PART TWO

The Identity of the Author of the Letters Revealed.
In December 1984 Gwyn was given a book, a New Testament, belonging to one of the local residents although not a recipient of one of the letters. It had a written endorsement within, inscribed many years before. Upon reading it Gwyn realised that this endorsement was written by potentially, the same hand as the anonymous letters he had been investigating.

The endorsement included the name of the person who had written it, the Reverend Emyr OWEN, the local preacher, a man of God. Gwyn was amazed that the person he had potentially identified by such distinctive script was to be such a man within the close knit community.

The Rev Emyr OWEN was an upstanding member of his community. He preached his sermons with such veracity and gusto, that all his congregation held onto his every word. So Gwyn set about locating the Reverend which wasn’t difficult, as everyone knew of him and where he was living. In an effort not to give the Reverend any idea he was under investigation or indeed that he would soon be visited by the Police, Gwyn rang the Reverend’s house to try and catch him when he was at home and not alert him to an imminent visit by the local constabulary. On 22nd December 1984, Gwyn rang the house occupied by the Reverend. The phone was answered, the Reverend identified himself, Gwyn apologised for the intrusion and rang off. Quickly he made his way to the Reverend’s home picking up a uniformed officer PC Phil EDWARDS on the way from the local police station.

At 8.50pm on that night in December 1984. DC Gwyn ROBERTS knocked on the door of the Reverend Emyr OWEN’S home. The small diminutive figure in clerical attire answered the door and after introductions, invited the two officers inside. It was apparent the Reverend was writing Christmas cards, as a pile of them were on the table, some in envelopes and addressed to their recipients. Immediately, Gwyn reviewed the writing and identified it as being the same as the hand that had written the threatening anonymous letters to members of the community. He recognised the unusual way the letter ‘T’ appeared within the cards and other significant identifying marks. Knowing he was in the presence of the author of the letters, he arrested the Reverend Emyr OWEN. After initially denying any involvement with the anonymous letters he admitted that he was indeed the author.

The Arrest and the Chilling Discovery.
As the Rev OWEN was now under arrest, the Detective asked to see where he worked when at home, he was taken to an office, tidy and ordered. Gwyn looked on the bookshelves and in drawers. He found books, the subjects of which surprised him, they were about the occult and cannibalism. He also found a number of magazines that displayed naked young men in their pages and talked of homosexuality.
Then Gwyn came across the items that changed this inquiry completely. He picked out a tray of photographic slides, he selected a number holding them up to the light so the image could be revealed. The images that he saw were of male penises and the attached scrotum, the images were clear.

When questioned the Reverend said they were from post mortems but when challenged he admitted that he had been responsible for not just the taking of the photographs but the removal of the genitalia from deceased persons.

The Reverend was taken to the Police Station where, in the following days, he was interviewed and the investigation developed further. It appeared bodies that were resting in the church where he preached (there were a number in the locality) prior to their burial. He had taken a knife and removed the genitalia from a number of the corpses, three that he admitted to. He had photographed them and retained them, he had made a recording of himself in the act of removal of the body parts.

So what had been an investigation into anonymous letters, as unpleasant as they were, turned into an investigation into something far more dark and sinister.