New Investigation Launched Into 1965 Schoolgirl Murder

A major re-investigation has been launched into the 1965 murder of a Wakefield schoolgirl after new lines of enquiry were uncovered by police.

14-year-old Elsie Frost was murdered on a towpath near the Calder and Hebble Canal in October 1965.

Officers now believe Elsie may have been meeting someone in secret, possibly a boyfriend, in the weeks leading up to her death and are appealing for anyone who can identify that person to contact them.

They have also appealed for information to identify a previously unknown man in a white coat on a bicycle who was seen near the murder scene on the afternoon she died.

West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team are making the appeal as part of a first ever full re-investigation of the murder.

"Elsie's death may be many decades ago but the pain of her loss remains as fresh as ever for her brother Colin and sister Anne," said Detective Chief Inspector Elizabeth Belton, who is leading the reinvestigation.

"Her brutal murder shattered their family and with such a significant anniversary near, I would ask anyone who may not have come forwards then, for whatever reason, to do so now and provide them with answers."

Elsie was attacked on the afternoon of October 9th 1965 as she made her way home on a towpath next to the Calder and Hebble Canal in Wakefield.

It is thought she had been watching friends sail on what is now Horbury Lagoon and decided to leave at around 3.50pm, making a different way home to those she was with.

While entering a railway tunnel just off the canal towpath (which now leads onto Monckton Road) she was attacked from behind and stabbed in the back and twice in the head.

A knife blow also pierced a hand which officers believe she had put up behind her head to defend herself.

Her body was later found at the bottom of the 'ABC' railway service steps by a dog walker at about 4.15pm, with a post mortem confirming she had suffered stab wounds to her head and body and died of shock and blood loss.

Local Wakefield Police and the Metropolitan Police, who were asked to assist in the case, mounted a major investigation and interviewed hundreds of residents but her killer was never caught.

Cold case detectives from West Yorkshire have reviewed the case in the past to see if there was any fresh evidence, but have never mounted a full scale re-investigation until now.

The new investigation has, in part, been made possible by the recruitment of new civilian investigators into the Major Investigation Review Team which reviews historic cases.

(MH/CD)