True crime must-watch: Two Sisters: Missing, Murdered, Betrayed
It is no secret that Netflix now has a huge empire of true crime documentaries. Less known are the titles from SkyShowtime, and those should definitely be on your watchlist. At the top is one of their latest acquisitions: ‘Two Sisters: Missing, Murdered, Betrayed’. This docuseries dives into the murder of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in London. The case itself was already tragic, but the failure of the police only made it worse.
The mysterious disappearance of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman
On June 5, 2020, Bibaa Henry organizes a picnic for her birthday in Fryent Country Park in London together with her sister Nicole Smallman. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this was the only way they could celebrate something. After all their friends leave that evening, the sisters stay a little longer to be together and dance. Around one o'clock, Nicole lets her boyfriend Adam know that she will be home soon, but after that, he hears nothing more. No matter how often he texts or calls, there is no response. Adam panics and together with two of Nicole's friends, he decides to call the police. Something is not right here.
The police abandon the family
After the friends reported the sisters missing, it goes quiet again. The police do not take action. Meanwhile, the family begs the officers to check Bibaa's apartment, hoping to find the women there. It ultimately takes more than a day, dozens of phone calls, and a promise that the family would compensate the damage of the break-in, before the police finally come to take a look. But when Bibaa and Nicole are not found there, the search from the officers goes quiet again.
This is how Bibaa and Nicole were finally found
Now that the sisters are not in the apartment, the family fears that they are still in the park, and that something has happened to them. Despite multiple requests, the police do not start an investigation at the picnic site; and that leads to enormous frustration. In desperation, Adam decides to go look for them himself with his parents. It doesn't take long before he finds the bodies of Bibaa and Nicole in the bushes, 36 hours after the last contact. The sisters appear to have been stabbed and left in the park. A traumatic discovery, and only now does the police seem to wake up.
How the police found the suspect in the murder of Bibaa and Nicole
The officers leading the investigation were determined to give the family answers quickly. Especially because their colleagues had made so many mistakes earlier. After a few weeks, the police, thanks to CCTV footage and DNA research, identify a clear suspect: 18-year-old Danyal Hussein. After his arrest, a blood-stained letter is found in his bedroom in which he promised to sacrifice six women every six months. It was a pact he made with one of the demons he believed in. In return, he would win a jackpot of 321 million pounds. Hussein followed various radical conspiracy theories and had previously been treated for this. Because he was not yet 21, he could not receive a life sentence. Hussein was therefore sentenced to a minimum of 35 years, after which he can only be released if he no longer poses a danger.
Officers exacerbated the trauma for the family
Even when the investigation was already in full swing, there were a number of officers who further exacerbated the trauma for the family. Officers Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis were tasked with guarding the site where Bibaa and Nicole's bodies lay. There, they decided to leave their post to take photos of the two women. They then shared these in various WhatsApp groups, boasting about it to colleagues. A huge blow for the family. It also turned out not to be the first time the officers had displayed such misconduct. Both were fired and later sentenced to 33 months in prison.
Bibaa and Nicole's family continues to fight
After the convictions of Hussein and the two officers, the case was closed for the family. But that did not mean their fight for justice stopped. Mina Smallman, the mother of Bibaa and Nicole, wrote the book ‘A Better Tomorrow: Life Lessons in Hope and Strength’. In it, she described how devastating the case had been for all the survivors. It is also an investigation into the misconduct within the police and crime reporting, and into institutional racism and misogyny. It was this fight that kept Mina going. “I couldn't bring them back, but I could get justice for them. And then for all women and girls everywhere, especially women and girls of color.” Mina fully immersed herself in her activism, hoping to change something and spare other families this suffering; because this must never happen again. ‘Two Sisters: Missing, Murdered, Betrayed’ is now available on SkyShowtime.
