When friendly residents in the picturesque Kent village of Nonington hear the name Cherry Garden Lane, their faces immediately change – a stern, knowing look follows, and then there’s a deep pause as they weigh up their response.

Everyone knows the quiet country track, but most locals avoid it altogether.

This month marks 30 years since Lin Russell and her daughter, Megan, six, were bludgeoned to death there with a hammer in broad daylight.

Lin’s elder daughter, nine-year-old Josie, suffered catastrophic head injuries, but miraculously survived after an officer investigating the murder scene hours later noticed her moving.

The horror of what happened on the secluded pathway that day still casts a dark shadow over the village all these years later.

And despite Michael Stone being jailed for the atrocity in 2001, the question of whether he really committed the heinous crime remains a matter of great division in the quaint rural community.

There was no forensic evidence linking Stone – who has always protested his innocence – to the crime scene, and his conviction was largely based on an alleged jail cell confession to a fellow prisoner.

Two weeks ago, it was revealed that DNA samples were to be taken from Stone and notorious serial killer Levi Bellfield to be tested against items recovered at the murder scene, after the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the UK's miscarriage of justice watchdog, confirmed that they were re-examining the case.

In 2023, Bellfield, who killed 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002, confessed in writing to committing the Russell murders, but police did not believe him.

Now, The Crime Desk can reveal that Bellfield has boasted he is certain that his DNA, which is to be collected by the CCRC in 'due course', will be found on items linked to the scene.

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

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

It remains unknown whether Bellfield's confession is genuine, with many criminologists warning in the past that the twisted killer, who is a known fantasist, may be making a false claim for attention and notoriety.

But there’s more to his role in this tragic story, which we will get to later.

We traced the final steps of Lin, Megan and Josie along the lane between Nonington and the neighbouring village of Chillenden on that summer afternoon in July 1996.

Confusingly, the attack later became known as the 'Chillenden Murders' as the lane is slightly closer to the tiny village.

The trio had been walking back along their usual route home from the girls' primary school in Goodnestone, which sits at the north end of the country lane.

The beauty of the area is impossible to ignore, with rolling countryside, dotted with charming villages and quaint homes, stretching for miles.

Then, in a small clearing along a track, the tragedy moves sharply back into focus, with a solitary bouquet of flowers resting against a tree trunk.

The handwritten message reads: 'To Lin, Megan, Josie. Lots of prayers. Kane and Kelly'.

'There is something about Cherry Garden Lane; I've never walked it,’ says Barry Clayton, the former chair of the Nonington Village Hall committee, who has lived in the village for 54 years.

‘But if someone says they walked there, everyone's reaction would be “why?”. People actively avoid it.

‘The question remains, who the hell did it?’

It is the same question that continues to be posed by Stone's defence team, who have repeatedly insisted on their client's innocence.

Stone, now 66, was never forensically tied to the crime, but had a history of heroin use and violence, including one attack with a hammer, and was said to have known the Chillenden area.

Despite having a chance at freedom in 2022, he has been so intent on clearing his name that he turned down the possibility of parole because it would mean an admission of guilt.

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

When The Crime Desk retraced the final steps of Lin and Megan along the country path, the tragedy was brought sharply back into focus as a solitary bouquet of flowers was spotted resting against a tree trunk in memory of the Russells

The track leading towards where Lin, Megan and Josie were stopped by the killer is hardly used by locals even today

Now, after new forensic analysis was submitted to the CCRC by renowned expert Angela Gallop earlier this year, evidence from the scene is to be re-examined against the DNA of Stone and Bellfield, who are both serving time at HMP Frankland in County Durham.

Stone's sister, Barbara, who believes her brother is innocent and has continually campaigned for his conviction to be quashed, told The Crime Desk that Bellfield is certain his DNA will be found on items from the crime scene.

'I've been informed that he [Bellfield] fully expects his DNA to be found there,' she says.

'I always felt the police and prosecution linked my brother’s previous use of a hammer, 15 years earlier, and then really pushed the value of this to support their theory.

'We’re really pleased that finally the CCRC are getting to the point of testing the exhibits. We’re hopeful it will identify the real killer from the results.'

Bellfield first approached Stone's long-time solicitor Paul Bacon in 2020, and after several meetings over two years, confessed to committing the murders in a statement in January 2022.

This statement was leaked to a newspaper – not by Mr Bacon or Stone's legal team – and a furious Bellfield withdrew his confession.

However, in April 2023, Bellfield wrote a fresh, signed confession, containing more detail than the first.

For Mr Bacon, he had first become suspicious of Bellfield's potential involvement when he was convicted in 2011 of murdering schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

'There were a number of similarities: a family killed at around 4pm, the children in school uniforms.

'Milly Dowler was abducted just after 4pm, in her school uniform.'

Both crimes were committed in the Home Counties, with Milly being abducted as she walked home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, near where Bellfield lived.

'His confession included extra details that he could not have known had he not been at the scene of the crime,' Mr Bacon added as he explained Bellfield's confession to the Russell murders.

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

Pictured: Lin Russell with her husband Shaun and their two children Megan (left) and Josie at an Italian restaurant. The family had just recently moved to Nonington at the time of the attack

It is hoped the re-examination of the case will soon bring concrete answers to the questions that continue to be asked in the village, where many still avoid Cherry Garden Lane entirely.

Ima Evans, 58, originally from Jakarta, Indonesia, moved to Nonington 22 years ago and now lives on the same exclusive, tree-lined estate where the Russells once had a home.

As a volunteer with Age Concern, she says the murders remain a frequent topic of conversation with its members.

‘Many of them do not think it was Michael Stone,’ she says. ‘They are still incredibly curious to know what happened.

‘I have sometimes walked my dog along Cherry Garden Lane and every time it feels strange, I feel very heavy, it’s something I can’t explain.’

Her daughter Lulu, 20, says she has never walked along the pathway because of what happened, despite being born ten years after the killings.

The Russells, new to the area at the time, had been living in a picture-perfect large stone cottage on a private estate.

Patricia MacFarlane, 80, who lives on the estate says: ‘I recall the shock and the horror of it.

‘And it’s still there – people still do not let their children go and play in the woods.

‘There has been a lot of chatter in the village over the years about who people think did it.’

In October 1998, Stone, then 38, was given three life sentences for the murders and attempted murder of Josie after a 10-2 majority verdict.

His conviction was quashed after one witness admitted to lying and another to having being paid by a newspaper.

That left just one witness, career criminal Damian Daley, who said Stone confessed to him when they were both on remand in prison – he stood by his evidence at trial.

At Stone's second trial, he was convicted again by a 10-2 majority, after the judge told jurors the case ‘stands or falls’ on whether they believed Daley – who is now serving life for a 2014 murder.

'It turned the village on its head,’ says Mr Clayton. 'One of the reasons we brought our children up here is because they can't get up to anything.

'The police must have visited virtually every single house. They wanted to interview all males from teens upwards.

'My daughter had babysat the Russell kids a few times. People who lived in the four little bungalows by their cottage knew the family and recommended my daughter to them as she had babysat for them before.

The picturesque village of Chillenden, which the murders were confusing named after due to its proximity to the footpath where the Russells were killed

A lone bouquet of flowers were rested against a tree at the scene of the murder 30 years on

'She would have only been about 19 at the time. It completely shook her up.

'It shook a lot of people up, it was the realisation that it can happen here, we're not immune.

'There were, of course, all sorts of rumours and rubbish at the time before Stone was arrested.

'You get your armchair detectives in the village who thought they'd figured it out.

‘And apparently the coppers had their own consensus within the force as well.

'When you don't know the truth, you make it up.'

According to Mr Clayton, questions over the conviction of Stone were voiced in the village at the time.

'It was one of those where you go, “really?”'

'It seemed to me that they thought “who can we pin it on?”.’

A resident who later moved into the cottage the Russells had lived in told The Crime Desk: 'I'm the same age as the youngest child and I wasn't living in the area at the time.

‘So when we moved in, I didn't know this was the house they lived at.

'It was only about six months after I moved in that my friend said, "Did you say you live in Nonington?" When I said yes, she showed me a video of the cottage from an interview and asked, "Is this your house?"

'That's when I found out. So I went through a folder I was given by the landlord when I moved in and there was a bit about the history of the area, and it was in there.

'But it's always been lovely here, a homely feel, I've never had a bad feeling from the house.

'I always think she was a mum trying to protect her children, I'm a mum, so even if there was a spirit I would feel more protected than fearful.

'I think it did tarnish Chillenden village for quite a while after, because it was a sleepy village that would never have anything like that happen.

'About a year after the attack, there is an interview of Josie in the kitchen of the cottage, where she said the attacker had asked her mother for money.

‘Lin had said, "I haven't got any on me but if you come back to my house I can get some", trying to coax him. And then she told the girls to run.

'It was a shame because they'd not long moved here.

'I think about it a lot, probably more than other people, because I live here. But it wouldn't change me living here.

'I hope the family has recovered as much as they can in a situation like that.

'Josie seems to have done well and I'm so happy that he hasn't stolen her life completely.

'The fact they've managed to piece together some sort of a life is credit to them.'

Donna Lambert, who moved to the Nonington estate where the Russells lived in 2010, says all the houses on the private land were owned by one man, aside from the Russell home.

'Peter, who died last year, bought it off them after what happened,' says the 60-year-old.

'He told me the father had just wanted to get away with the remaining daughter.

'He said they were a lovely, beautiful family.'

Josie, now 39, recovered fully from her horrific head injuries and went on to become a successful textile artist with the support of her father.

They still live close to each other in North Wales.

The 30th anniversary will undoubtedly bring back painful memories of the day that changed their lives forever.

While this peaceful corner of the Garden of England has never fully recovered from the events that unfolded in the summer of 1996.