Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases and UK true crime.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be exploring the murder of fourteen
Speaker 1: year old Patsy Morris on Hounslow Heath in London in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty. Despite a large investigation at the time, it
Speaker 1: has never been solved. This episode discusses the murder of
Speaker 1: a child and may contain descriptions of violence, so listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. On Monday, the sixteenth of June nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: the Morris family, who lived at Signa Avenue in Felton,
Speaker 1: West London, were becoming worried. George and Marjorie Morris had
Speaker 1: been waiting for their fourteen year old daughter, Patsy to
Speaker 1: return home after school. However, she was late, and this
Speaker 1: was not usual for her. Patsy attended school at Felt
Speaker 1: and Comprehensive and lived at home with her mom, dad,
Speaker 1: sister and two brothers. She was just an normal teenage
Speaker 1: girl and staying away from home without letting anyone know
Speaker 1: was not something that she did. It didn't take long
Speaker 1: for her parents to become so worried that they contacted
Speaker 1: police to try and locate her. Police became involved given
Speaker 1: Patsy's age and the fact that she couldn't be found,
Speaker 1: and they began a search of the local area. They
Speaker 1: used mounted police officers and Special Patrol Group members to
Speaker 1: help them look around the area of Signa Avenue where
Speaker 1: the Morrises lived. It was hoped that Patsy would be
Speaker 1: recovered quickly after the search and that whatever had happened
Speaker 1: had just been a misunderstanding or Patsy was just with
Speaker 1: a friend. However, when she still could not be located
Speaker 1: that evening and into the next day, concerns began to grow.
Speaker 1: Police officers continued to search into Wednesday, the eighteenth of June,
Speaker 1: and it was on that evening that a police dog
Speaker 1: handler was searching an area of Hounslow Heath that they
Speaker 1: discovered something in what has been described as a bush
Speaker 1: or a copse next to our path. The dog handler
Speaker 1: came across a body lying face down. The body was
Speaker 1: that of Patsy Morris. The discovery that Patsy was dead
Speaker 1: was devastating for everyone involved, and it meant that the
Speaker 1: worst had so tragically come true. Her body had been
Speaker 1: found around a quarter of a mile from her home
Speaker 1: on Signa Avenue. All of the evidence suggested that Patsy's
Speaker 1: death was not an accident and it was the result
Speaker 1: of foul play. They discovered that she had been strangled
Speaker 1: with a ligature, her body was fully clothed when it
Speaker 1: was found, and there had not been any sexual assault.
Speaker 1: The fact that her murder had taken place was horrendous
Speaker 1: for the local community and of course must have been
Speaker 1: utterly devastating to Patsy's family. How had this happened to Patsy,
Speaker 1: who had done it, and why? It was hoped, given
Speaker 1: that her body had been recovered from next to a
Speaker 1: popular path on the heath, that someone would have seen
Speaker 1: something on that Monday when Patsy had gone missing. Police
Speaker 1: began asking local people and those that live close to
Speaker 1: the area to come forward with any information that they
Speaker 1: might have. They were very interested in anyone who had
Speaker 1: seen Patsy between Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon to come
Speaker 1: forward with any information. Police also began to warm parents
Speaker 1: to not allow their children to walk across the heath alone,
Speaker 1: given that whoever had committed this murder was still out
Speaker 1: there and at that point they were working with limited information.
Speaker 1: Patsy's family stated that They always told her not to
Speaker 1: cross the heath alone, and this was something they continually
Speaker 1: reminded her of. The fact that she may have crossed
Speaker 1: it on the day that she disappeared was a large
Speaker 1: part of the puzzle for the police. They began to
Speaker 1: investigate this element of Patsy's day to see why she'd
Speaker 1: been walking across the heath and when this had happened.
Speaker 1: They were working under a theory that perhaps Patsy had
Speaker 1: been playing truant from school that day. They were therefore
Speaker 1: very interested in any other children who may have been
Speaker 1: playing truant that day to come forward to say if
Speaker 1: they'd also seen Patsy. They spoke to her friends to
Speaker 1: find out where she usually went if she didn't attend school.
Speaker 1: Patsy's family provided an explanation for why she had left
Speaker 1: school that day. A family friend, Kate Atwood, explained, Patsy
Speaker 1: didn't take an overcoat to school on Monday. She got
Speaker 1: soaking wet. I should imagine she came home at lunchtime
Speaker 1: to get her coat, but found she left her key indoors.
Speaker 1: She didn't realize that I was at home and she
Speaker 1: could have changed her clothes at my house. She must
Speaker 1: have gone over the heath the Cavalry barracks to get
Speaker 1: a key from her parents. Her mother also works in
Speaker 1: the kitchens there. She broke the cardinal rule of the family.
Speaker 1: We always tell our children always go across the heath
Speaker 1: in pairs. This theory as to why Patsy had left
Speaker 1: school that day made sense given that the location where
Speaker 1: she was found was part way between her home and
Speaker 1: the Cavalry barracks, where her father worked as an army
Speaker 1: chef and her mother worked in the kitchens. If this
Speaker 1: had been what happened, and someone had approached Patsy while
Speaker 1: she was crossing the heath, how had she not been
Speaker 1: found During the initial search, police were interested in anyone
Speaker 1: that was seen in the area around the time that
Speaker 1: Patsy would have been crossing. One line of inquiry that
Speaker 1: they were looking into was the nearby golf club adjacent
Speaker 1: to the heath. It was believed that someone who had
Speaker 1: been playing golf that day might have seen something that
Speaker 1: could help. They also wanted to establish who exactly was
Speaker 1: on there, given that they needed to narrow down any suspects.
Speaker 1: Detective Superintendent John George from Scotland Yard said, we have
Speaker 1: established that nineteen people paid green fees to play on
Speaker 1: the course and the day Patsy was killed, but we
Speaker 1: have only been able to trace five of them. Of course,
Speaker 1: they may have seen nothing, but we believe the child
Speaker 1: died within sight of the golf course, and we must
Speaker 1: know if any player Saara, either alone or with anyone
Speaker 1: else who could have been the killer. A photo fit
Speaker 1: was created of one of the golfers that they wanted
Speaker 1: to speak to. This man was thought to be a
Speaker 1: novice golfer and believed to live locally. He was known
Speaker 1: to carry worn clubs and an old bag. He was
Speaker 1: described as between thirty three and forty years old, of
Speaker 1: a medium build, with brown, slightly graying hair and a
Speaker 1: thin mustache. He had a chubby face and a tanned complexion.
Speaker 1: He was apparently scruffy in appearance and wore a blue
Speaker 1: Fred Perry T shirt. The police acknowledged that none of
Speaker 1: these people may have had anything to do with the murder,
Speaker 1: but they needed to speak to them about it. They
Speaker 1: were looking to speak to anyone that they believed might
Speaker 1: have seen anyone that day, and by August nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: they had reportedly spoken to around twelve thousand people. And
Speaker 1: taken about seven hundred statements. Police explained they were actually
Speaker 1: very interested in speaking to five specific people who had
Speaker 1: been seen in the local area. One of them was
Speaker 1: the novice golfer. Another man that they wanted to track
Speaker 1: down was a passenger on the one one six bus
Speaker 1: who had boarded it outside the Hunsar pub. This man
Speaker 1: was soaking wet and looked extremely disheveled. This may not
Speaker 1: have been surprising on that day given the downpour of
Speaker 1: rain that occurred, but he caught attention as he had
Speaker 1: been lent money for the journey from the driver. He
Speaker 1: traveled from Hounslow to Stains, a town around eight miles away.
Speaker 1: He was described as around thirty five years old and
Speaker 1: five feet ten inches tall. He had an average build,
Speaker 1: greasy hair which was cut sharp and comb back. He
Speaker 1: was weather beaten and in need of a shave, with
Speaker 1: an open white shirt, dark suit and black shoes. They
Speaker 1: also wanted to trace the driver of a van that
Speaker 1: had been seen parked on Patsy's street in Signa Avenue
Speaker 1: on the day that Patsy went missing. This van was
Speaker 1: a royal blue color, either a Marina or an escort.
Speaker 1: He was fairly clean, with two or three lines of
Speaker 1: writing on the driver's door. The driver was between thirty
Speaker 1: five and forty and had been seen reading newspapers and
Speaker 1: using a telephone radio handset. Another lead that police wanted
Speaker 1: to follow up with was reports of two children riding
Speaker 1: around on bicycles around that time, and they hoped that
Speaker 1: they too may have seen something of interest. They were
Speaker 1: trying to gain as much information as they could from
Speaker 1: the local community, but unfortunately it was as though nobody
Speaker 1: had seen anything that day, and they were still none
Speaker 1: the wiser about what had actually happened. During the following months,
Speaker 1: the police continued to track down as many leads as
Speaker 1: they could and speak to as many people as they could.
Speaker 1: By May nineteen eighty one, Patsy's death was still unsolved,
Speaker 1: and at the inquest, West London Coroner Dr John Burton
Speaker 1: ruled that she had been killed unlawfully. This was something
Speaker 1: that police and her family already had a stable, but
Speaker 1: this official ruling ensured that this was still indeed a
Speaker 1: murder investigation. The coroner stated, I hope the time will
Speaker 1: come when a person may be charged with her death.
Speaker 1: Patsy's mum, Marjorie, stated that she believed the police were
Speaker 1: doing all they could to try and catch Patsy's killer
Speaker 1: and hopes that someone would come forward with information. She said,
Speaker 1: I would ask him to give himself up. It's ten
Speaker 1: months now and it doesn't get any easier for us.
Speaker 1: It has been a trying time. The police have certainly
Speaker 1: done everything they can and put some hours into it.
Speaker 1: I praise them for it. Despite doing everything they could,
Speaker 1: leeds began to dry up in the case, and the
Speaker 1: hope of tracking down her killer was becoming all the
Speaker 1: more remote given the time that was passing and the
Speaker 1: lack of evidence. It appeared that this is the way
Speaker 1: Patsy's case stayed for decades until two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: when a couple of things occurred to bring the case
Speaker 1: back into the headlines once more. One was that a
Speaker 1: man walked into a police station in Norfolk and confessed
Speaker 1: to killing Patsy in nineteen eighty. The police took this
Speaker 1: confession seriously to begin with and arrested the man. He
Speaker 1: would eventually be released after they found out that he
Speaker 1: was suffering from a mental health condition and that this
Speaker 1: confession was a false one. This must have been a
Speaker 1: blow after they finally believed that they had a solid
Speaker 1: lead in the case after all these years. Also in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, Scotland Yard began reviewing new evidence
Speaker 1: in the case after they received information that Levi Bellfield
Speaker 1: had confessed to a cellmate to killing Patsy when he
Speaker 1: was just twelve years old. Levi Bellfield is a serial
Speaker 1: killer who has been charged with the murders of three
Speaker 1: women in Marsha MacDonald, Amiie de Lagrange and Millie Dowler,
Speaker 1: and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy. In nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: Bellfield was twelve years old, and it was the following
Speaker 1: year that he was charged with his first conviction for burglary.
Speaker 1: Bellfield attended the same school as Patsy. Felt mcomprehensive, however,
Speaker 1: it's known that he attended there after Patsy had already died.
Speaker 1: He did live in the area, though, and they found
Speaker 1: out from friends that the pair of them were friends,
Speaker 1: or at least knew one another. This therefore may not
Speaker 1: have been above the realms of possibility. This came as
Speaker 1: a surprise to Patsy's family in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: as they were not aware that they knew one another.
Speaker 1: Patsy's sister Nicholas spoke to the press saying we did
Speaker 1: not know him. It was a shock when we found
Speaker 1: out they knew each other. Friends told us about it.
Speaker 1: It's horrendous the crimes he has committed and the pain
Speaker 1: is suffering he's put on other families. We understand what
Speaker 1: they have gone through. People say it heals over time,
Speaker 1: but it never does. Patsy's dad, George, also told of
Speaker 1: an odd thing that occurred shortly after Patsy died, which,
Speaker 1: in hindsight with this new information, seemed strange. He stated
Speaker 1: that he had received a phone call from a teenage
Speaker 1: boy with a death threat. They didn't know who this
Speaker 1: teenage boy was or how it was connected to the murder,
Speaker 1: and following a full investigation of these claims about Bellfield,
Speaker 1: they could find no evidence that he had anything to
Speaker 1: do with the murder. This was an interesting lead and
Speaker 1: one that cannot be ruled out. However, it does not
Speaker 1: mean that it's a solid lead. Bellfield was not the
Speaker 1: only one that was looked into, and another serial killer,
Speaker 1: Peter Tobin, was looked into also as potentially another suspect.
Speaker 1: Tobin has been looked into for many crimes across the country,
Speaker 1: as part of Operation Anna, and Patsy's was certainly not
Speaker 1: the only one that they looked into in relation to him. Again,
Speaker 1: like Bellfield, no evidence was found to link him to
Speaker 1: the murder. Since then, Patsy's murder has remained unsolved, and
Speaker 1: it is still that way today. It has now been
Speaker 1: forty four years since it took place, and despite extensive
Speaker 1: inquiries and investigation, no other information has been released about it.
Speaker 1: It's definitely a case that needs more attention, and while
Speaker 1: the link to Bellfield did get it more into their headlines,
Speaker 1: it was not definitive and more people still need to
Speaker 1: come forward to get this solved. The Met Police has
Speaker 1: confirmed that there's no longer an active investigation going on
Speaker 1: in Patsy's murder. However, they will always welcome tips. If
Speaker 1: you know anything about Patsy's murder in nineteen eighty, you
Speaker 1: can contact one oh one or crime Stoppers or eight
Speaker 1: hundred five five five. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
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Speaker 1: and this has been unseen