Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast
Speaker 1: dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today,
Speaker 1: we're looking at the disappearance of twenty seven year old
Speaker 1: Andrew Bedford in Ramsey in Cambridgeshire in nineteen ninety. He
Speaker 1: disappeared without telling anyone where he was going and this
Speaker 1: was very suspicious to his family and friends. He has
Speaker 1: still never been located, almost thirty five years after he vanished.
Speaker 1: This episode is about a missing person and so does
Speaker 1: not contain any descriptions of violence, but listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: Tweed Road is located in Ramsey, which is a market
Speaker 1: town in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. In nineteen ninety, twenty seven
Speaker 1: year old Andrew Bedford was living on Tweed Road in
Speaker 1: the town along with his girlfriend Clara. Andrew and Clara
Speaker 1: had known each other for around two and a half years,
Speaker 1: and Clara was also a mother of four children. They
Speaker 1: were a busy household. And Andrew was described by all
Speaker 1: those that knew him as a hard worker who believed
Speaker 1: his work and job were extremely important. He was the
Speaker 1: eldest of four children himself, and it was known that
Speaker 1: he liked to keep himself to himself. He worked at R.
Speaker 1: And B. Payne Greengrocers and was known as a great
Speaker 1: colleague and a good worker. As well as working at
Speaker 1: the green grocer, he also sometimes worked on the land
Speaker 1: and dabbled in working on cars. On September twenty eighth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, Andrew told Clara that he was going out
Speaker 1: and that he would be back at around five or
Speaker 1: six o'clock that evening. Clara last saw him around midday
Speaker 1: when he left their home on Tweed Road. There was
Speaker 1: nothing unusual about him going out on that Friday, and
Speaker 1: it rang no alarm bells for Clara when the time
Speaker 1: ticked past six o'clock, though she did begin to worry
Speaker 1: when it got to eight o'clock. She said she did
Speaker 1: get a little more concerned, but rationalized her worry thinking
Speaker 1: that perhaps Andrew had decided to go for a drink
Speaker 1: with his friends and had just lost track of the time.
Speaker 1: It was clear that this, however, was uncharacteristic of him.
Speaker 1: The next morning, Saturday, the twenty ninth of September, Clara
Speaker 1: woke to find that Andrew had still not returned, over
Speaker 1: twelve hours since he said that he would be home
Speaker 1: this was now a major concern for Clara, and she
Speaker 1: reported in missing to the police, explaining that she was
Speaker 1: worried about his safety. Police became involved in the investigation
Speaker 1: and they began to look into Andrew's life in more
Speaker 1: detail to find any reason why he would have disappeared.
Speaker 1: Clara and Andrew's family spoke to them, and while Andrew
Speaker 1: did keep himself to himself, there was something that came
Speaker 1: up that alarmed the officers. Andrew had recently been in
Speaker 1: trouble with the police and was due to appear at
Speaker 1: Peterborough Crown Corps along with two other men on suspicion
Speaker 1: of theft of a twenty five thousand pound lorry. This
Speaker 1: was of course interesting and potentially relevant to his disappearance.
Speaker 1: If Andrew had wanted to escape these charges, he may
Speaker 1: well have gone away for a while to take the
Speaker 1: heat off himself. Clara did not believe that this is
Speaker 1: why Andrew had disappeared. She implied that the charges were
Speaker 1: something that he would have faced, saying he's pretty easy going,
Speaker 1: rough and ready. He was all right, really just full
Speaker 1: of himself. Clara was adamant that if Andrew had just disappeared,
Speaker 1: this was due to foul play and that somebody had
Speaker 1: done something to it. Just a few days after he vanished,
Speaker 1: she told the press, I'm expecting the worst. I'm not
Speaker 1: prepared for it, but I'm expecting it. I have a
Speaker 1: goot feeling there's something wrong with him. He would have
Speaker 1: been in contact by now. She appealed to the public, saying,
Speaker 1: even if they have done something bad to him, let
Speaker 1: us know where he is. The implication early on in
Speaker 1: the reporting was that Andrew may have been the victim
Speaker 1: of some sort of gangland killing. Protective Superintendent Bob Wordsworth
Speaker 1: addressed the public early on, saying we desperately need information.
Speaker 1: We would like to hear from anyone who saw mister
Speaker 1: Bedford on Friday or since. If he is in hiding,
Speaker 1: I would ask him to contact me in confidence. From
Speaker 1: the outset, there was suspicion that something could have happened
Speaker 1: to him or that he was in hiding, but either way,
Speaker 1: police appeared to be convinced that someone in the community
Speaker 1: knew his whereabouts. Officers were drafted in from different parts
Speaker 1: of the country to support the search for Andrew, and
Speaker 1: an incident room was set up. They began interviewing many
Speaker 1: people who knew him and spoke to his employers at
Speaker 1: the greengrocer's. Andrew had been on his way to collect
Speaker 1: his wages and the wages of a friend on that Friday,
Speaker 1: and when the employers were spoken to, the friend said
Speaker 1: that he had been given his wages. His colleagues did state, however,
Speaker 1: that while he was a consistent worker and a hard worker,
Speaker 1: he was prone to disappear with no notice and then
Speaker 1: return after a few weeks. This was in start contrast
Speaker 1: to Clara, who was alarmed when he hadn't returned the
Speaker 1: day after he left the home. If Andrew had disappeared before, then,
Speaker 1: was this just another occasion where this had happened. Clara
Speaker 1: didn't think so, and it appears neither did the police.
Speaker 1: They quickly set up so of the local area and
Speaker 1: deployed both a police helicopter and dog handlers to search
Speaker 1: areas where they thought he could be. Forty uniformed officers
Speaker 1: scoured the area and interviewed people, hoping to find more information.
Speaker 1: They also scoured any bodies of water that were in
Speaker 1: the area with divers and underwater equipment. It was clear
Speaker 1: that they were taking his disappearance extremely seriously and were
Speaker 1: concerned about where he was. A particular garage, which was
Speaker 1: located on Saint Mary's Lane in Ramsey, was forensically searched
Speaker 1: in relation to some information that they had received. Three people,
Speaker 1: two men and a woman, were also reported as helping
Speaker 1: police with the investigation. It's reported more recently that these
Speaker 1: three people had in fact been arrested in relation to
Speaker 1: Andrew's disappearance, but were not charged. In addition to the searches,
Speaker 1: police issued description of Andrew as well as his picture.
Speaker 1: He is described as five feet eight inches tall, medium billed,
Speaker 1: with mousey blonde, shoulder length, curly hair. He also had
Speaker 1: several tattoos, an eagle on his back, a devil woman,
Speaker 1: an Elvis Presley motif, as well as a tattoo of
Speaker 1: a naked winged lady on his right arm, and the
Speaker 1: name of Kerry, his stepdaughter. He also had a long
Speaker 1: scar on his arm. It was hoped that these tattoos
Speaker 1: would help identify Andrew by someone that saw him. Just
Speaker 1: over a week after Andrew went missing, police stated to
Speaker 1: the public that they were struggling to find out where
Speaker 1: he could have been or what had happened. A spokesperson said,
Speaker 1: we obviously feel that something sinister may have happened to him,
Speaker 1: but we have no real leads. By the eighth of October,
Speaker 1: it was reported that the search for Andrew was being
Speaker 1: scaled down. Police explained that the incident room was remaining
Speaker 1: open and that they were keeping an open mind, but
Speaker 1: the large scale investigation could not be continued. Clara, and
Speaker 1: Andrew's mum Sally, were devastated by his disappearance, and they
Speaker 1: were dedicated to discovering what could have happened to him.
Speaker 1: Clara explained, a television man who came here told me
Speaker 1: that I am heartless. He did not know how I
Speaker 1: feel inside. I'm worried out of my head. I'm upset,
Speaker 1: but I have to keep calm. I have four children
Speaker 1: to look after. I do not know of any reason
Speaker 1: why he would go off and not tell me, not
Speaker 1: when he said he would come back. Sally said that
Speaker 1: she could not sleep and she couldn't think about anything
Speaker 1: else except Andrew's disappearance. She said, if he came through
Speaker 1: the door now, the first thing I would do would
Speaker 1: be to give him a big hug, whether he wanted
Speaker 1: it or not. Then I might clip him round the ear.
Speaker 1: While police did not have many leads. They did have
Speaker 1: some and these lines of inquiry were followed up with.
Speaker 1: Police had a witness who said they saw Andrew around
Speaker 1: six fifteen or six thirty pm on that Friday evening.
Speaker 1: He was spotted eating a takeaway in a blue Ford
Speaker 1: Cortina and he was seen wearing a khaki jumper, jeans
Speaker 1: and trainers as well as overalls. This gave the police
Speaker 1: somewhat of a timeline. It was unclear if it was
Speaker 1: him why he hadn't yet returned home when he told
Speaker 1: Clara that he was back between five and six pm.
Speaker 1: There was another important lead that police had to follow
Speaker 1: up with, and they received this information through some quite
Speaker 1: unusual circumstances. A nine nine nine car came into Cambridge
Speaker 1: Police from a man who said he overheard a woman
Speaker 1: discussing something she saw on October the sixth. He said
Speaker 1: the woman explained that she had seen two men dragging
Speaker 1: a b body in the woodland just after a one motorway.
Speaker 1: This took place between monks Wood and Alcumbury. This was,
Speaker 1: of course an unusual thing to spot, and the fact
Speaker 1: that this was being reported almost third hand was also odd.
Speaker 1: It was taken seriously though, by police, and they discovered
Speaker 1: that the call had been made for an emergency kiosk
Speaker 1: on Tunker's Lane near Bury in Ramsey. A search was
Speaker 1: conducted in the area that the man pointed to by
Speaker 1: tracker dogs to try and locate any evidence. However, nothing
Speaker 1: was found. After the search was scaled down and the
Speaker 1: weeks continued to pass, there was little published about progress
Speaker 1: made in the case. Towards the end of October, police
Speaker 1: reported that no news may be good news in the case,
Speaker 1: given that if Andrew was in the water, his body
Speaker 1: should have surfaced by that point, and so it could
Speaker 1: imply that his body was not located there at all.
Speaker 1: Specialist underwater divers had already searched local bodies of water
Speaker 1: and found no evidence. In November, police stepped up a
Speaker 1: poster campaign for Andrew and also launched a crime Stoppers campaign.
Speaker 1: They offered a five hundred pound reward to try and
Speaker 1: find him. Despite this, however, police received no information in
Speaker 1: the months afterwards, or none that had been reported on
Speaker 1: in the press. In April of nineteen ninety one, they
Speaker 1: did receive information that led them to searching the River
Speaker 1: Ooz in Ealy and interviewing four men in relation to
Speaker 1: his disappearance. After this appeal, there wasn't much movement in
Speaker 1: the case for a while, and it appears that it
Speaker 1: went cold. In nineteen ninety two, police received a tip
Speaker 1: off that Andrew may have been shot, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they searched Ramsey Field Pond. This search did not go
Speaker 1: as planned, though, as the hunt's post reported that they
Speaker 1: found a colony of toads that were mating, and so
Speaker 1: they had to leave the pond until all the toads
Speaker 1: had spawned. There wasn't much reported on about this search afterwards,
Speaker 1: and sadly not much until twenty fifteen. That year, it
Speaker 1: was announced that the police were treating Andrew's disappearance as
Speaker 1: a murder case and that they believed that something sinister
Speaker 1: happened to him. Interestingly, they went into more detail, explaining
Speaker 1: that they believed that Andrew was murdered and that they
Speaker 1: had a prime suspect, but that this person was also dead.
Speaker 1: They also believed others were involved in Andrew's murder. This
Speaker 1: was not something that had been reported on earlier in
Speaker 1: the investigation, and there hasn't been much detailed about it since. However,
Speaker 1: it was reported that eight people had been arrested during
Speaker 1: the course of the investigation. Nobody has ever been charged.
Speaker 1: The most recent arrest has been reported in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: when human bones were found at stocking Fen Road, with
Speaker 1: the family reappealing for information. At that point, a sixty
Speaker 1: four year old man was arrested on suspicion of murder. However,
Speaker 1: again not charged. Police went further in twenty fifteen, stating
Speaker 1: that they believed that Andrew had been shot with a
Speaker 1: shotgun at a garage called Mongrel Cars in Ramsay that's
Speaker 1: no longer there. They believe he was killed on the
Speaker 1: evening of September twenty eighth, when he first disappeared. This
Speaker 1: information seems to be very specific and implies that police
Speaker 1: had information or a credible tip off that this was
Speaker 1: the case. Twenty fifteen was twenty five years after Andrew disappeared,
Speaker 1: and just five years later, in twenty twenty, the police
Speaker 1: had another update in the case. They announced that, thirty
Speaker 1: years after his disappearance, they would be closing down the
Speaker 1: cold case investigation started in twenty fifteen. Andrew's family were
Speaker 1: devastated by the news that the cold case murder investigation
Speaker 1: would be closing down and Andrew's younger sister, Linda, spoke
Speaker 1: to the press about it. She said, we got a
Speaker 1: phone call on Friday where they said they wanted to
Speaker 1: come and speak to us, but they wouldn't tell us why.
Speaker 1: With it being so close to the thirtieth anniversary, we
Speaker 1: thought they might be doing an appeal, but they said
Speaker 1: because there was no evidence that they would be closing
Speaker 1: the case and passing it to the coroner. We were devastated.
Speaker 1: I sat crying when they had left. I was angry
Speaker 1: and upset. Emotions were running very high. We asked if
Speaker 1: it could be classed as a missing person or murder inquiry,
Speaker 1: and they have said that they will think about changing it.
Speaker 1: We don't want a death certificate to be issued because
Speaker 1: it seems final. We've not given up hope that he
Speaker 1: is alive. It seems the police just want justice, but
Speaker 1: what we want is answers. We think Andrew, his family,
Speaker 1: and the Ramsey community have been let down. It's so
Speaker 1: difficult not knowing what's happened to him. Someone must know
Speaker 1: something about what has happened to him. I'm going to
Speaker 1: keep the appeal going. He was always there for me
Speaker 1: when I needed him. Now I need to be there
Speaker 1: for him. I've done so much. I want to carry
Speaker 1: it on. I need to carry it on. Our mom
Speaker 1: died eleven years ago and she did not know what
Speaker 1: happened to her son. I just want someone to tell
Speaker 1: us what happened to him, or Andrew, to let us
Speaker 1: know he is alive and happy. Linda and her husband
Speaker 1: Paul have set up a geo cash location where he
Speaker 1: was last seen, and Paul explained to the Peterborough Telegraph,
Speaker 1: lots of people go and visit it, and some people
Speaker 1: go on the anniversary he disappeared. They leave lovely messages,
Speaker 1: which really gives you a lump in the throat. We
Speaker 1: couldn't put flowers there because it would seem final. Linda
Speaker 1: discussed hope that they would see Andrew again and explained,
Speaker 1: I can still see him and hear him whenever the
Speaker 1: police get in touch. I have dreams that Andrew turns
Speaker 1: up and knocks on the back door. We still live
Speaker 1: in the same house where we grew up. Until recently,
Speaker 1: I still bought Christmas presents for him. I believe he
Speaker 1: was given money to go and live abroad. Thirty years ago.
Speaker 1: It was easy to buy a new ID. There was
Speaker 1: not as much CCTV as there is now no mobile phones,
Speaker 1: it would be easy to slip out of society. Everywhere
Speaker 1: we go. I look out for him and listen for
Speaker 1: his voice. He had a very distinctive voice, and I
Speaker 1: would still recognize it. Cambridgeshire Police have confirmed that the
Speaker 1: case has been closed as they had as did all
Speaker 1: lines of inquiry. However, have said that they would continue
Speaker 1: to investigate if new evidence came to light or new
Speaker 1: tips were sent in. Andrew's case is a sad one
Speaker 1: as it appears that while police have very strong suspicions
Speaker 1: about what happened to him, they simply do not have
Speaker 1: enough evidence to prove it, and therefore his case is
Speaker 1: stuck in limbo and therefore sore his family. His family
Speaker 1: believed that Andrew could still be out there somewhere, and
Speaker 1: this is of course still completely possible. Someone out there
Speaker 1: does know what happened, and they know where he is
Speaker 1: and they could help to locate him. If anyone does
Speaker 1: know about the disappearance or murder of Andrew Bedford in
Speaker 1: September nineteen ninety, then they should contact police on one
Speaker 1: oh one and explain what they know. Thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support the
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Speaker 1: Caprice and this has been unseen se