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DOUBLE MURDER: Police shocked by attack
CALCULATING, ruthless David Mirfin was arrested by police at 3.10am on November 6 as he returned to his camper van parked on Emily Road, Nether Edge.
The gruesome scene had already been sealed off by officers who were alerted to the incident by a harrowing 999 call from Jane Wheatley at 10.30pm the night before.
They arrived to find Gary Gardiner's mutilated body in the blood-soaked kitchen, and Jane lying dead in the dining room.
As officers hammered at the door, next door neighbours reported having seen a man similar in build to David Mirfin climbing the blood-stained stairs hours earlier.
One PC called to the scene described seeing a light being switched off inside the house on Wath Road.
It later emerged Mirfin had turned the light off before going up to the attic, putting his bloodstained boots in his rucksack, and then fleeing the bloodbath through an attic window.
Dramatic collapse at court as victims' families weep
"Spare a thought" for their little boy
Detective Chief Inspector David Powell, from South Yorkshire Police's major incident team, who led the investigation, said Mirfin's conduct had shown him to be "a calculating, ruthless and manipulative individual who tried to portray himself as a victim".
"Jane and Gary had reached a point in their lives where both were seeking to move on, and appeared to have found a degree of happiness," he said.
"This was cruelly taken away from them by David Mirfin who was unable to contain or control his jealousy."
The court heard Mirfin changed and disposed of his blood-stained clothes before returning to Emily Road where his camper van was parked.
His mobile phone was found in a derelict property on Machon Bank, but his clothes and boots have never been found despite an extensive police search.
DCI Powell said: "We had a lot of experienced detectives working on the case and they were shocked and sickened at the level of violence inflicted by David Mirfin.''
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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