Kriti Mehrotra
It was in the early morning hours of a cold October morning when everything turned upside down for Northern Yorkshire native Natalie Harker in the blink of an eye. That’s because, as explored in HBO Max’s ‘999 Murderer Calling: Killer in the Woods,’ she was ambushed and slain as she was riding her bicycle through a narrow path in a wooded area to reach work. However, arguably, the most disturbing part of this entire ordeal is that she was actually killed by someone she once trusted and loved with her entire being.
Natalie Harker Was Reported Missing Hours Before Her Body Was Found
At the age of 30, Natalie was truly living her best life in Catterick as not just a loving daughter and sister but also a great friend who was evolving in her career. After all, the former Tesco employee had recently spread her wings to land a job in a medical facility, where she put forth such an impression that they knew something was wrong when she didn’t show up for work on October 9, 2019, with no prior information. She was actually reported missing within hours because she had left her home for work at around 4 am, yet it wasn’t until over 12 hours later that a 999 call came in to report her death.
This call was made by Andrew Pearson, who claimed to be her boyfriend, and asserted that they were taking a walk in the woods early in the morning when she fell into a creek. He then said he helped her out and dragged her all the way in his tent – asserting he had been camping for a couple of days – and gave her CPR before somehow passing out himself. When he woke up hours later, he said, Natalie was exactly where he had laid her down under his sleeping bag, but she was purple and had blood coming out of her mother. So, fearing she was dead, he called 999.
When investigators arrived at the scene, they noticed several discrepancies in Andrew PErason’s account, with the most prominent being that Natalie’s clothes were neatly folded and that there was torn tape lying around. When forensic medical experts analyzed her body, they found she had actually been bound, assaulted, strangled to death, and then drowned in the lake. In fact, they specified that it appeared as if her head was forcefully held down into the creek to ensure she died, especially considering the defensive wounds across her body. Therefore, her death was ruled a homicide.
Natalie Harker Was Targeted By Her Ex
It turns out Andrew Perason was not Natalie’s boyfriend but her ex-boyfriend – they had broken up months ago, yet he was not ready to accept it. According to reports, they had first come across one another in the spring of 2018 while working at a local Tescoe, where they soon fell in love despite being completely different people. While Natalie was a social butterfly with an incredible standing in the community, Andrew was quiet as well as a bit of a loner, yet they fit well together, that is, until they didn’t. As per records, while they started out great, things changed once he lost his job, as Natalie began feeling as if he was controlling and mooching off of her.
Thus, Natalie decided to call their relationship quits, unaware it would soon lead to Andrew essentially harassing her via texts, calls, e-mails, as well as in person. She never filed a complaint against him despite her friends urging her to because she didn’t want any further trouble, but she did tell all her loved ones to intervene if they ever saw them together, indicating she would never willingly hang out with him again. But alas, there was nothing anyone could do on the morning of October 9 as he jumped her while she was on her way to work, with no one around.
The Evidence Against Andrew Pearson Was Indisputable
While Andrew had alleged he had been camping in the woods for days, investigations revealed he had actually left home and set up camp following 3 am on the fateful day. As if that’s not enough, their search of his electronic devices also revealed him trying to flip the narrative, blaming Natalie for their breakup and spreading false allegations about him. Yet, more importantly, there were the deleted photos on his phone’s hard drive of the crime scene – the narrow road, the creek, and the path from the creek to his tent – taken over a week before the actual murder.
Therefore, despite Andrew’s assertions that he was not responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s murder, he was arrested on suspicion for the same that same evening, with the charge later going to murder. The strangest part of it all, though, was that while he was completely willing to describe everything to the dispatcher on the 999 call, he refused to say anything during his subsequent interrogations. In fact, he didn’t even utter something like “no comment” or make arguments for himself; he sat in silence as the detectives asked him questions until they couldn’t anymore.
Andrew Pearson is Currently Serving His Sentence
It was in early 2020 when Andrew Pearson was charged with the kidnapping and murder of his ex-girlfriend Natalie Harker, for which he was found guilty following a trial in November. The judge, during the sentencing, actually described him as self-centered, calculating, and evil before handing him a life term with the possibility of parole and early release after 25 years. None of his allegations against Natalie were believed, owing to his own actions in the months before. Therefore, today, at the age of 35, Andrew remains incarcerated at a His Majesty’s Prison, where he is expected to remain until at least for over two more decades.
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