UK UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995

[missacorah]

Circumstances of Disappearance
Wilson disappeared on November 27, 1995. On the day she disappeared Wilson didn't have any lessons in the morning so she stayed at home until 11.30am when she took a taxi into Dorking. At about 12 she went to Thistles Florists where she ordered a bouquet for delivery to her step mother on the 29th November. After this she went to the library where she stayed until about 4pm. She was last seen at the Hand in Hand pub near Boxhill at about 4.30pm when a taxi dropped her there. No one has seen her since then.
In the days following her disappearance a number of friends and members of the public reported seeing Ruth around the Dorking area. There were also numerous reported sightings around Britain following the national media coverage the case attracted. However, in the ten years since she went missing, Ruth’s family have had no contact from her and police have received no further clues as to her whereabouts.
Following Ruth’s disappearance Surrey Police launched an extensive investigation to try and locate her. Police officers, together with a police helicopter and police dogs, searched the Boxhill area where she was last seen. Officers were joined by members of the public in the search but nothing was found. Every possible lead received through statements from friends, relatives and members of the public were pursued in the fullest.
http://www.doenetwork.org/

 

[missacorah]

Police re-launch appeal ten years after mysterious disappearance of Betchworth schoolgirl

Submitted: 06/01/2006 15:04:25

Ruth Wilson at age 16Officers from the East Surrey Missing Persons Team are re-launching an appeal for information into the whereabouts of Ruth Wilson from Betchworth who went missing in November 1995 aged just 16.

Ruth attended Ashcombe School in Dorking and lived with her parents and younger sister at their home in the village of Betchworth. On Monday 27 November 1995 at around 11:30am Ruth took a taxi into Dorking, at around midday she ordered a bouquet of flowers for delivery to her mother and after this went to the library where she stayed until around 4pm. She was last seen by a taxi driver who dropped her off at the Hand in Hand Pub in Boxhill at around 4.30pm.

In the days following her disappearance a number of friends and members of the public reported seeing Ruth around the Dorking area. There were also numerous reported sightings around Britain following the national media coverage the case attracted. However, in the ten years since she went missing, Ruth’s family have had no contact from her and police have received no further clues as to her whereabouts.

Ruth’s parents and sister are appealing for anyone who has any information about what happened to Ruth on the day she went missing or her whereabouts since to come forward:
“In the ten years since Ruth went missing, there has not been a day when we haven’t thought of her, missed her and loved her. We are not alone in this; her family and friends feel exactly the same way. We all want to be reunited with Ruth.

“It might be that ten years ago someone knew of Ruth’s whereabouts but felt unable to disclose that information. If that is the case, we would urge them to reconsider and let someone know. We cannot bear the thought of enduring another ten years of not being with Ruth or not knowing if she is alive and well; we love her too much for that.”

Following Ruth’s disappearance Surrey Police launched an extensive investigation to try and locate her. Police officers, together with a police helicopter and police dogs, searched the Boxhill area where she was last seen. Officers were joined by members of the public in the search but nothing was found. Every possible lead received through statements from friends, relatives and members of the public were pursued in the fullest.

With the help of the National Missing Persons Helpline the case received a considerable amount of newspaper, radio and television coverage and a picture of Ruth was featured on the side of some Body Shop vehicles. A number of sightings of Ruth were reported in locations around Britain but these were all followed up without success.

Now, shortly after the ten year anniversary of her disappearance, officers from the East Surrey Missing Persons Team are re-launching an appeal for information in the hope that someone may be able to provide them with the vital clue they need to find out what happened to Ruth.

Sergeant Shane Craven, who heads the East Surrey Missing Persons Team, said:
“In the week following Ruth’s disappearance there were some fairly reliable sightings of her in the Dorking area by people who knew her well. However, ten years on and neither Surrey Police nor her family have received any further clues as to exactly what happened to her after she was dropped off by a taxi at the Hand in Hand Pub in Boxhill.

“We are re-launching our appeal mainly in the hope that someone who knew Ruth and felt that, for whatever reason, they could not share the information they had about her whereabouts at the time of her disappearance, is now able to do so. Whoever that might be we are appealing to your conscience for you to please come forward. It is impossible to imagine the heartache that Ruth’s family and friends must have endured over the last ten years. If you are in a position to help relieve some of this strain with whatever information you might have then I would urge you to do so.”

Sergeant Craven added:
“We would also be interested in hearing from anyone who thinks that they might have met or seen Ruth at any point in the last ten years. She would now be 26 and, although she is unlikely to closely resemble the most recent photo we have of her, there is a chance that someone out there knows somebody who could be Ruth.”

Anyone who has any information about Ruth’s whereabouts is asked to contact the East Surrey Missing Persons Team at Caterham Police Station on 01883 316270. Alternatively you can contact the National Missing Persons Helpline by calling 0500 700 700 or emailing sightings@missingpersons.org.

 

[UK Sleuth]

I have read about this case a few times.

What has never been revealed to my knowledge is who exactly saw her last.

Was it the taxi driver who dropped her at the Hand in Hand pub or was she actually seen in the pub?

Or was she dropped outside the pub and the pub has nothing to do with it? Just a drop off point.

There's a real lack of information on this case.

Has the taxi driver been thoroughly checked out?

When was his next fare? etc.

 

[missacorah]

I agree. To my knowledge it was the taxi driver that was the last to see her but he commented that it was strange that she just got out of the cab and just kinda stood there while most people start moving off as soon as he drops them which is true. It was quite a desolated spot so I understand but somewhere she had been before after school unknown to her parents.

 

[missacorah]

More info here




When Ruth Wilson, a 16-year-old middle-class schoolgirl, left her home in the tiny village of Betchworth, near Dorking, for the last time in November 1995, there was nothing like the media frenzy that greeted Milly's disappearance. And there were striking parallels between the two cases. Ruth Wilson was no working-class serial runaway. Like the Dowlers, the Wilson family was stable and middle class - both parents are teachers. Until tragedy struck, both families had two daughters who were very close: Jenny Wilson was 13 when her sister went missing. Ruth, like Milly, was a popular and studious girl. She had passed her GCSEs and had just entered the sixth form, where she was already doing well, according to teachers.
The circumstances of Ruth Wilson's disappearance are deeply mysterious and perhaps just too odd to comfortably fit the sort of narrative that Professor Evans has identified. The events of Monday 27 November 1995 read like the opening pages of an Ian McEwan novel. It had been an ordinary weekend for Ruth. She had a Saturday job in a music shop in Dorking and went out for a meal with William, an ex-boyfriend who had become her best friend. On the Sunday, she went to hand-bell practice at the local church and then on to a youth club in Dorking, before going back to William's for supper. His mother had given her some of her old clothes and when she came home that evening she and her sister tried them on and then raided their own mother's wardrobe. The Wilson family remember Ruth being relaxed, laughing at the funny old-fashioned clothes.
On the Monday morning, her parents left for work early - Ian was preparing for an Ofsted inspection as head of science at the secondary school where he taught, and Karen, who was deputy head of a local primary at the time, also had a lot of preparation to do. Ian remembers being in a hurry and having pushed past Ruth, who was listening to her Walkman. 'I remember being annoyed with her,' said Ian. 'I said something like, "Out of my way. I'm in a hurry." I'll always regret that those were the last words I ever said to her.' The two sisters were used to catching the bus together to school, but at the last minute Ruth told her sister that she was not coming. 'I wasn't entirely surprised because she was in the sixth form and she didn't always come in for the whole day,' she said. 'I thought it was a bit strange that she left it to the last minute to tell me, but that was all.'
But Ruth didn't turn up at school at all that day and when her parents arrived home in the evening they began to worry. 'At first we thought she must have been babysitting and forgotten to tell us, or that we had forgotten to write it on the calendar. But as the evening went on we realised something was wrong.'
During the hours that followed, a bizarre story emerged. Shortly after Jenny left for school, Ruth's friend William had called for her in his car, but she declined the lift and told him she would be along later. Instead she called a taxi company in the next village and asked to be taken to the library in Dorking, where she spent several hours. At some point during the day she went to buy a bouquet of flowers for Karen, but left strict instructions that they were not to be delivered until Wednesday. Around 4pm that afternoon, she called another taxi from Dorking station and asked to be taken to Box Hill, a local beauty spot. Ruth asked to be left by a bridleway a short way from a pub. It had been a foul day and the light was already failing. It was around 4.15pm when the taxi driver looked in his mirror: the last positive sighting of Ruth in seven years. 'What was odd was that she just stood there. The taxi driver said that people almost always move away when you drop them off. He knew it wasn't quite right with hindsight, leaving a 16-year-old in the middle of nowhere,' said Ian.
Later, they discovered from school friends that Ruth often went to Box Hill after school before coming home. Was it a meeting place with a secret boyfriend or just a special place to think?
They also found out that she was worried about her performance at school and had hidden her latest school report from them that weekend.
In the book-lined lounge of their impeccable 17th-century cottage in Betchworth, Ian and Karen Wilson are still mystified by the disappearance of their studious and well-behaved daughter. 'We know the longer it goes on, the harder it would be for Ruth to come home. But she would be showered with love and kisses if she walked through the door today. It is not her fault.'
'Seven years ago it was completely different,' said Karen. 'Most police forces didn't treat cases like this seriously and people like us had to do our own publicity. Surrey police were one of the most positive forces. They came out that very night with sniffer dogs and helicopters with heat-seeking equipment. But the phenomenon of missing youngsters wasn't a big feature of life back then.' The Wilsons were shocked by the lack of a national strategy for children who disappeared or ran away. Missing persons were not automatically put on the Police National Computer and there was very little liaison between forces.
The refusal of the Wilsons to make themselves the centre of the story has certainly contributed to the lower profile of the case - later on they refused to appear on a game show where the audience would have been given the chance to vote for the next course of action taken by the family in the search for their daughter. But there is no doubt that the media have become much more fixated on these cases in the seven years since Ruth disappeared, and the police have also become more proactive and sophisticated in their approach to missing persons, including their use of parents to head up appeals. Ruth Wilson disappeared long before the missing persons culture had begun to feed our national paranoia. It seems inconceivable that the family would have been permitted to lie low if their daughter had gone missing today.
Craig Denham, the Detective Chief Superintendent in charge of the Milly Dowler case said Surrey police have learnt a lot since Ruth Wilson went missing - especially in their methods of dealing with the media. 'Within days of Milly's disappearance we had the three elements of our command strategy in place, made up of the investigation, the search and a media strategy,' he says.
Denham realised the scale of media interest was unprecedented for a missing person. 'The sheer unexplainable nature of it: for a girl to disappear off a suburban street struck a chord with the public. She came from a good family right in the middle of suburbia. These things happen in cities, but it was very unusual for them to happen in the suburbs.'
Since the Wilson case, Surrey has developed a sophisticated risk-assessment procedure for missing persons, to gauge their vulnerability. This looks at their age, and their history of self-harm, drug use or abuse within the family. In the case of persistent runaways it also looks at the length of time they run away for and patterns of behaviour relating to where they go when they run away. 'It is complicated. A young girl who has never run away before and takes no clothes with her is obviously at risk. But there are dangers of working with check lists. A streetwise young boy in care who has run away a hundred times and always returned may be equally at risk.'

 

[Gina_M]

It is now 12 years that Ruth went missing.
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/498dfuk.html

 

[nugnug]

so who was the last person to see her

 

[SarahR]

The parents lack of interest in getting it out to the media is a bit strange.

 

[PhoebeG]

It would be interesting to know why she ordered flowers for her mother. Nowhere mentions if her parents found this strange or if it was simply for a birthday or anniversary. If it wasn't normal for her to do something like that then perhaps it's indicative of her planning to runaway. I read this in a letter to Ruth from her parents on another forum that suggests this was odd, but it never mentions if this was the first time she ordered a bouquet for her mother:

"As the day progressed, your behaviour became even more inexplicable. You visited a florist and ordered an expensive bouquet for Mum. You left no message - simply strict instructions that it must not be delivered until Wednesday."

 

[hayaletcatcher]

Still missing after all these years. Seems no media picked up on the anniversary yesterday.

 

[Jackalyn]

From the outside, having only just hears of this case, it looks to me like Ruth did plan to run away and had been meeting someone at or near the pub for some time. The sending of flowers to arrive after her disappearance looks like an attempt to say to her Mother that she is alive and save and does love her and care. Staying in the library for a lenth of time looks like passing time to wait for a rendevous. Usind taxis seems unusual for a 16 year old, but could have been a way of covering tracks by not being seen by her friends or neighbours on buses? She is known to have frequently gone to Boxhill after school. That speaks of knowing someone to meet there.

My question is was she ever actually seen in the Bird in Hand pub (more of an upmarket chain inn these days, but who knows what it was back then,) and if so, who with?

Was there ever anyone who would come in and stick around the pub for a bit about the time she would have got there at the end of school, and then leave with, or without a girl.

The drop off in the taxi by a path entrance is also suspicious. Either Ruth is trying to give the impression she is not going to the pub or she has an assignation there, or she plans to walk down the path for whatever purpose. This assumes there ever was a taxi, that she left the taxi, that the taxi went where it said it did. I assume all of that was easily checked.

There are reliable sightings of Ruth after her disappearance.

However, if Ruth went missing around the same time as Milly Dowler then she was not the only one. Hannah Williams also went missing in Dartford. It isn't the same story, but there are similarities.

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/dec/15/features.magazine57

You will see from this, that although the Milly Dowler story was the one taking precedence in the news, Danielle Jones body had also been found. There were others missing who were not getting the same publicity.

http://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/dec/15/features.magazine57

However, I think because a friend is likely to make a positive sighting and friends usually recognise each other, Ruth may have left the area of the Bird in Hand with and acquaintance of some kind. I do think, however, she has at some point, possibly met with foul play: either that or have become addicted to drugs in a way which makes it hard for her to return.

My reason is that the flowers show an attachment to her Mother which I think would have led her at some point to start to show concern and let her know she is safe.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. Just my thoughts on the subject.





http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8586941.stm

 

[alreetlike]

The refusal of the Wilsons to make themselves the centre of the story has certainly contributed to the lower profile of the case - later on they refused to appear on a game show where the audience would have been given the chance to vote for the next course of action taken by the family in the search for their daughter. But there is no doubt that the media have become much more fixated on these cases in the seven years since Ruth disappeared, and the police have also become more proactive and sophisticated in their approach to missing persons, including their use of parents to head up appeals. Ruth Wilson disappeared long before the missing persons culture had begun to feed our national paranoia. It seems inconceivable that the family would have been permitted to lie low if their daughter had gone missing today.

What on earth kind of a game show is this?!

I do think the lack of publicity is a bit strange. I'd never heard of Ruth until reading this, whereas I've followed many missing cases in the UK.

I'm also getting a runaway vibe, probably involving an older man, unfortunately. She certainly seemed to have a plan for what she was doing that day, it's just a shame she didn't share it with anybody else.

I'd definitely like to know more about the flowers - whether she often sent flowers, or if this was a one-off, and if there was a reason (e.g. birthday/anniversary mentioned further up the thread). I've never sent flowers to anybody in my life, so if I was to do that then disappear I'm sure my family would find it extremely weird.

 

[martin123]

A year after Ruth Wilson disappeared a witness thought they saw a girl matching Ruths description in a newsagents. Im not sure if its ever been confirmed whever the girl on the cctv at the newsagents was Ruth or not but she certainly seemed to be acting strangely.

 

[alb1on]

This caught my interest as I live only 10 miles away. A few comments;

This is nothing like the Millie Dowler case. Millie was snatched on her way home from school. Whatever happened in this case certainly involved some unusual behaviour by Ruth and possible planning.

A friend of Ruths (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8586941.stm) confirmed that the flowers were not for a specific occasion, rather implying that they were part of a wider plan.

Those suggesting this area is 'desolate' are wide of the mark. It is one of the most popular beauty spots around London with walkers, cyclists and families. The pub (now called The Tree) is on a fairly well used road with houses and a garage nearby. It is certain that if anything happened in the area a body or other evidence would be found. Apart from anything else the whole area was overrun in 2012 when it was the scene of the hill section of the Olympic cycle road race.

The trip to Dorking library followed by taxi to the pub is odd in one respect not commented. The pub is much nearer the family home in Betchworth than it is to Dorking town. It suggests there may have been a reason for the library visit.

Ruth seems to have had access to money. Taxis and flowers would be a fair expenditure for a 16 year old at school.

If Ruth did stay around Dorking, as sightings suggest, I am surprised she was not found. Dorking is a fairly small town and it would be difficult to continue to live there or nearby without being seen and found.

This does look like a runaway case to me, albeit an odd one since she seemed to care about her family. The answer lies in finding another reason.

 

[martin123]

I found it a bit odd that at 16 year old and at school she seemed to have money for taxi and specially delivered flowers. I believe she was possibly seeing an older man and possibly ran off with him. But if that is the case surely after all these years she can tell her family where she is.

 

[Katycat]

I'm surprised this is the first I've heard of this case, because I am a year older than Ruth and grew up not far away; in fact one of my friends from school lived in Betchworth.

The ordering of the bouquet does suggest an element of planning. However, I wonder if the decision to disappear was a spur of the moment one that morning; otherwise why leave it til the last minute to tell her sister she wasn't going to school with her, and ditto her friend who later came to pick her up?

The fact that she arrived at Box Hill at the same time as normal suggests that she probably was meeting someone, but not necessarily planning to run away with them, because presumably they wouldn't be limited to meeting at that particular time if that was the plan. Possibly she kept her usual appointment so this person wasn't alarmed by her disappearance.

If she was regularly meeting someone, the time of the meetings suggests to me that it was someone else of school age. An older person would be less likely to be free at that time in the afternoon. But in that case, it seems odd that the relationship was a clandestine one; she'd had a boyfriend before, and seemed to be allowed a reasonable amount of freedom - you don't get the impression that her parents were unusually strict. Perhaps she was actually meeting a younger boy, and the disapproval would have come from his parents?

The timing of the sending of the bouquet is odd, given there was no significance to the actual date. I wonder if she originally intended only to be away for a few days, and the sending of the bouquet was a kind of interim gesture intended to reassure her parents.

It would be useful to know what she actually did in the library. If she was just killing time before the Box Hill appointment, why come into Dorking so early in the first place? I wouldn't be surprised if she had a definite purpose, which was to use the Internet to research something related to her reason for disappearing. I'm pretty sure it would have been available in public libraries by then, and it's quite likely that there would have been no access at home.

Thinking back to myself and my friends, who came from similar backgrounds to Ruth, I'd say the two most likely reasons for wanting to disappear would have been academic worries or pregnancy. We know she had the former, but I do wonder if that was a sufficiently strong motive in this case. She can only have been 2 months into her A Levels, so there was no looming crisis point, and plenty of time to get back on track. What is interesting is why she was struggling. Was some other worry or preoccupation distracting her; or was it simply a case of being unprepared for the step up from GCSE to A Level (more pronounced in science and maths than arts/ humanities)?

Obviously this is pure speculation, but I wonder if she was pregnant and had decided to disappear for a few days to have an abortion. Then perhaps she changed her mind, or couldn't get one, and felt unable to return. The fact that there were a number of fairly confident sightings in the local area suggests to me that it was never her wish or intention to leave permanently for a completely new life. But it's not hard to imagine how difficult it would be to return after so long. What is perhaps slightly surprising is the lack of any indirect communication to her family, after the bouquet.

 

[alb1on]

I doubt that Dorking Library had a public internet facility in 1995. In those days connection to the internet was by dial up modem (making it much more expensive) and sites and facilities were only just getting going (no Google or Wikipedia for example). Of course, this does not preclude the use of the library facilities for traditional style research but I do struggle to think what this might have been. The only obvious possibility I can think of for going to Dorking (apart from the wish to order the flowers) is to check on train times as Dorking has direct links to both London and Gatwick Airport (although I am sure the police would have checked the latter - and any CCTV at the stations).

I am also confused by the sighting(s) - I am only aware of one in detail. You can walk from one end of Dorking High Street to the other in 10 minutes. I simply cannot see how a missing 16 year old could remain in the area and not be found, assuming they were free to go outside. My default assumption would be that the sightings are mistaken.

I agree that the key lies in the motive for Ruth's actions, and this seems the most surprising thing of all. In almost all cases it is possible to identify some sort of motive, or at least concerns, which are most likely to be behind the event. In this case, on the surface, there are none. I agree that school worries seem inadequate. Clearly there is something either unknown or not being said publicly, and pregnancy would be one possibility. However, running away for that reason is usually an emotional response with much less planning (this happened both to a cousin of 15 and a friend, also 15 some years ago and both were rapidly found). I can only imagine a planned disappearance in such circumstances also involving an older father - and that does not bode well. In both the cases I knew (both involving boys of the same age) the girl also confided in school friends - and in this case they seem to have known nothing.

This is one of the most puzzling cases I know of anywhere, simply because of a lack of any apparent motive or trace. Either this girl was very clever (and she seems to be) or she met the wrong person.

 

[RSW123]

Circumstances of Disappearance
Wilson disappeared on November 27, 1995. On the day she disappeared Wilson didn't have any lessons in the morning so she stayed at home until 11.30am when she took a taxi into Dorking. At about 12 she went to Thistles Florists where she ordered a bouquet for delivery to her step mother on the 29th November. After this she went to the library where she stayed until about 4pm. She was last seen at the Hand in Hand pub near Boxhill at about 4.30pm when a taxi dropped her there. No one has seen her since then.
In the days following her disappearance a number of friends and members of the public reported seeing Ruth around the Dorking area. There were also numerous reported sightings around Britain following the national media coverage the case attracted. However, in the ten years since she went missing, Ruth’s family have had no contact from her and police have received no further clues as to her whereabouts.
Following Ruth’s disappearance Surrey Police launched an extensive investigation to try and locate her. Police officers, together with a police helicopter and police dogs, searched the Boxhill area where she was last seen. Officers were joined by members of the public in the search but nothing was found. Every possible lead received through statements from friends, relatives and members of the public were pursued in the fullest.
http://www.doenetwork.org/

There was a song by Public Image LTD, released about 1989 called The Flowers of Romance. It has direct references to Box Hill and starting again. I wonder if it was in her music collection.

Now in the summer
I could be happy or in distress
Depending on the company
On the veranda
Talk of the future or reminisce
Behind the dialogue
We're in a mess
Whatever I intended
I sent you flowers
You wanted chocolates instead
The flowers of romance
The flowers of romance

I've got binoculars
On top of Box Hill
I could be Nero
Fly the eagle
Start all over again
I can't depend on these so-called friends
It's a pity you need to defend
I'll take the furniture
Start all over again

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I found it a bit odd that at 16 year old and at school she seemed to have money for taxi and specially delivered flowers.

I don't think there is any mystery there. At that time it was very common for teenagers from 14 up to have a Saturday job, typically in a shop of some sort. Younger kids, from 11 up, often had a paper round. It's only more recently that employing teenagers like this has declined drastically, partly due to elfnsafety and partly due to teens being more immature these days and being less willing to work.

I believe she was possibly seeing an older man and possibly ran off with him. But if that is the case surely after all these years she can tell her family where she is.

If she was seeing an older man it would have had to be someone within her existing circle of acquaintance or at one remove. This was pre-internet and therefore pre-internet-grooming of kids and teens by paedophiles. One assumes the police made all of those enquiries at the time and it would have been noted if an older male within her circle of acquaintance also disappeared around the same time.

The other question is whether she had a passport and could have left the country. On the whole the mid 1990s were a fairly benign time so it's possible she could have left the UK on a ferry to France without even needing a passport to leave (though she would have needed one to get back into the country).

 

[alb1on]

A documentary on the case is due to air soon (see https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/bizarre-disappearance-betchworth-teenager-ruth-13901083 ). Unfortunately, from what is said about it in the article, I fear it may be a bit sensationalist, focusing exclusively on the possibility of Ruth having come to harm (which is possible but by no means a given).

One other thought has occurred to me. She took the taxi to Box Hill from Dorking station (although which station is not specified as there are three due to lines crossing). Assuming it was the main station this is out of town at the base of Box Hill. If so she must have been at the station for a reason (check times or meet someone) as it would not be the obvious place to go to in order to get a taxi if in Dorking town. Dorking station would also have had CCTV in 1995. Unfortunately rail CCTV is wiped after one month (I think) so I do not know if the police checked it before it was wiped. In a later case (Andrew Gosden) I believe police acted too late to secure all cctv.