Natalie Harker | Pushed to Death | FilmRise True Crime | Forensic Files

[theme music] NARRATOR: A fatal fall into a stream in a remote British countryside.
ALISTAIR HARKER: The police said there had been some sort of an accident involving Natalie.
NARRATOR: A young woman's life cut short in an instant. Was it just a tragic accident?
STEVE MENZIES: Andrew Pearson gave an account, he'd gone for a walk with Natalie,
and she'd fallen and slipped into a stream. NARRATOR: Or murder? HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: All the police have at this point
is suspicions. They've got questions. But that is not enough to provide evidence of guilt.
[theme music] [melancholy music] AMBER HAQUE: Natalie Harker was born in North Yorkshire.
She lived with her mom and dad, John and Deborah, and her brother Alistair. ALISTAIR HARKER: Natalie was a loving, caring sister.
When we were younger we were inseparable. My uncle used to call us the "gruesome twosome."
One day, me and Natalie were out playing in the fields and the farm that we lived on.
And my sister dared me to sit on an ant hive. So I did. And then evidently got my ass bit.
This was typical of what me and Natalie would get up to. We were like cats and dogs.
We were always scrapping, but we were always close. A loving brother and sister.
- Natalie was described as kind, hardworking, loved by all of her friends and the community
that she lived in. - She was really popular. She could talk to anyone about anything.
Everybody described her as a bright, happy, bubbly character who would help anybody out.
NARRATOR: In early 2018, Natalie was living at home with her mom and dad when she began dating an older man named
Andrew Pearson, who she'd met when they both worked at a local supermarket. - And a few months after Andrew had quit his job,
he came back in the store and asked her to be his girlfriend, and Natalie said yes.
Despite the 15 year age gap, it was what would seem like a fairy tale relationship.
Natalie would talk in length about Andrew, that he was so kind and how amazing he was.
NARRATOR: By October 2019, 30-year-old Natalie had left her job at the supermarket
and was working as a cleaner. - Natalie was a really hard-working person. She worked two separate cleaning
jobs, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. - Natalie often worked on sociable hours,
but she always was really reliable and would turn up on time every day for her shift.
[ominous music] NARRATOR: On October 9, 2019, Natalie left her parents' house at 4:30 AM to cycle to her
first cleaning job of the day. - Natalie told her parents that she had a medical appointment
at 10:00 AM after she finished work, and she said that she would be home after that.
NARRATOR: But by 1:00 PM, there was no sign of Natalie. - Natalie's parents were becoming increasingly
concerned at this point. They went out into the back garden, they could see that her bicycle wasn't there
and they called her mobile phone, it went straight to voicemail. John and Deborah were worried that maybe Natalie
had got into some kind of accident, and they went to where she was meant to have had her appointment that day,
but Natalie had never shown. - At about 2:30 that day, I got a phone call from my dad
saying Natalie had gone missing, didn't know where she'd gone. And said, "you need to come home."
- By this point, they thought something was seriously wrong. They called 999 and within 10 minutes,
officers were at the house. [police siren wailing] NARRATOR: Detective Inspector Steve Menzies
of North Yorkshire Police was on duty that day. STEVE MENZIES: So the first responders
arrived at Natalie's home. Those officers did a risk assessment to find out what Natalie's routines were,
who were her friends and family were, and to find out whether she was suffering any issues.
Natalie would normally finish her work about o'clock AM in the morning. She would then cycle back home and
rest before her second shift. It was established that Natalie hadn't arrived at work
and she certainly hadn't arrived home. AMBER HAQUE: The police launched an urgent missing persons inquiry,
and they asked the family to share some recent pictures of Natalie, which they then shared on social media.
To help with their search, the police really needed to piece together what Natalie
had done in the hours before her disappearance, particularly the route that she had taken to work.
STEVE MENZIES: Natalie would normally use the main road. However, a few months before, she'd fallen off her bike
and injured her ankle and she was really scared that she might fall into the road
where there might be passing traffic. So she chose to use a cycle route close by, which
bypassed much of the road. The cycle path is quite narrow, and on an October morning
it was really, really dark. It was unlit, it was cold. It was wet and it was shrouded by trees and bushes.
NARRATOR: As detectives began to build a picture of Natalie's movements earlier that morning, at 4:43 PM,
over 3 hours since Natalie's parents had reported her missing, North Yorkshire Police received a distressing
999 call from Andrew Pearson. Following Andrew's 999 call to report that Natalie had died after falling into a stream,
officers arrived at the scene. - They found Andrew Pearson. He then directed them down the cycle path to a gate,
where he pointed across the field and said that Natalie's body was in a tent within the wooded area.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Natalie's family were still frantically searching for their missing loved one.
- I said to my mom and my dad, "I want to go out and see if I can find her." Mom came with me.
We drove around for about 10, 15 minutes, looking in all the places we thought she maybe was.
And I said to mom we'll go and see if she's fallen off the bike. So we went down to the lane where
Natalie would sometimes go. On the way back from work, then walked down the lane,
heard a load of sirens. Thought the police are coming. So we ran out to be greeted by Andrew Pearson and
two police officers. The police said that Andrew had called and said that there had been some sort of an accident
involving Natalie. Andrew was jumping around hysterically saying, "this is the family, this is the family."
The police said, "stand over there, please. Andrew's found Natalie." In that moment, we had no idea what was going on.
Both me and mom heard the air ambulance coming over and thought she was being saved.
NARRATOR: While Alistair and his mom Deborah awaited news on Natalie, officers followed Andrew's directions into the woodland
where he claimed he had been camping. STEVE MENZIES: Officers came across a thicket
of wooded area, brambles, bushes, overhanging trees and they scrambled down that towards a stream.
Officers managed to get across the stream but the other side, and they came across Andrew Pearson's tent, which
was a highly camouflaged tent, which was underneath a tree canopy, which made it really difficult to be
found in the first instance. Inside the tent, Natalie's naked body was found underneath the sleeping bag.
Officers could see straight away that she had some severe bruising towards her upper torso and
her neck area. ALISTAIR HARKER: When the police came back from hunting around for Natalie,
they told us to sit in the back of a police car and wait for my father to come down.
In that moment, we didn't know what was going on. The police said nothing to us.
When my father arrived, a police person came up and said, "we found a body and we believe it's Natalie."
[tense music] NARRATOR: After North Yorkshire Police discovered the body of 30-year-old Natalie Harker inside a tent on October 9,
2019, they proceeded to question Andrew Pearson, who had called emergency services,
claiming his girlfriend's death had been a tragic accident after she'd slipped and fallen into a stream.
STEVE MENZIES: Andrew Pearson gave an account they'd met on the cycle path. He'd gone for a walk with Natalie, and during that walk,
she'd fallen and slipped into a stream. He then stated that he'd pulled Natalie from the stream,
given a CPR, and then dragged her to a tent that he'd pitched nearby in some woods.
Andrew told the officers whilst in the tent, she was awfully cold and wet, so he took her clothes
off to try and get her warm. - Pearson says that he fell unconscious from the pain of his back injury, and when he woke,
he found Natalie dead. And he said that the only thing that woke him up was a call from a friend in America.
- This was some 12 hours after Natalie had cycled to work that morning. Her body was now found naked in a tent
with some severe injuries. NARRATOR: Natalie's brother Alistair and their parents
were waiting at the scene when detectives confirmed they'd found Natalie. - Mom and dad both cried.
During this time, we're very, very angry. I felt numb all day and every day for about a week after.
Nothing added up in our heads. Why would Natalie have gone down into the woods at 5:30 in the morning with it being dark?
I thought it was very, very strange behavior for Natalie. - It's, of course, going to be very unusual for a family to be
live at the scene itself. The family stumbling across the death of a loved one is going to be so distressing, so confusing,
and there's not going to be any answers to the millions of questions that flood their mind in that moment.
NARRATOR: An investigation into Natalie's death was immediately launched, led by Detective
Inspector Steve Menzies, who began to scrutinize Andrew's story. - But Andrew Pearson claimed to have met Natalie down
this dark, dingy cycle path. In actual fact, the route from her home address went down the main road and there were several places where
Andrew Peterson could have met Natalie in a well-lit area, but he chose to meet her down this cycle path.
NARRATOR: As the investigation got underway, it wasn't long before his team uncovered
a crucial piece of evidence. - So when the forensic examination took place with the tent, it was found that Natalie's clothing was
folded neatly in a zipped storage compartment within the tent. However, I would have expected from Andrew Peterson's account
that had he taken Natalie's clothing off to get her warm, that clothing would have been in a bundle,
not stored in a storage compartment neatly folded. NARRATOR: But that wasn't the only discovery
that set off alarm bells. - A number of items were found within Andrew Pearson's tent.
A lot of survival items, dried food, axes, knives. But worryingly, what was found was some gaffer tape,
which was very suggestive of a gag having been used on Natalie. Officers immediately became very suspicious of the account
that Andrew had given. Based upon that information, officers determined that Andrew Pearson should be arrested
on suspicion of murder. - You're under arrest on suspicion of murder, OK? You understand?
All right. I'm just going to put some cuffs on you at the moment, OK? - He is using a higher pitched voice.
He is sort of trying to show off some body language of being really quite timid.
And I have to question whether that is his natural reaction or whether that's quite intentional.
Pearson looks very distressed. He looks very shocked. None of that naturally indicates guilt on its own.
What it could be is that he stumbled across a really awful scene, and he's distraught at the loss of Natalie.
Or it could be a tactic to try and garner some sympathy from those arresting him
NARRATOR: Following his arrest, Andrew was taken to Harrogate Police Station. - I felt a lot of anger towards Andrew
when I'd found out he'd been arrested because I thought he was a kind, decent person, and that he
wouldn't have hurt Natalie. It's hard to describe, but it's sort of a numb feeling in your head that you
just can't process anything. - The police now just had 24 hours to either charge Andrew Pearson or to let him walk free.
They were desperately hoping he could expand on that first 999 call he made. STEVE MENZIES: I would have thought
that, given Andrew Pearson's original account that Natalie had fallen to this stream and that this
was a complete accident leading to her death, having then been arrested on suspicion of murder,
that he would have been very keen to give an account interview. However, in the police interview,
Andrew almost disengaged from the police officers and refused to answer any questions.
That became really suspicious for me as the senior investigating officer. - It's a real contrast from that first 999 call where
he is desperate for help to now somebody that looks really disengaged with helping the police understand
what's just happened to somebody who he claims that he loves. - It's relatively common that when someone has experienced
a significant trauma, that they go through a period of shock and that can be an immediate shock, or it can be prolonged.
And that can lead to displays of various different behaviors, including a kind of panic response
where actually they entirely withdraw. You can also imagine if this is a case of someone innocent
who's been arrested and is being questioned as if they had something to do with this death, that alone
would be really traumatizing. It can make you, you know, totally withdraw into yourself.
It could really make you question how safe you are. Whilst naturally you might think
that if someone's girlfriend has had an accident and died in front of them, that they would be trying to provide
as much information and context as possible to an investigation. But you also have to remember that trauma can do really
unusual things to a person. There's even conditions like selective mutism, where people struggle to communicate at all verbally.
And so what Pearson is doing here, whilst maybe looks unusual, is not entirely unheard of and cannot be enough
to evidence their guilt. NARRATOR: While police struggled to get information from Andrew, a forensic post-mortem was being
carried out on Natalie's body. STEVE MENZIES: Natalie had suffered some external/internal bruising to her upper torso
and to her neck, but Andrew Pearson's account was that he had given CPR to Natalie
at the point of taking her from the stream and at the tent. So that could partially account for some of the injuries
that Natalie had received. NARRATOR: Police would have to wait for the post-mortem report
to find out if it would provide further information about how Natalie died and whether she had fallen into the stream,
as Andrew claimed, or if she had been pushed to her death. HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: All the police have at this point
is suspicions. They've got questions, but that is not enough to provide evidence of guilt.
And so they need a lot more information before they can start truly answering any of those questions.
They're going to be looking for alibis. They're going to be looking at the timelines.
They're going to be looking at the crime scene. Things like phone records, anything
that can indicate where Andrew was before and during the event of Natalie's death.
NARRATOR: With Andrew Pearson still in custody, police decided to look into his cell phone, which
had been seized during his arrest, to see if it could provide any clues as to how Natalie died.
[curious music] - Andrew Pearson was asked for his PIN number to access that phone.
He refused to give that PIN number, even though he was told it could be an offense and he could be prosecuted for not
providing the PIN number. Again, that raised even more suspicion as to why Andrew Pearson wasn't assisting the police.
I believed at that point that that phone could be really key to our investigation.
It was really key that that phone forensically examined as soon as possible to try and provide some evidence
to support the investigation. NARRATOR: While Andrew was still in custody, the post-mortem results came in.
- At this stage of the investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service would have asked for a cause of death.
Unfortunately, the forensic post-mortem was inconclusive at that time. NARRATOR: The initial post-mortem examination
confirmed that Natalie had several broken ribs, consistent with Andrews account,
that he administered CPR, but was not able to confirm a definitive cause of death.
STEVE MENZIES: The forensic pathologist needed some more investigations conducted,
which included histology, toxicology, and also to check for isotopes that may have been in Natalie's body.
Isotopes are unique to different bodies of water, and obviously, if Natalie had been in the stream,
I would expect isotopes from the stream to be Natalie's system. NARRATOR: The police were still no closer
to discovering if this had been a terrible accident, and Natalie had fallen into the stream, as Andrew claimed,
or if she had been pushed. STEVE MENZIES: I was left in a very difficult position.
Andrew Pearson's account was partly supported by the forensic pathology report. However, more investigation needed doing.
Those investigations were going to take days, weeks, and months. For myself and the investigation team,
it was really frustrating that we were not in a position to charge Andrew Pearson with Natalie's murder.
We were now left in a position where I had to bail him with safeguarding conditions
until those investigations could take place. [tense music] NARRATOR: In October 2019, Andrew Pearson
was arrested for the suspected murder of his girlfriend, Natalie Harker. - You're under arrest on suspicion of murder, OK?
You understand? I'm just going to put some cuffs on you at the moment. NARRATOR: But when questioned, he wouldn't talk.
And with no clear cause of death, police were forced to release him on bail. Behind the scenes, detectives raced to uncover the truth.
Had Natalie slipped and fallen into the stream, as Pearson claimed, or had Andrew pushed her to her death?
- It was a really tense time for the investigation team and for myself as a senior investigating officer.
We knew that we'd potentially had a really dangerous man on bail, albeit with safeguarding conditions,
that we had to work really hard to get back into custody. - At this point, all the police had to go
on where their suspicions. But of course, that is not enough. They needed hard evidence and they
wanted to try and piece together a timeline, really, from locations, phone records as a way of trying to establish
the facts of what happened. - We all felt a lot of anger when we found out that the police had released him,
because we all had a feeling that he'd maybe done it. We were all worried as to how or
what Andrew was going to do when he was released from police custody. NARRATOR: While police awaited further postmortem tests and
the forensic results from Andrew's cell phone, detectives began digging into Natalie
and Andrew's relationship. - What we discovered was that within a few weeks or months of Andrew Pearson, Natalie Harker becoming
involved in a relationship, Andrew lost his job and he spent most of his time gaming on games consoles,
and he became more and more dependent on Natalie. While Natalie was securing the finances with two jobs,
she would pester him to try and get a job, but he refused to do so and even told a friend that he wouldn't be
told by Natalie to get a job. - Natalie got sick and tired of always having to pay for the cinema, meals out, days out,
and things like that as he never had any money. NARRATOR: As police continue to question friends and
family about their relationship, some concerning information came to light. - We found out that Andrew Pearson started
to separate Natalie from her friends and family, and he became very controlling over Natalie.
He determined when she could see people who she could see and really controlled a lot of her life.
- Natalie's friends definitely noticed a change in her. They said that she changed her personality the way
that she dressed, and just became a lot more disengaged from her social life, her church,
which she had been really heavily involved with in the community. - During the course of the relationship,
Pearson becomes increasingly reliant on Natalie financially, emotionally, and then on top of that,
he starts restricting her freedom of movement. And you often see that in relationships
that involve coercive control, people do this to isolate their partner intentionally so they can have greater control over them.
Pearson is clearly insecure about the fact that he's not bringing anything to this relationship.
And so by coercively controlling, by manipulating her, he's able to feel some power when
he's actually probably feeling quite powerless in the rest of his life. NARRATOR: 18 months into her relationship
with Andrew, Natalie had turned to her family for advice. - Natalie had come to me, mom, and dad,
and spoken to us about she wasn't feeling happy in the relationship, so the three of us and Natalie all
decided if she wasn't happy in her marriage to call it quits. - She text Pearson saying the relationship
was over, to not get in contact with her again, and it had taken a lot for her to get to this point.
She was really optimistic, looking forward to a fresh start in life. - At the start, we thought that Andrew had taken
the break up really well. It was only afterwards we discovered that he hadn't. - Pearson bombarded Natalie's phone with text messages.
He refused to accept her decision and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. - He would get friends and family to message her.
He would send her messages on social media and actually bump into her to and from her workplace.
- Natalie is understandably trying to fully disengage at this point. She's not responding to any of the messages,
and you can understand why this needs to sort of be a cut and dry moment. People normally go through high emotional stress periods,
and then it sort of just starts to fade out. That's the normal way of a breakup.
But in the case of Andrew Pearson, this does the opposite because this isn't so much about the breakup or the loss of love.
For him, this is the loss of control. And so now, not having even the ability to raise a response
from Natalie, that's going to be infuriating to someone like Andrew Pearson. NARRATOR: When Andrew's tactics failed to win Natalie back,
he posted a message on social media. STEVE MENZIES: In that message, he portrayed Natalie to be the bad person, a person who
was stringing him along, using him, and that he was a perfect gentleman in that relationship.
What he was trying to do, in my view, was to soil Natalie's name so that if he couldn't have her,
nobody else would want her. - Andrew Pearson is clearly narcissistic. He has these extreme senses of grandiosity,
and so someone like that being broken up with shakes them to their core, because what
our internal feelings of inadequacy, it brings them to the surface. And anyone who exposes that inadequacy
is immediately an enemy to someone like Pearson. What he's doing at this point is just
another way of him trying to assert control over her, over the narrative of their relationship,
and positioning himself as the victim. NARRATOR: When Natalie didn't respond to the message,
Andrew's behavior took a turn for the worse. - Andrew Pearson's attitude towards Natalie
completely changed. He now escalated to sending a really nasty text messages to upset her and to blame her for the breakup
of the relationship. - Andrew was saying that he was going to reveal that Natalie had been sleeping around
during their relationship. I could not get my head around why anybody, let alone somebody that claimed to love them,
would do that. Made me really, really angry. - This resulted on the 18th of September,
Natalie sending Andrew Pearson a message saying that the relationship was finished and pleading with him to leave
her alone, not to contact her, and not to turn up at her at work. NARRATOR: In the aftermath of the breakup,
Natalie tried to move on with her life. - Friends of Natalie saw a real positive change
in her whole demeanor having ended the relationship with Andrew Pearson. She was wearing makeup.
She was doing more things socially. She was going to church more, going to church events.
NARRATOR: But Andrew continued to harass her. STEVE MENZIES: She mentioned to a number of people, friends,
people from church, work colleagues, that Andrew Pearson was concerning her by turning up unexpectedly at her workplace
or bumping into her when she was going to or from work. It was really apparent that his behavior
was escalating quite dangerously to stalking behavior. AMBER HAQUE: Natalie told her family and friends
that she thought when she cut off contact, this would all just go away. But Pearson was really relentless.
He would not leave Natalie alone and she was getting frightened. She told friends that she never knew what he was capable of
and that he had a really volatile personality. ALISTAIR HARKER: After Natalie had finished with them,
she'd said to me, "what do I do if I see Andrew?" And I said to her, "all you need to do is if you see him,
walk away, go to somewhere where there's lots of people, and you'll be all right."
At this point, I felt very angry towards Andrew, as I didn't know why he wouldn't leave Natalie alone.
HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: And now Natalie has fully cut contact with Andrew, he is now escalating his behavior even further
because this is just another step of his control being challenged. He's obsessing over the end of this relationship,
this loss of control. And so this is his way of trying to strike fear into her. And it's working.
- We didn't know at the time that Andrew was stalking Natalie and turning up at her workplace.
Natalie was a very independent person. She didn't tell us about what was going on
as she felt that we were going to start not letting her go out on a bike and taking her to places,
and that would have taken her independence away. - We now had a really good understanding
of Andrew Pearson's behavior towards Natalie, and he developed a motive to harm Natalie.
Natalie was so concerned about Andrew Pearson's behavior that she warned him that she would report him to the police
if he didn't leave her alone. Unfortunately, she never did. NARRATOR: Despite the damning testimony
police had gathered about Andrew's controlling and threatening behavior, it wasn't enough to prove
that he had murdered Natalie. But then came a major breakthrough in the case. - The forensic examination managed to get
into Andrew Pearson's phone. What we discovered were a series of photographs that had been deleted,
but were managed to be recovered. And that showed that Andrew Pearson had been plotting some week or so before Natalie's death.
Evidence showed that he'd been photographing up the cycle path, down the cycle path, which
gave alternate views of what he could see and what Natalie could see as she was cycling down the path.
They photographed the gateway, the field, the barbed wire fence, through the wooded area, over the stream,
and up to the area where Andrew Pearson would eventually pitch his tent. The discovery of the photographs
taken from Andrew Pearson's phone was a key missing piece of the investigation. - These photos just go to show exactly how obsessive Pearson
was becoming, because this is now someone who is not just mentally stewing on this breakup
and becoming internally frustrated. This is someone who's now actively planning ways to scare
and potentially hurt their ex-partner. These pictures are evidence that Pearson's initial account
of what occurred that he just had a chance meeting with Natalie along the path is total nonsense.
These pictures prove that this is premeditated, this is planned, and Pearson can no longer be believed.
NARRATOR: The phone data also provided critical information about Andrew's whereabouts in the days
leading up to Natalie's death. STEVE MENZIES: Further evidence gained from the phone
was cell site evidence. We can show that the morning before Natalie was murdered,
he'd been in the field or at the gate, watching when Natalie cycled past on her way to work,
so he knew exactly the time that she would pass. Almost a dry run for the events that would take
place the following day. This showed that, contrary to what Andrew Pearson had stated,
where he said that he'd been camping out in the days before he met Natalie on that cycle path.
In actual fact, he hadn't. The night before Natalie was murdered, he was actually at home in bed.
We could also evidence from his phone that Andrew Pearson had set his alarm that morning, so he could
get down to the scene and be there in preparation when Natalie cycled down that cycle path.
- This was not a chance meeting with Natalie. - This data shows that this is clearly
someone who has methodically mapped out exactly what he intends to happen. And it's really sinister.
It's really chilling. It's very telling of his mental state at that moment. This is someone out to attack, out to assert their control.
NARRATOR: As police continue to build their case, another key piece of evidence surfaced
from the morning Natalie died. - Further examination of Andrew Pearson's mobile telephone showed that it was powered
down at 7:12 AM that morning. Andrew Pearson claims that when he got back to the tent
and having taken Natalie's clothing off, he collapsed his unconscious for a number
of hours due to severe back pain that he suffered. Even though Andrew Pearson had powered down
his mobile telephone, another device in his possession showed that he was actually moving
around the field at a point where he claims to be unconscious. This just demonstrated that Andrew Pearson's account
was completely untrue. NARRATOR: But what police would discover next would be the most damning evidence yet.
- The next inconsistency in Andrew Pearson's account was that he claimed, having gone unconscious next
to Natalie, he woke up because he received a call on his mobile telephone from a friend in America.
However, the evidence showed that having powered up his mobile telephone at 3:06 PM in the afternoon,
he actually tried to make a video call to a friend in America. This video call was either rejected or not connected.
Andrew Pearson then sends a text to his friend in America saying, "goodbye, I've killed Natalie.
I'm going to hand myself in." Even though Andrew Pearson had deleted the iPhone message
in an effort to destroy the evidence, the forensic examiners were able to recover the message.
The iPhone message led to his friend in America phoning Andrew Pearson. Then followed a long telephone conversation,
during which Andrew Pearson tells him that Natalie had fallen into the stream and had died.
The friend tells Andrew Pearson to contact the police. As the senior investigating officer for this investigation,
this was a massive breakthrough. This suggested to me that this was a pre-planned, premeditated kidnap
and murder of Natalie Harker. NARRATOR: Investigators were finally able to piece together what happened
on the day Natalie died. Had she fallen to her death, as Pearson suggested? Or was she murdered?
- Based now on all this new evidence, I believe that Andrew Pearson had waited down that cycle path.
And when she cycled towards him, he jumped out, dragged Natalie off the bike, and then forced her over the fence, across the field,
through the thicket to the stream. I believe, at some point, Andrew Pearson had tried to drown Natalie in the stream.
He's then taken to his tent where he stripped of her clothing. Once in his tent, I believe Andrew Pearson
has powered down his phone to try and hide his location. From the point of the kidnap of Natalie at 4:45 AM to the 999
call is some 12 hours. I believe that Andrew Pearson had to remain in the tent with Natalie's body
because he was disturbed by some men working in the woods. That meant he couldn't emerge from the tent
for fear of being seen. With all of the evidence from the breakup of the relationship
between Andrew Pearson and Natalie, from the evidence of Andrew Pearson stalking Natalie
to the mobile telephone, which showed the movements of Andrew Pearson, I felt it was a really strong position
to re-arrest Andrew Pearson for the offense of kidnap and murder of Natalie Harker.
NARRATOR: By late October 2019, Andrew Pearson was out on bail, claiming that Natalie had died after slipping
and falling into a stream. But behind the scenes, detectives were building a case, one that pointed
not to a tragic accident, but to murder. - Police now had evidence which included the photographs
of the cycle path, messages which Pearson had deleted from his friend in America,
and also evidence from his devices which showed that he'd been on the move when he claimed he'd been unconscious.
And the police also had the evidence of their breakup as the motive. So all the jigsaw pieces were there for them
to re-arrest and charge Pearson with the kidnapping and murder of Natalie. STEVE MENZIES: I deployed officers
early one morning to go to his family home to make that arrest. Those officers told me he'd made
no reaction to that arrest. - When I found out that Andrew had been re-arrested on charges of murder,
I felt very, very happy. I thought to myself, "they've got the--" NARRATOR: Andrew was taken to Harrogate Police Station
and interviewed by detectives who presented the overwhelming evidence they had against him
that they believed proved Pearson had pushed Natalie to her death. STEVE MENZIES: He continued to be disengaged
from the interviewing officers, and failed to respond to any of the questions posed to him.
Despite all this new evidence that was put to him, this continued to demonstrate to me that Andrew Pearson
was guilty of this offense. Following those final interviews with Andrew Pearson,
we approached the Crown Prosecution Service asking for charges of kidnap and murder of Natalie Harker.
Those were authorized and Andrew Pearson was charged and remanded into custody. NARRATOR: In the months that followed,
police continued to build their case to try and prove that Andrew had kidnapped and
killed Natalie in cold blood. But there was still no definitive cause of death until the forensic pathologist's
full report finally came in. - The evidence showed that Natalie Harker had died as a result of neck injuries, and the fact
that both her mouth and nose had been submerged under water. Natalie's cause of death was a result
of strangulation and drowning. NARRATOR: To identify the location where Natalie was murdered, an isotope analysis
of the water in her lungs had also been carried out and examined. STEVE MENZIES: The isotopes within Natalie's system matched
those from the stream close to where Andrew Pearson had pitched his tent. NARRATOR: The pathology results concluded
there was no evidence of a brain injury, despite Andrew's claim that she had fallen into the stream.
STEVE MENZIES: All of the forensic evidence and the evidence gained from the scene
didn't show that Natalie had fallen into the stream. My belief is Andrew Pearson dragged Natalie to that stream
and tried to drown her. NARRATOR: Armed with evidence that Andrew had pushed Natalie underwater and drowned her,
police received further devastating details about Pearson's actions on the day Natalie died.
- So the initial post-mortem report suggested that there had been some sexual activity that had taken place.
HONOR DORO TOWNSHEND: Pearson raping Natalie is just another way that he is yet again trying
to assert control over her because he is physically, in that moment, dominating her.
And I think this is just another element where you're seeing how insidious and how controlling this person
really is. - Pearson was in the tent with Natalie for hours. And this was a person who he claimed to have loved.
At Teesside Crown Court in November 2020, almost a year after his arrest, Andrew Pearson
stood trial for the murder of Natalie Harker. - We're in the courtroom. We heard the 999 call that Andrew had made.
And I remember thinking to myself, "you little-- how dare you make yourself look like a victim?"
STEVE MENZIES: Despite all of this overwhelming evidence, the fact of the mobile telephone,
the fact of the history, all of the forensic evidence, Andrew Pearson continued to deny the fact that he kidnapped
and murdered Natalie Harker. In court, he stuck by the story that they'd met together.
They'd walked across the field, they'd had sex in the field, and then she'd fallen into the stream by accident,
following which he dragged her to the tent. The jury to sit through and listen to all of the evidence,
first from the prosecution and then the defense. It was harrowing evidence. But not only the jury.
Natalie Harker's family had to sit through the evidence, too. So it was really tough for them.
- When we were in the courtroom listening to all the evidence brought against Andrew,
I kept looking over at him and I saw absolutely no emotion whatsoever, no remorse, no anything, just a blank expression.
- Going into the trial, I felt really confident in the investigation that team had conducted.
The evidence was overwhelming. However, it's a jury trial. The jury have to listen to both the prosecution case and
the defense case, and then have to make up their own minds based on the evidence
as to what they believe. - The jury heard evidence for over three weeks in this trial,
yet they took just three hours to return a verdict. NARRATOR: Andrew Pearson was found guilty
and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years for the kidnap and murder of Natalie Harker.
STEVE MENZIES: When the jury came back with a guilty verdict, it was a massive relief
both to the investigation team and Natalie's family. - When we heard the verdict, I was at home
with my mother and my father rang me and said, "they've got him." And I jumped up and I said, "we've finally
got justice for Natalie. They've got the little bastard." Both my mom and dad were feeling very, very happy,
as was sad but we were all still very numb and very hollow. - At no point through this whole process,
from Andrew Pearson being arrested to the point he was sentenced by a judge, did he show any remorse for the kidnap
and murder of Natalie Harker. As a murder detective, I have investigated lots of murders.
However, this was quite striking in the fact that Andrew Pearson sought revenge on Natalie.
Andrew Pearson controlled the relationship with Natalie Harker. However, once she got that control back,
he couldn't cope with that. This was a matter of power, revenge against Natalie Harker.
- This is just such a tragic and upsetting case. You have this young woman that was trying
to leave this relationship with such an abusive man, and you just hope that the verdict
gave her family a real sense of justice and closure. [melancholy music] NARRATOR: In the years following
Natalie Harker's death, her memory lives on through her friends and family. ALISTAIR HARKER: We got a commemorative bench
in Natalie's favorite place, the church. It's a lovely place to go and sit and contemplate Natalie, just think about how
much of a lovely young lady she was, how happy and kind she was, all the friends she's left behind,
and the family that she's left behind. I'll go and visit the bench on Natalie's birthday
or the anniversary of when she was killed, and think about how bright, beautiful,
and amazing of a sister she really was. When me and my wife Amanda got married, Natalie would have been a big part of this.
But with the life being so cruelly taken, we decided that we'd have some photos taken by a memorial
bench so that it felt like she was part of the day and part of our lives. She was a kind, loving human being with so
much love and life to give. And that's how I'd like my sister to be remembered. [melancholy music]
[theme music]

The horrific case of 30-year-old Natalie Harker, who is found dead in a tent following an emergency call from her ex-boyfriend, Andrew Pearson.

Pushed to Death tells the stories of people who tragically passed away after appearing to suffer a fatal fall in suspicious circumstances.

For More FilmRise Check Out Our Other Channels: FilmRise Television: https://www.youtube.com/⁨@FilmRiseTelevision⁩ FilmRise Movies: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmRiseMovies Highway to Heaven - Full Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@HighwaytoHeavenFullEpisodes

Brief Summary

Natalie Harker was murdered by her boyfriend Andrew Pearson after a controlling relationship, leading to his conviction for murder.

Key points

Natalie's Disappearance. Natalie Harker goes missing after leaving for work early in the morning.
The Distressing 999 Call. Andrew Pearson calls emergency services to report Natalie’s death.
The Investigation Deepens. Detectives scrutinize Andrew's story and uncover crucial evidence.
Suspicion Arises. Police begin to question Andrew Pearson's account of events surrounding Natalie's death.
Andrew's Arrest. Andrew Pearson is arrested on suspicion of murder but remains uncooperative.
Andrew Pearson's Control. Andrew Pearson's controlling behavior escalates, isolating Natalie from friends and family.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

We were like cats and dogs.

ALISTAIR HARKER reminiscing about his childhood with Natalie.

1:45WatchFeb 3, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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