STEPHANIE Hansen was one in every of life’s carers – so when she observed a colleague sitting alone every single day in the work lunch corridor, she felt sorry for him and began a dialog.
“She was a friend to everyone and anyone who knew her, loved her,” says her mum. Glenda.
The quiet, loner diner, Sheldon Rodrigues, was delighted to have met somebody to speak to in the canteen at Heathrow Airport, the place they each labored.
And when he later steered that, as an alternative of them each renting small homes in Hayes, West London, they share an even bigger one collectively, with a bed room every and a backyard, Stephanie agreed.
As a housemate, Rodrigues turned more and more possessive of her, eager to know the place she was and what she was doing every single day. Stephanie discovered it irritating however instructed her household and mates he was innocent.
But after she began a relationship with one other work colleague, Rodrigues turned insanely jealous and bombarded her each day with tons of of WhatsApp messages, declaring his love and warning her to steer clear of her boyfriend.
Unnervingly, even when Rodrigues was away, he knew when her boyfriend was visiting for, unbeknown to Stephanie, he heard each dialog through bugging devices planted in the house. He was even capable of hear in to them having sex.
In a rage, he returned house from his evening shift in the early hours of 30 December, 2022, after her boyfriend had left, and savagely beat and stabbed Stephanie, 39, to death in bed, the place she had been peacefully sleeping.
In the documentary, WhatsApp Obsession: The Murder of Stephanie Hansen, her household, in addition to investigative cops, discuss how Stephanie’s pleasant nature and Rodrigues’ infatuation for her was a recipe for homicide.
After Rodrigues dialled 999 to report having discovered his flatmate lifeless, the police arrived and had been horrified by what they noticed.
DCI Neil John, Metropolitan Police, remembers: “It was horrific. There had been 20 stab wounds and 39 blunt drive trauma accidents which had been all centred round her head, face and neck. Blood was in every single place.
“We didn’t find the knife that caused the stab wounds but there were blooded fingerprints on a hairdryer and a tower fan in her bedroom which had been used to strike her with.”
Rodrigues, 30, was fast accountable the homicide on Stephanie’s new boyfriend, Celso, a married father-of-three, who she had just lately begun courting, telling detectives: “Her boyfriend stayed here two nights ago, when I was at work, on my night shift. He was gone before I finished my shift.”
“When the police told me she had been found dead, I was totally confused,” says Glenda. “I couldn’t understand what happened or why.”
Stephanie’s brother, Scott, was equally mystified. “She didn’t hang around with violent people, drugs dealers or criminals,” he says. “There was no one we knew who would do something like this to her. Everyone she knew, loved her.”
In the bed room, police discovered an open packet of wound dressings that had been purchased from Boots the chemist. When they requested Rodrigues about it, he stated that on Christmas Day he had minimize his hand whereas carving the hen and confirmed them his palm, which he had patched up with the dressings.
It appeared doubtful, as did his narrative of constant to level the police to Stephanie’s boyfriend and they also arrested Rodrigues on suspicion of homicide.
The household had been startled after they had been instructed. “I remember years ago, Stephanie saying, ‘There’s this chap at work and he just sits in the lunch hall and he’s on his own,’” says Glenda. “She met him about 2015 and she or he simply felt sorry for him.
“I also remember that her phone would be pinging and pinging and I’d say, ‘Who on earth is that?’ And she would reply, ‘Oh, it’s just him. Ignore it.’ She looked after him and he obviously took a shine to her.”
While being held on the police station, the investigation revealed Rodrigues’ jealous obsession with Stephanie in a lengthy series of WhatsApp messages, declaring his timeless love.
She would repeatedly inform him to cease and that she wished them simply to be mates, however he continued to bombard her.
“There were in excess of 40,000 WhatsApp messages, going back to 2015,” says DS Brian Jones. “It was endless and it reads like a storyboard, ultimately.”
During his police interview, he instructed police that Stephanie’s boyfriend had threatened her and stated, “If I can’t have you, then I won’t let you be with anyone else.”
“The boyfriend was located and volunteered his DNA and fingerprints and gave us his mobile phone,” says Brian. “Everywhere he stated that he went on the day Stephanie was murdered, was the case. He was telling the reality.
“He mentioned that Sheldon was possessive and very jealous and that he had a thing for her.”
Celso added that after, when Rodrigues was on vacation in his house state of Goa, India, he had been on the home with Stephanie when she started to get a sequence of texts from him, outraged that she had a person there.
Stephanie had stated she thought he was spying on her.
A extra intense police search of the home turned up several spying devices. Some had been disguised as plug adaptors which, when linked to Rodrigues’s handset, would telephone him after they detected a noise, enabling him to listen to what was going on in the home.
In his work fleece in the hallway, they discovered a USB plug that had a spy digital camera in the tip of it.
Rodrigues instructed police he had purchased them for safety functions however he had by no means used them.
As his jealousy grew, so did the amount and depth of his textual content messages to Stephanie – “You’re playing with fire here,” “Whatever you’re up to I don’t want problems coming into the house,” “I’m not going to let it end like this,” “Nobody can come between us.”
But there have been additionally some exchanges that indicated they’d as soon as had one thing collectively. When Sheldon wrote, “Can we just do it 1 more time? That’s all I’m asking for,” she replied, “No, you just need to back off and be my friend.”
Her good friend, Lucy, confirmed that Stephanie had as soon as returned house drunk, from a piece Christmas outing and slept with him
“She said it was the worst mistake she had ever made,” says Lucy.
“I think that’s what pushed him over the edge,” says Scott. “He was attached to her from that moment on and, unfortunately, some men are like that.”
On 29 December, the evening earlier than she was murdered, Celso got here spherical at 8.30pm whereas Rodrigues was at work.
“The data on Rodrigues’ handset paints a very clear picture of what he’s been doing through his nightshift,” says Brian. “He’s successfully listening to their dialog, listening to them having sex.
He texted her, saying that he may come again for a smoke. He is aware of that Celso is there and that Stephanie goes to be panicked by that message. I believe it tipped him over the sting and he got here house after work in a rage.”
In constructing their case in opposition to Rodrigues, police discovered CCTV footage that confirmed him shopping for the wound dressing at Boots on 30 December at 5.12pm earlier than he returned house, ordered meals, and made the 999 name, the next morning.
CCTV footage in his office confirmed different essential proof of his lies the place he’s seen high-fiving a colleague, earlier that very same day, utilizing the hand that he stated he had minimize on Christmas Day. But right here, there may be clearly no harm to his hand.
Stephanie had been sporting only a pyjama high when she was discovered lifeless and on her legs had been small, round drops of blood that appeared like they’d fallen there from a top. They had been probably to belong to her attacker. The DNA proved to be that of Rodrigues’.
The blood on the fan and hair dryer was Stephanie’s however the fingerprints, Rodrigues’.
“A number of forensic swabs were taken from Stephanie for analysis and DNA belonging to Rodrigues, was found on her stomach,” says Neil. (*20*)
On 23 January, 2024, he was discovered responsible of homicide and obtained a minimal 25-year jail sentence.
“He kept his head down throughout his time in court and showed no emotion,” says Scott. “But we were delighted with the length of the sentence.”
All of the 1000’s of WhatsApp messages had been learn out in courtroom, displaying how his infatuation and desperation grew.
“They showed that he was completely obsessed with her,” says Glenda. “It was only at trial that I realised that she was being stalked. There was this coercive control that she didn’t realise he was doing, because she was in control of her life… until she wasn’t.”
WhatsApp Obsession: The Murder of Stephanie Hansen, airs on Tuesday on ITV1.
