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FISHERMAN DROWNS IN HORSESHOE LAKE
The Belleville [IL] News-Democrat - June 17, 2003
By Beth Hundsdorfer
MADISON -- A fisherman apparently drowned Monday afternoon after he waded into Horseshoe Lake to untangle his fishing line.
The man's name was not released by police.
"He walked out into the water and just dropped down," said one witness, who was fishing nearby. "I saw his hands come up out of the water, then he went down again."
Two men with the fisherman held out a pole so they could drag the man to safety, according to the witness. The drowning man grabbed it but then let go.
The witness from East St. Louis, grabbed her cell phone about 4:55 p.m. and called Illinois State Police.
"I just don't know why he didn't cut that line. I would have given him another hook," said another witness.
Madison County Sheriff's Department deputies, Illinois Department of Natural Resource conservation Officer, Illinois State Police and Madison Police responded, but were unable to rescue the man.
Bubblemasters Underwater Recovery Team were called at 5:20 p.m. Team member Keith Arnold of Bethalto entered the water at 6:30 p.m. and located the fisherman's body about five minutes later.
"I just thank God they found him. It's just too bad they couldn't save him," one witness said.
The body was about 15 feet from shore in water that was about 10 to 12 feet deep, said Bubblemasters team captain.
"The water descends pretty quickly there, and there was allot of moss on the rocks in the area," Bowles said.
The man was in his late 40's or early 50's. A Madison County deputy coroner pronounced the man dead at the scene, but declined to identify him.
Copyright © 2003 The Belleville News-Democrat
Woman's body found in Mississippi
The [Alton, IL] Telegraph - August 3, 2000
By BARBARA M. COPE, Telegraph staff writer
The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis is asking for help to identify the body of a woman found floating Wednesday in the Mississippi River near the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge.
"How could anybody do something like this?" asked John Spears of St. Louis, a witness at the scene where the body was found. "There are some sick people in the world."
Spears and his stepson, Dennis Hoffmeister, said a fisherman near the cofferdams at the low-water dam snagged the body, reportedly a woman stuffed into a bag, about 11:15 a.m.
"We had only been there for about 20 minutes when somebody came over and told us there was a body by the (bridge pylons). I thought, 'That can't be right,'" Spears said. "We come down here to fish or meet friends all the time, and I've never seen anything like this."
"It is a tragedy, obviously," said Lt. Steve Nonn, detective with the Madison County Sheriff's Department and deputy commander of the Major Case Squad. "Right now, the most important thing is to identify her."
The Major Case Squad, made up of homicide detectives from various law enforcement agencies throughout the area, is investigating the case as a homicide although there were no obvious signs of trauma to the body. An autopsy was performed Wednesday evening.
The body was found in shallow water near the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Nonn said. The Madison County Sheriff's Department led the initial investigation and blocked off access to the only road serving the fishing area at the low-water dam just downstream from the bridge.
Nonn said the victim was a light-skinned black woman in her late teens or early 20s. She was approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 120 to 130 pounds. She had brown eyes and auburn hair with dark roots, Nonn said. She had no identifying marks or tattoos. The only jewelry she was wearing was a diamond and gold ring which, by design and where she wore it, could be a wedding ring, Nonn said. He said her only clothing was a pair of purple panties.
Hoffmeister said the body was only partially visible to the men as it floated in the current. It did not appear to be severely decomposed, he said.
"Our best guess is that she was not in the water longer than two days, probably closer to 36 hours," Nonn said.
The Bubblemasters Underwater Rescue Team and the Illinois State Police crime scene unit also responded to the scene. The case was turned over to the Major Case Squad about 1 p.m. As they work the case, the squad's detectives will maintain a headquarters on Nonn's home turf: the Madison County Sheriff's Department.
Witnesses at the scene reported the victim had been stuffed into a large black plastic bag, but Nonn said he could not verify the account. He pointed out that the swirling water by the Chain of Rocks Bridge might have swept the bag away from the body.
Eight teams from the Major Case Squad are investigating a variety of leads and working to identify the woman, Nonn said. They are investigating two missing person reports from the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Nonn said the elite investigators also were looking at similar crimes, such as the deaths of five women whose bodies were found during recent months in East St. Louis, just a few miles downstream. One of the victims was found wearing only panties, and another was placed in a garbage bag.
Police tracked down the first lead in the case within hours. A group of men fled the scene just as the body was discovered. The Granite City Police Department found the vehicle they were driving from a description given by witnesses.
Nonn said the men cooperated with police and currently are only considered as additional witnesses. The length of time the body was in the water does not suggest that any of the witnesses was involved, Nonn said.
The area where the body was found is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property that is expected to be annexed into the city of Madison within the next few weeks. The city of Madison recently received a go-ahead from the Corps to annex the area, and ordinances are being prepared by the city attorney to be acted on in the next few weeks.
Copyright © 2000 The Telegraph
The [Alton, IL] Telegraph - August 3, 2000
By BARBARA M. COPE, Telegraph staff writer
The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis is asking for help to identify the body of a woman found floating Wednesday in the Mississippi River near the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge.
"How could anybody do something like this?" asked John Spears of St. Louis, a witness at the scene where the body was found. "There are some sick people in the world."
Spears and his stepson, Dennis Hoffmeister, said a fisherman near the cofferdams at the low-water dam snagged the body, reportedly a woman stuffed into a bag, about 11:15 a.m.
"We had only been there for about 20 minutes when somebody came over and told us there was a body by the (bridge pylons). I thought, 'That can't be right,'" Spears said. "We come down here to fish or meet friends all the time, and I've never seen anything like this."
"It is a tragedy, obviously," said Lt. Steve Nonn, detective with the Madison County Sheriff's Department and deputy commander of the Major Case Squad. "Right now, the most important thing is to identify her."
The Major Case Squad, made up of homicide detectives from various law enforcement agencies throughout the area, is investigating the case as a homicide although there were no obvious signs of trauma to the body. An autopsy was performed Wednesday evening.
The body was found in shallow water near the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Nonn said. The Madison County Sheriff's Department led the initial investigation and blocked off access to the only road serving the fishing area at the low-water dam just downstream from the bridge.
Nonn said the victim was a light-skinned black woman in her late teens or early 20s. She was approximately 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 120 to 130 pounds. She had brown eyes and auburn hair with dark roots, Nonn said. She had no identifying marks or tattoos. The only jewelry she was wearing was a diamond and gold ring which, by design and where she wore it, could be a wedding ring, Nonn said. He said her only clothing was a pair of purple panties.
Hoffmeister said the body was only partially visible to the men as it floated in the current. It did not appear to be severely decomposed, he said.
"Our best guess is that she was not in the water longer than two days, probably closer to 36 hours," Nonn said.
The Bubblemasters Underwater Rescue Team and the Illinois State Police crime scene unit also responded to the scene. The case was turned over to the Major Case Squad about 1 p.m. As they work the case, the squad's detectives will maintain a headquarters on Nonn's home turf: the Madison County Sheriff's Department.
Witnesses at the scene reported the victim had been stuffed into a large black plastic bag, but Nonn said he could not verify the account. He pointed out that the swirling water by the Chain of Rocks Bridge might have swept the bag away from the body.
Eight teams from the Major Case Squad are investigating a variety of leads and working to identify the woman, Nonn said. They are investigating two missing person reports from the St. Louis metropolitan area.
Nonn said the elite investigators also were looking at similar crimes, such as the deaths of five women whose bodies were found during recent months in East St. Louis, just a few miles downstream. One of the victims was found wearing only panties, and another was placed in a garbage bag.
Police tracked down the first lead in the case within hours. A group of men fled the scene just as the body was discovered. The Granite City Police Department found the vehicle they were driving from a description given by witnesses.
Nonn said the men cooperated with police and currently are only considered as additional witnesses. The length of time the body was in the water does not suggest that any of the witnesses was involved, Nonn said.
The area where the body was found is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property that is expected to be annexed into the city of Madison within the next few weeks. The city of Madison recently received a go-ahead from the Corps to annex the area, and ordinances are being prepared by the city attorney to be acted on in the next few weeks.
Copyright © 2000 The Telegraph
MYSTERY BURIED IN DEPTHS OF MISSISSIPPI
ALTON TEACHER'S DEATH MAY NEVER BE SOLVED
The Belleville [IL] News-Democrat - October 17, 2004
By Jayne Matthews
ALTON --- A group of volunteer rescue divers sometimes returns to the 2 1/2 -mile stretch of Mississippi River that runs south from Alton.
The divers still hope to solve the puzzle of a retired Alton High School teacher whose car went into the water on a cold morning nearly three years ago.
"I have to admit we've pulled our hair out over this for the past three years. This is one of those unsolved mysteries," said captain of the Granite City-based Bubblemasters Underwater Rescue Team.
In hopes of solving the mystery of the missing teacher, the 50-member team sometimes holds its practice dives along the 2 1/2 miles between the Alton Belle riverboat casino and Melvin Price Locks and Dam.
Wilma Bricker, then 66, of Godfrey has not been seen since a maroon Dodge identical to hers floated for about seven minutes and sank into the Mississippi on March 19, 2002.
Equal to the mystery of Bricker's disappearance are the secrets of the river itself. Its powerful currents and the constant movement of the Mississippi's sand bottom befuddle the people whose job is to map and patrol it, said Alan Dooley, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"This is a very, very unforgiving river out there. It's speedier than the sand that moves in the desert," Dooley said. "The Mississippi River at St. Louis can go up and down as much as 50 or 55 feet. It's very complex. We don't really understand it."
Bricker's car would have sunk into the river's bottom and, by now, could be under more than six feet of sand, said Joe Burnett, a hydrographer with the Corps of Engineers.
"In the Mississippi, as much as the top six feet of sand is moving downstream. It's what is called a moving-bed river," Burnett said.
The corps' river mapping crew once tracked a hump of sand that traveled 75 feet in 24 hours, he said.
Security cameras on the Alton Belle Casino filmed the car sinking into the river, 20 to 30 feet from the river bank.
The most accepted theory is that Bricker accidentally drove into the river from the parking lot of the Alton Belle. But the angle of the Belle's camera did not film the car entering the river, and investigators found no witnesses.
Bricker, who taught business classes for 42 years, kept in close touch with her family, authorities said. The night before she disappeared, she told her mother she planned to spend some time on the Alton Belle when it opened at 8 a.m.
She had an appointment with her hairdresser later in the morning, but never arrived.
The car went into the water at the same time Bricker planned to go to the Belle.
The captain of a docked paddle boat, the Anastasia, reported feeling two bumps against its hull. Rescuers believe the bumps were Bricker's floating car hitting the back of the excursion boat, Bowles said.
Because Bricker's car was new, it would have floated longer --- and traveled farther out into the river before sinking --- than an older, less tightly sealed car, Bowles said.
Divers worked in shifts for five days. The search had to be halted one day because of high winds. Besides Bubblemasters, several other rescue diving teams searched for Bricker and her car.
On the fourth day of the search, the corps' river mapping crew was called in to use its state-of-the-art sonar beams to locate the car. The mappers' sonar goes out in a fan shape and has 240 separate beams.
"We tried for two days," Burnett said. "I think we could have had a better chance if we had been called within a day. The bottom is constantly changing."
Also hampering the search for the car was concrete and metal debris from Locks and Dam 26, which was dynamited in 1992 to make way for the Melvin Price Locks and Dam.
The river searchers said last week it's unlikely Bricker's car floated underwater though the locks at the Melvin Price dam. But none wanted to call it an impossibility.
If the car did not manage to squeeze though the locks, it is either lodged against the dam or buried in deep water between the dam and the new Alton Bridge, Burnett said.
In July 2002, four months after Bricker's disappearance, viewing the Alton Belle videotape enabled her sister to have a judge declare Bricker legally dead. Her sister, Georgia Jenkins of Godfrey, could not be reached.
Because no body was recovered, a county coroner's jury cannot rule Bricker's death an accident, suicide or homicide.
"Because there was no body, the coroner has no venue," said Ralph Baahlmann, chief investigator for Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn.
Dooley said it's not unheard of for the Mississippi River to give up a secret unexpectedly.
"These are the kinds of things that turn up by accident later."
Copyright © 2004 The Belleville News-Democrat - Record Number: 0410180108
ALTON TEACHER'S DEATH MAY NEVER BE SOLVED
The Belleville [IL] News-Democrat - October 17, 2004
By Jayne Matthews
ALTON --- A group of volunteer rescue divers sometimes returns to the 2 1/2 -mile stretch of Mississippi River that runs south from Alton.
The divers still hope to solve the puzzle of a retired Alton High School teacher whose car went into the water on a cold morning nearly three years ago.
"I have to admit we've pulled our hair out over this for the past three years. This is one of those unsolved mysteries," said captain of the Granite City-based Bubblemasters Underwater Rescue Team.
In hopes of solving the mystery of the missing teacher, the 50-member team sometimes holds its practice dives along the 2 1/2 miles between the Alton Belle riverboat casino and Melvin Price Locks and Dam.
Wilma Bricker, then 66, of Godfrey has not been seen since a maroon Dodge identical to hers floated for about seven minutes and sank into the Mississippi on March 19, 2002.
Equal to the mystery of Bricker's disappearance are the secrets of the river itself. Its powerful currents and the constant movement of the Mississippi's sand bottom befuddle the people whose job is to map and patrol it, said Alan Dooley, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
"This is a very, very unforgiving river out there. It's speedier than the sand that moves in the desert," Dooley said. "The Mississippi River at St. Louis can go up and down as much as 50 or 55 feet. It's very complex. We don't really understand it."
Bricker's car would have sunk into the river's bottom and, by now, could be under more than six feet of sand, said Joe Burnett, a hydrographer with the Corps of Engineers.
"In the Mississippi, as much as the top six feet of sand is moving downstream. It's what is called a moving-bed river," Burnett said.
The corps' river mapping crew once tracked a hump of sand that traveled 75 feet in 24 hours, he said.
Security cameras on the Alton Belle Casino filmed the car sinking into the river, 20 to 30 feet from the river bank.
The most accepted theory is that Bricker accidentally drove into the river from the parking lot of the Alton Belle. But the angle of the Belle's camera did not film the car entering the river, and investigators found no witnesses.
Bricker, who taught business classes for 42 years, kept in close touch with her family, authorities said. The night before she disappeared, she told her mother she planned to spend some time on the Alton Belle when it opened at 8 a.m.
She had an appointment with her hairdresser later in the morning, but never arrived.
The car went into the water at the same time Bricker planned to go to the Belle.
The captain of a docked paddle boat, the Anastasia, reported feeling two bumps against its hull. Rescuers believe the bumps were Bricker's floating car hitting the back of the excursion boat, Bowles said.
Because Bricker's car was new, it would have floated longer --- and traveled farther out into the river before sinking --- than an older, less tightly sealed car, Bowles said.
Divers worked in shifts for five days. The search had to be halted one day because of high winds. Besides Bubblemasters, several other rescue diving teams searched for Bricker and her car.
On the fourth day of the search, the corps' river mapping crew was called in to use its state-of-the-art sonar beams to locate the car. The mappers' sonar goes out in a fan shape and has 240 separate beams.
"We tried for two days," Burnett said. "I think we could have had a better chance if we had been called within a day. The bottom is constantly changing."
Also hampering the search for the car was concrete and metal debris from Locks and Dam 26, which was dynamited in 1992 to make way for the Melvin Price Locks and Dam.
The river searchers said last week it's unlikely Bricker's car floated underwater though the locks at the Melvin Price dam. But none wanted to call it an impossibility.
If the car did not manage to squeeze though the locks, it is either lodged against the dam or buried in deep water between the dam and the new Alton Bridge, Burnett said.
In July 2002, four months after Bricker's disappearance, viewing the Alton Belle videotape enabled her sister to have a judge declare Bricker legally dead. Her sister, Georgia Jenkins of Godfrey, could not be reached.
Because no body was recovered, a county coroner's jury cannot rule Bricker's death an accident, suicide or homicide.
"Because there was no body, the coroner has no venue," said Ralph Baahlmann, chief investigator for Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn.
Dooley said it's not unheard of for the Mississippi River to give up a secret unexpectedly.
"These are the kinds of things that turn up by accident later."
Copyright © 2004 The Belleville News-Democrat - Record Number: 0410180108
Stolen truck surfaces in farmer's pond
The [Alton, IL] Telegraph - April 23, 2004
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS, The Telegraph
ROXANA -- John Losch knew something wasn't right when he spotted tire tracks leading into his family's pond in rural Roxana.
Losch was mowing grass around the pond Wednesday night off Hedge Road when he discovered the tracks. He knew instinctively there was a problem.
"There was only one set, and they led directly into the water," Losch said.
What authorities learned only five hours later has only deepened the mystery. How did a truck stolen early this month outside Granite City end up, still in park, at the bottom of the pond?
Authorities from multiple jurisdictions want to know. The investigation is being coordinated through the Metro East Auto Theft Task Force and the Madison County Sheriff's Department.
A large crowd of divers, police and rescue officials converged on what is referred to as Losch Farm shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday. The situation provided the first opportunity for use of a unique piece of equipment recently donated to Twin Rivers Search and Rescue -- a submersible remotely operated vehicle, called a Nova Ray.
Roxana Police Chief Richard Farthing said the tracks leading into the water came from the northeast and were not fresh. He decided to contact Alton Volunteer Emergency Corps because he knew that one set of tracks leading into the quarter-acre body of water meant something lurked underneath.
"This is a first for (Roxana)," Farthing said. "We've never had a submerged vehicle, and we've never asked for assistance for search and rescue."
Anthony Jennings, deputy commander of AVEC, said his organization and Twin Rivers were each notified around 7:15 p.m. Once crews arrived, they knew they had no choice but to use the Nova Ray.
"We knew it was going to be a recovery and not a rescue," Jennings said. "It worked great. It found what we were looking for."
The taxi cab-yellow, remote-operated vehicle with its pectoral "wings" looks like a manta ray and works like a submarine, with its high tech camera and sonar equipment. The 55-pound piece surveys underwater sites and transmits video images to an operator on land.
As with anything new, the equipment had its moments. Fifteen feet from the bank, it became entangled under what turned out to be the truck.
"It was following the tire tracks when it stopped," Jennings said.
Rather than damage the $55,000-plus piece of equipment, rescuers called in divers. Authorities notified Bubblemasters Underwater Recovery Team around 9 p.m.
Nearly four hours after the tracks were discovered, Keith Arnold, a diver with BURT, entered the murky water. Holding a connecting cable from a tow-truck in one hand and using the Nova Ray's power cord to guide him with the other, Arnold slowing worked his way to the submerged truck.
More than two dozen emergency personnel stood in the dark and watched as bubbles from Arnold's scuba gear reached the surface. Within minutes Arnold found the truck and was connecting the tow cable so that Steve Kainz, owner of Trickey's Service Inc. of Wood River, could pull it out.
Once Arnold was out of the water and the equipment moved from the pond's shore, Kainz slowly began pulling the truck out.
The hum of the towing cable's motor quieted the crowd.
One minute ... two minutes ... then the rear of a silver 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 popped out of the water. As Kainz continued to pull the truck out, debris began falling out. A grimy tennis shoe, a hat and then several blue bags tied tightly at the top poured out the broken driver's side window.
With more of the truck beginning to show, some of the mystery unraveled.
Sgt. Will Cunningham of the Roxana Police Department checked the truck's license and found out that the Madison County Sheriff's Department reported it stolen April 1.
"What's strange is the column wasn't punched and the truck was in park," Farthing said.
When the truck was pulled from the water, significant damage could be seen on the left front side.
"There is also damage to the undercarriage," Farthing said.
He said the truck was also in four-wheel drive.
Farthing did not identify the owner of the truck.
Sgt. John Lakin, chief of detectives with the Sheriff's Department, said he was unsure of the owner but that the truck had been reported stolen at Mack and Mick's, a sports bar along Illinois Route 203 just outside Granite City.
Five hours after the tracks were discovered, emergency crews packed up and headed home.
"I'm glad it turned out the way it did," Farthing said. "Because things could have been a whole lot worse."
Losch, who simply wanted to finish mowing around the pond so he could go inside and watch television, never imagined his night would turn out so eventful.
"I just wanted to get done so I could eat dinner and watch 'Star Trek'," he said.
Copyright © 2004 The Telegraph
The [Alton, IL] Telegraph - April 23, 2004
By CYNTHIA M. ELLIS, The Telegraph
ROXANA -- John Losch knew something wasn't right when he spotted tire tracks leading into his family's pond in rural Roxana.
Losch was mowing grass around the pond Wednesday night off Hedge Road when he discovered the tracks. He knew instinctively there was a problem.
"There was only one set, and they led directly into the water," Losch said.
What authorities learned only five hours later has only deepened the mystery. How did a truck stolen early this month outside Granite City end up, still in park, at the bottom of the pond?
Authorities from multiple jurisdictions want to know. The investigation is being coordinated through the Metro East Auto Theft Task Force and the Madison County Sheriff's Department.
A large crowd of divers, police and rescue officials converged on what is referred to as Losch Farm shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday. The situation provided the first opportunity for use of a unique piece of equipment recently donated to Twin Rivers Search and Rescue -- a submersible remotely operated vehicle, called a Nova Ray.
Roxana Police Chief Richard Farthing said the tracks leading into the water came from the northeast and were not fresh. He decided to contact Alton Volunteer Emergency Corps because he knew that one set of tracks leading into the quarter-acre body of water meant something lurked underneath.
"This is a first for (Roxana)," Farthing said. "We've never had a submerged vehicle, and we've never asked for assistance for search and rescue."
Anthony Jennings, deputy commander of AVEC, said his organization and Twin Rivers were each notified around 7:15 p.m. Once crews arrived, they knew they had no choice but to use the Nova Ray.
"We knew it was going to be a recovery and not a rescue," Jennings said. "It worked great. It found what we were looking for."
The taxi cab-yellow, remote-operated vehicle with its pectoral "wings" looks like a manta ray and works like a submarine, with its high tech camera and sonar equipment. The 55-pound piece surveys underwater sites and transmits video images to an operator on land.
As with anything new, the equipment had its moments. Fifteen feet from the bank, it became entangled under what turned out to be the truck.
"It was following the tire tracks when it stopped," Jennings said.
Rather than damage the $55,000-plus piece of equipment, rescuers called in divers. Authorities notified Bubblemasters Underwater Recovery Team around 9 p.m.
Nearly four hours after the tracks were discovered, Keith Arnold, a diver with BURT, entered the murky water. Holding a connecting cable from a tow-truck in one hand and using the Nova Ray's power cord to guide him with the other, Arnold slowing worked his way to the submerged truck.
More than two dozen emergency personnel stood in the dark and watched as bubbles from Arnold's scuba gear reached the surface. Within minutes Arnold found the truck and was connecting the tow cable so that Steve Kainz, owner of Trickey's Service Inc. of Wood River, could pull it out.
Once Arnold was out of the water and the equipment moved from the pond's shore, Kainz slowly began pulling the truck out.
The hum of the towing cable's motor quieted the crowd.
One minute ... two minutes ... then the rear of a silver 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 popped out of the water. As Kainz continued to pull the truck out, debris began falling out. A grimy tennis shoe, a hat and then several blue bags tied tightly at the top poured out the broken driver's side window.
With more of the truck beginning to show, some of the mystery unraveled.
Sgt. Will Cunningham of the Roxana Police Department checked the truck's license and found out that the Madison County Sheriff's Department reported it stolen April 1.
"What's strange is the column wasn't punched and the truck was in park," Farthing said.
When the truck was pulled from the water, significant damage could be seen on the left front side.
"There is also damage to the undercarriage," Farthing said.
He said the truck was also in four-wheel drive.
Farthing did not identify the owner of the truck.
Sgt. John Lakin, chief of detectives with the Sheriff's Department, said he was unsure of the owner but that the truck had been reported stolen at Mack and Mick's, a sports bar along Illinois Route 203 just outside Granite City.
Five hours after the tracks were discovered, emergency crews packed up and headed home.
"I'm glad it turned out the way it did," Farthing said. "Because things could have been a whole lot worse."
Losch, who simply wanted to finish mowing around the pond so he could go inside and watch television, never imagined his night would turn out so eventful.
"I just wanted to get done so I could eat dinner and watch 'Star Trek'," he said.
Copyright © 2004 The Telegraph