Huddersfield detective felt doubts about Karen Matthews' story

Dec 4 2008 By Andrew Jackson

DETECTIVE Constable Christine Freeman suspected from early on in the investigation that certain aspects of Karen Matthews’ account "didn’t seem to fit".

As a mother and officer with more than 25 years’ experience, she trusted her instincts, which told her that something was not quite right.

Her job as the family liaison officer was to get to know the family and report back any inconsistencies that could help in the police investigation.

"Initially the role of a family liaison officer is to investigate, to get as much information as we can from that family," she said.

"To help us determine their lifestyle, see what sort of things Shannon liked, what she didn’t like, try to find this child.

"I would say that early on we began to realise there were inconsistencies in what Karen was telling us.

"And yeah, this is a woman that is quite probably traumatised by the fact that her daughter is missing and and we did make allowances, but there were quite significant things that didn’t seem to fit."

She said as time went on Matthews was able to justify some of her actions. But one incident sticks in her mind.

"I met Karen and within minutes of meeting her, my phone rang. I have got one of those pop songs on it and Karen started dancing and I remember thinking ’how odd to be dancing to my ring tone when your daughter’s missing’.

"I’m a mum myself and know I would have been out of my mind and Karen didn’t seem to be."

The detective recalls the time when Shannon was found.