Suitcase killer 'could have staged perfect murder'

It was a gruesome double murder that shocked people across the nation.

Yostin Mosquera, who had made extreme sex videos with Albert Alfonso, killed Albert, 62, and his ex-partner Paul Longworth, 71, in London before dismembering their bodies, placing them in suitcases and travelling 115 miles (185km) to Bristol.

Police believe he intended to throw them off the Clifton Suspension Bridge after also stealing Albert's money.

On Monday, Mosquera was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of murdering both Albert and Paul in July last year.

Here we look at how events unfolded from the perspective of those closest to what happened.

Warning: This article contains details that some may find distressing, including violence and descriptions of a sexual nature.

"He could have committed almost the perfect murder," Det Insp Neil Meade says.

"He didn't need to dismember them, he didn't need to take them to Bristol.

"But he did what he did."

It was Wednesday 10 July and England had just qualified for the European Championship final with a last-minute goal.

The Mall in Bristol's upmarket Clifton village was showing the game and as the final whistle blew, the pub started to empty.

It was a warm night and people were milling around outside.

"Those cops on the bridge that night... not in a million years did they expect to see what they found," Det Insp Meade, senior investigating officer for Avon and Somerset Police's major crime team, said.

Mosquera travelled to a holiday resort in Colombia to meet Albert and Paul, a few years after he first started messaging Albert about explicit videos online

Roughly an hour earlier, Roger Malone and his son Giles were outside The Mall watching on as a man struggled across the road with two large suitcases.

"There was some activity going on with a tall man in black clothing and a hat covering his face," 92-year-old Roger said.

"Obviously this case was very heavy, this powerful guy was struggling with it."

The man was Yostin Mosquera, a Colombian who unbeknown to Roger and Giles had killed Albert and Paul in their London home two days earlier, and dismembered their bodies.

They were the only other people who lived at the address, with "nobody else" due to come home and find them.

Mosquera could have flown back to Colombia, from where extradition would have been difficult.

But instead he placed their heads in a chest freezer and their torsos in the red and silver suitcases he was dragging along the Clifton pavement.

He had hired a red van which had taken him from Shepherd's Bush to Clifton.

Seeing Mosquera struggle Giles joked: "What have you got in there? A body?"

"Of course there was a deathly hush," Roger said.

"The guy didn't reply."

Roger and Giles say they briefly spoke to Mosquera over a mix up with their taxis. Mosquera was then driven to the Clifton Suspension Bridge - just 0.2 miles (321metres) down the road.

The distance was so short, the taxi driver says he questioned whether it was really worth the fare.

The prominent landmark is well-lit with CCTV all over it, and when the taxi driver dropped Mosquera off, something red was leaking from one of the suitcases.

Mosquera, who is now 35 years old, said the liquid was oil, wiped it away and walked onto the bridge.

Mosquera told bridge staff the suitcases contained spare car parts

CCTV showed him peering over the side into the Avon Gorge below, before being challenged by bridge staff and a cyclist.

That cyclist was Doug Cunningham, who is a Spanish speaker. A statement from him read to the court said: "He [Mosquera] said he was from Columbia and he was trying to find a hotel.

"I asked him if the bridge staff could open the suitcase and he said 'no'."

But when a torch light revealed more of the red liquid, Mosquera broke into a run.

He was chased by Mr Cunningham, who filmed his escape as he ran down Burwalls Road into the night.

Bridge staff quickly called police to the scene, but they were not prepared for what came next.

"Opening those suitcases had a massive impact on those people," Det Insp Meade said.

Officers discovered not one, but two torsos - dismembered and decapitated.

As Bristol woke up the following morning to news of the horrific discovery, Det Insp Meade was already investigating who the victims and suspect were, and how and why the suitcases were on the bridge.

"My reaction was 'this is big'," he said.

"At the time we knew that we had bodies that had been cut up. That's really rare – that's really rare in Avon and Somerset, that's really rare nationally."

On one of the suitcases, police discovered a luggage tag with an address that would lead them to Shepherd's Bush in London.

The address was that of Albert and Paul, and when Met Police officers got there they found blood in every room.

There was also a bloodstained hammer in the hallway and - blocking the door to the bathroom - a chest freezer. Inside it were the men's heads.

Police found Albert and Paul's heads in a chest freezer during a search of their flat

Also found at the house were video recordings of numerous extreme sex sessions involving Mosquera and Albert.

One of them also showed Mosquera stabbing Albert to death - all caught in graphic detail by four different cameras.

Det Ch Insp Ollie Stride, from the Metropolitan Police, said: "I remember I was sat in my office when one of the officers came in... he was white as a sheet.

"At that point it became quite obvious that it was going to be quite a traumatic thing to watch... it absolutely proved to be one of the most harrowing videos I've watched in my career.

"One moment they're engaging in sexual activity together and the next moment Yostin is stabbing him and murdering him right in front of our eyes."

He added that Mosquera looked as if he was "revelling" and "celebrating" Albert's murder within seconds.

"He's dropped Albert on the floor and the next thing he does is dance and sing."

Mosquera paid the driver of a van to take him from London to Bristol with the suitcases

Officers meticulously worked through what had happened in London, while back in Bristol police were tipped off to a "dusty red van" that had dropped off a male with two suitcases in Clifton the night before.

"This is just what I needed, it gave me somewhere to go," Det Insp Meade said.

"If it had been a white van, I think we'd have been a long way away from finding it early."

Police "quite quickly" located the van on the M32 about to turn onto the M4 back to London. It was tracked back to the capital and after police spoke to the driver they had Mosquera's phone number.

They were able to tell the phone had been live in Bristol until the early hours of Thursday 11 July, when it was turned off.

Det Insp Meade said Mosquera could have staged "the perfect murder"

Helicopter, drones, dog units and as many staff as possible were all deployed in a massive manhunt across the city.

Warnings went out to the country's airports and ferry ports, but the "trail had gone cold", Det Insp Meade said.

Then, after two days of being at large, Mosquera's phone was switched back on shortly after midnight on Friday 12 July, into Saturday morning.

By this point, the Met Police in London were leading the investigation and rang Det Insp Meade asking for a surveillance team.

They tracked Mosquera moving in the Hotwells area of Bristol, with CCTV showing him walk past a takeaway pizza place wearing just one shoe.

"Our man that's been on the telly and on news bulletins all around the country for the last 48 hours by that stage, almost walks through the centre of Bristol with one shoe on," Det Insp Meade said.

He added that police did not know where Mosquera was going, but "second-guessed" he was heading to a transport hub, to find a way back to London.

Two hours later, officers found him on a bench outside Bristol Temple Meads train station and arrested him on suspicion of murder.

"I'd be lying if I said there's not adrenaline flowing when you know his phone is moving again and it's in Bristol, and any minute now he's going to be arrested," Det Insp Meade said.

While being questioned, Mosquera made no comment to all questions about the murders of Albert and Paul.

At trial, the prosecution told the court that Mosquera's motivation for the murders appeared to be money.

Police found he had accessed Albert's banking details, searched how much the London property was worth and immediately after killing Albert had withdrawn hundreds of pounds from his bank account.

But Mosquera insisted he was a victim too, accusing Albert of degrading and raping him - adding that Albert had threatened his family in Colombia.

He claimed he was trapped and desperately wanted to go home, but Albert had changed his flights and he did not have the money for another ticket.

He said Albert had killed Paul and he thought he was next. He said that was when he lost self-control and attacked and killed Albert.

Ultimately though - the jury at Woolwich Crown Court found him guilty of the double murder. He will be sentenced on Friday 24 October.

The judge, Mr Justice Bennathan KC, said: "I am not going to pass sentence on you today although the only one I can pass on you is one of life imprisonment."

Det Ch Insp Stride said the video of Albert's murder was "the most harrowing videos I've watched in my career"

For the two leading detectives on the case, they admit to remaining puzzled by many unanswered questions - including why Mosquera took the bodies to Bristol.

"[It's] one of the things never been able to get to the bottom of," Det Ch Insp Stride said.

Det Insp Meade also asks why Mosquera "exposed himself" to being caught, when he could have just booked himself a plane ticket back to Colombia.

"I am confident that we would have identified pretty quickly who our suspect was, but then you've got a suspect that's in Colombia which would take years to get him extradited back to the UK - if ever.

"He could have committed those murders and got away with it."

Additional reporting by Fiona Lamdin, Adam Crowther and Beth Cruse.