Her success is no mystery

Cork native Rachel Drennan has always dreamt of becoming a detective investigating major crimes, and at just 24 years old, she is well on her way to achieving that dream.

Having moved across the channel in her late teens, Rachel has just gained first class honours in her Criminology and Criminal Justice degree from the University of South Wales (USW).

During her degree, Rachel played a key part in establishing the USW Cold Case Unit, a partnership which reviews cold case missing persons and murder investigations.

The unit reviews and collates both new and existing evidence which could help progress unsolved cases, some of which are decades old.

Then in 2019, working under the guidance of specialists at USW, Rachel became involved in a collaboration between USW and Locate International, a community interest company dedicated to helping families of unsolved missing person cases to find their loved ones.

The venture brought together volunteers and specialists from different disciplines to investigate and review cases to ensure that all that can reasonably be done, has been done.

“I was involved from the start when myself and another student developed Locate’s processes and terms of references for families, figured out how we were going to run the cases between the partners involved, and decided on how to bring in professionals,” explains Rachel.

“It started with just a really small team, mentored by USW staff Dr Cheryl Allsop, who is a senior lecturer in criminology and criminal justice and is also the Cold Case Unit director.

“Ian McKim, Academic Manager for Criminology, has also played a vital role in the planning and organisation of the teams. We work closely with a number of other professionals from Locate, including ex-DCIs who help to mentor the students involved.”

As with most USW courses, the experience wasn’t just theoretical; Rachel has been able to get some hard-hitting real-life experience too.

“We did one cold case review which finished at the end of last year, have communicated with the investigating police force, and are awaiting the outcome of that,” she said.

“It was the case of Damien Nettles, a 16 year old who disappeared from the Isle of Wight in 1996. We did the case review on it, leading the team, developing tasks, working on how to compile all the documents.

“As we’ve worked on that case, Locate has gone from strength to strength, and we’re now working with international organisations, including missing child service Amber Alert Europe which assists in saving missing children, as well as with police trainees in Germany and universities in Australia.”

The Locate International experience has been a massive help to Rachel as she works towards her career goal.

“My dream career is working as a detective in major crime, so this experience has helped me massively because we follow the exact same process as a major crime team would in investigations such as murder, rape, and missing persons, with actions logs, decision logs justifying every decision we make,” she said.

“And if we find something relevant, we could find ourselves in court, same as anybody else, any police officer investigating it. Just because we’re a university team, doesn’t mean that we won’t find something.

“It’s helped massively with understanding that process and also making contacts and getting to know people in the field.”

Having seen first-hand one aspect of the career she’s hoping to follow, Rachel has also been experiencing the other side of policing, volunteering on the front line for South Wales Police.

Rachel says she joined the ‘Specials’ because she wanted a taste of the police before applying for a full-time job. She has been there for just under two years now and says she really enjoys it.

“It’s challenging because it’s front-line policing. It’s exactly the same role as any PC – same equipment, same uniform – only it’s voluntary,” she said.

“But people don’t see you any differently. They don’t know that I’m a special, so when I go to calls, anything from domestics to anti-social behaviour, it can be challenging.

“But what you learn from doing this, you can’t learn anywhere else and I’m hoping it will help me get a place in the police so I can work towards the career I’ve always wanted to pursue.”