The elderly man walked into the police station and told the counter officer he had killed two people. The call came to me just as I got home from work. My first question back was, “Have they? ” The officer noticed the man’s right hand was bleeding.
He said it was from a knife. The whole scene felt surreal. I kept thinking: is this man having a psychotic break? Two people dead?
Or does he just think he killed someone? Is he hallucinating, confused, imagining the whole thing? He gave an address. Two officers were dispatched immediately.
They found the property with an insecure kitchen window and gained access. There were two people dead inside. The victims were Chloe and Josh Bashford, who lived there with their four children in the coastal town of New Haven. Josh was 33, a broadband engineer who loved his job and loved climbing telegraph poles.
He was close to his brother Billy. They shared a bond that no one else really understood. They collected Warhammer figures together, watched football—Josh supported Crystal Palace, Billy supported Brighton—and that rivalry was a huge part of their relationship. Chloe ran the family home.
She was jokey, outgoing, and bubbly, and so was Josh. They made each other laugh. Chloe’s stepfather, Derek Martin, had recently been spending more time at the house. He helped with the school run.
Derek had been married to Chloe’s mother long ago, but they had divorced before Chloe was born. In recent years, Derek and Chloe had grown close. He was helping them, and they needed it. On the evening of June 8th, Derek sent Chloe a text.
The next morning, he stopped at a Costa Coffee, dressed head to toe in white, and bought Chloe a drink before joining her for the school run. After dropping the kids off, they went for breakfast at a local pub. Nothing about the footage suggested anything untoward. They looked calm, normal.
A stepdad and stepdaughter having breakfast. Then they went to the supermarket to buy cleaning supplies. They arrived home at around 10:30 a. m.
At 1:06 p. m. , Chloe’s eldest daughter texted her mom. Chloe never replied.
At 2:00 p. m. , it was Derek who texted back from Chloe’s phone. An hour later, Derek picked up the youngest two kids from school and took them to a coffee shop.
He had changed clothes. He was calm, not distressed. Then he took them to McDonald’s. It looked like a grandfather out with his grandkids.
Everything normal. Everything calm. After that, he drove the children to their grandmother’s house in Brighton. Then he bought beer and cigarettes and sat on the beach, alone.
He contemplated what his next step was. He seemed to be saying goodbye to the outside world. While he sat there, he sent a message to the children’s grandmother. The children were extremely concerned.
Derek Martin made the decision to hand himself in. Back at the family home, the news spread fast. Billy looked at his phone and saw 15 missed calls. His heart dropped.
He drove to his brother’s house and pulled into the driveway to see eight police cars. He was told Josh and Chloe had been stabbed to death. Derek Martin had done it. “Had I known how violent that man was,” Billy said, “I would have gone and dragged my son out.
But we didn’t know. We didn’t know anything. ”
Chloe was found lying in a downstairs bedroom. She had sustained multiple injuries and eight stab wounds to her front and back.
The stab wounds were the cause of death. Josh was in the master bedroom, on the floor. He had four stab wounds to his chest, an incised injury to his back that looked like a raking wound, a neck injury, and signs of strangulation. Derek Martin was interviewed by police.
He said Chloe had been going on about money, about wanting to go shopping. Money, money, money. For some reason, that caused him to lose his temper. A fight over money is one of the most common motives for murder.
It doesn’t need to be a lot. It can be a couple of pounds. It’s triggering. But the brutality of what he did had no relation to the disagreement.
Forensic examination revealed the door handles had been removed from the rooms where Chloe and Josh were found. Derek said he did it to protect the children from seeing what had happened. CCTV showed him moving the family car to a nearby street, changing clothes, and taking Chloe’s phone and throwing it in a bush. He removed the Ring doorbell from the front door—you can see the injury on his finger caused by the knife he used.
He later wrote a letter from prison revealing where the phone was hidden. Police found it. Data from Chloe’s phone revealed a meticulous gap between the two killings. Chloe was attacked around 12:16.
Josh didn’t arrive home until 12:21. There was at least a five-minute window. The fact that Derek paused, got another weapon, waited for Josh to come home, and then attacked him—that isn’t consistent with someone who lost control once. That’s someone who allowed it to happen again.
And again. Derek Martin pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming he was suffering from depression. The jury rejected that defense. In 2025, he was found guilty on two counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Billy still writes to Derek Martin in prison, once a week, asking why he murdered his brother. He doesn’t expect an answer. “He’s taken not just a brother away,” he said. “For me, he’s my best mate.
Everything I see, everything I hear, I still think I’d love to go and tell him, but I can’t. I miss him more than life itself. ”
Josh’s mother goes to a quiet place to think about her son. “He was just a lovely son to have,” she said.
“And we really miss him. ”
People always want there to be a sufficiently big reason for murder. But murder often happens for banal reasons—a fight over money that gets out of control. That can be enough for someone to react incredibly strongly.
But really, it just comes down to that person allowing their emotions to take hold and acting on negative feelings instead of controlling them. In Columbus, Ohio, a 911 call came in. “911, what’s your emergency? ”
“I would like to turn myself in.
I murdered my girlfriend. ”
Officers were immediately sent to the address the suspect gave. The dispatcher kept him on the line, trying to trace his location. “I’m very mentally unstable,” he said.
“I’m worried I’m going to commit by cop if the cops come and pick me up. ”
Police arrived at the suspected murder location and forced entry. “Police. Yep, she’s dead.
She’s right here. ”
The victim was 29-year-old Shannon Hyatt. She had been stabbed more than 30 times in a frenzied attack—chest, back, throat slit. Shannon was a fraud investigator, thoughtful, generous, tenacious.
She loved the arts, was active in the local music scene, and her passion was rescuing stray cats. In 2022, Shannon met 26-year-old Chance Dano. They had an off-and-on relationship, but after about a year, they had a serious falling out. Shannon told her mother that Chance had stolen from her.
She blocked his accounts, blocked his phone. She made it clear it was really over. She was trying to signal that his behavior wasn’t acceptable. She had boundaries.
She even warned other women about him on a Facebook group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy? ” She posted that he comes across as nice, but he’s not. He stole from her. Don’t trust him.
She wasn’t slagging him off—she was just pointing out the facts. After the breakup, Shannon changed her locks and had her mom return Chance’s belongings. She seemed switched on, doing all the right things to protect herself. On the evening of August 28th, 2023, a friend was visiting because Shannon didn’t want to be alone.
At 11:11 p. m. , Chance’s car was captured on camera outside her home. He saw a car that didn’t belong to her.
He created a story in his head. At 1:58 a. m. , a security camera pointing at Shannon’s front window captured something alarming.
First, a hulking shadow. Then, within seconds, a bloody hand. A few minutes later, Chance appeared on camera outside Shannon’s home, pacing back and forth, in some kind of distress. Four hours passed.
Then he called 911. “I would like to turn myself in. I murdered my girlfriend. ”
The dispatcher kept him on the line.
“Do you want the police to come to you? ”
“I’m very mentally unstable. I’m worried that I’m going to commit by cop if the cops come and pick me up. So I need to go into the station for my safety and the police officer’s safety.
”
The tone of his voice didn’t match his words. He sounded coherent, not unwell. Police ascertained he was at his mother’s home. “Do you have any weapons on you, Chance?
”
“I have the murder weapon with me. It’s a knife. ”
“Can you put the knife on top of the refrigerator? ”
“Yeah, that’s fine.
”
“I want you to put it on there, not your mother. I don’t want your mother to touch it. ”
Officers were closing in. “I’m going to give my mother one last hug before this all starts,” Chance said.
“I’m going to go to prison now. ”
The dispatcher tried to stall him, kept talking to him, kept soothing him. He got in his car and started driving. “I don’t want to be tricked into being picked up,” he said.
“I will not disconnect this call until I reach the jail cell. ”
Meanwhile, another team of officers arrived at Shannon’s house. They kicked the door in and found her body. Across Columbus, patrols were looking for Chance’s car.
Finally, they had him in their sights. Chance became aware of the police behind him. “There’s a cop right behind me. I know that I’m being followed.
”
“Can you just pull over and let him put you in the back so he can take you to the police station? ” the dispatcher asked. “It’d make it so much easier, Chance. ”
He conceded and slowly pulled into a gas station.
Police handled the situation carefully. They didn’t want to inflame him. They told him to put his hands out the window, to face away, to walk backward toward the sound of their voices. They knew he might commit suicide by cop.
When they arrested him, they discovered lacerations on his hand wrapped in a makeshift bandage. “When did that happen? ”
“During the attack. ”
His shoes and socks were covered in blood, taken as evidence.
At his mother’s house, police found the blood-covered knife on top of the refrigerator, exactly where they had asked him to put it. In his interview, Chance said he and Shannon were going through a really bad breakup. “Because I took advantage of her a lot, and so we broke up. She’s been making all these Facebook posts about our breakup.
”
He sounded almost victimized. “I’m unable to not steal and unable to not take advantage of people that are around me. It’s like I couldn’t help it. ”
Then he said he had a weird thought: “If you want Shannon back and you can’t get her back, you can take your life force and then you’ll be together forever.
”
He admitted he often thought he was a god during episodes of psychosis. He said he went home, changed into all black, grabbed a knife, and went to her house. “I slammed my shoulder into the door. I didn’t say anything.
I didn’t do anything. I just started stabbing Shannon. She didn’t even realize what was happening until I had stabbed her a couple times. She said, ‘Are you kidding me?
What the—Chance. Stop. Wait. Please stop.
I’m dying. I love you. I love you. ‘ And then she didn’t speak another word.
”
Almost a year after Shannon was murdered, Chance Dano pleaded guilty to murder. Prosecutors said he killed Shannon because he was jealous, angry, and knew she had posted about him on social media, which might have interfered with his ability to date other women. They said the murder had nothing to do with his mental health. It was jealousy and revenge.
At sentencing, Chance spoke directly to Shannon’s family. “I’m truly sorry for all the pain I have caused you. I wish I could take it back. I hope that the verdict reached today serves justice for the loss I have put you through.
”
He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 31 years. Shannon’s murder shows that even if you are strong, have good boundaries, and do all the right things, there are no guarantees. Her friends and family will remember her as a bright, sunny presence, a lover of music, someone who devoted her spare time to rescuing stray cats and making sure they had a good life.
She was very loving.
