Gareth Williams
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The death of UK spy Gareth Williams in 2010 has become one of the most high-profile unsolved mysteries in years after his naked body was discovered padlocked inside a duffel bag. Described as a genius mathematician who the intelligence service had recruited, Gareth's exact cause of death remains unknown and people can't agree whether he could have locked himself in there on his own or whether someone else was responsible.

There have been a number of theories over the years, including sex games gone wrong and Russian spies. But even today, there are still so many unanswered questions about his death. What happened to him, and how can forensic science help us find those answers? This is Forensic Tales, episode number 273, The Mysterious Death of Gareth Williams.

Thank you.

Our case this week takes us to the UK. As you probably know by now, I'm headed to CrimeCon UK this June 2025 to be a part of their content row. So it's been on my mind to cover a case from there. And from the moment I heard about this story, I knew I wanted to do it. If you're planning to join me at CrimeCon UK this June, be sure to use the promo code tails to save 10% off your ticket.

I hope to see and meet some of you there. I've been to CrimeCon here in the U.S. for the last couple of years, but this will be my first time going to this event and my first time participating as a content creator. So I'm really excited to hopefully meet some of you there in person. Before we dive deep into all the details of this story, I think this case comes down to one very important question. Was this murder or was it an accident?

There will be a lot of other questions along the way, like was someone else inside of his flat when he died? Was there a massive government cover-up? Did his death have anything to do with his work as a codebreaker? Are the Russians somehow involved? But the main question everyone's been trying to answer over the last two decades is this. Was this murder?

To be honest, this is a pretty long and complicated story. There's a lot of information out there, including a lot of different theories. So this episode might be a little bit longer than usual. And if you've never heard about this case, you probably already have so many questions just from hearing the intro. A British spy found naked and dead inside of a duffel bag? A story that has been widely referred to as Spy in the Bag Case.

I know, that's why I wanted to cover this one. But because it is a long and complicated story, I'm going to go through it a little differently than how I usually do, in hopes of making it as straightforward as possible.

The first thing we'll talk about are the specifics of the case, who Gareth Williams was, a little bit about his childhood, as well as his journey to becoming a junior analyst for GCHQ, and then eventually working for MI6.

how his body was found inside of that duffel bag in 2010, the subsequent investigation by the Secret Intelligence Service and the Metropolitan Police, the coroner's inquest in 2012, the Metropolitan Police's reinvestigation in 2013, the developments involving Russia in 2015, and the review of the forensic evidence in 2024.

After that, we'll talk about all of the forensic evidence, what there is and what there isn't in this case, and all of the different theories out there. Then, at the very end, I'll leave the question of murder up to you. You can come up with your own conclusions about what you think happened.

Also, I know many of my listeners come from the U.S., so I'll do my best to explain what all of the different agencies are and what the process looks like in the U.K. Again, I'll do my best with all of that since I'm from the U.S. as well. With all of that being said, let's start with who Gareth Williams was and his journey to the Secret Intelligence Service.

August 20th, 2010, an area of central London in the city of Westminster. The police were called to a top floor flat located at 36 Alderney Street to perform a welfare check on the person living there, 31-year-old Gareth Williams.

Originally from Wales and born to parents Ian and Ellen Williams with a younger sister named Carrie, Gareth can't be described as anything but brilliant. He might have also been shy and modest, but he was certainly smart.

For someone who would eventually be described as a genius, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Gareth really excelled in school as a kid, with his favorite subject being math. When he was just 16 years old and still in secondary school, he was already taking classes at the university, working part-time towards his math degree.

He eventually graduated with his degree in mathematics and moved to England so he could work on a PhD in computer science at the University of Manchester. That's where he got the attention of the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, an intelligence and security organization responsible for providing signals intelligence and information assurance to the government and armed forces of the UK.

The GCHQ felt so strongly about his potential, they agreed to sponsor him while he worked toward his postgraduate degree. He was just the kind of person that the GCHQ would look for.

But even the world's most brilliant people don't always succeed in everything that they do. In 2001, he failed an exam and decided to drop out of his program at St. Catherine's College in Cambridge. And instead of continuing his courses, he took a job as a cryptologist at the GCHQ. His job was to intercept radio and internet communications and attempt to break the code.

He worked at their headquarters and rented out a room. Outside of math and his job at the GCHQ, he was an avid cyclist who loved to compete in bike races and was a member of a few local cycling clubs. He was described as quiet, polite, reserved, and very private. He wasn't very social, so when he wasn't at work or he wasn't riding his bike, he was usually at home by himself.

After working for the GCHQ for about eight years, Gareth was sent on a three-year secondment to the Secret Intelligence Service, also referred to as MI6 or SIS.

For my U.S. listeners, MI6 is the Foreign Intelligence Service of the UK, tasked primarily with covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence on foreign nationals in support of its Five Eyes partners. It's one of the British intelligence agencies, and the chief of the secret intelligence service is directly accountable to the Foreign Secretary.

In other words, to have a job like this would be a pretty big deal. So in 2009, he moved to London and rented the top four flat of a townhouse on Alderney Street, the place where the police would eventually do the welfare check. It was also a place used to house some of the security services staff. The place should have been perfect for him. It was only about a half mile from the MI6 headquarters, and it was in a nice neighborhood.

But as we're about to talk about, Gareth didn't seem to be too happy there. For about the next 12 months, he worked for MI6 and lived in that building. But no one, not even his own family, really knew what he did for work. But that makes sense. Given the secret nature of his position, he never told anyone what exactly he was doing, and no one asked.

By the summer of 2010, he seemed to have changed his mind about working for MI6 and requested to get his job back at the GCHQ. He requested to end his assignment two years earlier than expected. Some reports say it was because he didn't like the culture at the MI6 like he had at the GCHQ. People at MI6 were much more social, while Gareth Williams wasn't.

He was the quiet type who liked to keep to himself. So he called his former landlord and asked if he could move back into the same building that he had lived for almost a decade. But before he could return to this job at the GCHQ, one of his final assignments for MI6 was to attend DEFCON in the U.S.,

an annual convention for hackers held in Las Vegas, Nevada each year. So in early August 2010, Gareth traveled to the U.S. and attended the conference. After that, he remained in Las Vegas for a few days on leave before returning to London on August 11th. And that's really where the mystery of this story begins.

He was scheduled to return to work at the MI6 building on Monday, August 16th, but he never showed up and he would never be seen alive again.

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$20 monthly promo credits applied over 36 months with a new line on unlimited welcome. In times of congestion, unlimited 5G and 4G LTE may be temporarily slower than other traffic. Domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Additional terms apply. One week later, on Monday, August 23rd, the GCHQ received a frantic phone call from his sister Carrie, saying she hadn't heard from her brother in several days. In fact, she hadn't heard from him since he returned to London 12 days earlier.

But Carey wasn't the only one. Apparently, no one at either MI6 or GCHQ had either. He hadn't shown up to work all week long. So later that day, one of Garrett's managers placed a phone call to the Metropolitan Police to see if they would perform a welfare check at his flat to make sure that everything was okay. It wasn't like him to miss an entire week of work without telling anyone.

Now, before moving on, I want you to remember those details. His sister Carrie hadn't heard from him in 12 days. He just got back from the United States. He missed a week of work and never called his supervisors, but no one at work reported him missing to the police until his sister called. It's a little surprising that the welfare check wasn't done earlier.

We know this was completely out of character. He wasn't the type to miss work. He was, by all accounts, a very dedicated employee. So why wouldn't any of his supervisors or co-workers say anything earlier? If it were me who went missing, I would hope that someone would call the police long before a week has passed. But that's what happened here.

So on Monday, August 23rd, two officers with the Metropolitan Police showed up at Garrett's flat, but they could have never imagined what they were about to walk into. That brings us to the duffel bag. The first thing the police officers noticed was how hot it was. Despite the already warm August temperatures, Garrett's flat was especially hot because someone had left the heater on full blast.

We'll be talking about this more once we get to the coroner's inquest. The second thing that was off, the smell. There was a strong odor coming from the main bathroom. It was the unmistakable smell of death that anyone would recognize a mile away if you ever smelt it.

The two Metropolitan Police officers walked around the flat, calling out Garrett's name, but no one answered. So they walked toward where the smell was coming from, the master bathroom. When they got there, the door was shut, lights were off, and the shower curtain was completely shut.

but when they pulled back the curtain, inside the small tub, there was a red vinyl 32 by 19 inch North Face sports bag padlocked shut from the outside. The padlock went through the bag's zipper, securing the bag completely shut.

The officers cut open the bag and inside was Gareth. He was completely naked, lying in the fetal position with the key to the padlock underneath one of his legs.

So that's the scene. The heater had been left on for days, the shower curtain was closed covering the bag, and Gareth was inside the locked bag, stark naked with the lights turned out. So at 4.48pm, the flat was officially declared a crime scene.

Now the autopsy. Based on the level of decomposition, the coroner estimated that he died about 7 to 10 days before he was found. So that means he was stuffed inside of that locked duffel bag inside the bathtub for a week, explaining why the flat smelled so bad.

The coroner's estimate on the time of death also lines up with his work and his sister's stories. Gareth had been absent all week from work, and none of his family members had heard from him since returning from the U.S. But determining his exact cause of death wasn't as easy.

Obviously, his death was suspicious. MI6 spy being found naked, dead, stuffed inside of a locked duffel bag, that automatically screams suspicious. But it wasn't immediately clear what happened to him. They just knew that he had been dead for several days at this point and showed major signs of decomposition.

The amount of time spent in the bag, plus the hot temperatures in the flat from the heater being turned on, rapidly caused his body to decay.

Early news reports falsely stated that Gareth had been stabbed and they labeled his death a homicide, but those reports simply weren't accurate. He didn't have any stab wounds, and besides a few minor abrasions to one of his elbows, he didn't have any injuries, and there was no drugs, no alcohol in his system.

There was nothing suspicious found at the autopsy, despite being locked inside of a gym bag. Later on, the authorities suspected those abrasions on his arm could have gotten there from him moving his arms inside of the bag during a possible attempt at getting out, but that can't be confirmed.

It wasn't initially clear who should handle the investigation, the Metropolitan Police or MI6. He's someone who worked for the Secret Intelligence Service, so he's not an ordinary citizen. And the facts of the case are simply bizarre.

However, after a meeting between these two agencies, it was decided that the Metropolitan Police's Counterterrorism Command, or SO-15, should be in charge. But it wasn't just a debate between these two agencies. After finding out about what happened, the U.S. State Department got involved, saying that no details of Garrett's work should be made public.

They got involved because Gareth had worked with the U.S. National Security Agency and FBI agents in the past. At one point, even the FBI conducted their own investigation into the case.

So it seems like his death wasn't just an issue for the UK. It captured our attention as well. Deciding what agency should lead the investigation was only the beginning. The next step was to figure out exactly what type of case this was. A homicide? Suicide? An accident? But the answer to that question isn't as straightforward as you might think. From the start, almost nothing about this case made any sense.

So now let's discuss the initial investigation by the SO-15 or the Metropolitan Police's Counterterrorism Command. I mentioned just a few moments ago that there were no injuries on his body and no signs that he had been involved in a struggle. He had no alcohol or drugs in his system, and there was nothing unusual about the autopsy, no obvious causes of death.

The flat itself was also fairly unremarkable. There were no signs of forced entry. The place was clean with no indication of a struggle. And while very little about his position with MI6 has been made public, his position was deemed to be low risk.

Another strange detail about the flat was that nothing appeared to have been stolen. Everything valuable was found sitting out in the open, including multiple cell phones and a laptop that was laid out neatly on a table in the living room. And although no data on his laptops or cell phones revealed anything suspicious, one of his iPhones had been reset to factory settings right before his death.

This happened at approximately 11.54 p.m. on August 15th. There was also a recent search on his laptop lasting around 90 minutes for a cycling club in the area at 1.03 a.m. on August 16th. So at this point, the Metropolitan Police considered his death, quote, "...suspicious and unexplained, but wouldn't elaborate on many details."

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$20 monthly promo credits applied over 36 months with a new line on unlimited welcome. In times of congestion, unlimited 5G and 4G LTE may be temporarily slower than other traffic. Domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. Additional terms apply. The authorities knew Gareth had recently traveled to the U.S. to attend that conference in Las Vegas. So they tried searching for any CCTV footage of him once he returned to the U.K. And here's what they uncovered.

CCTV showed him entering the Holland Park tube station at around 3 p.m. on August 14th.

He was also captured going into a department store in Knightsbridge and walking towards Sloan Street between 2 and 2.30 p.m. on the 15th. Then the last known CCTV footage of him was around 3 o'clock that afternoon, showing him walking down Alderney Street toward his flat carrying two bags.

After that, he's never seen again, and nothing about the footage explains anything. He's not doing anything strange, and no one appears to be following him. So here's the timeline so far. He was captured on camera walking back to his flat at around 3 o'clock on the 15th.

Assuming he made those internet searches on his laptop for that cycling club at 103 a.m. on August 16th, we know he's still alive at that point. We also don't know if he was the one who reset one of his iPhones to its factory settings, but let's assume that it was because that happened right before the internet searches. Then he never showed up to work like he was supposed to later that morning.

So whatever happened to him happened during this small window of time. There were no more internet searches on his laptop, no cell phone activity on any of his four known cell phones, no CCTV footage of him leaving, nothing until his body was discovered a week later, or at least not that we know of.

It would be about a month before Gareth's body was returned to his family so that he could have a proper burial and funeral, which was held on September 26, 2010. It was a mostly private service attended by family, close friends, and a few colleagues in the intelligence services. At the same time his family mourned their loss, the SO-15 were still busy searching for answers. But would they ever find them again?

This now brings us to December 2010. Four months after Gareth's death, the SO-15 released a lot more details about his personal life. And as we're about to find out, these details ignited a media circus. The first detail they released was that on one of his cell phones, they found several searches for bondage websites.

There weren't a lot of them suggesting that he was doing it all of the time, but there was enough evidence suggesting that he visited these types of bondage websites, quote, occasionally. He would usually spend about 30 minutes to an hour on them.

These were described as sites showing people bound and tied together, including do-it-yourself guides. But searching the web was all that he did. No bondage equipment was ever found in his flat, and he didn't have anything else suggestive like pornography. Now, here's something else interesting about his life that was released in December.

Inside Garrett's flat, the authorities recovered about 25,000 pounds of what has been described as high-end women's clothing.

These were items found inside of his closet that were organized into six different boxes. He had dozens of women's designer dresses, women's boots, shoes, wigs, makeup. None of these items were things that you would expect to find in a single man's closet. Plus, we're not talking about one, two, or even three of these types of items, but

We're talking about thousands of pounds of women's clothing. It was a large collection. So not surprisingly, this led many British newspapers to publish wild and salacious stories saying things like he liked to dress in women's clothing. He was a cross dresser. He was gay.

But these were all unfounded stories. There's simply no definitive evidence suggesting that he was a cross-dresser, gay, or anything else. In fact, there's probably more evidence suggesting the opposite. Almost all of the clothes and wigs still had the tags on them like they had never been worn before. There also might be several explanations as to why he had them in the first place.

We know that Gareth enrolled in two fashion design courses at Central St. Martin's College a couple of years before, so some of the items could have been related to those courses. The idea behind this explanation is that he just really enjoyed fashion trends and he kept them. Again, the tags hadn't been removed. When it came time for his family to weigh in on this, this is what his sister Carrie told the media.

She said that most of the clothing and shoes were much too small for her brother, and she thought he bought them for someone else, another woman. Although, there's no evidence suggesting he had a girlfriend at the time. But it's also worth mentioning here that receipts found inside of the flat showed that he had been purchasing these items over the course of about two years before his death.

The other story the British tabloids ran with was that Gareth was gay. This came after a witness told the police that he saw Gareth several times at a local gay bar. But it's unclear whether he was actually gay or not. Some reports I found say that he was. Some say that he wasn't.

The witness who said he saw them at these gay bars saw him doesn't remember seeing anyone with him, male or female. And you don't have to be gay to go to a gay bar. Now, those aren't the only explanations for the women's clothing. The police revealed that Gareth had visited a drag show in East London just four days before he died.

He also had tickets to attend two more upcoming drag shows. So it's possible the women's clothing had something to do with that. Well, whether he bought them for those college courses, the drag shows, or whatever else, this news only led to more and more public speculation and rumors that

It was already a very bizarre story, but now it's quickly become a media circus in the British newspapers. However, I want to mention here his family and friends completely refute all of these claims, pointing toward his reserved nature and his fascination with fashion design.

So as of now, we don't really know what the clothing or the wigs mean. When we get to the theory section, we'll talk about them again. Let's circle back to the bondage websites, because there was something else about his personal life revealed in December 2010.

According to Garrett's former landlady, she and her husband had once found him shouting for help with his hands tied to his bedpost in 2007. She was his landlady for almost 10 years, so she knew him pretty well. She said when they got inside of his flat, he was lying on the bed dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts.

After they cut him free from the ties, Gareth reportedly said that he had tied himself up like that just to see if he could get free. But the former landlady and her husband didn't seem to really believe that. They thought the situation had some type of sexual element behind it, rather than just Gareth saying that he wanted to see if he could break free, although that's not something that he directly admitted to.

Again, this will be something else that we talk about a little bit later on when we get down to the theories. During the early part of the investigation, the police put out an EFIT, or Electronic Facial Identification Technique, of two people that they needed help identifying. They were a man and a woman who appeared to be in their 20s or early 30s, who had supposedly visited Garrett's townhouse in the months before his death.

They were said to be of Mediterranean descent. So they released photos of this couple's in hopes of identifying them and finding out whether they had anything to do with his death or not.

But eventually, the couple was positively identified and they were deemed to have nothing to do with it. Another thing we'll talk about a little bit later on. Following the initial police investigation, not much happened. All the public knew was that the Metropolitan Police considered his death, quote, suspicious and unexplained. But other than that, no details were made public and no one knew his exact cause of death.

However, the police's silence didn't stop his family from wanting answers. They suspected their son had been murdered, and now his death was all part of a cover-up, even suggesting a fellow British spy could have done it. That now brings us to 2012, the coroner's inquest.

Garrett's family had long suspected that someone else was inside his flat when he died, and there was no way he could have gotten himself into that duffel bag all on his own. They also accused the police of possibly tampering with the forensic evidence. Don't worry, we'll get to that. So in 2012, a coroner's inquest was initiated, and this is what happened.

Once again, for my U.S. listeners, a coroner's inquest is a formal investigation into the circumstances of someone's death. It's the fact-finding process that determines someone's exact cause and manner of death. The coroner's inquest was led by Dr. Fiona Wilcox and lasted over a week with over 30 witnesses, and this is what she ruled.

She believes Gareth's death was, quote, unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.

She was also, quote, satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully, but it is unlikely authorities will ever unwind the exact circumstances of his death. Here's her explanation. Although Dr. Wilcox said that it remained, quote, a legitimate line of inquiry that the Secret Services may have been involved in his death,

She stopped short of suggesting that fellow spies killed him, emphasizing that there was no evidence that he had been murdered by one of his own. She did, however, criticize the police for how they handled the investigation. Dr. Wilcox criticized them for failing to report him missing for over seven days, saying,

which not only caused more anguish for his family, but also could have led to the loss of very important forensic evidence. If they reported him missing sooner, then maybe we would have more answers than we do. This was also why the family suspects that they might have tampered with evidence. If they had an entire week to go in and out of his flat, what could they have done with the evidence during that time?

This was a detail from earlier in the episode that I wanted you to remember. Garris' work didn't report him missing until his family called, even though they knew that he failed to show up to work. Coroner Wilcox was also highly critical of SO-15, who failed to inform the senior investigating officer before the inquest began of the existence of nine memory sticks that

found inside of Garrett's work locker inside the MI6 building. As of today, the contents of these memory sticks remains a mystery because they haven't been made public, so we can only speculate about their importance. Other criticisms were, number one, a DNA mix-up made by the police's forensics team.

DNA found on Garrett's hand turned out to be contaminated by one of the forensic scientists, so it was useless.

Second, the pursuit of leads leading nowhere. The police spent weeks tracking down that Mediterranean couple seen around Garrett's townhouse that we talked about earlier, but they had nothing to do with it. It was a complete waste of time and resources in an already difficult investigation. Number three, the MI6's delay in handing evidence over to Scotland Yard.

For example, Garris' GCHQ computer wasn't handed over until six days after his body was discovered and the MI6 one four days later. Finally, number four, the fact his co-workers who failed to report him missing never gave formal statements as part of the investigation.

why wouldn't his co-workers be interviewed as part of the initial investigation? So the inquest didn't say there was any solid proof that a fellow spy had murdered Gareth, but she said the possible involvement of SIS staff in the death was a legitimate line of inquiry for the police. Next part of Dr. Wilcox's verdict.

She believes someone else was inside Gareth's flat when he died, just like his family said. Although there's no direct evidence suggesting that he was in contact with someone right before he died, Dr. Wilcox believed that at the very least, a third party was present. She concluded that another party placed the bag containing Gareth into the bathtub and on the balance of probabilities, locked the bag. Next,

The coroner suspects that Gareth was likely alive when he was placed inside the bag, and that he probably died shortly afterward from CO2 poisoning. Even though his exact cause of death couldn't be determined, there were no signs that he had been smothered or asphyxiated. So the conclusion is that he had been overcome by hypercampnia, which causes elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

This could have happened within just a couple minutes of being inside the bag. But there's a debate about whether he was forced inside or whether he climbed in willingly. In either case, Detective Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police, Jackie Sieber, is quoted as saying she is, quote, "...satisfied that a third party may have been involved," end quote.

According to Coroner Wilcox, there was also inconclusive DNA fragments from two people found on the bag itself. Another thing, she says, is proof that he didn't climb in there alone. Evidence at the inquest suggested that it would have been virtually impossible for Gareth to have locked himself in that bag all on his own.

Two experts testified that it would have been very hard for him, who was 5'8", 130 pounds, to climb into the bag and then lock it from the inside out without any type of assistance. Together, these two escape artists tried over 400 times to do this themselves, but they were unsuccessful each and every time. These were people trained in the art of escape.

One of them was a man by the name of Peter Falding, an expert on confined spaces. He said this about his findings, quote, I couldn't say it's impossible, but I think even Houdini would have struggled with this one, end quote.

Also bizarre, all surfaces around the bathtub, including the walls and the sides of the basin, were all free of evidence. If Gareth had been carrying out some type of peculiar experiment, he wouldn't care if he left any foot or fingerprints, Dr. Wilcox said. The experiment refers to the theory, which the coroner rejected as part of her verdict,

That is, death stemmed from an interest in autoerotic activity, bondage, or cross-dressing, something that we'll talk about more in the theory section. Dr. Wilcox also rejected the theory of suicide.

To briefly go back to the women's clothing found inside of his home, there was a video found on one of his cell phones showing him dancing naked while covering himself with a pair of leather boots. But Dr. Wilcox believes that reflected his interest in fashion.

She specifically pointed to those two college courses he took on fashion, as well as his sister Carrie's testimony that he was a very generous gift giver. As for the wigs, she described them as, quote, far more consistent with dress up.

such as attendance at a manga conference. Earlier in the inquest, one of Gareth's friends explained that they had a shared interest in the Japanese genre of cartoons and comic books. Also to note, Gareth was found naked in the bag, not in women's clothing. And even if he did have some sort of sexual interest in women's clothing or shoes, Gareth

what did that have to do with actually what happened to him? To Dr. Wilcox, the various leaks about his personal life represented efforts, quote, by some third party to manipulate a section of the evidence, end quote. It was all a distraction. Next, the other evidence suggesting the presence of a third party.

According to the coroner, the biggest piece of evidence pointing toward a third party was the heat inside of the flat. When the police showed up, the heat was turned all the way up, even though it was summertime. This has led people to speculate whether someone had intentionally did that in order to intentionally speed up the decomposition, as well as destroy any possible forensic evidence.

Would the heat make it impossible to determine a specific cause of death? So that was the inquest verdict. The coroner found in a narrative verdict that Garrett's death was, quote, unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated.

She was, quote, satisfied that on the balance of probabilities that Gareth was killed unlawfully, end quote. But there was insufficient evidence to give a verdict of unlawful killing. Instead, she delivered an open verdict, likely cause of death, unlawfully killed by suffocation. However, the coroner's inquest isn't the end of the story.

Following this verdict, the Metropolitan Police launched its own investigation lasting over 12 months. This all-new investigation gave them unprecedented access to MI6 and its staff.

At the time, it seemed like we might finally get some answers. However, in December 2013, the Metropolitan Police announced that despite a re-examination of all of the evidence and the investigation of new leads, no definitive answers have been discovered about what happened or what caused his death.

They said, quote, the most likely scenario was that he died alone in his flat as a result of an accident by accidentally locking himself inside the bag, end quote. So according to the Metropolitan Police, this was all an accident, despite what the experts concluded at the inquest about this being next to impossible for him to do on his own.

Now insert Russia. In September and October 2005, a former KGB agent who eventually abandoned Russia and now lives in Britain claimed that Russia was responsible. Here's his claim. He says that the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, also known as the SVR, was responsible for what happened.

According to him, the SVR tried and failed to blackmail Gareth into becoming a double agent. In response to those attempts by the SVR, Gareth claimed that he knew, quote, the identity of a Russian spy inside of the GCHQ. This former KGB agent claims that this threat meant that, quote,

The CVR then had no alternative but to exterminate him to protect their agent inside GCHQ, end quote.

So essentially, Gareth was killed by the Russians because he threatened to expose their undercover agent working at the GCHQ, Gareth's former employer. When it comes to how he was killed by the Russians, this former KGB agent says that the SVR killed him by, quote, an untraceable poison introduced into his ear, end quote.

Is there any truth to this theory involving the Russians? We don't know. If he was correct and the Russians used this untraceable poison, then nothing would have shown up at the autopsy. And according to the coroner, no drugs, alcohol, or poisons were found in his system when he died. But was it possible for the poison to dissolve after being stuffed inside the bag for over a week in the heat?

Fast forward to 2023 and 2024. The Metropolitan Police did a forensic review of the case, but their findings weren't what his family had hoped for. Here's a direct quote from Neil Johnson, the senior investigating officer. Since 2010, the Met has carried out extensive inquiries into Garrett's death.

An independent forensic review began in January 2021, and we received the findings in November 2023.

No new DNA evidence was found and no further lines of inquiry were identified. We have informed Garrett's family of the outcome and our thoughts remain with them. End quote. The review in 2021 was prompted after scientists had previously been unable to obtain full DNA profiles from some of the samples found inside of his flat.

So the hope was that advances in DNA testing could be used to identify them. But according to the police, that new testing was unsuccessful. No new information was gained suggesting that a third party was present at the time that Gareth died.

It's now 2025, the time I'm sitting down to record this episode, and the case of the spy in the bag remains unsolved. What forensic evidence is out there, and will it ever be used to solve this mystery? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about what forensic evidence was found inside of the flat, and whether it supports the inquest findings or the police investigation that says this was an accident.

Garris' family has long said that crucial DNA was interfered with and that fingerprints left at the scene were removed as part of a cover-up. They also said the front doorknob to the flat had been removed and replaced by the police during the initial investigation, even though there weren't any signs of a break-in.

Starting from the beginning, there are many conflicting reports out there about the DNA evidence in this case and whether any DNA or fingerprints belonging to a third party were ever found. It's been reported that inconclusive DNA samples from at least two contributors were found on the duffel bag.

That's something we talked about when discussing the coroner's inquest. But besides that, there are conflicting reports of up to 15 traces of DNA spread throughout the flat. We also know about the unknown DNA profile found on his left hand, which later turned out to be contaminated.

L.G.C., the forensic company that tested the sample, later apologized to his family, saying that it was a massive mistake. But the biggest thing that sticks out to me, why weren't his fingerprints found on the shower or the bathtub?

Why was the bathroom virtually free and clean of all forensic evidence? That alone makes me wonder and makes me suspect that parts of the crime scene may have been wiped down. If Gareth got inside of that bathtub and that duffel bag willingly on his own, why was he so afraid of leaving behind his fingerprints? None of his fingerprints were found on the padlock either.

Also, when the police first showed up, the bathroom lights were out and the curtain was closed. So on top of manipulating his body in a way to get inside of the bag, he locked it, kept the keys inside with him, didn't leave a single fingerprint on the tub, closed the curtains, and turned the lights off. Not necessarily in that order.

Well, some reports suggest that Gareth kept his flat neat and clean. So maybe that explains the lack of fingerprints or DNA evidence. But maybe it doesn't.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said it was, quote, theoretically possible for Williams to lower himself into the bag without touching the rim of the bathtub, end quote. Also, the key. The key to the padlock was found locked inside of the bag underneath one of his legs. There also weren't any gloves found inside the bag, so he probably didn't wear any.

I'm not quite sure what to make of all of that. One piece of evidence that was retested in 2021 was a green towel found in his bathroom. But when the results came back, only his DNA was found on it, furthering the police's claim that this was an accident and there was no third-party involvement. There were also no signs of forced entry into the flat, something else that we talked about earlier.

However, according to his family, all of the forensic evidence was tampered with. Someone either cleaned up the crime scene when he was killed or someone went inside afterward. They also argued that critical forensic evidence was likely lost since MI6 didn't report him missing for over a week. Had they called the police sooner to perform that welfare check, maybe there would have still been evidence.

There was also the issue of the heater. What could the heat have done to any DNA or fingerprints? We know the heat played a role in the rate at which his body decomposed, making it even harder to determine what exactly happened to him. So when it comes to the forensic evidence in this case, it depends on who you ask. And that's just one of the many reasons this case is so mysterious and bizarre.

Gareth would have had to get himself into that tub all on his own, into that bag, lock it, without leaving behind a single fingerprint on the shower, bathtub, bag, or padlock. All for what?

I mentioned a moment ago that Garrett's doorknob had been removed and replaced by the police during the initial investigation in 2010, even though there were no signs of a break-in. This was also another item that was allegedly retested in 2023 using a technology called DNA-17, which examined 17 different areas of DNA. But again, a

According to the Metropolitan Police, this retesting didn't reveal any new evidence, so it's unclear whether or not anything was found on the doorknob. It's also unclear why it was removed in the first place. Again, if there weren't any signs of a break-in into his apartment, why would you remove his door?

Okay, finally, the theories. There is no shortage of theories when it comes to this case, so let's dive right in. The first theory takes us back to the women's clothing found in his closet. Even if he liked to occasionally dress in women's clothing, which we don't know if he did or not, I don't think that had anything to do with what happened.

So the theory is that he might have had to dress like a woman for his work for MI6. He basically worked undercover as a female. So that could explain why he had a wardrobe full of women's clothes, shoes, and wigs. But if that's true, why were the tags attached to most of them? If he had to dress undercover as a female, wouldn't he take the tags off before wearing them?

Theory number two, a sex game gone really, really wrong. While the coroner rejected this, some people believe that he may have been involved in auto erotic activity or bondage. So the theory goes he did this to achieve some type of sexual pleasure from it.

but somewhere along the way, things went wrong and he accidentally died. Those who believe this theory point to what his former landlady said about finding him tied to the bed a few years earlier. They may also point to the frequent visits to bondage websites.

Theory number three, MI6 cover-up. Some people suspect that MI6 was involved in his death and attempted to cover it up. That might explain why many of its staff weren't interviewed during the initial part of the investigation. They never reported him missing until his sister called and why there were no fingerprints or DNA found at the scene. It was all part of a cover-up.

His own family, Garrett's own family, said that it could have been a person, quote, specializing in the dark arts of the Secret Services, end quote. This was also a theory that coroner Fiona Wilcox seemed to hint at. Theory number four, involvement of other intelligence agencies.

Besides the MI6, there's been speculation that a hostile intelligence agency such as Russia may have been involved. We already talked about Russia with that former agent accusing them of poisoning him through his ear. Theory number five, hacking and blackmail.

A theory proposed during the inquest and subsequent investigations suggested that his death could have been linked to a possible act of hacking or blackmail. But that theory can't be ruled in or out because very little has been revealed about what exactly he did either for SIS or the GCHQ. Theory number six, escapology.

This is closely related to theory number two, the sex game gone really, really wrong. Those who like this theory suggest he did it because he wanted to see if he could get out of the bag. Maybe it was for a sexual purpose, but maybe it wasn't. It's possible he just really wanted to find out if he could do it. Again, remember what his former landlady said about that previous incident. He told her he just wanted to see if he could get out.

And that's just the beginning. There are probably so many other theories out there about what could have happened. If you've read anything about this case online, then you know there's no shortage of possible theories.

But as of today, they're just theories. The truth about Gareth Williams' death remains a mystery. But beyond the mysteries, this case also highlights the challenges of investigating possible crimes involving people working for government intelligence agencies. What information should be released to the public and what shouldn't as a matter of national security?

The rumors and speculation surrounding his life and death only serve as a stark reminder of the secret nature of intelligence work, but even more heartbreaking, the family. Just like you and me, they are left in the dark about what really happened to their son, their brother, and their friend. Now, the question I posed at the top of the episode, was this murder or was it an accident?

Was Gareth Williams killed by a fellow secret intelligence service agent? Or was a foreign intelligence agency to blame, maybe Russia? Was there a cover-up, and that's why virtually zero forensic evidence was found inside of his flat? Or does the lack of evidence suggest that he was alone and did this to himself?

Why was one of his cell phones reset to its factory settings just hours before he was scheduled to be at work? And did his internet searches for bondage and women's clothing have anything to do with his death?

Was it physically possible for him to get inside of that duffel bag all on his own, or did he have help from someone else? Could he have locked the bag from the inside out without leaving a single fingerprint behind on the duffel bag, or the bathtub, or the padlock? And if so, if Gareth Williams got inside of that bag completely on his own, stark naked, why?

What do you think the lack of forensic evidence surrounding this mysterious death means? To share your thoughts on this week's episode, follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode sharing my personal thoughts. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode.

We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review. You can also help support the show through Patreon. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

Thank you.

To learn more, please visit patreon.com slash forensic tales.

Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers.

If you'd like to become a producer of this show, head over to our Patreon page or send me an email at Courtney at ForensicTales.com. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

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