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I think this has been sitting in my to watch to do later since it came out, or since it's been out on this channel for a month. Yeah, for sure. I was there. I just didn't do it. But now I'm here. Let's get into it. He's committed by a cop. Search is still going on. He was very surprised that there was a cop being very dangerous. Probably. Get away with it. Wait, what is cops who kill with me? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on. I didn't even know this was what this was. I mean, this should be interesting. To his neighbors in Wilmslow, an affluent town in Cheshire, police inspector Darren McKay and his wife, Leanne, had the perfect life. Married for 13 years, the couple drove brand new cars, went on luxury holidays, and lived in an expensive house. Up beneath the facade, their perfect life was built on a foundation of loans and increasing debt. Until it. That's what you see. Don't worry about what other people look like. Don't worry about what other people's images are. What's going on, y'all? Do not worry about what other people's images view is. Because at the end of the day, if you're in debt as a man, that's depressing. I ain't even going to lie. You only hurting yourself if you worried about what other people thinking. Worry about yourself, honestly. Eventually, that public image on shit unless you really doing it. The pressure became too much for Darren McKay. He couldn't face Leanne's worries about their finances any longer. And he snapped, murdering her in their own home. Then, in an effort to evade justice, he tried to cover up his despicable crime and carry on as if nothing had happened. In a society increasingly driven by image and status, I want to know how the pressures of keeping up with the Joneses can drive someone to murder. I've brought together a crack team of experts who will help me unravel what happened in this case and how McKay's training enabled him to cover up his crime. Pharmatop anti-corruption cop, Julie McKay. Serena Simmons, a leading psychologist. An ex-met murder detective, Howard Groves, who helped solve over 50 murders. They are going to help me understand some of the worst cases of killer cops in Britain and around the world. I'm meeting. I'm definitely going to call this pure evil killer cops in Britain. With former detective superintendent, Julie McKay, who's discovered some more background on this disgraced cop and his wife. Darren and Leanne were married. He was an inspector in the police. And she, too, was a police officer. And she worked as a detective. So there was a police couple. Man, see, I wouldn't date nobody in the same industry. Me personally? Because I don't want to, like, that when you start bringing your work home because y'all work together and y'all not really having a relationship, y'all got a work relationship. This is your work wife. You should have left her at work. We've moved from one house in Manchester to another one that was... RIP. And wanted to have a really nice lifestyle. But the couple's efforts to keep up appearances had started to put a strain on their marriage. Their credit cards have maxed to the hill. They had a great big mortgage on their house. They liked expensive holidays that they couldn't afford and nice cars. They were living beyond their means. So this really is a point where I can imagine if I was in his shoes, he must... I mean, he's sinking. Looks like it. Just after 1 p.m. on Thursday, the 28th of September, 2017, Darren McKay arranged for a surveyor to value the couple's house in connection with a loan application. And so he left work at Strefford police station midway through his shift and headed home. But McKay wasn't just meeting the surveyor that Thursday. He also had other plans. Because before the surveyor arrived at the family home, Darren McKay would murder his wife. And this is a man who hasn't had previous convictions, any allegations of violence. There's been no red flags about Darren McKay at all. Nothing like that for him at all. Sounds like he just snapped. But was this a heat of the moment crime of passion? Or was there something more sinister involved? Stress, man, stress. Stress, stress that is not appropriately dealt with will make you mentally break. You know what I'm saying? You've got to deal with your stresses in the appropriate manner. Suppressing that as, man, we talk to suppress our stress and we'll deal with it internally. No, man. Don't do that. Talk to your boys about it or something. You've got to have an outlet somewhere, man. You can't keep touching them, man, because this will happen. It's super love you, the mattress cover. Ooh, wait a minute. Hold on, wait, wait, wait. You're on to something now? Just my temperature. So right when I enter my bed, it is cold. This might be the best ad that I've ever seen on YouTube. What's this called? Eight Sleep Docs, OK. Got me. I'm meeting up with local journalist Mike McArthur near the couple's home in Cheshire. I'm hoping he can tell me a bit more about this case. I want to know more about what Leanne and Darren were really like as cops and as a couple. What was Darren like as a cop? What was he like amongst his colleagues and friends? He was respected. He was certainly well regarded. He'd risen to the position of inspector. I think the best phrase to describe him was a safe pair of hands. But what do we know about Leanne? Because she was in the force as well, wasn't she? Leanne was in the force as well. She was described in court as a lovely, generous, caring person. And certainly that was supported by the neighbours. She was someone who they really liked, who was trusted and was welcomed into the community in which she'd moved. Where do you think the crack started to happen here with Darren McKay and Lee Shibblyan? When you look back at the history of this couple and their relationship, the skeleton started to stack up in the cupboard right from the word go. It was a safe pair. Every month, they were spending £1,500 above what they could afford. Darren McKay could be very manipulative. Man, you got me... This month, what's this, the eighth? I spent... What have I spent today? I spent four dollars. This month alone, I spent like nine dollars. I ain't living above nothing. Not me. You can't get me to give up my spot. No, sir. If I'm down bad, I'm down bad. I ain't got nobody to impress. I don't care. And he told her over and over again that it was all being sorted out. That was in control now. But it was always something that worried her. I mean, at one point in the marriage, the couple's family had to bail them out to the tune of £91,000. Wow, very, really serious. Oh, my God. There must have been a point for Lee Shibblyan where things had got to her head. Absolutely. In the month before her death, she discovered that Darren had tried to take out a £10,000 loan. Now, she questioned him about this course and through to form. He denied everything and said, well, this must have been a fraudulent application. So that's, you know, how things have gotten. Darren McKay's mindset at this point, he knows he's spiraling here and he's getting deeper and deeper and deeper in debt. But he's burying his head in the sand. He's not facing his problems. And Lee-Anne didn't realise that things were about to get much worse. When the post arrived on the morning of the 28th of September, 2017, it sparked a chain of events that would end in tragedy. Lee-Anne received the package on the day of her death. She opened the package. She signed for it. It was recorded delivery. She opened it inside was her passport, which she didn't know had been sent away. There was one of her pay slips that Darren McKay had managed to get her username and her password and using police computers in police time. That's a crime in itself. Managed to fraudulently download one of her. Yeah, that's fraud. Pay slips and sign it. He forged his own wife's signature. And that for Lee-Anne was the final straw. So wait, did he have like a gambling addiction or did he just have no, like, he just couldn't control the spending habits? Like, he was the capper of the year. He's out here capping. Darren had abused his position as a police officer. He'd lied to his wife and fraudulently applied for a £54,000 loan, which would plunge them even further into debt. It was too much for Lee-Anne to take. And she sent Darren a text while he was at work. This text was to prove absolutely pivotal in what Darren McKay did next. That is the text that she sent. It says, you liar, just go back a loan application with my passport and my name, WTF. Tragically, that text was... She basically signed her own death warrant with it because Darren McKay, this cool, calm, collected man, that must have been incredibly angry, boiling with. Man, somebody recently told me something, man. Somebody recently told me something. When there's chaos around you and everything seems like it's gone, like, left, don't make any substantial moves. Just sit still. Sit still so you can focus on what's important so you can gather your thoughts. Don't make a rush and hasten, move and do this and do that. Sit still, gather yourself, assess the situation. See, and she should have sat still and assessed the situation and found a little way out, a better way out because this man was on the edge. At that point, he left the station. He was on his way home to confront Lee-Anne for the last time. So this text really is the point and money is the root of all evil. Do you know what dating apps can't do? That events and adventures can't. This commercial heavy. Darren McKay was described as a rising star who had locked up countless criminals in a successful 21-year career at Greater Manchester Police. Away from work, however, he was being crushed under a mountain of debt to keep up a lifestyle he couldn't afford. By September 2017, he had reached breaking point. 2007. Not gonna lie, this looks like no offense. Like I'm just being observant. This house stands out on this block. Like this house looked like, you know what I'm saying? Y'all ever seen Amityville Horror? Like it looked like one of these houses. In team, he had reached breaking point. Psychologist Serena Simmons has studied this case and is gonna give me an insight into McKay's state of mind. So it's what I taught you about Darren McKay. What do you know about him? He was a very respectable police officer. He'd climbed the ranks, was doing incredibly well. Pillar of his community, people looked up to him. So he was married to a beautiful wife, friends and family, just really put them on a bit of a pedestal from what I hear. When you see a case like this... Sounds like a narcissist, like literally. He got so used to being that high on his own, you know what I'm saying? And it's a policeman, obviously. You look for reasons why they would do something like this. And what did we see when you looked at Darren McKay? He seems like the kind of person who needed everything to be in its place. Everything was controlled. And he was in the driver's seat. They had to look a certain way. They had to have a particular house in a particular area. They wanted very specific cars. They were keeping a facade of a family, essentially, who were doing well, but actually behind the scenes, living well beyond their means. We do know that. That's crazy. People really be moving like this, huh? Love and peace is not enough. That's crazy. Do you think Darren kept how much debt and secrets from his wife? I think his wife knew they were in debt. It would have been really hard for her to function in that relationship with the kind of house they had, the cars they had, the holidays they wanted to go on. She would have known about the debt that they were in as a couple, but I do believe he kept a large portion of that very secret from her. His wife found out that he was applying for loans without her knowledge. But at the same time, I do think that he was trying to keep that sense of control across the board. On the salary he was on, he couldn't afford to live the life he was living. Why would he want that pressure to do that? That's a really good question. I think so many people do get into debt for really, really unfortunate reasons. So something could happen to you or me one day and suddenly we find ourselves in a very different set of circumstances. The difference here is that this particular couple seemed to have deliberately over an extended period of time continuously lived beyond their means. In your opinion, would you think that leading up to the day that he committed this? Like, okay, I'm listening to this. Like, he used so much debt. At minimum, this is what I would have did. At minimum, I would have paid the credit cards off and then filed for bankruptcy. Simple as that. I know it's a stain on your, whatever it's a stain on, but like, bro, I'm filing for bankruptcy. And then the rest of the figure itself had over time. But he needed to go talk to somebody. He had a mental thing with spending. He couldn't get it under control. It's horrible. He was addicted. The crime that leading up to the day that he committed this horrible crime, that was this, was it like just a ticking time bomb? If you don't face up to the reality, it will come all crushing down on you one day. Yeah, I really get a sense that he was holding it all together. And I think he felt that if he could control it, if he had the control over it, that it would all be okay. He wasn't the kind of character that dealt well with challenge. So I think his life challenging what she did on that particular day and being angry that he'd held this secret from her, that tipped him over the head. I'm starting to understand this guy's state of mind. But to get to the heart of this case and each to examine what happened in the hours leading up to the murder. I now know. You say you think he had an addiction to burger soup? Bump pressures and worries drove Darren to kill Leanne. But I want to find out more about the horrifying actions that led to her death. Maybe doing that on the side too. I've asked former chief inspector Howard Groves who has over 30 years experience solving high profile cases and murder investigations to help me understand the events of that day. Why do we think Darren did this? He'd obviously received a text from his wife. She had by then received the post and in there were two passports. She'd obviously worked on that he had fraudulently trying to get some money in order to meet the needs of the family. So she sent him a text and said, W2EF, what's happening? So. W2EF don't stand for that. I'm leaving, I'm going home now. But that didn't really ring any bells because he had already indicated that he was going home early that day to see a surveyor. Darren left work earlier than planned and headed home. Later during the investigation, police were able to track his and Leanne's movements that morning on CCTV. He would have driven home, but that meant that his car would have been on CCTV footage all the way so the police were able to track from when he left the police station to when he arrived at home in his vehicle. And that was critical because prior to that, his wife would have had taken the children to school and she would have driven her mini back again so that you would have some continuity. And that's the real thing, like I feel bad for the kids. Like, mom is unalive, dad is in jail for the rest of his natural life probably. He was just saying the car is seen leaving her mini in the morning. Her car comes back and it hasn't left, so she's at home. This placed them both in the couple's home at around the same time that Leanne was murdered. How exactly was Leanne murdered? The pathology was able to say that she had pressure to the throat which created two broken bones in her neck. In addition to that, she also had a cut on the inside of her lip. So maybe it was trying to stop her from screaming or... I think if you put your hand over someone's mouth and you use your fingers to hold their nose, you're trying to stop them from breathing or you're trying to stop them from shouting. And let's face it, he would have had neighbors either side of him. So if she was screaming in fear of her life, then that would be the... I don't... Hold on. I don't think the kids would go to foster care. I think the grandparents would step in or somebody. I don't think they'd let that happen because they're too traumatized to be there in foster care. It was good. Good guy, rage, man. Don't forget to follow. Hit that heart. The natural reaction for him to do. With Leanne dead, Mackay began to plan his next steps. With his knowledge of police methods, could he cover up the murder of his own wife? That's crazy that this is an ad. 2023 is wild. Ex-detective Superintendent Jula Mackay is talking me through the rogue copper's movements following Leanne's death. Darren knows that the surveillance coming at Hopper Swam. We know that at 12.45pm, he is seen reversing her mini off the driveway. So within an hour and a half, he spills her, put her in the boot of the car and parked that round the corner out of the way. The surveyor is early and is parked up in the street just after one o'clock and he sees Darren walking back to the house. The surveyor waits a few minutes and then he goes and knocks on the door and he describes Darren as being really cool. There was nothing to indicate that he had just committed a crime and has a perfectly normal conversation with him for the next 40 minutes. I wonder if Darren could potentially use a surveyor as an alibi to say, well, I couldn't have done anything. I was with the alibi. I've got the alibi. I was with the borderline psychopathic surveyor in my house and he saw there was nothing untoward. Exactly. Another thing makes me think, I wonder if that's why he put the body in the car and drove it out of the house because he knew someone was coming to the house and potentially would have to look round the house because there's a surveyor and would have maybe found the body. Yes, I think you're quite right about that. He would definitely have had to move the body out of the house knowing that somebody was coming and moving the car round the corner just gets it out of eye's view, doesn't it? Was there anything else that he did to try and cover his tracks to give himself another alibi? Yes, so he then starts sending text messages to her just checking, is she all right? Where is she? He's now thinking the police will look at my phone. He works in intelligence, remember? He'll know about all this stuff and so he's starting to set up his story and support his alibi going forward. I didn't see so many M-documentaries. He's just like no different from any other person. I just watched, what do we just watch? Like last week somebody did something to that girlfriend and then did jerk off the porn. Remember that one? We watched that last week and this is the same thing that dude did. Leon in the day. I said porn, you two, C-O-R-N. With the final message to his wife. Same exact thing as the thing. He then goes to the school in the afternoon where he picks up his children and speaks to other parents at the school gates. Chatting away is again giving him another alibi to go, well, he was in a lovely movie, he could not have done anything. Exactly. How can you be so calm and collected? He just murdered your wife. He certainly appeared to be really detached and very calm having done such a terrible thing. You think that having killed his wife he has then gone into almost like a policing mode where police are really good in a crisis and can be very, very calm. He's definitely used his job to think about what he's going to do to cover his tracks and get him out of trouble. So his job really has... That's the craziest part of it. He was thinking about all the past crimes he's come across, all the past murder cases he's come across and thinking in his mind like, okay, that guy did good when he was trying to do... Okay, he did good at this part, but he messed up here. So let me take all the good stuff out and came across and try to do it and not mess up. That's weird. Giving him an advantage on... I know how I can try and get away with it. Darren Mackay's calmness and the ability to go about the rest of his day acting normally has really shocked me. I want to talk to psychologist Serena Simmons again to see if she can explain how Mackay could appear so relaxed. For real, can you talk pinpointed? Let me know what psychologists talk he got. Is he... You know what I'm saying? I know what I'm trying to say. I really get my head round with this. Even though murdering his wife is horrendous, it's how he reacted afterwards. It wasn't as... If it was an accident, if you know what I mean, he reacted like very calm and he was calculated, wasn't he? What's interesting is he slips into a particular mode of functioning as soon as he's done it. Arguably, there'd be some people who called the police. Exactly, that's my point. Then, again, that controlling nature came into play. I'm not gonna lose my family, I'm not gonna lose my house. I can sort the money out, get rid of this, get rid of the evidence. And obviously, with his knowledge of how police investigations work, again, tapping into that emotional intelligence, I know how I should behave in this particular situation. He was able to switch that on and off. So, in your opinion, Darren Mackay had an ability to... I would never date a cop in the first place, but this is gonna solidify it for me. Just switch his brain into another mode to go, this has happened, deal with it, and that's what you... You make my cop go over and manage to take me out and don't even get caught, that'd be tragic. And not only does he deal with it, he tries to cover his tracks. He kind of went into overdrive, which is a very much a self-defense, kind of vital flight response. He decided to fight, but it kind of went into this hyper drive of behaviour. This is about ego and self-preservation. He wasn't able to even contemplate losing what he had. And for someone like him, why should he? I get what I want. Now that Mackay had killed Leanne and set up his alibi, he needed to figure out what he would do with his wife's body. An alibi alone wouldn't be enough. He needed to distance himself even further from Leanne's death, and to do that, he needed to ensure her body would remain undiscovered for as long as possible. You just want to get her remains as far away from the home where the attack took place to give the impression that she was probably attacked by a stranger. When there's nothing holding you back, try to see how they caught, bro. Like, what started making them feel, you know what I'm saying? Getting that feeling like nah. But the first suspect in the M is always the spouse anyway. Right? The lover. Darren Mackay and his wife Leanne seemed to have it all. A happy marriage and an affluent lifestyle. In reality, however, their perfect life was a sham, covering up a mountain of debt and spending that was spiraling out of control. On the morning of her death, Leanne discovered that her police inspector husband had forged a loan application in her name. It was the final straw. After she confronted him, Darren Mackay snapped and killed Leanne by strangling her to death. Mackay's behavior doesn't make any sense to me. When he describes it as strangling her to... That's underplaying it. He broke two bones in her neck. That's a little bit more. That's a little bit more. Let's not underplay it. In their money worries, Leanne and Darren seemed to have a happy relationship. And I can't figure out how he's been... You better all say, broke her neck and strangling her. ...driven so suddenly to murder. Clinical psychologist Roberta Bap, who specializes in forensic psychology, is going to help me get some insight into what could have pushed Darren to commit such a horrendous crime. In most instances when a partner is murdered, there is some prior history of domestic violence. What's interesting about the case of Darren Mackay was there's no reports of previous domestic violence, and so the incident when he murdered his wife felt very uncharacteristic of their relationship and very much out of the blue. It may lead us to think about whether Darren Mackay meant to kill his wife in that moment or whether he was acting out something that he couldn't verbally articulate. Roberta thinks that rather than premeditated murder, Mackay's explosion of violence could have been him snapping under the pressures of the couple's financial problems. I think it was him snapping, for sure. I don't think he went in there like, yeah, I'm gonna do this. I think he went in there and the argument got too much for him to handle, and he couldn't convey his point. He couldn't verbalize his point. He was like, you know what? Boom. Problems. The stress and distress of being in debt can have a huge impact on someone's mental health, and all of these emotions come together in a really unhelpful way. The stress is gonna leak out in other places, becomes an overwhelming and all-encompassing experience. Money is intrinsically tied to our survival, and that can be threatened in cases of debt. Although Mackay was in a cold fury, the manner he chose to express his violence is also revealing. Strangulation is a very intense and intentional way to end someone's life. When a person is strangled, the person who's strangling has a real sense of power and control. That person's life is in their hands. So for strangulation is such a powerful method of ending someone's life. It has real psychological connotations, because it tells you a lot about the offender state of mind and their relationship to the victim at that time. With years in the force, Mackay knew that police will begin to connect the dots, and he would become the prime suspect in Leanne's murder. See? He knew he had to dispose of the police's biggest potential clue, his wife's body. Local journalist Mike McCarthy... Yeah, because nobody, no case, right? ...is meeting me not far from the couple's home to talk me through Mackay's movements in the hours following the murder, and after Darren had calmly shown the surveyor around their house, with Leanne already dead. So after Darren Mackay had committed the murder, what did he do next? He didn't show any signs of anything. I think the moment he realised that Leanne was dead, everything just about that he did from that point on was from the point of view of a police officer. He'd killed his wife, then carried on pretty much as normal. To all intents and purposes, this was the everyday Darren Mackay that everybody knew. He then went out in Leanne's car At 10.30pm, Darren left the family home, collected Leanne's red mini, and headed to Paddock Hill Farm, not far from the couple's home in Willslow. Police believed that when he arrived, he realised the water wasn't deep enough for him to leave Leanne's body there. He'd seen a sign in the past, it's believed that it's suggested that there was deep water in a pond. When he got there, there was no water. With his plans starting to fall apart, Mackay had to come up with an alternative. He left Leanne's phone at Paddock Hill Farm to throw detectives off the scent, before heading back towards another possible site to dump his wife's body, but nearby the lake. He no doubt thought as a police inspector that he'd committed the perfect crime and covered up his tracks as well as anybody that could have done. But just hours later, as he headed home from dumping Leanne's body, cracks started to appear in Darren's master plan. At 1.30 in the morning, he was seen by a police patrol on a road near his home, and they stopped to talk to him. Nothing too suspicious as far as the police were concerned, kind of thing that they're dealing with every day of the week. He's walking home, what's the problem sort of thing. He told officers he was fine and almost home. Mackay refused to give police his name or any other information about himself. As he was not breaking the law, they let him go. He must have thought that when the police sent him on his way, that was it, you know, job achieved. That's California. Wouldn't be that simple later on. In the early hours of the morning around 2am, police spotted Darren again, still out walking, but this time with a significant difference. An hour later, they came across him again. This time it was different. They noticed that he wasn't wearing any shoes. Of course, I mean, the fact is they've stopped him once and he didn't give him his name. Second time now, he's not got shoes on. So this is obviously raising suspicion that what's going on with this guy is something wrong here. Alain Bell is going off far more to this story. So the police insisted on taking him home. They at that stage must have thought there's something more that we need to investigate. Clearly. I want to hear from Detective Howard Groves to find out how police are... Anybody else, I feel like they would have stopped, searched, investigated, did this, doing that, this, this and the third. But it don't seem like they went that, you know, above and beyond extra like with him. They just seen him one time, let him go. He wasn't breaking the lobby. Then they seen him twice, no shoes, and they took him home. That ain't enough. Compared to which I'll be doing to other people, that is not enough. Officers would have acted after they saw Mackay out the Howard Groves to find out how police officers would have acted after they saw Mackay out that night acting strangely on his walk home. You think from the moment the officers would have seen not only him walking, but the next time they see him walking with no shoes on, there'd have been a suspicion there, wouldn't there? This is strange behaviour. I think from the moment those officers picked him up on the first occasion and then said, OK, let him carry on in his merry way. On the second occasion when they see him wearing shoes, they obviously asked him questions and he gave, to all intents and purposes, a reasonably plausible excuse. I'm not wearing my shoes because they're a bit too tight. I've had a bit to drink. I can't drink and drive, which the opposite have gone. Yeah, that's true, but I'm trying to find my wife, so I'm just walking to see if I can find her. Even though he would have given that as an excuse, they would have still been thinking it doesn't all quite sound quite true. And because they realized that he was wearing the police-issued trousers, that gave it away. So he didn't have any other option at that point to say, yes, I'm a police officer. See what I'm saying? I knew it was a reason they didn't go above and beyond. They seen the police-issued trousers and it was like, oh, OK, whatever. A guy was forced to explain that he was out looking for his wife who was missing and hadn't been responding to his texts. That's when they would have thought, OK, he's probably had a bit to drink. We don't know what's happening domestically. We'll get him home. Officers decided to take Darren home and he shows no emotion whatsoever. And the officers are thinking, oh, what's happening? Well, he was cold as ice and he wasn't showing any empathy. So they might have looked to him like, oh, everything's fine, but they're probably thinking, why don't we go outside? When police officers came to visit Darren Mackay, he was described as being cold and detached and this could be for different reasons. One reason could be the fact that he didn't feel he had to put in a performance anymore because the act of killing his wife had been completed. Another reason may have been the fact that he was preoccupied with the practicalities of now trying to ensure that he got away with the crime. But that's not the only reason Darren may have seen detached. He was well known... That they called him because he got to... Like, this is like... In other documentaries we watch, when people do like this and move like this, they say that he could possibly kill again. And like, he got too much power. Like, he's a cop, he's a bum, you know. He knows all of these people who can't really defend themselves or at-risk people, so now they need to lock him up. He was well known by his work colleagues for being able to hide his emotions. Darren Mackay's nickname within the police force was Mr. Spot and this could communicate a number of things. He may have been seen as someone who's devoid of emotions or someone who lacked empathy, both of which are concerning if you're thinking about a member of the police force. Right! After around 14 hours, Wood Mackay, famed for his inability to show emotion, be able to play the role of a concerned husband convincingly enough to deceive his colleagues. And second of all, when the cops seen the police issue pants and he was forced to be like, okay, my wife's been missing for an extra amount of time, why wasn't there an investigation launched in her missingness and her disappearance? What's going on? Are you single and tired of canceled plans? I'm actually am single, but I'm not tired of canceled plans because I'm the one cancelling plans out here. He got me good motion. Anyway. Yes, that was it. Yes, that was it. Okay. The police, they've gone to him and said, we need to know where her phone is. So he can't get away with not looking because they're standing there over him. That comes up as being a place called Paddock Hill Lane, which they take the screenshots of the location. Oh, okay, he has his location on with his wife. Which is, you should. And they send it through to the control room. Is that where he's throwing the phone? Yeah, yeah. They send the police to go out there and have a look for the exact location and they discover the phone and next to it is a sign that says beware deep water, but it hasn't actually gone in any water at all. So now the police have recovered her phone and it's not damaged and they can get that back and get the data off. And the phone was on still? Find that location. Don't work when your phone is off. So he left the phone on. He was a major lead in solving the case. But where was Leanne? That question will be answered just a few hours later. At 3.45 a.m. on Friday the 29th of September, around 15 hours after her death, Leanne's body was discovered in Pointon Lake by a member of the public who was walking home. I'm visiting the park with local journalist Mike McCarthy to find out more about that night. Now that Leanne's body had been discovered, a theory was emerging about what had happened to her and who was responsible. He went out in Leanne's car bringing the body here. He parked that car 140 metres away from where we are at the moment and it's thought that Darren Mackay dragged the body the full length of that 140 metres dumping Leanne right here on the edge of the lake. It's not being here. It's because I spent so much time here as a kid fishing there. All just over there I was fishing and innocent and there's been a body dumped just here. That's a lake? Is that a man-made lake or is it a naturally occurring lake? See this one, either way like I'm good. What the fuck? No way. See this why I stay away from bodies of water anyway. If I want to give them some water I run a bath. Simple as that in my mind. An innocent woman being killed. Strange being in and around the environment. It's a beautiful place and it's got great memories for me. Obviously. Not for Leanne's family. Just to get to this position and it's a walk you know but imagine not only you walking dragging a body but not only a body, that's your wife. Who knows what was going through his mind at that point given the other things that he did. Giving his behaviour, the rest of that dent to have been so careless if you like. Was he a cancer or a Leo? Dumped the body in that kind of way but he knew that later he would say that she must have been killed by somebody else and that in a way it was a bit of a decoy but certainly from someone who knew how the law worked knew how policing worked knew what kind of clues the police would be looking for. Despite his police knowledge and his attempts to stage a fake crime scene once Leanne's body was found and identified Mackay was immediately arrested. When police arrived at his house they had noticed his washing machine still running in the middle of the night as Mackay desperately tried to rid his clothes of trace evidence. Forensic investigator Jim Fraser says this is quite common. That's another mistake, huh? You a cop, burn it. Wash it, burn it. It's allegedly in the movies. In cases such as this. As a police officer Darren would be aware that many homicide investigations are solved quite quickly by immediately finding what can be quite obvious evidence. It's not uncommon for people who have been involved in crime that involves blood being shed to try and wash it out of their clothing. Placing clothing with body fluids on it in a washing machine doesn't necessarily completely destroy the evidence. So stopping the machine as quickly as possible would minimize the possibility that evidence was going to be lost. With vital forensic evidence recovered from the family home and Mackay himself now in custody. Ooh, they had a nice car. There's that Audi wagon. Nice. Police weren't looking for any other suspects. It was just 17 hours since Leanne had been murdered. When there's nothing holding you back. What was that, a printer? So after he's been arrested they obviously have to interview him. What did he say? When a suspect is interviewed for murder like this they tend to do it in stages. So the first interview is always tell us what you know. And then he has an opportunity to say the truth at that stage if that's what he wants to say. And inevitably in this case he doesn't. He says I don't know anything. So he starts off with his interview by denying all knowledge of her death and how it's happened. So then they disclose a bit more of the evidence to him about what they know and he continues to say I don't know anything. It's not me. I don't know how she died. I'm not responsible. But Darren did eventually change his story. He actually says yes. Leanne drove her mini and I was with her and we went somewhere. But she didn't want to get involved in the whole financial thing that I'm... Yeah see. Once you start switching up the story you should have knew that too. You gotta go one story the whole time rather it's a good story or a bad story because once you start switching the story what is that doing? It's a hidden doubt. Automatically they know you're lying. Sorting out. So I then let her carry on and I then walked back home. So yes it gives some credence to what he was trying to create was an alibi that we're driven away because obviously he may have thought maybe there may be CCTV showing the car driving away. Darren claimed he never saw Leanne again after she drove off. And so with him maintaining his innocence it was down to the officers to put together the missing pieces of this case. And a major breakthrough would come when the data on Leanne's phone was recovered. Police could see on the day of the murder Leanne and Darren's phones had been travelling together. Most damningly they found that the phones had been together at 2.40pm that day after Darren had already messaged Leanne asking where she was. Not only that but the phones were together at the very location Paddock Hill Farm where Leanne's phone was later discovered. So he's travelling with her. That's another thing man always leave your phone at its place of origin allegedly in the movie because that's what they do you gotta leave your phone because them phones is all a digital footprint. And her phone is in the car so you can see that so he's messaging the same where are you I don't know where you are but the phones are close by together. Exactly, they're together and not only are they together or near the house they're then together at this other location and you can see that the way they go the way they travel together and then they come back. The other mistake he made was he should have destroyed the phone he really is a bad criminal I mean he's banged to rights now what would he be trying to say what has happened to her what was he trying to make it look like? That they've got these money worries couldn't he to say that she was upset and then he would be trying to suggest that somebody else had killed her it had been a stranger attack So while she was out walking she's gone for a walk around the lake at night as you do and been attacked by a stranger and been killed that's what he was trying to get away with But Mackay's story that his wife had driven off in a fury only to be murdered later by a stranger didn't add up and crucially he was unable to explain why his and his wife's phone were in close proximity when he was texting to ask where she was despite Mackay's best efforts to commit the perfect murder his plan was falling apart piece by piece It wasn't that great of a plan in the first place Found for a few days or even weeks the forensic evidence then would diminish wouldn't it and he probably would have been in quite a good place to be honest When police found his missing shoes from that night dumped in a nearby bin Mackay must have known the game was up The cover of the trainers it would have been obvious to them that there was blood and bloody fluids on them the first thing they would want to do is establish who's blood that was the process of doing that is they would be sent to a forensic science lab When the results of the tests came back they pointed to only one conclusion The trainers were almost overwhelmingly damning Firstly they have body fluids on them that match his dead wife Secondly there is DNA inside them that establishes that he was wearing them and by inference that he owned them and thirdly there is this very odd set of circumstances where he was seen by two police officers wearing the trainers later seen by the same two police officers not wearing the trainers and gave them an explanation that simply wasn't credible why he wasn't wearing them Forensic officers could now confidently tie Darren Mackay to Leigh-Anne's death It's quite clear that his experience of police officer was a significant factor in this case If he'd managed to put the body somewhere where it couldn't be found or could not be found for many weeks he would do two things he wouldn't come under immediate suspicion and the longer the body is missing particularly if it's in water the more chance that they wouldn't be able to identify the cause of death It makes it difficult to build a case against somebody but of course he encountered two police officers in the process of this on two occasions and they were plainly suspicious about his explanations Mackay's trial started at Chester Crown Court on the 5th of March 2018 he initially pled not guilty sticking to the claim that a stranger must have murdered Leigh-Anne put just nine days into the hearing with the evidence stacking up against him he realised he had no choice but to change his story Once he realised the evidence given by the prosecution was building up and it was all working against him he then tried to say, look I want to plead to a letter of offence No can do, it ain't happening and once he was then convicted the jury made the decision What's the conviction? The jury found Darren Mackay guilty of the murder of his wife Leigh-Anne by a majority of 11 to 1 11 to 1? Who was the one? The judge then said, ok you were a police officer you had sufficient knowledge and experience of being an officer, so no I'm going to make sure instead of you getting 15 years which is what I was going to give you I'm going to give you some more on top of that because you did everything to evade being caught so you're going to get another four years on top so you got 19 years He was going to give him 15 years but because he was a cop he gave him 19 well that's one of the lowest numbers I've heard in any of these documentaries With Darren Mackay receiving 19 years in prison there would be at least some justice for Leigh-Anne's friends and family at least he in there probably all the other inmates he probably getting you know you know what I'm saying 19 years that's no justice for her family This tragic pair had tried so hard to keep up appearances and had lost everything due to a police officer who turned out to be a cold-blooded killer This was all about self-preservation many people don't think they're capable of doing something that they end up doing but that fight or flight really kicked in I think if this case had happened anywhere else it would have been shocking but to be where he lived to live the life that his family lived to be respected police officers to have no idea whatsoever you know not even an inkling that he'd got any bad marks in his record it hit the community hard Members of the police must have been feeling let down betrayed, horrified and surprised and angry that a colleague could act in such a brutally violent way I think this would have been really difficult to work on nobody likes the idea of a police officer killing anyone do they? It's despicable we're there to protect people and then the fact that his wife is a serving officer as well can you imagine how hard that would have been two people that you probably knew one has killed the other and you have to work out what's happened and almost detach yourself from that emotional sadness you'd think he was despicable killing one of your own just as despicable as he got 19 years alright till I leave a like, comment, subscribe let me know what you think in the comments