By Luke Hawkins
IN an exclusive discussion, ITV journalist Jonathan Hill talked about his role in the production “The Pembrokeshire Murders” documentary.
Originally the murder of both the Dixons and the Thomas’, by killer John Cooper, was thought to be a “Cold Case” but was found to be active when Hill was called into the station back in 2006.
Hill spoke about his involvement in the case, including his search through the archives for the footage of the killer’s appearance on the game show “Bullseye”.
“What struck me when I looked at it was how similar he looked to the ‘scruffy man’,”
The “scruffy man” was the name given to sketches of the suspect of the killer at the time of the murders in the late 1980’s. Hill continued:
“The person who saw the ‘scruffy man’ using Peter Dixon’s cash card only caught a glimpse of him over the shoulder,”
“I shuttled through the footage and managed to find a moment where the camera was just over Cooper’s shoulder,”
“it struck me that it was a doppelganger, it was the same man.”
Hill also gave his views on whether he ever would have liked to be a detective:
“I get teased in work, they sometimes call me detective inspector Hill,”
“I think (being a journalist) it’s the best place to be.”
“Detective work can be fairly mundane, painstaking, not particularly exciting,”
“also, it’s terrible hours and there is a lot of pressure.”
“I feel lucky to have dipped into this case, I’m interested in the motives and how the detectives solve it,”
“the mindset of the detectives and the science behind it.”
Hill also commented on the possibility of more documentaries being produced soon.
“We’ve been making documentaries with the South Wales police at the moment.”
“The Pembrokeshire Murders documentary opened some door to a lot of other things because people see what you’ve done and feel they can trust you.”
Hawkinsport 