[h=1]Helen Bailey: Maps and Another Missing Woman[/h]I am putting up some links to Google maps, which might be especially helpful for non-UK members.
Also, in what is hopefully a completely unrelated crime investigation, a severed human head with teeth was found in a skiff in Ely, Cambridgeshire, the UK around 17 May 2016. The skiff had come from a quarry in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire, which is about an hour from Royston (Helen’s town).
Thinking to check out ALL missing women in the 4-county area of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Cambridgeshire, I came across news of Natalie Hemming, 31, of Milton Keynes, Bucks who had gone missing, and whose husband has been arrested for murder. Her body was found (see details below). But before Hemming’s body was found, Hemming AND Bailey were referenced together in at least one story about the severed head.
Now, quite separately but concurrent with Helen Bailey research, I began following the ‘severed head’ story last week, not realizing until yesterday (6/5/16) that one newspaper, the Sun, already included both Hemming and Bailey in their coverage of the gruesome find on 5/17/16!!! If someone else had noted this in the forums, I missed it.
Before my discovery yesterday, I had already mapped out the distance between where the head was found and Royston, Helen’s town. Links, including to the Sun coverage with a huge picture of Helen Bailey, can be found below in links roundup. Note that Royston is about 37 miles from Ely.
As the severed head story unfolded, there were several stories in which LE said things like: They didn’t know the gender, they didn’t believe it was associated with any other ongoing missing persons case and it had probably been severed for over a year. Subsequently, however, we discover that the man who found the head knew immediately it was that of a woman, he guessed her to be between 30-40, the head was not merely a skull but a semi-intact head, the forensic team later discovered the head had teeth, and they were now going to keep an open mind on its connection to existing cases.
In the same story, On 18 MY 2016, The Daily Mail reported that a post-mortem revealed the head
did not belong to Natalie Hemming (whose body has since been found)
or to Helen Bailey. (
Daily Mail).
However, in the same story, I found this confounding quote:
“A police spokesman said this afternoon: 'A post-mortem examination of a human head found in a quarry in Mepal on Monday has come back inconclusive. Specialists are still unable to identify whether the head belongs to a man or a woman, however, based on the information available at this time, it is believed the person died before January 1, 2015.’”
Nevertheless, I have included the media coverage and a couple maps related to the found body part in this roundup until these apparent discrepancies are cleared up, not the least of which is how would LE know it was not Hemming or Bailey if they didn’t know the gender?
Perhaps the answer is LE’s contention that the head had been severed sometime in 2014, whereas both women disappeared in 2015. Since this article appeared on 18 May 2016, we now know for certain the head does not belong to Natalie Hemming as her body
was found 22 May 2016 and confirmed as Mrs. Hemming in post mortem results released 25 May 2016.
The most recent coverage indicates LE is now looking all along the rail line for other parts of the body. They are now also saying it could be murder, suicide or an accident. The investigation in re: the teeth and dental records are apparently ongoing. The property where the body part was believed to have originated, Network Rail owns Sharnbrook in Bedfordshire.
So! As mentioned earlier, it is certainly hoped that LE was earlier correct when they said the found body part does not belong to Helen Bailey.
Beginning with maps having to do with any mention of an area in the stories JUST about Helen Bailey, we have these maps:
MAP LINKS
1.
Royston Helen Bailey’s home
2.
Broadstairs Where the note from Helen said she was going
3.
Northumberland Where Helen grew up, specifically, Newcastle.
4.
Hamlet of Westin Mistaken report that truck driver saw a woman matching Helen’s description in Baldock, later corrected to Westin, in a green coat but without a dog; later corrected to be unrelated to Helen’s disappearance when the green coat was found at her home.
5.
Hitchen Police Station LE that Ian Stewart called to report Helen missing on 4/15/16; he says she’d been missing since 4/11/16; last public sighting of Helen in Royston was apparently 4/11/16, although a merchant in Broadstairs, calling upon a 6-week old memory, was quite certain he saw and waved to Helen approximately 8 weeks after she had gone missing, This sighting has yet to be confirmed by any independent second witness.
Additional Map & Media Coverage Links
Next, maps for places mentioned in the severed head story, with an indication of distances.
6.
Royston to Ely Where severed head was
found
7.
Royston to Sharnbrook Bedfordshire Where skiff with the severed head
was said to be
from originally.
8.
The Sun Coverage of Severed Head 17 May 2016 First media coverage (that I found) to put Helen Bailey in a story about the severed head.
On balance, as a former reporter and editor, I find the UK media coverage of many things to be fraught with more implied questions stemming from, ironically, official answers and comments. There’s lots of backtracking and cross reference of media reports to sort through, misinformation to clear up, more questions to be asked (and answered) as well as, for me, unfamiliar geography. Maybe these maps will help someone get a sense of ‘place’ with regard to this story.
I entertained one moment of madness when I thought it might be interesting to map the train routes from Royston to everywhere from Bedfordshire to Brighton, through London. Fortunately, sanity reclaimed my existence, and one glance at the train maps will tell you why. The UK trains go seemingly everywhere, in every direction, at all hours. So, although LE is now checking train tracks in hopes of finding the body that belongs to the head, it is more likely to pass a camel through the eye of a needle, so vast and complex is the rail system.
