World's Most Evil Killers - Season 6, Episode 1 - Lee Ford - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[music playing] NARRATOR: In April 2000, a loving mother of six children, Lesley Ford,
celebrated her 36th birthday. By the end of the summer, Lesley, along with four of her children, had vanished from their home.
Where is Lesley Ford? NARRATOR: The truth is, Lesley Ford and her four teenage children were buried beneath
the woodshed in the garden of their family home, killed by her husband, Lee Ford.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It almost defies belief that anyone could be that callous and that cruel to people whom he called his family.
NARRATOR: To cover his tracks, Ford casually told anyone who asked that Lesley and his stepchildren had left him.
CHRIS BOARLAND: I think it's illustrative of Lee Ford's character and how callous and cold-blooded this whole thing
is, was the story he tried to create of his wife and the children going missing.
He's creating a version of events around the murders of this family. This shows how premeditated this is, how planned this is.
This isn't a panicked afterthought. This is something that he's really given a lot of consideration to.
NARRATOR: He killed his wife Lesley after an argument, and then, one by one, garroted his four stepchildren.
It is a tragedy of the most extraordinary proportions. It is beyond even consideration.
It's beyond wickedness. I want him to have a long life and suffer as bad as suffering can be.
That's how bad I feel about him. NARRATOR: Lee Ford committed the most heinous crimes,
proving himself to be one of the world's most evil killers. [theme music] In the late August of 2000, Lesley Ford and her four
children from a previous marriage disappeared from the small Cornish village of Carnkie
in the south of England. The only family members left behind were Lesley's two youngest children, aged nine and three,
and her husband, Lee Ford. Lesley's behavior wasn't completely unusual, as former senior investigating officer
Chris Boarland recounts. CHRIS BOARLAND: It clearly wasn't a happy marriage. I believe that Lesley had left him
and fled from sort of Shropshire area down to Cornwall. And he had then followed.
And they'd got back together. NARRATOR: When people questioned the family's whereabouts,
Ford gave them a believable response. His explanation to neighbors and to family
who had been concerned they'd not seen Lesley and the children for some time was that she had left him.
From my perspective, there was nothing on the face of it that was suspicious. NARRATOR: The shocking reality of their disappearance
isn't discovered until more than four weeks later. On Thursday, the 5th of October 2000,
the bodies of 36-year-old Lesley Ford, 14-year-old Steven, and 13-year-old Craig were found buried beneath the woodshed
in the family's garden. The bodies of Lesley's two daughters, 17-year-old Sarah-Jane and 15-year-old Anne-Marie,
were discovered the following morning in a field just a few miles from Carnkie. The perpetrator was their 33-year-old husband
and stepfather, Lee Ford. Shortly after his arrest, Ford confessed to the horrific murders.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: It was the prosecuting counsel at Ford's trial said, this is not a crime of passion,
but of savagery. And that's exactly what it was, but precisely executed savagery at that.
NARRATOR: Carnkie in the west of Cornwall had been the Fords' home for two years.
To the tight-knit community there, they seemed to be a normal family. But now their tiny village was the center
of a murder investigation. COLIN GREGORY: Obviously, the neighbors were terribly shocked
because in a small place like that, a family of six children, two adults, would be noticed.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Ford has killed Lesley and four children in cold blood. And this had been calculated.
He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew that it was wrong. He makes up stories.
He keeps other people at bay for a while. So this is somebody who's incredibly organized and incredibly in control of what he's doing.
NARRATOR: This killer story begins in 1967. From a young age, Ford lived in Telford, Shropshire,
almost 300 miles north of where he committed his crimes. Ford grew up in Wellington in Telford.
And at the time that he was growing up in the area, it was quite a deprived part of the town.
And this area suffered from a lot of issues-- poverty, substance misuse, high rates of unemployment.
NARRATOR: Little is known about Ford's formative years. By the time he reached his early 20s,
he seemed to have no ambition and no fixed career. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Lee Ford is a drifter, roofer,
builder, sometime removal man. Likes to drink. Lives on the fringes of society, pretty much,
but has an eye for a beautiful woman-- there's no doubt about that. NARRATOR: What he lacked in work ethic, he made up for in charm.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: And I think he saw a bit of a vulnerability there with Lesley.
Lesley is a divorcee. She's got four kids. Her marriage has not worked out. But she's a very determined woman.
She's wanting to look out for her children. She's working part-time. She's holding it together, essentially.
NARRATOR: Michael Tranter, Lesley's ex-husband and father of her eldest four children,
remembers their life together. Yeah, Lesley was my first love. We were together a couple of years, I think.
And then I proposed to her. NARRATOR: Michael and Lesley were eager to have a large family, so their four children
were born close together. By July 1987, the Tranter family was complete. Sarah-Jane was always smiling, always.
Although we were all close, Sarah-Jane was like mummy's little girl. She was so happy.
She was a lively little girl. Anne-Marie was a daddy's girl. Again, she was always smiling, so happy.
Craig Jonathan, Steven Paul, they were typical little lads, running around, doing stuff.
We'd always have football, and it was always kicking balls around on the little parks.
They love football. Lesley was a brilliant wife and so special as a mom. NARRATOR: In 1989, after eight years together,
Lesley and Michael divorced. MICHAEL TRANTER: We just moved on. We were still good friends.
And the children, obviously, were still very close to me. NARRATOR: The following year, Lesley began
a new romance with Lee Ford. But when Lesley's family and ex-husband, Michael, met her new beau, they were taken
aback by her choice of partner. MICHAEL TRANTER: I was very surprised Lesley was with somebody like him, to be fair.
When I met him the first few times, I didn't judge. There was nothing untoward, so it was a case of Lesley
moving on and I've moved on. And I know Lesley's brother said he wasn't keen on him.
He just didn't like the way he looked and the way he was. Scruffy-looking lad, always wear a bobble hat.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: She's probably having a bit of a tough time of it on her own with four young children.
So it wouldn't surprise me if he kind of rides in this kind of knight in shining armor
type routine in the beginning. And he would have seemed like the ideal partner. NARRATOR: Ford and Lesley's relationship quickly blossomed.
In June 1990, the couple got married in Telford. The following year, they welcomed
the birth of their son. On the outside, 23-year-old Ford appeared to be a contented family man, playing
the role of both father and stepfather to five children. Lesley was happy. Lesley even rang me up the one day
and said they were going away. It was a late call to go and see the family. They were going the next day.
She asked me if I could have the children. NARRATOR: But in reality, Ford was far from being a loving stepfather and husband.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Then what becomes more and more familiar as part of this relationship
that Ford and Lesley Tranter forge is, it is abusive from the beginning. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: What we need to remember,
abusers like Ford are incredibly manipulative. And in the early days, they can be quite
convincing, quite charming. And it starts with the small things. So very often, it will start with comments
about not liking a particular item of clothing or saying you look better without makeup on.
I prefer the natural look. And this is what happened in this case. And this is how people like Lesley
find themselves in these situations. They don't choose this situation. It's something that creeps up on them.
NARRATOR: Ford's controlling behavior also extended to his four stepchildren. I started seeing the children every week.
It wasn't long before I was picking my children up on a Saturday, where I was getting
told they weren't ready. They hadn't had breakfast. They'd be another hour. So I drove back to the house I was living at, at the time.
Then I'd go back, and I was still told that they weren't ready and basically told to go away.
That happened on a few occasions. Ford is somebody who sees his partner and her children as his possessions.
This is my household. I'm the man of the house now. There is no room for anyone else.
NARRATOR: In three years, 25-year-old Lee Ford had gone from being a young single man with little
to care for to being a controlling husband, a father of one, and a stepfather to his wife's four children
from her first marriage. Underneath, what we've got going on here is a key tactic of abuse.
It's isolation. So if you cut your victim off from their sources of support, from their family, you close down those critical voices.
People can't see into your family life. And that's exactly what Ford was doing here.
NARRATOR: Lesley suffered in silence. MICHAEL TRANTER: I wasn't aware that he was being abusive to Lesley at all, to be fair.
I only noticed the children were more clingy with mum, especially when they were [inaudible] because he
would come to the door as well. But there was nothing to suggest anything was going on.
NARRATOR: As time went on, Ford's regular alcohol and substance abuse fueled his volatile nature.
Despite his frequent bouts of violence, Lesley remained in the relationship. When we look at why Lesley stayed,
well, there can be many reasons for that. There's likely a fear of Ford as to what he
would do if she was to leave. And very often, victims, in deciding to stay in a relationship, are actually keeping themselves
safe because if they leave that relationship, they compromise the perpetrator's control over them.
They're not quite sure what the perpetrator would do if they were to leave. And perhaps, they've been threatened by the perpetrator.
If you ever leave me, this is what will happen. NARRATOR: But in 1995, Lesley contacted her family
and revealed the horror occurring in her marriage. She informed them of her plan to break free from Ford's grip
and swore them to secrecy. She thinks, I've got to do something. She takes off from Telford.
And she goes to Cornwall. NARRATOR: Lesley fled south with her five children and settled in a small Cornish village called Bugle, a place
she had no connections to. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: I think this is testament to her strength of character
and her love for her children. So despite the fact that she's been abused by this man for five years, there's still
some Lesley left in there. I think this is an incredibly brave decision that she makes.
NARRATOR: To ensure Ford can't find her, Lesley only disclosed her location to a few close family members.
I'd gone to the house to pick my children up. And I was told they weren't there and that they'd moved.
Nobody could give me any answers to that. NARRATOR: Lesley and her children immersed
themselves into village life. She takes on a job as a part-time carer to support herself and the children.
In the meantime, Ford was desperately searching for his family. CHRIS BOARLAND: You know, with her and with those children,
who would have brought in quite an amount of child allowance, and no doubt that was helping to support
him, because he wasn't doing anything to support the family. Suddenly, he was going to be left with nothing.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Ford was absolutely determined to find Lesley. So he calls Lesley's mother, claiming
to be a solicitor who needs to get in contact with her. And unbeknownst to Lesley's mother,
this is obviously not a solicitor. It's Ford. And she discloses this information.
So I think this tells us just how manipulative, just how cunning this offender is,
that he can be that convincing, even to Lesley's own mother. NARRATOR: In the summer of 1995, just months
after fleeing from her abuser, Lesley was faced with a dilemma. Ford turned up at her door.
His only mission was to get his wife and family back. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Now there must have been a moment when Lesley
Ford could have said to herself, I'm not letting that man back into my life. But she didn't.
She's drawn back into this spell. CHRIS BOARLAND: It's so difficult for women in those situations that when you're
faced with an abusive partner who's all controlling, and, you know, your connections in an area
are probably limited, it's really, really difficult and not unusual for those sort of relationships to continue.
NARRATOR: After he reconciled with Lesley, Lee Ford once again gained control. He fully resumed his role as head of the family
without opposition from his stepchildren's father. She moved down there without any trace of me knowing where.
I obviously didn't know what was going on. If I knew where they were, where they lived,
I would have definitely got back in touch. Obviously, that's what I was trying to do in the first place, trying to locate where they were.
NARRATOR: In September 1997, Lesley gave birth to a baby girl, her second child with Ford.
But the addition of another daughter didn't change Ford's behavior. She now has six children.
Ford spends most of his time drinking. But the beatings and the violence and the horror inside the relationship don't go away.
In 1998, Ford, Lesley, and the family move further south to the village of Carnkie.
Carnkie is a small village in the old Cornish mining area, about five miles from Helston.
There's rows of houses, but if I remember rightly, the shop was probably more than a mile away,
so a distance to walk. And there was also a parish hall with, I believe at the time,
a social club. NARRATOR: Reporter Colin Gregory offers one theory for the sudden relocation.
It's quite a remote village. And that may be why Lee Ford chose it as a place to move to,
because he probably didn't want to get in with a lot of neighbors who might ask him who he was
and where he'd come from. NARRATOR: The tiny village of Carnkie was the perfect location where Ford
could keep tabs on every movement his family made. COLIN GREGORY: The four older children
went to Helston Community School, but they would have either had to be taken by car or bus.
It was much too far to walk. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: This is a family unit that many people have described as being
a very private family unit. This is a family man who kept himself to himself. But we need to remember that privacy
is this barrier behind which this kind of alleged abuse goes on. NARRATOR: As the family settled in,
the Ford and Tranter children became welcome faces amongst the community. Everybody said what lovely children they were.
And one of the things was that the children would offer to go shopping for elderly people in the village
because the shop was quite a distance to walk. So people thought highly of them and also sort of said they were
really cheerful, well-mannered. NARRATOR: However, their mother, Lesley, was rarely seen.
People didn't really know Lee and Lesley very well, but people said although she stayed home a lot,
she was quite pleasant to speak to sort of across the garden fence, so to speak,
or if she was walking down the road. NARRATOR: Lesley's husband, Lee Ford, made little contribution to the local community.
It's a human tragedy in that sense that this good, upright, decent woman is stuck with a man who
seems to spend most of his time drinking or taking drugs, doesn't seem ever to have a job, doesn't seem
to care much about anything. He just appears to be quite insignificant. But actually, if you look behind closed doors,
if you look at his family life, he was incredibly domineering, incredibly controlling.
He was the master of his own home. NARRATOR: In 2000, the Tranter children had reached adolescence.
Sarah-Jane was 17, Anne-Marie, 15, Steven, 14, and Craig, 13. Ford's stepchildren had grown up fast,
but he continued to rule over them with an iron fist. The children can only wear what
they were told they could wear. His wife could only wear what she was told. They had to do what he wanted when he wanted it to happen.
No one was allowed to penetrate that household. This wasn't a house in which people were
constantly coming and going. Yes, they went to school. And yes, they had friends.
But it wasn't one of those-- this house is integrated into the community. NARRATOR: Ford was especially strict with his eldest
stepdaughter, Sarah-Jane. COLIN GREGORY: Sarah-Jane was working down at McDonald's
at Falmouth, which would have been about four or five miles from the house. So she would have had to have a lift.
Lee would have taken her to work and picked her up. It seems like he didn't want her to meet other people.
CHRIS BOARLAND: Lee Ford was jealous of Sarah-Jane being involved with other boys.
It's about control. At 17, she was getting to an age where she would make her own decisions, where she would stand
for it no longer, where she could leave home, have her own life. And I've always suspected that there is something
in his actions around that that he wouldn't be able to control her for that much longer.
NARRATOR: Ford struggled being in the same household with so many people. He started to withdraw himself from the family.
He was an alcoholic. He probably more and more was not getting his own way. He felt a little isolated that he spent time in the garage,
away from the family. And he couldn't watch the TV. When we think of a family man, we
think of somebody who puts their children's needs before their own. And when we look at Ford's behavior, what we've got here
is essentially a petulant child. Some of his behavior is incredibly immature. So his children are watching particular things
on television, which means that he can't watch what he wants to watch. So he goes off ultimately in a strop.
And he goes and takes himself off to the garage or the garden shed and spends time in there.
And he'll also go and escape to the local cricket club, where he'll just sit and drink.
So this is a man who is incredibly selfish. He wants to do what he wants to do. And that's really revealing.
NARRATOR: In May 2000, after years of being violently abused by Ford, Lesley made a shocking discovery.
Ford embarks on a sexual relationship with his 17-year-old daughter, Sarah-Jane.
It is horrifying. ELIZABETH YARDLEY: Ford had known Sarah-Jane since she was a little girl,
around six years old. So this shows a real abuse of a position of trust. This is a man who feels a sense of ownership over this family.
He feels that he has the right to do with Sarah-Jane whatever he wants to do. So this poor girl really has been
completely manipulated by him. NARRATOR: Lesley didn't take the situation lying down.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When this incident happens, I think this was a real line in the sand for her.
She thought about what she'd seen. And she decided, I think this is out of order.
I'm not putting up with this. I'm going to get some help. So she goes to see a solicitor.
She reports this to social services. Yet, Sarah-Jane is never interviewed. NARRATOR: In the late summer of 2000, isolated and alone,
Lesley finally broke her silence. She contacted her brother, Peter, and revealed to him the horrific extent of Ford's abuse.
I had a phone call off the brother-in-law out of the blue, telling me that he'd been to Lesley's house,
and Lesley wasn't very happy. He'd been hitting her. And that was the first I knew of anything happening.
Peter was trying to get Lesley out of the situation. And I think that's why he called me as well.
And he could tell he was with her in the end because Lesley didn't want anything to happen with that.
And then, obviously, that became a massive thing to me, that Lesley and the children need to be safe.
NARRATOR: This was the first news Michael had had of his family in five years. After weeks of searching, he tracked
down his eldest daughter. MICHAEL TRANTER: I spoke to Sarah-Jane, who I found out was working at McDonald's.
I briefly spoke to her and told her who I was, and that I wanted to know if she was all right.
And she did put the phone down after acknowledging me. But I put that down to me not being in their lives
for a little while. That's why she put the phone down. NARRATOR: It was the last conversation Michael
had with any of his children. I then got a phone call of Lesley's mom saying the children were fine.
They're happy. They're safe. I asked them where they lived. She wouldn't give me the address.
NARRATOR: It's believed that news of Michael Tranter's phone call to Sarah-Jane reached Ford.
COLIN GREGORY: I thought that quite likely that she had gone home that night and said that her father had traced her
and wanted to meet her. And that Ford was, by then, thinking, as much so, the game was up.
And he was afraid of what would happen. NARRATOR: Just weeks later, Ford's behavior
spiraled out of control. At some point, towards the end of August 2000, there is another row between Lee and Lesley.
Lee hits Lesley with a rounder's bat in the face. He goes into the garage to calm down.
He doesn't calm down. He finds a piece of rope. And he goes back into the house and proceeds
to garrote his wife, Lesley. Lee Ford then hits some kind of psychotic break. NARRATOR: He took decisive action.
He's not content with simply killing Lesley. He decides he's going to kill Lesley and then all
her children with Michael Tranter. He clearly and carefully and meticulously killed them one by one.
He wraps the bodies up and takes them to the woodshed at the bottom of the garden,
where he buries them, all five. NARRATOR: Lee Ford had brutally murdered his 36-year-old wife,
Lesley, and his four teenage stepchildren, Sarah-Jane, Anne-Marie, Steven, and Craig.
Only his own two young children escape Ford's wrath. The reason why the two youngest children weren't
killed, I think was because Ford feels a sense of ownership and possession of them that he doesn't
feel over the other children. The relationship is slightly different there. So they are his biological children.
He sees them as an extension of himself. And he's got a very high opinion of himself.
So he sees these children's lives as worth saving. Not because he loves them, but because they are his.
They are part of him, and he owns them. NARRATOR: Ford continued to go about his daily life
without any sign of remorse. As far as anyone is concerned in the village, well, he's just looking after the kids.
No one comes knocking on the front door to ask where Lesley and the children are.
NARRATOR: Nevertheless, Ford wanted to ensure his dark secret was never discovered.
It's believed he concocted a story, should the family's sudden disappearance raise any suspicions.
He goes to the McDonald's in Falmouth, where Sarah-Jane has been working and tries
to collect her pay packet. Oh, they've gone off with their mother. It is as if he's constructing a new life.
Oh, well, I'm left to look after the little ones. I'll do that. And she's left me.
She doesn't care about me. NARRATOR: Initially, Ford called the Tranter children's school,
telling them they had food poisoning, but later changed his story. He visits the children's school to hand back some books
that they'd borrowed from school and says that they've moved out of the area. They won't be coming back.
And he's being quite convincing to the people he's telling these stories to. They believe him.
And what's happening here is that Ford believes that he's restored the natural order of things.
He's got back in control. So there's no wonder he appears to be really calm. NARRATOR: Michael Tranter hadn't heard anything
from Lesley's relatives or his daughter, Sarah-Jane, since their last phone call in early August.
And he was concerned for their welfare. MICHAEL TRANTER: I went down to Cornwall.
I went down there that week. So I did go down there to have a look. But I got no phone call, nobody to ring to try
and find out where they were. NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Ford kept up the pretense that Lesley, with her children, had left of their own accord.
Ford calls Lesley's brother, Peter, and says, I know that Lesley and the children are with you.
And this is yet another one of his performances, essentially, that are part of this narrative.
I'm the victim. She's left me. I've been abandoned. You're part of this conspiracy.
And there's almost a sense in which he's kind of enjoying this. He's creating a drama.
He's laying the blame at the feet of other people. GEOFFREY WANSELL: Her brother, Peter, in Hampshire
begins to worry. He hasn't heard from her. He tries to find out where she might have gone, with no success.
Where is Lesley Ford? NARRATOR: On the 29th of September, Lesley Ford and her four eldest children
had been missing for almost a month. By contacting Lesley's brother, Ford had unwittingly
made a grave mistake. His call had made Lesley's relatives so suspicious, they reported it to the police.
MICHAEL TRANTER: That's when they rang me and asked me questions if I knew anybody, if she got friends
in different part of the country and anything, in Hampshire and whatnot. And I said no, definitely not.
NARRATOR: Initial police inquiries into the family's disappearance proved fruitless.
Lesley and the Tranter children had vanished without a trace. Detectives turned their attention
to Lee Ford, the last known person to see them before they disappeared. CHRIS BOARLAND: They did visit him.
He used that same story to say that his wife had left him. The family had gone. Certainly, there were no obvious offenses
that Lee Ford had committed that we knew when the officers first went round there.
NARRATOR: Officers searched Ford's home, but came up empty-handed. CHRIS BOARLAND: There were no outward signs that a crime had
been committed at that time. By the time I get involved, we're starting to want to get out to the public.
We want to appeal to Lesley if she's still alive and the children to come forward and not
to worry about doing so. NARRATOR: Lesley and the Tranter children never made contact with the police.
Instead, further investigation into Ford's behavior at home revealed some disturbing information.
CHRIS BOARLAND: I strongly suspected that he was having sexual relations with Sarah-Jane
and possibly Anne-Marie. I don't recall it was ever proved. Lesley had made complaints.
And if it had been going on for a number of years, then, clearly, those girls would have been underage at the time
this sexual activity would have taken place. So it wouldn't have been with consent.
NARRATOR: It quickly became clear to investigators that something serious was amiss.
The family were last seen alive on the 31st of August. They had no proof of life after this date.
Their missing persons inquiry became a murder investigation. I think from the outset, I knew this wasn't right.
I suspected that there was foul play involved. NARRATOR: Their prime suspect was Lee Ford.
CHRIS BOARLAND: We never suspected anyone else was involved in any harm coming to the family,
other than Lee Ford himself. And that was down to the actions that he had shown--
his evasiveness. His story didn't ring true. NARRATOR: Despite their suspicions,
detectives still didn't have any hard evidence that a crime had been committed or that Lee
Ford had harmed the family. CHRIS BOARLAND: What I was concerned about is that if we didn't step in soon, he could go on the run
and cause us even more difficulties. The family could be alive, and he could then still cause them harm if he was allowed to run free.
So we had to take steps to have him in custody so that we could interview him properly.
NARRATOR: On the 5th of October, officers discovered Ford and his two children were missing from their home in Carnkie.
Police suspected he'd fled and immediately issued a warrant for his arrest. I remember thinking at the time
that he knows we're onto him. He knows he's going to get caught. NARRATOR: Just hours later, police
tracked Ford's vehicle using automatic number plate recognition. He'd traveled north to Shropshire
with his two children. When he reentered Cornwall, officers seized their chance.
Ford was arrested driving through Bodmin Moor. So he'd come back from dropping his two
children off in Telford. CHRIS BOARLAND: He was actually arrested for a relatively
minor offense-- benefit fraud. But it gave us sufficient powers to legitimately arrest him
and have him in custody. And he was brought back to Camborne Police Station, where
the interviews took place. NARRATOR: While being questioned by officers, Ford made a sickening admission.
One of the detectives who was interviewing him opened the door and said that she
had to speak to me urgently. She said he's admitted to it. He's killed them all.
NARRATOR: Ford revealed that after an argument with his wife, Lesley, he'd hit her across the face
with a rounder's bat. He then left the house and went into the garage to calm down.
Instead, he picked up a piece of rope, returned to the bedroom, and garroted her.
He then, one by one, killed all four of his stepchildren in the kitchen, using the same method.
He was later to say that he didn't know why he did it. I don't know why I did what I did.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: He's essentially saying, I flipped. I lost it. I snapped. I lost control.
These were very deliberate killings. At any point, he could have decided to stop in between the first and the second,
the second and the third. But he didn't. He continued. And these killings took place over a period of 24 hours.
So this is not somebody losing control. What this is, is somebody exerting control.
NARRATOR: Senior investigating officer Chris Boarland remembers Ford's confession.
CHRIS BOARLAND: We were all shocked that he just came out and said it and that he had told them
where the bodies were buried. I was absolutely adamant that we were not going to leave those bodies there
any longer than we had to. So we were out that night, recovering the bodies from the woodshed at their home in Carnkie.
REPORTER: Police hunting for a mother and her four children who disappeared more than a month ago
found one body this morning. The discovery was made in a woodshed close to the family home in Helston, Cornwall.
Forensic officers are continuing to search the area. And police fear more bodies may be found.
NARRATOR: The bodies of Lesley, along with her two sons, 14-year-old Steven and 13-year-old Craig,
were recovered, but Sarah-Jane and Anne-Marie were nowhere to be found. CHRIS BOARLAND: He said that he'd
started to move the bodies. He wrapped them in plastic, put them in the boot of his car,
and the plan was always to move all of them. But he hadn't had time. Ford moved Sarah-Jane and Anne-Marie's bodies
to a field a few miles away and buried them in shallow graves. Officers have uncovered two further bodies from
the scene here at [inaudible]. They've been taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital
at Treliske, where post-mortems will be carried out this afternoon. CHRIS BOARLAND: They had decomposed quite badly.
So we used dental records. And of course, some of the clothing that they were buried in helped identify them.
And he had admitted that they were his family that he'd murdered. GEOFFREY WANSELL: The cause of death
was established to be ligature strangling because it left very little damage to the skin,
or indeed, to the neck. It was a very precise and calculated method of killing, which, again, indicates to me that Lee Ford had
planned this very carefully. NARRATOR: Michael Tranter recounts his visit to Carnkie after he received the heartbreaking news
that his children were no longer alive. MICHAEL TRANTER: I was told what he actually
did to my four children. Sorry. Sorry. I visited the house when I went down, obviously,
when everything happened. And I looked over the view down towards the fields. I think there was a cricket field.
And me thoughts were how peaceful it was where they lived, how peaceful it looked.
ELIZABETH YARDLEY: When a crime like this happens in a local community, it has an absolutely devastating
impact because there are a lot of children in this family. So this family would have been known in the community.
Lots of people's kids would have known the kids in this family. So I think this is a very visible scar that's
been left on this community. NARRATOR: On the 6th of October, 2000, Lee Ford was charged with the murders of his wife, Lesley,
and her four children, Sarah-Jane, Anne-Marie, Steven, and Craig. Despite his confession, Ford refused to divulge
his motive for the killings. CHRIS BOARLAND: He's never, to my knowledge, given a full and frank admission of exactly what happened
and why it happened and the detail of how he murdered those children in the house.
And I think that must be really difficult for the family that they've never got a true picture
of what actually happened. NARRATOR: In the months that led up to his trial, Ford's legal team attempted to put forward
a defense of not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility. Their case fell apart when he refused psychiatric assessment.
Ford changed his plea. COLIN GREGORY: By pleading guilty, he saved himself going into the dock.
And nobody knows completely what happened that dreadful night. NARRATOR: On the 24th of May 2001, at Bristol Crown Court,
Ford was sentenced to five life sentences with a minimum term of 35 years. There is the possibility that in the near future,
Ford will walk free again. Michael Tranter hopes he won't see that day. MICHAEL TRANTER: In my eyes, he should never come out.
I want him to have a long life and suffer as bad as suffering can be. That's how bad I feel about him.
At the time, I would love an electric chair. And I'd be the one that did it. I will never, ever forgive whatever answers he gives.
I've got no thoughts whatsoever other than him suffering. We have the option now in England and Wales
to give people a whole life tariff, to say, you are never going to be released from prison.
And I think some crimes are so heinous that they warrant that kind of sentence. And this is one of those crimes.
NARRATOR: Ford was locked away, but the impact of his actions had a devastating effect on family members left behind.
MICHAEL TRANTER: [sighing] Worst time in my life, children's funeral, absolutely.
It was a horrible, horrible day. I don't know how I got through it, to be fair. I just certainly hope nobody else has to go through.
NARRATOR: Reporter Colin Gregory attended Lesley's funeral and the Tranter children's memorial service
in Truro. COLIN GREGORY: 400 people-- that was family and school friends-- went to the service at Truro Cathedral.
There were a lot of tears, but a lot-- sometimes people smiled when they remembered playing
with the kids at school. And one of them, I remember, said, we will never forget you.
You were such good fun and always had a smile on your face. And I'm glad that you came into my life,
even though it was for a short time. Well, I think this is one of the most awful crimes
that I've ever been involved in. And those wonderful children, that nice family,
have been killed by a worthless individual. He's affected a lot of people. And personally, I hope he never comes out of prison.
GEOFFREY WANSELL: Lee Ford didn't just deprive Michael Tranter of his children and their mother.
He also deprived his two children with Lesley, of their mother and their brothers and sisters.
It is a tragedy of the most extraordinary proportions. It's beyond wickedness. NARRATOR: We may never know what triggered
Ford to kill that day. What is certain is that he systematically murdered almost
his entire family over a 24-hour period without remorse, making Lee Ford one of the world's
most evil killers. [music playing]

The chilling story of Lee Ford, who killed his wife and four stepchildren in a cold-blooded murder spree over 24 hours in September 2000.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers. New episodes including Lee Ford, Pawel Relowicz, John Shaw, John Allen Muhammad, Derrick Todd Lee and more.

Brief Summary

Lee Ford murdered his wife Lesley and four children in 2000, revealing a history of abuse and manipulation.

Key points

The Disappearance of Lesley Ford. In April 2000, Lesley Ford and four of her children vanished from their home, leading to a chilling discovery.
The Horrific Truth Revealed. Lesley Ford and her children were found buried in their garden, victims of Lee Ford's brutality.
A Calculated Crime. Lee Ford's actions were premeditated, showcasing his cold-blooded nature.
Lesley's Brave Escape. Lesley fled to Cornwall with her children, seeking freedom from her abusive husband.
A Shocking Discovery. Lesley learns of Ford's sexual relationship with their daughter, Sarah-Jane, prompting her to seek help.
The Brutal Confession. Lee Ford admits to killing his wife and stepchildren after a violent argument.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It is a tragedy of the most extraordinary proportions.

NARRATOR describing the situation

1:25WatchAug 10, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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