Twenty-three-year-old Mark Corley lived in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, and was last seen alive on July 7th, 2000. After that, his whereabouts went undiscovered for more than five months.
Then, in December, his remains were found in a rural area near Darlington, County Durham. He had been shot in the back of the head, execution style.
In early 2002, five men were slated to stand trial for the killing: thirty-six-year-old Robert Sutherland, who was charged with murder; twenty-seven-year-old John Smith; thirty-six-year-old Gary Self; twenty-one-year-old Danny Gray; and fifty-nine-year-old John Toseland, the latter four of whom were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
However, prior to the trial, it was revealed that conversations between the defendants and their solicitors had been illegally recorded; microphones had been concealed in the exercise yard outside the police station.
The judge, stating that investigators “compromised the trial process,” therefore called off the proceedings, and the men walked free.
Mark Corley’s father Tony took to the media in 2022 to make a new plea for information in the case, and a reward of £20,000 is still on offer. The Lincolnshire police confirm that the case is still open, but as of this writing, there have been no further updates.
Crime Immemorial 