Friends of Julie Dixon, who lied about locking her fiance in a closet and burning him to death, say she chose a song about “burning” for his funeral.
Julie, 50, murdered her partner of 15 years, David Twigg, 46, in her workshop after she locked him in a cupboard and set fire to the building in March 2011, in Burgh le Marsh, near Skegness, Lincolnshire.
Now the case is the subject of a new Channel 4 documentary, A Killer Makes a Call, which details how she blamed two masked intruders for the murder, but when police found no evidence of a raid they arrested her.
On the true crime show, friends of the couple revealed how Julie was acting “strange” at David’s wake, saying she was “very lively” and “young,” making people uncomfortable. She also chose to play a song about “danger and fires” at his funeral, despite the circumstances of his death.
Former friend Lisa Mickel said: “Normally, songs played at funerals enhance memories of loving and emotional moments, but Billy Ocean’s Red Light Spells Danger was a song choice that felt a little unusual.”
Friends of Julie Dixon, who lied about locking her partner of 15 years, David Twigg, in a closet and burning him to death, say she chose a song about ‘burning’ for his funeral.
Jules Scotland, another friend of the couple, added: “It’s about heat and danger, and burning again constantly refers to heat and fire.”
The song, which spent ten weeks in the UK charts in 1977, contains the lyrics: “Red light means danger, can’t hold on much longer ’cause red light means warning, can’t hold on.” I’m burning.’
Apparently, Julie was acting “weird” at the wake after the funeral, which set off alarm bells in the group of friends and made them question her story.
John Mickel said: “It’s not normal for people to act when they bury their husband or boyfriend.”
Another said: “We all felt a little uncomfortable, I looked at my husband and said, ‘Do you want to go?’ It started to get awkward, so we left.
John added: ‘As we left the funeral and drove home, the five of us were analyzing the situation, exchanging ideas. I think we got halfway there and I don’t remember who said it, but we said, “Who did it?” “Who do you think she did it?”, and one by one the five of us said, “We think she did it.”
“We had silence for I think about 10 miles and we thought if we all thought she did it, well, the police must be thinking the same thing.”
Another of Julie’s friends, Muriel Gilling, said she “intuitively knew” something was wrong when she bumped into her widowed friend after David’s death.
She said: “I met Julie and her mother in Morrison’s and they both told me there had been intruders and I said, ‘What did you do?’ and she said, ‘I just ran, I just ran,’ and I thought to myself, ‘That’s it.’ It is not like you; If you faced intruders, you would stand your ground.”
“I didn’t tell him that, but I thought, I intuitively knew something wasn’t quite right.”
The couple apparently had a happy relationship, but Julie managed to hide the chaotic financial state that had engulfed David’s business.
However, Lisa claimed that she noticed something was troubling Julie before the funeral, recounting a meeting she had with her at Croft Racecourse after David’s death, where she claimed that a police car scared her former friend.
She said: ‘When we got to Croft there was a police car there, which had no relation to us, but obviously unchained Julie. She went into some sort of crazy frenzy. She started screaming and hitting things with her fists.
“I took her away from my family and I sat on the top of a hill with her and I said, ‘What’s wrong with you, Julie?’ and she said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.'” Did I say why? What are you sorry about?”, but she just didn’t respond.’
Just weeks earlier, Julie had given an Oscar-worthy performance during the 999 call, where she spoke hysterically about masked intruders.
Fire crews found David kneeling in a “prayer position” after breaking into his carpentry business to try to save him.
Julie ended up fooling the police for months, making herself the victim of a horrendous attack by fictitious intruders.
Lisa recalled the moment she arrived home to speak to Julie on the day of the murder and said: “When I walked in, she was rocking back and forth. She had burns on her face, which was quite surprising when I walked in. She was wearing the his brother’s clothes, presumably because forensics had removed his clothes.
“I think she was taking medication to try to calm her down, from what her family was saying, after going through this terrible experience.” ‘
‘She told me her story, but that raised even more questions. What were they doing there, what were they looking for, why did they try to rob you with a balaclava, what did they want?
During the 999 call, Julie was clearly heard telling the operator: ‘They set the place on fire.’
When asked about David, Julie replied: “I think he’s in the warehouse,” adding: “I think they’ve locked him up.”
Julie was sentenced to 23 years behind bars after finally pleading guilty to David’s murder on the second day of her trial.
Julie went on to describe the fictional intruders, telling the operator, “They were dressed in black and were wearing a hoodie, like a mask.”
When firefighters arrived, they described Julie as “hysterical” and at the entrance to the workshop they found a small can of burning liquid.
Two weeks before the murder, Lisa noticed that Julie was acting differently and seemed more nervous. Worried about her, she asked if everything was okay at home.
Lisa said: “He told me that some strange things had been happening for a couple of weeks, things in the middle of the night that made dogs bark, people tampering with the electricity so that the electricity would go off and then come back on and something strange and strange.” things that she couldn’t give an explanation for.
‘I did what I could to calm her down. It sounded a little strange and gave me an uncomfortable feeling.”
With no evidence to back up her thieving story, Julie eventually became the prime suspect and was arrested.
Checks on his computer showed that in the days before the murder he had been looking for ways to kill someone without leaving any evidence that would be revealed in an autopsy.
Police also saw her on CCTV buying two cans of petrol the day before the murder and placing them in her car. When she was asked about them, she said it was for the lawnmower.
Officers discovered the business was in poor financial condition. He was so in debt that, unbeknownst to David, he was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Julie concealed from him that a warrant had been issued for his arrest for failing to pay business taxes, and crime-fighting charity Crimestoppers even offered a £3,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Julie was responsible for the practical side of the business they ran and was in charge of the accounts.
Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, said she failed to pay invoices and the company developed chronic cash flow problems. She hid the mail so he wouldn’t know she had been declared bankrupt and owed £17,500 in taxes.
He later changed his story to say they had a suicide pact before changing again to claim his death was an assisted suicide.
John Mickell said: “There’s no way David would have considered suicide, we were planning things for next year.”
Keith Hampsall, David’s best friend, added: ‘They had just put up 200 meters of fencing on Sunday and they are both going to kill themselves? Ridiculous.’
The judge presiding over the case at Lincoln Crown Court said Julie’s “performance” in the 999 call, to the emergency services at the scene and then at the hospital would be “worthy of the highest praise if she had been an actress in a drama fiction and would have deserved an Oscar’.
The then 43-year-old woman was sentenced to 23 years behind bars after finally pleading guilty on the second day of her trial.
When Judge Michael Heath addressed Julie directly, he said: ‘David Twigg was a kind, hard-working and honorable man. What you did to him was bad. There was a significant degree of planning and premeditation.
“The pain that his prolonged and multiple lies have caused David Twigg’s parents can only be imagined.”
The court heard the couple apparently had a happy relationship, but Julie managed to hide the chaotic financial situation that had engulfed David’s business.
David’s best friend Keith said: “The way David died will haunt me for the rest of my life. I was absolutely devastated, no one deserves to die like that.” He was my best friend. This still worries me to this day and will continue to do so until I die.’