How chilling Snapchat messages helped snare Reece Tansey killers as new footage shows moment cops grill teen monsters
WHEN Reece Tansey agreed to meet two teenage rivals for a scrap on Snapchat, little did he realise he’d been lured to a death trap.
In the early hours of May 4, 2021, the 15-year-old was stabbed six times with a kitchen knife by thug James White, 15, before he ran off with with accomplice Mark Nuttall, 14.
Left for dead, bleeding Reece desperately knocked on doors and was comforted by residents as he died in the street.
Crucially, with his last breaths Reece bravely managed to pass on the names of his assailants, which led to them being arrested and sent to prison.
Now a new ITV programme shows the chilling moments White and Nuttall are grilled by police about their shocking crimes.
Reece’s distraught mother Laura also speaks about how she has been traumatised by her son’s brutal death.
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Wiping away tears on tonight’s Police, Camera, Murder, Laura Tansey says: “It was the worst day of my life.”
Reece’s heartbroken aunt Sam Bennet adds: “It was the biggest shock ever for us all.
“We’re all just so angry. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Reece – a “cheeky” teen with a love of motorcycles – had agreed to meet White and Nuttall with his friend, following a dispute on Snapchat.
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When his friend pulled out of the meeting, Reece said in an online video: “I am gonna get banged, I know. Two on one? You’re f*****g kidding.
“Because he’ll do that, ‘Oh, I’ll put it all over my story that you’ve not come’. Well, I ain’t getting called a p***y for not coming.”
The boys met on Walker Avenue in Bolton, near a primary school, and as the altercation broke out, Recce was knifed six times by White as Nuttall watched.
Harrowing screams
After fleeing the scene, the killer recorded a boastful Snapchat video of himself carrying a blood-soaked knife.
In a text on the social media platform, where messages are instantly deleted after being read, White told Nuttall: “I thought it only went through his coat so I kept doing it. He’s dead now.”
Thinking he could outwit the cops, White wiped his phone clean.
The two were quickly brought into police custody – White by his mum, while Nuttall was arrested at home.
During his son’s arrest, Nuttall’s dad got into a confrontation with the police and told them to “shut the f*** up” when they informed him he would be unable to accompany the suspected killer.
In ITV footage that has never been seen, White remains silent as he is questioned about his motive for killing Reece.
Nuttall, however, provided a statement where he claimed to have not seen White in possession of a knife during the fight with Reece.
He then replied “no comment” to all other questions posed by detectives.
Without a murder weapon, Greater Manchester Police had their work cut out for them finding evidence to charge the two uncooperative teens.
With Nuttall insisting he had no knowledge of a knife, police were determined to recover it to find out whether he had handled it.
The killers’ love of social media and crucial CCTV footage would soon see them leave police a trail of digital breadcrumbs.
Using his phone back-ups, police were able to find an essential piece of evidence – the video White had made with the weapon, callously captioned “muppet”.
In the absence of the weapon, cops knocked on the doors of residents with CCTV cameras for clues – and one captured Reece being chased by his assailants.
Harrowing screams are heard moments later as the two suspects are seen taking the same route back without Reece, suggesting that he had been stabbed.
Incriminating message
Now with undeniable evidence linking White and Nuttall to the crime, police worked to find a motive and whether both suspects were guilty of murder.
They traced a Snapchat message where White told the victim: “Ur acting like you back your boy so if ur backing him, I’m beefing u [sic].”
Other messages were uncovered where the suspect called the victim a “dumb motherf****r” and asked where he was.
White was convicted of the killing and handed a 16-year prison sentence, while Nuttall was given six years for manslaughter.
A judge lifted restrictions which prevented the boys being named in the media in February last year.
Devastating call
Mum Laura recalls how she came to find out that Reece had died at 5.45am that morning.
“A man knocked on the door and said there’d been an incident,” she told ITV.
“I knew then and I just screamed. I said no. He said there’s been a murder and I said ‘what? My son’s been murdered?'”
In her victim’s statement, Reece’s mother Laura Tansey said the 15-year-old “made us smile, he made us laugh, he made us tear our hair out at times, a typical teenage lad, but he was ours”.
She said: “Reece was simply our world, and his death has devastated us beyond belief.
A man knocked on the door and said there’d been an incident. I knew then and I just screamed
Laura Tansey, Reece's mum
“When Reece was born, never did we imagine that in 15 short wonderful years later, his life would be taken in an act of violence that is beyond comprehension.
“Instead of planning his 16th birthday, we found ourselves preparing for Reece’s funeral and having to explain to his little brother, why Reece would never be coming home.
“Reece had his whole life ahead of him. On that day, not only was Reece’s life taken, but so was ours, the news that Reece had been killed simply drained the life from us and we will never be the same again.
“We will never come to terms with the senselessness of it all. The pain is almost physical.”
Lasting pain
On May 28, Reece’s devastated family and friends bid him an emotional farewell at his funeral, which featured several motorbikes.
But more than a year on, the wounds of his savage death are yet to be healed.
On Mark’s six-year jail sentence, Reece’s aunt says in the programme: “When the judge said six years and I was like, what? And then she said, he’ll do half of it.
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“He’s going to be out before he’s 20. It’s disgusting and it’s wrong.”
Police, Camera, Murder is on Tuesday 18th October at 9pm on ITV.
