He is charged with the murders of Mrs Melia, Mrs Mellor and Mrs Pomfret.October 12: Ivy Lomas exhumed.October 13: Marie Quinn exhumed.November 10: Irene Turner exhumed.November 11: Shipman charged with the murders of Mrs Quinn and Mrs Lomas.November 12: Jean Lilley exhumed.December 3: Shipman charged with the murders of Mrs Lilley and Mrs Turner.December 8: Muriel Grimshaw exhumed.1999February 22: Shipman charged with the murders of Mrs Grimshaw and six cremated patients: Norah Nuttall, Kathleen Wagstaff, Maureen Ward, Pamela Hillier, Marie West and Lizzie Adams.October 5: Shipman stands trial for murderJanuary 31: Shipman convicted of 15 murders and of forging Mrs Grundy’s will.. Inquiry dropped after six weeks.June 24: Shipman murders his last victim, Kathleen Grundy, after arranging to meet her at 8-8.30am to take her blood, on his way to work. Will bequeathing Mrs Grundy’s estate to Shipman arrives with covering letter at Hamilton Ward solicitors in Hyde.June 28: Second letter, signed “J or S Smith”, arrives at Hamilton Ward, informing them of Mrs Grundy’s death and drawing attention to the earlier will.July 1: Hamilton Ward, who have never heard of Mrs Grundy, finally make contact with her daughter, Angela Woodruff, in Warwickshire and fax will documents to her.July 24: Mrs Woodruff walks into a Warwickshire police station to discuss her doubts.July 27: Stalybridge CID contacted by Warwickshire.July 31: Mrs Woodruff interviewed by Greater Manchester Police, who have suspicions because of earlier inquiry.August 1: Kathleen Grundy’s body exhumed.August 12: Shipman breaks down as he tells district nurse Marion Gilchrist: “I read thriller books and I would have me guilty on the evidence.”August 14: Pathologists tell GMP morphine has been found in Mrs Grundy’s body.September 7: Shipman interviewed for first time and charged with Mrs Grundy’s murder.September 8: Shipman makes the first of many appearances before Tameside Magistrates’ Court in Ashton-under-Lyne, charged with murdering Mrs Grundy and forging her £350,000 will.September 21: Joan Melia exhumed.September 22: Winifred Mellor exhumed.September 23: Bianka Pomfret exhumed.October 7: Shipman breaks down after police reveal that fabrication of his computer records has been detected. 1998

1998
March: Greater Manchester Police asked by coroner to investigate Shipman after another Hyde GP reports suspicions about cremation certificates. I’ve got away with 14 in the past and nobody has questioned me’.”If he had murdered Mrs Grundy and only taken £5,000 he would probably have got away with it.”Angela Woodruff, painfully rebuilding her life now, would probably beg to differ..

She also wept under cross-examination as she was asked to list the few items of medication her husband had found at Mrs Grundy’s house and explain flimsy evidence of rancour with her mother.Analysing the bizarre risks Shipman took in the murder of Kathleen Grundy, Chief Superintendent Bernard Postles said he believed the GP “seemed to have been saying ‘I’m fed up now I could do with getting caught and getting my notoriety. Standing under his gaze, ten yards from the dock, to testify in the first week of the trial seemed to be too much for her at first.She sank to her seat in the witness box and took 30 painful seconds to compose herself. “The next thing [Mrs Woodruff] is going to accuse me of is forging her will.”Mrs Woodruff would need more reserves of strength before Shipman was behind bars for good. “This won’t be over in a short time,” he told one of his patients as he awaited police interview. Four backdated entries, detailing morphine abuse, were made on the day after she died.This forensic evidence was put to Shipman.His ace trumped, he broke down, wept and answered no further questions before coming to trial.He now feared Mrs Woodruff. None of the medical records tallied with Mrs Grundy’s immaculate, diarised record of her visits to Shipman’s surgery.Shipman’s credit card record proved he was 100 miles away, at Waterstones bookshop in York, on November 26, the date of one logged consultation.This inconsistency was explained by computer forensics that showed medical records to have been backdated to create a false history. Should I do blood tests? Very difficult,” a record for October 12, 1997, stated.Detectives recall his solicitor quickly handing such medical evidence to them in the interview room.This portrait of Mrs Grundy as, in Mr Postles’ words, “an octogenarian junkie” seemed bizarre.

A fingertip impression found on the corner of the forged will matched Shipman, but neither of the witnesses.Mrs Grundy’s body was exhumed on August 1. At first, no abnormalities were found to explain her death but samples sent for forensic examination revealed morphine had killed her.The blood sample Shipman said he took on July 24 was never received at the pathology laboratory.Under interview at Ashton under Lyne police station on October 7, Shipman couldn’t wait to point out that Mrs Grundy’s computerised medical records detailed his suspicions that she was capitulating to morphine abuse.”She denies everything. “We picked up pieces and ran.”Within four days, Shipman’s surgery was being searched. The typewriter, one of the first items seized, was forensically matched to the letters sent in Mrs Grundy’s name.Handwriting analysis confirmed the signatures to be forgeries.