The Shocking Murder of Megan Newborough | Killers Caught On Camera | Forensic Files

[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: This time, on "Killers Caught on Camera," A doorbell cam witnesses the start of a late-night meet up,
but she doesn't make it home. It's every parent's worst nightmare. NARRATOR: The police get involved in the search for her.
NARRATOR: And in the US, a man calls in a fire at his home. NARRATOR: A woman is trapped inside.
The female in there to you is who? It's my wife. MAN: It just sounds like something
bad is happening to her. WOMAN: We know what happened because the video tells us what happened.
MAN: I heard some gunshots. Drop it. Whatever it is, drop it. That does not prove that I killed my wife.
MAN: The camera doesn't lie. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: In the UK, in Warwickshire,
the market town of Nuneaton, 25 miles East of Birmingham, it was home to 23-year-old Megan Newborough and her family.
Megan was the glue that kept everybody together. She was the instigator in a lot of family gatherings and events.
She was very bubbly-- Cheeky. --very smiley. Mischievous. And very caring. She had a great sense of humor.
And she was always there for everybody, friends, family alike. NARRATOR: Megan's passion for dancing started at an early age.
Megan was desperate to start learning how to dance. The dancing teacher let her join just before she was two.
She wanted to be the little ballerina with the little tutu. NARRATOR: She was one of three children.
Megan was incredibly beautiful. She was so organized. She bossed us around. And she was definitely the leader of the pack
between the three of us. She used to somehow make every situation funny. She was good for-- she used to get the motivation going.
She'd get the energy in the room. NARRATOR: Megan got a job in human resources at a brick factory near home.
ELAINE NEWBOROUGH: Megan was an incredibly hard worker. Her mentality of applying herself
and working really, really hard and that ethic just stayed with her. She wants to get into HR to help others, to support others.
People loved her. Everybody loved being around her. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: At around 6:30 PM on the evening of Friday,
August 6, 2021, Megan headed out to meet someone from work. She had arranged to meet someone to go for a walk.
She hadn't dressed up. She hadn't put makeup on. So wherever she was going, it was obviously somewhere
she felt quite relaxed. There was nothing out of the ordinary. And she said she'd be back in a two hours time.
NARRATOR: By 9:30 PM, the family hadn't heard from Megan. We went to bed. I continued sending messages through all
the different platforms. I woke up around 3:00 in the morning. Realizing she still hadn't come home,
we knew that there was something wrong. NARRATOR: With no word from Megan by lunchtime on Saturday,
Megan's father reported her missing to the police. They checked the Newborough family's home security cameras.
The Newborough family had a ring doorbell. From an investigative perspective, they're absolutely fantastic because we get images of people
that we would never normally get from conventional CCTV. We knew that Megan had left in a vehicle.
We have ANPR-- Automatic Number Plate Recognition. And so we were able to track the route
that Megan had taken once she'd left her home address. NARRATOR: Her car was captured on camera 30 miles away
from home at 9:50 PM on the Friday night that Megan went missing. I guess it was some relief.
Yes, you know, that she could be alive and we just got to go and find her. [MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: The police needed to find out who Megan went to meet on Friday night. CLAIRE NEWBOROUGH: We heard little stories about him.
We didn't have the full picture. He was a guy from work. The last time we spoke to each other over the phone,
she said that she really liked him. He treated her well, is what she said. He would send her a good morning text saying,
"Good morning, beautiful." And that's all we knew. Inquiries were made with friends, family, workplace.
And through enquiries, they identified Ross McCullam NARRATOR: Ross McCullam was a 30-year-old
lab worker at the same Brick Company where Megan worked. Police found out where he lived.
[MUSIC PLAYING] An officer from Warwickshire Police went to home address and spoke to the parents of Ross.
Ross wasn't there at the time. They called Ross on one of their mobile phones and handed the mobile phone to an officer to speak to Ross.
NARRATOR: Detective Sergeant Charlotte Mee was looking for clues in the video. His demeanor here is quite casual.
He doesn't seem overly concerned about her. He's given a lot of detail. There's no concern in his voice at all.
He's just intent on telling us the fact that she's gone to McDonald's for this milkshake.
Therefore, he thinks she's all right. NARRATOR: Professor Coral Dando is a forensic psychologist.
When people are being deceptive, that's exactly the type of behavior that we see.
So they talk a lot. They say a lot. But actually, their words don't carry very much useful
information for the investigation or they have a tendency to talk about the minute detail.
Ross has not inquired at all about why we're wanting to speak with him, what's happened to Megan,
is Megan all right. This doesn't seem at the top of his agenda. He wants to tell us about why it wasn't him.
Ross is coming across as being very helpful, a helpful witness. He's given extra detail, detail of which he doesn't
need to give, including directions to the location he says he's at. NARRATOR: Ross provided some information,
but Megan was still missing. And so was her phone. Megan's brother John, turned detective.
If you've lost your phone, you can just go on this website. It will ping it. A flag will appear in its last known location.
John, being very savvy with the computers, managed to track a phone, and some family members dashed
over to try and find the phone. The way we did it was we had mom back at home on our MacBook
pinging the phone. It was just a live ping. We knew that phone was alive. We knew it was there in a bush right next
to a pedestrian footpath. When the phone was found, my heart sank, yes. We knew something must have happened, not least
because she hadn't been in touch, but she's never away from her phone. At that time, concerns for Megan increased significantly,
and the investigation was changed from one of a missing person to a kidnap inquiry.
NARRATOR: When police analyzed Meghan's phone, they discovered a series of messages from Ross.
John Cammegh is a leading barrister who analyzed all of the communication between Megan and Ross.
First one was, "You're amazing. Did you get home OK, baby?" Next morning, he writes, "I haven't heard back from you.
I hope I haven't done something wrong." He also left a voicemail at about 11 o'clock that night.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: Police followed Megan's car through cameras monitoring the license plate all the way to Loughborough College.
Dr. Vasileios Karagiannopoulos is a specialist in cybercrime. The investigators can hone in on the image
and identify that it might be a male driver in the car, that there are no other passengers
in that particular car. NARRATOR: When the car stopped, the person who got out wasn't Megan.
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS: It gives us a clearer idea of the complexion, of the skin of the person,
what their height is in comparison to the car and the car door. And we can see over here that he's taking
some stuff out of the car. This is a big bin, and he's looking into that, getting rid of some stuff in that big bin
and goes back to the car. NARRATOR: After looking around, the male figure changed his clothes.
VASILEIOS KARAGIANNOPOULOS: He's brought another pair of trousers as well, which is showing us that he
is not doing things in a panic. He's much calmer because he's thought about bringing
a change of clothes. Now we are seeing that he's disposing of various different items in the bins
in the surrounding area. This is showing us that he is being very rational and is trying to think things through,
how he can get rid of evidence in various different bins without really putting everything
in one so it can be identified as something that's perhaps connected. I think it's also really interesting that he's
gone and taken items and put them in different dustbins, perhaps trying to second guess what investigators, police
officers might look for because they'll always look through dustbins and try and find
evidence or information. NARRATOR: The items discarded at Loughborough College were recovered by police.
JOHN CAMMEGH: There's a blanket covered in blood, clothing that belonged to Megan covered in blood.
And one of the most poignant, one of the saddest images for me, for this whole--
from this whole inquiry was one item that was retrieved from one of the waste bins.
And it was her glasses. You see her wearing these glasses on the ring bell footage as she leaves her home
at 7:30 on the Friday night. They were angrily bent back as if they'd been crushed in someone's fist.
And for me, that was powerful because it was a reminder of how wantonly brutal and evil he was in what he did to it, even
to the extent that he wanted to pulverize her specs in his hand. He's hiding the items that he's just removed.
This includes items from the house as well as personal items of Megan's as well as his own.
We can say that this is the same person that we suspect has committed the killing of Megan Newborough.
NARRATOR: Close to midnight on August 7, 2021, police went to Ross's house to arrest him.
He is in his bedroom when police go and arrest him, and it's almost like he is embarrassed.
He doesn't want his mom and dad to hear what he's telling officers. Straight away, you notice the difference in his body language.
It's completely at odds to the way in which he comes over on the telephone conversation that he had with the police
officer and also the way in which he presents himself on the voicemail. NARRATOR: Police immediately went to Charley road
in Woodhouse Eaves. At that point, this became a murder investigation. The moment when Megan's body is found,
it was assumed that she was a redhead because their hair was soaked in blood. You get knock on the door at 2:30
in the morning on the Sunday morning, and the police came in. Two police officers arrived, and they informed us
that they believed they found a body that they believed to be Megan. And then obviously, the family was destroyed from that point.
We had to go and identify her the next day. NARRATOR: The autopsy revealed how Megan was killed.
She died through strangulation and mercifully would have lost consciousness very quickly.
But obviously used quite an amount of considerable pressure, which you could see through the particular hemorrhaging
in the eyes. What was perhaps most awful was what he did to her immediately after he strangled her because he
went into the kitchen. He took a knife from a knife drawer, and he cut her neck across the front of her neck.
The wound was 13 centimeters across, several centimeters deep, and so deep that it left striations
on the spinal column. He said, in police interview, he did that to ensure that she was
dead so that she wouldn't be able to tell people what a bad man he'd been. We believe that he was making a real and significant attempt
to decapitate Megan for whatever reason. Post-mortem mutilation of a body is seen as going one step
further in depravity, in criminal behavior, in highlighting fundamental issues with personality.
It's unclear what his motive was, but it seems as if he wanted to carry on and punish her.
It was about being in control, being in charge, and I think would allow him to bolster his self-esteem.
NARRATOR: Ross's messages to Meghan provided some clues about his motive. They start off in a very innocent way.
There's a particular dynamic. Ross is someone who feels pitifully inadequate, obsessed
with his own shortcomings. She is eager to make him feel better about himself. She shows great kindness and moreover, a lot of patience
with him. And then gradually, the conversations become a lot more sexual. What these messages showed us was a man
who had a dark and a deep obsession with sexual distortion, dominance, coercion, fear, threat.
His sexual fantasies and ideations were not just unhealthy. They were, to the likes of you and I,
potentially very dangerous. NARRATOR: The messages also revealed that Megan had met up with Ross the week before her murder.
They'd had an assignation in the woods somewhere. Reading the text carefully, it was apparent
that they'd planned to have some sort of sexual encounter, but it hadn't worked.
We discover that immediately after that failure, he goes online to buy the packet of erectile medication.
NARRATOR: It appeared Ross's impotence became a catalyst for his lethal response.
He knew that the reason that he killed her was because when that moment came, that night,
he let himself down. He was humiliated. So he lashes out. NARRATOR: When the police searched Ross's parents' house
in Coalville, they found evidence of a violent struggle in the living room. There was ornaments that had been
knocked down, which we believe is indicative of a struggle. When Ross was strangling Megan, we believe that she
was fighting for her life. Ross had tried to tell his parents that he'd spilt a cup of coffee, and that's why it was wet.
But it wasn't. It was Meghan's blood that was there. And there were smear stains along skirting
boards within the hallway. So we believe that that is where he dragged Megan out as well.
Through the forensic examinations, we could put together the story of what had happened to Megan.
NARRATOR: After disposing of Megan's body on a country road, Ross went back home.
CORAL DANDO: He lives this life in a squalid bedroom that is filthy and covered in rubbish.
It would predict that he's got a disorganized approach to trying to cover up evidence to try and manage the post-murder process.
NARRATOR: Ross, then researched relationships. His voicemail to Megan at 11:00 PM on the Friday
evening after he'd killed her could now be read in a new light. 100% contrived, and he makes this call about two minutes
after he Google's the question, how to tell a girl that you love her? And for me, that was perhaps the most chilling aspect of anything
that he did after he disposed of her body. NARRATOR: The following morning, Ross also started
searching the names of several serial killers and looking at pornography. He is flicking from image to image
to image until he sends her a text message, "Morning, babe." It was pretty clear from that that he was getting some sort
of sexual gratification upstairs in a room above where he'd murdered his so-called girlfriend just what,
10 hours or so previously. By looking at other serial killers, maybe he was thinking that this is the way that he might
progress in the future, that maybe he got a real high from murdering Megan. Looking at other serial killers, he
may be thinking about the fact that he could now put himself in that group or potentially think about killing
again to get that pleasure. NARRATOR: Ross McCullam was charged with Megan's murder,
but they still had to convict him in a court of law. In his defense, Ross claimed a loss of control
and diminished responsibility. He blamed his actions on childhood sexual abuse. John Cammegh presented the evidence against Ross McCullam
at trial. He made out that she'd touched him in some way, which had just triggered this violent reaction over which
he had no control whatsoever, and he started strangling her. It was as if in some narcissistic way,
he is the victim, and he is compelled against his will to flip out in a way that culminates in him
violently taking her life. He strangled her with his hands over her throat for three minutes.
Three minutes gives you bags of time to pull back and retract. NARRATOR: The surveillance footage
was crucial in undermining Ross's defense. JEN GREENWAY: What the CCTV shows is just how in control
Ross was that he was able to form a really strong and solid mindset to think about what to do with Megan's body,
about how to get rid of her clothing. It's not really up for debate whether or not
it did or didn't happen. You can watch it with your own eyes. I don't think you can underestimate for a moment
how important and crucial digital evidence is in any investigation nowadays. NARRATOR: After a six week trial,
Ross McCullam was found guilty. The jury took just 90 minutes to convict him. Did he feel any empathy?
Did he feel any sadness or any appreciation for what he'd done? Absolutely not. Nothing.
What he did do over and over again was express self pity. NARRATOR: On December 16, 2022, Ross McCullam
was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years. ANTHONY NEWBOROUGH: Well, Megan had a whole lot of head of her--
getting married, having children, seeing her brother and sister shine and move forward.
Everything was just ripped apart on that very evening. CLAIRE NEWBOROUGH: You lose a part of yourself.
It's gone forever. How am I going to walk down the aisle, knowing my sister's not
there as my maid of honor? Like, how am I supposed to do that without her there?
Losing a child it's devastating. It's life shattering. It's everybody's parent's worst nightmare.
I just miss everything about her. She was always there. You could always, you know, just message,
give her a call, or everything. I miss everything. [MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: There were just over 600 murders in the UK in 2022.
Only 7% were by strangulation. In the US, it's even more rare, only 1%. Most people who perpetrate sexual homicide,
they're more likely to use strangulation. They're more likely to do things that are up close and physical than other kinds
of homicide perpetrators. Strangulation is a very personal thing that requires quite a lot of effort,
partly because it's much harder to do. It's much more personal, as in you're close to physically close
to the victim, as in if you're trying to kill somebody, strangulation is hard compared to using a gun.
NARRATOR: In the United states, the state of Ohio, Madison Township, 15 miles Southeast of the capital,
Columbus, September 2021, a desperate situation has been called in. [PHONE BUZZING]
NARRATOR: Emergency services were on the scene in minutes. Commander Victor Boyd from the Madison
Township Police Department was recording on his body-worn camera. DISPATCHER: Frank 1,207 217 North.
OFFICER (ON RADIO): OK. We got a dispatch call that there was a working house fire.
I drove in to the scene and got as close as I could and started communicating with the fire chiefs.
NARRATOR: When Victor arrived, the fire had already been extinguished. Outside the house was the man who made the 911 call,
41-year-old Mamadou Diallo and his two young children. I walked over to Mr. Diallo and spoke to him
and made sure he was OK and made sure his children were OK. So, what we got here?
He was home. He got the kids out. NARRATOR: The kids had been saved, but not everyone had made it out.
[RADIO CHATTER] OFFICER: 3532 Noe Bixby, we've got a structure fire, and we've got a body on the inside.
DISPATCHER: Oh, God. Yeah. There's a body inside there? OFFICER: That is correct.
They're saying this fire was in the room that this body is found in. NARRATOR: Firefighters confirm the body is female.
Commander Victor Boyd questions Mamadou to find out who the woman is. The female in there to you is who?
It's my wife. VICTOR BOYD: It's your wife. MAMADOU DIALLO: My wife. OK. What is your wife's name?
Fatoumata Diallo. VICTOR BOYD: Spell the first-- - F-A. VICTOR BOYD: F-A. T-A. NARRATOR: While, his wife, Fatoumata was lying
inside the house, police and the fire service tried to work out what happened. It sounds like from him, she must have been babysitting
the two kids when he was gone. VICTOR BOYD: And he just happened to come home in time?
He just came home and opened the door, and it was full of smoke. Kids were still in there playing around on the floor,
and he got them out, but couldn't go back in for her. I went and started talking to the fire chief,
getting some more clear information of what is inside the house. Do you have any idea, was she alive when this--
It's hard to tell. I can't believe that-- I don't know. NARRATOR: The blaze itself was small.
Outside, there was no obvious sign of fire. But inside, Victor Boyd was faced with a gruesome scene.
Once I walked over to the window and I looked in, I looked down. I could see the body directly on the floor below me.
The whole room was black inside, burnt and charred really bad. Her arms were kind of in a position
like this, which is a normal reaction to a body that burns. NARRATOR: Just a few feet away from his deceased wife,
Mamadou insisted his children were fed. The restaurant here, they eat after for the kids.
They are hungry. I told him, you can't leave the scene. You know, you have to stay here.
There's questions to be answered. Right now, sir, I understand they're hungry, but you just can't leave. - OK--
VICTOR BOYD: OK. Just hold tight. NARRATOR: Commander Boyd tried to establish a timeline of events leading up to the fire.
Can you see on your recents what time you called 911? Let's see, it was right here.
1:09. VICTOR BOYD: 1:09? You got home here at about 13:09? MAMADOU DIALLO: Something like that, yes.
NARRATOR: The 911 call was made at nine minutes past 1:00. Victor questioned Mamadou to find out
where he'd been that morning. VICTOR BOYD: Before you came here and stopped, where--
were you making a run, making a delivery? No, I went to the shop. I was talking to him about his time frame
where he had been that morning. And do you have any idea, sir, off the top of your head
what time you would have been at Medina? 8:30. VICTOR BOYD: 8:30? Yeah. He had said that he had been to a shop
to get his truck worked on. And then from there, you say you went to the Volvo dealer?
They fixed my ABS sensor on the top. And from there, he came home. NARRATOR: Mamadou's reaction raised eyebrows.
Mr. Diallo was a very calm, cool, no sadness, no anything. I mean, he just answered questions,
and that was about it. You were at the Volvo around the 11:00? Yeah, that's what, around the 11:00, yes.
NARRATOR: Police Officer Brandie Krantz was also called to the scene. VICTOR BOYD: I got a lot of information to feed you.
OK. VICTOR BOYD: OK? Yeah. So when I was on scene, something kind of clicked that I had met her before.
I know who this person is. Ms. Diallo moved here from Guinea. She was very beautiful and was spoken about very highly
by her community. And unfortunately, she was not treated very well in her marriage
Mr. Diallo, I've learned that he has a family in Africa, that he would travel back and see.
He has a wife and children there. So she was not the only wife that he had. NARRATOR: Brandie had actually met
Fatoumata when she'd reported Mamadou for domestic violence. BRANDIE KRANZ: She came to our police department
to file a report about Mr. Diallo's actions toward her and him wanting her to move out of the house
and not let her have access to the house. And I know that our officers had responded
out there multiple times to their residents. I was told by other officers that Mr.
Diallo was not nice to her at all, did not treat her very well. NARRATOR: Mamadou's behavior has to be
considered in the context of what was a violent relationship. One of the reports to the police
was that she had been strangled by him. Fatoumata reporting repeatedly to the police
is a sort of string of cries for help that also show that she can't leave him, otherwise,
she surely would have and not just kept reporting. What's called non-fatal strangulation
is actually characteristic to lots of domestic violence settings, and it's massively underreported.
So we don't know just how common it is, also because often it doesn't leave marks.
And people often feel like they don't have long-term consequences of being strangled,
and so they don't go to the hospital, for example. Women who have experienced non-fatal strangulation
within domestic violence settings, a lot of them have brain injury. They just don't know it.
At that point, I advised the detectives that we had history there and that I had just
taken a report several months earlier of a domestic dispute between her and Mr. Diallo.
[MUSIC PLAYING] NARRATOR: An interview with one of Mamadou's grown up children also revealed a terrifying picture
of family life. VICTOR BOYD: We pulled the history up in this house. We have some pretty, pretty bad domestics here.
Have you? VICTOR BOYD: Yeah. NARRATOR: The house was made a crime scene. Detective Sergeant Bryan Meister from the Sheriff's Office
was called in. When we get to the scene, it was quite apparent that something just wasn't right.
I know if one of my loved ones just perished in a house fire, I would be acting very differently
than the way he was acting. The female who's in here you said she's your wife? That's my wife, yes. VICTOR BOYD: OK.
That's what I thought you said. She birthed me four kids. VICTOR BOYD: I got you.
NARRATOR: Mamadou's mannerisms were revealing. You can see how he seems to be trying to manage his body
movements, and he's facing away and he's trying to really downplay the severity of the situation.
The stereotype of a liar is someone who's nervous, who's twitchy, who's looking up and to the left, who's avoiding eye
contact, all of which are myths and stereotypes about liars. But if you overcorrect, then you might
look too calm and too collected, given the circumstances. [MUSIC PLAYING] Once the Franklin County Detective Bureau arrives
on scene, you could see it in their facial expressions, the little mm-hmm, little red flags
popping up for them as well. I went in with the fire investigators, and we actually viewed the body.
We found a coaxial cable around her neck. And then once we moved the body, there
was a burnt-up charcoal lighter fluid bottle underneath her. And that pretty much summed it up that he did something to her.
NARRATOR: The children were put in the care of extended family, and Mamadou was arrested.
Why he's doing this-- VICTOR BOYD: Because you're riding in his car. Have a seat.
Thank you. At that point, they went in and went through the entire house. They collected what they needed to collect.
The coroner's office came. They did their investigation of the body. NARRATOR: Forensic pathologist Mike
Caplan performed the autopsy on Fatoumata's body. There was a ligature that was encircling her neck.
The ligature specifically was an electrical cable that was probably about an 1/8 or 3/16 inch in width.
So we knew right away that that may have played a potential role in Ms. Diallo's death.
[MUSIC PLAYING] When we're talking about personal weapons, a USB cord certainly would count as a personal weapon
in that its close. You have to be physically close to the victim. And whether or not that's the weapon you always choose
is sort of not really why we'd call it personal. It's more that you're up close and personal to the victim.
By personal weapon, what the literature means is something that is physical, that is personal to me,
as opposed to something that's more anonymous and at a distance. So shooting a gun, for example, is removed.
It's physically removed. It's quite emotionally removed compared to getting up and beating someone or strangling someone.
You're in that person's face. You're very physically close as opposed to physically
and/or emotionally removed. NARRATOR: Detectives were eager to ask Mamadou what really happened.
The victim's obviously no longer with us. We can't talk to see her side of the story.
NARRATOR: Without Mamadou's testimony, the police couldn't move forward. They needed hard evidence to uncover the truth.
I assigned a few guys to do a canvas of the area. We're looking for cameras in the area, anything that
can further our investigation. NARRATOR: Mamadou had disabled a security camera above the front door, but he left
the doorbell cam recording. This first video clip it shows Mr. Diallo coming home from wherever he was at.
He pulled up in his truck. And if you notice the time, the time is 12:24. The first 911 call came in at 1:09.
He said he came home and found his house on fire. This totally discredits his story.
40 minutes after the first clip, the house is now on fire. So he's taking the kids to the car and attempting to call 911.
He has no sense of urgency. He is just casually walking to the car with his two kids,
like he doesn't have a care in the world. And right now, the house is on fire. NARRATOR: A camera across the street
provided another vital piece of the puzzle. This is Mr. Diallo's house. This camera helps us because it's a continuous view.
Nobody else is going into the house. That means we have no other suspects entering the house that
could set the house on fire. Mr. Diallo is our key suspect from this video. NARRATOR: The video ruled out any other potential suspects,
a chilling insight into Mamadou's actions. As you see here, he's casually walking back up to the house.
He'll go over to where she's located. And he peers in the window to make sure she's on fire
right there. NARRATOR: All the evidence seemed to point to Mamadou, but they needed to prove it in court.
Dr. Mike Caplan's autopsy report provided crucial information for the case. It became pretty obvious to me that Mrs. Diallo did
not die from the fire itself. If somebody dies from a fire, if they're alive at the time of the fire, they're going to be breathing.
So we're going to see a black discoloration involving that entire airway going into the lungs.
NARRATOR: But Fatoumata's lungs and airways did not have any black discoloration.
We were able to find just a little trace of soot below the level of the vocal cords, but it was very trace.
So it would have been a very short or fleeting time. NARRATOR: The burns and ligature were obvious.
The carbon monoxide levels, less so. The fact that we're just seeing just a trace,
a touch of that tells us that she was most likely unconscious when this fire started.
But she may have taken a few, what we call agonal breaths, breaths at the end of her life.
So the cause of death in Mrs. Diallo's case was strangulation. [MUSIC PLAYING] This form of strangulation is called
strangulation with a ligature. And so that's anything that you use to wrap around a neck to cut off air.
In the US, strangulation is an incredibly rare way to kill somebody else. It's personal.
There's often wrestling. There's a lot that goes into that, which isn't the case
if you're shooting a gun. NARRATOR: Police dug into Mamadou and Fatoumata relationship to try and understand
what motivated him to kill. BRYAN MEISTER: She went over to Africa, back to Guinea to visit.
And when she arrived back home, they said the relationship was strained. Something happened over there, but nobody knew what it was.
I think it's easy to see Fatoumata's reporting as a sign that she had options, but I see it as exactly the opposite.
So, I think, the fact that she had to and chose to report a number of times to the police that her partner was
violent towards her, I think, that is a sign of a really Broken and trapped person.
NARRATOR: Mamadou Diallo was charged with fatally strangling his wife, Fatoumata, with a USB cord
and setting fire to her body in the hope of destroying evidence. He was sentenced to life in prison with a chance of parole
after 31 years. If we didn't have the security footage, it would have been much more difficult to get a conviction.
Security cameras, they just don't paint a picture. They show you that picture. VICTOR BOYD: Mr. Diallo got what he deserved.
It's just a shame that he felt he had to do this. I'm sure the real answers will probably never really come out.
BRYAN MEISTER: He took the mother away from four children. He took a sister away.
He took a daughter away. It does give you a sense of accomplishment when you finally
get a conviction and you know he's going to be going away for a very long time. [MUSIC PLAYING]

In the UK, when Megan Newborough does not return home after a date, her family becomes worried and launch a search party to find her but are shocked by what they uncover.

In the US, young mother Fatoumata Diallo is found deceased after a blazing house fire. Detectives quickly suspect foul play and become concerned that her husband may have started the fire intentionally.

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Brief Summary

Megan Newborough and Fatoumata Diallo's murders reveal the critical role of security footage in criminal investigations.

Key points

Megan Newborough's Disappearance. Megan goes missing after a late-night meeting, triggering a frantic search by her family.
The Investigation Begins. Police analyze security footage and track Megan's car, raising hopes she might be alive.
The Discovery of Evidence. Police find bloodied items and Megan's crushed glasses, indicating a violent struggle.
Ross McCullam Arrested. Ross is arrested in connection with Megan's murder, displaying a stark change in demeanor.
Trial and Conviction. Ross is found guilty of murder after a six-week trial, sentenced to life in prison.
Mamadou's Alibi Unravels. Mamadou's calm demeanor raises suspicion as police investigate the fire's timeline.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's every parent's worst nightmare.

0:18WatchJul 5, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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