was that she might have been involved in an accident.
And she'd gone out with her phone and keys in her pajamas and dressing gown, so no ID on her.
- I was getting ready for work as well at the time, said I'll try ringing her. I left her a message.
Nothing. Gemma Jarvis: I phoned 999. And I said, I want to know if there have been any reports of a woman
being involved in an accident. And she asked me, how tall was she and what color was her hair?
And no alarm bells were going off in my head at all. And then she said, someone would be around to see
us in about an hour. And still no alarm bells were going off. narrator: Just minutes later, a detective
was knocking on the door of Adele and Mark Jarvis's home. Adele Jarvis: This man came in.
It was just so normal. And he was telling us to sit down. And I'm like, oh, no, it's all right.
I don't need to sit down. Mark Jarvis: And he said, I need to tell you something.
We found a body. And we believe it's your daughter. The impact was just like being punched by Mike Tyson.
You just-- what? Adele Jarvis: And I remember screaming at him, how dare you come into my house and tell me my daughter's dead?
You don't know her. You don't even know what she looks like. narrator: Natalie's sister Gemma, at work that morning,
had been making phone calls to try to find out where Natalie might be. - The next thing I know, I got a phone call from Mark
and he was crying, and he was like, Gemma, you need to come home. And I went downstairs and spoke to the manager
that was in charge. And I said to her, I need to go home. My sister's dead. I didn't know how or why, but I knew
something horrible had happened and I was never going to see her again. [sobbing]
Adele Jarvis: We weren't allowed to see her till the Friday. So between Wednesday and the Friday,
it felt like I was just not believing it. It's not Natalie. It's not Natalie. It can't be Natalie.
Ringing her phone. And obviously, she didn't answer. But we still didn't believe it was her until we
were taken to the mortuary. Mark Jarvis: When they pull the curtains back, that's when reality hits you.
And you know that you've been praying in a forlorn hope because it was Natalie. Adele Jarvis: She had a towel right up to her chin
that was hiding injuries that he'd inflicted on her all around her neck. And we could touch her.
They let us in. We could only touch her face and her hair. And we were kissing her and crying.
But it was the worst image. You just-- you just don't want to ever see that, your child lying there stone cold, hard. [sobbing]
I can't tell you how bad it is. It's just something that I'll never get over. [somber music]
[dramatic music] narrator: The next days and weeks passed in a blur for Natalie's shocked and grieving family.
By this time, both Whelehan and one of his friends had been charged with murder.
Both defendants could request their own separate post-mortem, so it was some time before Natalie's body
could be released. - Natalie's funeral was on the 19th of November. - Natalie's funeral was amazing.
It was so big. She was in this beautiful white coffin. We wanted a rainbow on it because Natalie's life
was very colorful. Adele Jarvis: She would have seen it as one big party. And it was.
It was very emotional. We all wrote little notes. And we were able to put them in a jar.
And they were going to get put in her coffin. It was very sad, as you can imagine.
But it was big. Nat would have loved it. Gemma Jarvis: There must have been upwards of 300 people there, people from all walks of life
who we'd never seen that Natalie had had an impact on. It was just phenomenal. narrator: Five months after Natalie Jarvis's funeral,
her family attended the trial of the men charged with her murder. The trial at Maidstone Crown Court began
on the 3rd of April, 2013. Gemma Jarvis: I was there every single day of the trial.
We had a lot of people. I think most days, there was about 30 or 40 people on our side in terms of family and friends
that wanted to be there to support us during it. It was about justice for Natalie.
Khaleda Rahman: Adam Whelehan and Tom were both charged with Natalie's murder. Both pleaded not guilty.
Geoffrey Wansell: Tom was, after all, in the car hiding in the boot, and then drove Adam away.
Ian Acheson: Tom was properly tried and properly acquitted, in my view. He was acquitted because even at the very last minute,
I don't genuinely think he thought anything other than, well, this really can't be happening.
narrator: Mark and Adele Jarvis had never before laid eyes on Adam Whelehan, the man their daughter had liked
and who stood accused of taking her life. Adele Jarvis: The first day of the court,
we got a proper look at him. To me, he looked like a little boy. He didn't look like he was sorry.
Gemma Jarvis: We were filled with rage. Oh, it was just so surreal. All we wanted to know was why.
narrator: Accused of murdering Natalie Jarvis in cold blood, Whelehan stuck to his claim
that he had killed her in self-defense after she'd lunged at him with a knife. For Natalie's loved ones, it was an outlandish claim.
Gemma Jarvis: The idea that she would go out to attack someone was shocking. We were just like, you're having a laugh, mate.
My sister was just-- she would kill you with kindness. Like, that was it. narrator: Prosecutor Ian Acheson
presented forensic evidence that demolished Whelehan's claims, starting with the pathologist description of the injuries
to Natalie's neck. - A hole where her larynx might be, that injury was the combination of so many knife wounds
that the forensic pathologist was unable to quantify how many separate blows had
caused that injury. All he could say about it was that the depth of the blows to that injury
was 11 and 1/2 centimeters. That sort of furious stabbing to the most vulnerable part of the body, that's not self-defense.
Jane Monckton-Smith: He stabbed her more than 20 times in the neck and the chest.
It takes quite a long time to stab somebody that number of times. He didn't stab her and then suddenly think,
oh, my god, what have I done? He kept going and kept going because he was rage-fueled.
Geoffrey Wansell: There was about 150 meters of blood spatter from the car to where
her body was eventually found. Ian Acheson: She managed to walk 35 meters after the first plainly fatal spurt of blood.
And then as each pulse came, it was less blood, and it went a shorter distance as the life
literally ebbed out of her. narrator: The prosecution contended that the attack was of a savagery that
couldn't be explained by Whelehan's claim of defending himself. They also drew on hundreds of text messages
to prove it had been premeditated. - We had incontrovertible text message evidence of him expressing the desire to kill her.
We have a month where he demonstrates absolutely no interest in seeing her again.
And then when he tells his mates, right, tonight's the night, for the first time in a thousand
text messages, he said, all right, Natalie, why don't we go out together? I'll come and pick you up.
And then, lo and behold, within seconds of them getting out of the car, she is face down on the pavement
with horrendous fatal injuries. narrator: If Whelehan's premeditated, rage-fueled
attack had been in response to believing Natalie was expecting his child, the post-mortem findings were especially poignant.
Natalie had not been pregnant at the time that she was killed. Geoffrey Wansell: On the 24th of April 2013, the jury retire
to consider their verdict. It takes them less than four hours to come back and convict Adam Whelehan
of Natalie Jarvis's murder. Mark Jarvis: The whole family were, yes. Nothing else. No gloating.
Nothing. Whilst we're satisfied that he was found guilty, there's no elation in it.
It's just that the system that we believe in has proven that you were guilty. Geoffrey Wansell: That same day, the judge sentences Adam,
of course, to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 26 years. Gemma Jarvis: The judge said in court,
Whelehan could have got rid of his phone, could have changed his number if all this talk of harassment
was true. He didn't have to come and pick her up. He didn't have to do anything.
He wasn't forced into this. He could have walked away. The senselessness is just the loss of life
and a life of such a vibrant person. It just beggars belief. It just doesn't add up.
Ian Acheson: He didn't have a soul. I recall clearly asking him, "Did you feel anything
for her before this happened?" "No." "And once it had happened, she'd been your friend,
did you feel anything about her lying on a slab in a morgue?" "No." "Do you feel anything about her now?
Her mother's sitting over there. Do you have any feelings for them?" "No." And it was as if he wasn't the same species as us.
narrator: With her killer behind bars, Natalie Jarvis's family have been left to pick up the pieces of their lives as best they can,
and to remember the 23 years they enjoyed with a beloved daughter and sister. - When I think of Natalie, I just think fun.
Boom. There she is. She was just amazing. I am so thankful and I'm so lucky that I
had such a perfect sister. Adele Jarvis: She was special. She was beautiful, happy, always had a smile on her face.
She lit up the room. She was my world. Her and her sister, Gemma, are everything and more to me.
I'm born to be their mom and privileged and honored to be their mom. narrator: What started as a simple story of two
young people enjoying each other's company descended within months to a callous murder plot
hatched by a man whose friends did nothing to change his course of action. Natalie Jarvis was a loving young woman
who brought only joy to the people who knew her. In taking her life, Adam Whelehan
has proved to be one of the world's most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ [audio logo]

Natalie went for a quick drive with Adam and never returned. Within minutes, she was dead. Detectives uncovered that Adam had planned an attack driven by jealousy and cruelty, hiding behind a façade that fooled everyone around her.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

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Brief Summary

Natalie Jarvis was murdered by Adam Whelehan after a violent confrontation stemming from their complicated relationship.

Key points

A Chilling Confession. Adam Whelehan walked into a police station with blood on his hands, claiming he thought he killed someone.
A Dark Transformation. Adam Whelehan's facade of normalcy crumbles as his violent tendencies are revealed.
Natalie's Vibrant Spirit. Natalie Jarvis was remembered as a fun and loving person, full of life and energy.
Vulnerability in Relationships. Natalie's vulnerability led her to reconnect with Adam Whelehan, unaware of his dark side.
The Last Goodbye. Natalie Jarvis's last words to her family were filled with love, but they would be her final farewell.
The Terrifying Situation. Whelehan manipulated Natalie into a deadly situation with a second male concealed in the boot.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a man who appears to have no concept of a conscience.

Geoffrey Wansell's description of Adam Whelehan.

2:31WatchMay 13, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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