True Story
By CL Swatman
As a magazine journalist I spent many years writing true life stories – some romantic and happy, but many, many more on the darker side of life, where people had been hurt or even killed by the people who were meant to love them.
People have always been fascinated by true crime – by the minds of criminals as well as the aftermath for the victims and their families – and in recent years the popularity of true crime podcasts such as Crime Junkie and My Favourite Murder has soared, with seemingly more and more being produced every year. That’s why I was so keen to write a book that featured a prominent true rime podcast.
But why are we so obsessed with true crime? Is it because hearing about it makes us feel better about our own lives – relieved that whatever has happened, hasn’t happened to us? Or is it deeper than that, that we want to try to understand the mind of a killer in the hope it might keep us safe?
Perhaps it’s simply that us humans beings are innately nosey, and we just want to know as much morbid detail as we can?
Whatever the reason, I can’t see the popularity of true crime podcasts, books and TV shows abating any time soon. So I hope you enjoy the deleted excerpts from The Ugly Truth, while resting easy in the knowledge that it’s entirely made up.
Or is it . . .?
The Ugly Truth: deleted episodes and reader questions
A note from C L Swatman
The true crime podcast, The Ugly Truth was, of course, a fictional podcast. But I wrote many episodes for the book which didn’t make it into the final version – either because they weren’t needed for the telling of the story, because they were cut right back and used in a shorter form, or because the some of the details of the story had changed along the way.
Now that you’ve finished the book, I thought you might enjoy reading excerpts from some of them.
I also have some questions for you to think about and possibly discuss if you’re reading this for book club.
- Do you listen to true crime podcasts, and if so, what do you love about them?
- What do think it is about true crime that fascinates people so much?
- What did you think of Hannah Hastings and the way she went about her investigations?
- Do you think Hannah took unnecessary risks, or was she just brave in trying to find out the truth?
- How far would you go to uncover The Ugly Truth? Would you have taken the threat to life seriously?
DELETED EPSIODE 1, EXCERPT
Hello Ugly Truthers, and welcome back to a brand new episode. I hope you’re all having a good week and are enjoying the sunshine at last after the storms of last week. I’m Hannah Hastings, and this is the true crime podcast The Ugly Truth. Welcome to those of you who are joining me for the first time, and hello to the rest of you. I’m so grateful to you all for listening week on week, and for making this the success it’s become. If you haven’t already done so, it would be great if you could rate and subscribe – it all helps the algorithms, and as you know, the more listeners I have, the more time I can spend finding and investigating old crimes. Thank you!
Now, without further ado, let’s move onto this week’s brand new case. As I’m sure you all remember, last week we concluded the story about the internet fraudster with an unusually messy ending. I’m sure you’ll all agree that it was a particularly tricksy case, and it just goes to show that things don’t always go as planned – but sadly that’s what happens when you start a podcast before you know whether there is a neat and tidy ending to report. But I also know that that’s exactly what you love about The Ugly Truth – that you’re on the journey to uncover the truth with me – satisfying ending or not!
You’ll be pleased to know that this week, I am bringing you a brand new case – one which I hope will have a much more satisfying ending for all involved, but that you’ll be forgiven for not recognising because for some reason, it wasn’t widely reported at the time, except in the local East Anglian newspapers.
Let me take you back to 2004 – a year when the UK was welcoming new countries to the European Union, Ronald Reagan and Marlon Brando died, smoking was still permitted in pubs and everyone was listening to Kaiser Chiefs’ I Predict a Riot – and a year when some of you might not even have been born yet.
In September that year, four friends were just starting their final year at the University of East Anglia, and living together in a house-share in Norwich. Amy Winter, Olivia Clarke, Henry Campbell and Michael Lambert had been friends for three years, and this was their second year in this rather shabby terraced house in the city. They knew each other well, understood each other. Loved each other.
Amy was a semi-professional swimmer, who regularly competed in regional and national competitions, and during this year, the final year of her psychology degree, she was working towards competing in the Masters, representing Great Britain. Her friends were hugely supportive.
When they all returned to Norwich in September that year, they were looking forward to the year ahead. Why wouldn’t they? They all had bright futures ahead of them.
But just a few weeks into the first term, something changed. Something that, unbeknown to them at the time, was set to change the course of all of their lives forever.
One hot day at the end of September, the four friends met a young woman, Summer Carpenter. How they met seems to have been a source of some disagreement among the friends, with Olivia quoted as having claimed that Summer ‘just turned up at the house one day’, while Henry remembers meeting her outside a supermarket. However the four friends met Summer Carpenter doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the impact that meeting her had on every single one of them from the moment she entered their lives.
Depending on who was asked, Summer was described by various people as being ‘flakey’, ‘mesmerising’, ‘flirty’, ‘mysterious’ and ‘a beautiful soul’. That’s quite a wide range of reactions, and the reason for that will soon become clear.
From the day they met, Summer formed a particularly close friendship with Amy Winter. This friendship appears to have come as a surprise to Amy’s friends, who claim the pair were as different as chalk and cheese – Amy being a top athlete with ambitions to compete for her country; Summer, on the other hand, seemed to drift through life without a plan from one day to the next.
It seems that Summer moved in, if unofficially, to the house that the four friends shared. While she helped out around the house, her presence was a source of consternation for some, particularly Olivia Clarke, who appeared to have taken an instant dislike to the girl.
But friends of not, it appears that Summer stayed at that house for the next few months, even attending a few lectures with the housemates from time to time, although she was not registered as a student at the university.
In fact, Summer didn’t appear to be registered anywhere. From interviews at the time, it appears that, although many people were aware who Summer was, nobody really knew much about her – even her so-called closest friend, Amy Winter. In an article printed in the Eastern Daily Times newspaper in 2005, Amy was quoted as saying that Summer was ‘a complete mystery to me. She knew everything about me but she barely told me anything in return. All I know for sure is that she grew up in a commune, and that she’d left for reasons that she never shared. She had an old soul, a caring soul.’
Later, I will be delving more into Summer’s background and piecing together where she came from and what led her to be in Norwich in the first place. But first, let me get to the crux of the story.
Over the course of the following months, Summer and Amy became best friends, almost joined at the hip. They did everything together – and it became the source of a lot of tension. Olivia, understandably, was jealous that this girl had come along and claimed her best friend as her own. But there was more to it than that.
In reports from the time, all three of Amy’s friends mentioned that Summer had ‘ruined’ Amy’s life, or ‘led her astray’ or some variation on the theme. But why?
Well it appears that Summer’s influence meant that Amy stopped swimming competitively. Not only that, but she stopped swimming at all, seeming to prefer going out drinking and even taking drugs for the first time with Summer. Amy’s coach, Pete **, was quoted as saying that that he was ‘devastated’ when she stopped swimming, saying she had ‘such potential, could have been one of the country’s top swimmers. But she just gave it all up on a whim.’
Her friends weren’t happy either. Michael Lambert reportedly said that Amy giving up her swimming was ‘one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. She was bloody brilliant, a total star. I loved going to cheer her on,’ while Olivia said her friend was ‘an idiot’ for giving it all up.
But why did Amy give it all up when Summer came on the scene? The truth is, nobody seemed to really know. Only that Summer seemed to have a stronger hold over Amy’s behaviour than any of them were comfortable with – even Henry Campbell, who, for a time, dated Summer.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Because on the evening of 11th June 2005, everything changed again . . .
DELETED EPSIODE 2, EXCERPT
Hello and welcome back to The Ugly Truth, and the next episode in the Summer Carpenter case. For those who have missed previous episodes, it’s probably a good idea to go back and listen to them before you listen to this week’s episode – but if you really don’t have time, here’s a quick summary.
In June 2005, Summer Carpenter drowned at an end of term party in a park in Norwich, for the final year students at the UAE. After a brief period of investigation, police ruled the 17-year-old’s death as accidental, and the case was closed. Summer was not a student at the university. She had grown up in mysterious circumstances in a commune in Wales, and had befriended four students at the university and stayed with them for several months. Police didn’t seem overly invested in the case, and their investigation ended after just a few weeks. The case, it seemed, was closed for good.
That’s where we’re up to so far. Last week I spoke to someone, who grew up in the same commune as Summer, and who shed some interesting light on Summer’s past. But what caught my eye as I looked into this case – the reason for choosing this case in the first place – was what happened seven years later.
It was April 2012 when Cold Case investigators with Norfolk and Norwich police decided to re-examine the case of Summer Carpenter. They were re-investigating a number of cases – but what made them choose this one?
Well, for that, we have to go back to the summer of 2006, and the one-year anniversary of Summer Carpenter’s death. While most of Summer’s friends had chosen to stay out of the press once the case was closed, there was one former friend who broke her silence to give an interview to the Eastern Daily News on the one year anniversary of Summer’s death.
Olivia Clarke was one of the four students who lived in the house where Summer spent the last few months of her life. And while it was clear from the original transcripts and interviews that Olivia and Summer had not been the best of friends, she had spent almost a year living in close proximity with the mysterious drowned woman. So, when journalists from the newspaper came calling, Olivia took the opportunity to speak to them. And it was this interview which led Cold Case officers six years later to take another look at the case.
So in today’s episode, I’m going to take you through some of this interview, before moving on to talk about the re-investigation – which, incidentally, was closed again without any further convictions or actions being taken just a few weeks later.
In her interview, Olivia Clarke claims she saw someone hanging around outside their house in the week preceding Summer’s death. But she didn’t ever mention this to anyone at the time, and although she claims she told the police about it in the aftermath of Summer’s death, nothing came of it. At the time it probably didn’t seem particularly important – after all, it was a busy street. But I’m convinced that this was relevant. After all, why would Olivia have said it otherwise? And why would a man be hanging around, allegedly ‘watching the house’?
Oliva Clarke also claims that she wasn’t close to Summer. She told the interviewer in 2006 that she didn’t mind her living with them, but at the time of Summer’s death a year previously, she’d claimed Summer was a freeloader and that she had never wanted her around. So was she trying to cover her tracks, or had she simply panicked and changed her story?
DELETED EPSIODE 3, EXCERPT
Season 12, Episode 4: Who the Heck is Wilder?
Hello Ugly Truthers and welcome to a brand new episode. For those who have been listening for the last couple of weeks, today will involve an update on the case of Summer Carpenter, who drowned in a lake back in July 2005. And you’ll be pleased to know that I finally have a few interesting developments to share with you – even if it’s not quite the update I was hoping for.
During the last episode I told you about my trip to the commune where Summer grew up. That trip wasn’t very successful, but you know me, I don’t give up easily! So last week I decided to pay it another visit – although this time I thought it might be a good idea to speak to some of the inhabitants in the nearby towns and villages first, to see if they could shed any light on the commune and what sort of place it is, or at least was back then.
And let me tell you, I’m glad I did! It proved to be very fruitful in the end – although in some ways it threw up more questions than it answered.
Now obviously there are still a number of things that I’m checking out and am unable to share with you just yet for legal reasons. But there was one name that cropped up a number of times during my chats, and I’m still trying to get to the bottom of who this mysterious person was. Wilder featured in a number of conversations I had over the course of a couple of days, and without exception, he appeared to be universally disliked. At least, he was somewhat of a notorious character among the locals, and the words unkind, aggressive, and ‘not to be trusted’ were descriptions I heard over the course of a couple of days.
The main problem though seems to be that nobody knows who Wilder really was, or where he might be now. There is a chance that he still lives at the commune but, as I told you before, the people who live there are not very open to being questioned, and so they are unlikely to tell me whether or not that’s the case. But the general consensus seems to be that Wilder used to be the big cheese at the commune back in Summer’s day, but is no more.
So one thing I want to know is – who the heck is Wilder, and does he have anything to do with the events surrounding Summer’s death? More on that as and when I discover it. And you know I’ll get to the bottom of it eventually! But in the meantime, onto some more news.
Sadly, I still haven’t managed to convince any of Summer’s old friends to speak to me. Disappointing I know, but I’m still working on it, and hope to have more on that soon. But I have been doing some more digging around their lives and the time they spent with Summer back in 2004 and 2005. I’ve also been having some very interesting chats with the local police, and in particular one police officer who worked on the case back then. Although my source shall remain anonymous, you can imagine I was thrilled to discover that even some of the officers who were at the scene and who interviewed some of the suspects and kids at the party were not convinced that Summer’s death was an accident.
As my source told me: ‘There were just too many inconsistencies in stories, and too many drugs and drinks consumed for anyone to tell us anything useful on the night. But mark my words, subsequent interviews convinced me that someone out there knows something about how that poor girl ended up in the lake, and I hope you find them.’
He has also told me some very interesting stories, which I shall have to keep to myself for now while I check them out. But don’t worry, we’ll return to those very soon! But let me just say that there is definitely some more investigating into the lives of some of Summer’s old friends and associates to be done. As I always say, never trust anyone – you never know what secrets they might be hiding!
Now, onto some less pleasant news. As I’m sure you’re all aware, there are always risks associated with digging into suspicious things. There are usually plenty of people who don’t want you to find out what really happened – perhaps because they think they’ve got away with something, or because they’re worried you’re going to bring something to light that they think they’ve successfully buried. And over the years I’ve dealt with all kinds of threats. Long-time listeners will no doubt remember the time I was kidnapped and spent a terrifying night locked up in someone’s basement after they thought I was getting too close to the truth. Luckily that all ended well – for me at least – when the perp realised the error of his ways and handed him into the police and I was released unharmed.
Since then I have always been extra-vigilant when investigating a crime. But this time, there is definitely someone out there who doesn’t want me to do any more digging. And as you know, this only makes me more curious, and more determined to find out exactly what it is they’re trying to hide.
A couple of days ago I received a threatening note. It was pretty crude, on a scrappy piece of note paper torn from a notebook, written in tight, scrawly handwriting. I had a feeling when it was posted through the door of my AirBnb that it was likely to be something to do with this case, and I wasn’t disappointed. Let me read it to you now, dear listeners, and see what you make of it.
Stop digging now. Leave Summer in the past where she belongs.
If you don’t stop, you’ll regret it.
Pretty crude, huh? Not exactly a mastermind of criminal intelligence – and in fact what this person doesn’t realise is that the more you tell me not to do something, the more likely I am to do it – especially when this note has only served to make it perfectly clear that there is something to uncover.
But don’t worry, I’m not totally blasé, and I have informed the police. They’ve taken my details and said they’re looking into it, but I don’t think they’re taking it very seriously. I mean, what can they do?