大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - Why this Glasgow true crime doc series is a game-changer

Why this Glasgow true crime doc series is a game-changer

11 June 2019

In what has been described as “shocking” and an “eye-opener” by some viewers, new 大象传媒 documentary series Murder Case is the result of unprecedented access to real police officers working on a harrowing murder case in Glasgow.

We work for the people who can no longer speak

Senior Investigating Officer, DCI Mark Bell

In this case, the disappearance of mother and grandmother, Julie Reilly, in early 2018.

Since the arrival of Making A Murderer in 2015, the appetite for true crime documentaries has continued to grow.

But the majority of the most popular documentaries have focused on the lawyers, the court cases and the guilt or innocence of one suspect: Robert Durst in The Jinx; Michael Peterson in The Staircase; and, of course, the infamous Amanda Knox.

In contrast, Murder Case has first-hand testimony from the victim’s daughter, sister and mother and “unparalleled access” to Police Scotland’s major investigations teams.

For 15 months, the police allowed cameras to film their most sensitive investigation work.

As police briefings unfold and crime scenes reveal their secrets, viewers are on the journey with the police as they learn, stage by stage, of Julie's fate.

The result of this access, much earlier in the proceedings of a real murder case, is that the victim and the police – rather than the accused – are the heart of the story.

Insights into a day in the life of a murder investigator in Glasgow might be enough to put some people off the job, or it might spur them to join the police force.

DCI Mark Bell, who led the investigation, said “Why do people join the police? To do the right thing. We work for the people who no longer speak.”

One of the most surprising elements of the series is the emotional toll these cases take on the police themselves.

“This inquiry has been the most traumatic a lot of us have worked on” said Crime Scene Manager Andy McKay.

DCI Mark Bell briefs detectives from the Major Investigations Team on the new inquiry

A 47-year-old woman is missing and the circumstances of her disappearance are suspicious.

Fresh appeal to find missing Glasgow woman Julie Reilly

5 April 2018 - Detectives spoke to bus passengers as the search continued for a woman missing in Glasgow for more than two months.
Murder probe over missing woman Julie Reilly

23 April 2018 - A murder investigation has begun into the death of a woman who disappeared in Glasgow more than two months ago.

The Doorstep Murder

A behind the scenes look at the investigation into the Alistair Wilson murder, one of Scotland鈥檚 most baffling unsolved cases.
The Strange Death of Innes Ewart

A man who seemed to have everything to live for. Was it suicide, as the police said, or something more sinister?