Man Learned About His Mother’s Murder via a Facebook Livestream

A man whose mother was murdered by his neighbor with a dumbbell learned about the incident from a Facebook livestream, where he saw police surrounding his house. Earlier, he had received a call from his friend’s mother, who mentioned his mother might have been injured; however, he did not believe her then.

A 57-year-old woman, identified as Vera Hudson, was murdered by her neighbor in September 2019 in her apartment block in Hull. The accused has been identified as Mark Jewitt, who used a dumbbell to strike Hudson 30 to 40 times before putting two plastic bags over her head and leaving her in a pool of blood.

Hudson’s son, Daniel Galloway, 39, said he received a call from one of his friends’ mothers saying that his mother might have been injured. Galloway, a bar manager in East Riding, Yorkshire, said, “I got a call around 7 a.m. saying that my mum had potentially been stabbed. I panicked, I called the hospital asking if anyone was admitted in the name of my mum, but they said no. I then logged on to Facebook and saw the live footage of police activity on my mother’s street.”

“I called the police, told them that I saw the Facebook live, and asked if they knew anything. They asked where I was and said they needed to speak to me. I immediately feared the worst,” Galloway said.

The accused Jewitt was arrested on the same day of the incident and confessed to killing the 57-year-old victim, and was sentenced to prison for 15 years by the Grimbsy Crown Court in March 2020.

In court, Galloway came face-to-face with the accused, who killed his mother, and said Jewitt, “smirked and laughed” in his family’s face. Hudson was found dead at Jewitt’s house shortly after 7 in the morning on September 19th, 2019.

It is believed that Hudson had knocked on Jewitt’s door early in the morning because she had forgotten her keys, and then both of them decided to drink rum together. Just 45 minutes after this, Hudson was found lying in a pool of her own blood.

“Still to this day, I will lie in this bed thinking about him and possibly meeting him, but what am I going to say?” Galloway said. “I have so much anger and hatred for that guy, especially with the manner in which he took her from me. She wasn’t a fighter; she was a friendly woman who wouldn’t say boo to a goose,” Galloway said. “If anything, she felt lonely and was trying to make the best with what she had,” Galloway added.

Since his mother’s death, Galloway has been taking up new challenges for raising money, for victim support: a charity providing free, confidential, tailored emotional and practical support to people affected by crime and traumatic incidents.