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's day eight of twelve days of missing person episodes
Speaker 1: throughout December, and today we're looking into the disappearance of
Speaker 1: seventy two year old Catherine Holdsworth in Halifax, in Yorkshire
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Her disappearance is very unusual and Catherine
Speaker 1: is a vulnerable person, meaning that many people have been
Speaker 1: invested in finding out where she went or what happened.
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: On the ninth of September twenty seventeen, seventy two year
Speaker 1: old Catherine Holdsworth entered a Tesco supermarket in the town
Speaker 1: of Halifax. Halifax is located in the borough of Calderdale
Speaker 1: in West Yorkshire, at the foothills of the Pennine Mountains.
Speaker 1: It's a town which has historically been associated with the
Speaker 1: wool trade and is known for its older style buildings
Speaker 1: and historic monuments. Today, Halifax is a popular town for
Speaker 1: shopping and events at their Peace Hall. Catherine lived alone
Speaker 1: in an area of Illingworth around three miles from the
Speaker 1: town centre, and often caught the bus into the centre
Speaker 1: to do her shopping. CCTV from the Tesco supermarket showed
Speaker 1: that Catherine entered the shop wearing her coat, some pink earmuffs,
Speaker 1: as well as her walking frame that she used for assistance.
Speaker 1: Whenever she left home, Catherine usually went on the bus
Speaker 1: to do her shopping, and therefore there was nothing out
Speaker 1: of the ordinary about this activity. Despite living alone, Catherine's
Speaker 1: neighbors often kept an eye on her and would speak
Speaker 1: to her regularly when they saw her leaving or coming home.
Speaker 1: Her neighbor Martina, has recently spoke to the Missing podcast
Speaker 1: about Catherine's case, saying that by twenty seventeen they had
Speaker 1: been neighbours and had known each other for many years.
Speaker 1: Martina explained that Catherine was not the easiest to get
Speaker 1: to know initially, but when you did, she was a
Speaker 1: very kind and intelligent woman who wanted to talk out
Speaker 1: for her neighbors. Catherine was living in the home that
Speaker 1: had been her parents and had, as far as Martina knew,
Speaker 1: lived in Halifax her whole life. She had previously been
Speaker 1: married to her husband, Bill, whom she adored, but he
Speaker 1: had passed away several years before. As a result of
Speaker 1: living alone, Catherine got close with her neighbours and Martina,
Speaker 1: who said that she enjoyed keeping an eye on her.
Speaker 1: She had keys to her home, and Catherine asked Martina
Speaker 1: to go in and check on things if she wasn't
Speaker 1: going to be there. The fact that Martina had keys
Speaker 1: gave her peace of mind in case something went wrong
Speaker 1: or she fell ill, and she knew that there would
Speaker 1: be someone there to help her. This community's spirit was
Speaker 1: one of the reasons Catherine and many of her neighbors
Speaker 1: enjoyed living in Illingworth. In the days following the ninth
Speaker 1: of September, her neighbors began to get worried when they
Speaker 1: hadn't seen or spoken to Katherine. A delivery driver attempted
Speaker 1: to deliver a parcel to Catherine's home during this time. However,
Speaker 1: no one answered, so the driver delivered it to the
Speaker 1: neighbors instead. This further concerned them as nobody was able
Speaker 1: to get in contact with Catherine, and after ten days
Speaker 1: of being unable to get in touch with her, her
Speaker 1: her neighbors were concerned enough that they contacted police and
Speaker 1: the nineteenth of September. Catherine's neighbors would later say that
Speaker 1: they kept an eye on her due to the fact
Speaker 1: that she was vulnerable. They stated that she had had
Speaker 1: falls in her home previously, and that she sometimes wore
Speaker 1: an alarm around her neck, which would alert anyone if
Speaker 1: she needed help. This is part of the reason why
Speaker 1: her neighbors and then subsequently the police, were concerned about
Speaker 1: her welfare when no one could contact her. Martina explained
Speaker 1: on the Missing podcast that she became worried when she
Speaker 1: hadn't seen her sat in her armchair in the window,
Speaker 1: which was her usual spot. Her husband phoned the police
Speaker 1: and they initially asked if Martina would go in, as
Speaker 1: she had keys for the property. Martina was hesitant as
Speaker 1: she didn't want to invade Catherine's privacy like that, and
Speaker 1: she was also worried about what she was going to
Speaker 1: find in the home. Martina explained that when she went
Speaker 1: into the house, it was clear that Catherine had not
Speaker 1: been there for a few days, given that there was
Speaker 1: a buildup of posts behind the door. There was also
Speaker 1: something odd found in the house. Her working frame was
Speaker 1: found there, along with the coat and ear muffs that
Speaker 1: she had last been seen wearing on CCTV in the
Speaker 1: Tesco supermarket ten days earlier. Neighbors confirmed that she didn't
Speaker 1: go out without her walking frame, as she found it
Speaker 1: hard to get around without it. Despite finding these objects,
Speaker 1: there was no sign of Catherine and it appeared that
Speaker 1: she hadn't been there for a while. Martina reported this
Speaker 1: to police, who attended the scene and took charge of
Speaker 1: the property. The discovery of important belongings such as her
Speaker 1: working frame and her medication did confirm one thing, though
Speaker 1: she had arrived home on the ninth of September after
Speaker 1: she had been out to the supermarket. This helped them
Speaker 1: form more of a timeline for her day. Police began
Speaker 1: an extensive investigation into Catherine's whereabouts, with a large scale
Speaker 1: search of her property and the area around it in
Speaker 1: the hope that they would find out more about where
Speaker 1: she went. They were able to establish that Catherine caught
Speaker 1: the bus in the direction of her home that day,
Speaker 1: as the log showed that her bus pass had been used.
Speaker 1: There was no CCTV on the bus, so they didn't
Speaker 1: know which stop she had got off at, but they
Speaker 1: believed that due to her belongings being in the house,
Speaker 1: she must have made it home that day. What happened
Speaker 1: after this, though, Where did she go and why had
Speaker 1: she left home without her walking frame. Police looked into
Speaker 1: Catherine's life to try and establish what her usual pattern
Speaker 1: of behavior was like and how she normally lived her
Speaker 1: day to day life. Martina explained that Catherine was a
Speaker 1: sharp woman who was organized and knew what was going on.
Speaker 1: She didn't often misappointments, and she was clued up. She
Speaker 1: would inform Martina if she was going to be out
Speaker 1: for the whole day or if she was going on holiday.
Speaker 1: She didn't think it was likely that she would have
Speaker 1: got lost, got confused, or simply wandered off. Catherine had
Speaker 1: reportedly not been acting strange or unusual in the time
Speaker 1: before she disappeared, and there was nothing to suggest anything
Speaker 1: was wrong. There was a period of around ten days
Speaker 1: that police were investigating where Catherine had not been seen,
Speaker 1: and they made an appeal asking for information from the public.
Speaker 1: Catherine's description was issued, describing her as five feet two
Speaker 1: inches tall, with a medium build and very sharp, speckled
Speaker 1: gray hair. They also explained that Catherine had links to
Speaker 1: Brick House, where she owned a property, as well as
Speaker 1: Blackpool and Cornwall. Her connection to Blackpool had reportedly been
Speaker 1: a source of confusion in the police investigation, as they
Speaker 1: had initially believed Catherine had been missing on a previous
Speaker 1: occasion as several years before she couldn't be located. It
Speaker 1: had turned out, however, that she had simply been on
Speaker 1: a holiday and this was not a pattern of behavior
Speaker 1: of going missing. Despite an investigation which was extensive and
Speaker 1: searched in many of the areas where Catherine may have
Speaker 1: been or visited, no sign or evidence of her was found.
Speaker 1: It was as though she had just vanished into thin air.
Speaker 1: Those that knew Catherine and cared about her continued to
Speaker 1: appeal for information and look for any evidence of her.
Speaker 1: They knew that she would not have just left without
Speaker 1: her belongings and that she was most probably not capable
Speaker 1: of doing that. In the years that passed, further appeals
Speaker 1: were made for information about Catherine, and in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: Labour MP for Halifax, Holly Lynch, took her missing person
Speaker 1: case to Westminster to raise awareness for the disappearance of
Speaker 1: one of her constituents. Holly Lynch later explained to the
Speaker 1: Telegraph and argus, I'm concerned and saddened that we still
Speaker 1: don't know what has happened to Catherine as a vulnerable
Speaker 1: older woman, more than six years after her disappearance. Last
Speaker 1: year I arranged a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament as
Speaker 1: a direct appeal to the general public to think back
Speaker 1: to twenty seventeen. It was hoped that by highlighting Catherine's
Speaker 1: disappearance in the community and to a wider audience nationally,
Speaker 1: this would help to jog someone's memory of that time
Speaker 1: where Catherine went missing and someone would remember seeing the
Speaker 1: seventy two year old. It has now been over seven
Speaker 1: years since Catherine went missing, without any sign of her
Speaker 1: and no evidence as to where she went. A West
Speaker 1: Yorkshire Police spokesperson said the investigation into the whereabouts of
Speaker 1: Catherine Holdsworth, who was reported missing on September nineteenth, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: remains ongoing and is subject to regular reviews. Police have
Speaker 1: urged anyone to come forward who might have information regarding
Speaker 1: sightings of Catherine, or anyone with information on her current
Speaker 1: whereabouts is asked to contact police via w W dot
Speaker 1: West Yorkshire dot Police dot UK, forward slash one zero one,
Speaker 1: live chat or by calling one oh one. I will
Speaker 1: link these in the show notes. Catherine's disappearance is so
Speaker 1: strange for someone of her age to simply disappear, and
Speaker 1: it's clearly a concern now so much time has elapsed.
Speaker 1: Polly Lynch has stated that this highlights the issue of
Speaker 1: elderly and vulnerable people in the community and their isolation.
Speaker 1: Catherine had people around her cared about her and looked
Speaker 1: after her, but on this occasion they didn't see or
Speaker 1: know where she went or what happened. Her behavior had
Speaker 1: not been out of the ordinary and there were no
Speaker 1: signs that there was anything wrong. So what made her
Speaker 1: leave home without her walking frame or her medication that
Speaker 1: she needed day to day. This case is baffling and
Speaker 1: there's very little evidence to point to any conclusion. It
Speaker 1: seems to be a tragic story of someone simply vanishing
Speaker 1: without trace. The more people who share the story, the
Speaker 1: more we may find out. I will link the Missing
Speaker 1: podcast episode in the show notes if you want to
Speaker 1: hear from Martina and Holly Lynch about the case directly.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to today's episode. Listening in a
Speaker 1: few days to day nine, where we will cover another
Speaker 1: missing or unidentified person case. If you'd like to support
Speaker 1: the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute
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Speaker 1: notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You
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Speaker 1: I'm Caprice and this has been unseen speak