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: In today's episode, we are exploring the murder of Sheryl
Speaker 1: Shackleton in London in nineteen ninety one, and it's originally
Speaker 1: an episode that I posted on Patreon a year ago.
Speaker 1: These episodes are just as important as the ones that
Speaker 1: I put up on the main feed, and I will
Speaker 1: be releasing these episodes now and again so that these
Speaker 1: unsolved cases also get more publicity. This is one such
Speaker 1: case that needs the extra exposure. Today we're going to
Speaker 1: be covering the nineteen ninety one murder of Sheryl Shackleton.
Speaker 1: Her murder was both unexplained and strange, given her body
Speaker 1: was recovered far away from where she was known to
Speaker 1: live and there were no reasons why she would have
Speaker 1: been there. There were many aspects of the case which
Speaker 1: had no explanation, including much of Sheryl's actions before she
Speaker 1: was murdered. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may
Speaker 1: find distressing, so listener discretion is advised. On February the third,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, a dog walker was taking a stroll
Speaker 1: through Telegraph Hill Park in Broccoli in South London. It
Speaker 1: was around five thirty am and the time that many
Speaker 1: dog walkers decided to leave their homes to travel to
Speaker 1: nearby parks. Telegraph Hill is a popular spot for walkers,
Speaker 1: given that it's a relatively small park, was an excellent
Speaker 1: view of London. This dog walker, however, came across a
Speaker 1: disturbing discovery. On his journey into the park that day,
Speaker 1: he discovered the partially closed body of a woman. It
Speaker 1: appeared that she'd been what has been described as posed
Speaker 1: in a grotesque position, and she had clear injuries to
Speaker 1: her body. It was evident that this woman had been
Speaker 1: attacked and possibly beaten. Given the injuries noted and the
Speaker 1: fact that she was partially clothed also gave rise to
Speaker 1: lots of questions. The police were immediately called to the scene,
Speaker 1: which was cordoned off and analyzed. The woman's body was
Speaker 1: sent for a post martem to establish cause of death,
Speaker 1: and this information was extremely useful. The initial injuries were
Speaker 1: the result of what seemed to be a sustained attack.
Speaker 1: The woman had a ruptured spleen along with hemorrhaging. She
Speaker 1: had suffered exposure from the cold weather in February, and
Speaker 1: her cause of death was listed to strangulation. The post
Speaker 1: martem could not ascertain whether she had been sexually assaulted,
Speaker 1: but the way that the body had been posed after
Speaker 1: death suggested a possible sexual mode behind the murder. This
Speaker 1: immediately sparked a murder investigation, and the Metropolitan Police knew
Speaker 1: that they were looking for a killer who had no
Speaker 1: concerns about murdering a woman and leaving her out in
Speaker 1: the cold in a public park. This was a very
Speaker 1: dangerous person and it was crucial that they find them.
Speaker 1: The problem in this investigation was that they did not
Speaker 1: know who this woman was, and trying to identify her
Speaker 1: was proving difficult. Police turned to the BBC show Crime
Speaker 1: Watch in an effort to try an identify her, given
Speaker 1: that the woman had nothing with her that could help
Speaker 1: with this. The program with the segment about the unidentified
Speaker 1: victim was aired in February nineteen ninety one, that same
Speaker 1: month that she was found. The woman was described as
Speaker 1: being about thirty years old with blue gray eyes. She
Speaker 1: was five feet tall and wore size ten clothes. The
Speaker 1: woman's outfit was also shown on the program insisted of
Speaker 1: black trousers, a mustard yellow colored waistcoat along with a
Speaker 1: black shawl with tassels on the end, along with black boots.
Speaker 1: The program also explained that they did know something about
Speaker 1: the woman's movements despite not knowing her identity. The woman
Speaker 1: had reportedly been seen on a ferry from France and
Speaker 1: had told people that she was on her way back
Speaker 1: from visiting her ex husband in Paris. The woman was English,
Speaker 1: as noted by witnesses. The same woman had also been
Speaker 1: spotted on the one four to one bus around eleven
Speaker 1: thirty pm the Saturday evening before her body had been
Speaker 1: found in the New Cross area where Telegraph Hill Park
Speaker 1: was located. As well as this information, a drawing was
Speaker 1: shown of the woman's face in the hope that someone
Speaker 1: would know her and be able to identify her quickly.
Speaker 1: This appeal would prove to be extremely fruitful, as it
Speaker 1: reported that a month after her discovery, her identity confirmed.
Speaker 1: The victim was thirty four year old Sheryl Leslie Shackleton.
Speaker 1: The identity of the victim caused the police to have
Speaker 1: even more questions about what had happened to her and
Speaker 1: why she was there. From their investigation, they found that
Speaker 1: Sheryl was actually from the Lancashire town of Nelson, which
Speaker 1: is around three miles outside of Burnley. From what they
Speaker 1: could find out, she didn't have any links to London
Speaker 1: or the area of New Cross. Sheryl was well known
Speaker 1: in the area where she lived in Nelson and the
Speaker 1: neighboring town of Colin. She was the daughter of a farmer,
Speaker 1: Pendall counselor Arthur Jeffreys, and by all accounts, had grown
Speaker 1: up in a loving and prosperous family. She had got
Speaker 1: married and her and her husband owned a jewelry store
Speaker 1: which was located on a shopping arcade in Colintown Center.
Speaker 1: The couple had a son together named Sean, and they
Speaker 1: even set up a stained glass business together. They were
Speaker 1: well known and well liked in their community. Despite this
Speaker 1: success and the outward appearance, the marriage between Sheryl and
Speaker 1: her husband was not going well and there were marital problems.
Speaker 1: It was decided that they would separate and the couple's son, Shahn,
Speaker 1: decided to go and live in Yorkshire, where his dad
Speaker 1: eventually moved to. This is where family and friends noticed
Speaker 1: a shift in Sheryl and her behavior became a lot
Speaker 1: more erratic. It was clear at this point that she
Speaker 1: had begun struggling with her mental health and the stress
Speaker 1: and strain of the previous few years had started to
Speaker 1: weigh on her. It was known that she sold her
Speaker 1: home on Messenger Street in Nelson, and instead of living
Speaker 1: somewhere permanently, she began to travel around the country with
Speaker 1: her belongings all packed up in a suit case. As
Speaker 1: well as her belongings, it was also known that she
Speaker 1: would travel around with large amounts of money on her
Speaker 1: to fund these travels that she was doing. By early
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, Cheryl was traveling around erratically and moving
Speaker 1: from place to place quite rapidly. It was clear that
Speaker 1: her mental health was an issue and she was an
Speaker 1: extremely vulnerable person, sometimes putting herself in quite dangerous situations
Speaker 1: whether she was aware of it or not. Police were
Speaker 1: able to establish that in the six days before her murder,
Speaker 1: she had traveled to France and back into the UK
Speaker 1: in a way which has been described as haphazard. During
Speaker 1: this time, she crossed the English Channel four times. At
Speaker 1: the end of January, it's known that she took a
Speaker 1: coach from London to Paris for the day before getting
Speaker 1: on a coach which was bound for Barcelona in Spain.
Speaker 1: She didn't get off there. She got off the bus
Speaker 1: in Montpellier, in the south of France. It's unclear how
Speaker 1: she got from Montpellier to Calais, but it's known that
Speaker 1: she next got the ferry back to Dover, then got
Speaker 1: the ferry back to Calais before finally returning to Dover,
Speaker 1: all within the space of thirty six hours. Sheryl then
Speaker 1: returned into London Victoria's Station around midnight on Friday February
Speaker 1: the first, where she then traveled to Brighton and back again,
Speaker 1: trying to search for somewhere to stay for the night.
Speaker 1: It was then known that Cheryl was seen on the
Speaker 1: evening of Saturday, February the second, at the Amersham Arms
Speaker 1: off license in Deptford, southeast London. This appears to be
Speaker 1: the last known sighting of Sheryl before she was killed.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing about this last sighting is that Cheryl
Speaker 1: was seen there with her suitcase, which she had been
Speaker 1: known to have with her throughout her travels. This suitcase
Speaker 1: was not found with her body in Telegraph Hill Park
Speaker 1: and therefore had gone missing between Saturday evening an early
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. It was speculated that the killer must have
Speaker 1: taken the suitcase after the murder. If they had, then
Speaker 1: was this to steal Cheryl's belongings or the large amount
Speaker 1: of money that it was known that she carried with her.
Speaker 1: The fact that Cheryl had been all over both the
Speaker 1: South of England and France in the week before she
Speaker 1: was killed was certainly interesting and showed that Cheryl may
Speaker 1: have been facing a mental health crisis. It did not, however,
Speaker 1: make it much easier for police to narrow down who
Speaker 1: may have come into contact with her and wanted to
Speaker 1: kill her. The police also did not know why Cheryl
Speaker 1: had been seen at that particular off license or what
Speaker 1: she had intended to do once leaving there. Following the
Speaker 1: appeal for information, however, some witnesses did respond, saying that
Speaker 1: they had seen her in the time before she had
Speaker 1: been murdered. These witnesses rang in anonymously to give them
Speaker 1: the information. The first witness told police that she thought
Speaker 1: she had seen Sheryl with a man at around twelve
Speaker 1: fifteen a m walking through the park. Another witness said
Speaker 1: she also saw a man and a woman on Endwell
Speaker 1: Road close to the park around one fifteen a m.
Speaker 1: The man and the woman were reportedly talking about Paris,
Speaker 1: which it was known was where Ryl had visited. A
Speaker 1: third woman later came forward. She said that her and
Speaker 1: her friend had also seen this same man and woman
Speaker 1: at around the same time as the second witness. The
Speaker 1: man was described as white, around six feet tall, and
Speaker 1: between twenty five and thirty years old. These witness sightings
Speaker 1: appeared to suggest that Chryl was with a man that evening.
Speaker 1: Police were very interested in where Cheryl might have met
Speaker 1: this man and why they were in that particular area.
Speaker 1: They had a tentative timeline from these witness sightings. They
Speaker 1: believed that Cheryl had been spotted on the one for
Speaker 1: to one bus around Telegraph Hill Park around eleven thirty
Speaker 1: pm on the Saturday evening. A similarly described woman was
Speaker 1: then spotted close by at around twelve fifteen pm with
Speaker 1: a man, and then again around an hour later at
Speaker 1: one fifteen am. If this was Cheryl, then she had
Speaker 1: remained in that same area for around two hours and
Speaker 1: then remained there during and after her murder. What was
Speaker 1: the connection to this area or had Sheryl just ended
Speaker 1: up there after returning from France. The police continued to
Speaker 1: appeal to the public in the hope that someone had
Speaker 1: something more concrete to offer, but unfortunately this did not
Speaker 1: appear to be the case. In the time after Cheryl's murder,
Speaker 1: police continued to investigate and try and figure out who
Speaker 1: would have wanted to murder Cheryl. Despite the effort put
Speaker 1: into the investigation, years began to pass without any leads
Speaker 1: or any suspects emerging. In two thousand and six, Sheryl's
Speaker 1: case was brought to the forefront again when a new
Speaker 1: crime Watch appeal was distributed and the case was reopened
Speaker 1: due to new DNA technology. It was hoped that this
Speaker 1: new technology may help to solve some of the many
Speaker 1: questions that remained about Cheryl's case. While it does not
Speaker 1: appear that DNA brought forward any suspects, the national appeal
Speaker 1: did reportedly lead to some anonymous tips. Detective Inspector Desnellum's
Speaker 1: stated about this, I believe in the fifteen years since
Speaker 1: it happened, the killer has spoken to somebody or boasted
Speaker 1: to someone about this murder. He stated that there had
Speaker 1: been about eleven calls naming around five suspects who might
Speaker 1: have been involved, as well as another call about a
Speaker 1: new witness. He said he was very interested in speaking
Speaker 1: to someone who named a suspect who was already in
Speaker 1: prison for a double murder, and from a landlord who
Speaker 1: rang up about someone who boasted about murder. It was
Speaker 1: stated that a few weeks after these new cars came in,
Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Police had managed to eliminate one of these suspects,
Speaker 1: and that half of the witnesses who had rang him
Speaker 1: were unable to give any more credible information. During this
Speaker 1: two thousand and six appeal, Chryl's son Sean spoke to
Speaker 1: crime Watch about how he had been impacted by his
Speaker 1: mother's murder. He was just nine years old when Cheryl
Speaker 1: had been murdered and this must have affected him hugely.
Speaker 1: The fact that they'd still not found out who killed
Speaker 1: his mum must be something that stays with him always,
Speaker 1: and the families of victims should always be at the
Speaker 1: forefront of any investigation. The sad fact is that Cheryl's
Speaker 1: case is still unsolved in the present day and there
Speaker 1: has been no real public movement on the case. Cheryl
Speaker 1: has not been able to get justice, and neither has
Speaker 1: her family. Cheryl was someone who had mental health struggles
Speaker 1: and she was a vulnerable person. She traveled from place
Speaker 1: to place with no real home to stay at, and
Speaker 1: often carried around large amounts of money. It appears that
Speaker 1: she would speak to many people and was sociable, and
Speaker 1: all of these things added to her risk level. Did
Speaker 1: Cheryl just come across the wrong person at the wrong
Speaker 1: time who took advantage of her. This would seem likely
Speaker 1: given that she had moved around frequently and therefore had
Speaker 1: not put down any routes in a particular place. This
Speaker 1: is so tragic, and she left behind people who loved her.
Speaker 1: The Metropolitan Police have stated that the case will never
Speaker 1: be closed and they will always take tips and new information.
Speaker 1: If you know anything about the murder of Sheryl Shackleton,
Speaker 1: then please contact police on one oh one our crime
Speaker 1: stoppers at eight hundred five five five one one one.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like
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Speaker 1: the episodes. As always, I'm Caprice and this has been
Speaker 1: unseen sire. The figure