Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 26 - Dix - Full Episode | Forensic Files

NARRATOR: In a prison visiting room, Hazel Denver and Glyn Dix fall in love. They were, said by everyone, to be the perfect couple.
NARRATOR: But does Hazel really know what kind of man she's marrying? He was controlling.
He was manipulative. He liked to frighten people. NARRATOR: He could kill, too. Glyn Dix had already been responsible
for one violent death when he asked Hazel to marry him. To me, he's just a bomb waiting to go off.
First thing I saw was this pile of branches, which the leaves had come off. So I saw these legs sticking out.
NARRATOR: But could Glyn Dix really be held responsible for the death of a woman
who had become his wife? [music playing] When mother of six, Hazel Denver, met Glyn Dix,
she was open to the idea of falling in love. She came to see him. She couldn't resist him.
NARRATOR: 47-year-old Hazel met Glenn through her son, Adam Langford, while both
were serving prison sentences. She's a single mom. She's been sold a dream. Remember that.
Glyn Dix will have sold her a dream. He will have convinced her that he's a loving partner,
that he's going to give her a new life, and finally, she won't feel so alone. Adam had grown to be-- to regard Glyn as perhaps his best
friend, certainly a very good friend, but perhaps his best friend. NARRATOR: It was 1997 when she was visiting Adam in prison
where he'd been locked up following driving offenses. Glyn was Adam's cell mate.
So this is how he gets introduced to Hazel. JEREMY COID: He appears to her obviously
an attractive man, somebody that she's interested in. They end up being pen pals,
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: They spark up a relationship. NARRATOR: Dix was 18 years into a 20-year sentence, the kind
of punishment usually handed down for the most heinous of crimes, yet Hazel seemed to have few qualms
about befriending him. Would that change when she knew more? JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: There's already
some trust there because, really, her son is sharing a cell. NARRATOR: Jane Monckton-Smith is a leading criminologist.
All of those questions and answers about, is this a trustworthy person, have been done by somebody else
that Hazel trusts. So when she starts this relationship with Dix, she's not concerned about his past.
Hazel was soon regularly visiting Dix in prison. And after a few months, she announced to everybody
that she was in love, and that they were going to get married. NARRATOR: By now, Hazel had learned more about her fiance.
She knew that in 1980, Glyn Dix had been convicted of shooting dead a young woman
called Pia Overbury. Dix tells her some quite bizarre stories about how Pia died.
He comes up with some strange story about being in the elite army, and that he was involved
in this altercation, and when he woke up, he had a shotgun in his hand, and a woman was dead.
NARRATOR: Dix told Hazel and her family that he'd been framed for Pia's murder. It was an outlandish tale.
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: But I think because that trust had already started and been built, and possibly,
Hazel was a bit vulnerable. He got away with those stories and presented himself
as somebody who was not dangerous at all. EMMA KENNY: You buy into the narrative you want to believe.
Hazel wants to believe that Glyn Dix is the man of her dreams, so she rationalizes a bias, and that makes her believe it.
NARRATOR: The true story of 32-year-old Pia Overbury's death was much darker than Glyn
would have anyone believe. So we're in the 1970s. We are in Gloucester. NARRATOR: Then, in his 20s, Glyn Dix
was a single man living alone. TONY KENT: He lived by the docks, Gloucester Docks,
and that was particularly rundown, even in comparison to the surrounding areas. It was a lot of some bedsits and places
that we really look at now as squats. And back then, she was really struggling with getting
the rent from Glyn. She spent a lot of her time going around there, being forced to just knock on the door and asking to be paid,
and she never was. NARRATOR: As Pia Overbury and her daughters were forced to make weekly visits to his home,
Dix would subject them to increasingly unnerving behavior. Pia's daughter was a young child at the time.
She was called Maxine. Now, she recounts that when they used to go to try and collect rent, she would feel very
uncomfortable in his presence. He would sometimes make strange faces at her. TONY KENT: What Pia didn't realize
was she was dealing with a ticking time-bomb. And by the mere fact of asking to be paid for the rent that
was due, she had placed herself very much in the firing line of that time-bomb. NARRATOR: It was unclear if his bizarre, sometimes frightening
behavior was the result of a psychiatric disorder or simply that he was an unpleasant personality.
Whichever, Glyn Dix was not willing to accept Pia's regular visits to demand the rent.
I can see that he would not have liked somebody like Pia to have been in a position of power
over him. And, of course, him not paying his rent meant that's exactly where she was,
and she wasn't going anywhere. NARRATOR: He made the decision she had to be stopped.
What he did next confirmed how vulnerable Pia was. We can tell that Glyn Dix is starting to unravel when
he goes and seeks to buy a gun. And he buys a gun from Hastings, which is quite a long way away from him.
We do know that he got this gun illegally. EMMA KENNY: But it also shows that he now
thinks he's an imminent threat, or he feels that he has to remove a situation. We do know about people who revere weapons, display
weapons, want to use weapons are more dangerous than other people. So we start to get a picture of this man who likes to dominate,
who likes to frighten, and now has an illegal gun. NARRATOR: On the 2nd of October, 1979, Pia Overbury disappeared.
It was her daughter Maxine, wanting to celebrate her own birthday, who first noticed that her mother was not where she should be.
NEIL LANCASTER: Maxine went to the cafe that Pia worked at. However, Pia wasn't there.
NARRATOR: Pia's husband reported her missing to police on the same day, but they had little to help them.
What we have to remember is this was 1979. This was a long time ago. NARRATOR: As a former detective and surveillance specialist,
Neil Lancaster is used to being able to follow a missing person's digital trail.
That's something that didn't exist in the late 1970s. There were no phones to track people by.
There were no bank records to track people by because they were incredibly historic.
There was no CCTV. Now, I've got to say that back in those days, missing persons were not taken as seriously as they are today.
They were very often thought of a wife's gone, maybe she's left her husband. This is nobody else's business.
There were no leads. There was nothing to go on. NARRATOR: For more than two weeks,
Pia Overbury's family searched for her. In October 1979, Mary Redvers and her family
had just moved to the picturesque parish of Hartpury in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire in England.
MARY REDVERS: In the spring, it's full of bluebells. It's lovely. And it's a very, very old wood.
It's called Carter's Grove because they used to stop here on the way to market when there was water for the cattle
and spend the night here. I think that's what's happened. But it's a very, very old wood.
It's very special and it's just beautiful. NARRATOR: The 20th of October was an unseasonably warm autumn
day. Mary and her young children were exploring. MARY REDVERS: It's peaceful. And there's a lot of birds down here.
And you feel it's an ancient woodland, somehow. NARRATOR: In the idyllic scene, Mary saw something unexpected.
MARY REDVERS: Well, there was this pile of branches. And the leaves had obviously fallen
off the branches because it might have been there for some time. The first thing I saw was the leg sticking out, of course.
NARRATOR: Crudely concealed, the body of a woman. So obviously, when he covered the body up,
they would have been covered in leaves, so you wouldn't have seen anything, probably.
And then, I got a bit closer and I saw the head on the one side. So I said to the children quickly, come on,
we must go back because there's something rather nasty here. NARRATOR: Hoisting her tiny daughter onto her shoulders
and taking the older child by the hand, Mary Redvers made a hasty retreat from the woods.
MARY REDVERS: I was frightened because you think, oh, my gosh. Is there somebody behind a tree?
NARRATOR: Mary Redvers had run from a murder scene, fearing for her own life. NEIL LANCASTER: She rushes straight
off and raises the alarm. NARRATOR: Mary guided police back to the spot. MARY REDVERS: I had no idea that anybody was missing.
I didn't know anything about it at all, nothing. NARRATOR: But officers attending from Gloucester just five miles
away had a strong suspicion whose body they were about to uncover. The stockinged legs belonged to the missing
young mom of two, Pia Overbury. She had been shot in the face. This is now a murder inquiry.
Afterwards, my husband said, oh, I think I remember hearing a shot. But then, people used to-- were allowed to come in here
and shoot rabbits, so we didn't think anything of it. NEIL LANCASTER: They were interviewing local residents.
They're interviewing the tenants at the properties. TONY KENT: One person that they were
inevitably going to speak to was the tenant with whom she had issues. He wasn't the prime suspect.
No one was. He was just one of the people on the list. NARRATOR: Glyn Dix denied knowing
anything about Pia's death, and was released after questioning. But the investigation was gathering pace.
The police started a fingertip search of the area where Pia's body was found. This would have been a meticulous and systematic
exercise with a large number of officers on their hands and knees in amongst the leaves
and the undergrowth. During this, they found Pia's handbag. This was a crucial finding.
It meant they were in the right place, and they carried on searching. During the further search, they found a 410 shotgun cartridge.
This was a crucial find. From that 410 cartridge, they were able to find the original owners of the firearm that fired it.
They went to see them, and they told them all about that they sold it to Dix. NARRATOR: Glyn Dix was now the only real suspect
in his landlady's murder. But when police came to interview him under caution, he wasn't at home.
After their first round of routine questioning, Dix was feeling the pressure of what he'd done.
Now, Dix can't handle this. The stress is far too much for him. He takes an overdose, and he's taken to hospital.
EMMA KENNY: It's not surprising that Glyn Dix takes an overdose when the police questioned him about where Pia is
or what might have happened to her, because logistically, he knows he's killed her
and he's not done the maths. He's not thought about the next stage. So suddenly, he feels that they know.
You've got to remember, Glyn Dix has suspicious and paranoid thinking anyway. Now, he knows he's done something wrong.
He's absolutely going to believe that everyone knows the truth, so he's trying to escape, and that's what he does.
He takes an overdose and he tries to escape. NARRATOR: His suicide attempt, unsuccessful.
Dix was now faced with the fact that the police knew who was responsible for the death of Pia Overbury.
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: When he gets to hospital, his behavior becomes really concerning.
It's very erratic and strange. People start worrying that he's not thinking properly,
responding properly, so he actually ends up in a psychiatric unit. JEREMY COID: It's believed that he
showed some symptoms looking like those of schizophrenia at that time. NARRATOR: Professor Jeremy Coid is a forensic psychiatrist who
works closely with offenders who are seriously and mentally unwell. Schizophrenia is a brain disease,
and we do not know the true cause. It's thought that there is an alteration of brain chemicals.
And what you actually get is a series of symptoms which you diagnose the illness.
You have to have experiences like hearing voices, people talking about you. You have to have your thoughts interfered with.
You have to feel that things around you take on a special meaning that relate to you.
You have to have delusional beliefs. Glyn Dix has taken an overdose, and he's killed someone.
That's two big events in a very short period of time. That shows the level of stress that he's under.
Stress is a huge activator of schizophrenic issues. So what we don't know, whether he
had had those symptoms at the time of the killing, or whether the stress-- and it is an extremely stressful experience to have
been arrested for murder-- that actually tipped him over the edge. NARRATOR: When police were finally able to question Dix,
he was no longer protesting his innocence. He broke down. He confessed. And he took them to where that firearm was.
NARRATOR: Glyn Dix admitted shooting Pia Overbury, but detectives and doctors were baffled when he told them why.
He told them it was a contract killing gone wrong. Pia had asked him to help kill her husband.
Then, he told them that he was putting Pia out of her misery because her marriage was abusive.
Neither story was true. So I think that many people have looked at those different explanations and thought,
well, actually, this is an example of pathological lying. And pathological lying is something
you usually see with somebody with a severe personality disorder. You do sometimes see it in severe sex offenders.
And it's thought there might have been strong sexual element in that first killing.
But I think there's another possible explanation is that his mental state was deteriorating,
and that it is possible that he had sort of delusion. He truly believed that he was involved in a contract killing.
NARRATOR: In July 1980, Glyn Dix pleaded guilty to killing Pia. They have Dix's confession.
They have the firearm. He's taken them to it. He's shown them where it is. They have the bullet that they found
at the scene, which is now forensically linked to that firearm. It's a slam dunk case,
NARRATOR: It would be 20 years before Dix could be considered for parole. Jail guards and prison inmates saw
a very different side to him than the residents around Gloucester Docks. Throughout his time in prison, however, he'd
been on medication. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: Now, all through his prison life, he seems to have stayed under the radar,
maybe been a model prisoner. One of the differences between Glyn Dix in prison and Glyn Dix outside of prison is that prison has structure.
It really does. Some people fare better inside than they do on the outside because they're given the right medication,
they're fed at the right times. The stresses are lower because you don't have to necessarily
worry about finding employment. And things are taken care of so that you can essentially just
manage getting through the day. That's your job. Maybe that suited him. Maybe he's very suited to that kind of prison environment.
NARRATOR: Andrew Fisher would one day represent Glyn Dix. Mr. Dix was a long-term schizophrenic, and as is not
uncommon with schizophrenics. They're fine when they're on their medication. NARRATOR: Dix did so well inside that he was eventually moved
to a minimum security jail. And it was here that he met Adam Langford, an inmate in his early 20s.
I think that by the time he has formed the friendship with Adam, that he's essentially well.
He's symptom-free. And what you're actually seeing is the real Dix, not the guy who's got all these strange symptoms
and strange delusional beliefs. NARRATOR: Dix had become a man that Adam was happy to introduce to his mother.
JEREMY COID: When he met Hazel, the likelihood is that he was mentally well, that he'd been
well for quite a long time. NARRATOR: Glyn Dix may have been managing the symptoms
of schizophrenia, but he still hadn't told Adam or Hazel the truth about Pia Overbury's death.
EMMA KENNY: One thing that's deeply concerning about Glyn Dix is that he makes a complete fabrication up regarding
why he was sent to prison. So somebody who is sent to prison who knows that the reason that they were sent down
was because they were very severely mentally ill and acted in a terrible way because of that
has a reason to be able to explain behavior. You know, it was an awful time. I had a complete break from reality.
Now I'm medicated. I'm well. But instead, he decides to make this elaborate description
of the death that happened where he wasn't involved. He just happened to wake up next to a body.
JEREMY COID: He's giving these accounts to the family, and that is beginning to sound more, to me,
like the pathological lying. But, to be honest, it is something that offenders who committed very serious crimes sometimes
tell their nearest and dearest of people with whom they make relationships. They don't tell the truth of what really happened,
so it's not uncommon. EMMA KENNY: So he's a liar. And also, he's unwilling to take responsibility
for a crime he committed, which means that he hasn't done any of the work required
to actually be rehabilitated. NARRATOR: Did Dix have an agenda in deceiving Hazel, the woman it now appeared he was going to marry?
JEREMY COID: He seemed to have a mission and a purpose, which was based on delusional, essentially
distorted, crazy ideas. NARRATOR: Hazel Denver was oblivious to the heinous crime
that her new fiance had once committed. She met the man of her dreams. She wanted to believe what Glyn Dix had told her.
Despite the fantastical nature of this elaborate, ridiculous story, Hazel was in too deep.
She bought it and she was taken in by it. She may have been lonely. She may just have, again, been the victim
of an arch manipulator. He's got no other focus in his life. He can focus everything on Hazel.
He can make her feel like a queen. He can make her feel like she's the only person in his life
because the fact is, she is. NARRATOR: If Hazel had any worries, she pushed them aside and began to plan what
was an unconventional wedding. NEIL LANCASTER: On the 5th of September, 1999, whilst
on day release, Dix married Hazel. Family reported that this was a nice day. It was a pleasant wedding.
He behaved like the perfect gentleman, and the family seemed to be coming around and accepting him.
NARRATOR: With Glen in a smart suit, his blushing bride, a white dress and blue coat, they
could have been taken as any normal happy couple, but not all of the family were there to throw
confetti over the newlyweds. The interesting thing is that the family say that they
had misgivings about this. Now, obviously, you might have misgivings if your mother's formed a close relationship
and is going to get married to somebody who has served 20 years for murder. NARRATOR: Two years later, Mr. and Mrs. Dix
were able to begin married life together in earnest. In 2001, after 20 years in prison,
Dix is released on life license. Now, this is not an entire release from prison.
He is subject to recall at any second. Any small infraction on his conditions of release,
he can be recalled to prison, so he would be living with this over his head, like the Sword of Damocles.
He had been medicated. He had received all of the treatment that he can receive.
And as a society, we work on the basis that everyone's redeemable. After 20 years, he proved himself redeemable,
and so, the system deemed him no longer dangerous. And the system released him. NEIL LANCASTER: They settled down in a house in Redditch.
He's completely accepted by the family. And they just seem like a normal married couple.
NARRATOR: He killed once. Would he meet, marry, and kill again? The couple's first indeed only home together
was a 1970s terraced council house on Seymour Drive on the outskirts of the Worcestershire town of Redditch.
And their new neighbors were unaware of Glyn's history. There was nothing about his behavior
that would have given him away. They were described by everybody as being this absolutely wonderful couple, not just
Hazel. It wasn't, well, she's lovely, but look at her husband. They were very popular.
They were very well regarded. He was carrying on with his life very properly. There was no question, for instance,
of any domestic violence or any trouble between he and his wife, Hazel. He was described as having a close, loving relationship,
certainly in the initial period after he was released. NARRATOR: For two years, Hazel and Glyn Dix
lived happily together. But without prison doctors monitoring his mental health,
how long could that last? Is he being watched regarding medication? Is he taking medication at the right times?
Because if he isn't, that can put him and everybody around him in extreme danger.
JEREMY COID: We don't know or have enough information as to whether he was also receiving supervision
from a psychiatrist. It will appear, for the benefit of hindsight, that he certainly should have received that.
He thought that he was well. And plainly, he'd stop taking his medication. NARRATOR: In fact, life as a free man
came with new challenges, ones that Dix hadn't faced in his 20 years of incarceration, like finding a job,
actually living with someone itself, and all without his medication. Now that he's left prison, he's
got all these other stresses, from an extended family to struggling to find employment, money worries.
NARRATOR: Not only that, but the very state of being in a close relationship may have triggered a recurrence
of Dix's schizophrenia. JEREMY COID: Some individuals cannot tolerate intimacy. It's actually stressful on a very
deep level within the mind. It's believed that the relapse in schizophrenia, in to symptoms like hearing voices and delusional beliefs
is triggered by a big shift in the mood and the emotions. And so it's possible that that had
been a sort of slow but steady triggering factor. The closer he got to Hazel, the more on another level--
I know this is somewhat complex-- on another level, it was something intolerable to him
and actually began to make the illness come back and worse and worse. NARRATOR: It's not clear if Hazel
Dix noticed the deterioration in her husband's mental state. After all, their relationship had always been based on trust
and perhaps blind optimism. Hazel trust the medics who said that Glyn Dix is completely well and can go on to live
a happy, healthy life with her. This is all a false foundation, but a very believable one.
Because if you can't trust the doctors, well, who on Earth can you trust? JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: I think that to live with, Hazel would
have found him challenging and difficult. But he had on his side that he'd spent
the last 20 years in prison. Perfect excuse for all these strange behaviors that she probably thought, yeah, fair enough.
He needs to readjust. He's had a difficult life. The outside is something new to him.
So there's all sorts of ways that Hazel would have perhaps seen and recognize things she didn't like, but had already
made an excuse for them. NARRATOR: She may also have been ignorant about whether Dix was
following a medication routine. ANDREW FISHER: It's not uncommon for people who are on long-term medication that their partners or those
who live with them don't necessarily know whether they're taking the medication,
whether they're taking the proper dosage at the right time. And it may well be that his wife may not
have realized quite how ill he was, or what the effects of that would be. I think in probably the last year they were together,
his mind is progressively deteriorating and he's getting sicker and sicker. And sadly, nobody's picking this up.
NARRATOR: Hazel's son Adam may also have been oblivious to how unhinged his stepfather had become, until that is one
humid, stormy afternoon, three years after Dix's release from prison. On Saturday the 19th of June 2004,
his old cellmate, Adam, goes to visit his mom at Seymour Drive in Redditch. Can't get in.
So he knocks the door. There's no answer. So he phones. And Dix answers the phone and says,
oh, yeah, come around the back. Come in. Come on in. NEIL LANCASTER: The gate is locked.
Now, that's unusual. So he picks up the phone and phones the house. And he says, well, yeah, I'm here.
Come in. Words to that effect. So he leaps over the fence. He came around to the back of the house,
looked through the kitchen window where he saw Mr. Dix. The sight that greeted him was frankly absolutely horrific.
NEIL LANCASTER: Adam is met with a scene of utter carnage. Dix is naked. There is blood everywhere.
There are tools everywhere. NARRATOR: With extreme trepidation, Adam opened the door into his mother's kitchen.
Having seen Mr. Dix in the kitchen naked, he thought it was some animal or something
that he must be slaughtering. And he only realized it was his mother when he saw her severed head, looking at it.
JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: Dix had killed Hazel. But not only had he killed her, he had dismembered and mutilated her body,
and was still in the process of interacting with Hazel's body naked himself, covered in blood, when Hazel's
son walked into the room. Her body parts are in bags. A scene of unimaginable horror.
NARRATOR: It was a scene that defied belief, as did Dix's words when Adam walked into the room.
When Dix is aware the Adam's in the kitchen with him, he looks at him and simply says, unbelievably,
we've had a little argument. That shows you just how far from reality he is that he's actually telling the son of the woman he is now
mutilating that there has been a small disagreement and this is the result. It's almost like he's getting some perverse joy from,
look at the chaos that I've done, that I'm in the middle of, and see how I'm belittling it by saying, oh, it's just an argument.
What's your problem? NARRATOR: After a tussle, Adam fled the house and alerted the police.
They were on the scene within minutes. Dix appears relaxed, unfazed, calm. It's almost like this is normal.
He doesn't try to run away. He doesn't try to flee. He just sits and waits. He admitted his responsibility, absolutely.
There was no question of him trying to get out of it at all. JEREMY COID: Dix said that they had had
an argument over a TV program. EMMA KENNY: That was the moment that sealed her fate, turning a channel.
That's just how dangerous that man was. He was just a predator waiting to pounce.
And that moment tipped him over the edge. NARRATOR: Dix told officers at the scene
something else that, to them, made very little sense. He said that she liked things tidy, and he was cleaning up.
Now, two statements. One is he says he's been-- implied he's been provoked by an argument over a TV channel.
The second, he says something, which to most people, apart from the psychiatrist, is totally bizarre.
He says he is tidying up. He's standing with a knife in his hand when Adam finds him.
He's covered in blood, and Hazel body parts about. Whilst this seems a frenzied, brutal, horrific attack,
which it clearly is, there also seems to be element of thought, of care, of a systematic approach by Dix
to this unimaginable horror. JEREMY COID: In dismembering the body, his thought says that he was tidying
up, that he's doing this because she liked things tidy. It's a sort of form of distortion of the logic.
So it's logical to him, but actually, he's killing here. He's dismembering her body.
And there's something almost dreamlike about it, isn't there? NARRATOR: With Dix taken into secure custody,
officers were able to examine the gruesome scene and what remained of 54-year-old Hazel's body.
They would need to make sense of the carnage that they surveyed before deciding what to do with Glyn Dix.
After just five years, Glyn and Hazel Dix's marriage had ended in a bloodbath. TONY KENT: What we know is that in the course
of a normal domestic day, something triggers Glyn Dix to stab Hazel, and then to effectively
chop her body up. Almost ritual butchery. NARRATOR: A key plank in the investigation which followed
was whether or not Glyn Dix was so mentally damaged, so mad that he couldn't face trial.
Dix had used a knife, hacksaw, and scissors to cut off his victims hands, arms, and legs.
Using at least 12 different tools, he had removed her heart, liver, and kidneys.
NEIL LANCASTER: There were elements and evidence here of a systematic approach, the placement of the tools,
the way the body was decapitated, the way the head was removed, the way the organs were removed.
TONY KENT: He had taken Hazel's heart. He had taken it from her body, and he had placed it in the freezer.
NARRATOR: Dix told the police that he'd done this to preserve his wife. It shows you how distorted his reality is.
It's impossible to make sense of it from an outside observation because you can't imagine what it would be like, as they say
in human, to have such insane chaos going on within your mind where, to the rest of the world, your behavior seems outrageous,
diabolical, but to you, in those moments, makes sense. So for Glyn Dix, this makes sense.
NARRATOR: There were signs too that Dix had become preoccupied with the devil. There is a satanist salute which
involves the two outer fingers. And when he was cutting up Hazel's body, Glyn Dix formed her hand into that salute
by removing the fingers that weren't part of the salute. He's described as painting bizarre paintings
on the wall which have sinister implication. JANE MONCKTON-SMITH: He had done some very
strange things, especially in artwork and things around the house. He's been reading the Book of Revelations.
Interesting how often Revelations seem to feature in the minds of people with schizophrenia
when they become severely psychotic. There was evidence of his interest in the occult.
There was extracts from the Book of Revelations in the Bible that talks about the devil,
and about what the devil allows people to do. JEREMY COID: It's quite likely that, at one stage,
he actually identified himself as the beast, the beast, 666. And so he actually has to carry out
what he has read about in the most awful, graphic way for the evil one. And so that is what's actually driving him.
He was also quoting, at one point, the Book of Revelations and the Book of Revelations talking
about the 42 months in which the beast is suppressed. He killed Hazel 42 months after his release from prison.
NARRATOR: Had Dix genuinely become a follower of Satan? I know that many people think that he might have
been a sadistic killer, a satanist, and that that's why he did it. A sadistic psychopath.
I'm not convinced by that. I think that his illness had come back, and that he had progressively lapsed into deeper
and deeper psychosis. EMMA KENNY: We have to remember that as a schizophrenic human
being, your brain is constantly playing tricks with you, and you're looking for relief.
You're looking for things to make sense. And you can make sense of things in the strangest of places
when your brain is delusional. JEREMY COID: I don't think there's any evidence that he
met with other people and danced around bonfires or anything like that, but I think that he truly
believed that he was in league or in touch with Satan. EMMA KENNY: His interest may have been him trying
to make sense of the awful, catastrophic feelings and thoughts that were going on in his mind,
as opposed to him sacrificially taking Hazel's life. NARRATOR: When he took on Glyn Dix's case,
barrister Andrew Fisher believed firmly that his client was suffering from a break with reality.
I was first instructed, I would think, a few weeks after the murder had taken place.
NARRATOR: Fisher pushed for Dix to undergo assessment by a psychiatrist. ANDREW FISHER: The very facts of the offense
itself was so bizarre and unusual that it could only have been committed by someone who was seriously mentally ill,
in my view. My instructing solicitors, though, had already obtained a medical report, but that report
had been obtained from the hospital that had released him from his previous sentence and had suggested that there
was nothing wrong with him. NARRATOR: This may well have been the case in 2001 when the parole board signed off the release from prison.
Essentially to get out, he's going to have to show that he is mentally stable and demonstrate that he no longer
poses a risk to the public. At that time, he must have been well enough for everybody to believe that he was totally stable.
NARRATOR: But, of course, at the time, Dix was regularly taking medication for schizophrenia.
EMMA KENNY: He stops taking his medication. And the minute that he stops taking his medication,
things will undoubtedly start to unravel. ANDREW FISHER: That had its effect that the schizophrenia
coming back and became severely mentally ill and became psychotic. NARRATOR: The assessment carried out prior to Dix's release
from prison could bear little relation to his mental state on the day that he killed his wife.
But Glyn Dix was not interested in defending or explaining away his actions. ANDREW FISHER: I went and had a conference
with him at Long Lartin prison where he was being held in custody. He was utterly mortified.
He didn't really wish to discuss it. He just kept on repeating how much he regretted it
and how sorry he was. He was only interested in pleading guilty to murder. However, as his legal representatives,
we weren't sure that that was the right outcome legally. Of course, there was no dispute that he
had killed her in this horrific and bizarre way. We felt it was our responsibility
to ensure that we got the right outcome in law for him, which meant trying to establish from the psychiatrists
whether he was, in legal terms, insane, which meant he didn't really know what he was doing.
It's very obvious to me that he was floridly psychotic, and that insanity is a legal term.
But it looked to me that, at that time, there was an argument that he was legally insane.
He was so psychotic that he didn't know what he was doing or, more importantly, didn't know the nature of his act.
ANDREW FISHER: What happened was when the first hearing before the court, I informed the judge that we were not
satisfied about his mental health, and therefore, we needed reports before we could progress with the case.
But Mr. Dix himself wasn't having any of that. And he stood up in the dock and then told
the judge he was pleading guilty, admitted the offense, and that was that. NARRATOR: On the 16th of December 2005,
a judge at Birmingham Crown Court accepted Glyn Dix's guilty plea. He took the view that he couldn't prevent the defendant
from pleading guilty, even though we weren't satisfied about his mental health. The judge, his primary concern is that Dix is
of a major risk to the public. But I think that most people looking at this case would say,
my goodness me, he's done it 20 years ago and he's gone and done it again. So the judge's main concern is that he
is to protect the public. The best way to be entirely sure is to give him a whole life sentence.
All the time, of course, it was acknowledged that there was no way that he would ever be released from whatever
institution he was held in, whether it was a hospital or a prison. If he'd been found not guilty by reason of insanity,
he would have been sent to a mental hospital with a restriction not to be released along with the consent
of the home secretary. We would never agree to release him, obviously, because of his history and the fact
he had previously committed a killing before this one. NEIL LANCASTER: He now becomes one of the few convicted
British criminals who will never ever see the light of day again. NARRATOR: Not long after his conviction,
the prison authorities quickly came to the conclusion that jail was not the right place for Glyn Dix.
ANDREW FISHER: He was initially remanded in the prison, at Long Lartin prison, which was a category A prison.
On his reception into Liverpool and to Ashworth hospital, they realized he was seriously mentally ill.
I believe that Dix ended up in the right place. ANDREW FISHER: Hospitals are for very dangerous people, people
who, with their mental illness, become psychotic and very dangerous. NARRATOR: Hazel's family may have derived some satisfaction
from seeing her killer, a man she loved and trusted enough to marry, locked away for life.
But the scars left from her brutal slaying have never fully healed. Tragically, 10 years after this event, Adam died.
He never got over this. We must imagine what it must have been like for him to see his mother for the last time
in the circumstances which he did. ANDREW FISHER: One can't possibly envisage the devastating effect that must have had on him
for the rest of his life. NARRATOR: In accordance with his whole life tariff, Glyn Dix spent the remainder of his life
securely incarcerated in Ashworth high-security hospital. He died there in 2014 at the age of 60.
[music playing]

Convicted killer Glyn Dix told his new wife Hazel he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Then, he struck again.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Hazel Denver fell for Glyn Dix, a murderer, leading to her tragic death after a violent outburst fueled by his mental illness.

Key points

Hazel and Glyn's Love Story. Hazel Denver and Glyn Dix fall in love while he is in prison, but is he truly the man she thinks he is?
The Dark Truth of Glyn Dix. Glyn Dix had a violent past, including a murder conviction, which Hazel learns about as their relationship develops.
The Discovery of Pia's Body. Mary Redvers stumbles upon the body of Pia Overbury in the woods, triggering a murder investigation.
Glyn Dix's Confession. Under pressure, Glyn Dix confesses to the murder of Pia Overbury, but his reasons are baffling.
Glyn's Release from Prison. After 20 years, Glyn Dix is released on life license, deemed no longer dangerous.
A Normal Couple's Dark Secret. Glyn and Hazel Dix appeared to be a loving couple, but Glyn had a violent past.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

You buy into the narrative you want to believe.

Commenting on Hazel's perception of Glyn.

3:52WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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