RESTRICTED
METROPOLITAN POLICE SERVICE
Witness Statement - MG11
Operation:Op. LINTEL
Case ref:MPS/2024/CR/447291
Statement of:M. Reeve
Occupation:Cleaning operative, Verdant Solutions
Date taken:23 October 2024
Time:14:32
Officer:DS P. Osei
Command:Metropolitan Police Service

I came here because I saw the appeal for Mrs Caldwell on social media last night. I recognised the address. I've been going to that house every Tuesday since March.

I work for Verdant Solutions. I attend residential properties alone and follow instructions through an app. I do not speak to clients. I never see them. They are always out when I arrive for work.

The Caldwell property was already extremely organised when I first attended. I cleaned the place anyway, dusting surfaces, hoovering. All the usual things. The second week everything was spotless. There was no dust anywhere – like the place had been cleaned between my visits. I messaged the app after my second visit to check it was necessary that I came every week. I got a very short response saying to continue as requested.

Over time, through cleaning each week even without ever properly seeing the occupants, I usually start to feel like I get to know them from the small traces they left behind - in this case it was apparent the house belonged to a couple. There was only one bed at the property (a double) and no signs that children lived there. There was the faint smell of perfume in the hallway, always a book on the little table on one side of the bed. This was a couple obsessed with cleanliness.

I logged everything through the app.

Then last week, there was a glass of water on the ground in the kitchen. Still full of water. Someone had deliberately placed it there. And two minutes after I logged it on the app I got a message saying to clean it and put it in the cupboard. That glass on the floor was the only sign of mess or things being out of place in six months of working at that house.

I was told I was housekeeping. But DS Osei has confirmed Mrs Caldwell has not been seen since 14 October.

I don’t know what I was doing in that house.


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