The Police — The Scientist — The Coroner
| Published date | 01 October 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7905200408 |
| Date | 01 October 1979 |
| Author | David J. Cole |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DAVID J. COLE
Chief Superintendent.
West Mercia Constahulary
THE POLICE - THE
SCIENTIST
-THE
CORONER
(The story
of
amurder)
Inthe early evening of the 11th November, 1976, a 16year old girl
was reported missing from her home by her parents. She had recently
left school
and
was looking for a
job.
At II a.m. that morning she
kept an
appointment
at a local Careers Office
and
had been expected
home for lunch.
Missing teenagers are by no means an unknown occurrence in
Telford New Town, where many youngsters become disillusioned
with their new environment
and
head back to their original areas
and
associates. The young Policeman who visited this young girl's
parents, however, was faced with a very different situation. She was a
member of a close-knit family in a long established part of the New
Town
and it quickly became
apparent
that something very unusual
must have happened to prevent this girl returning home.
Any enquiries
and
searches possible at
that
time of the day were
severely hampered by thick fog and it was only possible to establish
that
she had kept her
appointment
at the Careers Office
and
shortly
afterwards had been seen heading towards home on foot.
Shortly after
noon
the following day, following an extensive
search by a large force of Policemen since daybreak, her body was
found by a Police Dog Handler in dense undergrowth at the side of a
branch
railway line bisecting the route between her home
and
the
Careers Office, a distance of some
21'2
miles. She had obviously been
strangled with the belt from her overcoat,
and
the condition of her
clothing raised suspicion
that
she had been sexually assaulted.
Apart
from the ligature round her neck there were no
other
bodilysigns of a
violent physical assault. Marks on the ground indicated
that
she had
been dragged from the railway line through the undergrowth to the
position where her
body
lay.
The
patch of undergrowth
among
which
she lay
had
fairly obviously been used either as a hide-out by local
children or a secluded
area
by courting couples.
Although the girl's death
and
subsequent Police activity
commanded
space in the national press
and
television media for a
few days, the circumstances of death
and
the investigation soon
passed from the public interest.
From
a Police viewpoint. however,
382 October 1979
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