Detectives reveal how they caught Michael Danaher after he brutally murdered Adrian Greenwood

The Detective Superintendent and Inspector knew there was a long road ahead after visiting the blood-soaked scene where Oxford book seller Adrian Greenwood had been savagely stabbed to death.

It was the beginning of a murder investigation the pair would never forget.

Described as a crime similar to an Inspector Morse episode, Thames Valley Police's Major Crime Unit spent the next five days working round the clock to catch his killer - Michael Danaher.

The death of the popular book-seller, who was tortured and stabbed, made national headlines and now the Oxford Mail has spoken to the officers in charge of the case who give an insight into how it was solved.

The murder scene

DS Brown, the senior investigating officer, told the Mail it was one of the biggest investigations he has worked on.

He added: "All murders attract a certain amount of attention because of the very nature of the crime and there individual circumstances. This one locally has got some significance, in terms of you could say it had a little bit of an Inspector Morse theme to it.

"But more importantly, it really was quite a hideous crime as well in terms of the injuries Adrian had inflicted upon him.

"You put that together with the circumstances of what Adrian did for a living and his background and it starts to make a bit of a story."

At 8.36pm on Thursday, April 7, DS Brown first briefed his team on the call made by Mr Greenwood's cleaner, who had found the Christ Church College graduate in a pool of blood in his own home.

Forensic officers found a knife handle with no blade in the home as they determined the victim had died of multiple stab wounds and his phone, wallet and bank card had been taken.

DS Brown said the first port of call in the investigation was to find out everything about the victim's background and pursue lines of enquiry from that.

He added: "It's really important to know everything we can about victim. Part of the job is to understand the victim to try and identify the victim. Understanding the offender and why they did it is probably bit secondary."

It was when going through the scene, forensic officers discovered a £50,000 first-edition copy of Wind in the Willows was missing, an expensive item which was to become pivotal to the case.

Suspecting the death was a result of a 'business deal gone wrong' the team of about 40 officers, traced Mr Greenwood's phone to a location in Peterborough before it went off the grid.

The murder weapon

This meant the painstaking task was then presented of trawling through thousands of cars which appeared on CCTV to find the one which could lead to the phone.

DI Blaik said: "The work we did around that was substantial in terms of the number of vehicles we were looking at initially. It was tens of thousands of vehicles down to 5,300, down to 20, down to one.

"The CCTV work alone was massive. It's not just going out there and finding it and retrieving it, you then have to go through the hours and hours of viewing."

DS Brown added though more information came to light, it was important to look at the wide picture.

He said: "We had a lot of different moments like that where the evidence was building, building and building. But part of our job is to think wider than that. So ok, we have got a man that appears to be linked to this offence - but was it him?

"Is it his DNA? Is it his finger prints in that flat? We also look at, is anyone else involved? Is this part of a wider issue. What else is behind this? What could he say in court?

"And then that takes us along a lot of inquiry lines that we have to negate, to make sure he is the only person.

"So while we have got, a team of people trying to prove it's definitely him, we have got lots of people trying to prove that it is only him."

Officers said the moment they were able to pin it down to 50-year-old Danaher was a Eureka moment, and when they arrested him in his Peterborough flat, they found a knife and a copy of the Wind in the Willows.

Where Adrian Greenwood was last seen

After the meticulous investigation, he was charged on the Monday, just five days after police launched their investigation.

He answered no comment during his interview and pleaded not guilty but the full details of the father-of-two's attack was revealed during his trial at Oxford Crown Court.

Jurors heard how the killer had travelled to the city five times to plot his crime, took a selfie moments afterwards and had created a celebrity hit list, which included Kate Moss and Jeffrey Archer.

He tried to claim someone else was behind this but the jury saw through his lies.

Jailing him for 34 years, Judge Ian Pringle QC branded the murderer 'obsessed' with targetting celebrities and wealthy people to solve his money woes.

The sentence was a great result for the detectives, who said though they were pleased with how the investigation had gone, Mr Greenwood's family would have to live with the tragedy forever.

DS Brown said: "The satisfaction for me is always first and foremost with the family of the victim."

But the senior officers said he was pleased with his team 'to go from absolutely nothing, to identifying somebody as a suspect and getting them into custody' in the space of five days.

He added: "To have enough evidence, just reflects on all the hard work of all the people involved.

"Then to take that to the court for trial some six months later is a massive effort as well."

Crime Reporter Michael Race chats to the officers in the case

When asked whether the case would stand out in his mind, DI Blaik said: "Without a doubt.

"I remember the phone call when Kev rang me on that Thursday night and we met in Oxford and went to the scene which is what we would normally do and we were faced with just a dreadful, dreadful scene in the hallway of Adrian's address.

"I think there are certain things in your police career that you will always remember. Some of them you may need someone to remind you about. There's others that you don't need reminding about and that is certainly one that I won't need reminding about.

A one-hour documentary called Catching A Killer: The Wind in the Willows Murder will be shown on Channel 4 tonight.