UK UK - Josephine Backshall, 39, murdered, Bury Green, near Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, 1974

[Damo]

Reports give two locations where Josephine's body was left - Little Hadham and Bury Green. They are some distance apart - see map - does anyone have a precise location that they can share?

I lived in Little Hadham at the time of the murder, was a 10 YO, and of course something like this sticks in the memory
The body was found in BURY GREEN and not LITTLE HADHAM.

I think at this grid ref (or close to), but Acremore St, Bury Green
Google Maps shows the entrance to field with gates, there were no gates back then and as I recall it was a manure dump with some concrete partitions used to retain the heap.

51.8697799, 0.0977728

 

[Damo]

Reports give two locations where Josephine's body was left - Little Hadham and Bury Green. They are some distance apart - see map - does anyone have a precise location that they can share?

also note that the pin marking Little Hadham on your map is not Little Hadham. But the point is still a good one, Little Hadham and Bury Green although very very close to each other, are not the same place.

 

[trendsetter]

also note that the pin marking Little Hadham on your map is not Little Hadham. But the point is still a good one, Little Hadham and Bury Green although very very close to each other, are not the same place.

You are quite right about the location of Little Hadham (Bing Maps put it in the wrong place for me). I have found your co-ordinates on a map (blue arrow on the attached) - is this correct?

The BBC reported: "He(sic) body was discovered in a field off Bury Green Lane, which leads to Bury Green, on the morning of 1 November." BBC NEWS | UK | England | Beds/Bucks/Herts | Police in hunt for 1974 strangler I can't find Bury Green Lane on any map - perhaps it's been renamed since 1974.
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Returning to the odd report (earlier on in this thread and referred to by me in a later post) that, on the night of her disappearance, she was going to a photoshoot in Cheltenham (why Cheltenham? why at night?). It seems that the only source for this is at: https://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crimearticle/josephine-backshall/; so, unless there is another more reliable source that someone can point to, this can almost certainly be discarded.

All the other news sources say merely that she left home to meet 'Peter' in Witham at 6:30 pm on the day she disappeared.

The truecrimelibrary also says: "There was a possibility she might have been alive when she was thrown out of a car." I find this claim totally implausible; again truecrimelibrary is the only source for this.

The truecrimelibrary also reports that her body was found in a shallow pond and I have circled the ponds in the area on the map - some are not close to roads or tracks so they can probably be discounted. However, again, I cannot find any other source for the 'pond' reference and confirmation or otherwise would be welcome.

 

[tes1984]

I lived in Little Hadham at the time of the murder, was a 10 YO, and of course something like this sticks in the memory
The body was found in BURY GREEN and not LITTLE HADHAM.

I think at this grid ref (or close to), but Acremore St, Bury Green
Google Maps shows the entrance to field with gates, there were no gates back then and as I recall it was a manure dump with some concrete partitions used to retain the heap.

51.8697799, 0.0977728

The locations of interest seem to be Maldon (her home), Witham (alleged appointment, potential seen broken down sighting, car found in a car park), Good Easter (potential pub sighting) and Bury Green (body found).

Can anyone with better mapping skills than mine try to plot a map?

As has been mentioned, it's around 35 miles from Josephine's home to where she is found. I don't know the area well at all, but Good Easter seems to be en route to Bury Green.

Her car was apparently found in a car park in Witham (and had been broken into). Do we know where this car park was, and how far it was from Collingwood Road, Witham, where the car breakdown potentially occurred?

 

[tes1984]

The composite sketch seems to depict a man older than early 30s. One newspaper article suggests he was in his 40s.

Josephine was reported to be wearing knee high black boots. Was that common attire in the mid 70s?

Josephine drove a red Ford Cortina Mark 3. The Mirror article (from earlier in this thread) suggests the killer drove a dark Ford Cortina Mark 2. Is it misreporting, or a coincidence that the killer has a very similar car?

Apparently Peter/Dave offers her £100 for the photoshoot. The average wage in 1974 was £48 a week. Does she think it's too good to be true?