A Thorn in Their Side--Hilda Murrell Threatened Britain's Nuclear State. She Was Brutally Murdered. This is the True Story of her Shocking Death

by Robert Green

  Around 8.10pm, a man who knows Hilda by sight approaches Ravenscroft driving into town from the by-pass when he sees ahead two white lights on his side of the road. They are the reversing lights of an otherwise unlit white hatchback starting to turn into Hilda’s gateway with its rear door up. The car pauses to let him pass. He notes a black stripe down the side, and a man standing on the pavement close to it, as if directing the driver. The pedestrian is 30-35 years old, medium height, slim build with scruffy shoulder length dark hair, wearing a dirty, light-coloured mackintosh.

  This description broadly matched the older stranger seen by Mary O’Connor outside Ravenscroft on the Tuesday morning, and two more sightings on the Wednesday afternoon. Was he also one of the two ‘tramps’ seen together near Haughmond Hill on the Monday afternoon?

  At about 11pm, a resident of Stonehurst Flats observes a strange Pakistani-looking man with a dark moustache standing beneath a tree near the flats. He pulls back into shadow. In his thirties, he has thick, wavy collar-length hair, is of slight build, and wearing a dark coat well below his knees.

  Was this the man seen acting suspiciously outside Ravenscroft shortly before Hilda returned from shopping? If so, could he and the driver of Hilda’s car have been using one of the flats as a base?

  THURDAY 22 MARCH, the day after Hilda’s abduction

  Half an hour after midnight, the matron of the Hollies old people’s home opposite Stonehurst Flats is driving back there with her husband. As they approach Ravenscroft, a car is reversing out with no lights on. She switches to full beam to warn the driver. Red brake lights come on, but it has no reversing lights. It is a small grey or pale blue saloon, not Hilda’s white Renault. After they pass, it resumes reversing out, still without lights on.

  Was this the old blue Hillman Hunter – which had no reversing lights – seen parked near Hilda’s house all evening?

  Behind Millmead Flats at about 11am on Thursday, a woman neighbour sees a strange man standing at the end of the alleyway alongside Hilda’s garden. When spotted, he walks off quickly down a lane past the bottom of Hilda’s garden. In his late twenties, he is short, thin and pale-looking, with frizzy shoulder-length hair and a black beard. He is wearing a black beret, navy blue sports jacket, blue jeans and dark glasses. The woman last saw him a few weeks before, walking up the alleyway, looking as if he was crudely disguised.

  If he was a member of the lookout team, he would have seen Hilda’s friends Hana Bandler and Lucy Lunt arrive, check the house and leave.

  Meanwhile, local people around Hunkington reported equally suspicious strangers and vehicles. Some matched descriptions of those seen near Hilda’s house.

  MONDAY 19 MARCH, two days before Hilda’s abduction

  At about 8pm an unattended light blue Vauxhall estate car is seen reversed into the wide field access a hundred yards from where Hilda’s broken spectacles, knife and hat are later found. It is still there at 7.30pm the next night, but has gone by Wednesday morning – the day of Hilda’s abduction. Then a different witness spots it at 8am on the Thursday morning, on the concrete pad opposite Hilda’s crashed car.

  WEDNESDAY 21 MARCH, the day of Hilda’s abduction

  Around 11am, a woman who keeps a horse in a field behind the copse where Hilda’s body is later found drives past a stranger walking along Drury Lane. He is about 50 years old, six feet tall, medium build, wearing a cap and a grey mackintosh, with his neck hunched into the collar on a calm, sunny morning.

  The description matched that of the man seen behaving suspiciously in London Road near Ravenscroft an hour later.

  Around 11.30am, a man planting potatoes in a field a few miles south of the copse notices an unfamiliar red, two-door Ford Escort drive by heading towards Hunkington. The sole occupant is a 30-40 year-old, clean-shaven man of medium height and build with short brown hair, wearing a brown jacket.

  An hour afterwards, as Hilda is about to be abducted, a similar unoccupied red car is seen parked in a gateway in a hollow just over a mile across fields from where her car will shortly crash.

  Around the same time, two unattended vehicles are noticed by three different witnesses parked on the roadside in Haughmond Hill wood: a small white car like Hilda’s seen outside Ravenscroft the previous morning, and a pale blue estate car.

  The estate car matched the Vauxhall seen parked for over 24 hours in the Hunkington field access, and then again on the concrete pad early on the Thursday morning near Hilda’s crashed car.

  Between 12.50 and 1pm, a young mother who has lived in the area for 16 years approaches the Somerwood crossroads from Haughmond Hill. She drives up behind a small white car with two occupants travelling in the same direction about 20 yards from the crossroads. It jerks to a halt, angled in towards the left-hand verge. As the witness pulls out past it, she tries to give the driver a dirty look, but he turns his head away.

  Was the driver of Hilda’s car wanting to let her pass before dropping off his woman passenger impersonating Hilda before reaching the ‘crash’ site?

  Minutes before this, a woman is driven by her husband from a cottage beside Hunkington Farm up to the crossroads, then right towards Newport. They see no crashed car.

  An engineer who commutes daily along Hunkington Lane passes Hilda’s white Renault crashed hard up into the bank shortly before 1pm – as he approaches it he tries to tune his car radio to the weather forecast before the lunchtime news. He sees no one in or near it, and does not stop. Subsequently he passes it twice each day until the Saturday and sees no change.

  These two reports established that Hilda’s car crashed around 1pm. Within the next hour, four other witnesses reported finding it, but saw no one in its vicinity. Surely, if Hilda had been abducted in the car, she and/or her abductor would have been seen by these witnesses near it or in the field?

  Around 1.10pm, a woman living on the other side of the copse near Somerwood Farm notices a strange man walking slowly along the road towards her. In his early forties, he is of medium height and build, with thick fair or grey hair, wearing an anorak with a stripe down each sleeve. She does not see him again.

  John Marsh first spotted Hilda’s car as he returned to Hunkington Farm soon after 2pm. He inspected it, then went back to phone Shrewsbury police station around 2.30pm.

  John Rogers rode past ten minutes later. A man on a horse would have had a clear view over the hedge across Funeral Field – but he reported seeing no one. Yet this was where the police and John Stalker speculated that, within the previous hour, Hilda had been frogmarched at knifepoint.

  Around this time, a truck driver who travels along Hunkington Lane every three weeks is delivering goods to Withington. As he drives through Haughmond Hill wood he sees two unattended cars in lay-bys: a green Fiat and an unidentified blue car. Where the lane enters thickets, he has to slow down for a woman walking in front of a man. They are both in their fifties; she is wearing a dark mac and head scarf, he a light-coloured mac and cap; and he is carrying a shepherd’s crook stick.

  The truck driver stops for his lunch in the wide field access, and notices the roof of a white car across the field. At about 2.30pm he drives on, and slowly passes Hilda’s car. No one is in or near it, but an unattended white saloon car about the size of a Ford Cortina is parked on the concrete pad on the left. Further along the lane, he notices an unattended tractor in a field on the left. Looking round for the driver, he spots a strange man at the edge of a copse across the field, with long hair and wearing a long coat. Puzzled, he drives on.

  If Hilda had been in the field near where her broken spectacles were found, she would have seen and heard that truck. The driver would have seen her – and recognised her, because he used to deliver goods to her. She would also have seen the white car on the pad, the strange shaggy man in a long coat by the copse, heard the tractor, and crawled towards them, calling out. None of these witnesses reported a ‘running man’, initially given so much police attention, yet dismissed at the trial.

  A
t about 2.40pm, a woman who lives near the gamekeeper’s cottage is walking her dog with a friend near Somerwood crossroads. As they turn down Hunkington Lane towards Hilda’s crashed car, a strange jogger trots by. The man, who looks as startled as they do, is in his mid-thirties, about six feet tall, well built with a flushed but unstressed face – and wearing a khaki safari hat and muddy green clothing unlike a jogger’s.

  Were he and the other man seen near the copse more team members keeping a lookout?

  The two women walk on a short distance, when a white car races over the crossroads behind and passes them, then stops suddenly in a gateway about a hundred yards ahead. The car is like one seen by one of the women parked in Haughmond Hill wood an hour and a half earlier. As the women return to the crossroads, a large yellow and green van approaches from Haughmond Hill woodand drives on down Hunkington Lane. Soon afterwards, a regular male jogger they recognise runs past from Upton Magna, wearing a grey tracksuit. They look back across the field and see the white car still parked in the gateway – and Hilda’s crashed car askew in the hedge near the concrete pad.

  At about 3pm, a long-time resident returns to his home in Drury Lane behind the copse. He is surprised to see a strange man with a grey whippet dog walking across a field by the crossroads at the southern end of the lane. He is in his early thirties, six feet tall, slim build, wearing a dark cap, sports jacket, grey trousers and wellington boots.

  Ian Scott was known to have whippets, but was an old man. Was this a crude attempt to impersonate him while keeping a lookout, at this most risky phase of Hilda’s abduction? Marsh had reported her crashed car to the police, and the Symondsons could have been asking neighbours to check if Hilda was at home.

  Around 3.40pm, the driver of a school bus who collects and returns pupils in the Hunkington area is dropping off children in Uffington, when he notices a man he has never seen before walking quickly through the village ahead of the bus. In his thirties, of medium height and build, he is clean-shaven with neat ginger-brown hair and sideburns. He is wearing a clean and tidy grey anorak, stonewashed denim trousers and dark trainers. As the bus catches up with him, he turns to look at it several times, but does not thumb a lift.

  This man matched the description of the Ford Fiesta driver acting suspiciously in Hilda’s gateway early on the Monday or Tuesday. He also resembled one of the police identikit photos of the driver of Hilda’s car.

  An hour later, at around 4.30pm, two young tearaways, Charlie Bevan and Chris Watton, visited a local car dealer to swap Watton’s Morris 1000 van for a bigger one. The dealer refused because the Morris was not taxed. Returning to Shrewsbury via back roads to avoid the police, they came across Hilda’s car. Watton found the passenger door unlocked and stole the tax disc.

  Fifteen minutes after this they drove on – and spotted a red Ford Escort, reversed into the field access on the right. As they approached, Watton had to brake as the car suddenly shot out in front of them and sped up the lane out of sight. Watton recognised it as a Mk II model, but more powerful than the 1300cc version, with a screw-on CB aerial in the middle of its boot lid. The word ‘Escort’ above the rear bumper was in different black lettering from the word ‘Ford’. He described the driver, who was alone, as 20-30 years old with tidy, straight, collar-length dark brown hair. The man resembled the driver of the red Ford Escort seen in the vicinity at 11.30 that morning.

  Watton and Bevan appeared in court charged with stealing the tax disc on 18 April, during Hilda’s thanksgiving service. In the Shropshire Star that evening, DCS Cole also appealed for information about the red Ford Escort seen near Ravenscroft on the day Hilda was abducted. What he omitted to add was that John Marsh and Bryan Salter had reported no less than five sightings of such a car in Hunkington Lane between the Thursday and Sunday. To these Cole should have added two sightings in the area on the Wednesday morning, and this one.

  Three weeks later, both young men were required by the police to make new statements under caution. The youths now claimed they had fabricated the story about the red Ford Escort, because they feared they would be accused of murdering Hilda. However, would Watton have made up such a detailed description? Were they, like the telephone engineers, landowner, fireman, tyre-specialists and others pressured to change their stories, or not to speak to me?

  Around 4.45pm, an unattended white Renault 5 car is seen a few yards from the Somerwood crossroads, parked on the offside grass verge facing towards Haughmond Hill wood. The witness has owned a Renault 5, and notes its lower half is muddy. Fifty yards further along the road on the near side, a yellow van is parked with two men in it conferring.

  The van was close to where Hilda’s driving documents and AA membership card were later found. Was this the same van seen three hours earlier driving down Hunkington Lane? Was the Renault the one seen parked outside Hilda’s house on the morning of her abduction, then in Haughmond Hill wood, before racing past the women walking their dogs and parking in a gateway some two hours earlier? If so, could it have been a backup car in case anything had gone wrong with Hilda’s – and to confuse the police and witnesses further?

  Around 5.30pm, a local woman and her husband drive along Drury Lane and notice two strange men, looking like farmers, standing in a field using what appear to be walkie-talkie radios.

  Half an hour later, a van passes Hilda’s car heading towards Shrewsbury. The driver sees a dark green Ford Cortina parked in a gateway almost opposite Rogers’ cottage facing towards Hunkington. Three men in their twenties to thirties are standing beside it.

  At 6.20pm, PCs Paul Davies and Robert Eades arrived to follow up Marsh’s second phone call an hour earlier to Upton Magna police station where Davies was based. They opened and closed the front passenger door, but failed to notice the missing tax disc. They quickly established Hilda was the owner. Why did they not make further urgent enquiries when the car had been left unlocked?

  Around 8.15pm, a young man drives past Hilda’s car, and is concerned enough to stop, get out and try to inspect it despite it being dark. He opens the front passenger door, and rubs his hand along the driver’s side to check for any damage, but feels none.

  At about 8.45pm a woman driver overtakes two strange men walking in the same direction just beyond the gamekeeper’s cottage. They are both in their early twenties, medium height and slim build with shoulder-length hair: one fair and wavy, the other mousy-coloured. The fair-haired one is wearing a denim jacket and jeans, the other a red pullover. The weather is fine but cold.

  At about 9.15pm in Drury Lane, Nick Waters told me he saw a dim torch in Moat Copse for about five minutes, focused on a small area rather than moving about. A farmer discovered the next morning that the latch and chain on his paddock gate in Drury Lane had been released. Was this where the mysterious torch user gained access to the copse? Was a member of the team checking where Hilda was to be taken to die the following night after interrogation?

  Around 9.30pm, a man and his girlfriend are about to park on the concrete pad when they see Hilda’s car. He pulls up in front of it: keeping his headlights on, he gets out and inspects it. On trying the front passenger door, he finds it is locked. The driver’s door is too close to the hedge to get at.

  Yet an hour and a half earlier, a local man had found the front passenger door unlocked.

  THURSDAY 22 MARCH, the day after Hilda’s abduction

  At 2.50pm, a local farmworker and his wife pass Hilda’s car and see two men about 20 yards from it in the field close to the hedge. Both are aged 35-40, clean-shaven with mousy hair cut short. They do not look like farmworkers.

  Ten minutes later, Ian Scott was seen approaching Moat Copse with two dogs. He checked each tree for felling. Then tractor driver Bryan Salter watched a dark car drive slowly past Hilda’s car, park opposite the wide field access, and a suspicious man in a suit walk along the hedge to the copse and back.

  At about 7pm, soon after nightfall, a light-coloured Ford Cortina is seen parked on the concrete pa
d, and a man walking away from Hilda’s car. He is in his mid to late forties, of medium build and in casual clothes.

  Half an hour later, a stranger is seen walking towards a red car parked on the roadside in Haughmond Hill wood. About 45 years old, he is of medium height and build, with thinning mousy hair, and is wearing a dark suit and white shirt.

  Around 8.30pm, a van is parked in a gateway between the concrete pad and Marsh’s farm. Its headlights are directed across the field towards Moat Copse.

  Was this when Hilda was being moved into the copse?

  FRIDAY 23 MARCH, two days after Hilda’s abduction

  Early in the morning, back at Hilda’s house an unfamiliar pale blue saloon car is seen parked in the drive of the two empty houses owned by the police almost opposite. A dark-haired man in a dark coat is sitting in the driver’s seat. At the same time, a tramp-like man is observed thumbing a lift while walking towards town. Of medium height with a beard, he is wearing a long, grey mackintosh and a dirty blue scarf wrapped round his head, and carrying three bags.

  Was the blue car the old Hillman Hunter seen reversing out of Ravenscroft soon after midnight on the Wednesday night, having been parked nearby from late that afternoon? Clearly, the two police houses were highly convenient options from which to watch Hilda. With Hilda placed in the copse overnight on Thursday, by early Friday morning had the team planted the Totes rain hat, spectacles, knife, boots and other clothing, thoroughly searched the house for papers, drawn curtains, switched on more lights, and opened Hilda’s side door before leaving tyre scuffmarks in the drive?