Pedo Kills His Wife Then Flees To the UK to Kill a Child
Alice Gross was born on Valentine’s Day of 2000 to parents Rosalind Hodgkiss and Jose Gross in Hanwell, West London. She had an elder sister, Nina, and together they formed a close-knit family of four. Alice’s parents described her as so spirited, so present, so vital, and so full of promise. Alice was deeply connected to those around her, especially her family and her friends.
Her sister, Nina, described her as the greatest sister ever. Alice attended Brentside High School in West London, where she excelled in music. Even as a young teenager, Alice wrote and composed her own original songs. Alice also had a deep love for nature and animals. She shared her home with three cats, Lottie, Lewis, and Patty, and she had a dog named Peggy.
Alice’s parents emphasized their values in raising their daughters. Father Jose later said, “We do not believe that any citizen deserves to be treated differently based on their race or nationality.” Jose was deeply influenced by his own father, who was a Ukrainian Jew that fled persecution and sought refuge in the UK during World War II.
He was later joined by his French wife, and together the family rebuilt their lives in England. Growing up in this environment, Alice began to share her father’s values. At 14 years old, she wrote an essay explaining how she felt the UK should shape its policies. Her essay covers her opposition to England leaving the EU and wanting a more relaxed stance on immigration, especially the UK’s push to bar foreign criminals from entering the country.
She was quoted as writing, “They believe that this will keep Britain safe from crime by eliminating the number of criminals living in its premises. However, I believe that this takes away the concept of equality amongst the community by implying that criminals don’t deserve the same rights everyone else has. It also depicts Britain to believe foreign criminals are different and dangerous compared to the British criminals, reintroducing the idea of racism.
” She concluded her essay with, “It reflects on the good of our country, not only showing the strength and stability of our nation, but the trust and cooperation we have to make our world successful, which in turn earns the respect of others. Although there are some disadvantages that result in our country having slightly less power over its citizens, but what is power over loyalty and alliance amongst a civilized and peaceful union? Like many girls around her age, the transition to Alice’s teenage years also came with its
own set of challenges. She’d been diagnosed with disordered eating and her parents also noted signs of depression, which they were actively addressing as a family. Despite these struggles, there was no indication that Alice was a danger to herself or others. On August 28th at around 1:00 p.m.
, Alice left for a walk and told her parents she would return by the evening. That would be the last time they ever saw their daughter alive and by 7:00 p.m., they reported her missing. The Metropolitan Police immediately launched a search and Detective Chief Inspector Carl Meah of the New Scotland Yard as the senior investigating officer.
Desperate to bring their daughter home, Alice’s parents shared missing persons posters outside her school and throughout the streets of West London. Hanwell residents showed their support with yellow ribbons bearing the words find Alice. They painted Ealing completely with yellow ribbons and Alice’s poster.
Everyone wanted to get involved. If you saw a yellow ribbon at that time, you knew what it meant. Alice’s family also appeared in the media making emotional appeals to the public urging anyone with information to come forward. >> Her not being here, it’s like there’s a great big hole in the family and we really miss her. We really love her.
And we’re worried about um whatever it is that she might be feeling and we just want her to be safe and we just want her to come home. It’s hard cuz I miss her. And I just really hope that she knows that we really, really love her and we really need her back cuz she’s she’s she’s I love her. Sorry. Security footage later showed Alice walking along the Grand Union Canal towpath near the Holiday Inn at the Brentford Lock heading towards the River Thames at 4:26 p.m. on August 28th.
Around that same time she texted her father to say she was coming home. Alice was last seen wearing dark blue jeans and a dark green cardigan. She was carrying a black backpack and was wearing blue Vans sneakers with glasses with plaid frames. As days passed, Detective Chief Inspector Metta began to fear the worst.
He thought that it was likely that she had been abducted. Time was of the essence. He escalated the case to a full major investigation. Case was transferred to the Homicide Major Crime Command. More than 600 officers from eight different services were deployed supported by dogs and specialist divers to scour every possible location.
Police searched approximately 9 square miles of woodland and nearly 3 and 1/2 square miles of waterways. This became the largest Metropolitan Police search operation since the London bombings of 2005. The primary focus became the River Brent and the densely wooded areas along its banks. The river is heavily silted and offers little to no visibility.
Divers could barely see more than 3 cm ahead of them. As a result, specialist divers were forced to spend hours submerged in the water or feeling their way along the riverbed. The depths of the river and its icy temperatures meant that the waters were more than capable of claiming the life of anyone who had either been pushed into the water or entered it deliberately.
Despite the sheer scale of this operation, the search yielded no results. Meanwhile, Alice’s parents grew increasingly desperate making further public appeals and pleading for their daughter’s safe return. A Facebook group was created in an effort to crowd source information and keep public attention on the case. Despite widespread sharing and support, no meaningful leads came forward.
Two days later, the investigation reached its first significant breakthrough. Along the riverbank, detectives discovered Alice’s black backpack, her sneakers, and some other items that would later prove to be significant evidence in the case. But there were no signs of Alice’s phone. In response, the homicide team ordered a renewed search of nearly 3 miles of riverbed and canal.
The focus was no longer on just finding Alice, but locating her phone. 10 days into the investigation, authorities still had found no evidence that Alice had entered the water. Typically, a body submerged for an extended period will decompose, build up gases, and eventually rise to the surface.
The fact that Alice’s body had not resurfaced led investigators to believe that she had never been in the river at all. At the same time, the situation got frustrating. They had spent a lot of manpower and money on finding evidence related to the case, but there wasn’t a single breakthrough apart from the bag and the shoes. Approximately a week and a half after Alice went missing, police received a tip and made their first arrest.
A vehicle was located near the area where Alice’s backpack had been found, and a search of the car revealed a shovel, ropes, and sacks, objects that could be used to potentially dispose of a body. The suspect, however, was not cooperating. Around this time, Detective Chief Inspector Metin and his team returned to earlier leads, as well as re-examining individuals that might have had contact with Alice around the time of her disappearance.
It was during this review that a name began to stand out. Shortly after Alice was reported missing, 41-year-old Arnis Zalkalns had also disappeared. He was formally reported missing by his partner on September 4th after failing to return home from work. While his disappearance occurred roughly a week after Alice’s and could initially have appeared unrelated, investigators uncovered CCTV footage placing Arnis in the same area as Alice on the day she vanished.
For detectives, this was no longer a coincidence worth ignoring. Approximately 15 minutes after Alice crossed the bridge at Brentford Dock, Arnis was captured on security footage cycling in the same direction, apparently returning home from work. Given that Alice was on foot and Arnis was on a bicycle, investigators believed that there was a strong possibility their paths may have crossed.
While this footage alone was not enough to directly link Arnis to Alice’s disappearance, detectives noted that his behavior was unusual and his movements did not align with his typical routine. 9:30 p.m. the CCTV footage captured him again during the towpath from the Uxbridge Road. This time, however, with different clothes on.
Later that day, Arnis was seen at a local shop purchasing alcohol. Security footage and witness accounts showed him with his trousers rolled up as though he was attempting to wade through mud or water. When detectives later interviewed the shopkeeper, he recalled that Arnis had initially sent a 14-year-old boy into the shop to buy alcohol on his behalf.
When the shopkeeper refused to sell alcohol to the teenager, Arnis entered the shop himself. Shopkeeper described him as disheveled and dirty and added that he looked like he hadn’t slept properly. Following morning, Arnis was seen leaving for work once again. However, security footage showed him spending time along the towpath, which was again unusual.
DCI Met deployed a large forensic team to Arnis’s home, and this was an exhaustive search. His entire garden was dug up in an attempt potential crime scene tools, buried items, or any of Alice’s belongings that might carry his DNA. Simultaneously, detectives began examining Arnis’s background, and what they uncovered only deepened their suspicions of him.
Arnis was originally from Latvia, where he had a violent criminal history. In 1998, he murdered his wife and buried her body. During judicial proceedings, Arnis was sentenced to 8 years in prison, but only served 6. In Latvia, the minimum sentence for murder is 5 years and the maximum is 15. After his release in 2007, Arnis relocated to England where no one knew about his criminal record.
However, Arnis’s life in England was far from crime-free. In 2009, he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The case was later dropped after the girl chose not to press charges. Even then, no background checks were requested from Latvian authorities. When Arnis came under suspicion following Alice’s disappearance in 2014, his criminal record initially returned as clear.
His prior conviction for murdering his wife was legally classified as spent. On September 16th, DCI Met had made a public statement officially naming Arnis as a person of interest and appeal for information regarding his whereabouts. 9 days later, her family issued another plea for information.
In an effort to reignite the search, authorities organized a reconstruction of Alice’s final walk. An actress resembling Alice retraced the exact route she had taken on the day of her disappearance. We’re looking forward to being back as a family again and doing all the usual things that families do. Alice is a very um she’s a very lively, funny girl.
She’s quirky. You have all the little family jokes and family routines um and we’re really looking forward to having those again. Every day without her uh causes us new heartache, new anguish. Such an hole in the family and every day I pass her door, bedroom door, and I expect her to be in there and she’s not there.
So, you know, Alice, you really need to come home. And uh whoever you’re with, um she needs to be home. This is the place that she needs to be. She needs to be looked after. Uh and that’s the right place for her. After Arnis himself went missing, investigators extended their search beyond the UK and traveled to Latvia, his home country.
Their goal was to trace his movements, understand why he may have fled, and re-examine the circumstances surrounding his wife’s murder in 1998. Apparently, the murder was brutal and premeditated. Arnis had lured his wife into a wooded area where he stabbed her repeatedly and bludgeoned her. He then concealed her body in a shallow grave that he had dug in advance.
When police later questioned him, Arnis led officers directly to the grave. Throughout the process, he displayed no visible remorse whatsoever. Even admitted to drinking vodka while burying her body. Investigators also spoke with the victim’s mother, Arnis’s former mother-in-law. Decades later, the pain of losing her daughter remained raw for her.
Speaking about Arnis, she said, “How can a human being do something like that to another person? He was her first man, her first love. Everything was first. He was sentenced with such short time for her planned murder. Everything was prepared already. Her prosecution demanded 12 years.
He was sentenced to eight, but he only spent six years in jail. Is that justice? Is that justice? Is not.” Regardless, investigators were confused with a single unanswered question. Why Alice? Nearly 5 weeks into the investigation, on September 30th, investigators made the grim discovery nobody was looking forward to. This morning, a police officer guarded the scene of the grim discovery near the River Brent.
Nearby, there were more cordons. The body was found a 10-minute walk away from where Alice Gross was last seen. The parents of the 14-year-old schoolgirl were told the news late last night. Police have not revealed the exact location of the body. Alice was last seen at 4:26 p.m. on the 28th of August, walking along a towpath beside the Grand Union Canal.
At least three police cordons were put up along the River Brent, one on a main road that cuts across it. Two others prevented access further south. It’s just over a month since Alice vanished. It prompted the Metropolitan Police’s biggest search operation since the 7/7 terror bombings. A reconstruction of the teenager’s last known movements was staged to help jog people’s memory.
So far, there’ve been no arrests, but police are still trying to find suspect Latvian builder Arnis Zalkalns. A CCTV camera caught him cycling along the same route as Alice, 15 minutes behind her. The 41-year-old builder served 7 years for the murder of his wife. It’s thought he could be back in Latvia. For Alice’s parents, the ordeal of not knowing what happened to their daughter has been excruciating.
Such an hole in the family and every day I pass her door, bedroom door, and I expect her to be in there, and she’s not there. 2 1 go! On Sunday, a half marathon passed by where Alice lived, an area overflowing with yellow ribbons. They symbolized the neighborhood’s solidarity and hope that Alice would be found safe.
Today, police were waiting for formal identification of the body and a statement was expected later. Alice’s body was recovered from the River Brent, the same heavily silted waterway that divers had searched repeatedly inch by inch. It became clear that Arnis had taken extensive measures to conceal her remains.
She had been wrapped in a trash bag and weighed down using a bicycle wheel fitted with bricks. To further prevent the body from resurfacing, wooden logs were used to keep her submerged. A post-mortem examination at Uxbridge Mortuary took 2 days due to what officials described as the complex nature of the case.
The examination concluded that Alice’s cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. Investigators also concluded that Arnis essayed Alice, and during that assault, he became so consumed by his actions that he suffocated her, causing her death. Despite this being a significant breakthrough, it was not enough to secure a conviction.
Police held a press conference and conducted multiple media interviews appealing for any information that could further connect Arnis to Alice’s murder. Forensic testing later revealed that Alice’s shoe and a cigarette found near her belongings carried Arnis’s DNA. At the same time, the cover of Alice’s iPhone was recovered from the patio area of Arnis’s home.
There was no explanation for how this could have ended up in his residence. 4 days after Alice’s body was recovered on October 4th, police found Arnis, but not in the way anyone had hoped. His body was found in a remote, heavily wooded section of Boston Manor Park concealed among dense shrubs and vines. Arnis had removed himself from the earth with the assistance of a rope and a tree branch.
The condition of the body indicated that he had been dead for several days. This was reported by the Metropolitan Police who stated, “Although no formal identification has been made, earlier indications suggest the body may be that of Arnis Salkins.” Arnis was later formally identified through dental records.
Nevertheless, this meant that Alice’s family and the wider community would be denied justice as they could never see a criminal tried for her murder. On the other hand, the Metropolitan Police continued their investigation to establish exactly what had happened and to rule out the involvement of anybody else. Despite exhaustive inquiries, Arnis remained the sole suspect in Alice’s murder.
Investigators concluded that this evidence would have been sufficient to secure a conviction had Arnis been alive. The Crown Prosecution Service independently reviewed the case and confirmed that the evidence met the threshold for a charge of murder. At the inquest into Alice’s death, it was established that the motive for the killing was sexual in nature.
Regarding Arnis’s own death, authorities determined that he was responsible and there was no evidence of a third-party involvement. With no legal closure for either Alice’s family or the wider community remembering her life and celebrate the short but meaningful time she had became the only form of comfort available.
It became clear just how much Alice had meant to those around her and how profoundly she had touched the lives of her friends, family, and her community. Brentside High School, where Alice was a student, released a statement saying, “This is a very sad day for our school. We are devastated by this tragic loss.
We are doing everything we can to support each other and will continue to do so in the days and weeks ahead.” Alice’s family paid tribute to her life at a funeral service described as being full of music. They wanted the ceremony to focus on the joy of Alice’s life and the happiness of having known her.
She was in the honor her through a celebration centered around music. Funeral service was held on October 23rd, 2014. Community had adorned Hanwell’s clock tower with flowers and tributes to Alice. The day of the funeral, traffic in Hanwell came to a standstill as locals lined the streets to pay their respects while the procession passed by.
Alice’s coffin was by her sister Nina, her grandmother Anne, and family friend Carol McCourt. The artwork depicted a meadow scene and was said to show Alice’s love of nature. It also featured her three cats, Lottie, Lewis, and Patty, and her dog Peggy. During the service, videos of Alice playing and singing her own songs were shown.
Tributes were paid by her teachers, parents, and sister. Alice was buried in Portugal. A public memorial for Alice was held on November 2nd at Greenford Town Hall, allowing the wider community to come together and honor her life. The memorial featured music inspired by Alice with performances by her school teachers in her memory.
Alice’s parents also addressed those gathered speaking in tender and heartfelt words about their daughter and the light she brought into their lives. I have been numbed by shock and grief. I have felt outright and anger at the loss of her life. And unbelievable sadness at the emptiness that has been left. I have racked my brains with all the what ifs of that day.
Anything that might have stopped this random, incomprehensible tragedy. The open mics, the playing together, exploring nature, saying I love you to each other. Those things and so many more will never happen now. Her parents later established the Youth Musical Memorial Fund, created to celebrate her life and to support other young people who shared the same spark, creativity, and joy that defined Alice.
The fund’s website describes Alice in the following words. Alice Gross was born in London on February 14th, 2000, a Valentine’s baby, and her life was cruelly taken from her. She went missing on 28th August, 2014 and was found on 30th September. There are no words to really capture our sense of grief and shock to the loss of Alice.
She was a loving, loyal, and quirky girl with a lively sense of comedy and a compassionate nature. She was a keen musician who wrote and sang her own songs. She played the violin and piano and could turn her hand to any instrument. She was learning the guitar and hoped eventually to have a career in music.
We have set up this tribute site in memory of the joy she found in music making and to give this opportunity to other young people. We’ve been astonished by the continuing support of the public for Alice’s Youth Musical Memorial Fund, which we hope will grow and provide a sustainable legacy of music making for disadvantaged children. We would like to thank all those who have donated or given up their time to organize collections or put on gigs in tribute to Alice’s memory.
To date, the memorial fund has raised over 81,000 pounds. Following Alice’s disappearance, BBC Question Time hosted a debate on immigration and freedom of movement. This was deeply distressing for Alice’s family. In response, Alice’s sister Nina shared her feelings in a public tweet. This is a personal tragedy which we want to deal with privately rather than fearing anyone using it for any political agenda.
It is extremely insensitive to use my family’s tragedy for political agendas and discussion. This is a time of grief for our family. The official Question Time account later issued an apology stating, “Dear Nina, we’re sorry to hear this. We’re really sorry for any hurt or offense caused by tonight’s program.
” Nina responded by thanking them for their message. Alice’s mother later described the essay Alice had written just days before her death as horribly ironic. Throughout everything, Alice’s family remained committed to her values. At the same time, they argued that there should be stringent protocols in place to have background checks so that more tragedies can be avoided.
However, the family would face yet another devastating failure by the authorities. It was discovered that in November of 2014, Sheena Liam, the senior coroner for West London, had lost a 30-page case file containing sensitive evidence and key information relating to Alice’s murder while traveling on a train. Police made efforts to recover the file which reportedly included material concerning the prime suspect, Arnis Balchins, but later concluded that it had most likely been destroyed as waste.
For almost a year, Alice’s family remained unaware that the file had gone missing, learning of its existence only much later. The family expressed anger and deep concern over both the loss of the document and the failure to inform them. In a statement, they said, “We have looked to the police and coroner to help us through our awful loss.
Yet, now we learn they, either independently or together, have withheld from us the loss of this terribly sensitive information about Alice. We are extremely concerned, bewildered, and angry. We have asked for a full written explanation as to what exactly happened and why we were not told.” The Ministry of Justice subsequently launched an internal investigation to determine how and why such a sensitive file was removed from the coroner’s office and lost.
As a result of this error and wider concerns surrounding around the handling of this case, the inquest was transferred to a different coroner, Dr. Fiona Wilcox. In June of 2016, Roslyn told the inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice the family was stunned that a foreign national with a conviction for murder was not monitored or even known about in any way.
This has destroyed much of our faith in our country’s ability to protect its citizens. Fearing that Alice’s death could be misused to fuel anti-immigration agendas, the family asked a civil liberties organization Liberty to represent them at inquest. Their attorney, Rajiv Thacker, told Dr. Wilcox that serious questions needed to be answered regarding whether the state had breached its obligation to protect life under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Attorney Thacker stated, “The family has been informed that it was only after Zalkalns had disappeared that his previous conviction for murder was discovered by the Metropolitan Police.” He further highlighted that Arnis’s criminal history had not appeared on criminal record checks available to British authorities at the time.
Dr. Wilcox responded that she would determine the full scope of the inquest, which would be heard with a jury, once additional evidence had been reviewed. She assured the family that the inquest would be a full, fair, and fearless inquiry. Alice’s family continued to speak publicly, giving interviews to draw attention to the systemic failures they believed had contributed to their daughter’s death.
2016, a jury ultimately concluded that the system could not be held legally responsible for Alice’s murder. Addressing the jury, Coroner Dr. Wilcox said, “As a matter of law, and this is extremely important, I’m instructing you that the evidence in this case does not support any final conclusions that would imply that any actions or inactions of the Home Office or police caused or contributed to Alice’s death, and therefore no such findings may be reached.
” Legally, that ruling brought the inquest to a close, but emotionally for Alice’s family, it did not. Outside the court, they were interviewed, and it was obvious the pain of losing Alice was still very fresh for them. I still find it almost impossible to believe that our lovely daughter has been so brutally taken from us. I miss her every moment of every day.
I have needed to find out as much as I can about how it is possible that she could have been killed in such a horrific way. Life is broken and cold without her. Regardless of whether legal responsibility can be attributed to the state for Alice’s death, I believe the state failed Alice and our family. We ask in the strongest terms that our position not be misunderstood or abused in order to support an anti-immigrant position with which we profoundly disagree, particularly in the current political climate. From their perspective, the
failures were impossible to ignore. When asked whether or not Alice’s case proved anything wrong about freedom of movement, Rosalind shared, >> “That is such a difficult question, because obviously emotionally, um I’m absolutely devastated by Alice’s death. But I don’t think that the answer it is is is to get rid of freedom of movement.
I think the answer is to reform um the system of information sharing um so so that you so that we can protect people. The interviewer then asked Rosalind who she blamed for the oversight. She shared the following. Um I think ultimately ultimately it’s a failure of government and I would blame those who um perhaps in the government who uh didn’t make this a high enough priority at the time.
What kind of toll has Alice’s death taken on you and your family? Um for me it’s been I mean it’s been devastating and Alice would have been in her GCSE year this year and uh many of her friends have finished school. They’ve done their GCSEs. They’ve had their prom. And Alice had designed her prom dress when she was about 11.
Alice was She was She was a very sort of funny, quirky, loyal but also an incredibly fashionable sort of girl. And you know, she’d been thinking and talking about the prom dress. Um so she’d done sort of photoshops of her face with various prom outfits. And it’s absolutely devastating to realize that all of those um all of that possibility and all of those futures just been torn away from her and from us.
Oh, I loved her so much and she was so beautiful and we we used to talk when she was younger and I used to I would walk her to primary school and we would walk down a a wooded lane between golf courses and uh we’d always stop and look at squirrels or or whatever and she was always saying she loved me and and I would say actually that I I loved her.
Um It It’s difficult to to say It’s an enormous void. It’s something that can’t be repaired. I can’t see how it can ever be healed really. If Alice’s case resonated with you, then please click here to check out the case of Lola Daviet out of Paris, France. Lola was murdered by a complete stranger inside of her own apartment building.
