Victoria Hall - unsolved murder 1999

Victoria Hall was 17 when she was abducted on her way home from a night out in Felixstowe, Suffolk, her body was found five days later in a ditch, the case remains unsolved

This unsolved murder investigation by Suffolk Police was re-opened on 9th September 2019, the twentieth anniversary of Victoria's disappearance.

The teenager had been on a night out with her friend Gemma Alger at the Bandbox Nightclub, in Bent Hill Felixstowe but never returned home. The two friends had left the club at around 0100 hours, made a stop at Bodrum Grill take away, then walked two miles back to their home area of Trimley St Mary. 

The pair had reached the junction of Faulkners Way and High Road at around 0220 and said "Goodnight" to one another just 300 yards from Victoria's home, but she is thought to have been snatched from the roadside before she reached her house. 

Victoria's body was found in Creeting St Peter, Stowmarket, which is some 25 miles from where she lived. Her body was found naked and in a deep water-filled ditch on 24th September 1999. Autopsy investigations were unable to clarify exactly how the A-level student teenager had met her death and could only confirm that she had suffered some level of asphyxiation 

Since re-opening the investigation in September 2019, police have reported that they have received over 50 calls from the public in relation to the case, but it's 21 years ago so things are never going to be straightforward. 

Suffolk police said that they cannot elaborate or give details yet but some good new lines of enquiry were generated from those calls and investigations are ongoing. They have said that the case was made 'live' again and was being fully re-investigated by a new team of officers after new information came to light. 

Victoria's father who still lives in Trimley St Mary near Felixstowe said "They are sifting through those calls and the information that was given but it's a painstaking process but it gives us hope"

As a part of the new investigation, Suffolk police released details of items that belonged to Victoria Hall that have so far never been recovered, along with some CCTV footage of people visiting the area where the body was dumped (pictures at the bottom of the page, courtesy of the BBC)

Parents of Victoria describe her as a vivacious, teetotal "Model daughter", a description that I am slightly confused by as she had been to a nightclub, but I guess not everyone has to consume alcohol to attend a club. The main thing is that as it sounds like Victoria would have been completely sober, so she must have been literally forced into a vehicle of some kind, rather than getting into a car with a person under the influence.

There are one or two points of interest that I am not clear on with this case; one, in particular, is her friend Gemma said that she remembered hearing a scream but "never really gave it a thought", hmm a little odd in my estimation. Two girls have just walked back from town together, just after parting company for the night one hears a scream but doesn't think "Oh hold on I just left my friend, maybe I ought to see if she is OK". 

Interestingly reports from local residents say that they also heard screams and a car with a heavy sounding exhaust roar off at around the same time that Victoria was thought to have been abducted but they also "Never really took much notice". Forgive me maybe I am just nosey but despite living in the suburbs surrounded by busy railway and not far from major road networks, if I was awake at that time of the morning and heard screams I would at the very least have a lookout and maybe even contact the police. Sorry I digress, I just thought I'd put it out there

Moving on . . .

CCTV clips released by police that are thought to be relevant show a van pulling up by the gates to the field where Victoria's body was found, The van reverses back then drove forward again to the field entrance. The driver is then seen leaving the van, entering the field and looking around on the ground close to the entrance as if looking for something. Did this man drop something on the night of Victoria's murder and return in hope that he would find the item perhaps?

A second clip shows a group of people with torches going into the field by the same entrance under the cover of darkness, I can't help but wonder what they were looking for, maybe considering moving the body or retrieving evidence. So far the people in the CCTV clips have not been identified or come forward for elimination as far as I can establish. 

The curious part of this case is that a man was arrested on December 18th 2000 and charged with Victoria's abduction and murder but was later acquitted at trial. It seems that the trial in November 2001 relied very much on geological soil samples a scientific argument went on between the prosecution and defence counsels which lead to a jury finding the suspect not guilty and he was acquitted. 

Adrian Bradshaw, the man charged with the murder of Victoria Hall was the owner of a local newspaper company The Felixstowe Flyer and said that he was relieved to have been rightly acquitted but he expressed his sympathy for the family that are left behind, grieving for their much-loved daughter.

During the two week trial at Norwich Crown Court, counsel for the prosecution said that Mr Bradshaw was seen near to Victoria Hall's home on the night that she disappeared. Evidence was submitted to the court that showed soil samples taken from Mr Bradshaw's Porsche car matched the soil from the area where Victoria's body was found. The court also heard how other witnesses from the local area said that they had heard "horrifying" screams, followed shortly after by a "throaty" exhaust sound which was alleged to have come from Mr Bradshaw's Porsche 944.

The accused did admit to drinking 10 pints of beer and several shots of Vodka at the same nightclub where Victoria ad Gemma had been drinking that night. Prosecution witnesses said that Mr Bradshaw had taken a taxi ride from the club and dropped off just a few hundred yards from the Hall family home.

There were no sightings of the Porsche at the time when it is thought Victoria was taken and it was argued by a "specialist witness" geologist that the soil traces found in the car could have come from other areas of East Anglia, despite the samples being almost absolute matches for the soil in the field where Victoria was found. A friend of Mr Bradshaw, a 27-year-old hairdresser, Peter Dugdale told the court that when the accused went out drinking, he was a 'happy drunk' and never had a malicious bone in his body. 

The jury took just 90 minutes to find Mr Bradshaw not guilty of abduction and murder which seems a little strange, after all the evidence was all there, but that is the difficult part of trials by jury, cases that seem really obvious can go completely the opposite way. 

Outside court Mr Bradshaw said, "Obviously my sympathies go out to Vicky Hall's family. A jury of 12 normal people have reached their verdict, I had confidence in myself. I did not commit this crime. I am innocent". 

I am quite struck by Mr Bradshaw's choice of words "I had confidence in myself", hmmm not really the words that I would have chosen if I believed myself to be an innocent man, but I cannot accuse the man, he was acquitted and that's that, I will just say "I don't necessarily agree with the jury's verdict in this case" particularly when a senior police officer Detective Superintendent Roy Lambert who lead the massive murder hunt at the time said, "I believe we have obtained as much evidence as we can. We have been investigating this case for over two years and I believe we have looked down every avenue for the person who did this offence".

Victoria's father Graham Hall said "We are numbed by the verdict, whether Adrian Bradshaw was found not guilty or not made very little difference to us. Unless someone owns up to their actions on that night and tells us exactly what happened, that is the only little bit of help we could have".

So readers, have I told you a story of an unsolved murder or has it been solved but the killer has escaped justice? Well, the jury said that justice was done and that the police got the wrong man, I will leave you to decide. Just bear in mind that with the case very much active again new evidence apparently came to life so if I get any updates I will, of course, bring the information to you but one thing that is almost certain Adrian Bradshaw can sleep easy in his bed as laws of double jeopardy will ensure that unless really exceptional circumstances arise he can never be re-tried for Victoria's murder. 

If you do have any information on this case then please do contact The Major Investigations Team at the incident room on 01473 613513 or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 

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Clothing similar to that from Victoria Hall's case:

 

Missing Andrew Gosden

https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/andrew-gosden-07-019198

Andrew Gosden went missing from his home in Doncaster, South Yorkshire on September 14th 2007, he was aged just 14 years old at the time. He withdrew £200 in cash from his bank account and bought a one-way ticket to London and simply vanished, ha has never been seen or heard of since.

Andrew was an extremely high achiever in school, particularly excelling in mathematics. Just a few weeks before he disappeared he had attended a summer school camp of some kind aimed at high achievers and in fact chose that over and above going on holiday in London. 

According to his father Kevin, Andrew had been very keen and excitable about the time that he had spent at 'The young gifted and talented programme'. Andrew merely saw school as something that had to be done in order to progress to adult life, so clearly, he was very keen to progress. Hardly the kind of lad to want to end his life in my humble opinion, so I feel suicide can be pretty much ruled out. 

As some of you that know me and follow me on Twitter I am a very suspicious minded person and when something lands at my door, no matter how old or how seemingly mundane I am not happy just to put it down if I feel there is more to it and that is most definitely the case here. This young the chap went missing in South Yorkshire, rocked up in London's busy Kings Cross then promptly vanished out of the sight of all that CCTV and millions of pairs of eyes, really? 

I am not convinced by the explanation that the police took too long to gather CCTV, whilst that may be true in part I am in no way satisfied that the very last camera sighting of a young lad, dressed in quite a unique way at a time of the day when kids would be at school quite adds up. To be fair it's not like he could pass for an 18-year-old, he was by his father's own admission of a younger appearance than his actual age. Why did the police take too long, if of course, that is true? Why was he not stopped by police or truancy officers in London, particularly bearing in mind there are schools quite close to Kings cross?

Yes I fully accept that the capital city is an extremely busy place with many, many tourists visiting every day but, surely a 14-year-old boy who looked more like 12 walking around the city centre alone should have drawn attention. After all, the city has many people rushing around it but it also has many police officers, security staff and huge amounts of operational CCTV watched by dedicated controllers constantly viewing it.

THE DAY ANDREW VANISHED

Friday, September 14th 2007 started much the same way as any other school day in the Gosden family home, except that Andrew was reportedly just a little more tired and irritable than normal, but nonetheless he got up for school and set off on time, calling "see you later" as he set off out at around 0805. That's where things took their first turn as Andrew did not set off towards the school bus, but instead went to the park just down the road and waited for his parents and sister to leave the house. 

Immediately a question comes to mind, although it may be irrelevant; Why did Andrew and his sister, 2 years his senior not head out to school together? I've not seen any explanation but I do wonder if they attended the same school, surely they must have, but maybe not. I have not been able to ascertain what school Andrew's sister attended but I do know that he attended McCauley catholic high school

Moving on

So, Andrew sets off as normal, no signs of anything wrong were noticed by the family, but there was something wrong wasn't there? This young lad with a 100% attendance record at school goes and hides out in a park, never even heading for school and clearly no intention of attending. 25 minutes later he's been back home, changed his clothes from school uniform to every day casual and headed out for the last time. Nobody saw this youngster to really notice him, hardly observant or conscientious in South Yorkshire then. Did nobody walk through the park at that time of the day, maybe on their way to work, school or maybe to the shops? Nobody thought it a little odd to see a boy in school uniform sat in a park? Did no one approach Andrew? Ask if he was OK and why he was not on his way to school? 

The teenager then headed out to the cashpoint, passing a neighbour's CCTV, where he withdrew £200 from his bank account then headed to the station where he insisted on purchasing a one-way ticket to London despite being advised that he could buy a return for literally just a few pence more. He would have had around £130 left after the ticket so a few pence more would not have made any difference. Seemingly 14-year-old Andrew either had a plan of how he would return home which failed or he had no intention of returning. Now let's look carefully here. . .

Andrew was an above average, highly educated boy always keen to learn new things, so it stands to reason that he would have known that he would be seen by the neighbouring house CCTV and would almost certainly be seen hiding out on a bench in a park, but did nothing to conceal his movements or take another route perhaps? He grew up in that area so he would have almost certainly have had an idea of other people's movements around him and the likelihood of being observed.

I digress for a moment as at this point, a very important observation was made by the local / family vicar Reverend Alan Murray. The vicar knew Andrew very well as the family were regulars at the church, although Andrew had stopped attending a year before he vanished. The vicar was actually invited to dinner at the Gosden home on the very evening that Andrew disappeared. Reverend Murray states that he saw Andrew in the park on September 14th but did not pay attention and went on his way, only later thinking that Andrew's behaviour was a little out of character when he received the news that the boy had in fact gone missing.

Now I don't want to be accused of slander or of pointing the finger at all but let's just take a glance at the facts here: Andrew had a 100% school attendance record, he had NEVER bunked off school at all, not once and the school bus and route to school lay in the opposite direction to the park, obviously the family vicar knew all of this.

Reverend Murray had telephone numbers for Andrew's parents but he 'never gave it much thought' and went upon his merry way. I really do find that a little hard to accept, so I am left to ask the question as to why. Having studied many articles, watched documentaries and You-tube videos, I've learnt a lot but I can't help feeling that there is so much more that should be said, many questions simply remain unanswered.

I have even taken the trouble to carefully study many posts and discussions on the Reddit website with so many lovely people going over various thoughts on the case. Some people would class the users of sites such as Reddit as "armchair detectives" but I personally find their points help me to understand and consider stories such as this one in more depth. Many of them are not in any way qualified but they take the time and use their abilities to really think even the smallest point through and analyse it carefully. In my opinion, it is often the smaller points that make such a difference to a case.

Let's take the usual route and consider as much as we can in this case, please do read on. . .

Fourteen-year-old Andrew got up on the morning of September 14th 2007 obviously planning to leave his home and head to London, was he going to sneak off to a concert of one of his favourite rock bands? No, I just don't feel that explanation is right, why? Well . . .

Andrew was very happy going to school as he saw education as important and had an absolutely 100% attendance record, his father even said that Andrew had never even taken a day off sick with flu or a cold. I have previously mentioned that Andrew had chosen to attend an educational high achievers summer camp during the summer holidays rather than go on a trip to London to visit his grandparents when he could have easily gone to a concert or two, so why sneak off? That added with the fact he purchased a one-way ticket to London not a return really makes me see things differently.

I am almost convinced that when Andrew Gosden boarded the train that September day, he knew there was no plan to return home but, one small thing makes me unsure and that is that he left over a hundred pounds in his room, surely he would have taken it to use. There is one possible explanation there and that is that he believed he was going somewhere and maybe with somebody where he would not need money. 

I feel at the juncture it's quite important to ask a rather obvious question. . .So picture this scenario; You are working in the ticket office at the railway station, it is a school day and a 14-year-old boy that looks younger appears alone and requests to purchase a One-way ticket to travel alone some 170 miles. Would you not question this? Why is he not at school? Where are his parents or guardian? Where has he got such a large amount of money? Furthermore, this small boy is adamant that he only wants a one-way journey, would you not ask questions and raise the alarm, maybe contact the British Transport Police? Surely it is obvious there is something that is abnormal about this, would you not have confirmed the child's safety? I know I definitely would have done. 

There have been many theories put forward about Andrew's reason for disappearing including a suggestion that he ran away to commit suicide but I really don't accept that at all. I mean why would a teenager travel all those miles to end his life? Surely there would have been many places where he could have simply vanished and killed himself locally to his home. Also as previously mentioned he withdrew some £200 from his bank leaving it almost empty when he only needed approximately £70 to travel to London so why take the rest if he simply intended to commit suicide? In my mind, that theory is dismissed.

Just as recently as March 2020 Andrew's anguished dad Kevin Gosden spoke to Examiner Live and explained that every day is still a real struggle for him and the family as they simply have no reason for his son's disappearance and no leads as to his whereabouts or what has become of him. You can read that article below.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/dad-missing-doncaster-teenager-andrew-17902519

Kevin is still desperate to get even the tiniest piece of information that could lead to him knowing what happened to his son Andrew and ultimately if he is still alive. I will say at this point I think that the young man is still alive but, that is only a personal 'gut' feeling, I have not been shown any evidence to truly suggest either way. The more that I think on this case and the more that I research the more I am convinced that London was never Andrew's intended final destination, in fact I feel that the boy was clever enough to buy a ticket there to make everyone look for him there. 

I look at his face and cannot help thinking "Here is a lad that is very clever for his age" He would have worked out everything meticulously I am sure and had everything planned. He apparently wasn't very smart when it came to everyday stuff like packing things to travel with but, he travelled to London alone having carefully thought out his going out as normal, hiding out in a park, coming back and even laying somewhat a cold trail in the family home. 

This boy dressed in school uniform, went back home put everything in its usual place in order not to raise the alarm any earlier than absolutely necessary. I highlight this as I feel it to be a very relevant part of Andrew's plan. To be fair if he had not gone through the usual process of hanging his blazer on the back of the chair and putting his uniform into the washing machine his family would have wondered why and looked for him probably as much as two and a half hours earlier than they did.

There has at one stage been an online contact with a young man identifying as "Roo" which was Andrew's childhood nickname. In this contact, he apparently told a man that he had no bank account as he had left home at age fourteen. How accurate this lead is I would not like to speculate but once again IF this was Andrew then "Roo" told the man that he was in Lincoln and I wouldn't mind betting that he was nowhere near there as he knew that if this man raised the alarm the Gosden family and the police would go looking for him there and of course they did. 

The family received the news that "Roo" had been in contact with someone online and had said he was in Lincoln, they took themselves there and spent time driving around the streets, handing out flyers and talking to people but of course, the search lead to nothing and the trail once again went cold.

Now; One point that I really believe holds a lot of relevance yet it seems neither the police nor the Gosden Family really pursued is the potential male witness that went to Enterprise Way Police Station in Leominster, Herefordshire. Unfortunately, when the "witness" arrived at the police station he found it closed and used an intercom to communicate with HQ and said that he had information in connection with Andrew's disappearance and that he had seen him in Shrewsbury. Sadly by the time, a police officer arrived to speak to the man he had vanished into the night.

The same man is believed to have written to The BBC since that time with the same information saying that was pretty certain that he had seen Andrew Gosden in Shrewsbury and apparently West Yorkshire police were liaising with local police to follow things up. The story featured on the BBC Spotlight programme on 26th November 2008 but unlike London and Lincoln there is no suggestion that the Gosdens went to Shrewsbury or indeed did any campaigning there, which strikes me as a little odd, I guess we can only wonder why. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/2008/11/26/missing_at_christmas.html

I can well believe that Andrew reads all the articles written about him and watches the many videos and knows that he left for a reason, but that is the massive question which if answered would in my belief lead to Andrew being found. . .Why did 14-year old Andrew Gosden leave home?

The picture above indicates what Andrew may look like today if you know anything at all or indeed Andrew if you are reading this and even if you don't want to be found just contact someone and let them know you are safe

Here is the official family website http://helpustofindandrew.weebly.com/

Remember Andrew has a very unusual ear :