Sister of Killer's First Wife Breaks Silence on Family's Decades of Agony
For the first time, Catherine Roots, now in her mid-70s, has spoken candidly about the profound heartbreak that murderer Brian Field inflicted upon her family. In a powerful new book, she details the endless sorrow that engulfed both her and her mother following the tragic events of the late 1960s, revealing how Field's actions irrevocably shattered their lives.
The Brutal Murder That Haunted Surrey for 33 Years
In April 1968, the body of 14-year-old Roy Tutill, a pupil at Kingston Grammar School, was discovered strangled in a copse on the Lord Beaverbrook estate, just one mile from the Box Hill beauty spot near Leatherhead, Surrey. The teenager from Brockham had been sexually assaulted before his death. His final known sighting was on April 23, 1968, hitchhiking on Leatherhead Road (A243) at Hook in an attempt to save money on bus fare home.
For an astonishing 33 years, the killer evaded justice. One of the largest manhunts ever conducted by Surrey Police failed to yield any substantial clues regarding the perpetrator's identity, leaving the case cold and the community in anguish.
A Sister's Grief and Accusation
Catherine Roots places direct blame on Brian Field for the untimely death of her beloved older sister, Celia, who died at just 24 years old in a horrific nighttime accident on the A3 near Petersfield, Hampshire. The tragedy occurred moments after Field abandoned Celia in a layby following a heated argument in their car.
The couple, along with a female friend, were traveling to Gosport after celebrating Field's new job at the Milk Marketing Board in Thames Ditton. An inquest in November 1966 heard that a dispute erupted when Field allegedly placed his hand on the friend's knee during the drive. After Field pulled over, Celia exited the vehicle wearing only a party dress, wandered across the main road, was blinded by headlights, and was struck by a vehicle traveling at 70 mph. The impact was so severe that one of her feet was found on the opposite carriageway.
A December 1966 inquest recorded a verdict of "accidental death" after jurors heard the "peculiar" sequence of events. Field sobbed while giving evidence, stating he drove back to Shepperton that night, saw police lights at the accident scene, but did not stop. Catherine, however, firmly believes Field was responsible for her sister's death.
Devastating News and a Cruel Aftermath
Catherine recalls receiving the news of her sister's death while at a nuns' school. "Shaking uncontrollably, I followed a nun to the music room where my cello was out of its case and waiting for me," she writes. "I took hold of the instrument and started howling 'It's not true. It can't be true. I don't believe it!' I couldn't stop shaking. I needed to speak to Mummy. She would sort this out and tell me it was all a misunderstanding and Celia was there feeding baby Paul and sipping tea."
Instead of comfort, the nuns accused Catherine of selfishness for wanting to contact her grieving mother, telling her, "Don't be a selfish girl. Think about your poor mother." This cruelty compounded the family's trauma, which only deepened in subsequent years.
The DNA Breakthrough and Long-Awaited Justice
In 1999, Brian Field was arrested for drink-driving in the Birmingham area and required to provide a routine saliva sample, which was entered into the national DNA database. When advances in DNA technology prompted the re-examination of Roy Tutill's cold case, investigators found a perfect match between Field's sample and sperm stains preserved on the schoolboy's clothing for over three decades.
Detectives located Field, then working as a gardener and odd-jobs man living in a modest flat on a Solihull housing estate near Birmingham. Arrested in a dawn raid, he initially denied any involvement or connection to Surrey before eventually confessing. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey in London.
Investigations revealed that Field had moved to Shropshire weeks after the murder, having previously lived with his second wife, Mary, in Brewery Lane, Byfleet. For three days, he kept Roy Tutill's body wrapped in blankets in the boot of his Mini car, parked in his garage.
A Lifetime of Violence and Deception
Brian Field died in March 2024 at Full Sutton prison in East Riding, Yorkshire, at age 87. Throughout his life, he was repeatedly questioned by police regarding the disappearances of two teenage boys in Solihull and other cases. His criminal history included a 1984 conviction for kidnapping two boys in Oswestry and a 1970s assault on a boy in a dark Scottish alleyway.
Years earlier, Catherine and her mother were shocked to read a newspaper report stating that a Brian Field had died when his car crashed into a river near Oswestry. The vehicle was recovered from the riverbed, but no body was found in the freezing water, leaving unresolved questions about whether it was indeed the same man.
Thus, when detectives traced Catherine and her mother to their Dorset farm in 2001—where Catherine still resides—the revelation that Brian Field had been arrested for the Surrey schoolboy murder came as a profound shock, as they had long believed him dead.
A Family's Ongoing Anguish
Field's son, Paul, who was just weeks old at the time of the Tutill murder and was raised by Catherine's mother among others, was equally dumbfounded to learn in 2001 that his father—whom he also thought deceased—had been arrested for murder.
Catherine, who endured the agony of broken marriages and a childhood under the care of "cruel" nuns, writes with raw emotion: "It remained my very emotional view at the time that Brian should pay for his crimes with his life. Why couldn't it have really been him who drowned in that freezing river?"
Her book, "Eight Words," published by 14th House, offers a searing account of a family's decades-long suffering at the hands of a murderer who evaded justice for generations, finally giving voice to the silent victims left in his wake.
