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 covering two recent appeals which
Speaker 1: I feel deserves some increased attention. Both are recent appeals
Speaker 1: for events that happened decades ago, and I feel like
Speaker 1: it's so crucial that these cases are covered because you
Speaker 1: just never know who will hear this information and be
Speaker 1: able to help. Many of you tagged me in the
Speaker 1: news of the case of Sheila Fox, a sixteen year
Speaker 1: old teenager that went missing in nineteen seventy two from Coventry.
Speaker 1: Due to a social media appeal by West Midlands Police,
Speaker 1: she was found fifty two years after she went missing.
Speaker 1: She was alive and well and they were able to
Speaker 1: close the case. This was so heartening for me many
Speaker 1: other people who regularly share these appeals because it means
Speaker 1: they really work. So I wanted to do the same
Speaker 1: for these two cases today. One case is a missing
Speaker 1: person and another is an unidentified person. This episode does
Speaker 1: not contain any graphic descriptions of violence. However, listener discretion
Speaker 1: is always advised. Brailey Hill is a town in Dudley
Speaker 1: in the West Midlands. The area has been known for
Speaker 1: its glass and steel manufacturing, and this area was very
Speaker 1: highly industrialized. As such, many people moved to this area
Speaker 1: in the past to find employment in these industries. These jobs, however,
Speaker 1: began to decline during the nineteen seventies and today this
Speaker 1: is not the main farm of employment for many people
Speaker 1: in the area. In nineteen seventy two, twenty two year
Speaker 1: old free de Green lived in Brayley Hill on John Street.
Speaker 1: Today John Street appears to be a residential road filled
Speaker 1: with terrace and semi detached houses as well as bungalows.
Speaker 1: Freeda lived here with her parents and she had a
Speaker 1: job at a company called Stephen and Williams. Stephen and
Speaker 1: Williams is one of the oldest glass making companies in
Speaker 1: the UK and his starts to have existed as a
Speaker 1: company since seventeen seventy six. It was located in Brayley
Speaker 1: Hill and so was the perfect place to get a
Speaker 1: job during the nineteen seventies for local people. Frieda worked
Speaker 1: there as a glass polisher. On April the second, nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, Frieda left her home in John Street as usual.
Speaker 1: She did not return home that day and her parents
Speaker 1: were quickly worried that something had happened to her. It
Speaker 1: appears from the small bit of information that's available out
Speaker 1: there that this was out of character, as her parents
Speaker 1: reported her missing to police very quickly after she didn't return.
Speaker 1: Freda was twenty two at this point and was an adult,
Speaker 1: but still the fact that she had left without saying
Speaker 1: anything to her parents was unusual and this was concerning
Speaker 1: for those that knew her. There is very little that
Speaker 1: has been published about Freda recently or in local newspapers
Speaker 1: at the time, so it's difficult to say what has
Speaker 1: been done in the investigation to try and locate her.
Speaker 1: It was known that Freda liked to visit the local pub,
Speaker 1: which was called the New Inn on Dudley Road in
Speaker 1: Brayley Hill. This pub is now known as the Dog
Speaker 1: and Lamp. It was clear that she was known to
Speaker 1: people in the pub and may have been a regular
Speaker 1: customer there. Freda's described as around five feet four inches
Speaker 1: tall with blue eyes. She wore glasses and had distinctive
Speaker 1: operation scars on the insteps of both of her feet.
Speaker 1: West Midland's Police have recently done an appeal to try
Speaker 1: and find Freda, as the fourteenth of February twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five would mark her seventy fifth birthday and its hope
Speaker 1: that this new appeal made jogs one's memory of her
Speaker 1: or of the time that she went missing. They have
Speaker 1: stated that since April the second, nineteen seventy two, there
Speaker 1: has been no trace of Frieda at all, that it
Speaker 1: appears that she just vanished without a trace. They also
Speaker 1: released a photograph of her from when she was around
Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen years old, and again it was hoped
Speaker 1: that someone would remember something relevant about her. As a result,
Speaker 1: Freda's case has become one of the longest running in
Speaker 1: West Midland's police history. As I mentioned at the beginning,
Speaker 1: there is hope with Sheila Fox being found after the
Speaker 1: same number of years and by the same police force,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that they are hopeful that they may
Speaker 1: have the same look with Freda's case. The police said
Speaker 1: if you remember any piece of detail, no matter how small,
Speaker 1: contact our Missing Person's Investigation Unit and zero one two
Speaker 1: one six two six seven zero zero three. This is
Speaker 1: so crucial and if you know anything at all then
Speaker 1: please contact police. I will also link Freda's missing person
Speaker 1: profile in the show notes for you to have a
Speaker 1: look at. We may still be able to find out
Speaker 1: what happened to Frieda and where she went. The other
Speaker 1: case we're going to be covering today is an unidentified
Speaker 1: person case. Walk Forest is the southern part of Kilda
Speaker 1: Forest in Northumberland. Kilda Forest is the largest man made
Speaker 1: forest in England and is well known for kild Or Observatory,
Speaker 1: as the area is famous for its dark skies. It
Speaker 1: sits along the Anglo Scottish border. At around two pm
Speaker 1: on the second of February nineteen ninety, a forest worker
Speaker 1: in Walk Forest was working in the area when he
Speaker 1: came across an unexpected and shocking discovery, found the body
Speaker 1: of a man. This discovery was quickly reported and investigators
Speaker 1: came out to the scene to assess it. A post
Speaker 1: Marten examination of the man found that he was between
Speaker 1: twenty and forty years old and was around five feet
Speaker 1: six to five feet eight inches tall. He was of
Speaker 1: a medium build and was described as having a dark
Speaker 1: European ethnicity. It was found that he may have died
Speaker 1: between four and twelve months before his body was recovered.
Speaker 1: Identification was very quickly an issue, given that this man
Speaker 1: didn't have any formal idea on him, and there was
Speaker 1: nothing in particular that pointed to a name or a
Speaker 1: location of where he might have come from. The post
Speaker 1: Marten could also not establish the man's cause of death,
Speaker 1: but it was described as not suspicious. Newspaper reports at
Speaker 1: the time talk about him as being a rambler, which
Speaker 1: may have been inferred from the clothes that the man
Speaker 1: was wearing when his body was found. He was wearing
Speaker 1: high Tech brand brown walking boots, a Lee brand denim jacket,
Speaker 1: along with a green vander brand and a rack. An
Speaker 1: interesting piece of information was that the left boot was
Speaker 1: a size eight and the right boot was an eight
Speaker 1: and a half. His clothing indicated that he'd intentionally come
Speaker 1: out in the forest and was prepared for it. His
Speaker 1: possessions also seemed to suggest this. He had a blue
Speaker 1: backpack with a green base, and inside it it had
Speaker 1: two blue nylon ropes, a great arch camping equipment, and
Speaker 1: a Swiss army knife. He also had a blue or
Speaker 1: black holdall bag with some spare clothes, blue jeans, black
Speaker 1: running shorts, white underwear, a call Master bush hat, and
Speaker 1: a vixed signe X spray. In addition, he had an
Speaker 1: afro comb brown money belt, two finger bandages and a
Speaker 1: book called The History of London by Robert Gray. As
Speaker 1: well as this, he had two half liter bottles, one
Speaker 1: had water inside and one had whiskey. Locate International have
Speaker 1: noted that while there was no cause of death found,
Speaker 1: the man had an enlarged liver, meaning he may have
Speaker 1: been alcohol dependent. Missing person reports were searched throughout the
Speaker 1: UK in the hope that they might match someone with
Speaker 1: that description. The police also created a facial reconstruction and
Speaker 1: sent this to newspapers to distribute to the public. This
Speaker 1: strategy seemed to work, as reportedly a woman got in
Speaker 1: touch with the police. She was a hotel worker in
Speaker 1: the area of Haltwhistle in Northumberland. She worked at the
Speaker 1: Bow's Hotel and explained that the reconstruction looked a lot
Speaker 1: like a guest who had checked into the hotel on
Speaker 1: the fourteenth of October nineteen eighty nine, around four months
Speaker 1: before the body had been found. She said he was
Speaker 1: a man in his late thirties who had an American accent.
Speaker 1: There was further intrigue as a book that was found
Speaker 1: at the scene matched a book that had been missing
Speaker 1: from the hotel. It's reported on Locate International's website that
Speaker 1: there were further records of a man with that name
Speaker 1: making a book in at Hexham Tourist Information Center on
Speaker 1: the eighteenth of October nineteen eighty nine. After this, though
Speaker 1: the paper trail for Christopher Oliver disappears. A newspaper report
Speaker 1: from the ninth of February nineteen ninety in the Aberdeen
Speaker 1: Presson Journal indicated that this unidentified man could in fact
Speaker 1: be the same Christopher Oliver. There has, however, been no
Speaker 1: confirmation that these people were the same, and it's still
Speaker 1: unclear how if they are linked. There is a new
Speaker 1: appeal for information in this case, with Locate International creating
Speaker 1: a new living depiction of the walk Forest man. From
Speaker 1: this he may be recognizable to someone. They would like
Speaker 1: to know if anyone recognizes the image, the description of
Speaker 1: the man or the name Christopher Oliver. This man may
Speaker 1: have been American given the description from the hotel worker.
Speaker 1: They have also put some important questions on the appeal.
Speaker 1: They have asked anyone to come forward if they know
Speaker 1: any of the answers to these questions. Do you remember
Speaker 1: someone fitting this description in the Northumberland area around nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety did you stay in our near Bo's Hotel on
Speaker 1: or around the fourteenth of October nineteen eighty nine. Do
Speaker 1: you recognize him or did you speak with him? Do
Speaker 1: you remember anybody with a North American accent traveling around
Speaker 1: Northumberland at the time. Did you maybe drive a taxi
Speaker 1: or know someone who did at the time and could
Speaker 1: you have picked him up? Did you work at Hexham
Speaker 1: Tourist Information Center or do you know someone that did.
Speaker 1: Does he remind you of someone you once knew and
Speaker 1: have now lost touch with. Does the name Christopher Oliver
Speaker 1: mean anything to you? This case is certainly intriguing, but
Speaker 1: I always think someone must know this man. There must
Speaker 1: be family members out there who remember someone going missing
Speaker 1: around nineteen eighty nine. As Locate International state, this man
Speaker 1: would be between the ages of fifty five to seventy
Speaker 1: five years old if alive today, and so identifying people
Speaker 1: who knew him or remember that time is becoming more
Speaker 1: difficult as time passes, but there will be someone with
Speaker 1: information out there. I will link this man's case on
Speaker 1: Locate International's website along with the image. 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