Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 6

Christopher Wright Gets 35 Years as 2019 Diary Entry Led Police to Richard Dyson's Body

Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 6

Christopher Wright Gets 35 Years as 2019 Diary Entry Led Police to Richard Dyson's Body

Q: What specific mobile phone evidence suddenly cracked this gruesome six-year cold case in July 2025?

The breakthrough was a fresh review of Christopher Wright’s mobile phone records showing that, three days after Richard Dyson was last known to be alive, Wright called Ian Ollerenshaw, the owner of nearby Alderthwaite Farm, on 20 November 2019. That call mattered because it matched Ollerenshaw’s diary entry recording that Wright had asked to leave a livestock trailer at the farm for a few days. Police then went to Alderthwaite Farm in July 2025 and found the trailer still there. Inside was the concrete-filled blue barrel containing Dyson’s remains. Investigators also cited related phone evidence placing Wright’s handset in the Alderthwaite Farm area, reinforcing the prosecution case that he had taken the trailer there. That mobile phone link, combined with the farm owner’s diary note, effectively cracked the case open after nearly six years.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 6

A 2019 diary entry and remembered phone call cracked the case nearly six years after Richard Dyson vanished, leading detectives to an old cattle trailer where his remains were found in a concrete-filled barrel.
Sheffield Crown Court jailed Wright, 73, for 35 years for murder on Thursday and gave Karl Schwalbe, 72, three years for perverting the course of justice.
A post-mortem found Dyson, 55, had been shot with a shotgun, dismembered and hidden in the barrel; police also found Wright's ID card inside the trailer.
CCTV showed Dyson returning to Wright's Barnsley farm after 23:00 on 17 November 2019, and Schwalbe's car heading there minutes after Wright called him.
Prosecutors said limited forensics and missing murder weapon hampered the case, but detectives believed Wright killed Dyson over suspected theft and said the conviction brought long-delayed closure to Dyson's daughter.