Western Daily Press (Saturday)
‘Finding Simon would mean everything to us’
THE family of a suspected victim of the ‘Frankenstein’ killer who disappeared from a Navy ship in the mid-1980s have opened up the family album while police carry out a dig for his remains.
Naval rating Simon Parkes was only 18 when he vanished without trace in the final leg of a five-month worldwide deployment on HMS Illustrious in 1986.
His family have spent nearly four decades desperate for closure and are convinced he was another victim of serial killer Allan Grimson, a former petty officer, who was also serving aboard HMS Illustrious at the time.
Grimson was jailed for 22 years in 2001 then aged 42 for the murder of naval rating Nicholas Wright, 18 from Leicester, and barman Sion Jenkins, 20, from Newbury. Grimson, dubbed ‘Frankenstein’, has always denied involvement in the disappearance of Simon, although his family maintain they are “100 per cent certain” he was responsible.
His mother Margaret Parkes says they are hopeful the latest dig in Gibraltar, which she has been told was based on new evidence coming forward, could finally give them the answers they crave.
The dig is also effectively a race against time as Grimson is up for parole on February 15 this year, with Simon’s family pleading with the board to leave him to suffer a full life sentence like they have.
Opening up the family photo album to showcase treasured pictures of Simon from a toddler through to his experiences on the ship before he went missing, Margaret, of Kingswood, near Bristol, said she hopes they might finally be on the brink of a breakthrough.
She said: “The police have told us that due to new information they are in Gibraltar this week searching but apart from that we haven’t had any more information. It is based on new evidence that has come forward. I do know but I cannot tell you what that is at the moment.
“We do hope the dig will mean his remains will be found. It will mean everything to us as a family.”
Margaret, 75, said at the beginning the assumption was that Simon had just gone awol and after an initial search proved fruitless they went more than a decade with barely any contact from the authorities. It wasn’t until Grimson was convicted of the other two murders that a link was made between him and Simon.
Margaret said the first years before Grimson emerged as a suspect were the hardest.
“We were just feeling so helpless,” she said.
“We are just ordinary people and we didn’t know how to go through to the military and what to do. We made our own posters in those days - there was no mobile phones, no social media, no outlets for talking to people. There was a big search initially and there were 500 people out looking for him at one point.
“At the time it was easier to accept he was awol than the alternative that he was dead – we couldn’t process that.”
Margaret added: “The search quickly went quiet and there were no leads for years. Then suddenly it was a phone call from Hampshire Police asking us to come and see them.
“That was awful but it was a relief to think we could hand this over to someone and they are dealing with it – at least we might get answers.”
Margaret said that while they hope for the ‘concrete’ evidence to prove beyond doubt Grimson is responsible, she implored the parole board not to even consider letting him go next month.
She added: “As the years have gone on, more has come forward and there is more evidence and hopefully it becomes more likely we can get the CPS to authorise charges.
“I think everything has to be done to prevent him getting parole and I am really hoping this will do it.”
Paying tribute to Simon, Margaret who moved to her home in Kingswood with husband David a year after the disappearance, said: “He was just a typical 18-year-old. He loved having fun and was always the joker. He always got on with people of all ages.
“He was a bit naive and had never really left home before this trip. But everyone I spoke to said what a nice guy he was and they always remember him.
“We thought doing a trip like he did was such an adventure but that he would be in such a safe place. That was the feeling – he was with the Navy and just doing his job.
“But of course he wasn’t safe.”