Evidence trail of jogger's killer

By Martin Edwards
BBC News, London

Davies was said to have had a "troubled" childhood

Egeli Rasta came to the UK from Estonia intent on building a new life for herself.

The 27-year-old had developed a good command of English and worked as a shop assistant at Harrods in Knightsbridge.

But when she failed to meet a friend at Gatwick Airport on 5 July, 2006, the alarm was raised.

Eleven days later her body was found in a shallow grave in Mitcham Common, south London.

Because of the hot weather her body was badly decomposed, preventing pathologists from establishing an exact cause of death.

In what was a chaotic scene, her half-naked body was found surrounded by various items including beer cans and cigarettes.

We believed very early on that we had overwhelming evidence that he was responsible for the crime Damaris Lakin, Crown Prosecution Service

Some of this rubbish would later prove crucial in building a case against 23-year-old Garath Davies.

Even before Miss Rasta's body was found on the 460-acre park, police had arrested Davies.

The name "Gaz" had been carved into the branch of a tree in the copse where the body of Miss Rasta was found.

Damaris Lakin, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "We believed very early on that we had overwhelming evidence that he was responsible for the crime, evidence that linked him to the area."

Analysing Miss Rasta's mobile phone records, detectives quickly established a "pattern of use".

They found texts sent from her phone had been sent to previously unknown numbers.

Internet download

Police later discovered these were friends of Davies who confirmed they had received the messages.

Davies had also downloaded music from the internet using the phone in the days following her disappearance.

Friends of Miss Rasta said this was highly uncharacteristic of her and she would never download anything she would have to pay for.

Among the beer cans found at the scene in Mitcham Common, forensic science experts found one which contained traces of Davies's DNA.

A beer can with Davies's DNA was found at the murder scene

A similar brand of beer can was later found in his back garden.

Comparing the batch numbers of those found at his home with those found at the crime scene, detectives were able to establish the cans had been delivered to a shop local to Davies.

It was then a case of trawling through hours of CCTV footage from the shop to prove that Davies had bought the cans there.

At his home, police also discovered a baseball cap which was stained with Miss Rasta's blood.

Davies told the court he assumed the stains came from red wine.

Kitchen knife

Crucially, a kitchen knife discovered at his home contained traces of Miss Rasta's blood.

The prosecution maintained to the jury they had a powerful and compelling case against Davies.

Egeli Rasta had been in the UK for two years before she was murdered

Faced with the mounting forensic evidence against him, Davies's responses were only vague.

He told the court "my brain just goes off...half the stuff I don't remember".

Davies had told police: "I'm afraid I might have done it. I can't remember."

Davies had come to the attention of social services during a troubled childhood.

"His upbringing was not that happiest," said Ms Lakin. "He said in court he had been abused by his father and it's understood he didn't have the best relationship with him.

"He was something of a loner."

When police raided his home, they found home-made sex toys.

Davies denied Miss Rasta's murder throughout the trial. He will be sentenced on 14 December.