The Tragic case of the Bristol Babes in the Wood

today the stately italianate buildings near the river thr at fish ponds in Bristol are home to the health and applied sciences program at the University of the west of England during it62 year history the penet stone walls of this picturesque campus have seen their fair share of change during the first world war the building was requisitioned by the war office becoming the bord war Hospital bord saw nearly 30,000 wounded and Ill soldiers pass through its doors in 1996 the university moved in but for most of its existence the buildings were home to a psychiatric hospital first opened in 1861 as the Bristol POA Lunatic Asylum the hospital was eventually renamed the Bristol mental hospital and finally Glenside while the record of the hospital and all its iterations are now housed in the Bristol archives the stone walls of the campus still hold many Secrets among them may be the truth of what happened in 1957 to two young children Royston and Jun sheby Bristol's babes in the woods on Thursday June the 20th 1957 by Barbara sheby waved her two youngest children off as they went to look at the horses in a nearby Field Southern England was experiencing a heat wave and Barbara was undoubtedly thankful for a moment of Peace while she decorated the family's home in brockworth Cresent Bristol the children left home at about 5:30 p.m. walking hand in hand down the road distracted by her painting Barbara was shocked to discover the next time time she looked at the clock that it was already 700 p.m. and June aged 7 and Royston Age 5 was still gone she and her other son walked to Wickham Glenn where the children had said they were going but there was no sign of them police were soon called and a search of the area began the following day the sheb sent their oldest son 11-year-old John to school and then joined in the search themselves alongside a group of Boy Scouts police and public volunteers the search focused on the Stapleton area of Bristol which included the snuff Mills public park an area of wooded slopes cleaved by the river thr as news of the missing children spread volunteer search forces grew to over 1,000 civilians large groups were formed to search the three main Woods in the area Longwood Barnwood and Hermitage wood The Searchers walked in straight lines spaced a few yards apart traveling from one side of the woods to the other while the Boy Scouts were given the job of searching the old slag Heap the most likely Theory at the time was that the children had fallen into the water on the first day of searching a police tracker Dog Led his Handler to the bank of duess pond after picking up a c firemen immediately began working to lower the local fishing spot's water level pumping millions of gallons of water over the bridge and into a hollow that entered the thr so that frogmen from the Bristol sub Aqua Club could access all parts of the pond the snuff Mill wear Al low Dam near the Stapleton flower Mill was also heavily searched though with great difficulty superintendent auy Bert told the evening post quote some of the woods were almost impossible because of the thick undergrowth and there were many streams ponds and copses unquote local officials also urged Stapleton residents to search their Gardens green houses and out buildings for any sign of the missing children as tough as the search was the police went not without Witnesses after initially leaving for Wickham Glenn June and royon had been spotted by a neighbor five minutes later Jun was carrying a chocolate box and the children were alone a 10-year-old boy said he saw the pair around 6:30 p.m. and that they appeared to be watching the river and a local man recalled seeing two children that matched Jun and ryon's description fishing with a jam jar from a log in the river the man had told them to return to the bank which they did he then left after they were safely on land and a child who knew the pair reported seeing them near bamboo Island at 7:30 p.m. on June the 25th the situation seemingly changed when an unstamped and undated letter was delivered to a Bristol newspaper the notes read quote the children are alive and well at this moment it is useless for the police to continue searching we hope they enjoyed their bath in the river my brother and I took the children away on Thursday night and they will be returned unheard on payment of £200 this must be left at the GPO addressed to H rice to be called for on Wednesday afternoon my brother will collected but if he should be detained I shall kill the children after 2 hours from the time he leaves here if he is allowed to leave the children will be returned unheard signed West Indians unquote for Barbara and Jesse sheby The Ransom letter instilled new fears but also fresh hope for days it had seemed that they would watch their children's bodies be pulled from the river now it was possible that June and Royston were still alive with only2 200 standing between them and being reunited with their son and daughter dummy Parcels of notes were left at the Bristol General post office as teams of detectives watched the area carefully for the next 3 days but no one ever arrived to claim the money the police were forced to concede that the ransom note was simply a wicked hoax though they were unable to rule out the possibility of kidnapping it didn't seem likely any longer the effort to find June and Royston continued with large groups of women volunteering their help as male Searchers were forced to return to work by June 29th the police were confident that the children were nowhere on land in the area near their home and all rivers and ponds in the area had been searched the following day police told local news quote the river has been abortive so far but we cannot of course rule it out tree roots weeds and potholes are so plentiful there that we could go on dragging forever and not turn out anything except old cans and bicycles but we shall carry on and unless something new comes along I shall not ask for any more help from the public although they have have done a grand job unquote indeed they had at its peak the search for June and Royston included as many as 10,000 volunteers late in the evening of July the 1st police officer Derek Bruff was searching a slope near snuff Mills when he noticed a small hand protruding from the leaves that led the forest Flor beneath that lay the body of 5-year-old Roy and sheby Bru quickly called for help scouring the nearby area for any sign of June flood lights were erected the area was cordoned off and police began collecting evidence just after midnight royston's body was removed in a Coffin by four police officers upon lifting him investigators discovered that his sister 7-year-old June was lying underneath though police had previously searched the area unseasonal heavy rains had exposed the shallow grave still wearing the clothes they'd had on when last seen by their mother Jun and Royston had both been severely beaten each had sustained skull fractures and police believed they had been bludgeoned with a blunt instrument with the chilling discovery of the two small bodies the investigation quickly shifted from missing persons to a double murder the news of the discovery shook the Bristol Community to its core murders were rare and the murders of small children rarer still parents who had lived through the blitz just 16 years earlier thought their anxieties were over that they could raise their children without the fear that marred their childhoods now a five and seven-year-old had been brutally murdered with no apparent motive whatsoever the thought of a killer capable of such a heinous crime prowling the woods where their children played was a fear they couldn't have imagined the dense cops where Royston and June were found was about a 100 yards from the river and Grove wood the grave was merely a few steps from the ground at the Bristol mental hospital as police continued searching the woods for Clues and the post-mortems were underway lines of inquiry began in Earnest police were hoping to determine if any patients who had a history of violence toward children had been out on the hospital grounds the evening June and Royston disappeared but their questioning was not limited just to Bristol Hospital three other mental health facilities in the area Stoke Park brentry and per down were also heavily focused on in the early days of the investigation just hours after the bodies of June and Roy and sheby had been discovered a patient escaped from Pur down mental hospital by climbing down a drain pipe the police reported that he had been transferred to per down from the rampton state mental institution a criminal facility shockingly it was not the only escape to happen that week a man from the Bristol Hospital was missing but later found and cleared by police another who was missing from brentry was also traced and eliminated the only solid lead police seem to have in the case were reports of a man wearing a blue suit who spoke to an off-duty fireman near a place the children were seen playing the day they disappeared another witness saw the man sitting on a log on the bank of the river not far from the Glade where the bodies were discovered Ed he was described as being 5' 10 in tall and between the ages of 40 and 45 another report of a man seen peering through bushes at children near Grove wood could have indicated the same suspect he was described as having dark hair and wearing steel or horn rimmed glasses police desperately search for the man in blue but to no avail while they knew they were courting couples who had been in the area at the time and may have seen something it's believed fear of judgment due to social norms around dating kept these Couples from coming forward in early July police received an anonymous letter written on Pale Blue Note Paper the note which police did not release to the public was said to be just 20 words long and contain confirmation of something the police already suspected believing the letter writer to have information that could further help the investigation they issued a public statement asking for the person who penned it to come forward Jun and royon were buried in philton on July the 9th detectives attended hoping to blend into the crowd and catch sight of anyone suspicious the details of the funeral had been kept private but a crowd of nearly 100 still attended outside the sheby home 20 reads were laid in their front garden and a brief service was held at the family's Church before the burial at Harry Stoke Cemetery the same day police began a new door-to-door inquiry visiting some 2,000 homes in the Stapleton area the day after the funeral it was reported that the anonymous letter writer had come forward voluntarily to speak with police investigators agreed to keep the person's identity is secret but did reveal that it was a woman police only confirmed that their interview with the woman tied up a line of inquiry the same day it was reported that a patient from brentry was questioned after absconding from the hospital it was believed that the patient had in his possession a letter addressed to Barbara and Jesse sheby along with a newspaper clipping showing a photograph of June and Roy but again investigators did not elaborate on the interview only saying he told us a remarkable story but there are not going to be any further developments arising out of our interview with him the beg Brook Primary School parent teacher organization organized a fundraiser to send the sheby family to Blackpool for a vacation at the end of July the day their train departed Bristol two police officers has questioned a person in the Midlands about their possible involvement in the case the man who was being held on a breaking an entering charge had made a statement that police thought could refer to the murders but he had a rock solid Alibi for the night of June the 20th and the lead went no further meanwhile inquiries continued among the 1,200 patients at Bristol mental hospital the 700 at per down and the 5,000 at Stoke Park Barbara sheby advised police to question female patients as she had often warned June against interacting with strange men questioning the mental patient proved far more difficult than the police could possibly have known dozens of false confessions accusations and distractions kept the police from making any real Headway and finding the killer one patient of particular interest was known as a Storyteller an elderly gentleman who was known to tell stories to children at snuff Mills Park having parole privileges from Bristol mental hospital he could be seen on occasion telling stories to groups of children About Davy Crockett and William Tell but on July 17th police told reporters quote he has been most Cooperative but we find he is quite unable to help help us any further in our inquiries no doubt he will be down in the park again sometime singing his songs and telling his stories and there is no reason that we can see why he should be regarded with suspicion unquote while still focusing heavily on interviewing patients at the local Mental Hospitals Bristol Police also asked for help in other jurisdictions in widening their search but expanding the net failed to yield anything significant for weeks there was no news to report on the case then on August the 20th a 26-year-old male nurse was questioned for 32 hours after he was overheard telling someone he would be forced out of Bristol over allegations that he was a child murderer police questioned the man's land lady searched his lodgings examined staff records at his place of employment and even collected samples of clothing for analysis and yet all the leads fizzled out quickly the same man was questioned again years later still to no avail soon weekly updates in the local newspapers turned to monthly and then only a few year the brutal murder of two young children that had once drawn thousands to search had faded from the collective Consciousness then in 1964 Dr Arthur hey Williams a home office psychiatrist told a London conference that a prisoner serving a sentence for a minor offense had confessed to killing two children shortly before his death according to the doctor the patient had died of a guilty conscience having carried the weight of murdering a small boy and girl after learning of the psychiatrist's claim Bristol Police attempted to obtain permission to view a document containing the confession but their request was denied and their most promising line of inquiry in years was finished before it began Dr H Williams likewise refused to give further information the confession was a cruel dead end for Barbara and Jesse sheby why had Dr Hy revealed the information only to refuse to add any meaningful context there were no other murders of small children in recent years so who else could the prisoner have been referring to was the man once a patient at a Bristol area mental hospital did he wear horn rimmed glasses was he seen near the river thr on June 20th 1957 the answer to these questions were mercilessly kept from The Grieving family and the investigators trying so hard to bring them closure there have been no further leads in the murders of jun and royon sheby despite police questioning over 25,000 people in connection with the crime there has been no new leads in the murders of June and royon sheby despite the police talking to over 25,000 people in connection with the crime it's hard not to wonder if the in investigations intense focus on the area's Mental Hospitals meant that a killer free from the stigma attached to mental illness was allowed to slip past unnoticed now over 66 years have passed since June and royon sheby were murdered on the banks of the river FR eyewitnesses who may have seen something useful and now scattered to the winds detectives who work the case are long since retired or buried Barbara and Jesse sheby died without closure or Justice John cheby who should have had a brother and sister by his side spent the rest of his life as an only child today snuff Mills Park remains a popular Bristol Beauty Spot though some visitors have claimed to feel a profound sense of uneasy whilst walking through the woods near the river the Mental Hospitals that serve the area have been closed Consolidated or renovated the stone walls of the old Bristol mental hospital the slow moving Waters of the river thr and the wooded copses between them continue to hold their secrets while Justice remains elusive I think we can all agree a rather harrowing story that I do hope in the future we get to find out who made that confession do let me know your thoughts in the box below thanks for watching and indeed thank you to the viewer who suggested that we cover this case you are all indeed very welcome to leave your comments and suggestions for what stories we cover next right then take care and I'll see you next time with another story to make you say well I never

Channel: Well, I Never

Views: 77,363

Keywords: well i never, paul brodie, True crime, Documentary, bristol babes in the wood, june and royston sheasby, bristol true crime, true crime uk, 1950s true crime, true crime documentary, snuff mills murder

Id: Vs28KZ7DnW0

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024