Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today's day three of twelve
missing person episodes throughout December. We are going to be covering the disappearance of
forty year old Bruce Gapper from his home in West Yorkshire in nineteen ninety nine.
His disappearance has affected his whole family and they are desperate to know what
happened to him and where he is. This episode is about a missing person
and so does not contain any graphic descriptions. However, listener discretion is our
ways advised. Jewsbury Moore is a district of Dewsbury in West Yorkshire. Jewsbury
is a market town close to the city of Wakefield in the town of Huddersfield.
The population of Jewsbury Moore is around six thousand people and is largely a
residential area close to Jewsbury Country Park. In nineteen ninety nine, forty year
old Bruce Gapper was living in groves Hall Road in Jewsbury Moore. Bruce was
very close to his family and his sister Wendy has recently explained to Yorkshire Live
that she and her brother were particularly close. They were so close that before
Bruce moved to groves Hall Road, they had lived together. Wendy explained about
her brother he loved fishing and was a coind collector and liked model cars.
He had lots of hobbies. Wendy described her brother as a very kind person
who cared about her and their other two sisters, as well as all of
his nieces and nephews. She stated in the same article, he was kind
and he really loved his nieces and nephews and was so good to them.
She also described Bruce as always looking for the best in people, but also
explained that he could be quite gullible as well. Bruce had been married twice
before, however, didn't have any children of his own, and Wendy explained
that all he wanted was a family, and so he lavished attention on all
of his nieces and nephews. Bruce was a former driver in the RAF and
in nineteen ninety nine he was working as a lorry driver. He was a
hard working and responsible person who cared about his family and kept in touch with
those close to him. On the morning of Monday, the fifteenth of March
nineteen ninety nine, Bruce was due at work as usual. However, he
did not turn up for his shift. This was unusual for him, and
his colleagues did think it was odd that he had not arrived as normal.
It seemed out of character and made those that knew him concern about his whereabouts.
He was a responsible person, particularly with his job, and it was
not something that he would usually do. When Bruce had still not been located
by Tuesday, the sixteenth of March, this created many red flags for those
that knew him. These concerns would turn into genuine worries for Bruce's safety when
it was discovered that something of interest had been found. On the Monday,
when Bruce had failed to turn up for his shift, a member of the
public came across a car. The car had fire damage and nobody was inside
it. It was quickly discovered that this was Bruce Gapper's car, Detective Chief
Inspector Mark McManus told the BBC in twenty fifteen. Bruce's car was found by
a member of the public on the Monday morning at the junction of Castle Hillside
and Lum Lane, near the Castle Hill Monument in Huddersfield. This location is
around nine miles from Dewsbury More and would take just under half an hour to
drive there. Why Bruce's car had been found there or where Bruce himself was
was unknown. This was an alarming discovery, given that the car did have
fire damage and Bruce was still missing. It was evident that the car had
been partly set alight and this was a serious concern. Wendy, Bruce's sister,
told Yorkshire Live, I got a call from police. I remember standing
there and shaking. It was so out of character for him to disappear.
The last person to speak to him was on the Sunday morning. His car
was found with his inhaler and glasses in there, all the things he could
not do without. He loved his car. The fact that Bruce's essential belongings
had been left in the car was something that his family and the police were
immediately concerned about. Police began an investigation into Bruce's disappearance and began to lay
out what they knew about Bruce's movements and who may have seen him or spoken
to him before his disappearance. A timeline was drawn up, with police tracking
down as many people as they could speak to. It was known that on
Saturday, the thirteenth of March nineteen ninety nine, he had been at the
Frontier night club in Badley. This was somewhere that Bruce enjoyed visiting, and
he would go there regularly. This was less than three miles from Jewsbury More,
where he lived. The fact that Bruce had visited there on the Saturday
night therefore, was usual for him, and he had been seen leaving at
around two thirty a m. Early on the Sunday morning. The police discovered
that Bruce had then spoken to his dad at around eleven ten a m.
That Sunday morning. It would appear that this was the last time that anyone
who knew him spoke to him. He was then spotted at around half past
one on that Sunday afternoon, a neighbor noticed him unloading some shopping from his
car. At around three point thirty pm, a friend called on Bruce its
home. They waited for him at the door, but there was no answer,
so the friend assumed that he wasn't in What had happened to Bruce in
that two hours between being seen unloading his shopping and then not being at home.
The next trace of Bruce was the use of his bank card. This
transaction was logged at three forty seven am on the Monday morning, and it
was used at an eight am in the area of Heckmandwyke. Heckmandwyke is close
to Jews Brymore, where Bruce lived. It was less than three hours later
when the passerby found Bruce's car, a red Persia with fire damage, in
the area of Lum Lane in Huddersfield, around ten miles away from heckmand Wyke.
He then did not turn up at work at around seven am that morning.
This was certainly an odd set of events and not in Bruce's usual routine.
However, police could not definitively say that this was not Bruce. Many
of the aspects of the case were unknown. There were further uses of Bruce's
bank card after he had already been reported missing and his car had been found.
On Wednesday, the seventeenth of March, at around two forty nine am,
it was used again, this time in Skerrsbrick, just outside of Southport,
which is around seventy miles away and would have taken around an hour and
a half to get there in the car from where it was last used.
The next day, on Thursday, the eighteenth of March, it was used
for the final time, this time in the Marley area, only six miles
from Jewsbury More, where Bruce lived. This was unusual, to say the
least, and this is where the trail appeared to have come to an end.
Adding to the strangeness was the fact that it appeared Bruce had left his
home in a hurry on the day that he disappeared. There was a glass
of milk and a half eaten sandwich left on the side, and also he
had left his cat locked inside of the house, which was unusual. His
sister Wendy would later state about the cat. Normally he would put it outside,
not neglect it. Everything was pointing to something out of the ordinary and
unexpected happening that day, and it was clear from the outset that police were
treating this disappearance as suspicious. Police stated that none of these transactions fitted his
normal pattern of behavior and they didn't seem correct. While it's reported in a
BBC article from two thousand and three that Bruce did have immediate family in the
Southport area, the transactions at that time in the mark him were strange.
The investigation tried to find out as much as they could about Bruce and his
movements, and they spoke to as many people as they could who might know
something. This was proving difficult, though, and there was very little to
point what could have happened. Bruce's sister, Wendy, would later state that
she believed that the police had been thorough in their investigation and had tried everything
to try and locate him. She also explained that they had been very supportive
of the family. In the years that followed Bruce's disappearance, police continued to
try and appeal for anyone that knew him or lived in the area at the
time. In these appeals, it was hoped that his description or his name
would jog someone's memory of him or of that time in nineteen ninety nine.
In twenty fifteen, the BBC made another appeal, sixteen years after his disappearance.
In this appeal, they spoke about the fact that Bruce had had housemates
in nineteen ninety eight and they wanted to trace them. They stated that they
wanted to speak to a woman and a man called Frasier who had lived with
Bruce at separate times during nineteen ninety eight. The woman was believed to have
been in her late thirties and was described as tall, with a slim build
and dark, wavy, shoulder length hair. She was well spoken. The
man, who they thought was called Frasier, was thought to have lived with
Bruce for a few months and was described as in his early twenties with dark
brown hair. He used to wear a full length leather coat or a blue
raf style coat. It was thought that he may have worked in the Manchester
area and also went to the Frontier night club on occasion. The police clearly
wanted to hear from anyone who knew Bruce from that time, and Chief Inspector
Marke McManus stated he was well known among the commune unity who regularly attended the
venue and had associates there who lived in the Kirklees and Wakefield areas. We
believe it's among this community that answers may be held about what happened to him
sixteen years ago. In March twenty fifteen, West Yorkshire Police also announced that
they were treating Bruce's disappearance as suspicious and were appealing for more information. A
four spokesman said West Yorkshire Police are treating his disappearance as suspicious and are dealing
with it as a murder inquiry. In twenty eighteen, an inquest into Bruce's
disappearance was conducted. This was unusual as Bruce's body had not been found.
Assistant Coroner Oliver Longstaff sought permission from the Chief Coroner's office to conduct the inquest
without locating Bruce's body from the outset. West Yorkshire Police announced that they believed
something untoward had happened to him, and that previous officers had believed this was
a murder manslaughter case. The court heard that Bruce went to the Frontier night
club most Saturdays, and that he was a recreational drug user, sometimes using
ecstasy. Bruce had been married twice, but led mostly a bachelor lifestyle.
There was also some information provided about a couple who had been arrested on suspicion
of having something to do with Bruce's disappearance. This couple were well known to
Bruce, and in fact the woman and her partner had links to the Frontier
nightclub that Bruce frequented. The partner worked as a bouncer at the club while
his girlfriend worked as a nurse. The inquest heard that Bruce had loaned them
two thousand pounds for a house deposit. This house sale had then fallen through,
but theds had not been repaid to him. Chief Inspector Mark McManus stated
that Bruce may have been enamored with the girlfriend and that she may have seen
him as a soft touch. It was also announced that the garden belonging to
this couple had been dug up during the investigation as neighbors had reported a bad
smell. The remains of a dog had been found on the premises. The
couple had been arrested, but then released without charge when no evidence was found
to hold them. The inquest also stated that the police have ruled out suicide
given that his bank account had been emptied a few days after his disappearance,
he had just done a weekly food shop and hadn't got anyone to look after
his cat. Assistant Coroner Oliver Longstaff came to an open verdict conclusion. He
stated, they are a good deal of suspicions, but it's not for me
to say whether that suspicion is well found. Did or not. The evidence
available to me falls short of establishing that mister Gapper was unlawfully killed. At
the moment, all I can conclude is that mister Gapper is dead. Wendy
also spoke at the inquest, saying I just feel sad. Really, it
has been a long time to have the information that he has passed. It
does give us some sort of closure. I still believe there are people who
may know something. I would ask that they come forward. Chief Superintendent Mike
McManus stated it's over nineteen years since Bruce disappeared and loyalties do change. If
someone has done something untoward to Bruce, I'm convinced they will have told someone
about it. I will appeal to anyone with information about Bruce's death to come
forward. Despite the length of time, we want to bring closure and justice
for Bruce's family and to try and locate his remains. This is the way
that Bruce's case remains today, with his family hoping for any information that may
help them find out what happened to him. Wendy spoke to Yorkshire Live in
twenty eighteen about her brother's case and appealed for anyone with new information to come
forward and for people to think back to nineteen ninety nine. She stated,
our dad, Lawrence died in twenty eighteen. He couldn't talk about Bruce.
He would break down. What happened was so sad. Really, all he
wanted in life was to have a family. I think all we want is
to know what happened to him and somebody knows. It does seem a long
time ago, but it also is like yesterday, because these things stay in
your mind. I still remember that first call from police. It was just
horrific. Wendy stated that she does believe that her brother could have been killed
following a fallout with someone on the weekend he disappeared. The person who killed
him may have known him. She just wants to find out to get some
answers for her family. Detective Inspector Paul Conrad from West Yorkshire Police said in
the same article, officers continue to urge anyone who has any information into the
disappearance and death of Bruce Gapper to please get in touch. We note that
a considerable amount of time has passed, but we're keen to bring closure to
Bruce's family and find out exactly what happened and give him the justice he deserves.
Bruce and his family deserve some justice and some answers for him, and
if you know anything at all. It's essential that you contact police on one
oh one or contact the Missing People Charity. As with every case I cover
of missing people, I will link Bruce's profile in the show notes for anyone
who wants to have a look. Thank you for listening to this third episode
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