Murder of Rachel McLean
Encyclopedia
Rachel Margaret McLean (1971–1991) was a British
student at St. Hilda's College
in Oxford
, England
, when she was murdered by her fiancé, John Tanner, a day after they became engaged. In the aftermath, Tanner concocted ruses in an attempt to allay suspicion, and elaborated a series of lies in an attempt to confuse the crime investigation and outwit the police.
McLean, who was born in the English town of Blackpool
and raised in nearby Carleton
, was a second-year student studying English Language
at St. Hilda's when Tanner, a 22-year-old British-born New Zealand
national, strangled her on 14 April 1991 and hid her body under the floorboards of her house.
.
The following day was FA Cup
semi-finals day in football, and McLean and Tanner, an avid Nottingham Forest
fan, planned to spend a lazy day at home. She studied in the front room while he watched the game on television. Afterwards, the couple were seen by neighbours outside the house at around 4.30pm, which would prove to be the last time McLean was seen alive.
Later that evening, Tanner strangled Rachel, then forced her head face down and tied a ligature around her neck. In his confession, Tanner told detectives that he spent several hours looking for a hiding place for the body in the house. It took police searchers seventeen days to locate the body hidden in an eight-inch-high gap at the back of a cupboard under the stairs, crammed with household junk. After emptying the cupboard's contents, Tanner had dragged McLean's body, clothed in silky ski pants and a T-shirt, from the adjacent bedroom, along the hall, and into the recess under the floor. He then crawled along under the hallway to hide the body under the floorboards of her bedroom.
, where he was a classics
student at the city's University of Nottingham
. He was seen by a passenger on the 5pm bus bound for Oxford railway station. As he waited for the 6.30pm train to Nottingham, Tanner penned a love letter to McLean, which he later posted to her Argyle Street address. In the letter, he stated how fortunate it was she had been met by a long-haired man who had offered her a lift home from the station when they were going their separate ways. On 16 April, Tanner telephoned Rachel's home but nobody was home. He tried again the following evening and was answered by Victoria Clare, McLean's 20-year-old housemate. Tanner asked to speak to McLean, but Clare said she knew nothing of her whereabouts. Tanner's letter arrived on 18 April, and Tanner called the house again that evening, asking for McLean.
By 19 April, five days after she was last seen, McLean's friends had begun to wonder where she was. She was due to attend a meeting with her tutor that morning to discuss work for the new term and sit a pre-term exam at St. Hilda's in the afternoon. A phone call to McLean's family in Lancashire confirmed that she had been left in Oxford the previous weekend.
took control of the inquiry, an initial search of McLean's house was made by detectives. There was nothing to suggest she had come to any harm at the house; an examination of the floorboards showed they had not been tampered with.
McLean's disappearance was made public knowledge on 22 April. Tanner spoke from his home in Lenton
, Nottingham, and said how he had given McLean a farewell kiss on platform 2 of Oxford railway station as he boarded his train home. He also explained how he and McLean had been joined by a long-haired man as they sat drinking coffee in the station concourse. He said the stranger seemed to know McLean well and offered her a lift home. McLean's parents, Joan and Malcolm, took part in a press conference on 24 April and appealed for help in finding their daughter. Police had briefed journalists at the conference to pose questions to Tanner that would ultimately reinforce their suspicion that Tanner was involved in the disappearance. Meanwhile, searches continued around Argyle Street and nearby scrubland, and police frogmen dragged the River Cherwell
. Police issued a photofit
picture of the man whom Tanner claimed to have met at Oxford station, but nobody came forward to place him at the station with McLean and Tanner.
By 28 April, police were now convinced that McLean was dead, and ordered search teams to examine sewer
s and cess pits around the area of Argyle Street. The following day, Tanner surprised police by agreeing to take part in a press conference and reconstruction of what he claimed were their final movements. During an hour-long re-enactment, with PC Helen Kay playing McLean's role, Tanner posed in the station cafe, strolled along the platform and replayed the final embrace and kiss they shared before he boarded the train. Pressed by reporters, Tanner stated: "I did not kill her. I don't know what happened to her. In my heart of hearts I know she is still alive." As a result of the reconstruction, two independent witnesses placed Tanner at the station but not McLean. At the beginning of May, police contacted Oxfordshire County Council for details regarding the layout of houses in Argyle Street, particularly about their basements. They were told that there were no basements in the houses, but an official remembered the houses were underpinned, which meant there were cavities under the floors.
A day later, on 2 May, McLean's body was found shortly before 5.30pm. It was covered in pieces of carpet, but due to the low spring temperatures, there was no decomposition
. Within the hour, Tanner was arrested at a pub
in Nottingham and initially refused to answer any questions.
, New Zealand
. He is a graduate of Wanganui Collegiate School
.
at Hodgson High School in Poulton
. Her husband, Malcolm (b. 1946), was a British Aerospace
engineer. Rachel was the oldest of three children, with brothers David (b. 1973) and Peter (b. 1975). Prior to gaining a place at St. Hilda's College, McLean attended Blackpool Sixth Form College
. Rachel McLean met Tanner as she celebrated her 19th birthday at her home. Ten months later, on 13 April 1991, they became engaged. After McLean's murder, it emerged that Tanner felt increasingly threatened by her life away from his in Nottingham, and she found his obsessiveness too restrictive.
On 12 May, a memorial service
was held at Oxford's University Church of St Mary the Virgin
, attended by 400 family and friends, and on 29 May, a funeral service was held at Poulton
Methodist Church.
's Real Crime series, was aired in 2004, with Thea Rowland portraying Rachel McLean and Noah Huntley
playing John Tanner.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
student at St. Hilda's College
St Hilda's College, Oxford
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006....
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, when she was murdered by her fiancé, John Tanner, a day after they became engaged. In the aftermath, Tanner concocted ruses in an attempt to allay suspicion, and elaborated a series of lies in an attempt to confuse the crime investigation and outwit the police.
McLean, who was born in the English town of Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
and raised in nearby Carleton
Carleton, Lancashire
Carleton is a village on the coastal plain of the Fylde in Lancashire, England. It consists of Great Carleton, Little Carleton and Norcross and is situated close to the market town of Poulton-le-Fylde. Nearby settlements include Thornton, Bispham and Blackpool...
, was a second-year student studying English Language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at St. Hilda's when Tanner, a 22-year-old British-born New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
national, strangled her on 14 April 1991 and hid her body under the floorboards of her house.
Murder
On the evening of 13 April 1991, Tanner was due to arrive in Oxford by train at 6pm. 19-year-old McLean went to meet him at the station. Discovering that the train had been delayed, she returned home. At around 7.30pm, Tanner arrived at the house by taxiTaxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
.
The following day was FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
semi-finals day in football, and McLean and Tanner, an avid Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest F.C.
Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...
fan, planned to spend a lazy day at home. She studied in the front room while he watched the game on television. Afterwards, the couple were seen by neighbours outside the house at around 4.30pm, which would prove to be the last time McLean was seen alive.
Later that evening, Tanner strangled Rachel, then forced her head face down and tied a ligature around her neck. In his confession, Tanner told detectives that he spent several hours looking for a hiding place for the body in the house. It took police searchers seventeen days to locate the body hidden in an eight-inch-high gap at the back of a cupboard under the stairs, crammed with household junk. After emptying the cupboard's contents, Tanner had dragged McLean's body, clothed in silky ski pants and a T-shirt, from the adjacent bedroom, along the hall, and into the recess under the floor. He then crawled along under the hallway to hide the body under the floorboards of her bedroom.
Aftermath
Tanner left the house the next day to return to NottinghamNottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, where he was a classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
student at the city's University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
. He was seen by a passenger on the 5pm bus bound for Oxford railway station. As he waited for the 6.30pm train to Nottingham, Tanner penned a love letter to McLean, which he later posted to her Argyle Street address. In the letter, he stated how fortunate it was she had been met by a long-haired man who had offered her a lift home from the station when they were going their separate ways. On 16 April, Tanner telephoned Rachel's home but nobody was home. He tried again the following evening and was answered by Victoria Clare, McLean's 20-year-old housemate. Tanner asked to speak to McLean, but Clare said she knew nothing of her whereabouts. Tanner's letter arrived on 18 April, and Tanner called the house again that evening, asking for McLean.
By 19 April, five days after she was last seen, McLean's friends had begun to wonder where she was. She was due to attend a meeting with her tutor that morning to discuss work for the new term and sit a pre-term exam at St. Hilda's in the afternoon. A phone call to McLean's family in Lancashire confirmed that she had been left in Oxford the previous weekend.
Investigation
College authorities notified police about McLean's apparent disappearance. Initially, the inquiry was low-key, Oxford police receiving dozens of reports of missing students every month. McLean's description — 5 ft 6 in tall, slim, fresh complexion, shoulder-length ginger-auburn hair and brown eyes — was circulated to local patrols. On 21 April, after the CIDCriminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
took control of the inquiry, an initial search of McLean's house was made by detectives. There was nothing to suggest she had come to any harm at the house; an examination of the floorboards showed they had not been tampered with.
McLean's disappearance was made public knowledge on 22 April. Tanner spoke from his home in Lenton
Lenton, Nottingham
Lenton is an area of the City of Nottingham in the county of Nottinghamshire, England. Politically, it falls within the Nottingham South constituency. Most of the area lies within the electoral ward of "Dunkirk and Lenton", however the "Lenton Triangle" area, considered by most residents to be part...
, Nottingham, and said how he had given McLean a farewell kiss on platform 2 of Oxford railway station as he boarded his train home. He also explained how he and McLean had been joined by a long-haired man as they sat drinking coffee in the station concourse. He said the stranger seemed to know McLean well and offered her a lift home. McLean's parents, Joan and Malcolm, took part in a press conference on 24 April and appealed for help in finding their daughter. Police had briefed journalists at the conference to pose questions to Tanner that would ultimately reinforce their suspicion that Tanner was involved in the disappearance. Meanwhile, searches continued around Argyle Street and nearby scrubland, and police frogmen dragged the River Cherwell
River Cherwell
The River Cherwell is a river which flows through the Midlands of England. It is a major tributary of the River Thames.The general course of the River Cherwell is north to south and the 'straight-line' distance from its source to the Thames is about...
. Police issued a photofit
Photofit
Photofit is a technique used by the police for building up an accurate image of someone to fit a witness' description. Photographs, rather than drawings, of individual features are used to construct an image of a suspect....
picture of the man whom Tanner claimed to have met at Oxford station, but nobody came forward to place him at the station with McLean and Tanner.
By 28 April, police were now convinced that McLean was dead, and ordered search teams to examine sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
s and cess pits around the area of Argyle Street. The following day, Tanner surprised police by agreeing to take part in a press conference and reconstruction of what he claimed were their final movements. During an hour-long re-enactment, with PC Helen Kay playing McLean's role, Tanner posed in the station cafe, strolled along the platform and replayed the final embrace and kiss they shared before he boarded the train. Pressed by reporters, Tanner stated: "I did not kill her. I don't know what happened to her. In my heart of hearts I know she is still alive." As a result of the reconstruction, two independent witnesses placed Tanner at the station but not McLean. At the beginning of May, police contacted Oxfordshire County Council for details regarding the layout of houses in Argyle Street, particularly about their basements. They were told that there were no basements in the houses, but an official remembered the houses were underpinned, which meant there were cavities under the floors.
A day later, on 2 May, McLean's body was found shortly before 5.30pm. It was covered in pieces of carpet, but due to the low spring temperatures, there was no decomposition
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
. Within the hour, Tanner was arrested at a pub
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Nottingham and initially refused to answer any questions.
Sentencing and release
Confronted with the evidence gathered by the police, Tanner broke down and admitted killing his girlfriend. Tanner appeared before Oxford magistrates on 4 May and was charged with the murder. During a four-day trial at Birmingham Crown Court, in which he pleaded not guilty, Tanner said that Miss McLean had told him she had been unfaithful and wanted to end the relationship. "I flew at her in a rage and proceeded to put my hands around her neck…I think I must have lost control, because I have only a vague recollection of the time that elapsed afterwards. I am bewildered why I have done such a terrible thing to a person I love dearly." On 6 December 1991, the jury returned a majority verdict of 10 to 2 and Tanner was given a life sentence. In early 2003 after serving almost 12 years of his life sentence, Tanner was released from jail and returned to live in his native WhanganuiWhanganui
Various places in New Zealand are called Whanganui:*Whanganui, a city at the mouth of the Whanganui River, also often spelled "Wanganui", Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui District, Manawatu-Wanganui Region*Whanganui Island, Waikato Region...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. He is a graduate of Wanganui Collegiate School
Wanganui Collegiate School
Wanganui Collegiate School is an independent, coeducational, day and boarding secondary school in Wanganui, New Zealand. The school is affiliated to the Anglican church.-About:...
.
McLean's personal life
At the time, Joan McLean (b. 1949), Rachel's mother, was head of FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
at Hodgson High School in Poulton
Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,264. There is evidence of human habitation in the area from 12,000 years ago and several archaeological finds from Roman...
. Her husband, Malcolm (b. 1946), was a British Aerospace
British Aerospace
British Aerospace plc was a UK aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer. Its head office was in the Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire...
engineer. Rachel was the oldest of three children, with brothers David (b. 1973) and Peter (b. 1975). Prior to gaining a place at St. Hilda's College, McLean attended Blackpool Sixth Form College
Blackpool Sixth Form College
The Blackpool Sixth Form College serves the Fylde and surrounding areas of the county of Lancashire, England. The college has around 1,900 full-time students. The college offers academic and applied programmes to a wide range of students aged between 16 and 19....
. Rachel McLean met Tanner as she celebrated her 19th birthday at her home. Ten months later, on 13 April 1991, they became engaged. After McLean's murder, it emerged that Tanner felt increasingly threatened by her life away from his in Nottingham, and she found his obsessiveness too restrictive.
On 12 May, a memorial service
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
was held at Oxford's University Church of St Mary the Virgin
University Church of St Mary the Virgin
The University Church of St Mary the Virgin is the largest of Oxford's parish churches and the centre from which the University of Oxford grew...
, attended by 400 family and friends, and on 29 May, a funeral service was held at Poulton
Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. As of the 2001 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,264. There is evidence of human habitation in the area from 12,000 years ago and several archaeological finds from Roman...
Methodist Church.
Media
A documentary, entitled "Love You to Death", part of ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Real Crime series, was aired in 2004, with Thea Rowland portraying Rachel McLean and Noah Huntley
Noah Huntley
Noah Cornelius Marmaduke Huntley is an English actor, known for his role as Will Curtis in Holby City.-Background:...
playing John Tanner.