UNSOLVED 1939 KILLING OF GIRL, 4, RE-OPENED
South Wales Police have re-opened an inquiry into a child murder that happened in Cardiff nearly 80 years ago. Chief reporter Martin Shipton looks at the case...
POLICE have launched a cold case review of the unsolved murder of a four-year-old girl in Cardiff in the month that World War II began.
Joyce Cox was sexually assaulted and killed when she was days short of her fifth birthday.
She disappeared when her older brother Dennis, seven, lost track of her as they walked home from school for lunch.
Joyce’s killer was never caught, although South Wales Police have confirmed there was a main suspect.
Her cousin Terry Phillips, who wasn’t born at the time of the murder and is now 73, has spent years researching the background to the case. Two years ago he came up against a major stumbling block when the Metropolitan Police, which had been drafted in to help with the original inquiry, said it was not prepared to release crucial documents relating to the case until 2040.
Now, however, South Wales Police is undertaking a cold case review of the documentation generated by the former Glamorganshire Constabulary in the aftermath of the murder.
In a letter to Mr Phillips, Chief Constable Peter Vaughan’s staff officer Chief Inspector Mark Kavanagh said: “The original case papers appear to be largely intact, albeit due to the passage of time a number of the documents are now very fragile.
“The files contain approximately 1,000 statements and a similar number of other reports and documents which is indicative of the wide ranging and thorough enquiry conducted in the 1930s.
“The original investigation by the Glamorganshire Constabulary continued for approximately two years, and what is apparent is that there was clearly a real determination to detect the crime in 1939, as there would be now if a similar crime was reported. The South Wales Police Review Unit will do all that it can to carry forward that proud tradition of investigative zeal and determination demonstrated by those detectives based in Whitchurch Police Station in 1939.”
The terms of reference for the current review are “to examine the available evidence to identify any new lines of enquiry, or opportunities presented with advancements in modern forensic techniques.”
Mr Phillips has passed over data gleaned from his own research, as well as information handed down within his family in the nearly 80 years since the murder.
The body of Joyce, who lived in the Whitchurch district of Cardiff, was found on a railway embankment near Coryton station. Contemporary newspaper accounts said that a copy of the Western Mail, a tobacco pouch, a gas mask and the victim’s underwear were found close by.
However, Mr Kavanagh states in his letter: “I have spoken with Detective Chief Inspector [Mark] O’Shea regarding this, and the information you provided is still in the process of being cross referenced with the original material held by South Wales Police, but to date, it appears that a lot of what you believed to be factual information is not borne out by the original source material.
“A full report outlining this will follow, and you will be updated by DCI O’Shea in due course.”
None of the exhibits referred to newspaper accounts are in the possession of South Wales Police, and Mr Kavanagh said in his letter: “There is no information recorded in the original case papers indicating how or when these items were disposed of.
“It is clear from the original case papers that extensive efforts were made to identify forensic opportunities from these exhibits within the limited scope of forensic science knowledge of the day.
“One can only speculate as to when these items were disposed of and under what circumstances, but it is likely that the items have been unavailable for many decades and may possibly have been disposed of or returned to the family of the victim in the 1940s. There are no documents which indicate the items have been held or disposed of in recent times.
“Enquiries have been conducted with the Forensic Archive in Birmingham, as well as the Metropolitan Police Service, to ascertain if they retain any original material from the 1930s. They have confirmed that they do not. The research carried out by the Review Team indicates that all exhibits were returned to the Glamorganshire Constabulary in 1939.”
Mr Kavanagh added: “Whilst it is extremely unfortunate that no forensic opportunities now exist to examine the exhibits, it is worth emphasising that the original investigation was clearly an extensive one, and conducted to a high professional standard within the context of a 1930s era investigation.
“A prime suspect was identified early on in the original enquiry, and remains the main focus of interest in this case. The team is undertaking intelligence research to identify what information is available about this individual. The Glamorganshire Constabulary allocated a significant amount of resource to the investigation at a time when the wider demands created by the outbreak of the Second World War must have been significant.
“South Wales Police Review Unit remains committed to investigating all undetected murders.”
Mr Phillips said: “I am pleased this is being taken forward. This crime had a devastating effect on my family.
“Obviously it happened many years ago, but if anyone has any information that could help I would ask them to come forward. Did anyone see Joyce that morning, or someone pushing a wheelbarrow covered by a sack?”
When the Metropolitan Police refused to release documents to Mr Phillips, it told him: “A named subject who was a suspect is described derogatorily and should not be associated with these matters.
“However unlikely – indeed remote – it may be that this case is reopened, we have to afford for that possibility. Putting information into the public domain will include naming specific persons who may yet be identified.”