The Murder of Betty Guy

In November 2011, 84-year-old Betty Guy died at her home in Johnston, Pembrokeshire. Her daughter, Penny John, called 999 to say her mother had passed away after a battle with cancer. A doctor certified natural causes, and Betty was cremated four days later. Nobody suspected a thing.

Then, four years later, police received a call out of the blue. An ex-partner of Betty's grandson, Barry Rogers, claimed he had admitted to suffocating his grandmother with a pillow. Other former partners told detectives the same story.

In this episode, forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes looks at how what should have been the perfect crime unravelled. She also asks what the evidence reveals about the two people at its centre, and why Rogers couldn't keep quiet about it.

In this episode

• The 999 call police pulled from the archive, and the two details in it that raised alarm bells
• What petechiae are, and why those tiny marks mattered so much
• How police plan and plant a covert listening device
• The secretly recorded conversations between Rogers and his mother, including the moment he says "jackpot"
• Kerry's analysis of the power dynamic between mother and son, and why Penny John kept repeating that her mother died "of old age"
• The bug detector story that didn't add up
• The 2018 trial at Swansea Crown Court and the puzzle of the missing motive

Guests

• Bronwen Weatherby, LBC Wales correspondent
• Danni Brooke, former undercover police officer
• Professor Jason Payne-James, specialist in forensic and legal medicine

Archive audio and footage courtesy of Faking It (Series 4).

Content note:

This episode discusses murder, domestic abuse and violence against an elderly person.

Offers from our partners

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Credits

• Presented by Kerry Daynes

• Produced by Shearwater Media

• Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson

• Editing and Music: Rob Warner

Content note

This episode contains detailed and distressing descriptions of child abuse and murder. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you're concerned about a child's welfare, contact the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, or the police on 999 in an emergency.

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