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In 2015, 24-year-old Karen Buckley was an outgoing girl who was passionate about traveling the world, experiencing life & meeting new people. She worked as a nurse at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, England for a few months until she made the decision to relocate to Scotland in February 2015 to study for a Master’s degree in occupational health at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Karen was born in 1991 to parents John & Marian Buckley & she & her three brothers, Brendan, Kieran & Damian, were raised on a farm in Cork, Ireland. The family was exceptionally close with one another & were the center of each other’s worlds.
During her teenage years, she worked as a waitress in the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow where she earned the nickname, Cailin Gaelach, in a way to describe her as the ever-smiling Irish girl. As she worked various weddings or other events held at the hotel, she always wore a smile on her face no matter what kind of day she might be having & was known to step up to help a co-worker in need.
Karen was a nursing graduate from the University of Limerick & she told her friends that she loved helping those who were injured in order to improve their quality of life as it had always been her life’s motivation to help others. She also had a passion for seeing the world & had traveled throughout Europe & the Far East with one of her favorite trips being to Thailand with her college friends. It was her goal that once she obtained her Master’s degree, she’d travel to Australia to visit her two brothers.
Karen was the youngest of four children & in 2015, Brendan was 32, Kieran was 28 & Damian was 27.
While working as a nurse in England, Karen discovered an interest in occupational therapy & decided to change her course & realized she would need to get a master’s degree in order fulfill this dream.
Now in Glasgow for school, Karen lived in an apartment in Garnethill with three other girls & since she was new to the area, she looked forward to exploring the nightlife with friends & trying new places. On Saturday, April 11, 2015, Karen had some drinks as she got ready at her flat with her friends & headed out to The Sanctuary nightclub on Dumbarton Road two miles away, arriving at 11:45 pm wearing a black jumpsuit, a black leather jacket & red heels.
After about an hour in the club, Karen told her friends that she was heading to use the restroom, but fifteen minutes later, now in the early morning hours of 1 am on Sunday, April 12, she still hadn’t come back. They found it strange that she would leave the club without saying something & noticed that she’d left her leather jacket behind which indicated that she hadn’t planned to be gone long although she had taken her purse. It was so out of character to do something like that & when they called her, there was no answer, but they assumed she must have decided to go back home.
Once her roommates were home that Sunday morning, they realized that Karen wasn’t there & continued to text & call her. Having been in a club for hours that night, everyone had been drinking & they likely assumed Karen went home with someone from the club. Her friends clarified that although she’d had a few drinks, she was by no means overly intoxicated. However, when she still wasn’t home on Monday, Karen’s friends reported her missing.
On Monday, April 13, Scotland Police launched a missing person appeal while John & Marian arranged to travel from Ireland to Scotland to be close to the investigation. Karen was an exceptionally responsible person so everyone was terribly worried from the start & could only wonder what might have happened to her.
When investigators spoke with Karen’s friends who were out with her that night, they indicated that she had no other plans for the night except to go home & get a good night’s rest. An eyewitness from the club told the police that they had seen Karen speaking with a man outside on the night in question. When CCTV from the club was reviewed, this was verified as she could be seen standing outside talking to a man & then walking west along Dumbarton Road towards Church Street in the opposite direction of her flat.
With this information, police made an appeal to the public in order to identify the man seen in the footage, someone who was likely the last person to see Karen. Meanwhile, Karen’s parents participated in a press conference on Tuesday where they said they were desperate for the daughter to come home safely.
On Tuesday afternoon a member of the public found Karen’s purse in a garbage bin in Dawsholm Park near Dorchester Avenue in the Kelvindale area of Glasgow about 2.5 miles (4 km) from The Sanctuary where Karen was last seen. Her cell phone & passport were inside, but sadly, the person who found the purse wiped her phone of all its calls & texts, possibly destroying crucial evidence. When this person later realized the significance of the purse, they contacted investigators later that day.
Search teams began to comb the area around the location where Karen’s purse was found as well as a flat on Dorchester Avenue where a 21-year-old man lived who was detained in connection with her disappearance. The press soon uncovered the fact that this man was Alexander Pacteau, who was seen in the footage with Karen & had been at the same club on Saturday night.
Karen would have then climbed into Pacteau’s gray Ford Focus which pulled away & drove along Dumbarton Road at 1:06 am. The car could be seen turning onto Kelvin Way & reappearing at the other end 12 minutes later at 1:18 am.
Police knocked on Alexander Pacteau’s door on Monday, April 13, 36 hours after Karen vanished while a team of more than 100 detectives worked tirelessly on the case & confirmed that based on CCTV footage, he was the last person to see Karen alive.
When Pacteau opened the door of his flat, officers were met with an overwhelming odor of bleach. As they made their way further inside, they immediately noticed that the mattress in his bedroom didn’t fit the bed frame. There were also items not normally stored inside a bedroom such as a toolbox & a roll of packing tape as well as fingernail brushes. He told investigators that Karen came to his apartment with him, but left around 4 am on Sunday morning after she refused a ride home.
Pacteau was taken down to the Helen Street police station in Govan for questioning as a witness while forensic scientists moved in to inspect his flat. While he was at the station, his story began to change & this time, he said that when Karen came over, they had a few drinks as well as consensual sex, but before she left his flat at 4 am, she hit her head on his bed frame. He claimed this was something he hadn’t noticed until later that morning, hours after she left when he saw blood on the bed sheet.
Pacteau said when he saw reports on the news about Karen missing, he began to panic, fearing he was likely the last person to see her. Because of this, he admitted that he burned some of his clothing as well as his blood-stained mattress.
When detectives searched Pacteau’s pockets, they found two keys that belonged to padlocks as well as a receipt from Poundstretcher, a British variety store chain, for caustic soda, otherwise known as sodium hydroxide or lye which is a highly corrosive alkali.
While he was being questioned at the station, not only was his flat being searched but investigators were also searching Pacteau’s Ford Focus & a special Police Scotland cadaver dog that was trained to react to the scent of bodies, became agitated near the trunk of the car.
After questioning, he was released & allowed to temporarily stay at the Holiday Inn hotel while the investigation continued.
Despite the use of bleach in Pacteau’s flat, the presence of Karen’s blood was located in both his bedroom as well as the bathroom.
On Wednesday, April 15, police felt they had enough evidence to treat him as a suspect & Pacteau was detained in a Starbucks shortly before 2 pm & taken back to the Helen Street Police Office for further questioning. Here, they found a note in his pocket detailing what he told the officers during his first questioning, likely to remember his original story.
An hour after police released a statement that Pacteau had been detained, they received a phone call from his acquaintance who informed investigators that when they worked together illegally selling fireworks, they used to store their items at High Craigton Farm.
Investigators arrived at the farm at 3:30 pm on Thursday, April 16 & based on the fact that they found receipts in Pacteau’s pocket for padlocks, they were initially looking for storage units with new padlocks on them. After a few hours of searching, they found a shed with a blue barrel inside that was covered with a sheet as well as a bike wheel & a paper shredder that had been placed on top.
Since receipts proved Pacteau purchased caustic soda, investigators had to wait for the barrel to be deemed safe for examining. They were given the go-ahead to open the barrel at 8 pm & when the lid was removed, they were met with a horrific sight. Karen’s naked body was submerged in the chemical solution & the barrel was transferred to Southern General Hospital in Glasgow for an autopsy.
The medical examiner determined that Karen had suffered multiple soft neck injuries & about 12-13 heavy blows to her head causing her skull to fracture as well as led to a subdural hematoma, causing her brain to bleed out. Injuries to her body proved that she had fought for her life. She had been murdered within twenty minutes of meeting him by chance.
A forensic expert was able to match soil samples from Pacteau’s car to Dawsholm Park where Karen’s purse had been dumped as well as High Craigton Farm where her remains were found eight miles from where she disappeared. Despite the fact that he cleaned his car & then took it to Anniesland Valet for a second cleaning, traces of Karen’s blood were found on the passenger side.
Investigators combed over 1,900 hours of CCTV footage in order to build a case against Pacteau. This proved that later in the day on Sunday, the same day Karen went missing, he drove to various supermarkets & DIY stores in the west end to pick up supplies. He could be seen on surveillance filling his cart with bottles of caustic soda, a 220-liter blue barrel, plastic gloves & a mask. He also made trips to High Craigton Farm on the outskirts of the city, burned a mattress & clothing.
With his third round of questioning, this time with solid evidence against him, Pacteau yet again changed his story, now for the third time. He said that while they were having consensual sex, Karen hit her head, got angry at him & slapped him in the face. In retaliation, he began hitting her in the head with the wrench.
As the full details began to emerge, investigators determined that Karen & Pacteau were strangers to one another when they just so happened to go to the same club that night. By chance, they bumped into each other outside at about 1 am. Earlier that night, he arrived in his car with seven friends right around the same time Karen & her friends got to the club. He & his friends booked a booth for £250.
At the same time Karen walked out of the club, Pacteau told a steward he was running outside to grab something from his car which was parked 100 yards from the club. He walked down the street, briefly returned to the club & left again. While he walked up & down the street, he met Karen & the two got to talking. It’s likely he offered her a ride back to her flat which was a 5-10 minute drive away & she accepted his offer. Rather than driving her home, he drove to nearby Kelvin Way. It’s unknown what he may have said to Karen outside or why she so willingly got into his car.
Once on Kelvin Way, he stopped the car at 1:06 am & remained in this area for 12 minutes & 46 minutes. During this time he grabbed her by the neck in an attempt to choke her before repeatedly striking her on the head at least a dozen times with a wrench (spanner). From here, he began driving in the direction of his flat. He stopped at Dawsholm Park along the way & threw her purse into a garbage bin with her cell phone & passport still inside.
CCTV proved that Pacteau arrived at his first floor flat on Dorchester Avenue at 2 am. He went inside, retrieved a sheet which he used to wrap her body before bringing her inside.
Even though his mother & his flatmate were home at the time, asleep only feet away, Pacteau carried Karen’s lifeless body through the first floor & left her in his bedroom until later that morning. Despite just brutally beating an innocent woman to death, he fell asleep until about 8 am.
Now awake, he quickly got to work & began using his phone to research the properties of the corrosive substance caustic soda or sodium hydroxide. He left Karen’s body inside his locked bedroom while he drove to B&Q Poundstretcher on Great Western Road where he purchased six liters of caustic soda at 9:42 am. He was seen on CCTV footage buying not only this, but also drain unblocking fluid, a mask & gloves. He also purchased padlocks from Tesco, Poundstrecher & Asda.
Once back at his flat, he removed Karen’s clothing, carried her to the bathroom & submerged her body into the tub that was filled with the corrosive chemical & left her here for several hours. During this time, he attempted to clean his flat as well as the outside area. He texted his flatmate who’d gone out walking with his mom for the day to find out what time he planned to come home. When he realized his flatmate was coming home at about 8 pm, he decided to use a knife to slice Karen’s body from the sternum to her abdomen in hopes of speeding up the process of breaking her body down. When this didn’t work, he was forced to drain the bathtub & remove Karen’s body in anticipation of his flatmate returning. Once out of the tub, he wrapped her body in a duvet & returned her remains to his bedroom.
Pacteau spent another night with Karen’s remains & woke up early on Monday, April 13. He disposed of the murder weapon into the Forth & Clyde Canal, went to Tesco on Maryhill Road & asked an employee, Can you recommend a product for removing blood from a mattress?
After he purchased the suggested cleaning products he went home, scrubbed the mattress & headed out to another Tesco, this time in Milngavie, to buy turpentine (white spirit) & a lighter. Despite scrubbing the mattress for more than an hour, he drove to High Craigton Farm where he once stored fireworks & burned Karen’s clothing, his mattress & everything she had come into contact with.
At 8:34 am he utilized his cell phone to call a packaging company, Invopak, to order the large blue barrel & drove to the East End of the city to pick it up. He purchased the additional chemicals from Poundstretcher, came back to his flat, bound Karen’s body with an extension cord, placed packaging tape around her neck & placed her body in the barrel. He later filled the barrel with a mixture with caustic soda & water, partially submerging her body.
Pacteau was a very large man who stood at 6’4” & weighed 210# (15 stone) while Karen stood at 5’4” & was able to carry the barrel to his car. A neighbor recalled seeing him struggle down the stairs of his flat with a large blue barrel, never imagining that it contained a human body. He drove back to the farm, paid the farmer a £10 storage fee for the week & left the padlocked barrel in an outhouse & padlocked the door of the building.
Within moments of him arriving home, police were knocking on the door of his flat as he told them, I was just coming to see you.
He may have thought that he covered his tracks, but with the use of CCTV, forensic analysis of his car & his cell phone, thankfully investigators were able to unveil his lies.
Forensic experts found Pacteau’s fingerprint in the blue barrel that he filled in an attempt to destroy Karen’s remains. Divers were able to recover the wrench that Pacteau used to strike Karen within the murky waters of the canal while a burned mattress found at High Craigton Farm proved to be from Pacteau’s bedroom.
After Karen’s remains were recovered, her family visited tributes to their daughter which were held at her university & wept, holding each other as they joined hundreds of people in George Square for a vigil. When their daughter’s remains were returned to them a little more than a week later, they accompanied her on a special chartered flight back to Cork where thousands of people gathered to pay their respects, with her three older brothers carrying her casket into the church where Karen grew up.
Marion & John were understandably shattered that their daughter’s bright future was cut short while they thanked the people of Scotland for their assistance during the investigation. They said, We are extremely upset that Karen will never have the chance to live out her life, travel more & pursue her career. That maybe someday she could have a family of her own & enjoy a happy & eventful life, which is what she would have wanted.
In August 2015, Pacteau appeared at the High Court in Glasgow & admitted to murdering Karen. During his sentencing in September he claimed that he was remorseful, but admitted that an apology would sound hollow to Karen’s family, who were seated on the public benches. He claimed that when he murdered her, he’d been extremely intoxicated & recalled little about why he killed Karen. He recalled that they began to argue & he became angry about something she said about the men in the club.
Pacteau was given a mandatory life term with a minimum of 23 years before he could be considered for parole. He showed no emotion & refused to look in the direction of Karen’s family as he was led away in handcuffs.
After his conviction it emerged that Pacteau was cleared on charges of attempted rape in 2013 in a case that was very similar to what happened to Karen. He was accused of attacking a 24-year-old woman when she was on her way home after a night out. This was something he was acquitted for after he told the jury that he was gay & would never want to engage in sexual contact with a female. In 2014 he was convicted for forging bank notes worth £6,000 by scanning paper money & printing out the copies.
Despite his dark, violent ways, Pacteau had been raised in a good home with a French father, a Scottish mother & his three siblings. He went to a prestigious private school in Glasgow. His parents owned a courier company, Priority Courier Service, but when the business collapsed & his parents divorced in 2013, Pacteau went to live with his mother. That same year, he was severely injured in a car accident & later moved to a flat in Drumchapel. He occasionally saw family & friends but became increasingly isolated, spending days holed up alone in his bedroom, surfing the internet. He rarely left his flat while he ordered Chinese takeaways & pizzas, while his weight climbed to nearly 300# (21 stone). Although those that did spend time with him described him as a gentle giant who was funny & engaging; someone who was clearly able to mask his darkness.
His earliest release date is 2038 when he’ll be in his mid-40s.
John Buckley spoke for his wife & three sons outside the courtroom & said, All Karen was doing was making her way home when she was randomly targeted & murdered by a cowardly, vicious criminal. No words of ours can do justice to our feelings towards him. He is truly evil & we hope he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Our hearts are broken at the thought of Karen’s final moments in this world. The thought of her alone, frightened & struggling for her life haunts us. The last face she saw & the last voice she heard was of that cold-blooded, cowardly murderer, who calmly set about trying to dispose of her body so she would never be found. Not only did he rob Karen of her precious life & future, he robbed us of our beautiful daughter & sister.
References:
- Belfast Telegraph: Karen Buckley: Friends pay tribute to girl with the smile
- Scottish Express: Killer Alexander Pacteau’s meticulous effort to cover up horrendous crime
- Belfast Telegraph: How detectives caught Karen Buckley’s killer Alexander Pacteau with incredible speed
- Irish Mirror: Karen Buckley murder: Popular student was an outgoing & caring nurse who never got the chance to live her life in full
- The Guardian: Karen Buckley’s family heartbroken after remains confirmed as missing student
- Glasgow Times: Crime stories extended: ‘Truly evil’ killer Alexander Pacteau & the murder of a student nurse
- Wikipedia: Poundstretcher
- RTE: Timeline: The Karen Buckley murder case
- The Guardian: Karen Buckley murder: Alexander Pacteau jailed for at least 23 years
- Irish Legal News: Man admits murder of Irish student Karen Buckley
- Wikipedia: Murder of Karen Buckley
- YouTube: Outlore with Eleanor Neale: The murder of Karen Buckley
- The Irish Times: Karen Buckley: How Alexander Pacteau killed her & tried to destroy her body
