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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

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covering a case which has been suggested
by a listener which I always appreciate.

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The murder of twenty year old Elaine
Wakefield shook the area of Buxton in Derbyshire

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where she lived, and the fact
that her murder has never been solved is

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something which continues to be a tragedy
for those that knew her and who still

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live there. This episode contains descriptions
that some listeners may find distressing, so

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listener discretion is advised. The High
Edge Raceway is located around seven miles from

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the town center of Buxton. The
raceway had been used as a festival ground

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for rock conto during the early seventies, and some big names from the time

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played there, such as Wizard and
Slade. As the decade continued, it

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began to be used for its intended
purpose, which was a racing ground for

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stock cars. People traveled from far
and wide to race the cars at High

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Edge and it was a very competitive
but friendly group of people who were passionate

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about the sport. The raceway went
from strength to strength in the following decades,

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being renamed the Buxton Raceway in nineteen
ninety eight. On February the twenty

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seventh, nineteen eighty two, four
men were walking around the High Edge Raceway.

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These men belonged to the East Cheshire
Motocross Club, with one of them

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being Bernard Gleave, chairman of the
club and also a Macaelsfield counselor. They

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had gone to the raceway as the
next day, Sunday, the twenty eighth

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of February, there was going to
be a motocross of event called the Winter

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Scramble. The men wanted to check
out the course and the raceway to ensure

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everything was going to go smoothly.
As they traveled around the course, something

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alongside it caught their eye. As
they get closer to it, they discovered

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that it was the body of a
woman lying face down by the side of

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the track. This was a horrendous
and unexpected discovery which shot the four men.

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Her presence at the track seemed completely
and utterly out of place and the

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police were called immediately to the scene
to assess the situation. Derbyshire Police attended

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the raceway and they discovered that the
woman was partly clothed. She was only

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wearing a black bra. They discovered
that clothes had been strewn around two hundred

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yards from her body, and it
was later found that they belonged to the

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woman. Initially, it was difficult
to ascertain what had actually happened to her.

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It was clear that this hadn't been
a case of natural causes and that

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something suspicious had evidently happened. However, the scene didn't give much away.

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The one thing that police did know
was who this victim was. The woman

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was identified as twenty year old Elaine
Wakefield. Elaine was originally from the village

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of Tunfield Milton, which was located
around six miles from Buxton Town center.

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She lived there with her mother Anne
and her stepdad John, and Elaine has

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always been described as boisterous and ready
to enjoy her life to the fullest.

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One thing that was well known about
Elaine was that she was a CBE radio

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enthusiast. CB or Citizen band radio
was growing in popularity during the nineteen seventies

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and early nineteen eighties. It was
a way of communicating with others via a

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two way radio system on different channels. CBE radio was quite a popular pastime.

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However, it was not legalized at
the twenty seven megahurt frequency until nineteen

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eighty one. Elaine was passionate about
it and was part of CB Radio Clubs

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and had a call sign of ever
Ready while on the air. Elaine was

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only twenty years old in nineteen eighty
two, and she'd been trying out a

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number of jobs since leaving school.
She had worked as a petrol pump attendant,

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but at the time that Elaine's body
was recovered in March, she was

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unemployed. She had also moved from
the area of Tumfield Milton to Buxton Town

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Center. Buxton as a town in
the High Peak area of Derbyshire and has

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been known historically as a spa town
due to its geothermal spring, and it

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rose in popularity as a place to
visit during the Victorian era. In the

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twenty eleventh census, Buxton had a
population of around twenty two thousand people.

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Was known that Elaine had moved to
the town and had been living in a

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flat in West Road. Police discovered, however, that Elane was not living

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there alone. Up until two days
before her body was found, she had

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been living with a man thirteen years
her senior. This man was named Ken

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Sweet and he was a constable in
the Derbyshire Police Force. This was a

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crucial lead and starting point for the
investigation. They also brought up some ethical

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issues for the Derbyshire Police. While
Elane's body was removed from the scene to

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be analyzed for any evidence, PC
Ken's Sweet was one of the first people

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to be spoken to about Elane's death. He told investigators that it was true

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that he and Elane had been having
an affair, and that they had been

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living together in a flat in west
Road not long before her death. He

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explained he was married, but had
decided to leave his wife and had moved

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in with Elane. He had believed
that their relationship would work out. However,

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it soon became apparent that it was
not working and they only lived together

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for nine days before Ken Sweet explained
that he went back to live with his

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wife. Reportedly, Elaine believed that
Ken was going to leave his wife to

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be with her, and this is
what she had hoped would happen. Ken

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told investigators that he had last seen
Elane two days before her body was recovered

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on the Thursday. He said that
they had had an argument about their relationship,

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as it had been going downhill since
they'd moved in together. He stated

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that morning they'd argued and Elaine had
asked him if he wanted to leave.

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He stated, I said words to
the effect that it might be better.

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She was unhappy because we were splitting
up. Ken said that Elaine then left

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the flat at about two pm that
day, but returned a couple of minutes

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later for her lighter. Ken expected
that she would return again, given that

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she'd not say any of her clothes
or her belongings, He said, he

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left a piece of paper across the
door so he would know if she'd been

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back. When he returned, he
knew she hadn't entered the flat as the

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paper was not broken. Police therefore
knew that Elaine had definitely last been seen

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on Thursday, the twenty fifth of
February, two days before she was found

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murdered. What had happened in these
two days and how had Elaine been killed?

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Police began trying to trace Elaine's movements
during the time between Thursday and Saturday,

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and tried to find as many witnesses
as they could to establish what she'd

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been doing. They were aware that
the raceway was used by many people for

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different reasons on days that there were
no races on, and they also knew

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that Elaine had to have got out
of Buxton that day in some way or

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another. The Derby Daily Telegraph reported
on the second of March that police were

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quickly working under the theory that Elaine
may have known her killer and may have

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possibly gone to the raceway Willingly.
There is no specific evidence presented to indicate

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why they believed this. However,
they did reach out to the public,

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specifically courting couples who were known to
visit the raceway. While police were appealing

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to the public for witnesses, the
newspapers were reporting on the relationship between Elane

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and police Constable Ken's Sweet. The
information that a police officer was engaged in

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affair with a member of the public
whilst also being married created ripples in the

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small town of Buxton and it was
of great interest to many, including in

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national newspapers. He was reported in
The Daily Mirror on the third of March

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that Ken Sweet was also a CBE
radio enthusiast and he went by the name

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Zoomer. It was also confirmed that
during their courtship, kenn had used his

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police car to meet up with Elane. He reportedly stated, though we never

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made love in the panda, referring
to the police car. There were many

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implications that this was of course inappropriate
as someone with a responsible profession such as

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a police officer, and a Derbyshire
Police spokesman stated that PC Kent Suite had

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momentarily been suspended from the force during
the police investigation into Elane's murder. The

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spokesman said it's for his own good, he's too close to the murder inquiry.

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PC Swite responded to this, saying
he felt rough about the suspension but

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understood why it needed to be done. The police understood that Elaine had left

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on foot from the flat that she'd
shared with PC's sweet and so they began

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to look for people that might have
seen her along the way. The journey

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to the race track was around seven
miles and would have taken around an hour

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and a quarter to walk. The
police had learned that walking long distances wasn't

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really unusual for Elane. At a
press conference about the case on the third

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of March, Tom Naylor, head
of the Northern Area of Derbisious CID,

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stated Elaine walked the whole distance and
must have arrived as it was getting dark.

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It was not unusual for her to
walk long distances. He said that

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several witnesses had come forward to say
they'd seen her walking that afternoon and evening.

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At the time that she set off
walking, Elaine was wearing a brown

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anorak and jeans, and he confirmed
that she was around five feet two inches

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tall. It was announced that a
twenty one year old police typist named Dawn

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Hadfield had been tasked with reconstructing Elane's
journey that day in the hope that it

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would jog people's memories who might have
seen her. When asked about Elaine's cause

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of death, the police were relatively
vague at that point. They confirmed that

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Elaine had not suffered a violent sexual
assault, but that her cause of death

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was unusual. This only cause further
speculation about what really had happened to Elane.

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Superintendent Tom Naylor did suggest that she
may have been traveling up that way

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to meet with the man. There
is no indication about the evidence that could

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have suggested this, however, this
was a theory put forward. Police did,

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however, speak to four of Elane's
former boyfriends. However, this line

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of inquiry didn't seem to yield any
results. Witnesses in the area at the

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time did confirm that Elaine was seen
walking towards High Edge that day, and

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it would later be reported that nine
people saw her on that journey and could

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confirm that she was heading that way. Appeals Overseabe radio were made, and

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witnesses from this appeal did come forward
to say that they had seen her.

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Also, a lorry driver who knew
Elane came forward to say he saw her

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walking and she waved at him.
Police also tracked down information that shortly after

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she left the flat in West Road, she spoke to someone. It was

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clear from these witness statements that Elaine
had left the flat and then headed pretty

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much straight in the direction of the
raceway, but the big question was why

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and who did she encounter along the
way. Officers did receive reports of people

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who they may have wanted to eliminate
from the investigation. Two of these people

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were seen at the raceway by a
farmer about one pm that afternoon, around

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an hour before Elaine left the flat. These men looked suspicious to the farmer

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as they were hanging around and didn't
seem to fit the farmer was able to

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give a description of them. He
said both of them were around twenty five

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years old and they had Derbyshire accents. They were around five feet nine inches

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tall. One of them had dark
color length, curly hair and wore blue

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overalls and a black donkey jacket.
The farmer said they told him they were

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from Chapel on the Frith, a
town around six miles away from Buxton.

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The reason they looked suspicious was because
it had reportedly been a snowy day and

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there was no real reason for the
men to just be looking at the raceway.

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The farmer said they left in a
farm colored Hillman Avenger car. Chief

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Inspector Peter Burgess stated they said they
were just having a look at the track,

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but it was a very snowy day
and that is not the sort of

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place to go for no special reason. They may have been acting perfectly innocently.

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In that case, they should come
forward so that we can eliminate them

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from our inquiries. As well as
these men, police were interested to speak

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to some joggers who were out training
for a marathon that day. They believed

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that their route followed part of the
journey that Elane took. And they hoped

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they would have noticed something. They
were interested in one jogger in particular,

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who may have been close to Elane
during part of the journey. He has

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been described as wiry, around five
feet nine inches or five feet ten inches

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tall and between twenty eight and thirty
one years old. He had short,

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curly dark hair and a short dark
beard. The police were also interested in

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some cars that had been seen in
the general area around the time that Elaine

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had been walking. One of these
was a black or brown box van which

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was seen by the entrance of the
race track at between one and two pm.

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Another car which was spotted was a
blue saloon car with a double stripe

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along the side. It was in
rusty condition and had several triangular stickers in

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the rear offside window. This car
was seen near Buxton Cemetery about two forty

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pm, and the relevance was that
Elaine had been seen near the car during

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her journey. There was also a
clean red and white tractor which was seen

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traveling along the A five one five
towards Books around two forty pm. There

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was also another white van which was
possibly a Ford Escort, seen in another

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lay by at around four thirty pm. This was in a dirty condition.

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There was also an orange box or
chevette which had been seen in the area

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on multiple occasions. These vehicles were
of interest because they had been seen in

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the area around the time that Elaine
had also been there. There was a

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sighting of her at the racetrack around
five forty five pm. This didn't mean

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that they were in any way involved, but that they needed to be eliminated.

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There were still many unknowns about Elaine's
murder, and one of the biggest

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questions was how exactly had she died
and what did this mean about who had

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committed it. This was somewhat answered
at several in quests which were made into

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Elaine's death. This had clearly been
a difficult question to answer, given that

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two pathologists had been tasked with completing
post mortems on Elaine's body. The first

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had been doctor Stephen Jones and the
second was another Home Office pathologist, Professor

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David G. David G was famous
for being part of several large scale and

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famous investigations, including that of Moore's
murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, and

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that of the Yorkshire Ripper. By
the eighth of March Derbyshire Police announced the

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results of these post mortems and forensic
tests. Superintendent Tom Naylor stated that Elaine

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had died as a result of compression
of the nerve at the front of her

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neck. He said this is still
a murder inquiry, but death may have

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occurred in the course of some activity, possibly love making. He added she

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had died very rapidly following a relatively
minor episode of pressure on the neck.

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It therefore follows that a person with
Miss Wakefield at the time may have been

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taken completely by surprise by her death
and panicked. It's clearly in the interests

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of all concerned, in particular of
those of any person present at the time

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of death, that the matter should
be resolved quickly. This information was relatively

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surprising given that so little had been
publicized about her death. This announcement suggested

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that police believe that Elaine may have
been going up to the raceway to meet

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a man and during a sexual encounter, there was pressure applied to her neck

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and that was what killed her.
The theory was that whoever this person was

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didn't intend to kill Elane and that
they panicked. There was little evidence presented

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for why this was thought to have
happened, aside from the fact that there

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was little pressure applied, meaning the
person didn't strangle Elane. However, whether

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this was in the course of consensual
sexual encounter seems to be more of a

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hypothesis than something proven in fact.
During a second inquest into Elaine's death in

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April, her parents Anne and her
stepdad John objected to the theory that this

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is how Elane died. This reported
that High Peak coroner Clive Rushton stated that

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Elaine could have died during some horseplay
with another man after leaving the flat after

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the argument with Ken Sweet. John
Ward shouted at the coroner at this point

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and said horseplay never, you're misleading
the jury and we don't see why we

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should leave. The couple were scarted
out of the courtroom as a result of

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this outburst. It's clear that emotions
were running high, and quite understandably for

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Elaine's parents. Doctor Stephen Jones told
the inquest that Elaine had died as a

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result of compression of the nerve at
the front of her neck, which had

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caused a heart attack and slight asphyxia. When he was asked by the coroner

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if this could have been caused by
horseplay rather than being caused by intent.

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Doctor Jones stated they were consistent with
momentary pressure, certainly not performed with intent

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to harm. He also confirmed that
there was no evidence of violent sexual assault,

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or actually any sexual activity at all
just prior to her death. The

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coroner ruled an open verdict in Elaine's
case, meaning there wasn't enough evidence to

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prove what exactly had happened, and
that there were questions needing more investigation.

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He did seem to believe, however, that this was not an intentional murder,

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and that the person who committed it
had panicked and left her there.

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He said, there are things about
this case that do not add up.

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There was almost certainly a sexual encounter. A girl in her distressed condition might

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have been easy prey for someone looking
for some sort of casual encounter. We

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can envisage circumstances is during preliminarily sexual
play, when his or her hand could

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have trapped against her neck. He
also said that this person should come forward

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and that this was maybe not as
serious as they previously thought it would be.

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The police will be saved a great
deal of work. It will end

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the torment, which I'm sure the
person is suffering from his own conscience,

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and above all, it will lift
the cloud of suspicion which lies on Elaine's

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friends and associates and people that were
in the area at the time. Elaine's

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stepdad was spoken to after the open
verdict and he said, I'm happier now

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00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:38.359
I know the search will go on. I am convinced she was killed by

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a local man and I will go
on searching for him forever. The inquest

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00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.799
and the investigations clearly taking its toll
on Elaine's family, and the grief that

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they were feeling was evident just reading
these newspaper reports. Elaine's funeral was held

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on the twentieth of March nineteen eighty
two at Townend Church in Chapel on the

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Fris. It reported that there was
a hundred people packed into the Methodist church

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and there was a carpet of flowers
in the graveyard along with a wooden cross

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00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:18.759
with the inscription Elane. The grief
of Elaine's family was palpable, and many

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of the people who ere Lane knew
from the CBE radio community attended her funeral.

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Murder investigators were also amongst the crowds. There was a notable absence,

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and that was ken Sweet. Since
the investigation had begun, he had been

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00:21:36.279 --> 00:21:41.480
suspended from the police force due to
his proximity to Elane. In fact,

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in the middle of April that year, he decided to resign from the police

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force after eleven years as an officer. A spokesman from Derbyshire Police didn't elaborate

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and said that this was a confidential
matter. In an article from the Derby

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Daily Telegraph on the twenty sixth of
April, ken Sweet explained, the cloud

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of suspicion is never going to be
lifted until somebody has been sorted out.

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I have told police my theory.
It differs a little from what was said

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00:22:10.599 --> 00:22:15.599
at the inquest. This is an
intriguing comment as this hasn't been elaborated on.

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If ken Sweet's theory differs, in
what way did he know and tell

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the police something that hasn't been published. By the end of March nineteen eighty

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two, Superintendent Tom Naylor explained that
they had done a very thorough investigation into

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Elaine's murder, saying they'd made twelve
hundred inquiries and taken seven hundred and thirty

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seven statements since the start. He
stated, as far as he's known at

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00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:47.240
the moment, none of her known
associates are the people who are at the

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00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:53.160
raceway had anything to do with her
death. Since Elaine's murder, there has

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00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:57.359
been little published about it, and
after April nineteen eighty two, the newspaper

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00:22:57.400 --> 00:23:03.279
reports drop off completely, with no
further information being reported for many years.

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00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:07.480
That was until two thousand and three, when it was reported that the case

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was going to be reopened. An
article in the Independent newspaper explained that the

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reinvestigation once again spoke to people close
to the case and some had given DNA

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00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:25.640
samples. Was also reported that new
samples from bodily fluids found at the murder

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00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:30.359
scene were being analyzed and that new
suspects were being obtained by the investigation.

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00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.839
The samples were sent to the Forensic
Science Service and it was hoped that new

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information could be found from things that
were previously unable to be analyzed. This

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00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:45.079
reportedly produced new lines of inquiry,
and in two thousand and three, Detective

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00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:52.440
Chief Inspector Steve Cotterill said that he
believed Elaine was murdered despite the open verdict.

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00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:56.720
At the time, this seemed positive. However, after this point nothing

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00:23:56.720 --> 00:24:00.599
more has been published, and I
assume that these lines of inquiries did not

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00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:06.319
lead anywhere. However, having some
DNA on file from these samples was a

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00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:12.200
big step forward. The inquest ruled
an open verdict and not a murder.

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00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:17.519
However, investigators clearly did believe that
this was a murder, both in nineteen

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eighty two and two thousand and three, whether it was committed intentionally or it

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00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:26.240
was an accident. There are so
many odd aspects of the case, and

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00:24:26.319 --> 00:24:30.839
many that don't make sense. The
things that stand out to me are why

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00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:34.799
was a Lane walking to the raceway
that day? It was known that she

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00:24:34.839 --> 00:24:38.119
walked long distances, but did she
plan to go there or was she just

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00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:44.240
walking off the anger from the argument
that she'd just had. We know she

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00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:48.519
did walk the journey because many people
saw her that day, including people that

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00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:52.759
knew her personally. The farmer at
the raceway thought it was odd that those

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00:24:52.799 --> 00:24:59.000
two people were there and found its
suspicious as it had been snowing. Wouldn't

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00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:02.640
this be the same for us Lane? Why would she choose to meet someone

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00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:07.000
there for a sexual encounter in such
inclement conditions? And who was this person?

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00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:12.160
And when did she make this arrangement
to meet them. Elaine was wearing

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00:25:12.200 --> 00:25:15.640
only a brow when she was discovered. However, the pathologists said that there

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00:25:15.680 --> 00:25:21.920
was no sign of sexual activity prior
to her murder. If this was the

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00:25:21.960 --> 00:25:26.000
case, then why was she naked? And if she died during sexual activity,

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00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:30.559
then how exactly had this occurred.
The other thing that strikes me as

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00:25:30.559 --> 00:25:34.960
odd is the police's insistence that she
must have been going there to meet someone.

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00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:40.519
Where is the evidence to point to
this? Unless there are aspects of

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00:25:40.519 --> 00:25:42.519
the case which have not been made
public, I cannot see how this is

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the only theory for her murder.
Elaine's stepdad clearly believed that someone local held

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the answer, and I can only
agree given that who else would have been

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00:25:53.240 --> 00:26:00.519
wandering around the raceway seven miles away
from town in the early evening. Elane's

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00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:04.119
case is a tragedy given the lack
of publicity that this has had since it

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00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:08.920
occurred. I am aware from the
listener suggestion that this is not the case

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00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:12.640
locally, and that many local people
do not believe that this case has got

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00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:18.720
the attention it needs and that it
deserves to be solved. I feel exactly

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00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.160
the same about it, and I
really feel for Elaine's family, as they

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00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:27.039
did not get the answers they deserved
either about what happened. The fact that

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00:26:27.079 --> 00:26:30.920
so much was made about Elaine going
to meet a man saddens me, as

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00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.240
while this may have been the case, there are probably many other things that

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00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:40.799
could have happened, and I feel
that police became fixated on this particular theory.

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00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:45.279
The fact that Elaine was always mentioned
as being a mistress or heading to

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00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:49.079
meet a man for sex also did
her a disservice and may have impacted how

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00:26:49.079 --> 00:26:53.240
she was viewed. As a result, I don't feel that I know as

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00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:57.119
much about Elaine as a person as
I would have wanted. She was a

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00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:00.279
twenty year old young woman with her
whole life ahead of her, and she

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00:27:00.319 --> 00:27:06.960
did not deserve to be left partly
naked on a racetrack. She deserves justice

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00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:11.960
for what happened. If you know
anything about the murder of Elaine Wakefield in

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00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:17.119
Buxton in nineteen eighty two, then
please contact Derbyshire Police on one oh one.

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00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:22.160
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