Police officers in Bristol faced ‘worst nightmare’ in suitcase murders

Avon and Somerset Police were called to the Bristol landmark just before midnight on July 10 last year, after bridge staff became suspicious. They had been dealing with a woman in crisis when they saw Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, with two heavy suitcases on the Leigh Woods side of the bridge. Mosquera told them the large suitcases, one red and one silver, contained car parts and that the liquid dripping from them was oil.

The cases in fact contained the dismembered remains of Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, who he had murdered at the flat they shared in Scotts Road, Shepherd's Bush, west London, on July 8. A cyclist challenged Mosquera about the suitcases and bravely chased after the double killer as he fled down a hill - filming him on his phone. Detective Inspector Neil Meade, Avon and Somerset Police praised the cyclist and said the image he took of Mosquera was "critical" for the investigation.

"It gave us a lead to start with," Det Insp Meade said. "It was an unbelievable piece of work by that member of the public. It was incredibly brave for the cyclist to intervene and have the presence of mind to get that footage on his phone."

Police officers then attended the bridge and had to open the suitcases, which contained the torsos and limbs of Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth. Det Insp Meade said: "When you sign up to join the police, you expect to see stuff that people in general society wouldn't see. "But nobody can prepare anybody, cop or not a cop, to see what those officers saw that night.

"I've been doing this job for 29 years and I've never had to open a suitcase, not knowing what's in it, and there being a body in there. "Those officers that got deployed that night, their worst nightmare probably came true. You're on the bridge, there's somebody who has run off, there's red fluid dripping out of the suitcases.

"You're there with much trepidation opening that suitcase, wishing you could have been dispatched to any other job in the force that night. But you're there and you have a job to do. "I have the upmost respect for those officers."

He said the officers involved would continue receiving support to help them come to terms with what they saw that night. Det Insp Meade became the senior investigating officer on the morning of July 11, when Avon and Somerset Police received a lead that would help them unpick what had happened. A local resident telephoned the force to say they had seen a red, dusty van pull outside their house and leave a male there with two suitcases.

Members of the public at a nearby pub, who had been watching a football match, also saw Mosquera and offered to help him with the suitcases. "He told then he wanted to go to the other side of the bridge, which was only 150 yards from where he stood, but he couldn't see it," Det Insp Meade added. "They tried loading the suitcases into the back of their car and one of them commented: 'God, these are heavy, is there a body in there?'"

Police inquiries tracked the red van and found it had left Bristol and headed on the M4 motorway towards London. The driver, arrested by the Met Police, told officers he had picked up a man from Scotts Road with two suitcases and driven him to Bristol. He had a WhatsApp message from Mosquera, with the image matching the man seen fleeing from the bridge by the cyclist.

At the same time, a label on one of the suitcases gave the address of Scotts Road and a name that later turned out to be an former partner of Mr Alfonso. A search warrant was granted for the property and officers quickly established that Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth had been murdered there. They looked inside the fridge freezer in the hallway of the flat and discovered the missing body parts of both victims.

Mosquera's mobile phone had been switched off soon after he had ran from the cyclist, when he was in the Clifton area heading to the Cumberland Basin part of the city. Avon and Somerset Police handed the investigation to the Met Police, as the murders had taken place in London, but continued to search for Mosquera. Their efforts were boosted in the early hours of July 13, when Mosquera switched his mobile phone back on.

Det Insp Meade said: "Before we could get all our resources in place, one of our teams did the sensible thing and checked the transport hubs. "They found Mosquera sitting outside Bristol Temple Meads Station, where he was arrested." He praised the "professionalism" of the officers, soon assisted by armed units, who detained Mosquera.

The investigation was the biggest that Avon and Somerset Police were undertaking at the time.

After the remains were discovered, police resources - from police dogs, the police helicopter, drones and staff from across the patch - were used to "flood" the area.

By the following morning, more than 60 police officers and staff from the major crime team were working on the case alongside search teams, crime scene investigators and other specialist officers.