When human remains were found by a passer-by in Salford’s Kersal Wetlands. Unbeknown at the time, what would follow would be one of the most unprecedented investigations conducted by Greater Manchester Police in recent times.
Detectives would uncover what had happened, to identify this person, and to ultimately find the killer.
Today at the conclusion of a three week trial 42 year old Marcin Majerkiewicz has been going guilty of the murder of Stuart Everett whose body parts were found scattered around the region in April last year-
He will be sentenced on 28th March
In days that followed the discovery of human remains, Kersal Dale was swarmed with police officers, police staff, crime scene investigators and experts, including a forensic pathologist. The location was declared as a search scene for 12 days. 
Whilst searches were ongoing at Kersal Dale, behind the scenes, the Police’s Visual Evidence Retrieval and Analysis Unit (VERA) were tasked with searching CCTV from around the Kersal Dale area in the days prior to the body part being located.
They were looking for someone who was on foot, carrying something heavy into Kersal Dale.
The team found exactly that on Thursday 18 April 2024. They found CCTV footage showing what detectives labelled at the time as unknown ‘heavy bag man’ struggling to carry a bag for life down Bury New Road in Prestwich.
On the footage, he was visibly struggling and seen passing the bag between his hands and taking time to rest. The weight of the human remains later proven to be from this bag weighed approximately 18kg.
After extensive work to track this person’s journeys, on the morning of Thursday 25 April, VERA were out several miles away in the Winton area, looking to collect more CCTV, in attempts to secure further footage of ‘heavy bag man’ in order to identify him. Two VERA investigators were driving along Eccles Old Road when they spotted someone who they believed to be unidentified ‘heavy bag man’ and decided to follow him as he boarded a bus.
After calling for uniformed backup, officers from our Specialist Operations branch successfully stopped the bus, and Marcin Majerkiewicz was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Enquiries quickly established that his housemate, Stuart Everett, had not been seen for a number of weeks. Following forensic DNA testing, Stuart was declared the victim of this heinous crime.
Stuart’s family, who are not local to Greater Manchester, had not reported him as a missing person. This is because Majerkiewicz had assumed Stuart’s identity for approximately three weeks since the murder. He was sending Stuart’s family WhatsApp messages and even birthday cards and gifts. Stuart’s family were misled to believe that he was still alive.
Marcin Majerkiewicz and Stuart Everett’s home on Worsley Road in Winton was secured for forensic examination. From first glance, no obvious crime scene was present and this appeared like an ordinary house, on an ordinary road. The house had been partially emptied and a skip was present on the driveway.
However, during a comprehensive forensic examination by specialist Crime Scene Investigators, the carpet was peeled back in Marcin Majerkiewicz bedroom to reveal blood staining through the underlay and into the floorboards, in addition to tool marks and extensive evidence of a clean-up taking place
Detectives found that Majerkiewicz had used a professional rug cleaner in attempts to clean the blood-soaked carpet, but he was unable to clean one part of the carpet thoroughly enough. To cover this up, he cut a piece of carpet from Stuart’s room before covering the obvious cut out with the bed. The nails used to secure the replacement carpet over the bloodstains contained the suspect Marcin Majerkiewicz DNA, proving he was responsible for concealing the crime scene.
Through scrutinising Majerkiewicz’s call history, detectives uncovered that he called a “white van man” for help in removing furniture from the property and a sofa bed and a fridge freezer were taken to a lock up in Bury. Through examination of Majerkiewicz’s mobile phone, the sofa bed was successfully attributed to his bedroom. Following forensic DNA testing and examinations under UV light, Stuart’s blood was found on the sofa bed, which is believed to be where his life was taken. The fridge freezer also contained Stuart’s DNA.
During Majerkiewicz’s interview, he provided minimal information to detectives. Through remarkable investigative work that followed, including CCTV and mobile phone analysis, detectives were able to identify multiple remote locations across Salford and Manchester that Majerkiewicz’s visited to deposit further human remains. These journeys were to secluded areas, waterways and country parks.
Through extensive searches of land and water, across 19 areas, detectives were able to locate Stuart’s remains or DNA at six locations, and found evidence at many more. A total of 19 crime scenes and land searches took place as a result. Each scene was unique and presented its own complexities, this required specialist tactics, skills, and resources from across the force to successfully preserve, examine and recover any evidence.
Local uniformed officers dedicated hundreds of hours to protect the integrity of the scene and support the community. Our Tactical Aid Unit, North West Underwater Search Unit and Police Search Advisors (POLSAs) expertly and strategically searched the area. Crime Scene Investigators were brought in to recover and capture any evidence, in order for detectives thoroughly investigate what was found and piece together the clues in this complex case.
A scene was secured at Blackleach Reservoir on 27 April 2024 as mobile phone analysis confirmed Majerkiewicz had been stood at all four corners of the reservoir. Detectives requested support from the Northwest Underwater Search Team to scour for evidence. A hacksaw was recovered from deep within the water which had the victims blood present on the blade. Remarkably, in one of the most extraordinary findings, the victim’s skull was located in four separate pieces in different areas of the large reservoir.
Through comprehensive examination, officers working alongside a forensic pathologist, were able to reconstruct the skull and prove Stuart was murdered by multiple blunt force trauma injuries to the head. The suspect had then cut the skull into four pieces which was discarded at the reservoir in attempts to mask this important fact.
Human remains and evidence were successfully recovered from 15 of the 19 search areas and crime scenes in this investigation, over a four-month period. Officers recovered approximately 30% of Stuart Everett’s body, but tragically, most of his remains will never be recovered.
In total, the investigation comprised of 2000 hours of CCTV footage, 3000 exhibits and over 450 witness statements taken in order to build a strong case for trial.
