Shannon Matthews

The Forensic Science Service worked in close partnership with West Yorkshire Police to offer scene examination and toxicology evidence throughout the investigation into the disappearance of schoolgirl Shannon Matthews between 19 February and 14 March 2008.

FSS scientists offered a rapid response to requests from West Yorkshire to examine a total of 40 scenes, during what was the largest missing person search ever embarked upon by West Yorkshire Police.

A round-the-clock service ensured all scenes could be examined as quickly as possible meaning the vast majority could be eliminated from enquiries within a very short period of time.

On 14 March police called the FSS out to an address in Batley Carr, where Shannon was found hidden in the base of a bed, alongside her alleged kidnapper Michael Donovan. Forensic samples were taken straight away, which, from examination at the FSS laboratory, showed no scientific indication that Shannon had been assaulted.
 
Further samples, including urine and hair, which were taken from Shannon and submitted to the FSS toxicology department in Chorley, proved key to the criminal case against Michael Donovan and Karen Matthews, Shannon’s mother.

A urine sample that was provided by Shannon shortly after she had been located was submitted to Chorley on 18 March. Toxicologists analysed the urine for a wide range of medicinal, prescription and illicit drugs and detected traces of the hypnotic sedative drug Temazepam. Examination of Michael Donovan’s medical notes revealed that this drug formed part of his prescription medication.

Traces of Meclozine, an ingredient commonly found in the travel sickness tablet Traveleeze, were also identified. Police had recovered a half empty box of the tablets from the address where she was found and  (?) the test results provided valuable corroborative evidence.

The findings indicated Shannon must have ingested a quantity of both of these drugs in the 72 hours leading up to her discovery.

Following the results, toxicologist Craig Chatterton recommended that a one-centimetre hair sample should be taken from Shannon for further tests. In all, three one-centimetre samples were taken at one month intervals to allow for the time it takes drug ingestion to show up in hair. These samples were submitted to ChemTox, an internationally recognized laboratory specialising in drug analysis in hair that falls within the Eurofins partnership. They utilized the very latest technology to carry out their tests.

The results of these tests were then passed to the FSS for expert interpretation. All of the hair samples showed positive for Meclozine and Temazepam.
Craig said the findings demonstrated that Shannon had ingested drugs even before her imprisonment.

“The distribution of drugs in the hair demonstrated that Shannon must have ingested these before she was kidnapped and this intelligence was passed on to police. The decision was then taken to analyse a longer strand of Shannon’s hair and help provide a higher level of interpretation.”

A 20cm strand of Shannon’s hair was taken and again sent for analysis by the Forensic Science Service to the Eurofins laboratory. The results were sent back to Craig for further interpretation.

“The analytical results confirmed that drugs were present in the entire length of Shannon’s hair,” said Craig.

“Detailed study indicated there were apparent peaks corresponding to approximate time periods, between January to April 2007 and between May and August 2006. It was impossible to say exactly how frequently these drugs would have been ingested, but it certainly pointed towards some level of the drugs being in Shannon’s body at those times.

“Temazepam is a powerful hypnotic and Meclozine can cause drowsiness. It is likely that Shannon would have experienced both of these symptoms during the period of her imprisonment and before.”

Craig’s findings were submitted to police and formed a central plank in the prosecution case against Karen Matthews and Mick Donovan. Both were found guilty of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice on December 4 2008.
 

For more information, please contact:

• For more information visit www.forensic.gov.uk