A little after 7am on Sunday September 1st 2016 Peter Maine went for a jog through the centre of Durham. A short while later he was found by the banks of the River Wear with three stab wounds to the heart. To this day we don’t know if it was murder or suicide.
No sign of robbery. No defensive wounds. So suicide?
In which case, what happened to the knife?
We do know that police estimate that 65 people may have wanted to do him harm. I’m not sure I know 65 people overall, and I’ve interviewed Barry McGuigan and several other people.
Gareth gets investigated by the security services! John is called posh for not liking Pringles! Claire pivots magnificently from the NON-EXISTANT AND ENTIRELY FICTIONAL link between MMR and autism to trying to play roller derby in a sea of blood and lager! The Offspring fight cancer and HIV/AIDS!
There's also brief attempt to remember 1998, including the Omagh bombing (and in particular the world's most harrowing holiday photo), the construction of the Millennium Dome, significant loss of life somewhere in Algeria Claire can't pronounce the name of ("however you say it, there was a massacre there") and Aqua.
Along the way: Time Capsules! The wilful destruction of a ponytail at Morrissey’s request! Paula White’s last show on BBC Stoke! Danny Dyer romcoms! Robbie Mustoe! Richard and Judy’s suicide pact! Local government reorganisation in the West Country! This show has it all.
Shout outs in this episode to Study in Scarlet and Reverie – check ‘em out!
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Fat Mike the extremely vocal sparrow who lives in my garden. Fat Mike is very obvious in this episode, making the whole episode sound somewhat like the old Big Brother livestreams when they used to play birdsong and train noise to cover controversial conversations. Sorry about that.
For all our snark, if you have any information at all about the death of Peter Heron, please call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or use their anonymous online form at Crimestoppers-uk.org. His family deserve to know what happened.
You can reach us on email everyonediesinsunderland@gmail.com, on Twitter at @everyonediespod, on Facebook and Instagram.
Our theme music is the song “Steady Away” by Pete Dilley and can be found on his album Half-truths and Hearsay which you can/should buy/stream here: https://petedilley.bandcamp.com/album/half-truths-and-hearsay