Jenny Nicholl was a woman who disappeared sometime on or after 30 June from the Richmond area of North Yorkshire , England. In February , David Hodgson was convicted of her murder despite the lack of a body , crime scene or body deposition site. Hodgson was jailed for life, with a recommendation that he serve at least 18 years, after being convicted on DNA and fake text messaging evidence which involved his travelling many miles so as to make it appear that Nicholl was still alive and camping some distance away from her home town.
The Nicholl family lived in Richmond, North Yorkshire, where Nicholl worked at the local supermarket and played guitar in pub bands. Nine days later, North Yorkshire Police interviewed David Hodgson, who was 45 at the time of Nicholl's disappearance, was a married father of two, and who had been grooming Nicholl since she was 14 years old, [ 6 ] though he maintained that the abuse was not sexual until she was 16 and that they had had sex only five times. Around the time of the affair starting, it was said that there was some name-calling of Nicholl and eventually an assault in which the police were finally involved.
During his first police interview, Hodgson denied having an affair with Nicholl and also denied anything to do with her disappearance. The next day, Nicholl's mobile phone was switched on and messages were sent which led her family and the police to believe she was alive and well. He had taken an overdose of pills and wine.
In later police interviews, Hodgson admitted that he and Nicholl were lovers, [ 8 ] but that their affair had ended 12 months earlier. Whilst there was some initial hope with the mobile phone messages Ann Nicholl went to both locations to search for her daughter , [ 5 ] police still maintained an active search for Nicholl which lasted the rest of the summer of and involved searching over areas, septic tanks at farms and also utilised soldiers from Catterick Garrison to help out.
During the investigation it was revealed that Nicholl had also started seeing Hodgson's elder brother, Robert, in the weeks prior to her disappearance. Robert Hodgson was unaware of Nicholl's being linked with his younger brother, despite the two brothers' erecting the huts in Sandbeck Plantation that critical evidence was found at during and after the police searches.
