1960s murder of three girls in Cannock Chase, England
The Cannock Chase murders (also known as the A34 murders, the Babes in the Ditch murders and the Half-Day murders) were the murders of three girls aged between five and seven in Staffordshire, England, between 1965 and 1967. The bodies of all three children were discovered on Cannock Chase, a vast area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire.
Raymond Leslie Morris was arrested for the attempted abduction of an intended fourth victim on 15 November 1968. He was convicted in February 1969 of the 1967 murder of seven-year-old Christine Ann Darby at Stafford Assizes. Although never charged with the murders of the first two victims discovered on Cannock Chase, following Morris's conviction, a police spokesman informed the media all investigators involved in his apprehension remained convinced that all three children had been murdered by Morris, who is also believed to be responsible for the abduction, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a fifth girl in 1964.
The manhunt to identify and apprehend Morris is reported to be one of the largest initiated to apprehend a child killer in British history. He died of natural causes at HMP Preston on 11 March 2014.
Abductions.
Julia Taylor.
At 9 p.m. on 2 December 1964, a nine-year-old named Julia Taylor was lured into a blue Vauxhall Velox in Bloxwich by a man claiming to be a friend of her mother and referring to himself as "Uncle Len". The child was informed her mother had asked this individual to transport her to her aunt's home to "fetch Christmas presents". She was driven to a pile of slag heaps near the mining village of Bentley where she was sexually assaulted, manually strangled and thrown half-naked from the car into a ditch, having endured grievous internal injuries. Taylor was found alive by a passing cyclist approximately fifty minutes later. This individual would later state he had overheard "weak, sobbing" noises as he cycled in the pouring rain and darkness and had stopped his bicycle to investigate the sounds; he immediately flagged down a passing van, which drove the sobbing and bleeding child to a hospital.
Had the cyclist not overheard, then observed the child in this ditch, she likely would have died from exposure within twenty minutes.
Taylor could remember little about her ordeal, her abductor or his vehicle beyond sobbing and begging her abductor to drive her home when she noticed he had driven past her aunt's home and his conversation suddenly became more lurid in nature. However, one eyewitnesses to Taylor's abduction was certain the abductor's vehicle was a large car with two-tone paint, small fins at the rear and a hand spot-lamp mounted close to one wing "at the end of the windscreen, near the driver's door". Despite intense efforts to locate this car, the vehicle was not traced.
Margaret Reynolds.
On the afternoon of Wednesday 8 September 1965, a six-year-old girl, Margaret Reynolds, disappeared from a location close to her home on Clifton Road, Aston as she walked the short distance from her home to the Prince Albert Primary School. She was last seen alive by her older sister, Susan, when the two parted company to walk in separate directions to their respective schools, having returned to their home for lunch. When the child failed to return home from school, her parents quickly learned she had not attended any classes that afternoon. The Reynolds immediately reported their daughter missing to police.
In the weeks following Reynolds' disappearance, 160 police officers questioned over 25,000 individuals in and around Aston. Two hundred posters featuring a composite photograph of the child in the clothes she was last seen, with an accompanying appeal for witnesses to contact police were printed by the "Birmingham Evening Mail". These posters were distributed in and around Aston, Lozells and Handsworth. With assistance from members of the public, investigators extensively searched all houses and landmarks within an eight-mile radius of where Reynolds was last seen alive. Despite these efforts, no trace of the child was discovered.
In the months prior to Reynolds' abduction, investigators in and around the vicinity of her disappearance had received numerous reports of a lone white male in a car who had attempted to entice prepubescent girls into his vehicle and who, if successful, had sexually assaulted the children, with his assaults often including digital penetration.
Diana Tift.
Three months later, on 30 December, a five-year-old girl named Diana Joy Tift disappeared from a street close to her Walsall home. The child was last seen at 2 p.m. outside her grandmother's home in Chapel Street, walking to her own home in nearby Hollemeadow Avenue, Blakenall Heath. She was carrying a pink plastic handbag with a white plastic strap she had received as a Christmas present. The last potential sighting of Tift was made by a family member, who believed she had subsequently seen her walking past a nearby launderette en route to the family home.
Tift was reported missing by her parents at 7 p.m. As had earlier been the case with Margaret Reynolds, despite extensive searches, no trace of the child was discovered. Tift's disappearance saw approximately 2,000 people search for her. A local councillor also offered a reward for the child's safe return.
By 2 January 1966, more than 500 officers from across the West Midlands region had been assigned to the manhunt to locate Tift. Several senior officers had also tentatively linked her disappearance to that of Margaret Reynolds. Over 6,000 homes, gardens and outhouses in and around Bloxwich were searched by 5 January. Ponds and reservoirs were also searched by underwater units. Other officers searched derelict factories and warehouses, to no avail.
Initial discoveries.
On the afternoon of 12 January 1966, the body of Diana Tift was found by a man hunting rabbits. She lay half-concealed in undergrowth aside a water-logged ditch at Mansty Gulley on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, between the villages of Penkridge and Littleton. This location was a seldom-used farm track just half a mile from the A34. A post-mortem revealed the child had been raped, then suffocated with the pixie hood of her anorak as her murderer had pressed upon her nose and mouth.
The naked body of Margaret Reynolds lay just inches away. Her body was severely decomposed, and none of her clothing was ever recovered save for one shoe. As such, pathologists were unable to determine her cause of death. Aside from traces of semen found upon and within Tift's body, no forensic evidence was recovered from the crime scene.
Prior to the discovery of the children's bodies, police had concluded their abductions were linked. The "modus operandi" of Taylor's 1964 abduction and body disposal also led investigators to strongly link her abduction and attempted murder to the same perpetrator. At a press conference held on 14 January, the Assistant Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police, Thomas Lockley, informed the media: "We are hunting a dangerous child killer who may strike again."
Investigation.
Following the discovery of the children's bodies, investigators contacted Scotland Yard, seeking the assistance of experienced investigators. Two individuals from the Yard's Murder Squad were dispatched to Staffordshire to assist in the investigation, which saw a task force dedicated to the apprehension of the suspect work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. An index card filing system implemented to cross-check information gradually expanded to number in the scores of thousands. Numerous vehicles sighted on Mansty Gulley between 30 December and 12 January were traced, their owners interviewed, and subsequently eliminated from the enquiry following the verification of their whereabouts on crucial dates. The individual who had discovered the children's bodies—a poacher with a known history of violence—was also eliminated as a suspect.
Despite painstaking groundwork efforts over the following months—including extensive house-to-house enquiries—police failed to identify the perpetrator, although several unrelated offences involving the abduction, attempted abduction or sexual assault of young girls were solved as a result of the investigation. The August 1966 abduction of a 10-year-old girl named Jane Taylor, who disappeared from the Cheshire village of Mobberley while riding her bicycle, was also tentatively linked to the same perpetrator, as investigators could not discount the possibility her disappearance was linked to what were colloquially known as the "A34 murders".
By the summer of 1967, no further clues of any substance existed for police to pursue, and the investigation into the children's murders had largely become cold.
Police strategy.
Although unable to identify the children's murderer, investigators felt certain the perpetrator would strike again. In preparation, the head of Staffordshire CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Harry Bailey, devised plans to seal the immediate locality of any future child abduction occurring in and around the vicinity of Walsall, and to further cordon all minor and major exits further afield from the radius of the abduction by setting up roadblocks. These plans were to be initiated within twenty minutes of any reported child abduction, with other officers to be deployed upon all major approaches to the perimeter of Cannock Chase. Three neighbouring police forces were also notified of this plan, with officers from their forces instructed of their required duties upon receipt of notification of a simple code word: "Stop Plan".
Christine Darby.
At 2:30 p.m. on 19 August 1967, a seven-year-old named Christine Darby was lured into a grey car as she played with friends near her home in Camden Street, Caldmore, Walsall. The individual had asked Darby and her two friends if they knew the directions to Caldmore Green. When the children pointed the direction to this individual, adding his intended destination was just a short distance up the road, he had feigned confusion and asked Christine to enter the car and show him the way, promising to drive her back to her friends immediately afterwards. The child—whose mother did not own a car—entered the vehicle excitedly. Her friends then observed the vehicle reverse, then drive at speed in the opposite direction to Caldmore Green—the direction of Cannock Chase.
The witnesses to Darby's abduction immediately ran to Darby's home to report the incident to her mother; she in turn almost immediately ran to a payphone and notified police. With assistance from neighbouring police forces, the devised plan to install roadblocks at all minor and major roads exiting Walsall and further afield was immediately implemented.
Questioned by police, the witnesses to Darby's abduction explained the man had been white, in his mid-thirties, clean-shaven and with dark brown hair. He wore a white shirt and drove a grey car—possibly an A55 or A60 "Farina" model Austin Cambridge or a Morris Oxford—and spoke in a notable local accent. One of the children in particular, seven-year-old Nicholas Baldry, remained adamant the man had pronounced Caldmore Green as "Carmer Green" and not "Cold-moor Green", as only a local individual would. This information further reaffirmed the police view they were hunting a local man. As such, police concentrated their manhunt for the perpetrator in and around the Borough of Walsall.
Second manhunt.
Over the following days, 24,000 flyers bearing Darby's photograph were distributed to the public and displayed in prominent locations such as shop windows, bus stops and telephone poles in and around the West Midlands. Each circular bore the inscription "Christine Darby. Were you in Cannock Chase last Saturday afternoon? If so, tell police." One eyewitness reported to police he had seen a grey car travelling in the direction of Cannock Chase shortly after 2:30 p.m. on 19 August. According to this witness, a dark-haired girl had been sitting in the passenger seat.
By the early hours of 20 August, police had initiated a thorough search of Cannock Chase for the body of Christine Darby. As approximately thirty per cent of the eighty-five square mile surface of Cannock Chase was covered by fir trees, dense foliage, mine shafts, clay pits and fox holes, any aerial search of the terrain would be ineffective. As such, over three hundred police began searching Cannock Chase on foot, with the operation beginning at a pool close to Mansty Gulley. These officers were soon assisted by over two hundred officers from two neighbouring forces and two-hundred-and-fifty soldiers of the nearby Staffordshire Regiment. Within hours, a pair of soiled child's knickers were discovered snagged against the branch of a fallen tree. A child's plimsoll was discovered among fern leaves three miles north of this location in the early hours of the following day.
Third discovery.
On the afternoon of 22 August, a soldier named Michael Blundred, searching a cluster of trees