Jeffrey Howe was a 49-year-old kitchen salesman from London who had previously worked as a chef in Italy and was described by his brother as "a jovial, charming character who had a heart of gold." He lived alone in a ground-floor flat in Southgate, north London, after two marriages, and had let Stephen Marshall, a body builder and personal trainer, move in with him as a lodger from November 2008. Marshall's girlfriend, Sarah Bush, a 21-year-old sex worker, also stayed at the flat. The couple did not pay rent, stole food, and fraudulently claimed housing benefit by forging Howe's signature.
Howe was murdered on the night of 8–9 March 2009. He was stabbed twice in the back with a small blade, one wound puncturing his lung, and may have remained alive for up to an hour afterward. Marshall then dismembered the body, a process a Home Office pathologist estimated took at least 12 hours. After the killing, Marshall and Bush used Howe's bank account and identity to make purchases, sold his belongings including his car, and told others that Howe had "packed up and left."
Between 22 March and 11 April 2009, Howe's dismembered remains were discovered in stages across Hertfordshire and Leicestershire — a leg near Cottered, a forearm in Wheathampstead, a head in a cattle pen in Asfordby, a second leg near Puckeridge, and finally a torso and arms near High Cross. His hands were never recovered, though Bush later said they were buried in Epping Forest. The case drew press attention as the "Jigsaw Man" murder.
The investigation, Operation Abnet, was led by Detective Superintendent Michael Hanlon of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit and involved up to 100 officers. Howe had been reported missing in mid-March 2009, and police entered his flat on 16 March without finding evidence of the crime. Forensic work, including blood traces in the flat and car, fibre matches to duct tape used to wrap the remains, and CCTV/ANPR tracking of the couple's movements to Leicestershire, led to their arrest on 21 April 2009. Howe was publicly named as the victim on 23 April 2009.
At trial at St Albans Crown Court, beginning 12 January 2010, Marshall initially claimed Bush had committed the murder and that he had only helped dismember and dispose of the body. On 29 January 2010, three weeks into the trial, he changed his plea to guilty of murder. He was sentenced on 1 February 2010 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 36 years, making him ineligible for parole until 2046. The judge found little credit was due for the late plea given the weight of evidence. Bush, who was acquitted of murder, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and giving false information, receiving a sentence of three years and nine months, and served 45 months. Marshall separately admitted in court to dismembering four other bodies between 1995 and 1998 while working as a nightclub doorman for the Adams crime family, disposing of them in Epping Forest, though he did not identify the victims. His applications to appeal his conviction and sentence were rejected in October and November 2010.
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