The Mirror
April 19, 2015
Simon killed Spalding after using him for slave labour, dismembered the body, stuffed it inside two suitcases and then threw them in a canal.
Lorenzo Simon murdered Michael Spalding before dismembering the body, stuffing it inside two cases and, along with girlfriend Michelle Bird, throwing them in Birmingham Canal.
In this footage, released today as they were both jailed for their crimes, the couple can be seen pulling the cases along a residential street in Smethwick past homes and parked cars.
The barbaric pair weighted the cases down with broken slabs but decomposition gases re-floated one case and the gruesome discovery was made by a Canal Trust contractor on May 12 last year – 16 days after police suspect he was killed.
Simon, who had used his old friend for slave labour to decorate his flat, and then killed him when he finally downed tools, has today been jailed for his murder.
The 44-year-old initially denied knowledge of Mr Spalding’s death, claiming he threw the 39-year-old out following a row over a car crash.
But later he admitted assaulting him during a fight after police found tiny blood droplets on the flat’s lounge wall.
Neighbours reported seeing a bonfire in the rear garden following Michael’s disappearance – a heat so intense it melted UPVC guttering fascias – and forensic examination of debris from an oil drum showed it to be part of the victim’s humerus bone.