Persons Unknown

At 4.15pm on Monday 26th September 1994 the Pacey’s 14 year old daughter arrived home from school to be met by silence. She looked for her mother Julie throughout the large house which was situated in an affluent part of Grantham, Lincolnshire. In the upstairs bathroom the teenager found her 38 year old mother unresponsive on the floor. The brave girl attempted CPR but it was not until the paramed...

Six year old Ludovic Janvier was abducted  in the early evening of 17 March 1983. He and his two brothers had left the apartment where they were staying in Saint-Martin-d'Hères to run an errand for their father. On their way home the boys were approached by a man wearing a motorcycle helmet who asked for help looking for his dog. The man took Ludovic by the hand and walked away behind some ho...

Early on the morning of 11 February 1987 a cyclist on their way to work in Fort Collins, Colorado, discovered the mutilated body of an auburn-haired woman lying in a field. 37 year old Peggy Hettrick had last been seen leaving a local pub, six hours previously, to make the short walk home to her apartment. Several clues were left at the crime scene including finger prints, shoe markings, and two h...

Five year old Renee Aitken was abducted from her bed on the night of 16/17 February 1984. Her older brother Bradley was asleep in the same bedroom just feet away. The coastal village of Narooma, NSW  and the surrounding bushland was searched dozens of  times, but no trace of Renee was found. Two years later Renee’s mother Morna said publicly that she knew who had taken her daughter. Over a decade...

It was a little after midnight on September 17th 1959 when Kelso Cochrane was attacked and murdered on his way home to his home in North Kensington, Notting Hill in West London. The 32 year old Antiguan carpenter was set upon by a group of white youths just a short distance from the bedsit that he shared with his fiancé Olivia. Despite evidence to suggest the attack had been racially motivated, wi...

52 year old Phillip Saunders owned several newsagent kiosks around Cardiff city centre. On the evening of October 12th 1987 he completed his daily routine by collecting the takings from his kiosk near the Central Bus Station. After a quick drink in a local pub he headed by car back to his home in nearby Canton. As he walked from the car into his garden Phillip was brutally attacked and robbed. He...

21st March 1972, in hot rural Queensland it was sports day at North Mackay High. 14 year old Marilyn Wallman set off on her push bike just before 7.45am to catch the bus to school. The teenager never made it to the stop. Her two younger brothers, who had left the house 10 minutes later, found her bike discarded on the side of the road, 800m from home, its front wheel still spinning. Marilyn was no...

Kayo Matsuzawa had always wanted to travel overseas. In November 1997 she  finally got her wish and left her home in Japan for a year-long visit to Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island. Ten months into her stay, on 11th September 1998, the 29 year old flew to Auckland on the North Island for a short break. Kayo booked into a hostel and set out to discover what the country’s largest city...

Every Father’s Day the males in the Martin family would head to the Smoky Mountains National Park for a weekend of camping and hiking. The weekend of the 14th June 1969 was to be the first such trip for 6 year old Dennis, who was very excited about the little adventure. At the campsite Dennis, together with his older brother Douglas and two friends, decided to play a prank on the grown-ups. Dennis...

It was a damp August evening in 1925 when 21 year old Iris Watkins made her way to the post box at the end of the lane. The two letters that she posted made it to their destination the next day, but Iris never returned home. The small South Wales town of Blackwood became a hive of activity, with many locals joining in the search and the community full of rumours regarding what had happened to the...

The last official sighting of Yvonne Fitt was on 16th January 1992 when she signed on for benefits at the Bradford DSS offices. Following this the 33 year old single mother seemed to drop off the face of the earth. Over the late spring and summer of that year a few sporadic sightings of Yvonne were reported around Leeds and Bradford, sometimes in the company of an unidentified man. Then in Septemb...

It was a Saturday afternoon in October 1965 and 14 year old Elsie Frost spent it as she had many others before; sailing on Horbury Lagoon in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. At around four o’clock in the afternoon she moored the boat and said goodbye to her instructor to make her way home on foot. The teenager hadn’t gone far when she was attacked and murdered in a tunnel that passed under a railway lin...

It was a rainy March evening in the Tiger Bay area of Cardiff. 41 year old Lily Volpert was sitting down to her evening meal when there was a knock at the shop door. It had been a long day serving customers but she didn’t like letting people down and besides, 1952 had been a tough year so far and every penny counted. She headed back into the front of her shop to see what was wanted. Twenty minutes...

Svetlana Stepanova was enjoying a leisurely walk to the beach with her sister and friend when in the blink of an eye the trio found themselves in a living nightmare. In a matter of seconds Svetlana was attacked and murdered, after lagging just a short distance behind her companions. The death of the 19 year old would would expose further crimes and bring to attention a terrifyingly bold serial kil...

It should have been a happy day. The 28th November 1981 saw the  Lee family, celebrating the second birthday of their youngest daughter, Katrice. The Lees lived in West Germany as Richard, Katrice’s Father, was stationed there with the British Army. A party was planned later that day but first they needed some supplies from the British Forces supermarket. During the short trip the toddler was out...

A couple of days after Christmas 1888, seven year old John Gill got up early, as he did most mornings, to assist local milk man William Barrett with his deliveries around the area of Manningham in Bradford. It was an icy morning so John was wrapped up warm as the horse and cart trundled off and he waved goodbye to his mother. John was never to return. 48 hours later his mutilated remains were disc...

It was approaching 4.00am when a train pulled into Korsor station on the island of Zealand in Denmark. 17 year old Emilie Meng and her friends had been on a night out in a neighbouring town to celebrate the end of their 2016 summer exams. The two friends got into a taxi but Emilie decided to walk the short distance from the station back to her home. She never made it back and for the next six mont...

16 year old Kevin Hicks vanished on a Sunday evening in March 1986 after going on an errand to the local corner shop. Two and a half years later 15 year old Lee Boxell disappeared on a Saturday afternoon, he was thought to be on his way to watch a football match. Both boys lived relatively close to each other in neighbouring boroughs of South London. Neither of the boys have been seen since and th...

The murder of Father Alexander Men was one of the defining moments of the last years of the Soviet Union. One Sunday morning in September 1990 on his journey to lead Mass the 55 year old priest was struck down with an axe by unidentified assailants. Father Men was a much-loved parish priest, an influential theologian and somewhat of of a celebrity, but he had many detractors. The KGB, Russian Nati...

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen. There was nothing that Vera Page loved more in the world than swimming at the Lancaster Road Baths, in  Notting Hill, West London.  The 10 year old was proud of her achievements in the pool, especially of the two certificates she had just been awarded. On Monday the 14th of December 1931, ...

Like many children living in Atlanta, Georgia in the early twentieth century, thirteen year old Mary Phagan no longer went to school. Instead she regularly worked ten hour days to help put food on her family’s table. Life was tough but the morning of 26th April 1913 Mary awoke excited; it was a holiday and she was looking forward to the parade later that afternoon. First she had to run an errand a...

Anne Noblett was last seen alive at 6.03pm on 30th December 1957. The 17 year old had just returned from a rock and roll dance class in a neighbouring village. She vanished on the short walk from the bus stop to her family's home on Marshall Heath Lane in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire. A month later, her body was found in a secluded woodland around 17km away. Anne was fully clothed and her ar...

This episode deals with issues including suicide, self-harm and anorexia. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen.  When the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers walked off stage at the London Astoria on 21st December 1994, they left in their wake a mangled mess of guitars and amps. The band had signed off their last date on tour by smashing their instruments, which, in hindsight, sign...

A crowd quickly gathered outside the Private Shop on Dilwyn Street, Swansea, following news of the horrific and shocking events of the morning. The body of 38 year old shop manager Sandra Phillips had been found inside in a pool of blood. The mother of four had been sexually assaulted, bludgeoned and strangled. Two homeless brothers, Wayne and Paul Darvell were among the onlookers in the crowd and...

This episode deals with a crime committed against a child. Please exercise self-care when choosing to listen. The Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in July 1981 brought two million people to the streets of London. It was a day of street parties and celebration for many in the UK but for the Mehrotra family, it was the start of a nightmare that has never ended. 8 year old Vishal disapp...