Philip Austin 2000

To the outside world, Phillip Austin was a quiet, unassuming forklift driver living a perfectly ordinary life in Northampton, England. But in July 2000, a minor argument over booking a family holiday triggered a wave of horrific violence that shattered that illusion forever. Within hours, Austin committed a brutal family annihilation—murdering his wife Claire, their two young children Keiren and Jade, and even the family's two pet dogs. 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, listeners. Welcome to Case by Case. This is a true crime podcast for educational purposes only. Nothing that I say is intended to be disrespectful or offensive to anyone. I research and ran. If that sounds good to you, let's carry on. Episode 5, the case of Philip Austin. This case takes us to Northampton, England, July 10th, 2000. Our victims are Philip's wife Claire 31, son Kieran 8, daughter Jade 7, and the family's two dogs, Dandy and Sooty or Sooty. I'm not sure, but it is S-O-O-T-Y. So I apologize for not saying the darling dog's name properly. Before I actually start talking about the the workings of the case itself, I would like to say that this was a case that did not get um much plubi much publicity because it was drowned in media coverage by two other very big things happening around its time. The first thing was the Chris Watts trial was going on at this time. And so um it was, you know, kind of not relevant compared to that. Also, there was a missing little girl and her body had been found, um, Sarah Payne. And so that also took social or not sorry, social. I'm sorry, that also took media precedence over this case. Um and so this is something that I do that when you look it up, there isn't much information on because there's not much coverage about it, uh, due to the fact that again, it was kind of just put on the back burner. And um I will get into why some people believe it was put on the back burner because it shouldn't have well, one, it shouldn't have been, but two, because uh the reasons why people kind of say it was it wasn't put out there don't make any sense. So we'll kind of get into that as we go along, but I just wanted to put that at the forefront before I go into it, just to make sure everything kind of makes sense. So Philip Austin was born February 14th, 1969. He was a Valentine's baby, he had so much that he could have done, he had so much potential to live up to as a Valentine's baby, right? You're supposed to be sweet and full of love and kind and caring. And obviously, because we're doing a case on him, he did not live up to that. Aside from his birthday, I have nothing about his childhood. I don't know who his parents are, I don't know where he was born. I know nothing up until pretty much the murders. Let's just be honest. Philip and Claire were married in 1993. Friends and colleagues describe Philip as a regular man. What's a regular man? Your guess is as good as mine. The way that I view this is he kind of went to work. He didn't do uh he didn't underachieve, he didn't overachieve, he just achieved. Uh he like, you know, he didn't do anything to get fired, but he also probably didn't do anything to get promoted. Uh he just kind of flew under the radar a little bit. Uh, he went to work and then went home, or came to work and then went home, kind of situation. That's what I think a regular man is. But again, you tell me. Philip was a night shift forklift operator. Claire was a part-time care worker for the, and I looked over how to pronounce this a thousand million times. So I'm gonna try my best to get this right the first time. Claire was a part-time care worker for the Northamptonshire, County Council. Everybody applaud me because I did so good. That was wonderful. Yes. Although he appeared to have a normal life, or he was a regular man, he had um a rage that sometimes he could not handle. Philip and Claire uh had to go to marriage counseling because they argued so much. I mean, if it was like, if you're for it, I have to be against it. It was almost like I might be for it too, but just because I'm going to argue you. It like that's how much they argued. And so they had they went to marriage counseling because that's insane. No one should argue that much, and no one should argue over what they like. They would argue over big things, they would argue over little things, they would argue over the color of the sky, like anything that you could find to be opposite someone, they're going to argue over it. And after these arguments, there were times where Philip would just leave the house, and I'm not sure if he left the house to de-escalate the situation, because again, you know, he he did have an angry streak, or if Claire just put him out of the house, I do not know. But he would leave the house. So, like I said, they had marriage counseling, which is really good. I condone marriage counseling as long as it's not a dangerous situation, right? As long as, you know, things aren't going to harm you or the children involved, then yes, go to marriage counseling. Um, it's a great thing for a family to do so that way you're not just letting go of stuff just because uh you're not getting along at a certain moment in time. Uh the marriage counselors, they're really good at mediation and being unbiased and getting you all to see from each other's perspectives. But that's just my little, that's just my little rant about marriage counseling. Um from doing my research, I did not find anything that said that Philip was physically, verbally, or emotionally abusive to Claire. And I just felt like that was something to put in there because of the fact that he did have, like I said, he had anger issues, but like like nothing, no abuse was ever reported. Uh, so he probably yelled and things like like I want to say things like that, because what goes along with that? But um yelling, sure, you know, um, is it's still a part of intimidation. Somebody can get very scared when you're yelling uh and not know what that can lead up to. So Philip had voluntarily gone to anger management, which I think is a really, really smart thing for someone to do if they themselves do recognize that they need help in that particular area. So I do applaud Philip for doing that. Unfortunately, again, because we're talking about Philip, something did not work. Okay, something didn't work. But here we are. Claire and Philip had two children. Their oldest is their son, Kieran, and he was born in 92, so he was born before they got married. Uh, and then they had Jade, who was born in either 92 or 93. I do know she was seven at the time of her death, but it says she was born either 92 or 93. The family had three pets. They had two poodles, uh Dandy and Sooty. Again, sorry, poor Sooty. I'm not sure how to say your name. And they had a cat named Snoopy, which is so funny. Why do I think that's funny? Let me tell you. Because Snoopy, we all know to be the dog from Charlie Brown. And so to name your cat Snoopy is it's just like a it's almost like a play on words, you know what I mean? Um, and it's also like when people have goldfish and they name their goldfish like cat or dog, turtle, to name an animal another animal, is just so funny. I think it's so funny. But even with the animals that I've had, although I think that's funny, I've never done it before. Like my daughter and I, we had a boxer, and um, we just combined our favorite monster high dolls and gave her one name. So my daughter's favorite monster high dolls, Claudine the wolf, and mine's was Goulia the ghoul, and so we just combined them, and so the dog's name was Claudina, but then we just called her Dina. So, like I mean, whatever, but that's what we would do, and so you know, but now I just kind of want to get a pet and then call it by another animal name. Like I want to get a dog and name it narwa. Cause I think that would be so cute. Oh my gosh, and then I could get it like uh a headband with like a unicorn thing, like a narwa. Ooh, that's cute. Oh my gosh. So I have a friend. We I take his dog sometimes, so I think I'm gonna get her a headband with a unicorn horn. He's gonna hate me. I'm gonna do it. Anyway, that doesn't matter, you guys. We're talking about this case. Okay, so I'm gonna warn you now. For this particular case, unfortunately, I am gonna have to give you details on the murder. Uh, it's just because as much as I don't like to give details, um, this one I I feel like because it better explains what his rage is, it helps carry the story. I hope that makes sense to all of you. So if you don't want to hear the details, then I'll see you in episode six. Promise, promise, promise. But if not, or if you do want to hear them, then this is where we're getting ready to go. All right. Okay, so on July 10th, 2000, Phillips' first victim was Claire. He hit her in the head with a mallet and then strangled her with her bra. He then began to stab her with two carving knives. He had so much anger and force in the stabbings that the handle of one of the knives broke. After the extreme overkill on his wife, Philip killed both dogs by bludgeoning them with the same mallet he used on Claire. Philip then cleaned himself up and made himself presentable, and he withdrew 700 pounds, and then he would go and pick up Jane and Kieran from school. After picking them up, they would all have a little daddy kids date and they went for fish and chips. When they got home, he escorted the kids straight to bed. So he hadn't cleaned up his first crime of killing Claire and the puppies. And so he didn't want Jade and Karen to see it, so he just corralled them to their bedrooms. Once they were there, he gave each of them a dose of nitol, which is a sleeping medication. After giving them that particular dose, he strangles the children. Now, I'm not sure if he strangles them while they're in their sleep state or if they're still drowsy at the moment, but that is how he does that. The bodies were not discovered until July 17th. So this is a full seven days afterwards. As if the story is not tragic enough, the people who discovered the bodies were Claire's parents. I'm now going to go on to describe how her parents came to the crime scene. Claire's mom's name is Carol. And so if at any point in time I switch those two names, I apologize, but they're so close that my tongue just ties it. So the school tells sorry, the school secretary called Carol, and she tells her that she has received some phone calls from concerned neighbors. So the neighbors are like, we don't see uh Claire or the children coming in or out of the house. Like, I'm not sure why they would call the school though. That's kind of weird. But I just like that just hit me just now. Why are you calling the school? Shouldn't you be calling the police? Hmm. Interesting. Unless it was neighbors that were like, we've noticed the kids aren't getting on the bus or something. Maybe. I'm not sure. It doesn't actually say what the neighbors were concerned about. So that's why I'm like, hmm, that's interesting. But anyway, uh she also tells Carol that the children hadn't been in school, right? So remember, this is a seven-day period. So for some of those days, it would have been throughout the school week. So Carol goes, you know what? That is strange because I have been trying to contact my daughter all week, but she hasn't been answering and she hasn't returned any of my attempts to reach out to her. So Carol and the school secretary, they hang up the phone. And Carol then says, quote, like a mother's instinct, by God, I knew something was wrong. End quote. So she calls her husband Harry, who works at a flour mill. He drives back home, he picks up Carol, and then they drive 12 miles to their daughter's home. Philip, I'm sorry, not Philip. What the hell am I talking about? Harry goes into the home first and then he walks out of the home. He is pale. He is, he just looks like he's seen something horrifying. So Carol then goes to go into the home, and Harry stops her and he says, quote, don't go in there. End quote. And so this only heightens Carol's mother instinct to the or motherly instinct to the fact that something horrible has happened inside this house, right? So you have concerned neighbors, you have the children haven't been in school, you have, I have been trying to contact my daughter, and she is not answering me, she's not responding to me. And now we're at the house and you look like you've seen something horrifying, and you're not letting me in this house. Something, something way beyond horrifying is beyond that threshold. And you trying to tell me not to go in there, I need you to move, or you will be moved. That's pretty much what Carol said, because that's what I would say. Okay. Get the hell out of my way. So Carol goes inside. When Carol goes inside, the first thing she notices is the dogs. And so she knows, okay, yep, this is exactly what I thought it was going to be. Something awful has occurred. She then sees the body of her daughter, and then immediately she goes, Where are the children? She makes a beeline straight for the children's bedroom and she finds their deceased body. Now, of course, the concern is, I won't say there was a concern for Philip, but now, of course, it's like, okay, let's see if Philip is also dead. Uh, of course, Philip's not dead. Okay, Philip's not dead because Philip's the one who did it. Now, the thing is this Claire knows that Philip has anger issues, right? Claire has also said that sometimes his anger has spilled to the children. So finding the children, finding Claire, finding the dogs. Uh, Carol, I think I might have just switched their names up a little bit. But, anyways, Carol already knows who did it. She's like, no, 100%, this is Philip. Philip did this. Uh, and so Philip is arrested. Uh, Philip is sentenced. Philip was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences, which means you serve all your sentences at one time. So because he has three life sentences, technically now he only has one because he's serving them all together. And so he would be eligible for parole, but he has to do a minimum of 20 years first. So at the time of his sentencing, I believe he was 32, which means he'll be eligible for parole at 52. I'm gonna say though, Philip is gonna get denied parole. I'm I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna throw that out there. Okay. So this happened in 2000, which means what, 20? 2020. Ooh, crap. I should have looked it up. I'm so sorry. You know what? I am gonna look it up, and then at the end of episode six, I'll give you all um, I'll give you all an update on this case because I didn't even think about it, because I didn't do math well. Anywho, um, I don't think he's gonna get out, and I'm gonna tell y'all why I don't think he's gonna get out. So, first off, they asked him why he did it, and Philip gave two answers as to why he did it. So the first one was because they had come into some money or they had some money, and so he wanted to get uh some type of surgery done so he would stop snoring. Okay, Claire, however, wanted to take the family on holiday, right? That's how British people say it. Holiday. And so they were arguing about that, and so he said he killed Claire because he needed the surgery, and she was over here talking about some holiday, and so they said, Okay, you killed Claire because of the damn the you know argument over the money, so then why'd you kill the children? And he goes, I killed the children because I killed Claire. But he says it as though we're supposed to have known that, like it was a duh, sir. What the what are you talking about? So then his second reason is because Claire was a nag. She was a nag and she hassled him. And so they were like, okay, she was a nag and she was a hassle. All right, so then why'd you kill the kid? And his answer yet again was because I killed Claire. What is this? The farmer in the Dale? What is it? Farmer takes the life, the wife takes a child, the child takes a dog, so you're just out here killing because someone else was like, so you killed Claire, then you had to kill the kids because you killed Claire, then you killed the dogs because you killed the damn kids. And the only reason you weren't able to kill a damn cat is because the cat ran away. What is wrong with you? But again, he's saying this as though we like it was a stupid question to be asked. So, you know what? You probably not gonna get parole. And I hope he didn't. If I look this up and he got fucking parole, I'm gonna be mad. I'm be mad, England, because what you doing over there? Huh? What you doing over there? Oh, bum asses. I'm sorry, because we don't even know. So you're not a bum yet, England. You better hope you stay that way. But remember at the beginning, I was telling y'all that this was a case not well known, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so let me jump into that real quick because I don't want this to be too long. Since we didn't have a lot on the case, I don't want to make it too longer than it needs to be. So, um, of course, like I said, the Chris Watts case was going on and the finding of Sarah Payne's body was also happening. So, Carol, Claire's mom, she believes that one of the reasons or one of the main reasons that this case was buried was because the fact that the father is the perpetrator. So she said, nobody wants to ever think that the bad guy lives in your home with you. And so for me, I kept saying, like, nobody wants to know that the call is coming from inside the house. We all want to view the perpetrator as a stranger. We all want to think that the boogeyman could is isn't someone that we know. We have This idea of people in our homes that glitch specifically our fathers to be providers and protectors. So when you have your protector being the one who hurts you, it's a contradiction. It's not supposed to happen that way. And so Carol was saying that's why this was buried. But remember, this was buried by the Chris Watts case. So when you think about it, that doesn't make any sense because Chris Watts also killed his family. Remember? We did his episode, episode two. So, um, or we did his case. So why would what would be the difference between that? So now I have two theories as to the difference between that. One, Chris Watts was in America, right? This happened in England. Everybody knows America when it comes to murders and mass shootings and all of this stuff. Everybody knows America is gonna have all types of just twisted, unthinkable or unfathomable crimes occur. So when they do occur, it's all eyes on America. That's the first theory that I have is the fact that something can happen within someone else's country and they're like, oh God, no, not us. We don't have that type of shit happen. But then when it happens in America, everybody's like, look at this, look at these fucking idiots. Look what the fuck they got going on. What the hell kind of shit show they got over there? So to me, it's we don't wanna, we don't want to acknowledge it in our own country. So let's look that way. You does that make sense? Uh so it's just a turn-a-blind eye kind of situation. The second thing, uh, theory that I have, and um please understand that this is not to be offensive to uh Claire Austin in any way, because it absolutely isn't. I think Claire was absolutely beautiful. Um, I believe that this has a lot to do with the way that people see people uh aesthetically. So when we're looking at Shanan and let's just look at Shannon and Claire, let's not even look at the kids because both families had some beautiful children. I will say that. Beautiful, beautiful children. Of course, the Watts children were way younger than the Austin children. So I think that that might have something to do with it. The fact that these are two very young little girls. Um, but when we're looking at Shanan and we're looking at Claire, Shenan has a by social standards, she is aesthetically pleasing, whereas Claire by social standards is not. And so I feel like that helps carry the weight of what's happening, it brings more sympathy to the Watts case versus the Austin case. I'm gonna be very honest with you. Because that's the way our world works, right? And even Carol said it herself. She said it herself about Jade. She says, Jade is the victim that we very much care about indeed. Those were her exact words. She said, Jade is young, she has long silver blonde hair, she has a big fringe, she has a toothy smile, she is angelic, she is innocent. Those are the words you would use to describe her. That is exactly what Carol said about her granddaughter. So, with that, you can surmise that what she is saying is my granddaughter was young, blonde, and white. We are supposed to care about those kids. Now, that's not to say Carol is saying we shouldn't care about any other child. I'm not putting that on Carol, but what Carol is trying to say is in the media, those are the kids that get cared about. So why is this case not being cared about? And so that's where she goes into the fact that she believes it's because the perpetrator is her father. And so my theory is that again, it's either because it's easier to look at America's shit show than it is to look at your own shit show, or it's because of the aesthetics between Shannon and Claire. That's how I see that. Now, I didn't look up the case of Sarah Payne because it's not part of what I'm doing at the moment. I'm working on Family Annihilators, but from what I do know about the case of Sarah Payne, she was abducted by a stranger, a stranger, sorry, and murdered. Um, and so I do feel like that probably took a greater bit of social or of I don't know why I'm gonna keep saying social media, took a greater bit of media because again, it's a stranger. We are allowed to to be scared of strangers, right? Stranger danger, and this stranger took the life of this innocent child. So let's broadcast that. And then again, I don't know who the stranger was. So honestly, you know, especially within England, there was a lot to do with, you know, probably what ethnicity the perpetrator was and things like that. So, you know, there's a lot at play here, but there should never be a case that gets pushed down just because something else is happening, especially when it's something like this. We should definitely be looking at family annihilators because, again, this is a topic that does not have a lot of um a lot of research done on it. There's not a lot of data. So we really don't have a good amount of information um about why family annihilators exist, what types of things to look for, um, and things like that. So the more we we push down these particular cases, the more we don't have information. I will say that as of right now, they do say that about uh a little or not a little, over 90% of family annihilators are men, over 90% of family annihilators are white men, over um, I forgot what the percentage was, but there is a certain percentage where um they are within a certain age range, um, because they have uh what is it? The about 32. So it's more of like a that's the the average age is 32. Um, I don't know why. I guess that's just kind of when you come into a career or whatever the case may be. So that's pretty much the only statistics that you have. And so we just got to kind of keep up with these particular situations so that way we can get more information and we can get more information out there to people for them to make conscious decisions. Um, but that is the case of Philip Austin. I hope that I've satisfied you enough for you to come join me in episode six. Thank you for listening. Be safe. Ciao.