London Falling Part 2: The Truth - The Sunday Story

April 12, 2026·29 min·2 clips

A source who contacted Keefe unprompted revealed that Indian Dave's method of extracting information was heating a knife and touching it to the victim's skin.

The story begins with a death. Gabriel Pogrund lays out the case of Zach Brettler, a 19-year-old who jumped from a balcony in London in 2019. Police treated it as suicide. Then the episode turns to what they did not chase, especially after the Metropolitan Police failed to secure charges against two men involved. One small phrase keeps pulling attention. Akbar said he was heating up knives, and the guest argues that police seemed unwilling to follow that lead properly. Matthew pushed them to ask Mervin. Investigator Rory Wilkinson is heard brushing the idea aside, saying the man had nothing to do with it. The refusal lands hard because Zach's last internet search, minutes before he died, was about what to do with skin burns. That does not prove what happened. Still, the guest makes the case that those details sat close enough together to deserve a serious look. Police pointed to one answer: Zach's body had no burn marks, so they saw nothing to pursue. The reporting then widens. The guest finds people who knew Indian Dave, including someone who came forward after hearing calls were being made. That source describes a pattern and says Dave used heated knives over a stove when he wanted something from someone. The episode stays in the gray area. The weight comes from the gap between what investigators waved away and what later reporting made hard to ignore.

As heard by us

A serious account of a disputed death and the reporting that challenged the original account.

The episode tracks the case of Zach Brettler, a 19-year-old who jumped to his death from a balcony in London in 2019, and the decision to treat it as a suicide.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a slow, exacting look at how one death became a contested case.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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