Her Mother And Stepfather Murdered Her To Hide A Dark Secret— Bernadette Walker

Today’s case takes us to Peterborough, a city in the county of Cambridgeshire, England.

In 2020, 17-year-old Bernadette Walker lived there, who studied photography at the university. Creative and fashion lover, she loved to constantly change her hair color.

The young woman at that time lived with her mother Sarah and Scott Walker, her stepfather. Although she had 8 siblings, she was with Anthony, one of them with whom she had a special connection, not to mention that she was very close to him.

The boy describes her as a funny and shy person at the same time. The two had a common dream and it was to travel to the United States. For this reason, Anthony was secretly saving, to surprise his sister.

In 2018 Sarah and Scott broke up their relationship, and although she was dating another man, Scott at the time of the events was still living in the family home with her and his children.

Obviously this situation was not idyllic at all. The woman’s children said that Scott was very hard on them and they wanted his stepfather to leave the house, something he refused.

But the one who definitely hit the table was Bernadette. On July 17, 2020, the young woman wanted to put an end to the abuses and touching to which she was being subjected by her stepfather, so the first thing she did was tell her mother.

The girl confessed to her mother everything that Scott had been doing secretly for years, but not only that she also told her that the man had a camera hidden in the bathroom to see her while she undressed.

Sarah didn’t believe her daughter and after an argument they decided that Bernadette would spend the night with the man’s parents, whom she considered her grandparents, until things calmed down.

The next day Bernadette’s track was lost forever.

The facts:

On July 18, after spending the night at his grandparents’ house, Scott went to look for Bernadette, something that is not understood because the girl confessed to her mother the day before.

Apparently Bernadette got into the car with Scott to go to her house but the young woman never arrived and after 3 days without knowing anything about her, the mother decided to report her disappearance.

On July 21, 2020, the Cambridgeshire police received a phone call at 3:30 a.m. from Sarah Walker. This woman wanted to report that her 17-year-old daughter had been missing for 3 days.

According to her, she had been last seen on the morning of July 18 when her stepfather picked her up at her grandparents’ house. During the journey, the man stopped to mess up a cigarette, at which time they argued. Finally, the young woman got out of the car without saying where she was going.

Sarah also mentioned to the agents that Bernadette had told her lies about her stepfather referring to the abuses that the girl had confessed to her days before.

But the thing didn’t stop there, according to Sarah she didn’t report her daughter’s disappearance before because after fleeing from her stepfather’s car the girl had sent her a message telling her that she would stay at her ex-boyfriend’s house to calm down. Her concern came when Bernadette stopped responding to the messages on July 20.

Anthony, the brother, talked to the girl’s ex-boyfriend but he told her that he hadn’t seen her for weeks. Since her friends didn’t know anything about her either, Sarah told the police.

After the complaint, Sarah Walker asked the media for people to help her distribute posters with the photo of her daughter since she hoped that if she takes them to all areas of the city they would find her right away.

“I can’t eat or sleep well. I miss and love my older princess so much that she is missing her little sister, who has already learned to smile and coo. I have to think that she is hidden in the house of one of her friends, worried about going home now that the police want to talk to her, I can’t think of any alternative scenario, I just can’t.

I know my girl wouldn’t be out in the open. She’s afraid of being alone in the dark, that’s what makes me think she’s at a friend’s house. I just wish someone would say that she is here and that she is safe. I want to hug her.”

Sarah Walker’s statements

Her stepfather, Scott, also said something to the media:

“You can imagine how worried we are both. We miss you. We need to know that you are safe. We love you.”

However, despite all these tears and appeals in September 2020, the police came to the conclusion that the young woman had been murdered so the homicide team took charge of the case. They quickly pointed to Bernadette’s mother and stepfather as suspects for various reasons.

On the one hand, when checking the man’s history, they saw that he had several convictions for harassment and aggression. In addition, he was the last person who saw Bernadette alive, not to mention that when the agents asked him about the discussion in the car he put all kinds of problems so as not to give the exact location where the girl got out of the vehicle.

One of the most important clues that the agents found was during the search of the Walkers’ house. That clue was in Bernadette’s diary.

The agents read several entries written by her in which she described the abuses she suffered by her stepfather. She also talked about the moment when she told everything to her mother and how she didn’t believe her.

“I told my mother about my father and the abuse. She called me liar and threatened to kill me if I told the police.

She said that the other children matter more. I love feeling undesirable. I don’t feel anything right now because I always thought that mom would take care of me and everything would disappear.

But no, she’s still here telling me that I’m lying.

What kind of mother wouldn’t believe her daughter?

But it’s okay, I’m going to pretend it’s okay until I leave home and then I’ll block them from my life.”

For the agents, what Bernadette put in her diary was a pretty strong reason to want her to disappear, so on September 14, Sarah, 38, and Scott, 51, were arrested. Sarah was accused of perverting the course of the investigation and Scott for the same reason and also for murder.

During the reading of the charges, Scott pleaded not guilty while Sarah admitted her accusation.

Thanks to the investigators, it was learned that the moment the young woman disappeared, Scott’s phone remained off for 91 minutes.

According to the records after these 91 minutes, Scott turned on his phone and called Sarah, with whom he was talking for 9 minutes. After 30 minutes it was Sarah herself who sent a message to one of Bernadette’s friends pretending to be her daughter... In it she said the following... “I ran away, I don’t want to get into trouble for lying.”

The investigators also discovered that Scott and Sarah made several trips to a garage they had between July 18 and 20. From there they sent more messages with Bernadette’s phone that were addressed to Sarah. In addition, during the registration of this site they found the girl’s backpack.

The trial:

The trial for the disappearance and murder of Bernadette Walker began in September 2021. Scott’s lawyer based his defense on the fact that there was no conclusive evidence that the young woman had died since the body had never been found.

Lisa Wilding, lawyer for the prosecution, alleged that since the day of her disappearance Bernadette had not been seen nor had she used her bank account. For her, Scott Walker took his stepdaughter’s life to “prevent” her accusations of abuse

To support her words were the reports of the investigators who took the case. They claimed that during the 91 minutes that Scott’s phone was turned off, the man took the opportunity to take his stepdaughter’s life and then called Sarah, the mother, to help him hide the body.

“The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from this phone call is that Scott Walker told his wife that he killed Bernadette and that he needed her help immediately to cover up the disappearance and death.”

At the trial, more information was also learned, such as that the couple hacked Bernadette’s social media accounts and that they talked to their friends and family as if it were the young woman. With this they intended to make time for their plans and also to be able to explain later why they did not report the girl’s disappearance immediately.

“They lied to everyone around them about their disappearance and went ahead with their tortuous and diabolical plan. All the love and responsibility of the parents, if they really existed, they were gone.”

The prosecutor’s office added that Scott Walker had formed an “ungodly alliance” with Bernadette’s mother, who was his ex-partner, to cover up the girl’s death.

For her part, Sarah admitted to having sent the messages from her daughter’s phone after her disappearance and having provided false information to the police.

Finally, on September 10, 2021, Sarah Walker was found guilty of two charges for perverting the course of justice, or rather for “knowing or believing” that Bernadette was dead. For this she was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

For Judge Sarah, it was the mind that guided the details of the plan to cover up Bernadette’s death, and affirmed that each accused was a voluntary party in this case.

The same day that his ex-partner and accomplice Scott Walker was found guilty of murder and perversion of the course of justice. In his case, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and is obliged to serve a minimum of 32 years in prison.

Despite the searches, Bernadette’s body was never found. Both her mother and her stepfather have not wanted to say what they did with the young woman, but the theory of the investigators is that the couple got rid of the body in the field or in some swamp in the hours after their murder.

Anthony, Bernadette’s brother, dedicated a few words to her through his Facebook account:

“You were more than a sister, you were one of my best friends and I really can’t believe that it’s been two years since I heard you or even saw you.

I really wish you would appear out of nowhere or call or send a text message out of nowhere, but I know that the chances of that happening are practically impossible.

I wish I could live one more day with you, even if it was only for five minutes. Wherever you are, Bernadette Walker, I hope you are in a much better place.

You deserve nothing more than to be at peace and, hopefully, one day I will be able to find you. We all miss you and we love you very much and we hope to see you to say goodbye correctly.”

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