Stuart Crocker: Britain's TikTok Murder
On 23rd June 2023, budding social media star Winter Swan-Miller uploaded a disturbing video to TikTok. In it, she boasted that she had been a 'bad girl' and urged people to write to her in prison. Her followers were bemused, but couldn't have predicted the full horror of what she was talking about.
Crime+Investigation examines how a relationship built on mutual dependency ended in a senseless murder, one its killer bragged about online.
Who was veteran Stuart Crocker?
62-year-old Stuart Crocker was a beloved father and Army veteran who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, an experience that would have a devastating impact on his life. He developed PTSD after witnessing extreme violence, which he attempted to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. But no amount of substances could minimise his pain.
Despite the difficulties he faced later in life, he was deeply loved by his family. In a victim impact statement, his son, Joseph Kingswell, would say: ‘He was my best friend. He had his faults, he had his wrongdoings, but he was a good man.’
Meeting Winter Swan-Miller
Stuart’s life would become considerably more complicated when he met Winter Swan-Miller, a budding TikTok star who was more than two decades his junior. The pair quickly entered a relationship that many saw as one-sided. But an infatuated Stuart dismissed these reservations and invited her to live with him in his Andover flat.
The ‘tempestuous’ and ‘volatile’ relationship didn't take long to break down. Stuart ignored the red flags; he was head over heels in love. The only common interest the unhappy couple shared was a dependency on drugs and alcohol.
Joseph later said in court: ‘The day you, Winter Swan-Miller, entered my father’s life was the day you brought ruin to whatever sanctity and innocence left in Stuart’s mind, a mind addled by age, the PTSD from serving his country during the Northern Ireland Troubles and the alcohol that followed. You are a malevolent entity.’
The murder of Stuart Crocker
Shortly before Stuart’s murder, Swan-Miller’s therapy dog, Oblivion, went missing. Distraught and addled by drugs, she convinced herself that Stuart had deliberately sold the dog out of spite. He insisted he hadn’t, but she wouldn’t back down.
Her resentment finally bubbled over in pure rage. That evening, she stabbed Stuart a staggering 27 times and strangled him with her handbag strap. She then uploaded a cryptic TikTok video alluding to the murder, telling her followers that she had been a ‘bad girl’ and urging them to write to her in prison.
Afterwards, she fled the scene and continued to drink and take drugs at an ex-partner’s house.
The investigation
The police didn't discover Stuart’s body until five days after the murder, when neighbours reported a ‘foul smell' on 28th June 2023. Subsequently, they launched Operation Brier, a murder investigation led by Detective Chief Inspector Rod Kenny.
As officers appealed for witnesses and dashcam footage, Swan-Miller had already fled Hampshire for the West Midlands. Police later said that rather than hiding, she continued partying, taking drugs and recording content justifying what she had done.
However, thanks to the overwhelming amount of evidence left at the crime scene, investigators were able to build a damning case against her. They also used her published and unpublished social media videos to piece together her movements before and after the killing.
Police eventually traced her to the West Midlands after she tried to use Stuart’s bank card to withdraw his pension. She was arrested outside a supermarket and charged with murder.
Trial and sentencing
Swan-Miller stood trial at Winchester Crown Court. Unbelievably, given the evidence, she maintained her innocence and denied murdering Stuart.
Her defence even claimed that Stuart had sexually exploited and controlled her, but Judge Angela Morris disputed this. She concluded that if there had been coercion and control in the relationship, it had been from Swan-Miller towards Stuart, rather than the other way around.
A jury ultimately found Swan-Miller guilty of Stuart's murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years.
Following the sentencing, Detective Chief Inspector Rod Kenny said Swan-Miller had ‘expressed no remorse for taking Stuart’s life or the pain she has caused his loved ones’.
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