Crime show Murder by the Sea on Newport killing of Tyrone France

Detectives immediately began treating the incident as a murder, as it emerged the perpetrator had gone to extreme lengths to keep their victim’s identity a secret.

The person in the forest had apparently been shot to death, before having his body dismembered and set alight.

The police were initially stumped. With no way to identify the victim, how could they possibly catch the killer?

Now, the Gwent Police investigation into this gruesome murder is the subject of a new documentary being televised this evening (February 2).

In 1996, Ian Johnston was the head of Gwent Police CID (criminal investigation department) and the officer in charge of the Wentwood Forest murder investigation.

“There was no other case as brutal as this,” he told the Argus this week. “I was in CID from 1973 to 1999, and I never saw anything else like this.”

Ian Johnston, pictured here in his later role as then-Gwent's police and crime commissioner, was the senior investigating officer in the Tyrone France murder investigation.

The discovery of the body prompted a “very intensive” first 24 hours as detectives searched for anything that could identify the victim.

Among the ashes of the fire, which police believed had been prepared at the site in advance of the killing, they found a crucial piece of evidence.

“He’d been wearing very distinctive jewellery on his neck,” Mr Johnston said. “It hadn’t burned, and we recovered it.”

The police turned to the media to find someone who recognised the item of jewellery.

The Argus, the BBC, and HTV Wales all ran appeals, and the police received several calls from people who thought they knew the necklace’s owner.

Based on that information, detectives proved the body found in Wentwood Forest was that of Tyrone France, a man who had moved to the Newport area from the Isle of Wight.

Tyrone France, who was found murdered in Wentwood Forest in May 1996.

Mr Johnston said enquiries led detectives to believe the victim had been involved in the drugs trade.

“He was at the lower end of the drugs market, but it certainly involved supply,” he said. “It was evident he had made quite a network of friends in Newport.”

The police collected names of people believed to have been with Mr France in his last hours – and when one of them, a Newport man named Simon Mark Spring, was interviewed, his story didn’t quite ring true with detectives.

Spring was eventually convicted of the murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment, of which he had to serve a minimum of 18 years. He claimed his motive for the shooting had been to protect his family.

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It was later claimed Spring and two accomplices had driven into Wentwood Forest with Mr France on the pretext of doing a drug deal.

The police investigation lasted less than a week, but the savagery of the killing and the bid to destroy the evidence rocked the community.

“Newport was horrified that someone was taken off the street, shot, dismembered and burned,” Mr Johnston said. “People thought ‘that doesn’t happen in Newport.’”

David Howard is the director of true crime show Murder by the Sea, which focuses on killings in coastal towns around the UK.

Murder By The Sea is presented by crime historian Dr Nell Darby.

“It’s a celebration of excellent police work,” Mr Howard said of his show. “I can confidently say that the Gwent Police murder squad was one of the most respected in the UK. It had a fantastic reputation and very strong connections with the community.”

He said Mr France’s killing was “a particularly horrific murder,” but what drew him to the case was the nature of the police investigation.

“It was proper old-school detective work, trying to solve a problem based on the clues left behind,” he told the Argus.

Murder by the Sea: The Mystery of the Man in the Woods will be shown on CBS Reality (Sky channel 146) and Cardiff TV (Freeview channel 8, Sky channel 134) at 10pm tonight.