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The new suspect in the notorious hammer murders of Lin and Megan Russell left behind a chilling suicide note, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Raymond Buck has been named as the alleged killer of Lin and her six-year-old daughter Megan, who were bludgeoned to death with a hammer as they walked home from a school swimming gala in Chillenden, Kent in 1996.

Buck, a carpenter and plumber who was reportedly obsessed with the occult, was named after family members gave sworn statements to the miscarriages of justice watchdog.

A relative of Buck has now agreed to provide a DNA sample which will be tested against evidence recovered from the crime scene.

Michael Stone has spent almost 30 years in prison after being convicted of killing Lin and Megan and attempting to murder Megan's nine-year-old sister Josie.

He has always maintained his innocence.

Now Karen Todner, Stone's solicitor, has revealed that members of Buck's family told her that he left a suicide note before taking his own life in 2000.

The note is said to have read: 'I cannot cope with the guilt.'

Raymond Buck (pictured) has been named as a possible new suspect in the murders of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan

Pictured: Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, were bludgeoned to death with a hammer as they walked home from a school swimming gala in Kent

Ms Todner has contacted the coroner's office in an attempt to locate the letter, but has been told that no such note has been found.

She said: 'It doesn't mean the note didn't exist.'

Ms Todner also said the emergence of Buck as a possible suspect strengthened the case for the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the UK's miscarriage of justice watchdog, to refer Stone's conviction back to the Court of Appeal.

She said that, even if DNA testing did not produce a match, the evidence surrounding Buck - alongside claims made by serial killer Levi Bellfield - could be enough to force Stone's case back to the Court of Appeal.

'Bellfield has confessed, and now with Buck, this shows there were suspects who were far more plausible than Michael Stone,' she said.

Stone's sister Barbara also welcomed the emergence of Buck as a possible alternative suspect.

'There are now two people - Buck and Bellfield - who are better suspects than my brother.

'If this had been before a jury during his trial, I do not believe for a second he would have been convicted.

Michael Stone (pictured outside court in 2001) has been in prison for nearly 30 years but has always professed his innocence over the murders of Lin and Megan Russell

Lin, Josie and Megan Russell were attacked with a hammer in a country lane not far from their home in Nonington, Kent, in 1996 (pictured, on a family holiday in Wales in 1995)

Pictured: The scene of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell on Cherry Garden Lane, a remote footpath which sits between the villages of Nonington and Chillenden

'I've known of the Buck name for some time and Kent Police have been made aware over the years.

'But ultimately we're waiting on the DNA testing. That is still the key.'

A source close to the case said it had been 'common knowledge' within Buck's family that he may have had some involvement in the murders.

Buck, a carpenter and plumber, lived in the Folkestone area at the time of the killings and was known to members of the wider family as a volatile and violent man.

Two witnesses have now provided information implicating him to the CCRC.

One of them, Ross Shields, was nine years old at the time of the murders and has said he overheard Buck apparently confess to a family member on the day of the killings.

Buck apparently said: 'I've done something unforgivable. I've killed three people.'

Relatives also described Buck as having a history of violence and increasingly erratic conduct.

Buck is also said to have had a beige car, which the killer is thought to have driven. He threw himself off Beachy Head in East Sussex aged 46 in 2000.

The new claims have emerged as the CCRC continues to examine whether fresh forensic testing could finally establish who was responsible for the murders.

DNA from crime-scene exhibits is being re-examined using modern techniques, with samples from Stone and a member of Buck's family among those being considered.

The evidence is also set to be tested against Levi Bellfield, who killed 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002.

He has previously claimed responsibility for the murders and maintains his DNA will be found on the exhibits, a source told the Daily Mail.

Michael Stone (pictured) was known as a drug addict and a hardened criminal at the time of his arrest

Serial killer Levi Bellfield confessed in 2023 to committing the Russell murders, but police did not believe him. Now, The Crime Desk can reveal that he has said he is certain his DNA will be found on items linked to the murder scene

The Russell family were attacked on July 9, 1996, as Lin, Megan and Josie walked home along Cherry Garden Lane near Chillenden after a school swimming gala.

Lin, 45, and Megan, six, were killed with a hammer.

Josie, then nine, survived the attack but suffered serious injuries.

Stone was convicted in 1998, but it was later quashed due to the unreliability of testimony against him by two convicts, who claimed he had confessed to them in jail.

One admitted after the trial he had invented it and the other was found to have been paid by a newspaper.

He was convicted again at a retrial in 2001 and has remained in prison ever since.

His conviction has long been controversial, with no forensic evidence directly linking him to the killings.

Career criminal Damien Daley was the remaining witness to give testimony against Stone.

He maintained Stone had confessed to him in prison.

Daley is now serving life for a 2014 murder.

Detective chief inspector Neil Kimber, of Kent Police, said: ‘During the investigation into the murders of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in 1996, numerous members of public contacted the police with the names of people they thought may have been responsible.

'Each piece of information was reviewed and, in some cases, led to further enquiries into some individuals. This included contact with a relative of a man with connections to the Folkestone and London areas during the original investigation and, in 2017, discussions with another of his relatives. The information provided in each case was comprehensively examined in full by the investigation team.

'Following two trials at which Michael Stone was found guilty by a jury on both occasions, and an appeal to the High Court, he remains convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in 1996.

‘Stone made an application to apply for a Judicial Review in respect of his conviction in September 2012. The Honourable Mr Justice Blake ordered that permission for the application should be refused.

‘Kent Police has supported the Criminal Cases Review Commission by providing all the relevant information required throughout its ongoing review of Stone’s conviction and will continue to do so.’