Unsolved Murders in Devon & Cornwall

 

Reading clockwise from top left the victims of these unsolved murders are: Lyn Bryant, Peter Solheim, Esther Soper, Kate Bushell, Les Bate, Genette Tate, Monica Hughes and Peter Hughes

Because of the in-depth research going on into a specific case that we are working on at present, I have not been able to dedicate quite as much time as I would like to this site, I thought I would just pop this one up to keep our true crime fans grey matter busy.

In these times cases never really, truly go cold because modern policing allows for regular case reviews and of course computerised databases are updated every time a new clue or lead comes to light, combined with that is the amazing forensic science, which just changes every day.  Sadly with the passing of time and as media input lessens even the most serious investigations get left behind and remain unsolved.

The counties of Devon and Cornwall are one of those areas where there have been some pretty notorious murders that despite rigorous investigation appear to have been somewhat forgotten and are now just laying on file waiting for a clue to be "miraculously" uncovered to bring them back to life.

This particular area of the UK is made up of some towns, a couple of cities and an abundance of rural area. The road and rail links to other parts of the UK leave a lot to be desired and many locals seem to be quite a way behind in their approach to life.  I am of the opinion that this could be at least part of the reason for such a number of serious crimes being unsolved for a long time. 

Please don't be concerned I am not suggesting that there is a bunch of lunatic murderers out there waiting to pounce, far from it. To coin a phrase from BBC Crimewatch; "Remember these cases are extremely rare". Nonetheless, there are a significant number of major crimes, particularly murders that remain open and in need of attention.

Here are just a few of the most serious cases that are seemingly cold and unresolved.

Lyn Bryant

This is a case that I have blogged on previously you can read the full story Here

The 41-year-old victim of this seemingly pointless murder was killed on October 20th 1998 whilst out walked her dog in Ruan High Lanes, just outside Truro in Cornwall. 

Her body was found by a tourist in the gateway of a field, her clothing had been disturbed indicating a possible sexual element to the killing and she had been viciously attacked with multiple stab wounds to her neck, throat and back.

There seems to be quite a lot of very useful pieces of information and witness statements suggesting who Lyn Bryant had been in contact with prior to her murder, even some indication as to a vehicle that was thought to have followed her earlier that day, but the case ran cold due to lack of investigation combined with theorists suggesting extremely unlikely links to other murders based purely on a singular point of the victims had also been walking dogs. 

Peter Solheim 

This is what you may deem a partially solved murder as the victim's partner of some 9 years is currently serving a prison sentence for "Conspiring to Commit Murder" by planning and arranging the killing but not actually carrying out the deed. 

Solheim has been revealed to have been a very unsavoury character with an evil and very dark side to him. During a trial at Truro Crown Court in 2012 involving two notorious paedophiles, Jack Kemp and Peter Petrauske it was revealed that Peter Solheim had been involved in a vile ring that had abused children for a considerable number of years in ritualistic pagan and satanic settings.

Peter Solheim's former partner, Margaret James was convicted of conspiracy to arrange his murder, despite none of the motives really adding up and is rightly still appealing her 20-year sentence to this day. You can read more on her story by clicking Here

A very interesting blog looking at the unsolved murder was published by lolly true crime which you can read here why not take a look? 

Peter Hughes

Peter Hughes, Monica Hughes and Joan Harper were found dead in the Penhallow Hotel in Newquay, Cornwall after a fire on 18th August 2007.

Four members of staff from the hotel were arrested; Two hotel managers, the bar manager and the hotel porter but The Crown Prosecution Service said that it was not possible to bring charges due to insufficient evidence and the four were released without charge.

Local council took private prosecutions against the hotel owners for breaches of fire safety alleging a contravention of The Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) Act 2005. The court ordered the owners to pay a total of £142,000 (One hundred & forty-two thousand pounds) in fines and costs. Two company directors denied any personal responsibility for the deaths and the prosecution felt it was not in the public interest to pursue the charges to trial. 

The hotel had been inspected in 2006 and several issues were raised including the lack of the appropriate L2 alarm system, only 26 of the 52 rooms had self-closing doors and some windows around the fire escape area did not have the fire-resistant glass fitted. 

The company admitted that it was fully aware of the faults but did not deem them as urgent but had begun to look into making arrangements for the upgrade works to be carried out. 

Fire investigators said that evidence pointed to the fire being started deliberately on the ground floor in the hotel bar's drink store using a naked flame. There was no evident motive for the arson but as a result of the ferocity of the fire, flames spread fast and at times leapt 30 feet into the air. 100 firefighters tackled the blaze with the first crews arriving within 4 minutes of the 999 call being received at 0017 hours, the first officers to reach the scene reported that "the hotel was already well alight". 

The hotel was demolished after it was deemed too badly damaged to be repaired 

Kate Bushell

The murder of 14-year-old Exwick schoolgirl Kate Bushell has never been solved despite a massive police investigation and a renewed appeal for information on the 20th anniversary of the killing. 

Kate was murdered on November 15th 1997 as she walked a neighbour's dog just a short distance from her home. Her body was found in a field just off Exwick Lane by her father on the same evening after he went out to look for her because she had failed to return home. 

The teenager had been killed by a vicious knife wound to her throat and when found her jogging bottoms and knickers had been pulled down to below her knees, yet there was no evidence of a sexual assault. It is my belief that the lowering of clothing may well have been for some sick glorifying of the murder or even to take photographs. 

I recently published a full article on this case which you can read by clicking this link

Esther Soper

51-year-old Esther Soper was a widow living alone in Plymouth, Devon. She had a slightly unusual lifestyle due to her religious dedication as an Exclusive Brethren a very strict sect of the Christian church.

The widow had been in the process of trying to sell her house in Trematon Terrace, Mutley Plain when she was brutally murdered on New Years Day 1976. Her body was found, wrapped in curtains in the hallway of her home by two fellow members of the Exclusive Brethren when they came to check on her well being after she had failed to attend a church meeting. 

Mrs Soper had been bludgeoned to death with a heavy glass or ceramic cider bottle and strangled with her own tights, the latter being some kind of weird and unnecessary act that is thought to have some kind of sexual overtone. It is possible that there was some sort of link between her religious beliefs.

Esther and her husband had both been regular members of the church for a long time and it is quite obvious that one way or another her murder had a connection to her membership of the Exclusive Brethren (aka The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church). Whether she was killed by someone from the church or someone who took umbrage at her beliefs it is not yet clear, but I am delighted to be working with a team who are passionate to further review this unsolved case, so we hope to have more answers in the fullness of time. 

Two recent blogs published by Lolly true crime make very interesting reading, you may like to read them for yourself. Blog one is Here (blog one) and the second updated blog is Here (blog two). There are ongoing enquiries in connection with those two blog posts, so I recommend you subscribe to the blogs so as to keep up to date.

The Esther Soper murder is not what I deem a "normal case", there are a lot of questions where the answers are so obvious, yet the police did not even seem to ask. One thing that really rattles the team is that not a single person has ever been arrested or even questioned about this murder, the truth is there and must out.

Les Bate

On April 12th 2002 Les Bate had been out for drinks at one of his favourite public houses The Maltsters Arms in Chapel Amble in Cornwall. Witness statements say that he had been waving a wallet around containing an estimated £1,000 in cash and a cheque for £11,000.

The next day Mr Bate's daughter had tried to contact him from her home in Australia and having constantly got no reply had become very concerned so she called her brother Martin who lived close to Les Bate and asked him to check on their father.

When Matin Bate eventually got into his father's home he discovered the body of Les Bate in a pool of blood on the floor of the utility room. There was no sign of a weapon, no evidence of a fight and no indication of forced entry. 

There was no immediate police investigation until some ten days had passed when the second post-mortem examination found that Les Bate could not possibly of died by accident.

His head had been smashed into the washing machine an injury that the Home Office pathologist said could not have been caused by a simple fall. He had deep bruising to his back which was conducive with having been knelt on or stood on and rib fractures indicative of someone kicking him from above. The injuries had caused a major blockage to a coronary artery which ultimately caused death.

The 71-year-old was described as "larger than life" character whose brusque manner could sometimes alienate people, but he was a "true Cornish character" by heart.

He was a farmer and self-made millionaire, owner of four farms and hundreds of acres of land. 

Detectives believe that the target of the murder was most likely the wallet that Les had been waving around in the pub on the night before he was found dead. 

Officers worked extremely hard to try to find Mr Bate's killer and forensic scientists found traces of blue suede in the rear pocket of his trousers where he kept his wallet but despite this, neither the wallet nor indeed the killer has ever been found and the case remains unsolved.

Genette Tate 

This case was one of the most high-profile investigations of the time. 13-year-old Genette Tate was out on her relief paper round job in the village of Aylesbeare, near Exeter, Devon when she simply vanished without a trace. 

It has been suggested that the serial killer Robert Black may have been responsible for the disappearance and presumed murder of the child on 19th august 1978 but I really don't think so. I feel there is a much more local connection and I feel the person responsible has lived with this for the past 42 years if they are even now still alive. 

I published an article on this case not long ago which details the case which you can read by clicking here. It is worth noting that this is one of the longest-running and best known missing person cases and has been described by Devon & Cornwall Police as a murder enquiry. Despite those factors, the case of missing schoolgirl Genette Tate remains unsolved.

In conclusion

These cases are all extremely serious and the fact that so many remain unsolved and somewhat cold is of very real concern. I am of the opinion that one or two unsolved murders on a particular police force books are a little concerning, but when it comes to several then questions do start to need answers. 

As I mentioned previously at least one of these cases is receiving serious attention but aside from writing blogs and chasing down the media to help in keeping the cases in the public eye, there is only so much that we as individuals can do. 

Please if you have any information on any of these cases that you have just read about, even the smallest thing then do contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or contact them online via their web page www.crimestoppers-uk.org 

I will leave it there and remind you as always if you have any UK case unsolved/cold or active but simply not getting anywhere do get in touch. I can offer case studies, reports, case reviews, writing for publications, research and scripts for film, documentary, podcast or even just a simple blog. 

My email address is: jaradcoldcases@protonmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/adams_jarad

Connect with me via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarad-adams-8360751b4/

Genette Tate - Unsolved

 

Genette Tate vanished from her home village age 13 years, she has never been found

On August 19th 1978 a 13-year-old girl simply vanished whilst she was doing her regular paper round delivering the Exeter Express & Echo. It is now 42 years since Genette Tate disappeared and her father has recently passed away without knowing what truly happened to his little girl. As a parent, I can only begin to imagine how dreadful that must have felt. 

So let's look at the story then draw some thoughts as we go along. . .

Genette lived in the historic village of Aylesbeare, approximately 8 miles east of the city of Exeter in Devon UK. The village dates back to at least the 13th century and is by all accounts a very peaceful and pleasant area to live in. The village has a somewhat mixed population of farmers, retired and commuter families within it, it is very small and even today if you drive in one end you will be out the other end in less than 2 minutes. Once the M5 Motorway was opened in 1975 the village was just a field or two away from national road links, so a possible way for the killer to enter Aylesbeare, abduct Genette and leave just as fast.

Genette had been born in the Somerset town of Taunton but she had moved with her family into Cornwall, then on to Aylesbeare. Her mother and father had divorced and Genette was living with her dad, his partner Violet and her daughter Tania. 

The teenager's family had nicknamed her 'Ginny' and she had an amazing ability with mathematics and had a great curiosity about the world, all in all, a pretty smart girl it seems. She was a keen little worker and was doing holiday relief paper rounds on the day that she disappeared. She had left home at around 2pm, cycled through the village and met the newspaper van on the A3052 (the main Exeter to Sidmouth road) outside The White Horse Pub at around 2.50pm, something which she had done each day for the past week, as she was the relief paper girl. 19th August 1978 was to have been Genette's last day doing the round as the regular paper girl was due back.

Okay so let me pause there for just a minute and explore the last couple of sentences. . . Genette was doing a temporary job so, does this suggest that this was very much a random abduction or was it planned? I would say that I feel something like that is more likely to have been planned as opposed to just a random kidnapping. why do I say this? Well, let's think about the setting, a very rural, quiet village where I imagine pretty much everybody knew one another so abducting a young girl that could well make an awful lot of noise, struggle and may even get away and raise the alarm could be extremely risky. The only consideration here is that there is no telling what goes on in an evil monster's mind, would someone just take pot luck, a random chance abduction? Could the real target have been the regular paper girl that was away on summer holiday? 

Moving on. . .

Okay so Genette collected her papers and began her round delivering some fourteen papers before she met up with two local friends, Margaret Heavey and Tracey Pratt around 3.15pm, they chatted and walked slowly with Genette up a slight incline in the road heading back into the village. Once they reached the peak of the incline Genette took to her bike once more and rode ahead to continue her deliveries, she remained in the girl's sight for around 50 metres then took a curve in the road. Just about five or so minutes later the Tracey and Margaret came across Genette's bike, on the road with the newspapers all tipped out of the cycle's basket, there was no sign of Genette at all. 

Now once again I draw your thoughts to the abduction, Margaret and Tracey were only a matter of minutes behind Genette yet she had vanished, suggesting that the abductor must have acted very, very fast. He or she must have really taken a massive risk as the girls or indeed anyone else from the village could have come along at any moment, was the kidnapper working alone? Was there any force, was Genette maybe gagged or in someway stunned to silence her? It was suggested by one writer that a large van was used, considering the noise and the way such a vehicle would have stood out in such a surrounding that seems extremely unlikely, So what did happen to Genette Tate? We may never know.

The two girls began to call Genette's name out and looked over hedges and into gateways but there was no sign of the teenager. They walked on, pushing Genette's bike until they reached John Tate, he said: "Genette's friends came up the road to tell me that they couldn't find her, so I joined them and we headed back along the road to the lane where they had last seen her". "We were all looking for her by then jumping over hedges, shouting her name but to no avail, quite soon after that Violet said 'John I think we should call the police' ".

This was to be the start of one of the longest and biggest missing person searches ever launched by Devon and Cornwall police. The response by the police was prompt and well operated, within two hours of the report being made they had a helicopter from the RAF search and rescue team in the air and there were uniformed police all over the village. I can only imagine the dreadful fears held by John and Violet as they watched things unfold before their eyes. The couple spent the evening and many evenings after that searching the lanes and fields for Genette, but with no luck, Genette had literally 'vanished into thin air'.

The police officer in charge of the investigation was Detective superintendent Eric Rundle, he had no clues, no leads to go on. he was a highly experienced police officer and the second most senior detective on the Devon and Cornwall police force at that time. He had a team of officers working under him, which he divided into teams to search in particular areas. His job must have been extremely difficult as he had no witnesses, no sightings or reports of anything suspicious. There were so many questions; had Genette had some kind of accident? Had she been the victim of a robbery? Had she been abducted, if so why? The possibilities were endless but all just had no starting point, the most obvious hypothesis was that she had been abducted and taken away somewhere and based on that Eric Rundle would have been extremely aware of just how crucial time is in such cases if there is a chance of finding a victim alive.

It was said by a police officer working on the case that one disappointing thing was Margaret and Tracey had moved Genette's bike which could have given some clue or guidance to a trained eye, "the scene had been tampered with before the job got going".

The police commandeered the village hall as a form of operational centre and issued a description of Genette as 'boyish, 5ft tall with close style brown hair, suntanned wearing a white t-shirt with her name embroidered on its left shoulder. Her dad recalled her as very young-looking still very much a child but, interestingly some others from the village described her as maturing fast and very much a developing young woman. This, of course, has no obvious relevance to the case as far as I am able to ascertain but the description difference could bear importance as well as the way in which the missing girl was thought of and in how investigators understand the girl that apparently just vanished. 

Very early in the investigation police realised that they needed help from the full force of the media to get Genette's face on the pages of papers and Television screens all over the UK. They called a press conference and staged photographs of the teenager's bicycle abandoned in the road and for a whole month after the disappearance, the publication which Genette had been delivering ran stories with a photograph of her on their front page every day. 

On Monday 21st August just two days after the disappearance the headline on the Express and Echo ran 'Echo newsgirl vanishes'. They encouraged more than 8,000 people to gather just a week after Genette went missing to search the local common just on the outskirts of Aylesbeare known as Woodbury Common. The media dubbed the searchers 'Genette's army' as they set themselves into groups and tramped across the vast common searching for any clue that might lead to the missing girl being found. Worryingly it has since been admitted that there was actually no operational reason to scour the common but nonetheless it was done. 

The family were becoming increasingly desperate with every day that passed and this lead to many theories being put forward from all walks of life including paranormal investigators and mystics of all kinds including some conspiracy theorists (a pet hate of mine) but unfortunately, it seems Devon and Cornwall police were keen to listen to almost every theory suggested, maybe not the best practice but things were pretty desperate in so many ways, so every bit of publicity in a difficult case such as this really could have made a difference. 

Sadly as time wore on with no new leads and literally nothing at all to suggest what had truly happened to Genette eventually things began to wind down, The police gave the village hall back and the press headed off to find their next story. No sign of Genette, no one coming forward with credible information finally lead to the case becoming somewhat cold and enquiries being scaled back. 

In 1990 a killer was arrested for child abduction in the Scottish Highlands, he was Robert Black. He had a very shady past and had all the stereotypical identities of a predatory paedophile. He had a very bad childhood and moved down into England in 1968. He passed his driving test in 1976 and took a job as a poster delivery driver which gave him a reason to travel the highways and motorways with his work and could by all accounts literally turn up 'anywhere in the UK'. 

According to records Black's method of abducting children was to leave the major roads and head into rural settings such as Aylesbeare, abduct a child and vanish again without anyone even noticing him, so a theory was suggested that Genette Tate was a victim of Black but I don't feel that to be the case. 

In 1994 Roger Black was tried and convicted of the abduction, rape and murder of three girls during the 1980s and he was sentenced to life in prison. His victims were Susan Maxwell, aged 11 whom he sexually abused and murdered on July 30th 1982, he drove her body some 264 miles to dump her. Caroline Hogg aged just 5 was abducted on July 8th 1983 and her body found 310 miles away from her home and Sarah Harper aged 10 was abducted on March 26th 1986 from Leeds with her body found some 71 miles away. 

Devon and Cornwall Police interviewed Roger Black at length but he did not give anything away and was never charged but still remained a firm suspect in the Genette Tate disappearance. I personally am not convinced that he had any connection and neither was John Tate, Genette's father. Just remember this; all the other bodies were found, Genette's was not and whilst this may be just unfortunate I think it changes the hypothesis surrounding Black as an abductor.

In 2007 the police submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service with a view to charging Black in connection with Genette Tate's disappearance but the CPS were unable to find sufficient evidence to proceed. There was a little more hope in Black being further pursued after he was charged and convicted of yet another abduction and murder in 2011, that of Jennifer Cardy aged 9 abducted on 12th August 1981, Black had grabbed her whilst she was cycling to a friend's house. 

There is some evidence relating to Genette Tate's case in that a witness saw Black at Exeter Airport "acting suspiciously" on 19th August 1978 and the existence of a fuel receipt puts Black in the South West of England around the date of Genette's disappearance but it is not known how close to Aylesbeare he actually was. 

Whilst I accept these small pieces of evidence may be suggestive of Black taking Genette it is very much assumed based purely on other crimes he had committed and I am not at all convinced, I firmly believe that the person responsible for Genette's disappearance was from much closer to home but this is very much my own opinion. 

Black has been suggested as a relevant name / possible suspect in over a dozen child abduction cases in both the UK and into Europe but to be fair most "serial killers" will always be put forward for many crimes because they have been responsible for something similar. After all look at Christopher Halliwell, I have recently been made aware of a person writing on Facebook suggesting that he was responsible for 27 or more abductions and murders, but many can easily be debunked as nothing to do with him either.

Nobody knows for certain what happened on the afternoon of 19th August 1978 in Withen Lane Aylesbeare. Some are convinced that Robert Black was responsible for the vanishing of Genette Tate but many others are equally not convinced at all. Due to the passage of time and many theories combined with misinformation the stories and amateur sleuths, it seems unlikely we will ever get to the truth now, but we must never give up hope. 

There have been many suggestions of paedophilic activity in and around the village, occult crimes and more but I personally don't feel these "suggestions" are that far from the truth after all, but I don't want to be seen as too suggestive. I will, however, add just one point taken from a news article published by Devon Live which reads "The only lane leading off the main road is called Withen Lane, about 100 metres from the centre of Aylesbeare and within sight of the ancient church turret" think carefully about that. 

The village itself dates back to The Domesday Book and is itself very rural with lots of farmland. I won't dwell on these points but I feel that this information is important when studying the case in any depth, I could, of course, be 'barking up the wrong tree' so to speak. 

I will just close by saying that Genette Tate's father John went to his grave not knowing what happened to his precious daughter but he was absolutely adamant that Robert Black was not the man responsible for the disappearance. John Tate said that Devon and Cornwall Police had Black's name in the frame but purely based on his past not even any circumstantial evidence exists, that is made clear by the fact that as I mentioned previously the CPS would not prosecute as there was insufficient evidence. 

The disappearance of Genette Tate is a tragic and confusing case whist being of huge interest to true crime researchers such as myself. I do hope that one day there will be some answers and we may get to know what happened to Genette as she and her family still left behind deserve justice. 

Here below are some useful links with regard to this case. . .

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-52697413

https://youtu.be/mat8SCRyb1I

https://janmeecham.wordpress.com/2019/05/13/into-thin-air/