Fred West: Police dig up cafe basement in hunt for yet another victim
DETECTIVES searching for the body of a girl feared to have been murdered by notorious serial killer Fred West have dug up the basement of a cafe.
Mary Bastholm, 15, was last seen waiting for a bus on the way to visit her boyfriend in January 1968.
On Friday, officers were called to The Clean Plate in Gloucester after they were tipped off by filmmakers about potential evidence of a body buried at the property.
A tent was put up outside the front of the city centre premises yesterday evening. Evidence bags and boxes were seen being loaded into a police van.
Gloucestershire Police described the excavations as ‘a significant development’ which could take weeks to complete.
The cafe – then named the Pop-In – was a known haunt of West. Mary worked there at the time she disappeared. Although West is said to have admitted while in prison that he killed her, no trace has been found.
West killed himself in his cell on New Year’s Day 1995, aged 53. He was awaiting trial for 12 murders. Along with his wife Rose, he had tortured, raped and murdered women over a 20-year period.
West was known to have carried out building work at the cafe around the time of
‘A significant development’
Mary’s disappearance. Gloucestershire Police said the Major Crime Investigation Team is assessing the extent of excavation needed at The Clean Plate, now run by a women’s charity .
Assistant Chief Constable Craig Holden said: ‘This could be a significant development on a case which has gained a lot of public interest over the years.’
Mary’s last surviving family member died not knowing what had happened to her.
Denise Bastholm, 76, the widow of Mary’s older brother Peter, said: ‘We’ve been waitwife ing a long time to find out what happened to Mary and now hopefully this latest development will provide some closure at last.
‘My husband and his brother and their parents went to their graves without ever finding out what happened to her.
Peter Bastholm had previously urged Rose West to reveal what happened to his sister.
The cafe has long been linked to Mary’s disappearance, with campaigners demanding the case be re-examined in 2012.
Then chief constable Tony Melville refused to order a reopening of the investigation, saying there was ‘simply no evidence to support the idea that Mary is buried in that location’.
He added: ‘It is our view that any search of the Pop-In cafe would be entirely disproportionate.’
West, one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers, is known to have murdered at least 12 young women, eight of whom were raped, tortured and mutilated.
Many of the murders were committed with the help of his second Rose, who killed West’s stepdaughter Charmaine.
The remains of nine victims were discovered buried in the back garden at the Wests’ home in Cromwell Street – a few streets from the Pop-In cafe – in 1994. West killed himself while on remand at Birmingham’s Winson Green prison.
Rose West was convicted of ten murders. Now 67, she was handed a whole life tariff – meaning she will never be released – and is currently an inmate at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.