Кара Хантер - No Way Out

Speaking to us this afternoon, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley made an appeal to Michael Esmond to come forward. `We do not know where Dr Esmond is, and we are increasingly concerned about him and urge him to contact us as soon as possible. If a member of the public remembers seeing Dr Esmond at any time since 2 January, when he registered at a conference in central London, we would very much like to hear from them.' DI Fawley declined to comment on whether Dr Esmond is considered a suspect in the arson, or to speculate on the identity of the second victim. `We will make a statement at the appropriate time,' he said.

Esmond, 40, is a member of the University's Anthropology department. The University offices in Wellington Square have issued a statement offering condolences to the Esmonds' family and friends.

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213 comments

Tenant ofWildfell77

Where's the bloody father, that's what I want to know. He hasn't phoned `“ hasn't seen the TV `“ in all that time? Sorry, I'm not buying that.

nick_trelawney_40

Even if the mother was there after all it still looks off to me. Houses like that don't burn to the ground in five minutes

EchinasterGal556

My heart goes out to that poor kid. How's he going to feel when he wakes up and finds his Mum and his little brother are both dead?

VivendiVerve

Friends of ours house burned down because their down-lighters hadn't been fitted properly. People don't realise that they can overheat and set the whole place on fire. We checked ours afterwards and found ours were about to burn through too. It was a miracle we got to them in time. Get them checked `“ that's my advice!

Sent:Fri 05/01/2018, 19.35 Importance: High From:Colin.Boddie@ouh.nhs.uk To:DIAdamFawley@ThamesValley.police.uk, CID@ThamesValley.police.uk, AlanChallowCSI@ThamesValley.police.uk Subject: Case no 556432/12 Felix House, 23 Southey Road

I have just completed the post-mortem of the female found at the house. Provisional cause of death is asphyxiation as a result of smoke inhalation, but I will need to run bloodwork and toxicology before I can formally confirm this. Only issue to note at this stage is a minor but recent bruise on the right side of her neck. I would estimate it as having occurred sometime in the preceding 48 hours.

If I clean her up a bit it should be possible to obtain a formal identification from the next of kin.

At 8.30 on Saturday morning, Gislingham is sitting on the floor in his front room. It looks like an asteroid hit on a car boot sale. Cartons of decorations trailing tinsel, cards heaped for recycling, fairy lights in tangled handfuls. And in among it all, Billy. Hiding under the cardboard, picking ornaments off the half-empty tree, pushing himself along on his prized new plastic car. It doesn't matter how carefully Gislingham packs the boxes, as soon as he turns his back Billy starts emptying them again. He clearly thinks it's all the most amazing game, organized solely for his benefit. In fact, it's the best fun he's had since he made almost the same amount of mess opening the tsunami of presents with his name on.

Janet Gislingham comes into the room, wiping her hands on a tea towel. `Make sure he doesn't hurt himself, Chris.'

Billy looks up from where he's sitting on the floor. He's wearing a miniature Chelsea football shirt with `Champs 2017' on the back. Gislingham glances over. `He's having a great time. Aren't you, Billy?'

Janet looks a bit closer. `Is that chocolate he's got on his face?'

`I found a couple of uneaten Santas on the back of the tree.'

Billy grins and starts banging his hands on his car. Janet smiles. `OK, I give in. I'll leave the boys to their toys. It would be good to get the decorations down at some stage, though. Perhaps in time for next Christmas? And no more chocolate .'

She gives Gislingham a meaningful look, then turns and goes back to the kitchen. Gislingham winks at his son, digs into his pocket and holds out another Santa wrapped in red and gold foil. `Just don't tell your mum,' he says in a theatrical whisper, as Billy yelps with delight.

` I heard that ,' calls his wife.

She can't ever remember being so happy.

Oxford Mail online

Saturday 6 January 2018 Last updated at 10.23 a.m.

Oxford house fire: No progress on identifying cause

Fire scene investigators have yet to confirm the cause of the house fire in Southey Road that has now killed two people. Three-year-old Zachary Esmond died in the fire, and his mother, Samantha, is believed to be the other victim found on the premises. Her older son, Matty, remains in intensive care at the John Radcliffe hospital.

Detective Inspector Adam Fawley has confirmed that fire officers are still at the scene but declined to speculate on the possibility of arson. He was, however, able to confirm that there was no cladding present on the building, and this was not, therefore, a factor in the speed of spread of the fire, which some commentators have raised as a concern.

The Oxford Mail understands that Michael Esmond, 40, has still not been located.

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`Creeper' case: Police suspect two more incidents

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87 comments

nick_trelawney_40

`Still not been located'???? I told you `“ there's a lot more to this than meets the eye

MedoraMelborne

I thought they could get forensic results on this sort of thing within hours these days.

Strictervictor_8_9

You've been watching too much crime TV. It can take weeks to deal with a fire scene that size.

7788PlatinumPat

I met Samantha Esmond `“ Matty is at Bishop Christopher's same as my two. She seemed such a nice woman.

When Gis rings I've just got back from Tesco. More frozen pizza and meals for one. It's the third time I've been in the last week. I keep telling myself Alex will be back in a few days, that I don't want to end up with a freezer full of this crap that will never get eaten. And yes, this is probably about the time some joker chips in that `denial' is not a river in Egypt`¦