Cops said Doris killed our son then I buried him in back garden..
Couple’s turmoil after arrest over their missing lad
THE couple held on suspicion of murdering their son who disappeared 29 years ago say they went through “hell” after the arrest.
Doris and Charles Clark say police accused her of killing their lad Steven.
And Charles told how he was quizzed about burying his son in the back garden.
Steven was last seen in December 1992 when he was 23.
His parents were arrested and questioned five months ago as part of a murder probe after a cold case review.
Now after the pair were released without charge, 82-year-old Doris said: “We’ve been through hell.”
She told the Mirror: “We were never guilty or ever going to be. The police never communicated with us at all, we just had to get out of the house.
“We knew they were going to search the house but then we had to leave for four-and-a-half days. We were then held for quite a few hours in different cells.”
Doris added: “To solve the mystery of what happened to Steven would be the most wonderful thing ever.
“We can’t answer questions about his disappearance because we don’t know anything. Sometimes we thought ‘have aliens snatched him?’ It’s a horrendous mystery. It’s changed our lives completely.
“Your mind runs riot about what could have happened because there are so many unpleasant people in the world.”
Steven vanished after going into a public toilet in Saltburn, North Yorks,
VANISHED Steven before disappearing in 1992 while Doris was in the ladies. She waited outside for him, but he did not emerge.
She returned to their home, three miles away in Marske-by-the-Sea, to wait for him and reported him missing when he failed to return. A witness has since come forward to say she saw Steven near his home after the time he went missing.
Steven’s parents, both former police officers, say there is no evidence that their son has been murdered.
Charles, 78, said they were “ignored” for 17 weeks after they were questioned.
He added: “When they came to arrest us, I thought it was a joke.
“I was looking for the cameras. But it was not [a joke] and it was horrible.”
He added: “They have dug everything up in the garden. They moved the shed.
“Why pick on us? I haven’t a clue. Why it took so long to free us, I don’t know.”
The Clarks are to appear in an ITV documentary about Steven’s case in a bid to help find him. Charles also told the BBC that people in Marske have stood by them after they were arrested.
Cleveland police declined to comment, but stressed the probe is ongoing.
Det Chief Insp Shaun Page said this week: “There is no proof of life and we believe Steven has come to serious harm.
“The case continues to be classified as one of suspected murder.”
Steven was left with disabilities – including a severely damaged left arm and a damaged leg – after a road accident when he was two.
We were never guilty or ever going to be... It’s a horrendous mystery
MUM DORIS TALKS ABOUT ARRESTS AND THEIR SON’S DISAPPEARANCE
When Patricia Neal learned on November 17, 1962, that her seven-year-old daughter, Olivia, had died, the news was broken to her in the most brutal way.
The “gentle” little girl had been taken to hospital suffering complications from measles. While Olivia’s father, the then little-known author Roald Dahl, remained by her side, Hollywood star Patricia returned home briefly to check on their other children, Tessa and Theo.
She had no idea how serious Olivia’s condition was. But it was during that quick dash home that the phone rang.
It was the doctor, who told her: “Mrs Dahl, your daughter is dead.”
Roald was so consumed with his own grief, he was either unable – or simply did not think – to tell his wife himself.
It marked the beginning of a period of “deep darkness” for Roald, who was unable to mention Olivia’s name for months. His grief threatened to tear his marriage apart as he pushed Patricia away, drinking heavily and subjecting his family to cruel verbal abuse.
This dark period lies at the centre of a new film, To Olivia, which is released tonight on Sky Cinema, starring Hugh Bonneville, 57, and Keeley Hawes, 45, as Roald and Patricia.
It is based on the biography, Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life, written by the actress’s friend, Stephen Michael Shearer.
He heard from Patricia about Roald’s destructive descent in to grief.
Stephen reveals: “He plunged into a deep darkness, his life became hell. He was not sharing his grief, he was drinking a great deal. He was abusive, verbally, to Tessa and Pat.
“He ignored normal, everyday things. He was not thinking about the other children, he was consumed in his own grief. It was several months before he could even say Olivia’s name. Patricia felt she had lost her husband. She was not frightened of him, but frightened for him.”
Roald’s work on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – the novel which would make his name – was shelved for a year.
His one obsession became building a memorial on Olivia’s grave – a perfect world of tiny figurines, animals and trees for the little girl he adored.
Stephen writes: “He built a garden, a monument for her, and he was compulsive in his not letting her go. He was
DOTING DAD
keeping her alive by doing it, it was an obsession for him.” The couple’s youngest daughter Lucy, born in 1965, three years after Olivia’s death, once recalled the magical land, saying: “The grave was covered in miniature bonsai trees, lots and lots, and our responsibility was to keep them small. It was like a little world.
“Miniature figurines he would collect and put there, horses and sheep, little houses. The top of the grave covered them – unless you knew they were there you wouldn’t see them. We would go once a week without question.”
Patricia was already a Hollywood star when she met Roald at a dinner party in 1952. She had made her name in 1949 movie The Fountainhead, following it up with The Day The Earth Stood Still in