The Robert Taylor UFO incident

 Something happened to Robert Taylor out in those woods, but what? 

Did he really encounter aliens from another world or is the answer something closer to home? 

Dive into the debut episode of D.S Radio with Linz and Chris as we open the file on the only alien case investigated by the the British police. We promise 100% more alien balls in your ears. 

Follow us on instagram @D.S.Radio 

Support the show HERE<<

What really happened to missing teenager Russell Bohling? Satanic cult at RAF Bempton

On the 2^nd of March, 2010, 18 year old student Russell Bohling left his parents’ house in East Riding, Bempton, Yorkshire, never to be seen again.

According to his parents version of events he left the family home at around 8AM and was dressed slightly smarter than usual in a black Ben Sherman jacket, blue jeans and black training shoes. His car was missing from its parking space outside of the house, indicating he had left in it that day.

Russell was doing a course in bricklaying at the nearby Bishop Burton College at the time, but it has never been confirmed if he was supposed to attend any classes on the day he vanished.

(Source)

When Bohling failed to return home that day, his parents reported him missing.

The following morning the teenager’s Renault Clio was found parked near a Cliffside known as “Bempton cliffs’. The vehicle was discovered by one of the employees working on the nature reserve which was (and still is) ran by the RSPB. Bempton cliffs is often visited by those interesting in observing the puffins on the Cliffside and is nearby an abandoned RAF radar station popular with urban explorers.

A parking ticket was displayed on the window of Russell’s car. The time stamp revealed that the ticket had been purchased at 11:30AM on the day that he went missing. The worker noticed that the vehicle was still parked there at 5PM but thought nothing of it until it next day when it was still there.

Russell Bohling’s parents were suspicious that their son had managed to drive from their home in East Riding to Bempton cliffs without using his debit car to fill up the tank. They informed police that he had only 10GBP in cash and under 4 liters of petrol in his tank on the morning that he disappeared. The cliffs are a 45 minute journey one way and they were confident he didn’t have enough cash on his person or enough petrol in his tank to drive there without once stopping to fill up. Russell’s bank informed investigators that no transactions had been made on his account on the day that he went missing.

Russell’s parents did some investigative work of their own and came to the conclusion that their son would have needed to stop at a gas station, likely in Brandersburton, just under halfway to Bempton. They insisted that he would have nowhere near the amount of money to fill up and fully subscribe to the idea that he was not alone on the trip.
They looked to his SATNAV for clues and discovered that leading up to the day of his disappearance he had taken trips to York, Bradford and Bridlington.

York is around 47 miles from Russell’s home in East Riding. It would take him just under an hour and a half one way. Bradford is around 64 miles and just over an hour and a half by car. Bridlington is the closest to his home, around 20miles away and just a 40 minute drive via the A1. He didn’t tell anyone in his family that he had made these trips. He simply left and returned home without mentioning where he had been.

So what exactly was Russell doing at Bempton cliffs?

The police initially believed that he had traveled there to commit suicide as the cliffs are a suicide hotspot, however a body never washed up onto shore.

A user over at reddit /unresolvedmysteries recounted their visit to RAF Bempton and revealed that there was a steep slope leading down to a quick drop off the side of the cliffs and believe that he could of accidentally fell to his death- but again, no body was ever recovered.

The police had found what is mentioned in many online articles as “a suicide tape” in Russell Bohling’s bedroom. When I first read this I imagined they were talking about a video recording, but it turns out it was an audio recording found on a Dictaphone. On the tape, Russell talks about wanting to be buried in the countryside as he believed that he wasn’t intelligent enough and it upset him. The teenager’s mother claims that the recording was made at a time when Russell was stressed out about his GCSE results. He was supposedly 15 years old when he made the tape. His parents insist that the only reason it exists was due to the stress Russell felt when thinking about his future and that with time and confidence his fears for the future faded.

Russell’s parents had a completely different theory for why their son may have visited Bempton cliffs that day- his interest in the nearby disused RAF radar station. They claim that Russell had a particular interest in the bunker, which is popular with urban explorers and hasn’t been open to the public since the early eighties when it was bought by a private owner.

Apparently Russell carried around a USB stick with pictures of the “pornographic and devilish” graffiti that decorates the walls of the abandoned building.

The bunker, which was in operation from the 1940's, has been the subject of sinister rumors since the seventies. Locals believe it was used by a “Satanic cult” and that sacrifices and rituals were performed. There are no articles (that I can find) that mention anything of the sort going on at the disused bunker, but ask a local and they just may tell tales of a devil-worshipping group having orgies and sacrificing animals. Despite the buildings reputation, most locals are generally aware that the cults never existed. Some will offer that the tales are urban legends conjured up after raves and parties were thrown by students from the nearby university many moons ago. Some say they believe the “cult” was just a bunch of squatters who had to be evicted by police in the seventies.  

This album hosted on FLICKR details the artwork inside and includes diagrams and a layout of the building. There are also numerous blog posts online recording peoples visits.

This is one of the more tame examples, click HERE<< to be taken to a forum to see some of the more explicit pieces. 

The “Satanic graffiti” consists of paintings of naked figures in sheels having orgies. The artwork itself is pretty well done, considering. People with devil horns growing out of their heads with their genitals on display dance around the walls of the bunker surrounded by general graffiti tropes commonly found scrawled on the walls of most abandoned buildings, such as “666”, “this way to hell” and the nicknames of visitors.

An article in a local newspaper reports that Russell didn’t find the images of the graffiti online. Apparently the pictures were copied from a USB stick and pasted in a folder on his desktop. I couldn’t find anything about the whereabouts of the memory stick.

Russell’s father, Roger Bohling, suspects that his son was involved with an unknown person linked to the graffiti in the bunker. I assume he doesn’t believe that a satanic cult sacrificed him, rather that Russell may have been in contact with someone who agreed to go visit the bunker with him, but in reality had sinister ulterior motives.

Russell Bohling had speech disorder that his parents believe made him vulnerable. For example, he would have a hard time voicing disagreement and would instead go along with something that he didn’t necessarily want to do.

So what would someone want from Russell? Why him?

Well, apparently Russell Bohling stood to receive a 300,000GBP windfall from his father to start his own business. An article in the Yorkshire post states that the 300,000GBP would be signed over to Russell in the form of a semi-detached house with which he could do whatever he wanted. Russell has two brothers, Nigel (then 23) and Andrew (then 22) and they too were set to inherit the same amount. Russell was scheduled to receive his windfall as soon as he turned 18, but he was yet to receive the property at the time he went missing. Apparently the 18 year old planned to start his own business. Money is always a likely motive for murder as we often times see people disappear or die under suspicious circumstances shortly after taking out life insurance policies. Surely an outsider  would have nothing to gain from the death of Russell as he hadn’t even received his money.

Russell’s parents rule out their son as a walk-away arguing that if he was to voluntarily disappear he surely would have waited for his 300,000GBP windfall before doing so.

Sea, mountain and air searches for the missing 18 year old turned up nothing. It was if he had simply vanished into thin air. Fire and rescue searched the bunker aided with torches and heat sensitive camera equipment. In 2012 they returned to search once again, this time the Bohling family shelled out over 1000GBP to cover the cost of pulling up the concrete that had been laid to keep out addicts. Still, authorities found no trace of Russell.

His parents believe he is no longer alive. They think the answers to what happened to their son that day are in the USB, that whoever gave him those images had some involvement in his death. Russell had indeed searched about the RAF bunker online before his disappearance but that’s no surprise as he already had the images and the intention to visit.

Now, about Roger Bohling. I was honestly shocked to find out the next piece of information.

Russell’s father, Roger, turned his personal computer in to Humberside Police in what an article in the Yorkshire post describes as “a desperate bid to find his son”.

This gesture did not lead police to the missing 18 year old, but instead lead to the discovery of (then) 57 year old Roger Bohling’s child porn stash.

This collection of images consisted of what has been described as 415 pictures of kids in “erotic poses” as well as 3 images of people “engaging in sexual acts with animals”.

Apparently Roger Bohling did not download the images but obtained them via a memory stick from a relative. He then went on to burn the collection of images onto a CD.

These images were officially classed as “low level” CP and were said to be pictures that may have been of children on vacation.

Roger suffers from a degenerative brain issue due to an accident he had years ago and apparently once informed his family that planned to commit suicide on account of the disease. If Russell knew about this, it would have been an extremely difficult and upsetting thought to deal with.

Russell’s parents claimed that a pair of brown steel toe capped boots were missing from their son’s room. Later, a foot laced up into the same type of boot washed up onto shore. Testing proved that the foot did not belong to Russell.

His parents insisted that a certain pair of shoes their son was wearing on the day he disappeared were found in the family summer home in Ravenscar two years after he vanished.

Russell Bohling has never been found.

Who killed Suzy Lamplugh? John Cannan and the Suffolk Strangler

On the 28th of July 1986, 25 year old Suzy Lamplugh disappeared from Fulham, South London, where she worked as a real estate agent. She had previously been employed as a beautician on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship, but had decided to take a new direction.

Following clues found in her work planner, police discovered that she had left her office at Sturges estate agents on Fullham road around lunch time in order to meet a client who was interested in a £130,000 property on Shorrolds road.

“37 Shorrolds road o/s” the note said. “12:45, Mr. Kipper”.

“o/s” is believed to stand for “outside”.

According to Google maps, it’s only a six minute drive from the office to the property. Suzy climbed into her white Ford Fiesta company car, registration number B396GAN and presumably made her way to the appointment.

Mr. Kipper was unknown to Suzy’s co-workers. They had no record of him on file at the office and it wasn’t a name any of them recognized.

When the 25 year old failed to return to the office, her family was contacted, and in turn, they contacted the police to report her missing. The police search was thorough. Officers employed the use of dogs and searched Sharrolds road, the surrounding area including Brompton cemetery and made a trip to the missing woman’s flat in Putney- just less than 3 miles from her workplace. 

There was nothing out of the ordinary at Suzy’s flat. No sign of a struggle. No evidence that she planned to walk away voluntarily. Everything seemed to be in order. 

Police utilized helicopters to scan parks and cemeteries but found nothing.

The first worrying sign in the case came when the woman’s car was found at around 10pm that night parked on Stevenage road. The vehicle is described as being hastily parked, blocking off part of a residents garage and the doors were unlocked. The seat had been adjusted in such a way that investigators believe someone other than Suzy was driving.  The keys were missing but her purse was in the vehicle.

As we can see from the map, Stevenage road is just over a mile away, around a 7 minute drive, nearby Fullham football ground and bishops park which stretches north of the Thames river. 

Divers searched the Thames, but came up empty handed.

I found this article, which states Sturges estate agency also had a property at Stevenage road on their books.

 When police reached out to the public for information they received a couple of accounts from witnesses passing through the area who recalled seeing a young woman arguing with a man. This article states that Suzy was seen exiting the property on Shorrolds road with the client at around 1pm.

Despite massive media coverage and hundreds upon hundreds of phone calls from the public, Suzy Lamplugh was nowhere to be found. A search of her company car found no signs of a struggle. Investigators entertained the notion that she initially went voluntarily with whoever was driving her Ford fiesta that day, but were at a loss when attempting to fill in the blanks of what happened afterwards.

Although 800 unidentified bodies were tested, none of them turned out to be Suzy.

 With no leads in the case, it simply went cold.

Mr. Kipper

An artist came up with this composite sketch using descriptions given by witnesses who saw Suzy and the man arguing

The artist’s rendition of Mr. Kipper turned out to resemble a later suspect in the case, a Mr. John Cannan.

(source)

Cannan was responsible for the rape of a woman in the Reading area in 1986. 

He was on a train from Bristol to London and got off at Reading where he committed the crime. Although he provided an alibi his DNA was present on the victim which eventually led to his arrest.

Cannan then attempted to kidnap a businesswoman from Bristol, Julia Holman, in the autumn of 1987. Although he threatened her to comply at gunpoint, she refused to go down without a fight and escaped.

He later murdered a woman named Shirley Banks whom he killed in Bristol. Banks was the manager of a local factory and a married woman who was quickly missed by her husband who searched for her when she did not turn up to a bar they planned to meet at after her shopping trip. 

Strangely, she called into work the following day and said she wouldn’t be able to come in due to sickness.  It’s thought that Shirley Banks was kept overnight at John Cannan’s residence at Foye House, Leigh Woods, Bristol, and that he most likely threatened to hurt her if she didn’t call in to work. He would have needed her to do this so it would appear as though she had gone missing voluntarily to give him more time to do whatever he was going to do. 

After Banks’ husband reported her missing a massive search was underway. Her picture, name, description and last known whereabouts were broadcasted on TV and printed in the media.

John Cannon committed crimes so compulsively that it was no surprise that he was eventually caught in the act and chased down by civilians who alerted the authorities. Police finally apprehended him on the 29^th of October, 1987, after an attempted robbery at a dress shop in Lemmington Spa. 

A search of his vehicle, a black BMW parked a stone’s throw away, turned up a fake plastic pistol (likely the one he threatened Julia Holman with) and a length of rope. A bag and the knife he used to threaten various victims were found discarded nearby.

The investigation continued and as time passed more damning evidence turned up. The tax disc from Banks’ missing orange Mini Clubman car was found in the glove box of Cannan’s BMW.

When the Mini was eventually located in a garage near Cannan’s flat, police discovered the once orange vehicle had been painted blue in an attempt to disguise the once distinctive car.

A thumb print in Cannan’s flat matched that of Shirley. 

Her remains were found at “Dead woman’s ditch” in Somerset, England on the Quantock Hills. She had been raped and bludgeoned with a rock.

Keep these details in mind as we continue on.

Cannan had been committing crimes against women since he was just 14 years old. Back in 1968 when he was a teenager living in Erdington, Warwickshire, he assaulted a woman in a phone box.

He was actually married from 1978 – 1980 to a woman named June Vale. The couple had a daughter together. Cannon eventually left his wife for another woman named Daphne Sargent. When Sargent tried to leave him, he attempted to stop her using violence. 

From there he began to rob stores and rape women at knifepoint, resulting in his incarceration at Her Majesties Prison in Bristol where he was serving eight years. He was transferred to Wormwood Scrubs prison in London, eventually.

Here’s an interesting piece of information concerning his whereabouts on the day that Suzy went missing- Cannan was on day release from wormwood scrubs. The distance between Wormwood scrubs and Fullham road is just over 4 miles away, an average of 18 minutes by car.

Those who were unaware of his criminal history would describe him as good looking and charming. He had a way with women and claimed that he’d had around 100 one night stands. John Cannan was fond of middle class professional woman. He had a shtick of his own that involved playing the role of a business man and wooing his targets with bouquets of flowers, boxes of candy, champagne and trinkets. If things went well, he would date them, if they rejected his advances, he would most likely attack them.

An episode of crimewatch UK about Suzy’s disappearance featured a dating tape Cannan had made at an agency seeking women. 

In it, he comes across as thoughtful and charming. Listen closely and he may not be as eloquent as he tried so hard to seem, often using words incorrectly in sentences.

One of Cannan’s ex-girlfriends came forward to police to share some disturbing information. She revealed to investigators that John Cannan had some kind of fascination with Suzy’s case. At one point while they were driving past Norton Barracks, a military site in Worcestershire, Cannan said to her “Suzy Lamplugh is buried there”. Police searched the area extensively but found nothing.

A couple of years later police entertained the idea that the ex-girlfriend was possibly referring to Norton Manor Royal Marines barracks, located just 8 miles away from where the body of Shirley Banks was discovered in Somerset. Still, a search turned up nothing.

Years later a car linked to Cannan was recovered. It had a fake license plate that said: SLP 386 (possibly Suzy Lamplough, 3rd victim, 1986?)

The Suffolk Strangler

(Source)

Various articles online question whether or not Steve “the Suffolk stranger” Wright could be responsible for the murder of Suzy Lamplugh.

Apparently this suspicion came up following a documentary about the serial killer who was active in Ipswich in the mid 2000’s.

The murders spanned 10 days in which Wright claimed 5 victims. If we look at the Stranglers M.O Suzy doesn’t appear to fit his victim type, however police found a photograph amongst the serial killers personal possessions that feature himself and Suzy. 

He too worked on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship at the same time as Suzy. He was ruled out as a suspect and denied any role.

I personally can’t escape the idea that Cannan is responsible. Suzy fits his victim type (“Posh” professional women, 20 something etc.) We also know that he was near Fulham on the day of her disappearance. We know he talked about Suzy on many occasions to his girlfriend at the time, making his morbid jokes about knowing where she was buried. Plus the license plate with what could be an abbreviation for her name, the year and victim number. 

Lastly, this article states that Suzy was being harassed by a man from Bristol (Cannan was born there) who drove around in a black BMW. Witnesses who saw Suzy with “Mr. Kipper” that day said the man drove the same kind of car.

Suzy Lamplugh's remains were never found. 

UPDATE: Cannan still denies the killing. Police are in the process of searching his mother's home.
READ HERE<<

Who killed Jackie Ansell Lamb and Barbara Mayo?

It was a Sunday. March the 8^th 1970, London. 

The time was approximately 2:30 in the afternoon.

A teenage girl stood at the side of the road with her thumb out, attempting to hitch a ride back home to Manchester. 

She had recently moved from London to Manchester and had traveled back to the capital city with her flat mate to retrieve the rest of her belongings. While there, the girls attended a party where the teenager met a man in his early twenties. The pair spent the weekend together before he dropped her off at Hendon so she could thumb a ride back to Manchester.

(source)

The girls name was Jackie (often spelled Jacci) Ansell Lamb; she was just 18 years old and worked as a legal secretary in  Manchester. 

She was seen by various witnesses at the beginning of the M1, attempting to get a lift Northbound. 

(Unlike today, hitchhiking was a common practice back in the seventies.)

The journey from London to Manchester spanned 200miles and would have taken around 4 hours to complete. She managed to get picked up, a great stroke of fortune she probably thought at the time- unfortunately for Jacci, her journey would end just half an hour from her desired destination.

 

Less than a week later, On Saturday the 14^th of March, a farmer near Mere, in Knutsford, near the M6; found the body of young woman in a thicket on a rural country road near Mobberley.

This archived page from “the Cheshire magazine” gives a more specific location: “Square Wood, Mere, near Knutsford” which looks like this on Google maps:

The girl had been strangled to death (ligature) and was in a state of undress. 

She had been raped.

After a call for information one man came forward as an eye witness. He claimed that he saw Jacci climb into a vehicle around 4-5 in the evening at the Keele service motorway station (Three Mile Lane, Keele, Newcastle-Under-Lyme ST5 5HG, UK). 

He described her as being clad in a long navy coat and shiny maroon shoes. She was also wearing a blonde wig and false lashes.

From what I can find online, this could make sense.

She left London around 2:30pm and was seen between 4 - 5pm in Keele, which is about a 3 hour drive (169 miles) meaning the witness could have seen her around the time he claimed.

From there it would only be an hours’ drive from the Keele service station to the site that Lamb’s body was found.

I’m not sure if she was getting into the same car she’d hitchhiked in from London to Keele or if she was getting into a second ride from Keele to Manchester and never made it.

The only description of the car at Keele is that it was a saloon. This information was found HERE<<

I wanted to know more about Jacci (Or Jackie as her name is often spelled in various reports) and eventually found a book on the Yorkshire ripper containing some extra information. HERE <<

Now According to this book, Jacci was found face down with a wound to the back of her skull. The Navy blue jacket the witness had described seeing is said to be purple, but exactly the same style, which makes me think the eyewitness who saw Lamb at the Keele station is believable.

The jacket had been ripped from her body and was torn at the buttons indicating a struggle. Apparently the killer had used the coat to hide her from view and her skirt was placed next to her.

In this book, the ligature is thought to have been a length of knotted rope or some kind of wire, as indicated by the bruising around her neck. Other articles do state it was electrical wire.

Apparently her body had been posed. This is a detail I have not seen anywhere else.

This book suggests that Peter Sutcliff, also known as “the Yorkshire ripper”, could very well be responsible for the murder of Lamb. However surely they have his DNA and could have matched it with the DNA from the girl’s body. I’m presuming there was some?

(source)

Now there is an eerily similar case that is always mentioned in the same breath as the unsolved murder of Jacci Ansell Lamb, and that is “the unsolved murder of Barbara Mayo”.

(source)

Now Mayo was a 24 year old trainee teacher who was hitchhiking from Hendon, at the start of the A1 going Northbound to Catterick, North Yorkshire - the same starting point as Jacci Ansell Lamb. It was also the same year- Monday the 12^th of October, 1970.

Apparently she set off to Catterick with the intention of hitchhiking there to pick up her boyfriend’s car at a garage they’d left it at, as it had broken down on a journey back from County Durham the previous day. She was carrying a unique looking bag with her which was decorated with an elephant design.

Unfortunately she never turned up to the garage and also failed to return home to shepherds bush, London. She was quickly reported missing.

Her body was found near Hodmire lane, Glapwell, Aul Hucknall in Derbyshire, much in the same state as Jacci Ansell Lamb’s. Most online articles simply state that she was raped and strangled, but the book “Yorkshire Ripper - The Secret Murders: The True Story of How Peter Sutcliffe's Terrible Reign of Terror Claimed at Least Twenty-Two More Lives” She too had a wound to the back of the skull, had been raped and strangled to death with a ligature.

(source)

Police set up stops to question people along the motorway and appealed publicly for information. One eyewitness claimed that they saw a young woman who looked like Mayo climbing into a Morris 1000 estate Traveller van (quite a memorable car imo) at 4 in the afternoon. They apparently saw (who they believed to be) Mayo getting into the car along the A610 in Nottinghamshire.

-So both women began their journeys Northbound at the start of the A1.

-Both were raped and strangled.

-Both had injuries to the back of the head (apparently).

-Both were possibly seen by witnesses around the same time frame.

-They were murdered within seven months of each other.

Although I’m aware of Peter Sutcliffe, I’ve never looked into his crimes in depth, but this excerpt from an article about Sutcliffe’s potentially much higher body count piqued my interest.

“His MO included prior conversation with his victims, the use of hammer (usually with a round head or ‘ball-peen’) from behind, repeated stabbing after death with a knife or screwdriver, partially stripping and moving his victim’s body and posing them in a ‘staged’ crime scene. He sometimes used a knotted roped to strangle victims, and semen was sometimes left at the scene.”

Hitting the victim on the back of the head, posing the bodies, rape, and strangulation with a ligature? Sounds all too familiar as an MO. I think we’ll have to look into this in more detail in a whole other post on Sutcliffe in the near future.

Now this next part of the story confused me.

Numerous reports state there was DNA found on both victims from the same man that linked both cases to the same unidentified perpetrator. But when searching about this it seems as though this was a case of misreporting on the media’s part.

Apparently there was never any confirmation about the DNA found on both bodies belonging to the same person. I found a request for information regarding this detail online, however it was rejected by the Cheshire Constabulary and the original asker was referred to a previous question that was similar in nature.

The entire exchange can be viewed HERE<<

Check back for part 2 very soon.

Who murdered Ann Ballantine?

Beautiful, dark haired, 20 year old Ann Ballantine was unemployed, but used her free time to contribute to the local community, helping handicapped children and volunteering at a youth charity for disadvantaged local kids. She was a warm hearted and charitable young woman, who wanted to benefit the lives of those in need. According to this article Ann loved children and aspired to have kids of her own one day.

(source)

Ann’s mother, Isobel, was only 18 years old when she gave birth to Ann, but describes her first child fondly, commenting on how happy the child was.

Ann was single and was living independently in her own flat on Dalry road. She would visit the family home on a weekly basis, usually with armfuls of laundry. She’d use the washing facilities and sit down and chat with her family before leaving with food and snacks to take back to her flat.

Ann and her boyfriend, a man named Joe Burden, had recently separated on amicable terms, and she had no known enemies in the area. In fact, Anne was a popular young woman who loved heavy metal and would watch bands at the local venues and hang out with bikers around Edinburgh. She was very sociable and was always meeting up with friends in the city.

This is why, when she failed to show up to a pre-planned get-together with a friend just a few days after the 20 year old visited her parents’ home on the 18^th of November 1986, her parents were contacted.

The friend alerted them and explained how Ann had failed to show up to the meeting they had arranged, and expressed worry. Her parents called in at their daughter’s apartment but she neglected to answer. They left a note and went home, returning several times to check again and post notes and money through the letter box, encouraging Ann to get in contact.

Ann never did contact them.

When she neglected to show up to the family home for the Christmas holidays as they had arranged they reported her missing on the 26^th.

Ann’s friends were interviewed; her flat was searched by police who determined there was no sign of a struggle. There were various items missing from the residence, however, including a sleeveless black leather jacket, a brass lighter with her initials engraved into it, her black shoulder bag, a photo album, a camera and keys. To me these all seem like items you’d take for a day out somewhere, but the photo album throws me off. I feel as though a photo album is something you’d take to a meet up with a friend. I mean it doesn’t say anywhere (as far as I can see) what the content of the album was (for example was it childhood photographs, school pictures, pictures from concerts, pictures of friends?) but maybe she was talking it to show someone she hadn’t seen in a while (For example an old school friend maybe) and wanted to take a stroll down memory lane with the aid of the photo album?

(Source)

Tragically, Ann Ballantine’s bound and naked body was discovered wrapped in a carpet, floating in the icy water of Union Canal on the 21^st of January in 1987. Her hands and feet were bound and she appeared to have been strangled by a ligature and photographs were discovered splayed out nearby.

Due to the state of decomposition, it was estimated that she had been dead for a few weeks and probably kept somewhere else before being callously dumped into the canal. Her body was so badly decayed that police advised the family not to view it. She was finally identified by dental records and a scar. Family friends viewed the body for confirmation to spare Ann’s parents of the pain. Although they were not allowed to see their child one last time they were given a lock of her hair, a memento that they treasure till this day. (source)

Her apartment was only 90 meters away from where her body was discovered.

Apparently Ann kept a diary, which her parents read in search of clues. 

One entry read: “There’s somebody knocking at my door, I think I recognize the knock, I think it could be XXX”

In reports her parents insist that they know who their daughter’s killer is, and that they even have a photograph of the two together at a family event. Apparently they aren’t allowed to expose the suspect due to insufficient evidence, but they are adamant that they know who killed their first born.

“He looks pure evil” Isobel commented.

Although advances in DNA have contributed significantly to solving decades old cold cases, the state of decay and the wet conditions Ballantine’s body was found in could render new technologies irrelevant in this case. Investigators may have to turn to other methods to find the killer.

Ann Ballantine never got the chance to marry and have her own children as she dreamed. She never got to go to the Alice Cooper concert she had bought tickets for weeks in advance. The case remains officially unsolved and her killer still walks the streets freely.

 If you have any information please do not hesitate to contact the authorities

What really happened to Claudia Lawrence?

9th November 2017: I x-posted this case to Reddit /unresolvedmysteries for discussion. You can read people's comments HERE it's pretty interesting. 

Hello everyone. I'm back with yet another unsolved case.

I've badly sprained my right ankle so I'm stuck on bed rest, which means I have some free time to regularly post again.

Also, it's October, so we might have to do several creepy posts in the run up to Halloween!

If you want me to write about anything in particular, just drop a comment. If you want to receive email alerts when I make a new post just submit your email address in the box on the right (desktop view) 

It’s been over eight years since anyone has seen Claudia Lawrence.

(Claudia. Source)

Lawrence was 35 years old and working as a chef at Goodricke College in the University of York at the time she went missing. She disappeared from the small town of Heworth in York, England, on the 18^th of March 2009.

The last contact she had with her family was via two phone calls with her mother on the evening of March 18^th. The conversation revolved around what they would do together to celebrate the coming mother’s day. 

In a documentary about the case, “Donald McIntyre’s unsolved”, Claudia’s mother talks in detail about the last phone call. Apparently Claudia was in her bedroom, it was between 8pm – 8.30pm and the two of them were watching the same TV show. She states that she could hear the show in the background of the call.

The following day, however, Claudia neglected to show up for work.

A missing persons report was filed by her father on the 20^th of March and an investigation was underway.

When investigators entered her house they discovered her bank cards and passport were left behind, indicating that if she had disappeared of her own accord, it would have been difficult to get very far or survive for an extended time without cash or the documents to do so.

There was no sign of a disturbance or struggle and nothing of value had been taken. In fact, Lawrence’s bed had been made and there were unwashed dishes in the sink that suggested she had eaten breakfast that morning. It was also evident that she had brushed her teeth.

Her work bag, which was a rucksack containing her uniform for work, was missing.

(The brand of bag she used. Source)

 Her hair irons were also missing- could she have usually taken these to work generally as its hot working in a kitchen and flat ironed hair tends to lose its straightness in humid atmospheres.

Could the absence of her work gear suggest that she had left for work and met foul play on her early morning walk there?

Police found a home hair dye kit in the house and at first entertained the idea that Claudia had dyed someone’s hair, as she was a known to be a blonde. However Claudia’s mother informed them that her daughter had recently became a brunette and the hair dye kit was most likely hers. The brand and colour was “Clairol herbal essences fearless” in the colour “62” which is a good match for the last hair colour Lawrence was seen sporting. Dying over blonde hair with a brown box dye will often result in fading so it’s not suspicious (to me at least) that she would have to dye it again in order to make the pigment hold. 

(Source)

Strangely, from this image, it seems as though she also bleached her hair. Maybe she had naturally darker roots and wanted to lift them? Maybe she was doing some late 2000’s highlights? Who knows?

Hair colour became an issue in the case when misleading missing posters went to print. Claudia’s mother claims that she did not provide the photograph for the poster, which was an older picture portraying the missing woman as a blonde. She fears this may have negatively impacted the search.

Apparently Claudia she left for work around 5am. She started at 6am, and would usually drive there, which would take around 6 minutes. However on the day she went missing, her Vauxhall Corsa was in a local garage, so she went by foot, which would take about half an hour via “Melrosegate”.

It was probably quite dark that early in the morning in March and there is one strip of shady area she had to pass by, which includes a small bridge and a road. As you can see on the map it’s around “Hull road”.

This is a picture of it from around 10 years ago that I found here<<

The website even pins down the exact location for us: “Ton the edge of SE6151, where Melrosegate crosses the Sustrans route 66”

Someone who knew her would most likely know her plans so it would be easy to lay in wait. Could she have been abducted or met foul play at the hands of a passing opportunistic criminal? Could they have seen her walking alone in an isolated area at such an early hour and taken advantage of the situation?

The CCTV around Lawrence’s home was checked for any suspicious looking individuals on the night or morning of the woman’s disappearance. Around 7:15pm that night a surveillance camera captured footage of a man clad in dark clothes entering the alley way behind Claudia’s house. He disappears out of frame for around 1 minute and re-emerges with what looks like a rucksack or another type of bag over his shoulder. Suddenly another man passes by. The man with the bag stops in his tracks and is seen looking in the direction of the passer-by.

(Side note: I feel as though the “bag” was there when he walked into the alley, only it was over his right shoulder and so was obscured by his body. When he walks out again his right side is facing the camera so it’s easy to see. I also feel like maybe it’s not a bag at all, perhaps what we’re seeing is his elbows and he has his hands in his pockets so his elbows are protruding out of his silhouette.

Also if he had no bag, then 1 minute and 8 seconds later he suddenly does, maybe it was dropped in the alley for him to pick up which makes me think it would contain something illegal, most likely drugs and that’s why he gets sketched out when the older guy walks past, paranoid that he might be a cop or whatever. Could Claudia Lawrence have been involved in something drug related that got her mixed up with the wrong people?

Maybe the man in dark clothes was innocently relieving himself and has nothing to do with the case?

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know your opinion in the comments)

(Source: York police)

Then, around 5am Thursday morning we see a man clad in dark clothes again. He repeats the same action and walks into the alleyway only to re-emerge a minute or so later.

Although the men on the separate clips have never officially been confirmed to be the same individual, I personally believe that they are. They look similar in build and height and repeat the same action. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Investigators later checked her phone records and found out that the final text message sent to her phone was from a male acquaintance on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where Lawrence had holidayed several times and knew local bar and restaurant owners well. The text went unanswered and the content of the message was never revealed.

This lead was later followed up, when despite large rewards and media coverage, no tipsters or witnesses came forward. The police branched out their search to the holiday destination and interviewed the several individuals connected to Lawrence who denied any part in her disappearance. One man stated since he considered her a good friend, he would do whatever he could to aid authorities in the search. Some did not want to talk to authorities for one reason or another.

One of the men, all of whom were British, was on record as being in the UK on the day of Claudia’s disappearance. Coincidence?

The investigation then returned to the UK.

The more investigators interviewed the people who knew Claudia Lawrence, the more they began to realise that each set of people had a completely different description of her as a person. Work colleagues described her in a very different way than her close friend did, and her father, a local solicitor, claimed that he barely recognised the character his daughter was being portrayed as in the media.

Newspapers described the missing woman in a negative light, publicly writing about the secret affairs she’d had with older, married men. They printed photographs from her enjoying herself at parties and presented her as a wild and reckless seductress.

Although it was true that Lawrence had been in relationships with older married men and enjoyed an active social life that included drinking with friends at her local pub “The nags head”, she was still a victim. The negative attitude towards her in the newspapers that lined the shelves of supermarkets and newsagents while the case was ongoing likely made readers feel less sympathetic towards her.

Friends and family remembered her as a warm and friendly girl, a hard worker who had a lot of friends and liked to have fun and enjoy her days off.

Claudia’s landlord described her as a warm and friendly vegetarian who “wouldn’t say boo to a goose.”

None of the men she’d had secret relationships with came forward with information, and were not prepared to even admit they knew Claudia Lawrence for fear of being exposed for their extramarital affairs.

According to the “unsolved” documentary, Lawrence was involved with some pretty shady characters that were known to the police. They are unnamed in the show but described as “a rogue gallery”, hinting that they are probably locally known criminals- what level of activity they may have been involved in is not implied. This was a piece of information investigating authorities were apprehensive to put out publically, as they thought it would further hurt the case and deter interest from members of the public who could possibly help solve it.

In 2013 the case was looked at again, this time with the benefit of modern forensic science.

The 2013 findings following the full forensic review of the residence and vehicle include:

-DNA on an “Embassy Regal” cigarette butt recovered from Lawrence’s car. The DNA is thought to belong to a left handed male smoker. A set of partial finger prints (to this day unidentified) were found in the house but nothing came of it.

-Cell phone activity not previously known, including evidence that she had been in or around the area of Acomb, York, a month or so before she went missing. (Another secret boyfriend unknown to friends and family perhaps?)

-Confirmation that her phone was powered off deliberately at 12:10 the day after she went missing. According to those who knew her, when Claudia was not at work she was glued to her phone (a Samsung D900) and rarely if ever let it run out of battery.

CCTV footage from that night was also reviewed and surveillance from a public bus that passed Claudia’s residence showed a white Astra Van parked opposite her street on the last night she was heard from.

Another vehicle of interest is a light coloured hatchback thought to be a Ford Focus. It drives past Claudia’s property at around 5:42am. The brake lights illuminate indicating a sudden halt.

Police want to know why the car suddenly hit the brakes. Did they pick up Claudia; possibly offer her a ride to work?

Did she know the people / person in the car? Were they a stranger?

Or again is the vehicle completely unconnected to the case?

Could they be a potential witness?

You can watch the footage here << on the crime stoppers episode from 2014 featuring Claudia Lawrence’s case (which is where I took these stills from.)

Now how about Witness accounts?

-This news report mentions a witness that saw a woman talking to a man wearing a dark hoody and black combat trousers at around 5:35am. He was smoking with his left hand. This was apparently at the Melrose Bridge, which was along Claudia’s normal route to work.

-Apparently (as mentioned in the same news segment) another witness saw a couple arguing near a vehicle with an open door near the university. The man was wearing a dark hooded sweater. (I’m guessing that’s an implication he’s possibly the same man mentioned above?)

When police relayed the information to Claudia’s father, he did not connect the description of his daughters physical attributes to that of the woman in the witness’ account.

-The third witness account I found was regarding the sighting of a 55 – 65 year old male with mid length grey hair, dressed in a three quarter length sand coloured mac.

-Another sketchy individual worth mentioning is a man several people saw hanging around the area a few days before Claudia went missing. Apparently a man in “Rusty white van” was loitering around attempting to talk with women. Could this be the same van as the white Astra I mentioned earlier?

-“co-op man” is an unidentified male who, on April 1st 2009, told staff at the Co-op in Tang hall that he knew / was an ex-colleague of Lawrence. Although there is a still of him from the stores CCTV footage, he has never been identified or questioned.

(Mr. Co-op. Source)

Search

This case is probably one of, if not the, most expensive investigation in York police history. The surrounding area was searched extensively, including the university and the land surrounding it and rural areas around Heworth. Statements were taken down from hundreds of people and every witness and phone call tip was followed up.

Arrests

The first arrest made in the case was that of a 59 year old man in May 2014. He was outed locally as a man named Michael Snelling. Snelling was arrested by local authorities under the suspicion of murder. He had previously worked in the biology department at the York University, but at the time of his arrest was working for a York branch of the “mind” mental health charity.

He too was a regular at Claudia’s usual haunt “The nags head” pub, her local drinking spot. The two had been seen there hugging before.

He was out on bail not long after.

Another man, also in his 50’s, was arrested two years later in 2016 following a forensic search of the alleyway behind Lawrence’s house. However 4 men in total were released due to lack of evidence supporting the claims made against them.

Lack of cooperation from those who knew the missing woman are responsible in the eyes of the head of the investigation.

Every Christmas even for several consecutive years an unknown person hung a wreath decorated with white feathers on the door of Claudia’s home. When her parents publicly displayed emotional distress at the gesture and asked the anonymous person to stop, they did. This person was never identified.

EDIT: Thanks to u/popejohn2 on R/Unresolvedmysteries where I x-posted this for discussion, I now know that the man's name was Rodney Ballard. u/NeilJung5 also added that this man believed he was a psychic and was recieving messages from Claudia. His Twitter profile is still active and was last updated in 2014.

(source)

2017

So there’s been some new buzz surrounding the case this year.

Recently articles in UK newspapers have been posing the question “Was ‘killer Cabbie’ Christopher Halliwell involved in the disappearance of Claudia Lawrence?”

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll recall we actually discussed Christopher Halliwell (who is currently serving life in prison) several months ago and even asked ourselves if we believed he was responsible for the deaths of other women? (Click HERE << to read the post.)

This article states that Halliwell’s father lived just an hour away from York. Not too far to go to pick off a victim.

The mother of a victim of Halliwell’s (Sian O’Callaghan) encouraged the public to look at the description of the killer “a left-handed smoker, 5ft 8-10in, with slightly receding hair and a skinny build.” Remember how the suspicious man witnesses saw talking to a woman on the morning of Lawrence’s disappearance was described as a “left handed smoker”? Quite a specific detail.

Now remember the police officer (Steven Fulcher, now retired) who believed he was in a race against time to save a young girl from Halliwell and actually got the murderer to lead him to two bodies by having an ‘unofficial chat’ with him?

Well Fulcher pointed out that the date on which Halliwell killed Sian O’ Callaghan (19^th March 2011) was relevant to the date Halliwell was ditched by an ex-lover. Apparently that date was significant to Christopher Halliwell as it was the date his girlfriend broke up with him while he was serving time in prison in the eighties.

Is it just a coincidence that Claudia Lawrence went missing (technically as they believe she left for work) on that same anniversary of March 19th? Or does this fit into Halliwell’s pattern perfectly?

I know sometimes with these type of cases we so badly want to make connections when there isn’t any, but that was an eerie detail that is.