The Murder Detectives

March 5th 2014: a 19-year-old teenager, Nicholas, is murdered in Bristol. A seemingly senseless stabbing, a young life cut short, an unfortunate story which is representative of many cities and youths in Britain today. Filmed over eighteen months, and with intimate and unprecedented access to a police major crime team in St. Paul's, Bristol, this trilogy of films creates a distinctive, unfolding picture of a murder from the time the crime is initially reported. It weaves together the stories of three different worlds: a detective faced with a whodunit, a family desperate for justice and another who'll do anything to save their son from a life behind bars. The desperate last breaths of victim Nicholas Robinson are heard as he makes a 999 call before collapsing and dying from multiple stab wounds. Nicholas was studying at college and had recently got engaged to his long-term girlfriend. The police had only had contact him when he reported his bike stolen two years previously. So who would want to kill him and why? A single black glove found at the crime scene could provide the answer, or will it turn out to be a false lead?A seminal documentary series uniquely shot as a drama. But this is all real life, with genuine and far-reaching consequences. A police actuality series followed in real time as you have never seen on television before. A suspect with an alibi, a fugitive on the loose, and a murder detective and his team that has to find a murderer and answers for a grieving family.

In the days following Nicholas Robinson's murder on the 5th March 2015 we follow Avon and Somerset Police as they continue the hunt for his murderer. The Police have a prime murder suspect, local teenager Luchiano Barnes, a 19 year-old who grew up in St Paul's, Bristol. But unfortunately the police are 48 hours behind, and he has fled the UK on a flight to New York. The detectives in Bristol have circulated his details to the FBI, but at this stage he could be anywhere in the world. And so they must start looking closer to home, to see if they can gather the evidence and find a motive before he hopefully returns. Meanwhile, the parents of victim Nicholas Robinson are trying to come to terms with his murder, plus have to face the ordeal of burying their son, the second child his mother has lost. There is only one thing that keeps his dad Carlos going; the desperate need for justice. A fugitive on the loose, and a murder detective and his team that has to find a murderer and answers for a grieving family.

It is mid-April 2014, and fugitive Luchiano Barnes is under arrest for the murder of 19 year old Nicholas Robinson. The custody clock is now ticking as detectives question him about the killing of Nicholas. With CCTV, phone records and local information painting a rough picture of the day in question it looks as though everything points towards Luchiano as the killer. But the police are yet to uncover any concrete evidence connecting him to the crime scene. Forensic scientists sample his DNA, fingerprints are taken, as they search for the elusive smoking gun. As Nicholas's family anxiously prepare for a murder trial, have the police really got the right man? And as the genuine and far-reaching consequences become apparent we are shown the full spectrum and impact of knife crime in the UK.