UK UK - Kevin Hicks, 16, Croydon, 2 Mar 1986

[Mrs Marple]

Never-ending search for missing family members | Your Local Guardian

This old article says that he went to John Ruskin school, and his friends were questioned the next day. I suppose if they thought they were looking at a runaway, they would not have had the same urgency.

There seems to be discrepancies over the timing, as some articles say he left at 19.40, some 20.40, and some around 21.00. I thought it was sloppy journalism at first, but as this article mentions his father wasn't home at the time Kevin left, l wonder if the timeline isn't certain.

It also seems odd that the father would say if he was going to be late he would phone. Why would he be late, if he was only going to the corner shop? Perhaps Kevin did disappear off when he said he was popping out.

One thing that is certainly bothering me though is why he took his bike for a two minute walk.

 

[sportstergirl]

Brian Field is likely responsible. It's an area he is familiar with and he was travelling throughout the UK repairing agricultural equipment.I also think there's a link between Kevin Hicks, Lee Boxall & John Garvey

 

[Jackalyn]

Never-ending search for missing family members | Your Local Guardian

This old article says that he went to John Ruskin school, and his friends were questioned the next day. I suppose if they thought they were looking at a runaway, they would not have had the same urgency.

There seems to be discrepancies over the timing, as some articles say he left at 19.40, some 20.40, and some around 21.00. I thought it was sloppy journalism at first, but as this article mentions his father wasn't home at the time Kevin left, l wonder if the timeline isn't certain.

It also seems odd that the father would say if he was going to be late he would phone. Why would he be late, if he was only going to the corner shop? Perhaps Kevin did disappear off when he said he was popping out.

One thing that is certainly bothering me though is why he took his bike for a two minute walk.

 

[Jackalyn]

I can understand the bike. I lived so near as a child. It was not unusual to take a bike and there were several routes Kevin could take to the shop. It was just far enough to use a bike to be quick or if you wanted to get elsewhere. Route 1 is straight down the road to the shop. That is fast. Kevin could also go down his own road into the park and then along the path and double back into Lower Addiscombe Road for a longer journey or cross the road and go through a side road and double back the other way to the shop. If you fancied a bike ride you might take the longer routes. What strikes me is if you intended going further than the 7/11 you might take a bike. Kevin ended up on the Shirley Road walking down it . Any side road by the 7/11 would take you to Bingham Road. A jaunt further towards Shirley would need a bike or be a fairly long walk.

What strikes me is Kevin ends up on the Shirley Road without the bike. This is odd as if you had a bike, you would use it. Unless the bike lost a chain etc. There is no mention of that.

Now I think about it, Kevin may have been taken to wherever left him needing to walk down the Shirley Road, but his disappearance would still occur either on the Shirley Road, the Lower Addiscombe Road and or in the lane by Ashburton Park that led to his house if he went that way (Most likely from the Shirley Road and it has no cars.) Or Blackhorse Lane on the way back to his house. Beyond Kevin's road this leads to the railway bridge and Woodside School on the left.

So why would Kevin abandon his bike and walk?

If Kevin went back for his bike he ended up back on the Lower Addiscombe Road walking back to the 7/11. This is not far and there is a crossing just where his road begins so it is likely he would use that if he went to get the bike.

In reality the window for Kevin to disappear is small if the Shirley Road sighting is true. However he went his house is not that far.

What makes sense to me is Kevin visits somewhere involving a walk up and returning down Shirley Road. He probably intended that.

Eggs for an exam could easily have been bought on the way to school in the morning as the 7/11 is near a bus stop. (Open from 7.am.)

Returning from wherever down Shirley Road shows an intention to return home but possibly to a bit of trouble at home given going for the eggs required a short time.

As far as the sighting goes Kevin is not in distress on the Shirley Road.

I keep coming back to Lower Addiscombe Road. It is a wierd road. It can be busy or deserted for no apparent reason.

 

[Jackalyn]

What is the 7/11 a club?

It was a shop.

 

[Jackalyn]

Brian Field is likely responsible. It's an area he is familiar with and he was travelling throughout the UK repairing agricultural equipment.I also think there's a link between Kevin Hicks, Lee Boxall & John Garvey

But Addiscombe and surrounding area is not agricultural.

 

[sportstergirl]

No but Field could have been in the area and the urge to kill taken him over when spotting a possible victim

 

[Jackalyn]

So just now I am watching my grandson in Ashburton Park. Walking there I realised that on foot down the Shirley Road the logical route is down the path by the park. Kevin's road ends in a car park and this is an entrance to the park. Just before that you have the swing park on the right. Not many houses have an entrance onto the park. I began to wonder why they would search Shirley Hills when Kevin is seen walking down Shirkey Road towards Ashburton Park. If Kevin did not go to retrieve his bike, then the area he could have come to harm is very small. (I think park gates would be locked at night.) It consists of a narrow pathway, where there is some lighting now but no idea about back then, the car park and his own road. And of course where he would cross Lower Addiscombe Road at the end of Shirley Road. The park entrance is opposite. No idea what I am trying to say above I am sitting here wondering about that car park.

 

[sonz82]

I don't believe marks dissapearance is related, he was from Liverpool. But it is bizzare that mark and Kevin vanished on the same day exactly a year apart.

 

[dotr]

"Aug 17, 2019
This drawing is of missing teenager Kevin Hicks (from Croydon, UK) who went missing on March 2nd 1986 at around 8.40pm after telling his mother he had to go to the shop for some eggs."

 

[BGoodwin94]

From what I have read, it was unclear if police did actually carry out door-to-door queries. But the police believe that he was being groomed, after finding some expensive audio equipment hidden in his bedroom. I'm guessing that it's not normal for kids aged 16 and in the 1980s to have such equipment unless it's stolen or been given as a gift.

Looking at the map, there are train tracks in the vicinity of where he went missing. If the police hadn't carried out door-to-door queries, what's to say that they never checked the train tracks for his body?

Then there's drugs, which could explain the expensive equipment found in his bedroom.

Apparently, Kevin had gone to the shop with £1 to get some eggs for a school cooking exam which was the next day. From what I can gather in articles, he just used that as an excuse to get out of the house and without his house keys, which is strange in itself. Leaving the house at 8:30pm without keys must mean that he intended in coming back, after all the shop is not that far away. To say he didn't intend on coming back home must have meant he had a bag with him that contained clothes, food etc but can't see any evidence from articles to suggest that.

With school, I think he attended Shirley High School.

There was another boy that went missing 2 years later, Lee Boxell who was 15 years old. As of 2011, an investigation had opened up concentrating on a paedophile ring at the local youth club. Again, if you put Sutton High Street/Selhurst Park (where Lee went missing) and Shirley Road (where Kevin went missing) into the map, they are extremely close. Kevin could have been a victim of the same ring.

A phone call was made in 1996, 10 years after the disappearance of Kevin where the caller told the police that they knew where Kevin's body was but the caller hung up the phone.

Oh my! I used to live off of Lower Addiscombe Road and had never realised this had happened. I was grown up and left by 1986, but that is truly too close to home. Somehow I have a memory of a boy going missing, but really thought it was in the 1950's. Can anyone shed any light on that for me?

For some reason I thought the boy went to the same school as me. Does anyone know what school Kevin went to?

I keep thinking what could have happened. I know the route and my best guess he was taken into a car somewhere along the way. I think there are a lot of alley ways behind houses in this area, but the dustmen use them so I would have thought they would find anything.

It is odd. The papers do not say what school he went to and everything is all very near Ashburton Park which we discussed on the Tia Sharp thread.

Here is a map. Sissinghurst Road is between Widehurst Road and Black Horse Lane. FB COMMENTS

I am racking my brains as to where the 7 eleven was but I think it would have been at the end of Blackhorse Lane so his most likely route is down Widehurst Road and at a guess turning left as I think Blackhorse Lane end would be too far down for the 7 eleven.

To get to it you would have to cross Lower Addiscombe Road. That is unless I am wrong and it is sonewhere on the right on the other side where the Co-OP is now?

He was certainly not going far.

Addiscombe station is a fair walk down Lower Addiscombe Road and it was never easy to get to anywhere apart from, I think, Norwood from it. There is a bus stop which would have been in use (12 and 197 buses at that time I would think still, at the end of Blackhorse Lane after the crossing.

The Black Horse Pub was at the end of Blackhorse Road and I wonder if that was stil open when Kevin disapeared. Did they ever ask in there?

Places a lad might get to therefore in the immediate area: IF he was meeting or met up with friends -but nobody saw.

?Blackhorse pub
?Ashburton Park
?Hop on a bus to Croydon or the other way to Norwood.

Someone would surely have seen a hit and run.

Lower Addiscombe Road is fairly busy.

 

[BGoodwin94]

Has anyone suggested the pedo Brian Field? (or Fields, can't remember). He killed a boy in 1968 in Surrey and the kid was a little younger than Kevin. Also, he may have taken two boys on Boxing Day 1996.

I have just read an information disclosure pack from the Met Police that doesn't deny or confirm that a Mr William Lambert was involved. There is an article made by a friend of Lee's who was sexually assaulted by Mr Lambert, a gravedigger at the time and is now in prison serving time (as of 2011). But I do think there is a connection between Lee and Kevin.

 

[Jackalyn]

From what I have read, it was unclear if police did actually carry out door-to-door queries. But the police believe that he was being groomed, after finding some expensive audio equipment hidden in his bedroom. I'm guessing that it's not normal for kids aged 16 and in the 1980s to have such equipment unless it's stolen or been given as a gift.

Looking at the map, there are train tracks in the vicinity of where he went missing. If the police hadn't carried out door-to-door queries, what's to say that they never checked the train tracks for his body?

Then there's drugs, which could explain the expensive equipment found in his bedroom.

Apparently, Kevin had gone to the shop with £1 to get some eggs for a school cooking exam which was the next day. From what I can gather in articles, he just used that as an excuse to get out of the house and without his house keys, which is strange in itself. Leaving the house at 8:30pm without keys must mean that he intended in coming back, after all the shop is not that far away. To say he didn't intend on coming back home must have meant he had a bag with him that contained clothes, food etc but can't see any evidence from articles to suggest that.

With school, I think he attended Shirley High School.

There was another boy that went missing 2 years later, Lee Boxell who was 15 years old. As of 2011, an investigation had opened up concentrating on a paedophile ring at the local youth club. Again, if you put Sutton High Street/Selhurst Park (where Lee went missing) and Shirley Road (where Kevin went missing) into the map, they are extremely close. Kevin could have been a victim of the same ring.

A phone call was made in 1996, 10 years after the disappearance of Kevin where the caller told the police that they knew where Kevin's body was but the caller hung up the phone.

The train tracks are on the bridge just before Woodside School. I went to school there. This bridge has been closed as unsafe for a while but they will or are working on it soon. I do not think Kevin got as far as there but who knows.It is after his road in the direction he was walking home. I do wonder about drugs. Addiscombe has never been drug free. However, I still think the answer has to lie in the lane leading to the car park in Ashburton Park. He was alive and not missing walking down Shirley Road. However one wonders as usual if the police know more than they let on as searching Shirley Hills seems odd. It is like they expected to find him as a body in park or woodland.

 

[JerseyGirl]

still missing: The heartbreaking faces of 54 London children who are currently missing

Age at disappearance: 16

Missing Since: March 2, 1986

Missing from: Croydon

Reference No: 92-000027

 

[dotr]

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[approveds]

Can anyone remember the murder of Bulic Forsyth?... Ive posted this one several of the missing posts from London as there is potential relevance.

From memory Forsyth worked for Lambeth Council in 1993 and confided in a work colleague he was about to reveal something but about VIP paedophiles operating In Lambeth and using council premises.

Two days later he was murdered and his house set alight. No one was ever arrested let alone prosecuted.

With people missing like Martin Allen, Lee Boxall, Kevin Hicks (police today believe he was murdered) and countless other 'missing children', it makes me wonder if there is more than meets the eye with these disappearances. I mean children, seemingly going about there day to say life suddenly vanishing more often than not with little evidence.

Thoughts appreciated...

I think that every case is different, and not related. The Martin Allen case, and the Kevin Hicks case are similar in that people may have taken advantage of them.

 

[approveds]

The more I think about it, if Kevin was seen waking around at 10 pm that night, maybe the person he was meeting made him wait longer. Just to make sure that he was alone and less people /witnesses around. I don't believe he was randomly taken. Seems unlikely.

It looks as though he was returning from somewhere, and he was on his own?

 

[approveds]

Actually, I have a theory. Leaving his bike at the shop he walked up one of the side roads towards Bingham and visited a friend. Then he went left into Bingham Road and left again into Shirley Road intending to get his bike from the shop. I doubt the outing was ever really about eggs. If you were sixteen and wanted to get out on a night before school you might invent an egg story. Whatever happened to Kevin happened either in the Shirley Road or turning left into Lower Addiscombe Road and heading back towards the shop.

We have never heard from any of Kevin's friends though. I find that odd. It is also odd not to have a confirmation from the school about the need for the eggs and to hear about the bike so late in the day.

I think there was an accident and the body taken and buried somewhere. Like I have said before, Lower Addiscombe gets busy and deserted.

Did he have a bike with him?

 

[approveds]

He did not have a bike with him, or door keys, and only £1 on him. Leaving his door keys at home might suggest he was going somewhere that he could lose them easily.

 

[approveds]

Not sure what you mean.All we have are theories in the absence of many facts.

I am basing my theory on a working knowledge of that area. I was born in Baring Road (that is very near to the shop) and walked past Kevin's road on my way to school every day till I was 12. My parents still live there. I therefore know the area very well. I also had two kids who were once sixteen year olds. Believe me I heard some "egg" stories. If Kevin went to the store then getting eggs was not his only motive. I think he wanted to go and see someone. However, he is seen alive in the Shirley Road and making his way home or back to his bike at the shop. The trip to the shop may not be the significant thing or even the reason Kevin went visiting unless something happened during the visit that caused someone to follow him.

Originally I suggested Kevin had got the bus into Croydon as the information about the Shirley Road sighting and the bike was not in the public domain. I find this odd.

The school seems to have said very little at all, but I doubt it has anything to do with not wanting Kevin to be seen as lying. As for friends, it would depend on who they were. There are friends and there are people who claim to be friends. Could be drug dealers or something shady given the presence of the speakers. Where did the speakers come from? Why did Kevin need to hide them?

I have said it before and will say it again from personal experience. Lower Addiscombe Road can be busy and deserted within moments. Cars come fast and do not always stop at the crossing by what at the time was the Black Horse pub. A hit and run with a body would be ever so easy. It is a theory.

What is intriguing is that the police searched the Shirley Hills, Ashburton and probably Bingham Park. There may be information the public has not been given. Why would you search a park for a missing 16 year old so quickly? Indeed, why would they search Shirley Hills which is not all that near? Perhaps there is a connection between where Kevin went, the speakers and his disappearance.

I think they have always been looking for a body for some reason. There has to have been an early reason to look where they did for a body. Then we have the woman who rang the Croydon Advertiserclaiming to know where the body was andnow they want to speak to her again....


What I don't get is why information is so late in coming out. My suspicion is the police have a better idea than we know, but cannot find the proof they need.

Shirley Hills was, and still is, a well known gay cruising area. So is Ashburton Park.