Terry McSpadden

Terry McSpadden was last seen on the night of 1 March 2007 having spent the evening in The Locomotive pub in Wisbech.

He is known to have visited the local Tesco supermarket in Wisbech just before 1am on 2 March 2007 to get money from a cashpoint and buy a case of beer and is then believed to have gone back to the home he shared with another man, Fir Tree Cottage, on Outwell Road in Elm. It is thought that he then went to bed but he failed to show up for work the next day.

The other man was later charged with the murder of Terry McSpadden in 2012 but the case was dismissed in 2013 by a judge due to insufficient evidence.

An inquest into his death was held in 2016 and an open verdict was returned. It stated that in all probability Terry McSpadden was dead and was likely to have died on 2 March 2007.

At the inquest, the man who was charged with Terry McSpadden's murder admitted that he had been playing darts with Terry McSpadden on the night before he vanished but declined to say whether a statement he had made earlier was true or whether the signature on it was his, citing legal advice. Also, when asked by the Coroner to say what he knew of Terry McSpadden's disappearance he refused to answer, again citing the legal advice he had been given.

He had said that after going to the Tesco store that they had gone back to their house and that when he had woken up in the morning Terry McSpadden was gone and £400 was missing.

In his statement he had said that Terry McSpadden had left the house at about 7am taking most of his things with him. He had said that Terry McSpadden had told him that he had hit a girl and that he had encouraged him to go to the police.

It was also heard in court that Terry McSpadden had had an electronic tag fitted which had picked him up as being in the house at 8.43am. The company responsible for the tag, Serco, said that the tag had not been tampered with.

Terry McSpadden was said to have cycled everywhere and had a black mountain bike that he had repainted from pink and that after his disappearance it too had vanished.

A major search in the countryside around the area that he had lived was made but nothing was found.

In 2012 the garden at Fir Tree Cottage was dug up in a search for his body but nothing was found.

A friend of Terry McSpadden had said that two weeks before he vanished Terry McSpadden had said that he had woken up at his house wrapped up in clingfilm and thought that he had been drugged and that he had been upset about it saying that he had found it hard to breath. It was said that the man that was charged with Terry McSpadden's murder had cut Terry McSpadden free from the cling film cocoon.

At his inquest it was heard that Terry McSpadden had thought that whoever had been responsible for wrapping him up had been familiar with the dogs at the house as they had not barked.

The inquest also heard that a van matching the description of the van that the man accused of Terry McSpadden's murder was seen outside Wisbech police station in the early hours of 2 March 2007 but that they had not been able to confirm whether or not it was his.

The inquest also heard that Terry McSpadden's phone was used in the days following his disappearance although it was not known who had used it. One call had been made to a customer service line on the morning he went missing but it is not known what the call was about.

A policeman at the inquest said that there was no proof after 2 March 2007 that Terry McSpadden was still alive.

Terry McSpadden had two children.