'This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.'
Claire Somers as she is now...
As she was in 1986, when she was seven years old,
the year she was abducted
from her care home.
Robert Fenchurch... Manager and major shareholder
of Endsleigh Lodge, Lewisham.
Claire's abductor ran him over and found the time to go back and pop his eyes out as well.
This is her mother, Trish Somers. Drugs, prostitution.
Eve matched DNA with the corpse...
Claire Somers was in that hotel room.
Abigail was...
well, she mentioned the Bag Man.
It's just a story... That we used to tell each other as kids. Yeah, he's not a real person.
What do we know about the Hardings?
London born and bred. Leo Harding has been claiming incapacity benefit since 1995.
Why? He suffered a stroke.
My wife's inside. Would you like me to go and find her?
Trish, can you hear me?
Can you tell me what happened? When they were all in there together, it weren't natural.
It was a kind of hell.
He thought the holes were eyes and that, by rubbing them out, he'd blind them.
So who inflicted the cigarette burns in the first place?
The Bag Man's there. He's always there.
He's real.
The Bag Man is real.
Can you see him?
He's out there.
You say a word... you think a word... he'll come for you.
He'll come for your eyes.
It was a... nine-year-old boy... called David Drew.
Broading ate in a restaurant on his own.
Downed two bottles of wine and was still there at midnight.
It's going to be hard to put him at Teresa's flat.
And he was on duty the night Claire was killed? Indeed.
OK, so let's say Broading was telling the truth
and David Drew was King Rat at Endsleigh Lodge and his particular form of terror was
burning eyeholes into his fellow residents.
Grace, could he still have this compulsion,
this fixation, decades later?
Well, you get between five and seven years to nurture kids, to reflect their worth back to them
Well, it depends on the quality of their life.
If things go wrong, then David Drew's default position
would be one of violent hostility to the world around him.
Trish?
Why did you do it?
Why did you go for him?
You knew what Terry would do.
I wanted him to do worse.
Do you think he was involved in Claire's abduction?
I don't know.
I thought...
I thought she was happy.
And then you come along
and said she was on the game.
You thought she was happy?
Based on what?
She wrote to me.
Wrote what?
Please, Trish. Tell me. Wrote what?
When did she write it? Trish?
What did you do with the letter?
It's OK.
I found another full pack upstairs.
He's stopped taking them.
How long? A week, maybe.
Has he ever stopped them before? Never.
Gotcha.
Hey... is that Dr Foley?
It's Abigail. Hi.
I need to speak to you.
Is there any chance I could come in this afternoon?
Yeah. Yeah, that would be great.
Thank you.
Yeah. Bye. Thanks.
Charred, torn and decomposed.
Thanks, Eve.
Where did you get this from? Trish's flat.
Trish's bin? Yeah.
Isn't she in hospital?
Yes.
That didn't take you long.
Sorry?
I thought you were "by the book".
I'm trying to help her.
You stink of gin, by the way.
And Polos.
Is it just today? Yes, just today.
Something about this case? Yeah.
I'm sure you're on top of it.
OK, this is a postmark.
It's dated 1989, so Claire would've been ten years old.
It's Canningford which is in West Sussex. Right, and the letter?
It's just fragments, there's nothing coherent.
The opacity and strength, the fact it's lined and margined would indicate it's...
A school exercise book. Exactly. Trish was adamant Claire was happy,
that's why she didn't go to the police so, if Claire was,
then it's possible that she was allowed to go to school.
Unless she wasn't cared for, and the abductor dictated the letter.
Let's go with your theory that the letter is genuine.
It's still highly unlikely that they would register her as Claire Somers. We don't know what she looks like.
Oh, well, we have some idea. I ran a PCA face recognition algorithm
to age-progress our seven-year-old Claire and got this.
OK, we need to get in touch with the school and see if they have school photographs dating back to 1989.
Hello, Abi.
It's just so weird at home right now.
Everyone talks to each other, but not to me.
Not to Dad either. And I need someone to talk to because...
well, I can't talk to HIM. Why not?
You've met him, haven't you?
He's practically dead.
I just feel like...
like it's all my fault. If I hadn't made friends with that woman,
none of this would've happened. Abigail, there's many things happening in this business
and your relationship with your kidnapper
is a small part of it, believe me.
What is it?
It was... it was just a message.
I didn't speak to her. Maybe if I'd spoken to her...
'It's me...
'I'm so sorry...
'I need to tell you...'
I need to tell you that you have to leave.
'He's real...'
The Bag Man... is real.
Abigail, what is this Bag Man?
You mentioned him before, remember?
It's like Mum said.
It was just a story.
The boys used to scare me with it when I was little.
Scare you how? They were just being silly.
They used to say he was hiding in the dark and would take me away if I didn't go to sleep.
But, when I was in that cupboard,
I hadn't eaten or anything and...
I thought I saw him but...
I didn't, I know I didn't.
I know Teresa was... well, she was weird but...
this is just crazy.
Do you think it means something important?
I think it was important to Teresa.
And I'm very glad you brought this to us.
Hi, I've got the 1989 class photo so Claire would have been in Year Five.
Put it on the board. No, but the thing is, there are no matching images.
However, there were three girls absent that day so...
What about subsequent years? Exactly. I'll find out if any of
those three girls were away for any of the subsequent school photo days.
What year is this photograph? 1989. Right, three girls absent.
Where have you been? Nowhere.
What's going on?
What have you been talking about?
Never you mind. And you haven't answered your brother's question.
Where have you been?
Out. Out where, Abigail?
Just out.
'It's me.'
'I'm so sorry...
'I just need to tell you...
'I need to tell you that you have to leave...
'because...
'he's real.
'The Bag Man is real.'
The Bag Man.
This one is actually Brazilian...
Homem Do Saco. But the concept is familiar to all of us. The Scots know him as the Boggart,
Norse myth calls him the Puki and Cherokee Indians, the Booger Man.
It's an archetype, a dream figure of the mass unconscious.
Every culture has one but, whatever the name, they do remarkably similar things.
They steal or harm children who don't behave according to the rules of the grown-up world.
"Do as I say or the Bag Man will get you". Fascinating stuff, Grace,
a cultural archetype. Do you know where they hang out? Boyd, this myth
is incredibly important to this family... Because if you do,
Spence and I can go there and arrest one of them for two murders. Right. Susan Miller, absent from
every one of her class photo days throughout her entire school career.
Surely that's too many times to be a coincidence?
Parents Andrew and Ann Miller.
She started when she was seven in 1986 and then left just before her GCSEs in 1995.
Claire Somers would be fifteen, sixteen. OK, address?
It's here, Carstone Farm, Canningford.
Abi...
Yes? Sweetheart.
I heard you earlier.
Talking to the police. Sweetheart...
Darling, look...
You have to be more careful.
About who you talk to.
Now, all I mean is...
talk to me.
Just me.
Phone, water, electrics... all cut off, but it's still registered in the name of Andrew Miller.
So we're looking at an empty house?
One which we've no right to break into.
No, you're quite right.
We should just go back and wait seven days for a warrant.
All right.
What are you doing? Come on... Sarah,
what are you doing?
Don't do that, Sarah, come on, this is highly...
illegal.
Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
What happened here?
Table's set for six.
What made them leave?
Look at this.
Height chart.
Four kids, I'd say maybe two to three years between them.
Maybe one of them was Claire Somers.
Is this where she was held?
Boyd...
There it is.
'The Bag Man's there.
'He's always there.'
You say a word, you think a word, he'll come for you.
He'll come for your eyes.
If this place was cage, it was a gilded one.
You don't need a cage if your prisoners are scared. Scared of what?
The Bag Man.
Hey, it's good up here, isn't it?
It's all right. Oh, come on.
A few cans, couple of smokes, fooling around with some boy...
or girl.
What's this?
Claire.
Claire Somers. AKA Susan Miller.
And David. Drew? Yeah.
In love.
"4 ever".
We found traces of Claire Somers...
and David Drew.
They were kept here at the farmhouse.
Find out all you can about Ann and Andrew Miller, will you? Thanks, Spence.
OK, the Andrew Miller who bought Carstone farmhouse in 1985 died in 1962, aged five.
Impressive! Looks like he applied for
a replacement birth certificate and built a whole new identity around it.
So, whoever he was, not only does he fake his own identity but Claire's as well.
Abi... Abi?
Dad... What are you doing?
I want you to come with me, Abi. What?
I want you to come and help me pick out flowers for your sister.
Now?
Well, you know how fussy she was.
I want her to have the pick of the bunch and, you know,
she deserves that, doesn't she?
Yeah, of course.
Just let me get in the shower, yeah? No. There's no time.
Market opens in 20 minutes.
'Apart from Carstone Farm...'
what other connections are there between David and Claire?
Six months before Claire was registered missing,
her and Drew shared the same social worker, a Marie McMiles.
She tried to blow the whistle on
Fenchurch and get Endsleigh Lodge closed down.
So what happened to her report?
Police dismissed the claims. Because they had a deal with Fenchurch.
Yeah, anyway, a month later, she travels to Scotland, hires a skiff,
rows out into one of the deepest lochs and disappears.
No body.
So I go in search of her next of kin and come up with Nathan McMiles, a sociologist.
He left London after Marie's death to take up tenure at the University of California.
Three months later, the US Customs have him crossing the border into Mexico
and HE disappears.
Only he didn't.
And neither did his wife.
Dad, please. What's going on?
Not now. Everything your mother and I did, it came from love.
From a conviction that you do not hurt, punish and brutalise children, no matter what they've done.
And you do not write them off. Ever!
Dad, what are you talking about?
All this happens around the time Claire Somers and David Drew disappeared from care.
OK, so what happens? The McMiles family fake their own death,
re-emerge as the Millers...
And then turn into the Hardings.
I just walked in and he went for me.
Abi? Abi's going to be fine.
He won't hurt her.
You know what he's like, he's just making a point, throwing a strop.
Don't tell Tom, for God's sake, he'll freak.
Now this is in case we're separated. Take it!
Dad?
Promise you'll tell me what's going on when we get out of here?
Yes, OK, I promise.
Where's the toilet?
It's down the hall. At the end.
Abi. He's taken me to some storage place. He's acting really weird.
I know exactly where you are.
Stay there and stay calm.
OK.
Were you calling someone, Abi? No.
Mr Harding?
What is it?
We need you to come in.
Where's Max?
He's gone for some undercoat.
What is this? Is Leo in the house?
He's gone out with Abi.
I'd like you both to come with us, please.
One day it'll make sense, I promise you.
But, until then, the past is exactly that.
Our secrets were never your secrets and you...
you get to choose your own life, Abi.
Abi?
What have you done, Abi? What have I done? You called someone, didn't you?
I'm not the one lying about going to get bloody flowers!
You called home, didn't you?
Didn't you? So what if I have?
Abi!
In, in.
Where's Dad? He's still inside.
Dad?
Picked up Max yet?
Checked three DIY shops. No joy.
Leo and Abi haven't turned up either.
But I got a call from the manager at the Mentorn clinic.
Teresa Harding requested a DNA paternity test.
The results just came in.
Subject was her sister, Abigail. Leo's not the father?
No, he's not.
Where's Dad? I couldn't find him.
What's going on, Abi?
Abducting children and changing their identities...
taking them away from everyone and everything they ever knew.
Was that really the only way?
Tomorrow we're swabbing down the walls
of Carstone Farm to get a DNA match on you, Leo, Max, Tom, Teresa.
And Claire.
Why did you take them?
To give them a life.
To save them.
From this.
I knew what Fenchurch was doing, but he had it all sewn up...
the police,
the council.
I made complaints.
I filed reports.
They were ignored.
We couldn't stand by another day.
We had to give some of those kids a
childhood worthy of the name.
Maxie, please. What's going on?
We can't go home... anymore.
Who gave you the right to be their saviour?
It wasn't a right.
It was... It was our duty!
David Drew. Who is he? Max or Tom?
Why did you pick him? Did it make you feel more worthy,
taking the most damaged child you've ever encountered?
I could see his potential.
Potential? I think Fenchurch was right on the money.
I mean the lives that would have been saved had David been kept locked up.
Get off!
David's parents put a bag on his head.
They painted eyes on the wall.
Told him if he even took a peek, then the eyes would see and they would know.
The things they did to him!
His behaviour... Was inevitable. No!
His behaviour was understandable.
And Fenchurch...
was going to cast him down for ever.
I drove him from Endsleigh Lodge
to his interim care unit.
I could feel the hope in him
as soon as I got him away from that terrible place.
But we had to be careful.
We waited two months.
And then we...
we took him.
I said, if we are taking one...
Why not more?
Leo and I made a plan.
A plan to rescue Claire.
We took David with us.
He knew how to get into Endsleigh Lodge.
But Fenchurch must have heard us.
That's when your troubles began.
It happened so fast we didn't see him.
Stop! Stop!
Oh, my god!
Oh, god!
Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.
He's badly hurt, Marie.
We have to go. Oh! Nathan! Now!
David, get back in the car!
So you knew, right from the beginning, what you were taking on?
David Drew was a human being.
And he was ours then, our child.
Yeah, and he was useful to you. He kept the others in line.
You taught him to use the Bag Man to control them. No!
It wasn't like that. He loved them.
He took responsibility for them.
The first five years it was extraordinary.
To see them... starting to trust the world again.
Where are we, Maxie?
Maxie!
This used to be our home.
This place is disgusting.
It's not. Don't ever call it that.
Where's my mother?
Sit down, please.
We're not sure where to start with you, Tom.
The thing I'm most curious about at the moment is if you can actually remember your real name...
the name your real parents gave you before Karen and Leo stole you away.
You have no idea, have you,
what our lives were like before they came for us?
They didn't take a life away from us, they gave us one back.
Yes!
That's out. It's clearly in. Out!
Come on. Another game. Come on.
No. After we eat.
Best of three. I'm tired.
Spoilsport.
Do you remember the tournament?
What?
We weren't allowed to have birthday parties.
I mean, we weren't allowed to invite other kids, you know.
So Teresa got her own back.
She invited the whole class to a badminton tournament.
Why weren't you allowed parties?
God, Mum went nuts.
But Dad...
Dad really took it on the chin.
He made sandwiches, jugs of squash and he even bought a little silver trophy.
So sweet.
I'd never seen that side of him.
The fun side.
It's a real shame.
Why did he change?
Oh, I don't know.
London, I think, didn't really agree with him.
But he was happy that day.
He rigged up this whole DIY floodlight thing.
It was just brilliant. Presented the trophy in his tuxedo.
Who won?
You won.
Didn't you?
What?
Claire won.
Claire... won.
Why did you leave Carstone Farm if it was such a fairytale?
Someone broke ranks.
Ended up on the streets. Claire.
She wasn't the only one whose heart was broken.
Leo suffered a stroke or was it really a breakdown?
Poor bastard, replaced
as head of the family that he created.
I want to hear it from your lips, the real reason why you're still protecting David Drew.
Cos it's not just maternal love, is it, Karen?
You corrupted that boy under the guise of protecting him. No!
Don't say that to me. Don't tell me I don't understand that it wasn't like that.
IT WASN'T LIKE THAT!
Then tell me what happened then. Help me, Karen. Help me understand what you did!
Tell me how screwing your adopted son was all part of saving him!
Claire...
How could you do this?
You're sick, evil!
I loved him, Mum, and you've taken him from me!
I never saw it coming.
That I believe.
He needed so much love.
He had so much love to give.
So you let Claire go?
To the very life you tried to save her from?
How did Claire find Teresa?
My guess - it was a fluke.
She'd been gone 15 years, and she turns up at the Mentorn clinic.
Miss Sharman?
Please.
I'd like to see you all. The boys...
No, this is not going to happen, it can't.
I can see you. I'd like to see you, but...
not the others.
Why did she kidnap Abigail?
Was she trying to blackmail Leo and Karen?
It wasn't blackmail.
She wanted back in.
So why not let her back in? Because we couldn't trust her.
She'd left once before. And we have to stay tight.
If we're not together,
we're nothing.
So Claire took Abi in revenge for her rejection by the family?
She locked her in a cupboard, denied her food and water for god's sake.
Why was she punishing her? I mean, what's Abi guilty of?
Am I missing something here? Oh, come on!
Claire was crazy.
She was ranting. Ranting about what?
Threats. Accusations.
So you talked to her?
You met her in the car park?
She got in touch.
We fixed a meeting.
She said she was going to finish it now.
Go to the police.
End it all for us. And...
And?
And I had to put a stop to it.
I had to shut her up,
So you're telling us, Tom, that you killed your sister?
Yes. That you stabbed her eyes out. Yes. With what?
With the car key. What does it matter? I did it.
No sale.
It was Max, wasn't it? Not you.
When his control is threatened, he changes.
Reverts back.
To David Drew.
Where's Abi? She should've been mine, Max.
Don't be ridiculous! I wanted a baby with you.
I've been watching you. All of you.
I know who she is, Max. And now everyone's going to know!
Yeah, and you'd do that, wouldn't you? You'd do that to the family?
All those years I missed out!
All those years on my own! No, you left us, Claire!
Because of you! You ruined this family! Argh!
I saw you! Don't say that! I saw you!
Don't say that! No! No!
So you torched the car?
And then,
just took a gamble we'd find Abi sooner or later?
Max said it was the only way.
What about Teresa?
Abi said that, before she died,
she rang her in some distress. She said the Bag Man was real. Now was that Max terrorising her?
No!
Teresa was a disturbed person.
She chose to take her own life.
She was the sanest of the lot of you. And she knew that Max had killed Claire.
And Max thought she'd spoken to us, didn't he?
So he couldn't take any chances?
So what was he doing? Terrifying her into silence?
Or did he mean to kill her? I don't know!
Look, I understand your loyalty to Max,
but he isn't protecting your family, he's destroying it.
How long do we have to stay here? Don't know.
Maxie...? Hm?
Why do you think Teresa did what she did?
I think maybe she was unhappy.
About what? I don't know, Abigail.
She's not here to tell me.
Sorry. I'm sorry. OK? I'm sorry.
I think I left some rice in the van.
OK. Thanks.
Look at this.
Harris Storage CCTV.
Oh, god.
Leo...
Max...
Where's Max?
He went to get Abi.
Does Max know that Abi came to see us?
Abigail is not safe.
Max won't hurt her. Why not? Because she's his?
Where is he?
Karen, we need your help to resolve this.
To stop Max.
Do you understand?
Do you mean, confront him? I mean, talk to him.
As his mother.
I'm not sure that I can.
Yes, you can.
We know this started with the best intentions, with love and commitment
to David as the person he was on the day he was born, not what he became.
But he's a danger to Abigail.
He's my son.
I can't betray him.
So you'd rather sacrifice your daughter?
Take it off.
It's just a stupid old mask.
Take it off.
That'll be Mum.
No! No! No!
The police are here.
I know. They're going to ruin everything.
Everything's ruined already, darling.
Put down the knife.
It's not me you've come for.
Oh, darling, it is. No, you've come for her.
She's flesh and blood. She's special, isn't she?
What do you mean?
No, David, she's a victim like you were a victim.
What right have you got? Huh? What right to interfere?
We were happy. We were well. We were cared for!
I don't think you were happy, David.
I don't think Teresa was happy, I don't think Claire was happy.
They were your sisters and you killed them, David.
No, no, no, no. I'm Max. I'm Max!
I'm Max! No! Let her go!! I'm Max!!
Now you release her! I'm Max!
Release her!! No! Release her! Mother! Mother!
Release her!
No!
I love my son.
I always, always take care of him.
'The Bag Man's there. He's always there.
'You say a word, you think a word, he'll come for you.
'He'll come for your eyes.'
'Can you see him?'
'He's out there.'
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk