Blood relatives Episode 5
999 call at 0609
Heidi Blake (HB) introduced herself to Nick Milbank NM by saying, "Basically, I'm just wondering whether you might be willing to have a chat with me about it and just make sure I'm not completely barking up the wrong tree with the stuff I'm looking at"
NM "Yeah, to be honest, yes, I was, I was on the telephone but it was back in the 80's, my recollection of it. I mean, I'd taken millions and millions of phone calls since then and to be honest, in those days it was just another, just another phone call.
HB - comment Just another phone call, he said.
Nick Milbank (NM)
“From what I remember it was a case of someone ringing 999 and me answering it and then I just was hearing background noises and then police entering the build(sic) or room. I don’t think there was any actual conversation, but I really don’t remember much about it at all to be honest”
Heidi Blake (HB) “Were you in the Control Room and picked up a 999?”
NM “Yes”
“Yeah, yeah, in the central Control Room in Chelmsford”
“I do dispatching most of the time but on that occasion I was call taking and, but, yeah and obviously it came from the 999 system”
HB “So a call came in, and it was from the farmhouse itself?”
NM “Yeah”
NM “If you get a phone call where it’s technically an abandoned call because people either aren’t – it’s technically an abandoned call because people either aren’t speaking or there’s someone who’s in fear or danger or, whatever, our policy is to stay on the phone with them until the police arrive. And then as the police officers would get there, they’d pick up the phone and say, yeah, we’re here now. And so I could then hang up the phone call and go straight to the next 999 call.
HB “Right, OK, yeah, that makes sense”
NM “And so I say I just sat there with the phone open to see if anyone did say anything or I heard anything”.
HB “And you could hear sort of movement in the background?”
NM” As far as I can remember, there was, yes, a movement or voices in the background. I’m, not sure I actually spoke to anybody”
HB. “So Nick Millbank was saying not only did someone dial 999 from inside the Manor that morning before police entered the property, but when he answered, he heard apparent signs of life inside, movements, maybe even speech.
NM “Who actually made the phone call, I don’t know”
HB "This conversation was becoming more and more surreal because Nick Milbank did not seem to realise the gravity of what he was telling me”
HB “I’m just trying to get my head round some of this new stuff and that it does seem like if it’s true that because, you know, that the way it all went down was apparently, you know, Jeremy claims there was a call from his dad to him at 3.00 in the morning saying come round, your sister’s gone berserk with a gun and he went round to the farmhouse and they got there at about 3:48 in the morning and then from that point on, he was stood outside with the police and the police didn’t enter until 7:30 am. So if there was a call from inside the farmhouse, it sort of doesn’t quite make sense that, you know, that would have happened. And because that would indicate that someone was alive and they’re basically, you know, they’re all dead by the time”.
NM “Well, obviously, yeah, yeah”
HB “Well obviously, Nick Milbank said, someone was alive in there”
The police hadn’t entered the property until 7:30 am, so Milbank had been listening in for an hour and 21 minutes before the bodies were found. And he’d heard noises that might have been crucial clues to what was going on in there”.
HB “And so did it sound like, because I think there was meant to be a bit of a struggle in the kitchen. Did it sound like a commotion or did it just sound like, you know,”
NM” Didn’t sound like no, it was just movement, you know, movement really, I don’t know. I can’t remember but I’ll be guessing sort of either a door opening, closing or a chair being moved or, you know, there was some noise or some sort of movement and, then all of a sudden, you know, there were police, sounds of police. I think someone picked up the phone and said it’s OK, we’re in now, well we’re here now, whatever. And I said, oh that’s fine and put the phone down. I’m guessing it was a police officer that picked up the phone. And so obviously there was no longer the need to leave the 999 call open”.
HB “Who could have made this call? Nevill, June and the twins had all been shot in the head at close range. If someone was alive inside the house after the police turned up, it could only have been Sheila, who was found dead inside the locked Manor holding the murder weapon.
