UK UK - June, 7, & Royston Sheasby, 5, Stapleton, Bristol, 20 June 1957

I just heard of this in the Jo Yeates forum, very old unsolved case


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babes in the wood

The unsolved murder of June and Royston Sheasby (1957) - At about 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, 20th June 1957, June Sheasby, aged 7, and her brother Royston, aged 5, left their home in Brockworth Crescent, Stapleton, Bristol, for a walk towards Wickham Glen. When they failed to return a massive search involving thousands of people was launched, during which fields and woodland were scoured, police frogmen searched a pond, and near-by streams were dragged. Eleven days later on Monday, 1st July, the bodies of the Sheasby children were found buried side by side in a shallow grave among dense undergrowth in woods 100 yards from the River Frome at Snuff Mills Park.

A light covering of leaves and soil had been partly exposed by heavy rain. Both children had severe head injuries and fractured skulls. The patients of four mental hospitals around Bristol were questioned. Despite an extensive police investigation during which 25,000 people were interviewed and more than 2,000 statements were taken, the murderer remained at large...

Mrs Sheasby was so busy decorating the family home in Brockworth Crescent, Stapleton, that time simply flew by. When she finally took a break from her painting, she noticed the time with a fright - seven o'clock. Her children were always back by then, and she raised the alarm.

SO began the biggest child hunt Britain had ever seen...

'Tell this story,' the mother of the murdered children, Barbara Sheasby, would later implore. 'I don't want it to be forgotten. Things like that should never be forgotten.'

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One cannot say it any better than the children's mother did.

I wonder whether the police questioned the nurses at the psych hospitals?? In those days they knew the patients inside out

Just came across this story from reading something regarding Rebecca Watts. The connection only being the area of course but how sad that nobody has ever been found responsible for this crime. Had these children lived they would be 64 and 62 now. Their parents are sadly, most likely passed now but other family members will probably be alive. I wonder if these two children had any siblings or cousins who still haven't been able to completely move on through never truly knowing how they met their traumatic end and who was responsible. Tragic.

20 Jun 2017

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/unsolved-shocking-bristol-murder-babes-4326

Murdered children June and Royston Sheasby



Snip from the article:

60 years ago today, as Bristol struggled through another heatwave, two young children suddenly disappeared.

June and Royston Sheasby – aged just seven and five - disappeared without a trace after happily leaving their Stapleton home to go and look at some horses on Thursday 20, June 1957.

For nearly two weeks the whole city was on alert, searching for the youngsters, and then at around 9pm on July 1, a police constable made a startling discovery.

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badhorsie said:

The patients of four mental hospitals around Bristol were questioned.

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It was pretty common in those days to assume that people who killed children were "nutters", but that's probably because paedophiles were not yet on the radar of public or police. If this happened today, the first focus would be on rounding up every known local paedo and then every other known local sex offender for questioning.

I was young then, but I remember this.

No technology system, like Holmes, for the police then either - it was all so basic wasn't it - so I don't suppose they could check out similar crimes in other areas which must have been a huge disadvantage.

2 possible suspects are serial killer Sidney Cooke then living in Stroud 30 miles away. I have long suspected him of offending from being a young man.
Another is double killer John George Robinson who was then working as a lorry driver. Another I have suspected of wrongdoing before his first murder conviction in 1962

Sidney Cooke was almost certainly offending from a young age IMO. His first recorded offence was against a 14 year old boy in Weston Super Mare in 1961. Cooke was 33 years old and was fined £20 (Bristol Evening Post, 8th April 1961).

He's still alive, aged 97, and has allegedly boasted in prison of having killed 15 children.