Two years ago, Dana Burton was standing under a tree, shielding from the rain, when her life changed forever.
It was August and, having gone out without a coat, she had got caught in an unseasonal downpour. As she took cover under some overhanging branches, something fell from above and landed next to her with a heavy thud.
‘It made me jump out of my skin,’ says Dana. ‘A black bin bag had fallen and almost hit me.’
As she inched closer to get a better look, she recoiled suddenly. ‘The smell hit me. It was awful. I thought there must be a dead animal rotting inside.’
Horrified, she hurried away, only to return 15 minutes later after worrying about the contents. By that point, the bag had torn a little, revealing what looked like yellow foam.
‘That’s when I noticed the bag was shaped like a human leg,’ she says, ‘like a boot.’
Dana was so shaken, she dialled 101. ‘I felt stupid calling the non-emergency line, but I didn’t know what else to do.’
But 101 treated it as an emergency. Within minutes two officers had arrived at the path in Boscombe, Bournemouth – and confirmed it was a severed leg and foot. And that yellow ‘foam’ she thought she saw was in fact rotting flesh. Twenty officers swarmed the area and discovered a second package containing another leg.
Two years ago, Dana Burton was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was caught up in a murder case, which soon after took a toll on her mental health
After Dana called 101, it was treated as an emergency. Within minutes two officers had arrived at the path in Boscombe, Bournemouth – and confirmed it was a severed leg and foot
Twenty officers swarmed the area and discovered a second package containing another leg
‘I started freaking out,’ says Dana, 43. ‘I was terrified.’
She had unwittingly been drawn into one of the country’s most gruesome murder investigations.
With the popularity of true crime stories, you might imagine Dana was fascinated to be involved in a real-life hunt for a murderer. But the reality of being drawn into such a case is far bleaker.
After all, this was a particularly brutal crime. It would later emerge that a couple – Benjamin Atkins, 49, and Debbie Pereira, 39 – had killed, decapitated and dismembered Simon Shotton, 48, who had been living with them for two weeks in return for drugs.
Atkins had even boasted that he’d eaten Shotton’s body.
He had in fact sawn off the victim’s limbs and scattered them; his legs were dumped in the bags Dana had discovered, his arms had been disposed of at the murderers’ home, his torso was found by police in a large suitcase, and his head had been burned in a fire but was never found.
‘To learn what had actually happened was truly hideous,’ says Dana.
‘It was a particularly sickening murder. It left me feeling shocked, disgusted and scared.’
Not only did the horrors lead to a breakdown that took two years of therapy to recover from, but Dana was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and still struggles to scrub the events of that day from her mind.
‘Watching horror movies is enjoyable and sometimes it’s fun to have a scare, but being involved in an actual murder case where the victim was killed in such a brutal way felt completely different,’ she says.
Dana said she would call Samaritans, usually when her husband Philip had left the house. ‘If I rang him upset, he’d come straight home to be with me. I’m lucky he’s so compassionate’
It was Dana’s family – husband Philip, then 55, and two children, 13 and 11 – who helped pull her through the ordeal.
On that fateful weekend, Philip had taken the children to Devon and Dana, whose retail business had recently folded, had taken some extra work with an events company in Bournemouth.
It was around 11am when, with the event quieter than expected, she had been asked to hand out flyers in the local area. That’s when she got caught in the rain and made the shocking discovery.
She recalls: ‘A policeman said, “You’re not under arrest but we need to take you to the station.” I kept saying, “I’m not a suspect, am I?” and he replied, “You’d know if you were.”
‘At the station I was interviewed. It was very surreal.’
By the time she got home later that evening, Dana was feeling very disturbed. ‘All kinds of thoughts were spiralling round my head. I couldn’t get the revolting smell out of my mind. And I started to really worry; what if the murderer discovered it was me who called the police?
‘When I phoned my husband that night to fill him in, he sounded surprised but I don’t think he realised the impact it was having on me. That night I dreamt that a man with a big knife was trying to chop me up.’
It wasn’t until her family returned to their home in Wiltshire two days later that Philip realised how shaken she was.
Yet it was only the beginning.
Following Dana’s grisly discovery, a sample of muscle tissue revealed that the human remains belonged to Mr Shotton.
Police searched Walpole Lane in Bournemouth in February last year, where skull fragments were found
Pereira was caught on police bodycam footage protesting her innocence at the time of her arrest in September 2023
After obtaining call data from his mobile, the police were led to a nearby pawn shop, where they uncovered that Debbie Pereira had brought in Mr Shotton’s iPhone on August 18, 2023.
On September 1, the police went to Pereira’s home and discovered her partner of 18 months hiding behind a wheelbarrow.
The couple were arrested, and the following day police found the severed arms of Mr Shotton in two black bin bags outside.
While the pair were taken to Poole Magistrates’ Court, they were covertly recorded in the back of a police van bragging of the brutal murder – with Atkins confessing he’d do it ‘again and again’.
Days after their arrest, Shotton’s headless torso was found in a hedgerow inside a suitcase.
‘As it was an ongoing investigation police told me nothing,’ says Dana. ‘I just had to read about it in the press, although very little came out until the trial. Not knowing the circumstances around the case meant I worried for my safety.
‘About four days after finding the bag, the police came to my house and took photos of me. It was quite a short visit and I couldn’t help thinking I might still be a suspect at this point.’
Then police called Dana back to the station for further questioning; they wanted to interview her again to match her movements on CCTV.
‘I thought the ordeal was over, but it wasn’t,’ says Dana. ‘Because I was living in Wiltshire and the crime happened in Bournemouth, there was no support for me.
‘In Wiltshire there were no support services available, so I kept being sent in circles – to the police, then victim support, then my GP – without achieving anything.’
Meanwhile Dana felt broken: ‘I was in a terrible state of fear, panic and reliving the events.’
At the time, she was also grappling with a series of personal crises; not only had her business failed but their landlord was selling their home: ‘The inquiry was one thing too many. I didn’t feel safe anymore. I was worried the murderers would want to kill me. I had no idea if this was a random attack, or whether they could do the same to me.’
Simon Shotton’s limbs were sawn off with a hacksaw and scattered across a coastal city
Dana admits she even became suicidal: ‘I couldn’t see a way out of my fear and anguish, everything felt too much and I couldn’t cope. It just felt easier to give up, retreat to bed and curl up.
‘I was struggling to do simple things like clean the house, look after myself or my kids. I felt like a failure as a mum and wife for not being able to cope.’
‘I’d be driving home from work, thinking it would be so easy to just drive into another car. But back home, I’d call Samaritans and they’d make me think of my kids and my family.
‘I called Samaritans about six times, usually when Philip had left the house. I didn’t like being on my own. If I rang him upset, he’d come straight home to be with me. I’m lucky he’s so compassionate.’
Just as Dana felt she was turning a corner, police informed her she needed to attend Winchester Crown Court.
‘I had a complete meltdown,’ she says. ‘Phil came home from work and found me on the kitchen floor in hysterics.
‘I’d assumed I wouldn’t be needed to give evidence. I didn’t want to face the couple responsible – I didn’t want them to know who I was.’
In December 2023, the witness care team took Dana to the courtroom and showed her where she’d give evidence.
‘I felt a surge of anxiety and started hyperventilating. I was standing in the dock having a panic attack. I was taken back to the witness room where a member of the witness care team stayed with me.
‘A police officer and barrister came to see me too – I’d been trying to communicate to them how affected I was, but it wasn’t until they saw me that it dawned on them just how much.
‘Later that day, I was told they would read my statement instead. It was a relief, but I’d been called to court and got all worked up for nothing.’
Yet something positive emerged from that day.
In May 2024, the jury found Ben Atkins guilty of Shotton’s murder and was sentenced for life
Debbie Pereira was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years – later increased to six after the court heard she ‘hid’ in her bedroom while Atkins carried out the brutal attack but helped clean up afterwards
‘One of the clerks who saw me have a panic attack told me about a homicide service that helps witnesses. It was the first time I felt anyone other than my family had listened and helped.’
Until this point Dana had only shared what had happened with a few close friends.
‘I don’t think people really understood how much it shook me. Some even laughed, as if it was nothing. Part of me could see why. I kept thinking, why am I reacting like this? But that only made me feel more ashamed. I became quite good at hiding my true feelings.’
In January 2024, a few months before the trial, Dana’s doctor said she was suffering PTSD – a diagnosis that made sense to her, considering her racing thoughts and feelings of panic. She was offered Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but found it of little help.
However, hearing the details of the court case did at least stop her constantly torturing herself with fears of retribution.
‘Reading the court transcripts helped me fill in the missing gaps in the puzzle,’ she says. ‘Until then, I only had my imagination.’
The court heard the victim, Simon Shotton, was a vulnerable man who had been living in a tent in the garden of a flat belonging to the defendants. He gave them drugs in lieu of paying rent. In August 2023, following an argument over just £30, Ben Atkins had murdered him in a ‘ferocious attack’. Atkins’ girlfriend, Debbie Pereira, had helped dispose of the body parts.
In May 2024, the jury found Atkins guilty of Shotton’s murder. They found Pereira not guilty of murder, but guilty of perverting the course of justice.
The court heard the victim, Simon Shotton, was a vulnerable man who had been living in a tent in the garden of a flat belonging to the defendants
In January 2024, a few months before the trial, Dana’s doctor said she was suffering PTSD
Atkins was sentenced to life with Pereira sentenced to four years – later increased to six after the court heard she ‘hid’ in her bedroom while Atkins carried out the brutal attack but helped clean up afterwards.
With the court case over, Dana started 12 counselling sessions and credits therapy for getting her to where she is today.
‘In the sessions, I was often tearful, with so many emotions coming out,’ she says.
‘The therapist made me realise I was justified to feel the way I did and explained how different events can fill our cup and if it’s not emptied, it overflows.’
Dana and her family have since moved to a quiet part of Wiltshire. She has a new job in social research, as well as owning an events entertainment company with her husband.
‘A friend told me the way I’d recovered inspired her, and that’s partly why I’m sharing my story,’ says Dana. ‘Apart from my obligations through the criminal justice system, I’ve never spoken about it until now.’
Yet she still has bad days.
‘There are moments when, in my head, I’m under that tree, and the smell, the thud and the foot come flooding back,’ she says. ‘It’s like a film reel in my head.
‘Recently I was sheltering under a tree from the weather and had another panic attack. It brought it all back.’
But with the help of therapy, she has learned coping mechanisms, including meditation and yoga.
Dana hopes that by telling her story, she can shed light on the hidden toll of witnessing violence.
‘When you read about murders in the papers, you never think about the bystanders. People think if you weren’t the victim or the victim’s family, you’ll be fine. But it has definitely changed me.
‘It’s also taught me that life can throw literally anything at you, but so long as we’re kind to ourselves and others, there will always be brighter days ahead.’
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