Fred West Investigations

[DareIask]

News this morning that the police are investigating 6 voids under the cafe.

How awful for the families of the missing.

I don't know much about it but wonder why this wasn't investigated before

Ive a family member whose best friend was found in the house. Her family had been led to believe she'd run away with her boyfriend, by the wests, i went with my family member to her funeral, her remains and those of her unborn baby fitted into a shoe box, it was devastating, even though I'd not known her to know what she had gone through given all the details were everywhere on the tv. When I left the area the house had just been demolished and people were fighting to get bricks as momentous ffs.

My family knew both the wests and their children, local people would give him their keys to work on their houses when they went away. The entire thing was extremely dodgy, he was accused of so much in the years before the house was checked over, and generally people would say that he was a little strange but was being "got at" by some nasty people...

The respect I feel for their surviving daughter I can't put into words. The fears and upset this has brought up with me and my own family who knew Mary very well must be amplified so much for her. I hope that this doesn't severely effect her.

I never have or will read any of the books or watch any of the documentaries on the situation. Even pre internet it was everywhere. When I went to uni everyone would ask me if I knew them and ask for details. I'd just lie and pretend I came from elsewhere. I remember the lady at number 24 getting abuse for not doing anything because she must have known, I hope, if she's still alive, she too is ok.

And just in case, I won't be answering any questions via PM. Seriously don't even think about it. I mentioned this connection on here before and got a lot of PMs asking for details.

Despite being so long ago this is still very raw for a lot of people.

I think someone mentioned up thread about how they discovered the new lead it was for another documentary for the 30th anniversary. Maybe they'll now open other files, he admitted when questioned there were many others are many other sites. I worked by one, all the police did was wander around it (I'm not kidding). I know people who sold their houses because he'd done work on them and they were terrfied of what he may have done.

I believe the film crew spotted something unusual in the cellar floor, so ground penetrating radar was used which showed up the six voids. This technology - basically seeing through concrete - wasn’t around when Mary went missing, or commonly used in the 90’s.

The police investigators would then drill several holes into the floor and send probes / cameras down and bring up samples, and I suspect this is where the blue material was extracted from.

@Becca19962014 I don't blame you for lying about where you came from, people are such vultures when it comes to horrific stuff like this. I don't understand it at all!

That makes sense juliet I’d not thought about the tech advances.

Becca that’s awful, people can be so insensitive when they want what they see as gossip. It’s not gossip, it’s people’s lives.

On a related theme but slight derail, I can't get my head around the fact that there is a thing on the internet now where young attractive women narrate the stories lost/missing/murdered women while putting on their make-up. On You Tube or TikTok or maybe their own Instagrams I don't know. They are making money off the back of other women being raped, tortured and murdered in a really cheap way imo. Bailey Sarian is the most well known but I believe there are others. Just ghoulish.

Well that's me banned from three papers online who were posting pics of where they're digging. Apparently I was abusive for asking them to have a bit of respect. Literally what I said.

It's like it was before only now it's everywhere.

@Becca19962014 It's horrible. It's potentially someone's grave and where something terrible happened.

Just because it's a long time ago now doesn't mean people need to be ghoulish.

Well done @Becca19962014 - the ghoulish interest in this kind of thing is put above the victims and their families.

Not the same, but last week I pointed out a job ad on SM was illegal - it was sexist and ageist. I received a load of abuse and was accused of bullying the person who posted the ad. Go figure.

Well FB have notified me I have been blocked and my posts removed for being abusive. I only regret not being abusive in the first place!

Fred West told his son that he had killed Mary but he lied constantly. Once he was dead the police seem to have given up any further investigations, probably to save money.

The BBC reports that nothing has been found and they've finished their search.

Sad the family still has no closure

Thanks for the update.

Sorry to reopen this thread but one thing that I've been wondering on the point of Rose West not talking...

Why can't they put her in solitary confinement if she refuses to talk?

Instead, I hear that she gets to indulge her hobbies like cooking.

I'm sorry but I do not think that a person so evil, showing zero remorse should be allowed to do anything they enjoy whilst still keeping information about where victims are hidden to herself! And denying those victims a proper burial.

She is under no obligation to talk. You could even argue that she has a right not to talk if she might incriminate herself. You create the risk of creating a confession under duress.
It might feel irrelevant in the case of Rose West because her sentence can’t get longer but as a point of principle, it can’t be done. Who else would end up in solitary to encourage them to speak up?

“ Why can't they put her in solitary confinement if she refuses to talk?”

For the same reason they don’t water board her. Because we don’t torture information out of people - you might want to justify it for her, but it’s a slippery slope.

Oh no, I don't agree with torture obviously. But it seems wrong to me that someone so evil who has caused such misery is basically not really being punished for her actions.

She is in prison for the rest of her life. How we treat her is a commentary on society as a whole. There is no punishment that will reflect the enormity of what she did. Instead, her punishment is about drawing boundaries in society to say your behaviour was reprehensible but we will not lose our basic decency and humanity even if the face of someone as awful as you.

even in

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude

She is in prison for the rest of her life. How we treat her is a commentary on society as a whole. There is no punishment that will reflect the enormity of what she did. Instead, her punishment is about drawing boundaries in society to say your behaviour was reprehensible but we will not lose our basic decency and humanity even if the face of someone as awful as you.

Yes I don't disagree with that at all.

But shouldn't prisons be boring places to be? When people get to start enjoying regular hobbies that's an even better way to forget about all they did.

Obviously there is no punishment that could 'fit' this crime. I don't agree with the death penalty either. I do think it should be a separate crime to withhold information that prevents burial of victims though.

There are other Murderers that do this. That sick guy in Darlington won't tell the family of the woman he murdered what he did with her body and he taunts her family with gloating letters about it. I do not think that people incarcerated for such a crime should be able to draw out and extend the misery they caused from behind bars.

Because we live in a civilised society and these murderers are still human beings. You can't lock someone in solitary confinement or take away their human rights in that way as they still have them. She's locked up for life and it's her choice to confess to more

I mean, I'd personally like to throw away the key but that's emotion talking

@PippaOwl

Because we live in a civilised society and these murderers are still human beings. You can't lock someone in solitary confinement or take away their human rights in that way as they still have them. She's locked up for life and it's her choice to confess to more

I mean, I'd personally like to throw away the key but that's emotion talking

Is it inhumane to stop someone from baking though?

Surely someone could be allowed to do the things they want in exchange for information?

@Itsnotover I'm sure they've tried all they can

I think that Rose West, would now be relatively happy,if you could use such a word for her, She has been imprisoned for a long time now, and it's now a way of life for her. She knows the system well now, that she is relatively safe in prison, can have some work and hobbies, I believe that she has, or as had some lesbian relationships,or maybe turned to god, or was that Hindley. I guess that she can remain silent about all the horrendous past that she has, although this would torture many people in their minds, maybe her mind is a block of stone though.

She may have written things down over time, to get some conscious relief, who knows. The police are still looking for more bodies all over the place, but whatever happens, West will still stay where she is, and nothing more will happen to her.

I now remember that one of her children, May I think. Has disowned her because she promised to tell her the truth but then never did.