London. August 23, 2010. Police entered a flat in Pimlico used by British intelligence services after colleagues noticed Gareth Williams — a 31-year- old GCHQ codebreaker on secondment to MI6 — had not come to work for nine days. Inside the flat, everything was tidy. Ordered. In its place. Except for the red North Face sports bag sitting in the bathtub. Padlocked shut. Inside was Gareth Williams. Naked. Decomposing. The padlock key was found beneath his body. Forensic investigators searched every surface — the bag, the zipper, the padlock, the bathroom tiles. They found no fingerprints anywhere. No DNA from any third party. No signs of forced entry. No signs of struggle. The central heating had been left on full — in the middle of August — which accelerated decomposition and destroyed potential evidence before investigators arrived. MI6 had known Williams was not coming to work. They did not report him missing for a week. In 2012, after a two-year investigation, the coroner delivered her verdict: Gareth Williams's death was "unnatural and likely to have been criminally mediated." A third party had locked the bag. This was not an accident. Three months later, the Metropolitan Police announced their conclusion: the most probable scenario was that Williams had died alone and accidentally locked himself in the bag. Two official verdicts. Directly contradicting each other. Both still standing. A former KGB defector later claimed that Russia's SVR intelligence service had killed Williams using an untraceable poison introduced through his ear — because he had identified a Russian spy operating inside GCHQ. In 2024, Scotland Yard completed its most recent forensic review of all available evidence in the case. No new DNA. No new suspects. No new lines of enquiry. Gareth Williams earned his mathematics A-levels at thirteen. His first-class degree at seventeen. He joined GCHQ at twenty-two. He was brilliant, private, and intensely curious. His bicycle was still leaning against the wall downstairs when police arrived. He never came back for it. The case is officially still open. If you have information about this case, please contact Crimestoppers UK anonymously at 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org. Subscribe to GraveFile TV — a new investigation every week.