Sept 12, 2016 (Podcast in the link)
Episode 2 part one: April Fabb, April 1969
April Fabb was born on 22 April 1955 in Metton, Norfolk. She lived at 3 Council Houses, with her father Albert, her mother Olive and her sister, Diane. She had another sister, Pamela, who lived with her husband and young son on Cromer Road in Roughton.
Metton is a small enclave of houses barely large enough to be classed as a village and not far from Cromer, a small fishing town on the North Norfolk coast.
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The school holidays were half way through, and April was busy enjoying her holiday time, relaxing, socialising and planning a gift for her brother-in-law’s birthday.
April is described as being a shy girl, but friendly and sensible. She was a caring, self-sufficient young woman, able to make her own clothes, a reliable and regular babysitter for a local family.
Like many rural children, April spent a lot of her time cycling around the local lanes and roads to see friends, family and just to explore the local area. She was well liked and attended the local church regularly with her family.
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Former head of Norfolk CID, Maurice Morson, wrote this of April: “April Fabb may have been described as a child but she was approaching young womanhood, blue eyed, fair haired, well developed young girl with a pretty oval face. Her pleasantly shy manner was appropriate to a country girl intent upon her own interests, displaying a natural quiet companionship and a diffidence to strangers, traits that would later occupy the minds of many who had never met her.”
One of her interests’ was in making her own clothes, at which she was rather talented. She also had a naturally caring personality towards animals.
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On the day she went missing, April rose around 10am and began making plans for the week whilst doing some washing up. Her mother returned to their home, 3 Council Houses, Metton at around 10:15.
They spoke briefly before Mrs Fabb collected some dusters, leaving once more for the local rectory where she was cleaning. April and her mother had lunch together upon her return a few hours later.
She told her mother that she was going to call her friend Gillian to make arrangements for a visit to Norwich the next day. April had made the same plans with her friend Susan, with whom she occasionally babysat for farmer Harrison. Susan’s summer job at a hotel in Cromer, however, prevented her from taking up the plans she and April had had.
In the late 1960s most houses in rural areas were without a telephone in the house, so April took her bicycle to a nearby phone box and called her friend from there. Arrangements made and confirmed, April arrived home no more than ten minutes later, happier than she had been following the disappointment from the news that Susan could not accompany her.
April made the decision to take a pack of 10 Players Weights cigarettes and a handkerchief to her brother-in-law in Roughton. A familiar journey April would have made as regular part of seeing her family members. A journey that would have not concerned her or her mother.
Prior to leaving April changed out of a pair of brown slacks into a
wine coloured skirt and, unusually it seems, white knee length socks. With this she wore a green jumper and wooden soled shoes with brass buckles. Her hair was tied up with a brown crinkly ribbon. It was normal for April to wear a little lipstick when visiting her sister, and today was no different.
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April collected the gifts, placing the cigarettes in the folds of the handkerchief, and placed them in a brown paper bag. From the table she took five pence ha’penny. April and her mum then discussed if her mother was going to go with her, but Mrs Fabb had some sewing to do. April asked if she would need a coat but her mother didn’t think it would be necessary as it was such a warm day.
April then left after calling out “Cherrio”.
April’s mother watched her take her bicycle from the garage and set off. The time was between 2pm and ten past two.
A mere one hundred yards into her journey, April stopped to talk to some friends who were in a field where a local farmer kept his donkey. This field was known locally as The Donkey Field.
She had, it seems, chosen a quite route for her journey, a narrow country road called Back Lane. Her choice may have been influenced by a sweetshop en route, and the pennies she had with her.
She spent around ten minuets’ with her friends and the donkey before telling them she was on her way to her sister’s house.
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Just after 2pm, Farmer Harrison, driving a Land Rover, saw April riding her distinctive blue and white bicycle along Roughton Road, Metton, in the direction of Roughton. At the time she was on the wrong side of the road. Given the rural nature of the place and the volume of traffic at the time – considerably less than today, this would not have been cause for concern.
This was, however, the last confirmed sighting of April Fabb. During the investigation police and the driver re-enacted his journey it is apparent that he would have been at the location where he saw her at six minutes past two.
At around 2:15pm three surveyors from the Ordinance Survey saw April’s bicycle lying in a field on the Metton to Roughton Road as they passed in a van. It was just a few hundred yards from where she had last been seen.
Within a time frame of little more than a few minutes, April had disappeared.
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At 3pm, David Empson was driving his brown Vauxhall Viva towards Metton, on the Cromer Road. He was with his mother, who, from the passenger seat saw the bicycle lying in the field. They interrupted their journey by turning left off the Cromer Road at Pillar Box Corner, then left again into Back Lane to examine the find.
They stopped in Back Lane near to where it had been seen, but it was not possible to see the bike directly from the road as it was the other side of a small embankment. David climbed over it and crossed the freshly ploughed field, looked at the bicycle, returned to his mother where they discussed what they should do. It was agreed that they should take the bicycle to the local police station and hand it in. Duly David went back across the field, picked up the bike and put it in his car. An action he was later to publicly regret.
They took the bike to the Police House at Roughton and handed it over to the care of PC Chiddick. PC Chiddick took the bike and placed it in his garage. The significance of the find was, at this point unknown. David Epsom suggested that it was possibly stolen, a perfectly acceptable line thought given what was known at the time.
On inspecting the bicycle, they found a paper bag containing a handkerchief, 10 Players Weights cigarettes and fivepence ha’penny, in a white saddlebag. PC Chiddick telephoned the details through the main station in Cromer.
It was not until 8.45pm that concern for April began to surface. She had not returned home, and her mother had, until then assumed that she was still at her sisters. As neither family had private telephones, it was impossible for them to ring and check.
Night was coming and April’s bike had no lights, she was also afraid of the dark. Olive Fabb rode to her daughter’s house, hoping that her youngest would be there. Sadly she was not. Alarm started to build and on her journey back to her house, Olive met her husband, Ernest. She explained the situation with as much as she knew – that April was not home and that she had not arrived at her sisters. Albert Fabb immediately went to the rectory and began calling around. She was not the hospital, her friends had last seen her about two o’clock. At 10pm the police were called in Cromer. PC Chiddick took the call.
During the course of the call, where her father described her and her bicycle, PC Chiddick realised who the owner of the bicycle that sat in his garage was. The beginning of the police investigation into the disappearance of April Fabb was finally underway.
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An RAF helicopter was used on the first day to search the area immediately surrounding where April’s bicycle had been ground. Officers on the ground undertook a thorough search by hand, and slowly people within the vicinity began to come forward.
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Police focus turned to the bicycle. Detective Sergeant Dick Brass undertook the examination of it. It was well looked after, looked new and was generally smart. The only damage that could be seen was to the bell on the handlebars which was bent slightly, and was most likely from the being thrown into the field from the top of the small embankment at the field edge.
The position of the bicycle had been roughly six feet from edge of the field meaning that whoever had thrown it there – the conditions in the field were unsuitable for it having been rolled there from the bank, must have been quite physically strong.
Whatever had happened it was clear that the contents of the saddlebag were not of interest to the person who had thrown the bicycle and they, it can logically be assumed, abducted April. Suspicions of a traffic accident were ruled out as there was neither damage to the bike or the tell-tale debris from a collision.
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DS Brass carried out a thorough and methodical examination of the bicycle. It resulted in only one serviceable print being found on the handlebars. Following comparisons with April’s from items at her home, it’s was ruled out as hers.
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Norfolk would be rocked on the 2nd of September when another child, eleven year old Stephen Newing, would vanish from outside of his home in Fakenham, just twenty or so miles from Metton.
(much more at link)
Still At Large - Unsolved British Murders - Podcast
poor girl, I really hope that someone is able to give her family some peace.
