Woman meets man who found her 40 years ago

The message reached a woman called Jill Hayfield, who realised the man she was looking for was her husband, John Sandford.

In an email to her he said: “Hello, Wendy, How nice to hear from you. I am the person who found you in Holme village. I have often wondered what became of you and would love to see you again.”

And on Saturday, October 20, an emotional reunion took place between John and Wendy as well as their partners Dave and Jill.

John, 70, the former owner with Jill of Holme Castle, said it had been a very moving experience.

He said: “I would have been about 30 and an engineer with David Brown when the abduction happened and I still have a very vivid recollection of that night.

“I was living on a street called Lane about half-a-mile from Holme village when one Friday night in August I was walking down to catch the bus and meet some friends when I noticed a small girl who was crying and I realised that she not a child from the village.

“I asked her where she was walking to and she replied she was going home. She was heading towards Holme Moss and the moors.

“I thought she must have got lost from her family or something more sinister had happened which proved to be the case.”

John contacted a local headmistress, Olga, who phoned the police and Wendy was reunited with her family.

He said: “The next morning two detectives from Manchester came to interview me and I asked them what had happened. They told me that she had been abducted from Ashtonunder-Lyne and had been dropped on the Digley Road on the other side of the village.

“That was the last that I heard of it until now. It was wonderful meeting her again and we chatted for an hour and tried to piece together what had happened.”

John offered to show her the spot where she had been deposited all those years ago.

He said: “She couldn’t remember how she had been picked up but she could remember some steps and a bridge and we think the steps were the chapel steps in Holme which dates back hundreds of years.

“Then we went to The Fleece pub and had our photographs taken.”

Jill added: “We are hoping to make Wendy an honorary member of Holme village. It was an horrendous thing to happen to her – it’s every person’s worst nightmare – but now we have tried to lay all the ghosts to rest and make her feel welcome.

“We also want to warn parents of how easy it can be for something terrible like this to happen.”

Wendy said: “Visiting Holme with John and Jill made everything fall into place. I had only seen it on Google Streetview before.

“It was unreal seeing John but he and his wife and everyone else I met made me feel so welcome. I really wanted to go back into the village and he took me to where he found me.

“He introduced me to Clive Swindell, a friend of his and the first house he took me to and then to see Olga’s house where I was taken to afterwards. I felt so relieved that finally I had all the answers.

“My dad has been ill recently but I am looking forward to introducing him and my mum to John and Jill and everyone when he is well enough to come over.”