The Mysterious Death of Shani Warren: The Lady of the Lake
Despite being discovered gagged and bound with ligature marks around her neck, a pathologist ruled the death of 26 year old Shani Warren a suicide. Her death was not treated suspicious for three days. The critical first 48 hours in her murder investigation squandered. Nobody has ever been charged with her murder.
Shani Warren opened the curtains of her Buckinghamshire home on the morning of Good Friday 1987 and decided it was time to mow the lawn.
The busy young woman shared the house her wealthy parents had bought for her with two housemates. Tending the little garden had never been a priority.
That day, as she looked at the carefully manicured lawns of her neighbours, Shani resolved to wrangle her own tattered patch of green into some sort of order.
At 11:00 am she travelled to her uncle’s house and borrowed an extension lead for her lawn mower. The two chatted about the family’s plans to meet up at the seaside town of Bournemouth on Easter Sunday then Shayni kissed her uncle goodbye and left.
By 5:00 pm Shani had finished her task. The job had been bigger than expected and she had managed to fill six bin liners with grass cuttings.
That evening she was due to meet a friend. As her uncle’s house was en route she made the fateful decision to stop by and dump the clippings on his compost heap.
At 6:00 pm Shani set off on her short journey. She was wearing blue jeans, a sweater, a gilet and high heeled stiletto shoes. As usual her hair and nails were perfectly manicured.
The grass clippings were crammed into the boot of her brand new car and on the back seat, Shani tossed a bottle of champagne and an Easter egg for her friend.
The Discovery of a Body
On Saturday 18th April, Marjorie Arnold decided to take her German Shepherd for an evening stroll around Taplow Lake. The lake, a local beauty spot, is popular for watersports and fringed by the homes of millionaires.
When Marjorie’s dog showed an unusual interest in an object near the shore of the lake, she followed him down to investigate.
Sadly, the dog had discovered Shani Warren’s body lying face down in just 18 inches of water. The panicked woman rushed to the nearby road and flagged down a passing motorist.
Together, Marjorie and the motorist dragged Shani further up the shore but within seconds they realised that any attempt at resuscitation was hopeless.
Shani Warren was dead.
The two could see that a blue scarf had been used to gag the young woman, her hands were tied behind her back with jump leads and a tow rope had been used to bind her feet.
While Marjorie stayed with the body, the motorist went to fetch the police.
When they arrived, the police discovered Shani’ s car parked in a lay-by close to the scene. The bags of grass clippings were strewn about the area as were various other items from the car. Shani’s purse and house keys were missing and despite a thorough search, never found.
An examination of the vehicle revealed the driver’s seat fully reclined. When police attempted to start the brand new car, they discovered it wouldn’t move in first or second gear.
All around the car and leading to the water, were the clear heel marks of Shani’s stilletos but no other footprints. The police took this as an indication that she was alone when she died.
Had they asked anyone used to wearing high heeled stilettos, they would have been told how easily they sink into softened ground where other shoes barely leave an impression.
The Post Mortem
Shani’s post-mortem was performed by pathologist Ben Davies. Mr Davies had previously been removed from the Home Office list of approved pathologists but had recently been re-instated.
Mr Davies concluded at the end of his examination, that Shani had committed suicide. The basis if this seems to be that there were no signs of a struggle on Shani’s body.
Shani had died by drowning. There was a ligature mark around her neck, bruises on both thighs and the back of one hand. Her long hair was matted from being in the water but her nail varnish was unchipped. Davies suggested that Shani had not been sexually assaulted.
The police appeared happy to accept the pathologist’s suicide theory.
To do this they had to believe the following;
Shani Warren had spent the day mowing her lawn. She then bagged up the grass clippings and placed them in her car along with an Easter egg and a bottle of champagne.
At 6:00 pm she drove to a lay-by near Lake Taplow where she nobbled her own car, gagged herself with a scarf, tied herself up with jump leads and a tow rope from the boot of her car, attempted to strangle herself, before giving up and hopping some considerable distance through trees and brambles to the lake (Shani was terrified of water) and throwing herself in to 18 inches of water.
The Warren family and the British press who dubbed Shani ‘The Lady of the Lake ’ were incredulous.
‘We are a very strong family but my parents are absolutely devastated. I am gutted. I think suicide would be the last thing she would do. She was very intelligent and level-headed and absolutely first rate.’ Stephen Warren
A Murder Investigation
By the evening of the 20th April, the police, under intense pressure, called in a knot expert.
When he advised them that Shani could not have bound and gagged herself, they revised their opinion and launched a murder hunt; 72 valuable hours had been wasted.
On Thursday 23rd April, the nation sat down to watch a reconstruction of Shani’s last movements on the BBC Crimewatch programme.
During the evening a number of witnesses rang in to say that they had seen a blonde woman standing at the side of the road close to where Shani had been parked. The bonnet of her car was up and three men were looking at the engine.
The AA later confirmed that they had been called to assist another woman on the same stretch of road. It was a false lead.
A more positive sighting came from a Nurse, Mrs Organ and her daughter who were walking close to the area where Shani’s car was parked.
Mrs Organ saw a young woman on a grass verge close to the lake, holding what appeared to be a black bin liner. Was Shani running late and decided to tip out the grass cuttings at the side of the road instead of travelling on to her uncle’s?
Shani was very attractive and approachable and when Mrs Organ’s toddler daughter shouted “Hello” to her, Shani, if it was her, turned and smiled.
200 yards further up the road, the mother and daughter saw a man in in a smart suit standing next to a green BMW. He was never traced.
The Inquest
Shayni’s inquest took place in October 1987.
Mr Davies, the pathologist, stuck to his theory that Shani had committed suicide and cited three examples from his own experience of people who had gagged themselves before drowning themselves in the bath.
The police, now convinced of murder, had brought in their own expert, a forensic psychiatrist from Broadmoor Mental Hospital.
Dr. John Hamilton pored over eight years of Shani’s diaries and visited the site of her death. He was equally convinced that her death was not a suicide.
‘The diaries kept were of a very personal nature. If there was any indication of a serious abnormality I would expect to find it in those diaries. I found no trace of that.
There was nothing in the diaries to indicate she had any serious disorder such as depressive illness, serious personality disorder or schizophrenia. She appears to have been a healthy young girl.
It is rare for a person to disguise a murder as suicide’ Dr. John Hamilton
With so much conflicting evidence, the coroner was left with no option but to record an ‘Open Verdict’.
A Conspiracy Theory
In 1992 a British Journalist on ‘Computer Weekly’ published a book ‘Open Verdict’ which linked Shani Warren’s death to the technology giant, GEC Marconi.
Collins, had uncovered a series of up to 25 bizarre deaths of people connected to the company who, at the time, were undertaking research for America’s Strategic Defence Initiative or the ‘Star Wars’ project. The project was designed to develop a system that could intercept Russian nuclear missiles from space.
Collins began to record the mysterious disappearances and bizarre suicides of those connected to the company in the early eighties.
At first there were one two deaths a year until a cluster in 1988. Those who died showed no indication of mental illness before and had often spent the day performing mundane tasks before killing themselves in bizarre and dramatic ways.
Their deaths were often recorded as an ‘Open Verdict’.
Some of those identified by Collins had been on the verge of leaving their jobs, others claimed to have uncovered a secret. At least three made appointments with their Member of Parliament to discuss a serious matter but died before they could keep them.
Shani Warren worked for a company called Micro Scope purchased by GEC Marconi a week after her death. She made no secret of her desire to leave her job.
The same day that Shani died another person connected to GEC Marconi jumped off a viaduct a mile away. Although he survived he had no recollection of jumping or the events leading up to it.
Breakthrough
In 1997 Thames Valley were contacted by a task force created by Leicestershire police, ‘Operation Lynx’.
Lynx was set up when breakthroughs in DNA technology linked a series of rapes and assaults in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire.
The M.O. of the rapist was to abduct young women returning to their cars in multi-storey car parks. He would then bind them with jump leads or rope from the boot their cars before raping and robbing them.
In one instance he used a tube of superglue that he had found in victim’s car to glue shut her eyes.
In another, he raped a young mother, covered her head with a bag and threw her into a freezing canal. She survived her ordeal by standing on her tiptoes and crying for help until her pleas were heard.
Her rapist watched calmly from the bank before walking away.
The rapist was eventually identified as lorry driver, Clive Barwell.
When an astute detective learned that Barwell had been in Buckinghamshire delivering car parts around the time of Shani’s death, he put two and two together.
Barwell, facing a murder charge, denied any knowledge of Shani’s death.
In 1999 he pleaded guilty to attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault and assault. He was sentenced to 8 life sentences.
Barwell remains the prime suspect in the murder of Shani Warren, a murder that officially remains unsolved.
Shani Warren came from a close and loving family. Despite their wealth and privilege, they could not keep her safe on that fateful Good Friday when she met her death. It is a lingering source of eternal sadness and regret especially to her parents Joe and Elsie and her brother Stephen.
‘ We would give up everything to bring her back.’ Elsie Warren
