Police supervising a TV documentary murder reconstruction of an unsolved slaying that happened 20 years ago, have egg on their faces this evening, after a second murder took place in exactly the same manner as the first one.
In Epsom, back in 1998, Trevor Dibblecock left his local pub after an argument over a game of darts. Thirty minutes later, he was dead, killed by an unknown car 'driver' who drove the red 1950s Convertible over Mr. Dibblecock's head an astonishing 28 times, squashing it to a pulp, before making a swift getaway.
Help was sought, but not even the best doctors in the country could reshape his head, and, anyway, he was dead. Neither the car nor its driver has ever been traced.
The police made exhaustive enquiries, but, after years of unsuccessful detective work, gave up. Then, when the BBC's 'Crimewatch' expressed an interest in the murder earlier this year, they decided to do a reconstruction of the grisly crime, and let the BBC film it.
Actors were hired to take the parts of the victim and the people in the pub, including the man with whom Dibblecock had argued, Tobias Machete, but nobody now knows who was responsible for hiring the 'driver' of the car.
Filming went smoothly until the scene where the car is driven over Dibblecock's head, and then, inexplicably, the film crew and police froze, and watched the whole thing unfold as if it were happening in slow motion, and for the first time. There was one difference: this time, the car wheels made 29 trips over the victim's head, making 57 in all. The car was then driven away at high speed, and its 'driver' remains at large.
Police have appealed for witnesses.
Stephen King is 71.
