Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be
covering a case which has been suggested by a listener which I always appreciate.
The murder of twenty year old Elaine Wakefield shook the area of Buxton in Derbyshire
where she lived, and the fact that her murder has never been solved is
something which continues to be a tragedy for those that knew her and who still
live there. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find distressing, so
listener discretion is advised. The High Edge Raceway is located around seven miles from
the town center of Buxton. The raceway had been used as a festival ground
for rock conto during the early seventies, and some big names from the time
played there, such as Wizard and Slade. As the decade continued, it
began to be used for its intended purpose, which was a racing ground for
stock cars. People traveled from far and wide to race the cars at High
Edge and it was a very competitive but friendly group of people who were passionate
about the sport. The raceway went from strength to strength in the following decades,
being renamed the Buxton Raceway in nineteen ninety eight. On February the twenty
seventh, nineteen eighty two, four men were walking around the High Edge Raceway.
These men belonged to the East Cheshire Motocross Club, with one of them
being Bernard Gleave, chairman of the club and also a Macaelsfield counselor. They
had gone to the raceway as the next day, Sunday, the twenty eighth
of February, there was going to be a motocross of event called the Winter
Scramble. The men wanted to check out the course and the raceway to ensure
everything was going to go smoothly. As they traveled around the course, something
alongside it caught their eye. As they get closer to it, they discovered
that it was the body of a woman lying face down by the side of
the track. This was a horrendous and unexpected discovery which shot the four men.
Her presence at the track seemed completely and utterly out of place and the
police were called immediately to the scene to assess the situation. Derbyshire Police attended
the raceway and they discovered that the woman was partly clothed. She was only
wearing a black bra. They discovered that clothes had been strewn around two hundred
yards from her body, and it was later found that they belonged to the
woman. Initially, it was difficult to ascertain what had actually happened to her.
It was clear that this hadn't been a case of natural causes and that
something suspicious had evidently happened. However, the scene didn't give much away.
The one thing that police did know was who this victim was. The woman
was identified as twenty year old Elaine Wakefield. Elaine was originally from the village
of Tunfield Milton, which was located around six miles from Buxton Town center.
She lived there with her mother Anne and her stepdad John, and Elaine has
always been described as boisterous and ready to enjoy her life to the fullest.
One thing that was well known about Elaine was that she was a CBE radio
enthusiast. CB or Citizen band radio was growing in popularity during the nineteen seventies
and early nineteen eighties. It was a way of communicating with others via a
two way radio system on different channels. CBE radio was quite a popular pastime.
However, it was not legalized at the twenty seven megahurt frequency until nineteen
eighty one. Elaine was passionate about it and was part of CB Radio Clubs
and had a call sign of ever Ready while on the air. Elaine was
only twenty years old in nineteen eighty two, and she'd been trying out a
number of jobs since leaving school. She had worked as a petrol pump attendant,
but at the time that Elaine's body was recovered in March, she was
unemployed. She had also moved from the area of Tumfield Milton to Buxton Town
Center. Buxton as a town in the High Peak area of Derbyshire and has
been known historically as a spa town due to its geothermal spring, and it
rose in popularity as a place to visit during the Victorian era. In the
twenty eleventh census, Buxton had a population of around twenty two thousand people.
Was known that Elaine had moved to the town and had been living in a
flat in West Road. Police discovered, however, that Elane was not living
there alone. Up until two days before her body was found, she had
been living with a man thirteen years her senior. This man was named Ken
Sweet and he was a constable in the Derbyshire Police Force. This was a
crucial lead and starting point for the investigation. They also brought up some ethical
issues for the Derbyshire Police. While Elane's body was removed from the scene to
be analyzed for any evidence, PC Ken's Sweet was one of the first people
to be spoken to about Elane's death. He told investigators that it was true
that he and Elane had been having an affair, and that they had been
living together in a flat in west Road not long before her death. He
explained he was married, but had decided to leave his wife and had moved
in with Elane. He had believed that their relationship would work out. However,
it soon became apparent that it was not working and they only lived together
for nine days before Ken Sweet explained that he went back to live with his
wife. Reportedly, Elaine believed that Ken was going to leave his wife to
be with her, and this is what she had hoped would happen. Ken
told investigators that he had last seen Elane two days before her body was recovered
on the Thursday. He said that they had had an argument about their relationship,
as it had been going downhill since they'd moved in together. He stated
that morning they'd argued and Elaine had asked him if he wanted to leave.
He stated, I said words to the effect that it might be better.
She was unhappy because we were splitting up. Ken said that Elaine then left
the flat at about two pm that day, but returned a couple of minutes
later for her lighter. Ken expected that she would return again, given that
she'd not say any of her clothes or her belongings, He said, he
left a piece of paper across the door so he would know if she'd been
back. When he returned, he knew she hadn't entered the flat as the
paper was not broken. Police therefore knew that Elaine had definitely last been seen
on Thursday, the twenty fifth of February, two days before she was found
murdered. What had happened in these two days and how had Elaine been killed?
Police began trying to trace Elaine's movements during the time between Thursday and Saturday,
and tried to find as many witnesses as they could to establish what she'd
been doing. They were aware that the raceway was used by many people for
different reasons on days that there were no races on, and they also knew
that Elaine had to have got out of Buxton that day in some way or
another. The Derby Daily Telegraph reported on the second of March that police were
quickly working under the theory that Elaine may have known her killer and may have
possibly gone to the raceway Willingly. There is no specific evidence presented to indicate
why they believed this. However, they did reach out to the public,
specifically courting couples who were known to visit the raceway. While police were appealing
to the public for witnesses, the newspapers were reporting on the relationship between Elane
and police Constable Ken's Sweet. The information that a police officer was engaged in
affair with a member of the public whilst also being married created ripples in the
small town of Buxton and it was of great interest to many, including in
national newspapers. He was reported in The Daily Mirror on the third of March
that Ken Sweet was also a CBE radio enthusiast and he went by the name
Zoomer. It was also confirmed that during their courtship, kenn had used his
police car to meet up with Elane. He reportedly stated, though we never
made love in the panda, referring to the police car. There were many
implications that this was of course inappropriate as someone with a responsible profession such as
a police officer, and a Derbyshire Police spokesman stated that PC Kent Suite had
momentarily been suspended from the force during the police investigation into Elane's murder. The
spokesman said it's for his own good, he's too close to the murder inquiry.
PC Swite responded to this, saying he felt rough about the suspension but
understood why it needed to be done. The police understood that Elaine had left
on foot from the flat that she'd shared with PC's sweet and so they began
to look for people that might have seen her along the way. The journey
to the race track was around seven miles and would have taken around an hour
and a quarter to walk. The police had learned that walking long distances wasn't
really unusual for Elane. At a press conference about the case on the third
of March, Tom Naylor, head of the Northern Area of Derbisious CID,
stated Elaine walked the whole distance and must have arrived as it was getting dark.
It was not unusual for her to walk long distances. He said that
several witnesses had come forward to say they'd seen her walking that afternoon and evening.
At the time that she set off walking, Elaine was wearing a brown
anorak and jeans, and he confirmed that she was around five feet two inches
tall. It was announced that a twenty one year old police typist named Dawn
Hadfield had been tasked with reconstructing Elane's journey that day in the hope that it
would jog people's memories who might have seen her. When asked about Elaine's cause
of death, the police were relatively vague at that point. They confirmed that
Elaine had not suffered a violent sexual assault, but that her cause of death
was unusual. This only cause further speculation about what really had happened to Elane.
Superintendent Tom Naylor did suggest that she may have been traveling up that way
to meet with the man. There is no indication about the evidence that could
have suggested this, however, this was a theory put forward. Police did,
however, speak to four of Elane's former boyfriends. However, this line
of inquiry didn't seem to yield any results. Witnesses in the area at the
time did confirm that Elaine was seen walking towards High Edge that day, and
it would later be reported that nine people saw her on that journey and could
confirm that she was heading that way. Appeals Overseabe radio were made, and
witnesses from this appeal did come forward to say that they had seen her.
Also, a lorry driver who knew Elane came forward to say he saw her
walking and she waved at him. Police also tracked down information that shortly after
she left the flat in West Road, she spoke to someone. It was
clear from these witness statements that Elaine had left the flat and then headed pretty
much straight in the direction of the raceway, but the big question was why
and who did she encounter along the way. Officers did receive reports of people
who they may have wanted to eliminate from the investigation. Two of these people
were seen at the raceway by a farmer about one pm that afternoon, around
an hour before Elaine left the flat. These men looked suspicious to the farmer
as they were hanging around and didn't seem to fit the farmer was able to
give a description of them. He said both of them were around twenty five
years old and they had Derbyshire accents. They were around five feet nine inches
tall. One of them had dark color length, curly hair and wore blue
overalls and a black donkey jacket. The farmer said they told him they were
from Chapel on the Frith, a town around six miles away from Buxton.
The reason they looked suspicious was because it had reportedly been a snowy day and
there was no real reason for the men to just be looking at the raceway.
The farmer said they left in a farm colored Hillman Avenger car. Chief
Inspector Peter Burgess stated they said they were just having a look at the track,
but it was a very snowy day and that is not the sort of
place to go for no special reason. They may have been acting perfectly innocently.
In that case, they should come forward so that we can eliminate them
from our inquiries. As well as these men, police were interested to speak
to some joggers who were out training for a marathon that day. They believed
that their route followed part of the journey that Elane took. And they hoped
they would have noticed something. They were interested in one jogger in particular,
who may have been close to Elane during part of the journey. He has
been described as wiry, around five feet nine inches or five feet ten inches
tall and between twenty eight and thirty one years old. He had short,
curly dark hair and a short dark beard. The police were also interested in
some cars that had been seen in the general area around the time that Elaine
had been walking. One of these was a black or brown box van which
was seen by the entrance of the race track at between one and two pm.
Another car which was spotted was a blue saloon car with a double stripe
along the side. It was in rusty condition and had several triangular stickers in
the rear offside window. This car was seen near Buxton Cemetery about two forty
pm, and the relevance was that Elaine had been seen near the car during
her journey. There was also a clean red and white tractor which was seen
traveling along the A five one five towards Books around two forty pm. There
was also another white van which was possibly a Ford Escort, seen in another
lay by at around four thirty pm. This was in a dirty condition.
There was also an orange box or chevette which had been seen in the area
on multiple occasions. These vehicles were of interest because they had been seen in
the area around the time that Elaine had also been there. There was a
sighting of her at the racetrack around five forty five pm. This didn't mean
that they were in any way involved, but that they needed to be eliminated.
There were still many unknowns about Elaine's murder, and one of the biggest
questions was how exactly had she died and what did this mean about who had
committed it. This was somewhat answered at several in quests which were made into
Elaine's death. This had clearly been a difficult question to answer, given that
two pathologists had been tasked with completing post mortems on Elaine's body. The first
had been doctor Stephen Jones and the second was another Home Office pathologist, Professor
David G. David G was famous for being part of several large scale and
famous investigations, including that of Moore's murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and
that of the Yorkshire Ripper. By the eighth of March Derbyshire Police announced the
results of these post mortems and forensic tests. Superintendent Tom Naylor stated that Elaine
had died as a result of compression of the nerve at the front of her
neck. He said this is still a murder inquiry, but death may have
occurred in the course of some activity, possibly love making. He added she
had died very rapidly following a relatively minor episode of pressure on the neck.
It therefore follows that a person with Miss Wakefield at the time may have been
taken completely by surprise by her death and panicked. It's clearly in the interests
of all concerned, in particular of those of any person present at the time
of death, that the matter should be resolved quickly. This information was relatively
surprising given that so little had been publicized about her death. This announcement suggested
that police believe that Elaine may have been going up to the raceway to meet
a man and during a sexual encounter, there was pressure applied to her neck
and that was what killed her. The theory was that whoever this person was
didn't intend to kill Elane and that they panicked. There was little evidence presented
for why this was thought to have happened, aside from the fact that there
was little pressure applied, meaning the person didn't strangle Elane. However, whether
this was in the course of consensual sexual encounter seems to be more of a
hypothesis than something proven in fact. During a second inquest into Elaine's death in
April, her parents Anne and her stepdad John objected to the theory that this
is how Elane died. This reported that High Peak coroner Clive Rushton stated that
Elaine could have died during some horseplay with another man after leaving the flat after
the argument with Ken Sweet. John Ward shouted at the coroner at this point
and said horseplay never, you're misleading the jury and we don't see why we
should leave. The couple were scarted out of the courtroom as a result of
this outburst. It's clear that emotions were running high, and quite understandably for
Elaine's parents. Doctor Stephen Jones told the inquest that Elaine had died as a
result of compression of the nerve at the front of her neck, which had
caused a heart attack and slight asphyxia. When he was asked by the coroner
if this could have been caused by horseplay rather than being caused by intent.
Doctor Jones stated they were consistent with momentary pressure, certainly not performed with intent
to harm. He also confirmed that there was no evidence of violent sexual assault,
or actually any sexual activity at all just prior to her death. The
coroner ruled an open verdict in Elaine's case, meaning there wasn't enough evidence to
prove what exactly had happened, and that there were questions needing more investigation.
He did seem to believe, however, that this was not an intentional murder,
and that the person who committed it had panicked and left her there.
He said, there are things about this case that do not add up.
There was almost certainly a sexual encounter. A girl in her distressed condition might
have been easy prey for someone looking for some sort of casual encounter. We
can envisage circumstances is during preliminarily sexual play, when his or her hand could
have trapped against her neck. He also said that this person should come forward
and that this was maybe not as serious as they previously thought it would be.
The police will be saved a great deal of work. It will end
the torment, which I'm sure the person is suffering from his own conscience,
and above all, it will lift the cloud of suspicion which lies on Elaine's
friends and associates and people that were in the area at the time. Elaine's
stepdad was spoken to after the open verdict and he said, I'm happier now
I know the search will go on. I am convinced she was killed by
a local man and I will go on searching for him forever. The inquest
and the investigations clearly taking its toll on Elaine's family, and the grief that
they were feeling was evident just reading these newspaper reports. Elaine's funeral was held
on the twentieth of March nineteen eighty two at Townend Church in Chapel on the
Fris. It reported that there was a hundred people packed into the Methodist church
and there was a carpet of flowers in the graveyard along with a wooden cross
with the inscription Elane. The grief of Elaine's family was palpable, and many
of the people who ere Lane knew from the CBE radio community attended her funeral.
Murder investigators were also amongst the crowds. There was a notable absence,
and that was ken Sweet. Since the investigation had begun, he had been
suspended from the police force due to his proximity to Elane. In fact,
in the middle of April that year, he decided to resign from the police
force after eleven years as an officer. A spokesman from Derbyshire Police didn't elaborate
and said that this was a confidential matter. In an article from the Derby
Daily Telegraph on the twenty sixth of April, ken Sweet explained, the cloud
of suspicion is never going to be lifted until somebody has been sorted out.
I have told police my theory. It differs a little from what was said
at the inquest. This is an intriguing comment as this hasn't been elaborated on.
If ken Sweet's theory differs, in what way did he know and tell
the police something that hasn't been published. By the end of March nineteen eighty
two, Superintendent Tom Naylor explained that they had done a very thorough investigation into
Elaine's murder, saying they'd made twelve hundred inquiries and taken seven hundred and thirty
seven statements since the start. He stated, as far as he's known at
the moment, none of her known associates are the people who are at the
raceway had anything to do with her death. Since Elaine's murder, there has
been little published about it, and after April nineteen eighty two, the newspaper
reports drop off completely, with no further information being reported for many years.
That was until two thousand and three, when it was reported that the case
was going to be reopened. An article in the Independent newspaper explained that the
reinvestigation once again spoke to people close to the case and some had given DNA
samples. Was also reported that new samples from bodily fluids found at the murder
scene were being analyzed and that new suspects were being obtained by the investigation.
The samples were sent to the Forensic Science Service and it was hoped that new
information could be found from things that were previously unable to be analyzed. This
reportedly produced new lines of inquiry, and in two thousand and three, Detective
Chief Inspector Steve Cotterill said that he believed Elaine was murdered despite the open verdict.
At the time, this seemed positive. However, after this point nothing
more has been published, and I assume that these lines of inquiries did not
lead anywhere. However, having some DNA on file from these samples was a
big step forward. The inquest ruled an open verdict and not a murder.
However, investigators clearly did believe that this was a murder, both in nineteen
eighty two and two thousand and three, whether it was committed intentionally or it
was an accident. There are so many odd aspects of the case, and
many that don't make sense. The things that stand out to me are why
was a Lane walking to the raceway that day? It was known that she
walked long distances, but did she plan to go there or was she just
walking off the anger from the argument that she'd just had. We know she
did walk the journey because many people saw her that day, including people that
knew her personally. The farmer at the raceway thought it was odd that those
two people were there and found its suspicious as it had been snowing. Wouldn't
this be the same for us Lane? Why would she choose to meet someone
there for a sexual encounter in such inclement conditions? And who was this person?
And when did she make this arrangement to meet them. Elaine was wearing
only a brow when she was discovered. However, the pathologists said that there
was no sign of sexual activity prior to her murder. If this was the
case, then why was she naked? And if she died during sexual activity,
then how exactly had this occurred. The other thing that strikes me as
odd is the police's insistence that she must have been going there to meet someone.
Where is the evidence to point to this? Unless there are aspects of
the case which have not been made public, I cannot see how this is
the only theory for her murder. Elaine's stepdad clearly believed that someone local held
the answer, and I can only agree given that who else would have been
wandering around the raceway seven miles away from town in the early evening. Elane's
case is a tragedy given the lack of publicity that this has had since it
occurred. I am aware from the listener suggestion that this is not the case
locally, and that many local people do not believe that this case has got
the attention it needs and that it deserves to be solved. I feel exactly
the same about it, and I really feel for Elaine's family, as they
did not get the answers they deserved either about what happened. The fact that
so much was made about Elaine going to meet a man saddens me, as
while this may have been the case, there are probably many other things that
could have happened, and I feel that police became fixated on this particular theory.
The fact that Elaine was always mentioned as being a mistress or heading to
meet a man for sex also did her a disservice and may have impacted how
she was viewed. As a result, I don't feel that I know as
much about Elaine as a person as I would have wanted. She was a
twenty year old young woman with her whole life ahead of her, and she
did not deserve to be left partly naked on a racetrack. She deserves justice
for what happened. If you know anything about the murder of Elaine Wakefield in
Buxton in nineteen eighty two, then please contact Derbyshire Police on one oh one.
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show notes. As always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen