Grisly discovery as police find body in search for kidnapped bride-to-be

“The body of kidnapped bank clerk, Susan Hockenhull, was found last night near Merebrook, Leek, in Staffordshire,” reported The Post on February 27, 1977.

“The hunt for 19-yearold Susan began on Friday after she disappeared from the branch of Williams & Glyn’s bank in Prestbury, Cheshire, where the knifed body of under-manager Ian Jebb was found.

“The body, which was identified by Susan’s father, Mr David Hockenhull, was found in open country.

“A post-mortem was being carried out last night. Yesterday a 10-man team combed scores of mines, shafts and fissures for mines for Susan.

“Police checked every room in every house in the area, while a helicopter swept open countryside. Ian Jebb’s fiancee, 22-yearold Avis Pollitt, said yesterday they were to have wed in August.”

Killer David Walsh was convicted of the murder of Hockenhull and Jebb. Walsh stabbed Jebb to death in an attempted bank robbery before kidnapping Hockenhull and taking her to remote moorland. Scars on her knees and knuckles suggested she had been dragged along the ground before being cruelly tied with her hands behind her back. She had been gagged and died of exposure in –7C temperatures.