Ex-Royal Marine dug into the grave to find 'jewellery and guns'

Ex-Royal Marine damaged the remains of a married couple as he tried to dig into a grave in bid to find ‘jewellery and guns’

• Wayne Joselyn, 43, dug into the grave of a married couple laid to rest together
• The former marine said he was looking for ‘jewellery and guns’ in April last year
• Joselyn is already serving a four-year prison sentence imposed for burglary
• The serial burglar was sentenced to 15 months in jail at Sheffield Crown Court 

A former Royal Marine, who may have been seeking to find jewellery and firearms to fund an addiction to Class-A drugs, dug into the grave of a married couple who had been laid to rest together.

Wayne Joselyn, 43, dug into the grave shared by Maud Goodwin and her husband, Kell, in the Carlton Cemetary, in Barnsley, one night in April last year. 

The Yorshire Post reported Joselyn had served in the Royal Marines, and already serving a four-year prison sentence imposed for burglary by the same court last September, and has now had another 15 months added to his jail term.

In May, a member of the public who was at the cemetery visiting their own relative was horrified to find the shared grave of the Goodwins had been disturbed. 

Wayne Joselyn, 43, dug into the grave shared by Maud Goodwin and her husband, Kell, in the Carlton Cemetary, in Barnsley, one night in April last year

Investigating officers were led to determine whether or not any of the skeletal remain had been interfered with, or worse, removed.  

The couple had been peacefully laid to rest since 1984 following Mrs Goodwin’s death and was buried alongside Kell, who had died only two years before in 1982.

Joselyn managed to get into Maud’s coffin, and the experts spent days sieving through soil carried by buckets into the nearby ‘sieving tent’ and piecing every fragment of bone back together to check everything was where it should have been.

Joselyn, who is currently in HMP Doncaster for another offence was given a 15-months in jail to run concurrent to the sentence he is already serving, at Sheffield Crown Court.

He had previously pleaded guilty to interfering with a grave under Section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 and a further count of outraging public decency and common law.

Joselyn managed to get into Maud’s coffin, and the experts spent days sieving through soil carried by buckets into the nearby ‘sieving tent’ and piecing every fragment of bone back together

After a member of the public visiting the cemetery to visit their own relative discovered the chilling scene, the Goodwin’s disturbed grave was regarded as a crime scene. 

Over the following 11 days, a forensic anthropologist and archaeologist, with the assistance of body recovery and CSI teams, seized soil and evidence from the graveside and from within the grave itself. 

In a delicate and complicated investigation, a damnatory piece evidence was found placing Joselyn at the scene –  a snood that he was wearing on that night.

Joselyn had  carelessly lost the snood among the dirt he had flung back into the grave, providing a crucial DNA profile.

Blue tarpaulin matching another placed under one of the piles of soil stuck behind a tree inside the cemetery was found by investigators. 

They also discovered shovels which cemetery owners, Barnsley Council, quickly confirmed was not one used by their staff.

After a member of the public visiting the cemetery to visit their own relative discovered the chilling scene, the Goodwin’s disturbed grave was regarded as a crime scene

Phone tracking located Joselyn’s mobile at the scene matching the timeframe the incident is believed to have occurred between 28 and 29 April 2022, and enquiries found he ordered a taxi to a friend’s house using his real name, Wayne. 

At that home, he handed his friend his boots and clothes and asked them to burn them. 

The friend refused to carry out Joselyn’s dirty work, and on 9 May they contacted officers to let them know what Joselyn had done and handed them the evidence.

The motivations behind the sickening incident were never explained by Joselyn. 

In the police interview, he only answered ‘no comment’ to all questions put to him by Deputy Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Mark Cockayne, and the team.

At court today, Joselyn’s solicitor suggested that he had heard a rumour of a grave at the cemetery containing money which he was seeking to fund an addiction to Class-A drugs.

Sentencing, Judge Jeremy Richardson said: “This has caused immense anguish to the family. There is no evidence to suggest the bizarre rumour about jewellery of firearms was true, and it is likely a figment of your drug-addled brain.

DI Cockayne said: J’oselyn had dug to between three and three-and-a-half feet, and he had literally been into Maud’s coffin.

‘And yet we still don’t really know why he did it. In essence we had to have another funeral for Maud because of what he did and reintern her into the grave with her husband.

The Goodwin family have stated they do not wish to speak further about this incident and have asked to have their privacy respected at this difficult time.

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