Alex Hanscombe was on the brink of celebrating his third birthday when a routine outing to a London park with his mother turned into a nightmare.
A stranger approached, forcefully knocked the young boy to the ground, and then horrifically attacked 23-year-old Rachel Nickell, stabbing her more than 40 times before making a swift escape.
Alex was discovered desperately clutching his mother’s lifeless body in this heart-wrenching murder case from 1992, which was later explored in the Netflix documentary, The Murder of Rachel Nickell.
“It was a case that gripped the nation,” explained forensic expert Angela Gallop to Metro. “A mother and her toddler, attacked in broad daylight on Wimbledon Common—it’s the kind of horror you never imagine happening. The public was deeply moved.”
With little Alex as the sole witness, investigators were left piecing together scant evidence, mistakenly arresting an innocent man before finally tracing the crime back to a serial rapist. This predator went on to claim the lives of another mother and her child before being apprehended, ending his reign of terror.
Here’s everything to know about Rachel Nickell’s tragic murder and the disturbed killer behind the violence:
Who Was Rachel Nickell?
Rachel was just 19 and working as a lifeguard when she met semi-professional tennis player André Hanscombe, according to The Guardian.
Just months into the couple’s romance, they found out Rachel was pregnant and they set out to create a life together in south London, where they lived with Alex and their rescue dog Molly.
While André worked as a motorcycle carrier, Rachel stayed home to care for their son.
“Rachel and Alex…they were a unit,” André recalled in The Murder of Rachel Nickell. “He was the center of Rachel’s attention every day. She wasn’t at all drawn to the sparkly things, you know, she just really enjoyed the simple things of life, enjoying the company of the people she really cared about.”
What Happened to Rachel Nickell?
The 23-year-old—who André said could “squeeze fun” out of anything—often spent her days taking walks with Alex and Molly in Wimbledon Common, a 1,140-acre wooded park not far from their home.
On the morning of July 15, 1992, André remembered Rachel and Alex waving to him from the apartment window as he prepared to get on his motorcycle for another day of work. Then the mother and son headed to Wimbledon Common, where they walked along a wooded path.
It was there that Rachel was attacked by a man carrying a black bag.
“It really was the worst crime scene. It just looked like a frenzied attack,” Met Police forensic detective Ron Turnbill recalled in the documentary. “The victim had been attacked, dragged, stabbed 49 times in and around the neck and chest area and she lay with her hands sort of up in front of her face as if she was still trying to protect herself. It was monstrous.”
Alex was found, caked in mud and blood, clinging to his mother’s body and, according to André, police had to pry him away from her.
André learned of Rachel’s fate from a police officer after calling home to check on his young family.
He explained, “I was in a state that you can only describe as bordering on the edge of insanity.”
What Did Alex Hanscombe Remember About His Mother’s Murder?
Alex was rushed to the hospital, but was uninjured other than some cuts and bruises.
André reunited with his son at the hospital and told him that his mom had an accident, died and was not coming back. Though his son didn’t respond, André said he had an “intense” look in his eyes.
“It was clear that he was telling me, ’I already know that. That’s something you really don’t have to explain to me,’” André remembered in the documentary. “He never asked again where his mother was. Not once.”
As the only eyewitness, Alex provided police with some details through the help of a child psychologist. The 3-year-old described a “bad man” who came up behind him, shoved him down, attacked his mother and then washed his hands in a stream, per The Murder of Rachel Nickell.
He described the killer as a younger white man with a white shirt, blue trousers, brown shoes and a belt over his shirt.
In another discussion at home captured on video by André in July of 1993, Alex told his father he saw the man—carrying a knife inside a bag—before his mom.
When Andre asked what the man did, Alex replied, “He knocked me over…The bad man was sticking his things in her.”
He went on to tell his father he “saw it all.”
Years later, in 2017, Alex, now an adult, provided a more detailed account.
“It’s not like it happens in the movies,” Alex told The Guardian. “It was so quick, and everything was silent. There was this strange polarity—even though it was hectic and violent and there was blood, at the same time, there was this big feeling of peace and tranquillity. To me, my mother just looked like she was lying there, ready to wake any moment, like in the imaginary games we used to play.”
Though Alex tried to wake his mother, she never responded.
“That’s what I remember most,” he said, “the particular moment I knew she was gone. That feeling of losing someone you love, how everything can change in a matter of seconds.”
Colin Stagg Arrested and Falsely Accused in Murder of Rachel Nickell
Hoping to escape the media attention and intense child psychology sessions, André and Alex moved to France, where his father tried to give him a normal life.
“All the time, you see the headlines, you hear the whispers, everyone’s watching Alex, saying he’ll never recover,” André explained to The Guardian. “I just felt it was impossible for a child to grow up like that. Rachel and I were always going to leave the country—again, it was being true to her values.”
Meanwhile, investigators honed in on a possible suspect after getting tips that a sketch of the attacker resembled Colin Stagg, who lived near Wimbledon Common. They arrested him twice, but Colin was eventually released after police found no evidence to link him to the crime.
What Happened to Samantha Bissett?
A year after Rachel’s murder, another London mother was attacked. Samantha Bissett, 27, was discovered dead inside her Plumstead home in a case that continues to haunt the seasoned detectives who investigated it.
“When we walked in,” retired Detective Sergeant Roger Boydell-Smith recalled in The Murder of Rachel Nickell, “it became apparent that Samantha had been possibly stabbed to death in the hallway, dragged through to the living room and placed on a large cushion in a star formation, and she’d been mutilated.”
Her daughter Jazmine was found dead in bed under a comforter. The 4-year-old had been sexually assaulted and suffocated to death, according to Metro.
Finger prints at the scene were eventually linked to Robert Napper. Between 1989 and 1993, years before Rachel and Samantha’s murder, Robert had been suggested as a possible suspect in a string of brutal rapes in southeast London known as the Green Chain rapes, the outlet reported. He was dismissed, however, after detectives believed he didn’t match the physical description of the suspect.
“That was a catastrophic decision because he went on then to murder the Bissetts,” Roger said, per Metro. “He could have been caught quite easily. The officers involved will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.”
Robert was convicted of the killings and sexual assaults in 1995 and sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Who Killed Rachel Nickell?
Robert wasn’t linked to Rachel’s murder until 2004, when advances in technology allowed investigators to identify a DNA profile of her killer. After entering the profile into a crime database, it matched to Robert.
André was devastated to learn of Robert’s other victims.
“At that moment in time was when our worst possible scenario had proved to be played out, somebody else has been murdered by the same person and the same circumstances. Another family’s been destroyed,” he said in the Netflix doc. “So if I didn’t know how blessed I’d been that Alex survived, when we found out what happened to Samantha and Jazmine, I thank God everyday because it’s only by the grace of God that we’ve survived together.”
Robert pleaded guilty to the manslaughter for Rachel’s death in 2008 and is continuing to serve out a life sentence at a psychiatric hospital, Tudum reported.
Where is Rachel Nickell’s Son Alex Hanscombe Today?
After spending years in France, Alex and André moved to Barcelona. They continue to remember Rachel’s legacy.
“My parents believed in the infinity of the spirit, that my mother would be with me always, wherever I went,” Alex said in the documentary. “My father sacrificed everything for me and for what he believed in, without any guarantees of how it would turn out. He was brave enough to do what he felt was right in his heart. I’m forever indebted to him for that.”