UK UK - Kate Bushell, 14, Exeter, Devon, 15 November 1997

[Sweeper2000]

As im going there very soon I thought I'd enquire and see if there is anything that anyone would like to request i do there? I'm going to as an absolute minimum video the entire route from the beginning of exwick Lane to the fields where she was found. Not sure if I'll speak to the locals but if I do is there any specific questions or anything like that anyone would like me to ask or anything at all?

 

[tigerlily96]

As im going there very soon I thought I'd enquire and see if there is anything that anyone would like to request i do there? I'm going to as an absolute minimum video the entire route from the beginning of exwick Lane to the fields where she was found. Not sure if I'll speak to the locals but if I do is there any specific questions or anything like that anyone would like me to ask or anything at all?

• Who was seen on Exwick Lane around 4:30–5:30 pm that didn’t normally walk there?
• Who had a blue car or van parked near the lane that evening?
• Did anyone see someone waiting in a vehicle or sitting in a lay-by that day?
• Was anyone living rough, camping, or staying in a tent in the fields around that time?
• Did anyone notice someone running across the fields or appearing muddy or out of breath afterwards?
• Who locally wore bright orange work clothing (boiler suits, workwear, gloves) in 1997?
• Did anyone suddenly stop using that lane or change routines after the murder?
• Did anyone sell, repaint, or get rid of a blue vehicle shortly after November 1997?
• Who regularly used the field shortcuts and stiles near the lane back then?
• Did anyone behave strangely, nervous, or unusually quiet about the case at the time?

 

[Sweeper2000]

• Who was seen on Exwick Lane around 4:30–5:30 pm that didn’t normally walk there?
• Who had a blue car or van parked near the lane that evening?
• Did anyone see someone waiting in a vehicle or sitting in a lay-by that day?
• Was anyone living rough, camping, or staying in a tent in the fields around that time?
• Did anyone notice someone running across the fields or appearing muddy or out of breath afterwards?
• Who locally wore bright orange work clothing (boiler suits, workwear, gloves) in 1997?
• Did anyone suddenly stop using that lane or change routines after the murder?
• Did anyone sell, repaint, or get rid of a blue vehicle shortly after November 1997?
• Who regularly used the field shortcuts and stiles near the lane back then?
• Did anyone behave strangely, nervous, or unusually quiet about the case at the time?

Consider it done.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Good news folks and other news. I've got the footage but unfortunately not found anyone with knowledge dating till back then. I found one person who has been here for thirty years but couldn't answer any of those questions even ones relating to local physical changes. I very much get the impression from the people I have spoken to that in thirty years the population has changed so much that few if any remain that would know the answers. Most people have heard of it but only one was here back then.

I will be adding the footage ASAP. Maybe a week or so. I would prefer to edit it as I've done it in three minute videos for memory storage purposes.however if I can't and I can't find anyone who can it will be in four videos of similar length.

There has been some changes locally to the area including the footpath itself but much also remains the same. I will put in the description what has changed. I do think it will stoke discussion.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Even better news folks. This was my last morning local to the area and have had a very informative discussion with two lovely locals who were around the area at the time. Details to follow but I will say some of teh questions mostly to do with the perp they couldn't answer.

 

[Sweeper2000]

• Who was seen on Exwick Lane around 4:30–5:30 pm that didn’t normally walk there?
• Who had a blue car or van parked near the lane that evening?
• Did anyone see someone waiting in a vehicle or sitting in a lay-by that day?
• Was anyone living rough, camping, or staying in a tent in the fields around that time?
• Did anyone notice someone running across the fields or appearing muddy or out of breath afterwards?
• Who locally wore bright orange work clothing (boiler suits, workwear, gloves) in 1997?
• Did anyone suddenly stop using that lane or change routines after the murder?
• Did anyone sell, repaint, or get rid of a blue vehicle shortly after November 1997?
• Who regularly used the field shortcuts and stiles near the lane back then?
• Did anyone behave strangely, nervous, or unusually quiet about the case at the time?

Answers to the questions.

Q1 from who I spoke to nobody who was recognisable was in exwick Lane.

Q2. The blue car/van/hatchback these individuals didnt know of.

Q3. Nobody knew if anyone was living rough in the area. Although and interestingly the person I spoke to did see two individuals walking down exwick Lane the previous day to kates murder and one was wearing a mac. Which I think matches the description of the vagrant seen two months before. He described this person's appearance as rough and his wife was a little apprehensive as well. This information has been relayed to the police in the past.

Q4. Nobody knew who the guy seen running was but that's a curious thing by itself.the hills this person was seen in and running from were active farmlands at the time. The locals said you didnt really see people there at the time.we also discussed if they remembered if there was any routes to exwick estate from the fields in question. They said there was not. I said I thought it doubtful that someone who had done that would then go and jump over people's fences and remember this person was supposed to have been covered in mud or blood. Why would they risk being seen ? Its also true that at the bottom of the field where Kate was found there is a stream and marshland that would have been difficult to cross. However if you enter the adjoining fields you can cross on dry land.

Q5. Nobody recognised the orange clothing mentioned.

Q6. They didnt know anyone they thought would do it or show signs of changing immediately after.

Q7. Nobody recognised the blue car described.

Q8. Refer back to answer for q4.

Q9. No changes in behaviour noted by anyone.

Now for more details on the exact path she was found close to. At the time it was a little mud path separated by two turnstiles that i dont think was actually used much or maintained. The field she was found in was not actually in use at teh time so it was just grassland and you can see that in the police video recorded at the time. There was no fence immediately after the turnstile. It was also often not much used. It being a very muddy path especially in november not much used, not maintained and it also being dark at the time does imo make it unlikely that Kate would choose to go down their of her own volition. However it is likely that Kate knew the path was there. I would also add that the path has quite a steep unfenced drop off of it along teh majority of its route, this really does make it unlikely that Kate would go down tehre after dark with the dog. It looks like a ten foot plus drop at points.

I also found the surname of a person whose house was raided after the murder however im not sure I can post it on here.

I will add the videos and or link them here. ASAP. Not convenient at the moment.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask.

Eta all in all i think the blue van man is the most likely culprit.

Seen on the lane near his car at the same time as Kate, five minutes later the lane is empty and Kate is not on it.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Its also true that exwick Lane itself was kind of broadly known about. Tehre was only four routes into and out if Exeter and the locals said that anytime the close by motorway the a30 had an accident the entirety of Exeter would grind to a halt. It makes sense to me that anyone on thise roads would use it as a convenient cut through to see if the other road was any quicker.

 

[dotr]

Subscribing to thread with a possible re-post..

Nov 14, 2022 EXWICK
The public may hold the vital clue to find the killer of 14-year-old Exwick schoolgirl Kate Bushell 25 years ago and bring them to justice.Kate was killed on Saturday 15 November 1997 as she walked a neighbour's dog near her home in Exwick. Her body was found in a field off Exwick Lane by her father. She had died from a brutal knife wound to her throat.

 

[dotr]

Huge appeal.. re-post rbbm.

MURDER APPEAL - Catch Kate Bushell's Killer - Devon & Cornwall Police

Devon & Cornwall Police need your help: - MURDER APPEAL - Catch Kate Bushell's Killer

news.devon-cornwall.police.uk

PM	Kate spends the afternoon doing homework in her bedroom.
4.30pm	Kate leaves a neighbour’s house to walk their Jack Russell, Gemma. She has promised to help them while they were away.
4.45pm	Kate and Gemma reach the Exwick Lane layby near Whitestone Cross.
4.50pm	A mother and daughter drive by and see her. They also see a blue hatchback or van in Exwick Lane stables layby nearby with a man with the car.
4.55pm	A young couple drive the same route and see the blue vehicle unattended in the layby. They do not see Kate or anyone else in the lane.
5pm-7pm	A man is witnessed running down the field from the direction of the murder scene. He runs into the Exwick estate.
5.30pm	A small dog is seen coming out of a gateway on Exwick Lane at the base of the field where Kate is subsequently found. This is believed to be Gemma. There is no sign of Kate.
7pm	Kate’s parents Jerry and Suzanne call police after searching in vain to find her after she fails to come home.
7.30pm	Kate’s body is found by her father near a stile in a field off Exwick Lane. He is out with police searching for Kate.

​

---

''Operation Deakin​

15 NOVEMBER 1997: Operation Deakin is launched after the body of schoolgirl Kate Bushell is found. She had sustained a brutal knife wound to her throat. There were no obvious signs of sexual assault but her clothes had been disturbed.

16 NOVEMBER 1997: Police search teams begin house-to-house enquiries and carry out an extensive search. A witness reports seeing a man running away from the murder scene. Further witnesses tell police about sightings of Kate in the lane and a man with a blue vehicle.

18 NOVEMBER 1997: Around 3,000 Exeter City fans pay silent tribute and 2,000 posters are distributed by local press. Rewards of £7,000 are offered for information to catch the killer.
Witnesses remember seeing her and Gemma but also spotting a small blue car parked in the nearby stables layby with a man stood with it.

The man was described as white, aged between 30 and 40, of average build and height, clean shaven with dark collar length hair.'

''A critical piece of evidence was the presence of orange clothing fibres, more than 100 of which were found on Kate’s body and one on a nearby country stile.

Detectives have carried out substantial work on the fibres which are from a bright orange azoic-dyed cotton material predominately used in non-fluorescent workwear such as boiler suits, aprons and gloves.

“Does anyone remember someone with orange non-florescent clothing who was acting strangely around the time of the murder? If someone does have suspicions then please give us a name,” said DI Back.''

 

[Sweeper2000]

Yeh the videos are uploaded now. I have to say on looking at the police video of the scene and route that its really not clear at all what happened and im assuming the field to the right of the public foot path sign is not the one she was found in. Its difficult to access and separated by a large hedgerow, its also closer to the lane and more likely for anyone to see and hear from exwick lane. Its literally right next to it as you will see in my video. The police video even says she was found after the second stile and teh hedgerow I mention in my video is circled in red. I'm really not at all impressed with it. But here goes anyway.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Part one starting at burrator drive to a little footpath that leads to exwick lane. Sorry for the breathing.

Part 2.

Part 3.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Part 4. The scene.

 

[Sweeper2000]

I'm not sure the running man is number one though ffrom the police pov. chek this


"Several witnesses also saw a man running fast in the Farm Hill/Cornflower Hill area of Exwick between 5pm and 7pm. This man has never been traced.

DI Back said: “The sightings of these two men are just as important now as they were in 1997. Who are they and why have they never come forward? If you know who they are or if it was you and you were there for a genuine reason then please contact us.

“The man next to the blue vehicle is highly likely to have seen Kate in the lane but has never contacted us despite repeated appeals.”"

MURDER APPEAL - Catch Kate Bushell's Killer - Devon & Cornwall Police

Devon & Cornwall Police need your help: - MURDER APPEAL - Catch Kate Bushell's Killer

news.devon-cornwall.police.uk

That last line makes me think they suspect the blue car man.


do we know if this man is the same as the man seen running from the scene half hour after her body was found? dont think it is but cant tell.

Half an hour after Bushell was found dead and half a mile away, a man was seen running from the direction of the lane into Cornflower Hill in Exwick, while the police helicopter was circling above.<a href="Murders of Kate Bushell and Lyn Bryant - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a> Police did not know for sure if the sighting of the man was connected, and when Bushell's murder was featured on Crimewatch in January 1998 they appealed for him to come forward.<a href="Murders of Kate Bushell and Lyn Bryant - Wikipedia"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a> He never did.

Just wanted to kind of emphasise this.

The info here also poses its own question. That little dirt path in 1997. i do kind of doubt that kate would have gone down it but that means she would have gone to the midway point of exwick lane which is where the path starts and then just turned around and gone back the way she came. So the question is did she intend to just turn around and go the way she came or did she intend to use the dirt path as a more circular route as it is a shortcut from the midway point.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Right I've sent another foi request on teh dna and what exactly if anything they can say about it ie what type of dna, if its been tested on national databases or if its been subject to ongoing dna tests. Not quite sure my last requests went through or not but tried a different route and this one seems more responsive. So let's hope.

 

[Sweeper2000]

Hmph interesting. I got a response today which is quick. It was in fact a refusal though. I'm not sure what that means though. Does anyone want the exact wording except the jargon? Or just a rundown of it

Here it is anyways.

Under section 17(3) of the FOIA this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for your request.
Devon & Cornwall Police can neither confirm or deny that it holds information relevant to this request by virtue of the following exemptions.
•Section 30(3) Investigations
•Section 31(3) Law Enforcement
Section 30 is a class-based exemption and requires the application of the Public Interest Test only.
Section 31 requires the application of a prejudice test and public interest test which has been evidenced below.
The Prejudice and Public Interest Tests have been applied as follows
Overall Prejudice (Harm) Test
Any release under FOIA is a disclosure to the world, not just to the individual making the request. Responses are published on the Force website - Published items | Devon & Cornwall Police
To confirm or not that information is held pertinent to this request would reveal to the offender(s) information regarding what evidential material is or is not held for this case.

Now considering we know that dna has been obtained in the lyn Bryant case and that is publicly known and that indeed police believe the two to be linked. Anyone take a guess from that?

 

[tes1984]

It's a live murder enquiry, so they won't tell you any details.

If they release details, then the information is in the public domain, and the killer has potential access to it.

The Bryant and Bushell cases haven't been linked. The police have always acknowledged the possibility, but AFAIK have always run the investigations as seperate operations.

 

[Sweeper2000]

It's a live murder enquiry, so they won't tell you any details.

If they release details, then the information is in the public domain, and the killer has potential access to it.

The Bryant and Bushell cases haven't been linked. The police have always acknowledged the possibility, but AFAIK have always run the investigations as seperate operations.

Yeh i thought I'd try my luck. What do you think about the dna though? They were open about finding a match with the Bryant case so why not with the bushell case?

Its kind of open to anyone's guess imo. Why make such a big deal with the orange fibres yet conceal finding dna? I know the orange fibres were thought to be particularly unique and identifiable, ah ofc that gets put out to the public in hopes of someone remembering anyone who wore it or similar. I'm surprised they couldn't narrow it down with that if it is indeed that unique.

Do you know what when I spoke to the locals I asked about how many abbatoirs or the like there were back then. They said not many. Think they listed 3. I might try to find a list and then enquire with anyone locally who remembers that orange clothing. Worth a shot?

You really think they found a dna sample? Around 100 cotton fibres being there only clue specific to the perp.

 

[Sweeper2000]

I've been doing a bit fo research. Focusing on the "person has experience of slaughtering animals" aspect of this case. Found some usable and interesting information. The nineties was a time of decline in abbatoir numbers in the UK with a shift to large units capable of more numbers per day rather than smaller units more local to the farms themselves. This was in part due to eu regulations and also the whole cow disease peoblem which peaked in the nineties. That's a good thing if your trying to find info about people who worked in them. I've narrowed it down to most likely under twenty abbatoirs employing slaughtermen in Devon in the nineties with numbers declining throughout the decade. Now the larger units at teh time example "West Devon meats" would also only employ a certain amount of slaughtermen in any given year roughly in the figure of about 16 slaughtermen with a total of about 70 employees altogether. So that leaves only a a limited pool of people to look at. That's slaughter of every type ie pigs, cattle and sheep.

The police believed that the perp had experience in slaughtering sheep so perhaps some places didnt do sheep at all, whilst others did a mix. That further narrows and prioritises the search sos tart with sheep only units. This is going to be the next info I focus on in research.

There are also other bits of info that may or may not be of relevance. Such as the trade of slaughtering often was kind of family or locally orientated meaning it was father passing to son etc and that kind of dynamic.

This is all info that seems to narrow potential pools of perpetrators. Ie local, experience with slaughter, has worked on farms, West Devon based most likely, the given age ie likely in seventies now assuming still alive, possibly has family involved in farming, likely known to other workers in the trade, blue car, orange workwear, possibly named in newspapers at the time as they often were.

I might start calling a few people and asking some questions I think its worth it. Its quite a narrow pool of people and the locals might be able to help.

I also have to add that the workwear ie orange clothing might not be animal related as presumably many workers in the trade would have gone on to do other work with unit numbers declining especially around 97.

I'm going to try and collate all identifiers and prioritise them and in order of importance.
I think there is enough info here to make a search worthwhile.