The remains of missing Mary Bastholm are in a rubbish tip or a lake, according to Rose West’s former lawyer.
Leo Goatley, who legally represented Fred West’s wife for 12 years, has said police were right to check to check a cafe for human remains however he was left unsurprised when nothing was found at the site.
Our sister title The Mirror reports how Mr Goatley believes Fred disposed of Mary’s body in a tip which his brother John delivered to.
Another theory is that her remains are in a lake near where Fred worked.
Fred lived in a caravan near Cheltenham when Mary disappeared in 1968.
After police ended a search in the cellar of a Gloucester cafe where Mary worked, Mr Goatley told the Mirror: “I’m not surprised they found nothing. None of the timelines ever really fit. It never felt like something Fred would do.”
He thinks Fred could have stored Mary’s body and years later put it in John’s waste lorry, bound for Hempsted tip.
He said: “John West’s crew used to park their bin lorry at Cromwell Street [where West later lived] and go in for morning coffee. Fred would come out and chuck bags on board.”
Explaining his other theory, he said: “At the time he was an odd-job man at the Lakeside caravan site at Stokes Orchard so my theory has long been he may have put the body parts in the lake.”
Fred never confessed to killing Mary Bastholm but his son Stephen claimed his father admitted it to him.
The £70,000 police search of the cafe was sparked when a TV firm drilled a hole in its basement and saw something blue.
Mary, 15, was wearing blue when she vanished.
It is now believed this could have been blue debris from a buried pipe.
Craig Holden, Gloucestershire Police Assistant Chief Constable, said: “Our thoughts are with Mary’s family, whose continued dignity has been humbling.”
Fred West was charged with 12 murders, but took his own life in prison while awaiting trial in 1995.
Rose West was convicted of 10 murders that year and is serving life.
