Police find body in bag at MI6 man's London flat

[Jan Klimkowski]

Whatever became of the investigation that was to take place?~!

Excellent question - especially in the rhetorical sense.

We can make an informed judgement as to why the investigation has disappeared from view.

The four kites floated by British intelligence (see my post #126 above) are all patently ridiculous cover stories.

The most likely remaining hypothesis which fits nearly all the known facts - that this was premeditated Blue on Blue - is not suitable for Scotland Yard investigation.

[Danny Jarman]

MI6 death: Gareth Williams inquest examines locked bag

An inquest into the death of an MI6 officer is to examine whether the spy was able to lock himself into a sports bag in which his body was found.

Gareth Williams, 31, originally from Anglesey, was found in a padlocked bag at his London flat in August 2010.

Whether he locked the bag from inside is at the "heart" of the case, Westminster Coroner's Court heard.

Two experts agree it would be difficult if not impossible for him to lock the bag, a pre-inquest hearing was told.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox told the hearing she would like a practical demonstration in court of how a person could get into a sports bag and lock it up from inside.

Family lawyer, Anthony O'Toole, told the court that a post-mortem examination was ineffective because the body was so decomposed.

Dr Wilcox also said that a Mediterranean couple sought by police over Mr Williams's death was a "red herring".

The inquest will hear from Mr Williams's colleagues from MI6 and the GCHQ, toxicology experts and bag expert as well as a statement from his sister.

[Keith Millea]

An inquest into the death of an MI6 officer is to examine whether the spy was able to lock himself into a sports bag in which his body was found.

Gareth Williams, 31, originally from Anglesey, was found in a padlocked bag at his London flat in August 2010.

Whether he locked the bag from inside is at the "heart" of the case, Westminster Coroner's Court heard.

Holy Moly,this reads like a very very bad joke.

[Albert Doyle]

Smells like an honest agent got too close to the money funding by which the real powers that be fund themselves.


See: Daniel Morgan murder.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Now we have some Mickey Mouse story about DNA muddles.

MSM will go with Cockup - oh well mistakes happen - rather than a more sinister interpretation.

The Williams family and friends are increasingly favouring the latter.

Anyone following this thread knows the official story has always been a pathetic farce. This claim of scientific incompetence is a means of enabling the authorities to make that farcical case without having to present meaningful evidence.

Scientists apologise to family of MI6 spy Gareth Williams for DNA error

'Typographical error' meant police working on mysterious death of GCHQ worker found in sports bag chased phantom suspect


guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 March 2012 14.38 BST


Forensic scientists have apologised to the family of the GCHQ codebreaker Gareth Williams, whose body was found inside a holdall in the bath of his London flat, after it emerged a DNA error had dashed a key line of inquiry into his death.

LGC said one of its staff members made a "typographical error" while inputting code, leading Scotland Yard to spend more than a year trying to trace a non-existent suspect. It was confirmed last month, when LGC carried out a review, that the partial DNA profile belonged to a scientist involved in the case.

"Having made further checks, LGC identified the partial profile as matching that of a Metropolitan police scientist who was involved in the original investigation of Mr Williams' home," a LGC spokeswoman said.

"The Metropolitan police service was immediately notified. We are sorry for any pain this error may have caused Mr Williams' family."

LGC, which provided key evidence in the Stephen Lawrence case, said it had carried out a review of all other profiles which had been checked using the same system over the last four years. "No other errors have been found and we have introduced an additional check into our system to prevent any recurrence of the error," the spokeswoman added.

The naked and decomposing body of Williams was found inside a padlocked sports bag at his Pimlico home in August 2010. The 31-year-old cryptology expert worked for the UK's secret eavesdropping service GCHQ and was attached to MI6, the overseas spy agency, at the time of his death.

Williams' family believe the intelligence agencies may have interfered with evidence that could explain his puzzling death, a coroner's hearing heard on Friday.

Anthony O'Toole, for the Williams family, said an "unknown third party" may have tampered with the scene where Williams was found, or interfered with other evidence that could help explain how he died.

"The impression of the family is that the unknown third party was a member of some agency specialising in the dark arts of the secret services, or evidence has been removed post-mortem by experts in the dark arts," O'Toole told the London hearing being held to prepare for a full inquest scheduled next month.

He said the family believed there must be a connection between Williams' death and his occupation. "In our submission, to properly explore the circumstances of the death, we need to establish the deceased's work," O'Toole told the hearing.

Police have made no arrests in the case and are still not certain how exactly Williams died. Toxicology tests confirmed there were no traces of known drugs or poisons in his system.

Coroner Fiona Wilcox told the hearing that one of the few lines of inquiry in the case an attempt to trace a Mediterranean couple seen at the apartment block where Williams lived in the months before his death had proven to be irrelevant.

Wilcox said that a full inquest hearing would likely require a live recreation of how Williams could possibly have climbed inside the sports bag and locked it from the inside. The issue of whether or not Williams was alive inside the bag and locked it himself "was at the very heart of this inquiry," she said.

Police legal councel Vincent Williams said that experts agreed locking the bag from the inside "would have been very difficult, if not impossible", raising questions over whether a second person was involved in the spy's death.

[Peter Lemkin]

Taking their merry old time getting around to this 'investigation'....which I'm sure will be not let in on the real evidence or information....this is a secret to be kept under the covers [or inside the North Face Bag, in this case]. Sadly. Likely just a brilliant maths guy who stumbled upon the wrong information.....and had to be eliminated. By whom, and why, is not known - and may not be for a very long time. I think this will go the same route as the Kelly inquests....in circles and then nowhere. I hope I'm wrong. I doubt it. The very fact they are telling the 'public' that there is even some possibility he locked himself in the bag is a joke...just how stupid do they thing the public is....I guess they think very stupid.

[Jan Klimkowski]

In an otherwise tedious Daily Mail rehash of the case, I note the following:

The inquest also heard that a Mediterranean couple who called at Mr Williams's block had nothing to do with the case. Detectives released e-fits of the couple and have now traced them. They were looking for a friend's house.

:mexican:

As discussed earlier in this thread and here, the "mysterious Mediterranean couple" caught on CCTV "visiting" the highly secure MI6 safehouse where Williams lived may well have been the "mysterious Mediterranean couple" that Williams discreetly "met" in the west London patisserie.

Given that it is accepted that Williams was operationally active for MI6 at the time of his death, the patisserie visits are suggestive of either:

i) a prearranged meeting or drop with handlers;

ii) whistleblowing.

The official police version is that the "mysterious Mediterranean couple" were random friend hunting foreigners caught on CCTV at an MI6 safehouse.

Perhaps Scotland Yard's finest should have been more curious.....

I wonder if they also claim to have identified the "mysterious Mediterranean couple" in the patisserie. I shan't be holding my breath...

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Daily Mail has some far more intriguing information today about a woman with several identities - Missa Gunther, Misa Guseiri and Elizabeth Guthrie - with whom Gareth Williams was considering leaving MI6 and starting up a company.

Gareth Williams' secret friend turns out to be Missa Elizabeth Guthrie, from a wealthy American family, who moves in very, ahem, well connected circles, and is "described by friends as a flamboyant character who lived a secretive life working for a Middle Eastern oil and minerals trading company".

A red herring to distract from the debacle at the coroner's court?

Or a genuine lead that has been suppressed until now?

My instinct is that we are in legendary territory....

Here's the article:

The woman with THREE identities who could hold key to death of the body-in-the-bag spy

American Missa Elizabeth Guthrie claims to be an international businesswoman linked to a wealthy American family

By Robert Verkaik, George Arbuthnott and Sharon Churcher
PUBLISHED: 22:24, 31 March 2012 | UPDATED: 00:37, 1 April 2012
Comments (8) Share

The Mail on Sunday can today identify a mysterious new witness who could hold the key to the death of the body-in-a-bag MI6 spy Gareth Williams.

The woman used three different names in statements provided to police for a pre-inquest hearing into the death of code-breaker Mr Williams.

This provoked Dr Fiona Wilcox, the coroner investigating the case, to declare: There has been some confusion as to who this witness is and I need to know her identity.

Film role: American Missa Guthrie, 27, left, in a scene from the low-budget movie she appeared in
I expect witnesses to identify who they are, not who they think they are.'

Our investigation has revealed the woman to be 27-year-old American Missa Elizabeth Guthrie, who claims to be an international businesswoman linked to a wealthy American family worth £35 billion.

The full inquest into Mr Williams's death is due to be held later this month and Westminster coroner Dr Wilcox is now expected to quiz Ms Guthrie about the time she spent with Mr Williams in 2010.

Dr Wilcox said on Friday: She [Ms Guthrie] will be asked to explain who she is and called to give evidence.'

The coroner said that there were a number of questions she wanted to ask Ms Guthrie about her identities, which were previously given as Missa Gunther, Misa Guseiri and Elizabeth Guthrie.

The confusion surrounding Ms Guthrie deepened further on Friday when a senior Scotland Yard press officer contacted The Mail on Sunday on her behalf to say that she had not told her family that she was a close friend of Gareth Williams.

Mr Williams was discovered naked inside a red North Face holdall, which was padlocked on the outside and placed inside his bath

The official said that the family was well known in America, and that it could embarrass them if Ms Guthrie's previously unknown connection was made public.

However, it is no secret among Ms Guthrie's friends that she was close to Mr Williams before he died.
A source involved in the case said: She first met Gareth when she shared a flat in Knightsbridge where Gareth frequently came to meet friends from Wales. They struck up a close friendship because they were both interested in politics and history.

But in 2009 she moved out and found a top floor-flat in Pimlico which was close to Gareth's address.'

In the months before he died, Ms Guthrie's friendship with Mr Williams blossomed. The source said: On election night in May 2010 the two of them stayed up late with another person to see in the new Coalition Government.'

Mr Williams, a maths genius from Anglesey, North Wales, had worked for the Government listening post GCHQ in Cheltenham since leaving university and was on secondment to MI6 when his body was found by police at his top-floor flat in Pimlico, Central London, on August 23, 2010.

He was discovered naked inside a red North Face holdall, which was padlocked on the outside and placed inside his bath.

The Government has refused to disclose what secret operations Mr Williams was working on during the weeks before his death.

Fresh evidence about his state of mind before his death is expected to be aired at the full inquest adding to speculation that the spy may have been murdered by a foreign agency or a criminal gang.

The source said: Ms Guthrie said Gareth told her he was being followed in the days before his death.

She didn't know who it was, only that she and Gareth were so concerned that they sometimes varied the route they took home.'

Ms Guthrie also told friends after Mr Williams's body was found that he was planning to leave the Secret Service so that he could set up his own business with her and another MI6 officer.

She was very vague about what this would be, only that it would be with another MI6 officer,' said the source.

Our investigations in the United States have revealed that Missa Elizabeth Guthrie is the daughter of George Gordon Guthrie, a wealthy New York stockbroker.

The 69-year-old, who is known as Jerry, worked for various Wall Street investment firms, including a securities unit of the French bank Caisse des Depots et Consignations, where he was managing director of options trading.
His brother, Randolph Hobson Guthrie, a retired plastic surgeon, is married to a great-granddaughter of the steel magnate Henry Phipps. Phipps was the son of an English shoemaker who went to America in the early part of the 19th Century.

Phipps became the business partner of Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie who founded the Carnegie Steel Company and built Carnegie Hall in 1891.

Phipps also founded the Bessemer Trust to manage the family fortune. It now manages funds for more than 2,000 families and has £35 billion in assets. There are about 300 of Phipps' descendants who benefit from the Trust.

Ms Guthrie's father was previously married to Laura McCord, who is now the wife of Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg, the multi-billion business news and analysis corporation.

According to US securities records, Ms Guthrie and her mother Donnell, 57, are shareholders in a business and technology consulting firm called Answerthink.

Ms Guthrie grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town is known its for great estates and links to famous families such as the Kennedys.

Her childhood homes included a six-bedroom, nine-bathroom mansion. The property is currently valued at £5 million.

Ms Guthrie, who it is claimed has given different names to friends and uses pseudonyms on her Facebook site, is described by friends as a flamboyant character who lived a secretive life working for a Middle Eastern oil and minerals trading company.

'She was very secretive about her work'

In New York she is understood to have also worked as an actress, appearing in a low-budget production called In Search Of Myster Ey, taking the part of a mystery-seeking lady'.

The film is an eccentric investigation into the meaning of the ego.

Ms Guthrie is believed to have left New York for London in 2008.

A source told The Mail on Sunday that she studied at the Regent's Business School in Central London.
The source added: She had two names, calling herself both Phipps and Guthrie, and claimed to come from a famous American family but she never really explained who they were.' Ms Guthrie told her friends that she had travelled widely, visiting the Middle East, China and South America on what she described as business trips.

The source said: The funny thing was that she never explained exactly what she did and was very secretive about her work.
She even used the code-name Shark when talking about her business partner.'

In 2008 Ms Guthrie's parents retired to a four-bedroom, five-bathroom villa for which they paid £2 million on Sea Island, an exclusive resort on a barrier reef on the coast of Georgia. Reached by a dramatic causeway that swoops for miles over marshland and shaded by moss-draped oak trees, Sea Island was once one of the favourite winter resorts for socially ambitious Americans who were drawn to its five miles of private beaches.

The £2 million the Guthries paid was about the average for a home on the island at the time. The island is privately owned by a development company.

But shortly after Ms Guthrie's parents bought their villa, it was revealed that the company was in financial trouble.
Property values have since plunged and the Guthries' sprawling home is now valued by one online site at about £1 million.

There was no sign of Ms Guthrie's parents at the family home yesterday.

The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that the investigation into Mr Williams's death is ongoing and officers have not ruled out murder.

The coroner's court heard on Friday that a series of blunders, including a mix-up over DNA found at the scene, had hampered the inquiry. The inquest was also told that a man and a woman of Mediterranean appearance' who had visited the flat in the weeks before the death, and who were the subject of a police witness appeal, had now been identified and ruled out as a red herring'.

Mr Williams's family have said they believe that he was murdered by those specialising in the dark arts of the secret services'.

They also suspect a cover-up, suggesting evidence has been removed or tampered with.

[Magda Hassan]

For what it is worth, perhaps not much, another researcher looking into the Dr Kelly area was told both Dr Kelly and Gareth Williams were approached by the Chinese. Dr Kelly jumped the right way ( but was likely murdered over other things) but Gareth Williams apparently not. He cannot recall who told him this now.....which is a shame but his sources are usually of a very good quality and in positions to be knowledgable. So, I'm just putting this unsubstantiate info out here in case it become relevant.

[Peter Lemkin]

One thing is for certain. Williams was MURDERED [not playing games with himself inside a North Face Bag] - and it wasn't for his bicycle riding!.....:darthvader: