Raymond Buck, a father of three, was found at the bottom of the cliffs at Beachy Head, a notorious suicide spot, on May 17, 2000.

The circumstances surrounding his death at the age of 46 were far from uncommon: he had gone through an acrimonious divorce and was embroiled in a battle to see his two youngest children, it emerged at the inquest which was reported in the Eastbourne Herald.

His clothes and personal possessions, including his wristwatch and £520 in cash, were left in a neat pile at the cliff edge before he jumped.

Raymond worked variously as a plumber and pipe fitter but he loved writing and once had ambitions to be a journalist.

‘Always in our thoughts, in our hearts forever, God Bless’ read the In Memoriam notice in the local newspaper on the anniversary of his death ‘from your loving Mum, Dad, family and friends’.

For the next 26 years, Raymond Buck remained a name on a faded newspaper cutting – until this week, when he was accused of taking a terrible secret with him to his grave.

Two witnesses have come forward – one of them is Buck’s ex-wife, we can reveal – identifying him as a new suspect in one of the most shocking and brutal crimes in modern British history: the murders of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, and the attempted murder of her older daughter, Josie, almost exactly 30 years ago.

The family was ambushed as they walked home from a swimming gala near the village of Chillenden, Kent, in July 1996.

Raymond Buck, who took his own life in 2000, is the subject of sworn statements given in a forensic investigation into the conviction of Michael Stone

Murder victims Lin and Megan Russell along with Josie (centre), who survived the brutal attack

All three were bound, blindfolded and bludgeoned with a claw hammer in broad daylight – even the pet dog, a white terrier called Lucy, wasn’t spared.

So severe were her injuries, police initially thought nine-year-old Josie had died too, but, despite suffering severe skull fractures, somehow she survived.

A year later Michael Stone, a local former heroin addict, with previous convictions for violence, including a hammer attack on a man, was arrested and charged over the frenzied onslaught.

He is serving three life sentences for murder and attempted murder.

Stone, now 66, has always protested his innocence and refused to countenance parole because prisoners who do so have to admit their guilt.

The two witnesses – the second is Buck’s sister’s nephew – have now given sworn statements to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the miscarriages of justice watchdog, which is conducting a forensic investigation into the conviction of Stone. This is the context in which Buck’s name, plucked from obscurity, has now landed with Stone’s legal team.

So was it Buck, not Stone, who was the monster behind that day? It’s a chilling prospect for everyone: the Russells, the Bucks and, of course, Michael Stone, who might have spent the best part of three decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

Buck’s son Thomas has voluntarily offered to provide a DNA sample to the watchdog ‘so that objective forensic evidence could either implicate or exclude him’. Speaking to the Daily Mail for the first time since his father was linked to the ‘Chillenden Murders’, he said: ‘I do not wish to live with “maybe”. If credible evidence leads to my father being held responsible for the abhorrent crime or exonerating him and bringing some form of justice to his name, I want to be able to live with the answer.’

It’s hard to put into words how painful it must have been for Thomas and his brother and sister, waking up to recent headlines accusing their father of the murders, knowing that their mother is among his accusers.

This is the other side of the story which has gone unreported.

Buck’s ex-wife, who divorced him in 1996 or 1997, first reported him to Kent police at the time of the killings, but the force did not take the matter further. She has now given a dossier to the CCRC, including a letter Buck once sent her.

One of the lines, our own inquiries have established, says something like: ‘It is time to draw my sword. It is time for me to kill. It is not going to be pretty.’

The letter is not believed to be dated or have any time stamps, so it is unclear when it was actually sent or received.

Now going by her maiden name, his ex-wife has said she was the victim of domestic violence – an allegation she also made at Buck’s inquest – and is understood to have supplied reports about his psychiatric state, too.

Buck, for example, was convicted of a bizarre bomb hoax at the Home Office in 1997: the building had to be evacuated after he sent a note urging staff to look behind a plant pot in reception, adding: ‘Security, what a joke, is it Semtex or just plain English?’.Behind the pot, it turned out, he had deposited a Collins English dictionary. It was, apparently, a misguided campaign for increased vigilance at the building.

He appeared at Southwark Crown Court, on charges of ‘communicating false information with intent’ and was bound over to keep the peace for two years.

Michael Stone, a local former heroin addict with previous convictions for violence, was arrested and charged over the frenzied attack on the Russell family

The track leading towards where Lin, Megan and Josie were stopped by the killer on Cherry Garden Lane near the village of Chillenden, Kent

Shaun Russell, with his wife Lin and daughters Megan and Josie at an Italian restaurant in 1996

The other witness who has contacted the CCRC is Ross Shields, who was nine at the time of the Russell murders.

He says he was being looked after by Buck’s sister – his aunt Tracy – on the day of the killings, and claims he overheard him confess to her: ‘I’ve done something unforgivable. I’ve killed three people.’

None of which, of course, makes Raymond Buck – by all accounts, clearly a troubled, complicated man – a homicidal maniac. Nor is he able to defend himself against these allegations.

The legal team representing Michael Stone, including his solicitor Karen Todner, make it clear that the new testimonies do not provide proof that Raymond Buck committed the murders, only that he is a ‘credible’ person of interest and should be part of the CCRC investigation.

Inevitably, doubts about the safety of Stone’s conviction, based on discredited and retracted statements from convicted criminals, one of whom is now serving life for murder, have led to a widespread belief that someone else was responsible for what happened on that country lane in Kent.

Evidence from the original murder scene is now being subjected to modern DNA techniques, which can isolate male and female genetic material and can separate even trace amounts of male DNA from a mixed sample.

The same techniques resulted in Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he didn’t commit, being sensationally freed in 2023.

A DNA sample was taken from Stone at HMP Frankland in Durham a few weeks ago and Buck’s son Thomas hopes that if a sample is taken from him it will clear up the matter, once and for all.

But who is this man who might – just might – hold the key to proving Stone’s innocence?

Raymond Buck was born in Folkestone, 14 miles away from the quaint Kent village where academics Shaun and Lin Russell, and their two young girls, made their home in 1996.

He began married life in 1981, and his eldest son was born shortly afterwards, followed by Thomas in 1987 and their daughter two years later.

The family lived, at one time, in Bradstone Avenue, a Victorian terrace in the centre of Folkestone before moving a few miles along the Kent coast to Sandgate. But it was in Folkestone where Buck is still remembered.

He was an amateur boxing coach in the town, putting many young boys through their paces, and was once featured on the local TV station Meridian, promoting women’s boxing and equal rights in the ring.

Ross Shields knew Buck when he was growing up. Buck’s sister Tracy was married to Shields’ maternal uncle, Martin Shields, at the time.

He has very different memories of the popular boxing coach, however. ‘My memories of Ray were that if we saw him coming we had to go in the opposite direction,’ he said. ‘He was a scary man. We were always on high alert around Ray.’

This is a picture, it should be stressed, that Buck’s own children say they do not recognise.

It was Shields who is adamant that he overheard Raymond Buck’s ‘confession’, even if he can only recall the ‘gist’ of what was said rather than the exact words three decades on.

He first came forward with the information after watching 2017 documentary The Chillenden Murders – which raised the possibility that Michael Stone might be innocent – and undergoing a counselling programme, where he was asked to address matters from the past.

Shields, now 39, and unemployed, still stands by every word.

When approached by the Daily Mail, he insisted: ‘I don’t care what anyone says. They can discredit my account but I know what I heard.

‘I rang the police and said this is what I heard as a child.

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he didn’t commit, was freed in 2023

Lin Russell and daughter Josie were both bound, blindfolded and bludgeoned with a claw hammer in broad daylight

The funeral of Lin and Megan Russell took place at Dolbamaen, North Wales, in October 1996, with Shaun and Josie following the coffins

‘They told me that Ray Buck was questioned but was not a suspect and they would not be re-opening the case.’

His account of events all those years ago is contained in a seven-page statement to the CCRC. He also learned, he claims, that Buck developed an interest with the occult and satanism.

He had a tattoo with the words ‘The Buck Avenger’ beneath a goat’s head, which is often associated with the occult and satanism.

Recalling the events of that day, Shields said he was at his aunt Tracy’s house on the outskirts of Folkestone from around 4pm on what he believes was the day of the killings.

‘It was 7.30pm, 7.45pm-ish,’ he said in the statement. ‘I was sitting in the front room. Tracy was in the kitchen. I remember being frightened because Ray Buck came in, and if Ray Buck was around we got scared.

‘He came flying in and he went running in to Tracy – straight past the front room into the kitchen.’

The house was open-plan and Shields said he could see and hear what was happening through the archway in the next room.

Tracy asked Buck what the matter was, he claims. Shields recalled: ‘I heard him say, “Tracy, I’ve done something unforgivable.” She said, “Ray, what have you done?” He said, “I’ve killed three people. I’ve killed the dog. The dog wouldn’t stop,” he said.’

Shields said Buck then went into the garden, slamming the back gate at the side of the house on his way out.

What does his aunt Tracy make of all this?

Tracy Shields, now her early 60s, still lives in Folkestone. She has not spoken to her nephew since he contacted the police nearly ten years ago and describes him as a ‘troubled soul’, adding: ‘Quite simply, there wasn’t a confession. My head has been spinning as to the reasoning to why Ross would make such a statement.’

Two months after the murders, her brother was arrested over the bomb hoax in Westminster and appeared in court the following year, on May 30, 1997, when he also admitted possessing a bladed article – a small lock-knife – and was ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.

‘I take the view that carrying a weapon such as this is a matter the court cannot overlook,’ the judge told him.

He gave his address as a tower block in east London and his occupation as an out-of-work plumber. He was studying A-levels, his barrister said, and hoped to ‘enrol in training for journalistic work’.

He set up a football team for local children when he lived in London and also allowed a homeless French couple to stay in his flat.

His son, Thomas, now in his late 30s, also doubts the plausibility of his father’s alleged ‘confession’ that day.

He issued a statement on behalf of his family to ‘address information that has entered the public domain which appears, in several respects, to be inconsistent with documentary records presently available to my family, long-standing family recollections and other matters capable of objective verification.’

His father, it was reported, was visiting relatives in Elham, just a few miles from the murder scene, that same morning, although the family statement reads: ‘We have no knowledge of any relatives living in Elham.’

Buck was also driving a metallic silver saloon (probably a Ford Sierra) in 1996, not a beige vehicle believed to have been used by the killer.

The goat tattoo, ‘referred to publicly’, was acquired ‘some considerable time after the murders,’ the family believe.

Thomas has also read the ‘time for me to kill’ letter sent to his mother which she has passed to the CCRC.

‘I would not describe it as a confession,’ he said. ‘It was more of a cryptic poem, in my opinion. He wanted to be a journalist and regularly wrote letters to members of the family.’

His mother was approached for comment but did not respond.

‘I have fond memories of my father,’ said Thomas.

‘He regularly took us out for meals, picnics at local parks, the cinema, arcades, playing football together.

‘I suffered no violence at his hands and do not even recall my father ever raising his voice towards me.’

Stone’s solicitor Karen Todner said she hoped to learn the results of DNA tests by the end of the year which could establish the truth – not just about Michael Stone but Raymond Buck as well.

Additional reporting: Tim Stewart and Isaac Crowson

• What kind of cases do you want to read more about? Let us know at: crimedesk@dailymail.co.uk