FOR 33 years, the family of Nicola Payne have been desperate to find out what happened to the 18-year-old after she vanished in the fog down a Coventry path.
Some 17 hours before cops started searching for the new mum, Nicola had her final chat with dad John Payne on Friday, December 13, 1991, around 7pm.
Nicola was staying at her boyfriend Jason Cooke’s house with their seven-month-old baby Owen, and had planned to make the 11-minute walk to her parents’ house on Saturday to fetch clothes – but she never made it.
The Cooke family, who didn’t help with extensive searches for the teen, told West Midlands Police Nicola left the home in Winston Avenue at 12.15pm to make the short journey to Woodway Close.
And as she headed through the Black Pad, Nicola never came out the other side.
Despite multiple witnesses and sightings placing Nicola leaving the Cooke’s home on foot, a Payne family source told The Sun they are convinced something happened to her in the 17 hours since they last heard from her.
She had left her dad on Friday and was off to have a takeaway and games night with boyfriend Jason, his parents, brother Michael Cooke and an uncle.
Michael had previously made advances towards Nicola at his own stag do, The Sun can reveal.
And it was something Nicola is understood to have told Jason about in the weeks running up to her suspected death.
Tragic ‘Nic’s’ family are now certain she was murdered before the Cookes said she left the address the following day.
But former Detective Chief Inspector Martin Slevin told The Sun his team were “not able to establish that anything untoward had happened to Nicola” in the Cooke’s home.
Martin said: “We thoroughly explored every single piece of intelligence and hypothesis about potential sightings and what may have happened to Nicola between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon.
“We had a number of witnesses, one of who knew Nicola well, who gave evidence that they saw her in Winston Avenue going onto the Black Pad on that day.
“So we’ve got to go with that hypothesis.
“There were a number of hypotheses put forward about what may have happened to Nicola, what took place at Winston Avenue on the Friday night and on Saturday morning.
“We interviewed everybody that potentially could have held information about any incident that may have taken place in that house that night and in the morning.
“And we were not able to establish that anything untoward had happened to Nicola.”
“Positive sightings” of Nicola at midday on Saturday were also held-up.
Martin added: “We had significant information and public comment about what might have happened to Nicola over that time period.
“[I told Nicola’s parents at the start], ‘we might never be able to give you answers to what actually happened to Nicola on that day or that time period’.
“And of course, because we didn’t secure a conviction, we’re not able to, with a degree of 100 per cent confidence, say that this is definitively what happened.”
A total of eight people have been arrested in connection with Nicola’s disappearance over the span of three-decades.
A major breakthrough didn’t however come until 2015 when brothers-in-law Nigel Barwell and Thomas O’Reilly were charged with her murder.
Despite mass evidence being put forward at trial – including a tent found with hairs in it that were “900million times more likely to belong to Nicola than anyone else” – the case fell apart.
Barwell and O’Reilly denied all the charges and maintained that they had been in Barwell’s Capri in Rugby, Warks, where they had driven for a drink-up.
No witnesses however, could place the men or the car where they said they were, former DCI Slevin said.
And in a case against them, one person reported hearing a female scream and seeing men coming out of the bushes near the Black Pad on that Saturday lunchtime.
While others reported a blue Ford Capri being nearby at the same time.
Barwell was also said to have known Nicola because he was pals with Michael at the time he made advances and was also at the stag.
But after deliberating for three days, the jury returned a unanimous not guilty verdict.
West Midlands Police did not have a good reputation at the time, with the Serious Crime Squad having been disbanded in 1989 following a series of wrongful convictions, including the Birmingham Six.
Coventry was in the midst of a crime wave and had suffered 17 murders in 20 months.
But once the police believed this was a case of abduction, they began what was the biggest search carried out by the force, including heat seeking equipment, helicopters and sniffer dogs.
In 1996 cops excavated the garden of a property in Woodway Lane, acting on a tip-off, but after 12 hours of searching nothing was found.
Some five years later, part of the Oxford Canal, in Ansty, was dredged up after a witness came forward with fresh information, but again nothing was found.
BY Morgan Johnson, News Reporter
NICOLA Payne’s disappearance shook the Coventry community back in 1991 and will continue to do so until the family get answers.
Being from the city, hearing about Nicola’s story was a part of growing up and something you would be told about to ensure your safety.
Whether it was driving past the road Nicola lived on or going past the Black Pad, the aftermath of her vanishing was always present.
Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents throughout Coventry knew someone close to the case.
Despite being a city, it’s a small place and you’re never far away from someone who went to school with Nicola or even lived on the same street as her.
I remember being told about Nicola for the first time and couldn’t understand what happened and why no definite answers could be given.
It continues to shock me today.
Years later, I became a News Reporter for the Coventry Telegraph and reported on the unsolved mystery ahead of the 30-year anniversary.
‘Nic’s’ family held a vigil and walked the path, in Henley Green, she would have at just 18 years old.
Her family has accepted she is no longer alive but they still need justice for Nicola.
This December marks 33 years since Nicola last hugged her baby boy, spoke to her mum and dad, laughed with her brothers and had fun with pals.
Her world stopped on December 14 and it’s left a huge impact on the city.
Someone knows what happened to her and should come forward so her family, and son, has closure.
In 2007 it is announced that the case was to be re-examined and Nicola’s parents John and Marilyn re-appealed for those with information to come forward.
Marilyn sadly passed away in March last year before finding out what happened to her daughter.
A statement was also read on behalf of Nicola’s son Owen, who was 16 at the time.
A year on, excavations began at the garden of a house in Winston Avenue, again, drawing a blank.
For the next six years, the force searched multiple grounds to try and make headway.
Coombe Abbey Woodland soon became a point of interest after a witness called to say she saw two men acting strange.
Those two men turned out to be Barwell and O’Reilly.
Searches at Coombe continued throughout the trial and up until 2020 with specialist divers combing the fishing lake.
With no new leads, no body and the case only being reviewed every two years by West Mids Police, there doesn’t appear to be grounds for optimism.
But Nicola’s dad and four brothers renewed their efforts to find fresh clues by appearing in a four-part TV documentary last year.
Martin, who was on the case for seven years, said they are right to believe Nicola’s body can still be laid to rest and that her killers can be brought to justice.
A reward of £100,000 is currently being offered to anyone with information.
