The Bolney Torso

Last updated

The Bolney Torso refers to the partial remains of an unknown male decedent that were discovered in woods near Bolney, Southern England in October 1991.

Contents

Discovery of the body

On Friday 11 October 1991, Colin Oliver, then 62, [1] discovered the torso in woods off Broxmead Lane in Bolney, Sussex. [2] [3] Oliver was walking home to Burgess Hill from Cuckfield along Broxfield Lane. He stopped along the lane and went through a gate leading to a field. [4] He went into the trees to urinate and found a bloody torso rolled up in a piece of carpet in undergrowth. [1] [4] Oliver then walked to the Burgess Hill police station to alert the police to his discovery. [4] He claimed to have been so disturbed by the discovery that he had trouble sleeping for several months afterwards. [4]

Initial description of the victim

The remains were found to be of a male who was believed to have been in his 60s at the time of death. [1] The head and hands of the victim had been removed [5] [3] and the severed head and limbs were never found. [1] One arm had been severed 6 inches (15 cm) below the elbow and the other 2 inches (5 cm) below the elbow; this appeared to have been done in order to remove an identifying tattoo. [1] The arms and head appeared to have been removed with an axe or bolt cropper. [1]

The victim was described as white, had a protruding belly, [3] was circumcised and had a small star-shaped mole on his right thigh. [2]

The victim was wearing turned up trousers from Fosters [6] and a blue shirt with a distinctive motif on the pocket. [2]

Investigation

The investigation to find the identity of the victim and the murderer was assigned the name Operation A23, employing 60 people and costing £150,000. [1] DCI Peter Kennett led the initial inquiry. [4] Detectives searched files of over 100 missing men without finding a match and appeals for the public to come forward with an identity were fruitless. [1]

Suspects

In December 1991, police were contacted by a local estate agent with a potential lead; a large rented house in Copyhold Lane, Cuckfield, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from the deposition location of the body, had been abandoned which raised their suspicions. [1] Police investigated the property and found a copy of Penthouse magazine containing an article about dismembering bodies with numbers scrawled on the pages. [1]

Gunter Josef Knieper, from Dresden, Germany, and Kornelia Maria Teusel first rented the property in September 1991 paying £10,000 (6 months rent) in advance. [1] The couple abandoned the property some time around 9 October 1991. Knieper, who had been using the pseudonym Dr Matthias Herrman, was being sought in Germany and Ireland on suspicion of business fraud. [1]

In June 1992, Knieper was arrested in Spain. Police interviewed Knieper in Frankfurt and established that the gang intended to start a fraud operation, but Knieper denied any involvement in the murder of the victim. [1] In August 1992, police admitted there was no evidence to link Knieper to the murder. [1] In January 1994, police returned to Germany to interview another unnamed male who had visited the property in Copyhold Lane. [1]

Burial

On 2 August 1994, after a brief service, [1] the remains of the victim were laid to rest at Western Road Cemetery, in Haywards Heath. [5] [2] The coffin bore the name "Unknown Male" [3] Eight people attended the paupers funeral paid for by Mid Sussex District Council. [1] The mourners in attendance were representatives of the police, coroner's office and Mid Sussex District Council. [1]

Subsequent events

In December 1995, a few days before Christmas, some flowers and a note were left at the victim's grave. The note bore the message: "For the unknown male, Peter and team, remember our loss." [1]

Re-investigation

In March 2009, police exhumed the body in the hope that advances in forensic techniques would provide additional information. [5] [2] On 12 November 2009, the case appeared on the BBC programme Crimewatch . [6]

In 2010 it was reported that, following media appeals on Crimewatch UK and its German equivalent, numerous suggestions for the victim's identity had been received; however, none bore fruit. Police stated that three missing persons had been discounted as the identity of the victim and their families had been informed. [7]

In 2011, it was revealed that evidence gathered in 2010 indicated that the victim had been dressed post mortem [2] and that the clothes did not belong to the victim. [3] The re-investigation examined a femur, rib bone and toenail from the victim. This revealed that the victim likely came from southern Germany or a surrounding country. [2] Analysis of the toenail suggested that the victim spent the last year of his life in the UK or the French/German border. [3]

Revised description of the victim

The revised description of the victim was that his height was between 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall, aged between 30 and 45 [5] and most likely in his late 30s at the time of death. [3] The victim had a strongly built upper body. [3] Analysis of the skeleton indicated that the victim was strong, well-nourished and healthy at the time of his death and had no signs of any degenerative illness. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleveland Torso Murderer</span> Unidentified American serial killer (1930s)

The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, in the 1930s. The killings were characterized by the dismemberment of thirteen known victims and the disposal of their remains in the impoverished neighborhood of Kingsbury Run. Most victims came from an area east of Kingsbury Run called "The Roaring Third" or "Hobo Jungle", known for its bars, gambling dens, brothels and vagrants. Despite an investigation of the murders, which at one time was led by famed lawman Eliot Ness, the murderer was never apprehended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitehall Mystery</span> Unsolved murder that took place in London in 1888

The Whitehall Mystery is an unsolved murder that took place in London in 1888. The dismembered remains of a woman were discovered at three sites in the centre of the city, including the construction site of New Scotland Yard, the new police headquarters. The incident belongs to the so-called Thames Torso Murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack the Ripper</span> Unidentified serial killer in London in 1888

Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

Colleen M. Fitzpatrick is an American forensic scientist, genealogist and entrepreneur. She helped identify remains found in the crash site of Northwest Flight 4422, that crashed in Alaska in 1948, and co-founded the DNA Doe Project which identifies previously unidentified bodies and runs Identifinders International, an investigative genetic genealogy consulting firm which helps identify victims and perpetrators of violent crimes.

<i>Crimewatch</i> British television programme produced by the BBC

Crimewatch is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was originally broadcast once a month on BBC One, although in the final years before cancellation it was usually broadcast roughly once every two months.

Jeffrey Howe was a British businessman who was murdered by Stephen T. Marshall.

Sidney Charles Cooke is an English convicted child molester and suspected serial killer serving two life sentences. He was the leader of a paedophile ring suspected of up to twenty child murders of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s. Cooke and other members of the ring were convicted of three killings in total, although he was only convicted of one himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tobin</span> Scottish serial killer (1946–2022)

Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilgo Beach serial killings</span> American serial killer case

The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer.

Dena Thompson, commonly known as The Black Widow, is a British convicted murderer, confidence trickster and bigamist who is also suspected of having killed a second individual. She habitually met men through lonely hearts columns and stole their money. She was imprisoned for murdering former media manager Julian Webb, her second husband. She had previously been acquitted of the attempted murder of her next husband Richard Thompson, having attacked him with a baseball bat and a knife but being cleared on the grounds of self-defence. Despite her acquittal for the attempted murder of Thompson, police became suspicious of the circumstances in which previous husband Webb had died, and after Webb's remains were exhumed and analyzed she was convicted of murder and sentenced to life. A High Court ruling in 2007 determined she would serve 16 years, meaning she would not be eligible for release until 2019. She was also convicted of theft and defrauding former lovers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Mark Tildesley</span> Murder of an English schoolboy, appeared on the first episode of "Crimewatch UK".

Mark Anthony Tildesley was a seven-year-old English child who disappeared on 1 June 1984 whilst visiting a funfair in Wokingham, Berkshire. A widespread search of the Wokingham area, involving both police officers and British Army soldiers, did not locate him. Thames Valley Police initially suspected that his body was buried near Wellington Road in Wokingham, near the funfair from which he was abducted, but they now believe that he was probably buried in a shallow grave on abandoned farmland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norfolk headless body</span> Unidentified murder victim

The Norfolk headless body case relates to a woman who was murdered around the first or second week of August 1974. Her decapitated body was found near Swaffham, Norfolk, England on 27 August 1974. Her head has never been found. Although the woman has never been identified, one theory being investigated is that she was a sex worker known as "The Duchess" who worked the Great Yarmouth docks under that pseudonym prior to her disappearance in mid-1974.

The Thames Torso Murders, often called the Thames Mysteries or the Embankment Murders, were a sequence of unsolved murders of women occurring in London, England from 1887 to 1889. The series included four incidents which were filed as belonging to the same series. None of the cases were solved, and only one of the four victims was identified. In addition, other murders of a similar kind, taking place between 1873 and 1902, have also been associated with the same murder series.

Shana Grice was a British teenager who was murdered by an ex-partner after he had stalked her. The murder led to criticism of Sussex Police for their failure to take Grice's complaints of stalking seriously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clocaenog Forest Man</span> Unidentified murder victim in North Wales

"Clocaenog Forest Man" refers to an unidentified murder victim found in the Clocaenog Forest in Denbighshire, Wales, in November 2015. The body had lain undiscovered for over 10 years and despite extensive investigations by North Wales Police, national and UK appeals and input from serial killer Peter Moore, the identity of both the body and the murderer(s) remain a mystery.

The Bedgebury Forest Woman refers to an unknown female whose body was found in Bedgebury Forest, Kent, England, on 23 October 1979. Despite multiple investigations, an arrest and a trial, the woman has never been identified.

The Saw-Killer of Hanover is the name of an unidentified German serial killer, who is supposedly responsible for murdering and dismembering at least four women and two men, whose body parts were found in Hanover and the surrounding area in the 1970s. None of the victims have been identified, and the case is also referred to as The Found Corpses of Hanover. The "SOKO Torso" Unit of the Hanoverian police, directed by Commissioner Günter Nowatius, investigated the murders at the time.

The City bonds robbery of 1990 was a heist in which £291.9 million was stolen in London, England. The carefully planned operation made it seem at first as if a courier had been mugged on 2 May, yet the City of London Police soon realised that it was a sophisticated global venture which ended up involving participants such as the New York mafia, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Colombian drug barons. The robbery was one of the largest in world history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Jessie Earl</span> Unsolved death in 1980

Jessie Earl was a 22-year-old student who disappeared from Eastbourne, England in May 1980. It was not until 1989 that her remains were discovered in thick undergrowth on Beachy Head, where she would regularly take walks. The inquest into her death was criticised and attracted considerable controversy in the long term after it was concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" to determine whether she had been murdered, despite the fact that she had been found with her bra tied around her wrists and without any of her other clothes or belongings. Her parents insisted she must have been murdered, but the inquest into her death recorded an open verdict, leading to the key forensic evidence being destroyed in 1997 since the case had not been classed as murder. Despite this, in 2000 Sussex Police opened a murder investigation after further forensic, scene, witness and pathology inquiries, saying that they believed she was murdered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Kate Bushell and Lyn Bryant</span> 1990s murders in England

The murders ofKate BushellandLinda "Lyn" Bryant, a 14-year-old schoolgirl and a 41-year-old woman, respectively, occurred in separate incidents of West Country, England. The events occurred in 15 November 1997 and 20 October 1998 respectively. The similar circumstances of the murders led investigators to conclude that there is a high possibility the murders are linked, with both killed with knives while walking their dogs along isolated lanes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 "'Bolney torso' riddle still baffles police". The Argus. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "New clues in headless man inquiry". BBC News. 2011-10-11. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "New clues in Bolney Torso mystery". The Argus. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Why the 'Bolney Torso' killing is still unsolved 27 years later". Mid Sussex Times. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Video: New information about the Bolney torso" . Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  6. 1 2 "Police check new leads after Bolney torso television appeal" . Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  7. ↑ "Three men ruled out of Bolney torso case". The Argus. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
  8. ↑ "Sussex Police still trying to solve riddle of headless body". The Argus. Retrieved 2018-11-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.