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

[Konstantin]

Missing : MacKenney, Shelley: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Missing : MacKenney, Shelley: Amazon.co.uk: Books

www.amazon.co.uk

That's the autobiography of the young woman who ran away and lived anonymously for years. However, Shelley wasn't reported missing to the police so she used her NI number and her family did manage to find her a couple of times. It's worth a read because it shows just how vulnerable she was. And Shelley was older and far more streetwise than Ruth.

 

[davidt]

One thing I wonder about is if her friend Catherine knows more than she's letting on. I have no evidence for that at all. Just when I've seen her interviewed I have a feeling she's bring a bit coy about everything. Also that apparently when interviewed by the police six months after Ruth's disappearance they broke off from questioning her to search her wardrobe. Nothing more than a feeling I have really.

 

[Konstantin]

One thing I wonder about is if her friend Catherine knows more than she's letting on. I have no evidence for that at all. Just when I've seen her interviewed I have a feeling she's bring a bit coy about everything. Also that apparently when interviewed by the police six months after Ruth's disappearance they broke off from questioning her to search her wardrobe. Nothing more than a feeling I have really.

Maybe so and I wondered that too but what the game plan? If she knows more about RW running away, but doesn't know what happened subsequently and whether RW is safe, why not tell the police who can then investigate properly. RW's safety trumps any misguided loyalty and she was a kid at the time so not aware of the potential consequences of running away.

I think she might know more about the situation in RWs life before she ran away, and what RW was telling her about her mum and dad. Maybe she felt compelled to speak out. It must be awful for her to live with the ambiguous loss of her friend.

I wondered more if her other friends knew something more. The one the journalist contacted in the documentary, for example. RW had run away before to his house so he knew there were problems at home.

 

[davidt]

I winder if one day the po,ice will release the farewell letters. I know at various times they've been variously described as farewell or suicide letters. I just wonder if they were explicit in terms of ending her life or something more ambiguous.

 

[Rikissa]

Maybe so and I wondered that too but what the game plan? If she knows more about RW running away, but doesn't know what happened subsequently and whether RW is safe, why not tell the police who can then investigate properly. RW's safety trumps any misguided loyalty and she was a kid at the time so not aware of the potential consequences of running away.

I think she might know more about the situation in RWs life before she ran away, and what RW was telling her about her mum and dad. Maybe she felt compelled to speak out. It must be awful for her to live with the ambiguous loss of her friend.

I wondered more if her other friends knew something more. The one the journalist contacted in the documentary, for example. RW had run away before to his house so he knew there were problems at home.

Or she knows where Ruth is, and that she's fine, and that Ruth doesn't want to be "found". If Ruth is alive with a new name, and perhaps a family, and friends, that don't know anything about her past, she might not want the British tabloid press to hound her for an 'exclusive interview'. Even if the police promise to not reveal her identity, there's absolutely no chance that the tabloids won't find her, that has been done in other cases in the UK.

 

[duquesne]

No. This has come up before. She was definitely 16. Her birth record is on Ancestry and she was also in the 6th form which starts at 16.

Yes, in the UK the cutoff is end of August and she had started lower-6th, so she was 16 going on 17 whatever the papers say.

 

[alb1on]

Yes, in the UK the cutoff is end of August and she had started lower-6th, so she was 16 going on 17 whatever the papers say.

It is possible to be advanced a year at school (or even 4 years in the case of John Nunn, the chess grandmaster!) but the birth record is definitive.

 

[davidt]

It is possible to be advanced a year at school (or even 4 years in the case of John Nunn, the chess grandmaster!) but the birth record is definitive.

In my day at primary they sometimes held them back a year as well. Don't remember it happening in secondary school though.

 

[alb1on]

In my day at primary they sometimes held them back a year as well. Don't remember it happening in secondary school though.

At my school (in the early 70s in Birmingham (UK) it was quite common to advance a year, but we were a direct grant academic school and those advanced were usually doing O/A levels early to free their last year for Oxbridge entrance.

 

[JellyBee]

I have caught up on this thread and one thing that stands out to me has always been the flowers. I see a lot of mention here about positive reasons why the flowers were sent i.e. sorry or an ‘I love you’, but am I right in thinking the documentary framed this in a negative way and suggested Ruth sent them as more of an ‘F’ you gesture? I wonder where that idea came from. Ruth going out of her way to send flowers sarcastically may show her disdain for her parents at the time and how she was feeling towards them, which in my opinion lends more to the theory that she ran away. On the other hand, I love you flowers seem to lean more on the side of suicide? MOO

 

[davidt]

I have caught up on this thread and one thing that stands out to me has always been the flowers. I see a lot of mention here about positive reasons why the flowers were sent i.e. sorry or an ‘I love you’, but am I right in thinking the documentary framed this in a negative way and suggested Ruth sent them as more of an ‘F’ you gesture? I wonder where that idea came from. Ruth going out of her way to send flowers sarcastically may show her disdain for her parents at the time and how she was feeling towards them, which in my opinion lends more to the theory that she ran away. On the other hand, I love you flowers seem to lean more on the side of suicide? MOO

Yep, Ruth's friend thinks it was an "up yours" message. There was no birthday or special occasion and no message card with the flowers. Its not particularly clear what Ruth's relationship with her stepmother was like. So it's pretty much speculation why the flowers were sent. Some have also wondered if there's any symbolism in the choice of the flowers themselves.

 

[Konstantin]

Stunning background behind disappearance of girl found 32 years later

The police captain who got to the bottom of a 32-year-old cold case said she was 'dumbfounded' to learn the truth from the missing woman

www.mirror.co.uk

Story about a teenager in the US who disappeared, police thought an abduction, turned out she'd run away with the help of others and lived for 3 decades under another name before being traced. Different country, different people but it's still possible that RW is alive and well (let's hope).

 

[wtiger]

Stunning background behind disappearance of girl found 32 years later

The police captain who got to the bottom of a 32-year-old cold case said she was 'dumbfounded' to learn the truth from the missing woman

www.mirror.co.uk

Story about a teenager in the US who disappeared, police thought an abduction, turned out she'd run away with the help of others and lived for 3 decades under another name before being traced. Different country, different people but it's still possible that RW is alive and well (let's hope).

there is actually a legitimate doubt that the girl in that story was actually "missing" at all - more likely that a cold case detective "solved" something which had been already dealt with 30 years ago but not officially marked as solved

 

[alb1on]

Stunning background behind disappearance of girl found 32 years later

The police captain who got to the bottom of a 32-year-old cold case said she was 'dumbfounded' to learn the truth from the missing woman

www.mirror.co.uk

Story about a teenager in the US who disappeared, police thought an abduction, turned out she'd run away with the help of others and lived for 3 decades under another name before being traced. Different country, different people but it's still possible that RW is alive and well (let's hope).

That case is reminiscent of the Sheila Fox case in the UK. Some relatives knew what had happened but either forgot or failed to tell the police.

 

[Konstantin]

That case is reminiscent of the Sheila Fox case in the UK. Some relatives knew what had happened but either forgot or failed to tell the police.

Yes, seems Sheila ran away to be with a boyfriend and lost touch with family and then lots of time passed, but some relatives did know where she was. It's good she is safe and well.

I don't think Ruth's family know where she is - the case is still open and there has been enough interest in it that it's not been forgotten at all. I do suspect that someone did help Ruth run away - whether that was one of her school friends or someone else - an older person perhaps - who knows. So someone might know where she is or at least where she was originally.

Ruth's family, I think, do believe she is alive - and that she ran away - you would think if they believed she was abducted or that harm had come to her they would be keen to keep the case high profile. It does give me pause that Ruth ran away permanently and left her sister to wonder if she was alive or dead - but maybe things just got too much and Ruth felt she could not be in touch with her family at all.

 

[Professor Moriarty]

Yes, seems Sheila ran away to be with a boyfriend and lost touch with family and then lots of time passed, but some relatives did know where she was. It's good she is safe and well.

I don't think Ruth's family know where she is - the case is still open and there has been enough interest in it that it's not been forgotten at all. I do suspect that someone did help Ruth run away - whether that was one of her school friends or someone else - an older person perhaps - who knows. So someone might know where she is or at least where she was originally.

Ruth's family, I think, do believe she is alive - and that she ran away - you would think if they believed she was abducted or that harm had come to her they would be keen to keep the case high profile. It does give me pause that Ruth ran away permanently and left her sister to wonder if she was alive or dead - but maybe things just got too much and Ruth felt she could not be in touch with her family at all.

I agree.

If her family thought someone had killed her, they would push to get that person brought to justice and for her body to be found.

If they thought she had committed suicide, they would want to find her body.

(Edited to remove duplicate quotation.)

 

[Konstantin]

I agree.

If her family thought someone had killed her, they would push to get that person brought to justice and for her body to be found.

If they thought she had committed suicide, they would want to find her body.

I think it's very plausible that there are parts of the story the family know that are not public and so that might factor into their response.

It's not difficult to understand why her father and stepmum don't want to be splashed all over the tabloids if they think it won't help Ruth be found. They did go public with an open letter to her. I understand the frustration of the journalist who made the short film about Ruth's case but I also think he over-identified with her because of his sister running away and so projected onto her story a bit. The reality is we only know fragments of what happened and it's likely, as I said, there is a lot more to it that is private or has been held back.

On the matter of the taxi driver remarking that Ruth just stood there when he drove off - it has occurred to me that she did that on purpose so he would make note of the fact that she was standing near the bridle path entry, to point people searching for her down that way. And so that he didn't see where she actually went after she got out of the taxi. On that evening, it would have been pitch dark though and it would have been hard to walk that way in total darkness - or even almost total darkness. It was also raining.