The brother and sister of a teenager murdered 50 years ago in Yorkshire have forced police to open a new investigation into the killing.
Elsie Frost was stabbed to death in 1965 as she walked through a railway tunnel near the Calder and Hebble canal towpath in Wakefield. No one has ever been convicted of her murder.
A local man was charged but was found not guilty by a jury under instructions from a judge, who ruled there was no admissible evidence against him.
Half a century on, Elsie’s elder sister, Anne Cleave, and brother, Colin Frost, who was just six when she was killed, have persuaded West Yorkshire police to reinvestigate the case. The siblings said they were determined not to go to their graves without knowing who was responsible.
On Friday the force began to receive fresh information into the murder after an appeal and an investigation by Radio 4 journalists, a West Yorkshire police spokesman said. He would not comment on the nature of the tipoffs.
Earlier in the day police had appealed for information about a “butcher or abattoir worker” who was seen cycling near where Elsie’s body, dressed in a yellow sweater, red quilted anorak and printed skirt, was found.
Investigators are also exploring whether she had plans to meet someone in secret after a friend said she had “got dressed up” before being attacked.
Detectives know that even if they are able to identify a perpetrator they could now be dead, but a police spokesman said the priority was “to find out for Colin and Anne who killed their sister”. Ten officers have been assigned to the case, he added.
Talking to Radio 4’s Today programme, Colin Frost said he was confident the investigation would turn up new leads.
“Both our parents died with a huge amount of guilt and when Anne and I decided we were going to press ahead with this we actually said we didn’t want to die thinking we had not done anything.
“Throughout my life I have gone through a whole range of emotions, anger and more recently one of great emotion and I feel quite emotional even now. I would sincerely just ask anybody to come forward with any kind of information.
“We need to get some justice for Elsie and we need to get justice for the people of Wakefield, who have never forgotten this.”
The new lines of inquiry were in part prompted by a popular radio documentary series for BBC Radio 4’s iPM, which established an earlier time of death and the existence of five closed files on the case at the National Archives in Kew, west London. The series’ success was likened to that of the American Serial podcasts, and prompted the BBC and presenter Jon Manel to set up a website page devoted to the case.
Announcing the reopening of the case, DCI Elizabeth Belton said:“Elsie’s death may be many decades ago, but the pain of her loss remains as fresh as ever for her brother, Colin, and sister, Anne.
“Her brutal murder shattered their family and with such a significant anniversary near, I would ask anyone who may not have come forward then, for whatever reason, to do so now and provide them with answers.”
She added: “We now believe at least one person, who was never interviewed at the time, was seen near the location where Elsie was murdered on the canal towpath.”
The man being sought by police is described as white, between 25 and 30 years old at the time of the murder, and was riding a black bicycle with a basket on the front and wearing a white lab-type coat, which could signify that he was a delivery boy, butcher or abattoir worker.
“Elsie’s murder may be nearly 50 years old but it is a crime people in Wakefield have never stopped talking about,” Belton said. “The force has recently increased resources for the investigation of historic cases and we are determined to do what we can to try to find justice for families such as Elsie’s, who want to see guilty parties identified and brought to justice.”
Elsie’s body was discovered by a dog walker at around 4.15pm at the foot of a set of railway service steps, a route she used back to her home in the Lupset area of Wakefield from the sailing club at Horbury Lagoon. She was not sexually assaulted and there seemed to be no clear motive for the attack.
A local labourer and married father-of-one, Ian Bernard Spencer, then 33, was charged with the murder but cleared on the orders of the judge in 1966, who found he had no case to answer. He always insisted he was at home at the time of the murder, with three people, including his wife and mother-in-law, as witnesses.
His son recently spoke to Radio 4’s iPM programme to explain that his father could no longer communicate following a stroke, but that he would hope that the real perpetrator could finally be caught.
Elsie’s family did not believe Spencer was guilty, her mother telling newspapers at the time: “I know what Mr Spencer and his wife must have suffered, I am glad for their sakes it is over. I am sure they will be as anxious as I am to have the killer found.”
