24 Hours in Police Custody viewers have been left “gobsmacked” by the show’s return, with new episodes focusing on the brutal murder of Una Crown.
The new two-part Channel 4 documentary, The Cold Case Murder, revisits Crown’s death. The 86-year-old was stabbed, set on fire, and killed in 2013 – but her death was initially treated as non-suspicious.
Years later, Detective Superintendent Iain Moor and the Major Crime Unit reopened the case, uncovering what they describe as “flawed decisions” in the original investigation.
That eventually led to her killer being identified and jailed. But for viewers, it’s the early handling of the case that’s proving hardest to process.
Why 24 Hours in Police Custody viewers are “confused” by Una Crown case
Officers found Crown face down, surrounded by blood, with stab wounds and burns across her body.
As the documentary explains, the case was later reopened using new forensic techniques. But the obvious question remains: why wasn’t it treated as a murder from the start?
“There were some failings around the attendance of the original officers over the first couple of days. There were no obvious signs of a disturbance and the initial assessment concluded that it would be treated as a normal sudden death,” an officer explains.
More detail comes from Mark Cossey, one of the officers at the original scene.
Police initially believed a faulty cooker had caused her clothes to catch fire. They thought she panicked, collapsed, and died – “before she hit the floor”.
The stab wounds were also explained away. “We thought what had happened was, she was wearing a neckerchief and it was knotted quite tightly,” he said.
“If it is heart failure and she’s just gone straight down… she’s 86, she’s very frail. The skin would be tight, the neckerchief would cause this injury to the throat.”
The documentary also features Karl Bowden, an assistant chief fire officer involved at the time.
He believed the scene should have immediately been treated as suspicious, describing it as “textbook arson” and disagreeing with the original conclusions.
‘They should be sacked’
Although Crown’s killer has since been caught and imprisoned, viewers have been left frustrated by the initial handling of the case.
“What an embarrassment for the police first on scene!!! That guy should be ashamed of himself,” one user wrote.
“How can such a vast error be made?” another asked. “This episode has me and my mum raging, I hope the officer never worked homicide again,” a third added.
“Not a great advert for encouraging people to have trust and faith in the police. How did the idiots who investigated the case in 2013 and their superiors get away with not treating it as an obvious murder case and sacked for gross incompetence,” a fourth commented.
“I am astounded. Inept and incompetent. They should be sacked,” a fifth wrote.
Cossey later appears in the episode reflecting on the case.
“I do think about it often,” he said, expressing regret and hope that justice would eventually be served.
Moor also acknowledged the failings, admitting “mistakes were made” and confirming that Cambridgeshire Police had apologised to Crown’s family.
“Once again, we acknowledge those errors and apologise it has taken this long for Una’s family to get justice,” he added.
Read more: Channel 4 announces One Born Every Minute return with a big change that won’t please everyone
24 Hours in Police Custody: The Cold Case Murder continues tonight at 9pm on Channel 4
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