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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not be able to stop wondering about this unidentified woman?

124 replies

SirWibbles209 · 16/09/2017 12:47

I remember coming across this case back in 2010, a woman's body discovered in Manchester. She remains unidentified and they theorize she was murdered many years before possible 1970-1980. They called her the angel of the meadows.

I guess my aibu is how can she still be unidentified? How has nobody reported her missing? I think what gets me the most is that the area she discovered is a pretty busy one and she lay undiscovered for all those years in central Manchester!

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/angel-meadow-murder-mystery-victim-8846364.amp

What are your thoughts?

OP posts:
CrochetBelle · 16/09/2017 23:40

Sorry, but as many people who know this man's face and keep an eye out for him the better....

Please take a look

www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/mums-new-hope-police-take-fresh-look-case-missing-jon-anderson-edwards/

Thank you.

FiveBoys · 17/09/2017 04:13

A great uncle of mine went missing. He just got up one day and walked away from everything he knew. Decades later my grandad got in touch with the Salvation Army after hearing they could help find people. They found my uncle but all he would allow the family to be told was that he was alive and well, oh and I think they said he was living in London. We suspect he'd committed Bigamy and had a whole new life for himself but he's still someone I think about given genealogy is my hobby. Ive often been tempted to try and find out what happened to him but its probably all best left in the past.

Shadow666 · 17/09/2017 04:41

There was a case in the US where the police were testing new sonar equipment on a local lake and they stumbled across two cars filled with bodies that had been there for decades. One car held the bodies of 3 local teens who had just vanished without trace and people had been wondering and speculating abut what had happened to them without realising they were there all the time.

www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/27/identified-three-oklahoma-teens-missing-40-years-found-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake/?utm_term=.10ad17375cbc

SabineUndine · 17/09/2017 05:02

The Nigerian boy whose torso was found in the Thames was identified (maybe) www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21365961

MrsOverTheRoad · 17/09/2017 05:21

OP she haunted me too!

It was the fact that she lay there....hidden but in plain sight for SO long that got to me.

I've never forgotten her.

KityGlitr · 17/09/2017 06:31

There's an entire album dedicated to/written about Joyce Vincent by Steven wilson called hand cannot erase.

opheliacat · 17/09/2017 09:19

Joyce Vincent often seems particularly tragic to people; I wonder if it taps into a particular fear we all have.

MarthaArthur · 17/09/2017 09:34

I think for me the Joyce Vincent case gets to me because all the people who knew her and claimed to love her came out after her body was found. I think that disturbed me because they really didnt care. Plus the fact she was wrapping presents possibly to reconcile. Heartbreaking.

Original poster
SirWibbles209 · 17/09/2017 11:30

I've never heard of the Nigerian boy before :( that's so horrible the poor wee lad!

OP posts:
SingingTunelessly · 17/09/2017 11:43

Martha, I was about 17 at the time walking through a city centre at lunchtime. There were two or three young men who had leaflets. They stopped me by saying "can I just ask you a quick question'. I can't remember much about it now but they were talking about happiness/love/friendship. All the while they were smiling and laughing being flirty and clearly didn't want me to go. Their eyes were almost hypnotic.... I know that sounds weird but I don't know how else to explain it. I got away by promising to meet up with them later which obviously thankfully I didn't!

bluetongue · 17/09/2017 11:48

This Australian case is so sad. Little girl's body found in a suitcase and it turns out her mother had also been murdered. The killer had used the mother's phone to contact family so they thought they were still alive Sad The whole time he was collecting welfare payments meant for the dead mother and child.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/30/stranger-than-fiction-karlie-pearce-stevenson-murder-case-australia

BarbaraofSevillle · 17/09/2017 11:56

Sadly there are many missing people and the time and resources required to find them, or to identify John and Jane Does means that many aren't

For every high profile case where lots of resources are put into finding a missing person or identifying an unknown body, there will be many more that go unsolved.

Sometimes cases become reopened and there might be efforts made to identify a body, find a killer or missing person, but it's often the tip of the iceberg. If investigations have taken place and there's no new evidence, the chances of a case being solved is low, so it will be parked unless new evidence comes to light.

KnotsNCrosses · 17/09/2017 12:02

Sad that in this day in age people can still go unidentified. Dreams of a Life really bothered me.

My dad recently showed me this one www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39369429 in Norway although they believe she may have been a spy.

Ginertia · 17/09/2017 12:38

This could have happened to my dad...when he was a young man he lived quite a transient life, regularly left jobs by not turning up, no contact with his family. He changed his name too and most people from his old life wouldn't have known his new name.

The number of people who go missing is heartbreaking. I saw a poster the other day for Andrew Gosden. I hope he is alive, safe, and will contact his family soon. I fear though that probably isn't the case.

lcl · 17/09/2017 12:43

These cases really bother me too. The Helen Pacey murder in Grantham in the 90s really bothered me as they have never found who did it. She was murdered in her own home at 38 yrs old. Her daughter as at my school and it was so harrowing. There was also a barmaid stabbed to death around the sane time yet no one ever charged.

NambiBambi · 17/09/2017 12:55

I often think about Lee Boxall who lived fairly locally to me. He disappeared on my birthday in 1988 having said he was going to watch Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, somewhere he had never been on his own before. He was 15. Quite recently a church yard near his home was searched following the discovery that a youth club running there had been a cover for sexual abuse but nothing was found. It must be so hard for his family.

opheliacat · 17/09/2017 13:34

I don't know. I don't exactly find it sad. Sadder that people much loved by those around them die and are missed, really.

SleeptightDaisy · 17/09/2017 13:48

I think it would be quite easy to go missing if you had no one looking for you and even when you are reported missing it's still difficult to trace people. A young man went missing a few months ago from the next street to ours his family and work reported him missing on the day. Police, search and rescue were involved plus the local community all took part in rescue searches. It took nearly 4 weeks to find his body which wasn't hidden 30 minutes walk from his home near a canal. He took his own life on the day he went missing but he still wasn't found earlier. Lots of possible sightings in the surrounding towns all false probably made the searches more difficult even though people were trying to help.

Shadow666 · 17/09/2017 13:53

I find it incredibly sad that there are people who go through their lives without being loved or cared for.

I read a story in the Daily Mail (don't judge) about a woman who had been sex trafficked at 6 years old, It was so heart breaking. These kids grow up being used and abused and when they get to a certain age they are killed.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4136536/Former-child-sex-slave-sold-Belgian-recalls-abuse.html

user1490465531 · 17/09/2017 13:59

Haven't read the whole thread and maybe of topic but what about those that intentionally go missing?
For some people it's easier to start a new life especially if there in debt having problems etc.
Some people might go missing presumed dead but have started a new life in some other country?.

Gingernaut · 17/09/2017 14:04

I remember a television programme where they were looking for anyone to identify unknown dead people found around London from artist's impressions.

There was one woman, described as older, one of who's distinguishing features was homemade corn/callous plasters.

That struck me as so sad. Sad

ElspethFlashman · 17/09/2017 14:14

Shadow there have been a lot of allegations that that Belgian lady is a fantasist.

Original poster
SirWibbles209 · 17/09/2017 14:39

Shadow666 that's terrifying! Is that the trial where loads of witnesses died suspiciously ?

OP posts:
Fluffypinkpyjamas · 17/09/2017 14:45

Heartbreaking isn't it, that so many people go missing or are not found for so long after death.

Bambi I have always thought about Lee Boxall too. So sad .They did question two men a couple of years ago I think but nothing came of it .