Veronica Anne Packman, known as Carole Packman, was a 40-year-old British woman who disappeared from her family home in Bournemouth, England in June 1985. Her body has never been found. Her husband, Russell Causley (born Packman), was subsequently convicted of her murder.
The case initially went uninvestigated as a homicide until Causley was caught faking his own death off the coast of Guernsey in 1993 as part of an insurance fraud scheme. He was convicted and jailed for fraud in 1995. Following that conviction, Dorset Police re-investigated Carole Packman's 1985 disappearance.
Causley was convicted of Carole Packman's murder on 18 December 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 16 years. Notably, the prosecution secured this conviction despite the absence of any body or forensic evidence, arguing to the jury that Packman was no longer alive, that she had been murdered, and that her husband was responsible.
Causley appealed his conviction in 1998, but it was upheld at that time. However, in June 2003 the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction following a further appeal, and a retrial was ordered. At the 2004 retrial, Causley was once again found guilty of murder.
Causley became eligible for parole in 2012. Over the following years, the case attracted significant public and legislative attention, particularly through advocacy from the couple's daughter, Samantha Gillingham, who called for a "no body, no parole" law starting in 2010, and from grandson Neil Gillingham, who was vocal during the passage of the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act 2020 ("Helen's Law"), which he criticized as insufficiently effective. Causley was granted parole in 2020, but was returned to prison in December 2021 after breaching licence conditions, and the BBC reported in August 2022 that he had been recalled for "temporarily losing touch with authorities" while held at HM Prison Lewes.
On 12 December 2022, Causley attended the first public parole hearing in the history of England and Wales, at which he admitted responsibility for his wife's murder. On 5 January 2023, the Parole Board concluded that he should be released again, and the Ministry of Justice determined there were no legal grounds for the Justice Secretary to appeal that decision. Causley was released from prison in February 2023, subject to licence conditions governing his residence, contacts, and activities.
The case has been covered extensively in British media and true-crime documentary programming, including ITV's "The Investigator: A British Crime Story" in 2016, following which Dorset Police confirmed the case remained open pending review of new evidence.
Credit: Professional photographer, commissioned by the subject herself, 1946Public domainSourceSOLVEDListen
