WPC Jessop called at 8 Coronation Street to break the news to Richard Hillman that dental records checks had shown that a positive identification he had made of a body pulled out of Weatherfield Canal wasn't that of his ex-wife Patricia but was instead an unknown woman.
As Richard had bludgeoned Patricia to death and buried her body under The Ridings flat development on Crimea Street, he would in normal circumstances be unnerved by this news but at that moment he was being visited by Patricia's best friend, Charlotte Morris, who was determined to view the corpse at Shuttleworth's undertakers. The police's sympathetic understanding that a mistake could occur under stressful circumstances saved not just him from having to make difficult explanations but also Charlotte's life as Richard had secreted a sharp knife from the kitchen drawer to use on her should events prove the need to do so.