Two true crime shows not to be missed this autumn

As a record-breaking, sweltering summer draws to a close, people have flocked to British beaches in droves to dunk themselves in the sea’s cool waters and gorge on ice cream. But the nation’s coastline isn’t just a fun getaway for holidaymakers and day-trippers; beneath a cheery, innocent façade, it hides a multitude of dark secrets. Over the years, an extraordinary number of perplexing murders have taken place in British seaside resorts.

In CBS Reality’s returning original true crime series Murder by the Sea, crime historian and author Dr Nell Darby investigates some of the most sinister, puzzling and infamous cases of these maritime murders, shedding light on the horrifying facts of each brutal attack, and searching for a motive behind these heinous crimes.

In the first episode, on Tuesday 6th September at 10pm, Dr Darby investigates the case of Kirsty Carver, a 22-year-old civilian employee of Humberside Police, who was murdered in a horrendous hammer attack in the back room of a petrol station in March 1998. A huge search ensued, but her body was only discovered a month later, in a shallow grave 30 miles away.

Subsequent episodes of the long-running hit show see Dr Darby examine cases from across the decades, as she investigates regional crimes from Humberside to Yarmouth, the Welsh coast to the English Riviera, unpicking the details in forensic detail in search of the truth.

In Brighton, a teenage member of a biker gang is beaten and thrown into the harbour with cement weights attached to his feet in a pitiless revenge murder. On a Yarmouth beach, a young wife is found strangled with a bootlace – and her small-time crook husband quickly arouses suspicion.

Police sergeant Stephen Jones, of Hawarden, had been hailed as a local hero for helping rescue a woman from a frozen pond when, only days later, his wife was killed in what appeared to be a car crash. But as forensics started to turn up some major inconsistencies, the ‘hero’ began to crumble under increased scrutiny. Continuing to focus on Wales, Darby investigates the case of a long-suffering wife in Penmaenmawr, who finally snapped and killed her husband with a hammer – only for his body to lie, undiscovered, in their basement for 16 years.

Other cases featured include a tragic double-murder and suicide in a Welsh beauty spot; an elderly couple murdered in their Grimsby home in a burglary gone wrong; a quadruple fatal shooting in a Torquay casino; an elderly woman’s particularly gruesome killing by her former live-in nurse in Somerset; and the case of an Essex businessman who murdered his business partner and was acquitted of the crime – only to confess all in a tabloid newspaper.

Dr Bryanna Fox

October sees the return of CBS Reality’s riveting true crime series Descent of a Serial Killer. Covering five cases, Dr Bryanna Fox, a psychological criminologist and former FBI agent, will examine the behaviours, lives and backstories of five of America’s most notorious serial killers. Tracing their descent into criminality, Dr Fox looks for childhood red flags, key formative moments, and the increasing testing of moral and legal boundaries, ultimately asking what led these criminals to kill, and kill repeatedly?

Among the cases featured are that of multiple murderer Carl Stayner, whose bother Steven was kidnapped and held prisoner for seven years when both were children; Lonnie David Franklin, known as The Grim Sleeper after apparently taking a 14-year break between murders; and Chester Turner, known as The Southside Slayer, who was convicted of 15 murders.

Series seven of Murder by the Sea begins on Tuesday 6th September at 10pm on CBS Reality.

Descent of a Serial Killer returns to CBS Reality on Monday 12th September at 10pm.

Find out more at www.cbsreality.tv/uk/