The Cutter

When Heather Barnett happily opened her front door to a caller one morning in November 2002, little did she know that she was about to come face to face with her killer. Tragically, her mutilated body was discovered by her son and daughter on their return home from school that day. The police quickly ascertained that the murder was premeditated and meticulously planned to the last macabre detail; the killer had not left a single DNA clue—even the bloody footprints made by a distinctive pair of trainers did not lead out of the house but ended in the front room, without further trace. As a bizarre and sickening calling card, the killer had placed a lock of someone else's hair in the victim's hand. Detectives were shocked by the savagery of the murder and baffled by the apparently sadistic ritualism of the killing. Many long months of enquiries followed and, eventually, a lead came from Interpol: the parents of a missing girl in Italy had been sent a lock of hair in the post. Could the two murders be linked and had the police just made the breakthrough they so desperately needed? In this in-depth and chilling book, acclaimed true crime writer Michael Litchfield investigates the full story of Danilo Restivo, the killer behind the murder of Heather Barnett.