Three 16-year-old girls strangled, a country’s biggest murder hunt and the ground-breaking way police found the serial killer – this is the real life story behind the BBC’s latest drama.
Many feared detectives would never find the killer known as the “Saturday Night Strangler” – but 30 years on, he was found in the most unlikely place.
It took two DNA-firsts to find the man who had struck fear into south Wales.
The story of tragedy and justice is behind the new drama Steeltown Murders.
It all started in the summer of 1973, when the city and surrounding areas of Swansea were shocked by two incidents of girls going out partying but not returning home.
In July, 16-year-old Sandra Newton had been out with her boyfriend in nearby Briton Ferry when she disappeared on her five-mile walk home at about one o’clock in the morning.
Police believed she had tried to hitchhike her way home.
Sandra’s body was found two days later in a culvert. She had been hit over the head and strangled with…
This article was written by and originally published on www.bbc.co.uk