How watching hours of CCTV led police to tracking down a murderer who dismembered his victim
CCTV footage shows Marcin Majerkiewicz carrying Stuart Everett's body parts in a bag for life as he walks towards the woods to dispose of them, before returning with an empty bag.
Warning: Article contains some distressing details
A murderer obsessed with horror films who killed and dismembered his pensioner housemate was caught after police scoured thousands hours of CCTV to reveal him carrying his victim's body parts across a city.
Marcin Majerkiewicz, who police say had a "particular affinity for gore and torture", bludgeoned Stuart Everett, 67, to death in their home before using a hack saw to cut him into "possibly hundreds" of pieces.
But police only became aware of the crime when a member of the public discovered Mr Everett's lower torso and thighs wrapped in cling film in an abandoned bunker in Kersal Dale nature reserve, in Salford on 4 April 2024.
The human remains were initially unidentified, along with how they got there, but as police combed through thousands of hours-worth of CCTV they noticed a man going to the “deposition site” with a heavy bag and returning without it.
Detective Sergeant Heidi Cullum, who works in Greater Manchester Police's Visual Evidence Retrieval and Analysis Unit (VERA), dedicated to trawling through CCTV, says it was the breakthrough the team needed.
Detective Sergeant Heidi Cullum, whose team trawled CCTV, describes the moment they spotted their suspect
"We'd spent the initial days retrieving as much footage as we could," she said.
"When we started to be able to view some of these thousands of hours of footage one of the team got the breakthrough when they noticed this individual, who stood out in particular because he was carrying a blue bag for life.
"It was quite a large bag, but he was really struggling with the weight of it, which was obviously one of the criteria we were looking for.
"We knew that the body parts of Stuart that were found, although we didn't know Stuart at the time, were significantly heavy so we knew it would be not an easy, walking along with a light carrier bag.
"So this individual stood out because of the size, the shape and everything about the bag.
"He was, he was moving it hand to hand, he was having to stop, rub his hands, and took quite a long time to walk a relatively short space that we had him on camera at the time."
After disappearing into the woods, the team was then able to spot him, 10 minutes later, carrying an empty bag before returning home the same way he came.
Once detectives had identified the individual they were in a "race against time" before footage was deleted to track the man they believed to be their suspect.
They were able to follow him onto a bus, and - through tracing his ticket - discovered he had made a number of other journeys that day, including one to a site where he had potentially hidden more of his victim.
It also meant police were able to narrow down the location of his Majerkiewicz's home, and while out trawling for more CCTV, officers happened upon their suspect.
Manchester Crown Court heard three weeks after the grim discovery, two plain-clothes officers working on the inquiry were driving an unmarked police car down a road in Salford, where they passed Majerkiewicz walking in the other direction.
The Investigation Support Officer (ISO), Clare Daly, told her colleague ISO Matthew Ross, behind the wheel: “I think that’s the suspect."
“I saw an individual on the pathway who matched the description of the suspect we were trying to trace,” she said in a statement, read to the jury.
The officers turned the car around and followed the suspect on foot before he got on a number 100 bus, the court heard.
Shortly afterwards, PC Paul Ashworth pulled his police car in front of the bus and boarded.
Watch the moment Majerkiewicz was arrested and just some of the CCTV police used to track his movements:
Body-worn video footage played to the jury showed the officer telling the suspect he was being detained to be searched, before he was handcuffed and taken off the bus.
Majerkiewicz was told he had been identified as a “person of interest” in a police investigation.
He replied: “It’s definitely a mistake, 100%.”
PC Ashworth then tells Majerkiewicz he has been seen on several occasions on CCTV by police investigating a serious incident.
Majerkiewicz later says: “Someone steal something?”
PC Ashworth replies: “It’s a bit more serious than that, matey.”
Police found Majerkiewicz had on him the phone and bank cards belonging to Mr Everett.
Minutes later, the officer then cautions Majerkiewicz, warning he is being arrested on suspicion of murder.
“What?” the suspect replies, before asking for a translator and shaking his head.
DS Cullum says she her team were able to continue tracing a number of different journeys made by Majerkiewicz where he was visiting deposition sites.
"The behaviour was different to what we know, we normally go out with an empty bag, come back with our shopping," she said.
"He was leaving his home address with very laden bags and coming back with no bags to hand."
From tracing his journeys, mostly using buses, the team was able to unveil a number of different sites including Boggart Hole Cluff, Worsley Woods, Linneyshaw Colliery Wood, Black Beach Reservoir, where more of Mr Everett was discovered.
"It's anything but a coincidence really," she added. "When you, when you put all the information together, the CCTV, the phone data, the searches, everything, it's like a jigsaw."
DS Cullum describes how one of her team members discovered remains of Mr Everett as they were conducting their investigations.
On one occasion a member of GMP's VERA team discovered Mr Everett's remains themselves, after tracing a route believed to have been taken by Majerkiewicz.
"It was very, very important for us all to find as much of Stuart as we could," DS Cullum said.
"And as such, when they [team member] went walking... knowing that he couldn't have gone further... and they have had a look around and they have found a significant amount of Stuart."