TRAGEDY’S ‘DEVASTATING EFFECT’ ON FAMILY

THE long shadow of schoolgirl Joyce Cox’s murder continues to fall on her family more than 80 years after her death.

Since her body was discovered near a disused railway line in Cardiff no-one has been brought to justice for her murder.

The four-year-old was sexually assaulted and strangled after disappearing while walking home from school with her seven-yearold brother Dennis on September 28, 1939.

Despite bearing no blame for what happened to his sister Dennis never forgave himself.

Joyce’s cousin Terry Phillips, who wasn’t born at the time of the murder, said Joyce’s murder had a “devastating effect” upon his family. Speaking previously, Terry said: “Dennis never forgave himself for letting Joyce out of his sight as they walked home. He never came to terms with it and died [in 2007].”

Dave Gilkes-Cox is Joyce’s nephew and has previously described the impact her murder had on his family and especially his grandmother Irene, Joyce’s mother, who died in 2003.

Speaking in 2014, Dave said: “My gran never said anything at all to me about it. My father and mother were the ones who broached it.

“From an early age I knew there was something a bit different because I had to keep an eye on my brothers at the time and then on my sister.”

His wife Victoria said Joyce’s death was always “the elephant in the room”.

She added: “No-one ever wanted to upset Irene because she had been through hell.... I think she blocked it out. I don’t think she talked to anyone about it. When her health deteriorated and her mind used to wander she used to mention a little girl but she would never call her by name ever. It was the stiff upper lip – she just got on with it. That is what her generation were like.”

Joyce was buried in St Mary’s churchyard in Whitchurch and while the exact location of her grave is unknown her name adorns her mother’s tombstone.

All these years later no-one has ever been publicly linked to her murder, something which her family found unbearable.

Dave, who emigrated to

Australia, previously said: “There were no rumours of who had taken her or why it had happened... You look at a lot of the murders that have happened in recent years and mostly they are to do with someone they know.

“But our family never pointed the finger at anyone within the family or without. We just didn’t know. I spoke to my father’s cousins before I left to come to Australia and they did not know anything.”

He added: “My mother and father never told me anything about it until I was maybe 14... Everything clicked with me then about why I was keeping a close eye on my brother and sister... I couldn’t say I was shocked or anything like that. It meant I was responsible for my siblings and that I had some pressure.

“I guess that is the legacy of what happened, knowing what we know about Joyce being abducted and murdered. We know that happened.”

Victoria said she believed it was one of the oldest unsolved murders in Wales and with today’s technology the killer would probably have been caught. She added: “The police have said that if it happened now they would have solved it.

“The clothing that was found with her DNA on was not handled properly. So they are contaminated and they cannot now go back for DNA. We now have CCTV so they would have picked her up on that now. It would be a very different case now. But, as it is, the likelihood is that whoever did it is now dead.”