Lucy McHugh - 26th July 2018

Series 3, episode 6: Lucy McHugh – 26th July 2018 This week’s show deals with violence against children and is significantly different from most of the cases as this is still an active investigation and someone has been detained, but the Police, Hampshire Constabulary, are still appealing for information about the movements of the victim on the day she died and need to speak with any potential witnesses. This is the tragic and active investigation in to the murder of thirteen-year-old Lucy McHugh, in Southampton on the 25th or 26th of July 2018. Lucy was a smart, funny, friendly girl with a lot of friends. Her family love her with all their hearts. It was the start of the Summer Holiday season with Lucy’s school having broken for the Summer on Friday 20th July. Who can forget the delight at the start of the summer holidays and the summer of 2018 was a long and hot one. The promise of the summer with the cooling effect of the River Test and Southampton water would have made the prospects of the next six weeks of freedom seem especially exciting. On Wednesday 25th at some time around or shortly before 9.00am, Lucy left her home. That morning Lucy had dressed in a white vest-top, camouflage or DPM leggings, mid-grey Jordan 23s basketball boots and a varsity jacket in black and white with the logo of the band Falling in Reverse on the front and RADKE 01 on the back. A varsity jacket for those who aren’t familiar with the term, are those seen in the various high-school-dramas that endlessly pour forth from the USA. They’re the white armed jackets seen adorning the team jocks. The name on the back, Radke, refers to the lead-singer Ronnie Radke. Falling in reverse are generally accepted to be a post-hardcore rap-rock band that is a fusion of straight up heavy metal in the style of Kreator and quite aggressive and nihilistic rap-style lyrics and the rather stilted bouncy armed hand-waving performance of rappers. It’s no more than interesting and helps to understand who Lucy was. A normal, healthy and slightly rebellious teen with the usual interests of teenagers caught in the hinterland between childhood and adulthood. We have a fair idea of the route Lucy probably took from the CCTV that has since been gathered and analysed by Hampshire Police. The information relating to her movement from CCTV was released in order of discovery, so to keep the story as factual as possible and present the gaps in the known movements, I’m going to tell it as it happened, not as it was discovered.