What’s the most shocking thing to happen in your neighbourhood/home town.

[Choclabratwatowner88]

Had the police around earlier to fill in a quick questionnaire in regard to a serious incident that just happened locally. As we live on the main road they wanted to know if we saw anything, the usual. My mum then pipes up that’s she’s been through this years ago when they were investigating a murder in our home town (not our current hometown) I was shocked as I’m 37 and never heard of this murder in my whole life, granted I was 3 at the time but still… things like that usually spread for years. I then went down a rabbit hole, turns out the murder happened right across the street from our old estate. The woman murdered was called Penny bell. She was found stabbed more than 50 times in her car, they still haven’t caught the killer. I never knew this whole time and it kinda threw me.
what’s the most shocking thing to happen in your hometown?

Disappearance of Lee Boxall back in the 80s.

The recent terrorist attack at the synagogue near Heaton Park - about 5 minutes from me.
Manchester Arena terrorist bombing.
Manchester IRA bombing.
A couple of year ago a father dropped his toddler son over the side of a bridge and he drowned.
A mentally unwell woman stabbed a young girl to death in Queens Park in Bolton.

A 13 year old stabbed multiple times by 2 school friends, and left for dead, wrapped in a bin bag. He survived but with severe injuries.

I live elsewhere now but was very local to the murder of Joanna yeates 😞

Back in the 90s a local copper was having an affair with a teenage barmaid and murdered his wife.

He tried to frame it as a car accident but he forgot to adjust the car seats and they proved she wasn't driving.

A man getting mauled to death by his brothers dogs after he agreed to feed them for him, he was attacked in the garden, the dogs escaped and were found wandering the estate. It made the news.

The murder of Charlie Cosser.

So shocking and heartbreaking.,His family are so brave.

Police officer argued with his partner and bought there son home early she flagged it with his colleagues after a day or so of not being able to contact them he had killed himself and the child

The murder of a a man described as having special needs beaten to death for no reason the local pub landlady was also convicted because she washed their clothes and helped them my friends brother was involved he was apparently a nice man and even he "didn't know" why they did it

I live in Manchester so:📧

Manchester IRA bombing in June 1996.

Manchester Arena Bombing May 2017

Synagogue attack on October 2 2025

Woman was found dead in her house by her children after school. She had had her hair ripped out and her breasts cut off. They never found who did it

When I was a child the school policeman set himself alight to kill himself after being found guild of child abuse

Actually there's tons but it's a pretty big town!

This post is too much!
Triggering for many and disrespectful to some.
Insensitive, unnecessary, awful vibes,
Am I the only one who thinks this?!
Reported

murder/cannibalism

I expect all of these things made the news, especially local news and could all be looked up online so it's not like anything is secret.
Anyone triggered is free to not read

When I lived in Dublin a neighbour and someone I'd know and chat to in the local was taken by a drug gang, put in the back of a van and driven up the mountains and killed. He had been complaining to them about dealing in our neighbourhood.

@Devondeer You do realise all of these things would have been reported in the press at the time, and at any time there are new leafs over the years right? They are not things banned from publication or discussion in society so why would a different set of rules apply on Mumsnet?

Penelope Jackson murdered her husband here a few years ago

When I was growing up, it was a house fire. The Christmas tree lights caused the fire and the whole household, including the young children, died.

There was no doubt other awful things, but that stuck in my head. The house was visible from the school I went to and I still think of that family if I walk past.

Claudia Lawrence.
We worked at the same place for a little while, she seemed very nice.

A woman near me drowned her twins in the bath on Boxing Day.

So many murders over the years but in the last few years we have had 5 murders within 250 yards of each other. 3 of the houses where the murders took place backed onto each other,

Someone was stabbed to death in the stairwell of our building (flats over shops), we had to climb over his body to leave the building (the police made everyone evacuate). The landlord refused to replace the carpet or clean it, so it remained extremely blood stained.

As a teen the murder of Rosie May Storrie, I didn’t know her or her killer, but I did know (and still do) the 16 year old girl he attempted to kidnap.

The British army burned the city centre to the ground, beat and robbed civilians and shot at and cut the hoses of firemen trying to control the fires.

A girl in my year at secondary school was murdered by a pedophile who had befriended her parents .

Valdo Calocane fatally stabbed two university students in the street and subsequently a school caretaker, whose van he had stolen. After driving the van into people at a nearby bus stop, Calocane was arrested. My home town of Nottingham.