A horrific case of murder has come to light from Britain where a 28-year-old man named Nicholas Metson stabbed his 26-year-old wife Holly Bramley to death. Metson then chopped her body into 224 pieces and stored them in his kitchen for a week before dumping them in a river with the help of his 28-year-old friend Joshua Hancock. He is scheduled to be sentenced on 8th April after he admitted to killing her. Holly Bramley’s remains were found on 25th March last year in the Witham river at Bassingham, Lincolnshire, eight days following a missing person report.
Following the murder, Nicholas Metson paid his friend Joshua Hancock to get rid of his wife’s remains after they were hidden in their apartment for almost a week, according to testimony given at Lincoln Crown Court. Judge Simon Hirst, who was presiding over the sentencing hearing on 5th April, was informed that the culprit never provided an explanation for the manner and motive behind the crime.
The mother and siblings of Holly Bramley presented victim impact statements in court, stating that she had been subjected to “coercive control and manipulation” by the “evil monster” and that their marriage had “broken down irretrievably.” The court heard that although the couple had tied the knot in 2021, they were about to call it quits when he killed her.
The perpetrator also had a history of abusing animals. He had previously punished his wife by brutally killing their pets, as the court heard. According to a source, he once left his spouse’s new puppy in the washing machine, where she later found it dead with the drum still turning. During other instances, the victim disclosed that Nicholas Metson murdered her hamsters by placing them in the microwave and food processor. She had also once run away from him and took her pet bunnies to a police station.
According to the source, Holly “never explained why he had done it” and they believed he had “controlled and manipulated” the victim. The source added, “She told us she loved him, but the first time I met him I took an instant dislike to him. There was just something about him.”
Nicholas Metson also searched, “What benefits do I get if my wife has died”, and “Can someone haunt me after they die,” on the internet. Incidentally, he was earlier given a referral order in 2013 due to a domestic abuse incident involving a former partner. He also received a community order in 2016 for three offences involving the disclosure of sexual pictures with a different ex-partner. He acknowledged breaking a restraining order pertaining to the same victim a year later.
The murder and disposal of the body
On 24th March, Lincolnshire Police received a call expressing concern for the victim’s safety. When the police visited the residence the next day, it smelled strongly of bleach and there were bloodstained sheets in the bathroom and a saw on the kitchen floor which was later moved to a cupboard. Nicholas Metson told ‘a load of lies’, alleging he had no idea where his wife was and that she left five days before with females from a local mental health support organisation. At one point he even joked that “she might be hiding under the bed.”
Nicholas Metson was arrested on suspicion of murder of his wife. Moreover, two knives, a claw hammer, and garden pruners were found on the premises. On 25th March, at 6 o’clock in the evening, a local in Bassingham observed several plastic bags in the river Witham, and found a hand inside one of them.
From the bags, police divers discovered 224 pieces of the body, including her shaven head. The Home Office Pathologist spent more than thirteen hours going over everything, but because of the severe dismemberment, the pathologist was unable to determine the precise cause of death.
She was most likely killed in her bedroom by Nicholas Metson who then dissected her body in the bathtub, put her body in the kitchen pantry, and packaged her remains. He then asked his school friend Joshua Hancock early that morning to assist him in removing the body.
Nicholas Metson started dating the victim in 2016. He didn’t even allow her to see her family for years before the murder. A month ago, he entered a guilty plea to murder. He had already acknowledged plotting to dispose of the victim’s body on 25th March in order to sabotage the legal process. Joshua Hancock of Waddington, Lincolnshire entered a guilty plea to hindering a coroner’s performance of his official duties by assisting with the disposal of the remains.
