Brave mum of murdered Helen McCourt begins fresh search for daughter’s body
09/26/2019The brave mother of murdered Helen McCourt has begun a fresh search for her daughter’s body.
Marie McCourt, 76, is behind a new law that will keep killers permanently behind bars if they refuse to say where they dumped their victims.
But she is determined not to pin her hopes on murderer Ian Simms telling where Helen’s body is and has begun re-examining evidence from his 1989 trial with search expert Peter Faulding.
She said: “I’m determined that while I’m living I will carry on searching. I want to lay her to rest so I know she’s at peace and not lying in some horrible place alone.”
I joined Faulding, Marie, and husband John Sandwell, 72, at the new search site near clay pits 15 miles from Helen’s home in Billinge, Wigan.
It was here a spade belonging to pub landlord Simms was found in a flooded working. There was a grim silence after ex-Para Faulding delivered his verdict on where Helen’s remains may lie.
He said: “Everything suggests she is within 200 metres of where we are.
“The spade was located in water 18ft deep – it was never meant to be found.
“Now it’s just a matter of piecing the jigsaw together.”
Insurance clerk Helen, 22, was killed after leaving work in 1988.
Simms was jailed for life after police built up an unassailable case despite the absence of a body.
Marie and Faulding have carried out a thorough review of the evidence. They believe Simms killed Helen at his George and Dragon pub and then put her into his car.
Police found an earring and traces of her blood in the boot.
Witnesses suggest the killer then drove to Rixton Clay Pits, where he held a fishing license in another man’s name.
Clay was found on dad-of-two Simms’ car. Clothes he dumped two miles away were also covered in clay. Reported sightings mean the killer only had seven hours to conceal the body.
Bodybuilder Simms, now 54, would have had no problem carrying eight-stone Helen into the woods.
Faulding, 57, said: “All the evidence points to this location. Helen is probably within 50 metres of where he could get his car because carrying a body is not easy, especially at night.
“He had only seven hours so he buried her in a grave no deeper than 1.5 metres.
“Now it’s a matter of using my skills and experience to find ‘ground sign’ in the woods. Even though 30 years have passed there will still be a slight bump or depression visible to a trained eye.”
Faulding, who travelled from West Sussex, hopes technology will help him.
He uses ground-penetrating radar and a magnetometer to identify signs of historic disturbed soil.
Metal-detecting equipment also helps in the hunt for Helen’s missing necklace, earring, watch and three rings.
On the second day of the search, contact with a gamekeeper revealed an intriguing lead.
A few years after Helen’s murder he spotted a rectangular depression in the ground measuring 5ft by 2ft.
The hole, revealed after vegetation was cut, was reported to a local policeman.
But shortly afterwards he died of stroke and the lead was not followed up.
Our search identified several sites where deep test pits were dug.
One revealed decades-old plastic and buried leaves and wood – proving the earth had been disturbed at some point.
But ultimately nothing was found linking the site to Helen. For Marie it was yet another false dawn.
Despite the passage of time, Helen’s murder dominates the lives of her family.
Marie said Helen’s younger brother Michael, now 52 and a married father himself, is still deeply affected by memories of her.
She added: “I’ve just gone through it so many times, learning to cope with false hope can be very tough.
“When police exhumed a grave following a tip off and it wasn’t Helen, that devastated me. Another time we hired a JCB to uncover a gas pipe laid the week she went missing.
“It was my birthday weekend and I remember thinking ‘Please let me find her, that would be the best present ever’.”
Marie praised “tireless” Merseyside Police for their help and said their cold-case team of detectives remained committed to solving the mystery.
Faulding is best known as an expert witness at the “Spy In The Bag” inquest.
In 2010 MI6 man Gareth Williams was found dead inside a holdall – padlocked from the outside – in the bath of his flat.
Faulding got into an identical bag 300 times to prove Williams could not have taken his own life.
His firm employs 40 and carries out underwater searches for police across the South East.
The dad-of-three agreed to help Marie as a special case. He said: “I like to find things. That’s what I do. When Marie came to me I was only too happy to help.
“She knows Helen is dead and just wants closure.”
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