Mat’s Blog

The one too close to home March 24, 2011

This blog was written over 48 hours from 22-24 march

I am an overweight, slightly balding man approaching 30 years old. It is rare that i celebrate any of these facts; indeed in the last fortnight of blogs I have mentioned combatting two of the three. It is very rare that I consider any of these to be an advantage; until now.

You will undoubtedly have seen that a young woman named Sian has gone missing from outside a nightclub in Swindon.

I have an obsession with breaking news it seems; the Raoul Moat saga was breathtakingly interesting and I have been the same for years; the first big event I remember watching unfolding was obviously the World Trade Centre but in my third year of university I remember vividly the toppling of the statue of saddam Hussein.

I thought I’d been cured at Christmas; the missing woman in Bristol was something I paid attention too but not necessarily as much as previously. Maybe that was because of Christmas getting in the way.

It scares me. To think one of the reasons I didn’t move to Slough was because of the high crime rate there v Swindon at least and now someone goes missing. It’s been a long time but there’s a hope that she isn’t in the wood the public have been so diligently searching and that she’s been old fashioned kidnapped and is alive but shaken.

It impresses me so much how the Swindon public have pulled together and how much social media has played a massive part in the campaign to raise awareness.

———————-

Yesterday I had a day off; there weren’t many developments except they asked he public to stay away from the forest. They ended the day ominously; they were sure they would find Sian in the next 24 hours. A bold statement.

But one that turned out to be almost certainly correct. After jumping from wood searching to a completely differen line of enquiry they put a call out for a green estate taxi that was seen between the areas of Suju and the wood where her phone lost signal. They found the car, and the owner, within two hours thanks to a public tip off-in the Asda I had been shopping at 24 hours previously. Not trying to claim I was at any risk, for all the reasons at the start of the blog; just emphasising quite how close to home it feels; probably because it IS.

He confessed to kidnapping Sian and also to her murder and to the murder of another person; he also directed the police to their bodies. Can there be any doubt this man is guilty? If someone says “I did it” and points the police to what looks like his garage and garden for not only the person they are looking for but also a further body……I’m all for innocent until proven guilty but surely in this case we kind of know. Anyway.

Horrible, horrible news. I’m glad everyone I know is safe considering how close the risk is/was but my heart goes out to Sian’s family and the family of he as yet unnamed other. What worries me more is this other person had gone missing and nobody seemed to know.

I’m sure we will learn more as time unfolds. They are yet to confirm that one of the bodies is sians but they say they expect it to be the case.

The media aren’t allowed to report the mans name or the address but it’s Ashbury Avenue in Swindon……too close. Far too close.