After his worried wife called him to say that she thought an intruder was trying to get into their home, IT worker Dan Cross could only listen as a horrifying attack unfolded
A man whose terrified wife called him to tell him that she was worried about a possible intruder in their home was forced to listen on the phone as she was brutally stabbed to death.
Dan Cross told podcaster James English that he had been in Hull on a business trip when his phone rang. He wasn’t surprised to see that it was his wife Nicola, who was holding the fort at their home in Hertfordshire with their two kids.
He explained: “All the way through that day I was in communication with Nic because the kids were off from school and nursery, because they weren't well.”
But what had started out as a “normal day” for the young family took a horrifying turn. Nicola told Dan that a strange man had been knocking on doors and vandalising cars in the area, making her a little concerned. She’d called the police but they hadn’t done much about it.
Dan recalled that final, horrifying phone call with his wife on on September 14, 2015. He said: “The first thing she said was ‘There's been a bloke hanging around outside the house earlier, and don't get cross with me but I called the police’.”
Nicola claimed to Dan that police had asked her why the man had targeted her, and hadn’t come back to her with any follow-up.
She was worried that the man might want to take some sort of revenge because she had called the police. Dan recalled: “She said ‘I'm a little bit worried, because I can hear banging again …I think he’s got the hump because I phoned the police on him and he's going to have a go at me or something’.”
But while the couple were talking, Nicola suddenly heard a loud bang. She took the phone with her as she went downstairs to investigate. Dan heard her confront the intruder, explaining: “I heard Nikki actually say ‘What what do you want? Get out of my house.’ I knew someone was in there.”
But within moments, Nicola’s words turned into blood-curdling screams. Dan could hear a struggle going on, but from 180 miles away, he was helpless to intervene. He dialled 999 on the hotel phone, but was route through to a call centre in Hull.
Dan tried to explain that he urgently needed to contact Hertfordshire police, which took what seemed like an agonisingly long time. Eventually officers were sent to their home in Hemel Hempstead, and a copper was also sent to Dan’s hotel.
Meanwhile, the line to his wife’s phone had gone eerily silent. “I think deep down i knew something really awful had happened because of the nature of the screams,” Dan said. “I kind of assumed that Nikki was probably dead, and I thought the kids were probably next.”
All Dan could do was wait. Eventually, the officer from Hull arrived at his hotel room. He explained: “He was this big Yorkshire copper. He was huge, he was about six foot five, and he was just sitting there and he had his hand on my shoulder and I remember him saying ‘Just try not to panic, we're going to find out what's going on'.”
But then a second police officer arrived. “She came back, and said ‘Listen, your children are fine your children are absolutely fine,’ but I'm still trying to find out about your wife," Dan said.
“Then she went away again, and when she came back she said ‘Mr Cross, I’m sorry to tell you your wife has died.’ I just fell onto this copper, this big bloke and he was just hugging me and i was just sobbing my heart out.”
Nicola, 37, had been stabbed ten times by Polish warehouse worker Marcin Porczynski as her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter lay in their beds upstairs. He had thrown a heavy plant pot to gain access to the house before attacking the young mum with two knives.
Porczynski, 26, had been “hearing voices” for about three weeks, a court later heard, and had become convinced that children were being starved to death in the Cross family home. After killing Nicola, Porczynski went upstairs and found the children, leading them out onto the street, leaving a bloodstained knife on an elf on the kids’ bedside tables.
In December 2016 Porczynski, who had tested positive for amphetamines and cocaine at the time of his arrest, was handed an indefinite hospital order after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility.
Dan says he only came face to face with his wife’s killer once. “He didn’t look evil,” he recalled. “He just looked like a lost soul.”