congenitaldisease: Rachel McLean was a 19-year-old student at St. Hilda’s College in Oxford, U
congenitaldisease: Rachel McLean was a 19-year-old student at St. Hilda’s College in Oxford, University. At her 19th birthday party, she met John Tanner, a student at Nottingham University and the two soon became a couple, dating for eight months.On the 14th of April, 1991, Tanner had been visiting McLean at her shared home when he strangled her to death. He attempted to manually strangle McLean before using a ligature. Afterwards he hid her body underneath the floorboards in her bedroom and returned to Nottingham. When McLean didn’t show up for classes the next morning, her housemates reported her missing. Meanwhile, Tanner wrote a love letter to McLean in an attempt to alleviate suspicion from himself. It read: “My dearest, lovely Rachel, thank you for such a lovely weekend. Fancy seeing that friend of yours at the station. At least you didn’t have to get a bus home. It was nice of him to give you a lift. But I hate him because he has longer hair than me. Ha ha! It’s nice to know you will not be alone for the next few days. I worry for you in that house on your own.“ Tanner told police that while he and McLean were at the train station waiting for his train back to Nottingham, a man approached McLean. According to Tanner the man had long hair and was dressed in black motorbike clothing. He said that the man had offered McLean a lift back to her house to which she agreed. He even helped police create a composite sketch of the man. However, nobody could corroborate his claims and several witnesses told police they had seen Tanner alone at the train station. He soon fell under a cloud of suspicion. The on the 2nd of May, McLean’s body was finally found underneath the floorboards. Her housemates were horrified that they had been living alongside her dead body for weeks.Tanner confessed to the murder and claimed that McLean had been unfaithful and wanted to call off the relationship. However, in McLean’s diary, she wrote that she wasn’t in love with Tanner anymore and wanted to break up. She also wrote that when she first mentioned breaking up, Tanner claimed he was dying of cancer. Tanner was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released after serving just 11 years. In 2018, he was jailed for assaulting a new partner over a six month period. -- source link