Man Kills Ex-Girlfriend With Axe, Buries Body In Forest

A man has been jailed for life for killing his ex-girlfriend and burying her body in a forest in Bowland, Lancashire, North West England.

Katie Kenyon, 33, was last seen getting into a van in Padiham, East Lancashire, where she lived, on April 22 this year. Following her disappearance, when her ex-boyfriend, Andrew Burfield, 51, was questioned by the officers, Burfield initially told the police that he had no idea what happened to Kenyon, BBC reported.

However, he later changed his story and told the officers that he had gone for a picnic with Kenyon during which she dared him to knock a Coca-Cola can out of her hand. He told the officers that when he tried to knock the Coca-Cola can out of her hand with an axe, he missed and accidentally hit her once on the head with the axe, killing her on the spot.

Following this, he was arrested on suspicion of murder on April 27, five days after Kenyon had disappeared. Despite Burfield's claims that Kenyon had been struck with the back of the axe and sustained no further injuries, a post-mortem examination revealed that the victim was struck around 12 times.

According to David McLachlan KC, prosecuting, the nature of her injuries indicated the use of a “heavy-edged weapon” such as an axe or a spade.

Kenyon's body was later found in Gisburn Forest a week after she was murdered in a well-disguised grave in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Investigation revealed that Burfield had dug the grave using ladders and a shovel borrowed from his father the day before the murder, the Guardian reported.

After burying Kenyon's body, Burfield reportedly used Kenyon's phone to send messages, drafted the month before her death, to her children and to himself. He also messaged her from his own mobile and left a voice note telling her that he was "a bit worried" about her.

On Wednesday, Nov. 16, Burfield, pleaded guilty to murdering the mother-of-two, a charge he had initially denied. Burfield admitted killing Kenyon in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire, on April 22, and burying her body in a grave he had dug the day before.

Burfield was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 32 years in prison, a sentence that was reduced by one year because Burfield pleaded guilty on day three of what would have been a three-week trial.

Following the incident, Kenyon’s children were forced to move out of their home and are now being raised by Kenyon’s mother, Dawn.