The husband reported his wife missing, then her body was found in a wedding dress bag

The story discusses human remains and graphic descriptions of death that some people may find disturbing

When Kirstie Wilkinson found the perfect dress for her wedding after a whirlwind romance, she bought a pink suit carrier to protect it before her big day in February 2008.

Just a year later that rosy career had a shocking re-emergence in a gruesome discovery that sparked a hunt for a vicious killer.

Now the story of how that killer was brought to justice has been revealed in a new documentary.

On the morning of 6 April 2009, a lorry driver pulled off the M4 and parked at an underpass near Porthcawl, South Wales and noticed a suitcase on the embankment.

Thinking the suitcase might have fallen from the roof rack of a car crossing the bridge above, the driver took it back and began to open it, only to see a hand and some blond, blood-stained hair.

Twenty miles down the road in Swansea, Senior Investigating Officer Dorian Lloyd was called to help with a missing person case a few days earlier.

Christy Gravham, 24, née Wilkinson, was reported missing by her husband Paul a week ago on March 30, last Friday after being seen by friends after a night out.

The police did a cursory check of her house after her report but found nothing untoward, but when officers learned by the M4 that the body was that of a young woman, Lloyd was called to the scene.

He recalls: “It was terrible. We found two black bags, bin liners, inside the suitcase.

“One was placed at the body’s head and the other at her feet, and she was also wrapped in a pink suit carrier.”

The investigation team suspects that the body is Christy’s, but is not sure.

Penny Roberts, the former chief reporter for BBC Wales who covered the case at the time, said: “A woman of the same description as Kirsty has gone missing around the same town. It seems pretty incredible.”

The fact that the body was found 20 miles from Kirsty’s home also added to the suspicion as Lloyd said that “it was extremely rare for a body to be moved that distance”.

With evidence pointing to Kirsty as the victim, her mother Kathy Broomfield was given the gruesome task of trying to identify her youngest daughter’s body.

She told the BBC One Wales series: The Truth About My Murder: “She looked like something from a horror film. A broken nose, a broken jaw. They had washed her hair but there was blood. It didn’t look like my little girl.

“All her features had changed dramatically. It was only her eyebrows that I could recognize, their shape. I couldn’t even cry, I was so shocked.”

Lloyd said Kirsty’s body was wrapped in a pink carrier she had bought to protect her wedding dress in a “particularly harrowing revelation”.

When police told Grabham of his wife’s body in a suitcase, his reaction – not answering any questions or commenting and showing no emotion at the shocking news – raised suspicion.

But the officers needed much more than suspicion and this is where the findings of the pathology team proved to be so important in finding Kirsty’s killer.

A post-mortem examination revealed the true extent of the violence Christie suffered before she died.

Dr Richard Shepherd, a former Home Office forensic pathologist, said the extent and distribution of her injuries showed a “violent, brutal and prolonged attack”.

Christie had fingerprint marks around her neck and a broken bone behind her tongue, indicating force was used on her.

Meanwhile, police were building a picture of Christie and Gravham’s relationship.

Cathy said that Christy, who works as a glamor model, was in a relationship with another man but announced that she would marry a man named Paul.

They had a romance and married three months after they met, but after a while, Cathy noticed changes in her daughter’s behavior.

Christy no longer “looked like herself” and ran out of the house “like a frightened rabbit” when her husband started honking his horn outside.

“She was a nervous wreck. We didn’t like her.”

Letters found between the couple revealed problems in their relationship and forensic psychologist Dr Kathryn Williams studied evidence about the couple.

“We are seeing some evidence of coercive controlling behavior in this regard.

“It can be controlling their movements, isolating them and controlling the friends they see. It can actually get to the point where the partner is controlling every aspect of their life.”

Cathy said Gravham strangled Kirsty at a party, where he “really thought she was going to die”.

Although the evidence of Gravham’s violence was mounting, it did not make him a murderer.

He told police he had gone out with Christie the night she disappeared but returned alone after getting too drunk, claiming he was found gone with her handbag, wallet and phone.

But the neighbors heard things between 03:00 and 04:00, shortly after Christie left her friends despite asking them to stay at their house.

From the flat below they heard a scream that sounded like someone shoving a hand over their mouth, followed by banging and something heavy being dragged from the bathroom.

A witness at Christie’s and Gravham’s bar recalled serving her sangria that night with an apple float.

Shepherd said a post-mortem examination found a piece of apple in Kirsty’s small intestine, which “fits very well with Kirsty dying between three and four in the morning”.

Police needed evidence that Christie had died in the flat and senior forensic scientist Claire Morse was the one to discover it.

He noticed small traces of blood on the wall and found more on the floor under strong forensic light.

She also noticed stains under the newly painted ceiling and went to find blood in other parts of the flat, including the bathroom.

DNA profiling matched Christie and forensics also found traces of her blood on Gravham’s clothing.

To strengthen the case against her, they needed to prove that her body was moved to the underpass.

Phone records placed Gravham’s cellphone at the location where Christie’s body was dumped at 10:30 a.m. on March 31 because Gravham received and sent a message from it at that time.

In January 2010, Gravham stood trial for Christie’s murder and was convicted of her murder on 4 February.

He was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years in prison.

Roberts remembers the test. “Grabham’s demeanor never changed in court. He showed absolutely no emotion. Nothing flashed on his face.”

The impact of Christie’s death would take a more tragic turn.

She had two older sisters – one of them, Hayley, was only 16 months old and very close to Kirsty.

Cathy said: “They really loved each other. Hayley said, ‘I feel like a part of me has been ripped out. I can’t live without my little sister.’

“She started drinking really heavily. She died in my arms at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry.

“Two of them were very young.”

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