LYING on her back with her throat slit, the grisly murder of eight-year-old Helen Bailey still remains a mystery half a century later.
The youngster was last seen alive playing with a skipping rope near her home in Birmingham on August 10, 1975.
BPMHelen Bailey was murdered half a century ago[/caption]
West Midlands PoliceShe was last seen playing near her home in Birmingham in 1975[/caption]
Her body was discovered the following day on a farm close to the M6 motorway in an area locally dubbed the “Magic Wood”.
Helen was still wearing her blue shorts, blue blouse and blue plimsolls – causing the tragic youngster to become known as “Little Girl Blue”.
Despite a 50 year investigation and a chilling confession made by a prime suspect, the schoolgirl’s killer has never been caught.
Now as the anniversary of her death approaches, we look at the gruesome murder that horrified the nation.
The disturbing tale began in the summer of 1975 as the Bailey family planned a holiday to Cornwall.
Helen was last seen alive at around 4.30pm – an hour before her parents reported her missing when she failed to return home for tea.
A huge search was launched as police searched local waste ground, a quarry and carried out house-to-house inquiries.
At 6.30am on August 11, Helen was found lying on her back with a knife wound to her throat by her distraught dad.
Some locals reported seeing the schoolgirl walking through an underpass beneath the motorway at 7.10pm on the night she was killed although this was never confirmed.
There were also claims of a “ginger-haired” young man seen loitering close to where Helen’s body was found that afternoon but he was never traced.
The case went cold in 1976 when an inquest jury returned an open verdict after hearing evidence she may have died as part of an “accident or practical joke gone wrong”.
It came after a pathologist found there were no signs of a struggle and the circumstances of Helen’s death “lacked the essential hallmarks of a homicidal attack”.
Two innocent boys, who some locals believed were linked to the death, were even blamed for the horror as a result.
But the youngster’s mum Margaret fought tirelessly to get justice for their daughter and were rewarded in 2014 when the case was re-opened.
A pathologist, who examined the original post-mortem photos, said the cuts on Helen’s neck were not shallow as previously described and there were typical signs of strangulation.
The original inquest verdict was quashed in 2018 following the bombshell new evidence.
At a fresh hearing the following year, a huge breakthrough came when a prime suspect was named.
John Sir had been grilled intently following Helen’s death but was never charged.
It emerged Sir – also known as Kenneth Etchells – made three “entirely consistent” confessions to killing the schoolgirl between 1978 and 1979.
Helen’s brutal killing remains unsolved
The monster, who was jailed in 1991 for attempting to kill his own mother, had lived in nearby Tamworth at the time of Helen’s murder.
His family home was close to where the little girl’s body was found and he admitted being in the vicinity on the day she died.
Sir told a doctor he had strangled Helen in 1975 and then used a pen knife to cut her throat.
But when he was questioned at the new inquest, Sir claimed he only confessed to secure admission into Highcroft mental hospital.
The inquest was told his account of the killing was consistent with pathological evidence that was not available to the police until 2014.
But when later asked specifically about this, Sir put the chilling similarities down to a “coincidence”.
Giving evidence, Detective Chief Superintendent Caroline Marsh said a cold case review, which led to Sir’s questioning in 2014, had left her “absolutely certain” Helen was murdered.
The officer added: “I have no doubt in my mind. I believe the perpetrator was Kenneth Etchells and there are no outstanding suspects in this inquiry.”
Following a verdict of unlawful killing, Coroner Louise Hunt said she would write to the Crown Prosecution Service urging them to re-consider their earlier decision not to re-investigate the case.
But in another blow to Helen’s family, the CPS said a “realistic prospect” of securing a conviction against Sir in light of the lack of any sufficient new evidence would be highly unlikely.
Tragically, Helen’s dad, who had been “tormented” by finding his daughter’s body, passed away without ever seeing anyone brought to justice.
Mum Margaret was also faced with the double heartbreak of learning decades later that her little girl had been murdered and not accidentally killed as per the original inquest ruling.
She said following the fresh verdict: “I’ve never been the same since. Obviously I have grieved for all these years. She’s never left me really.
“She’s with me all the time, I’m talking about her all the time, my friends all know about her, and my family, everybody knows about it.
“It’s just blighted our lives. So now it would be lovely to have closure – a bit late. But better late than never.”
Anyone with information can contact West Midlands Police on 101
BPMHelen’s death was originally ruled as a tragic accident[/caption]
SWNSThe tragedy was later ruled as a murder – to the anguish of her mum Margaret[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
