Deceased/Not Found UK - Steven Clark, 23, disabled, Saltburn, Dec 1992

[RobinCAL]

Parents arrested over suspected murder of son astonished as police search garden


"Det Chief Insp Shaun Page said: “This is an important development because we know it got dark that day at around 3:45pm. This potential sighting puts Steven in Marske before that time. We believe Steven was alive on December 28 between 3pm and 4pm close to his home address. We have carried out searches in the Marske area and these will be continuing."

 

[fridaybaker]

Parents arrested over suspected murder of son astonished as police search garden


"Det Chief Insp Shaun Page said: “This is an important development because we know it got dark that day at around 3:45pm. This potential sighting puts Steven in Marske before that time. We believe Steven was alive on December 28 between 3pm and 4pm close to his home address. We have carried out searches in the Marske area and these will be continuing."

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but doesn't this rather confirm the mother's version? She said she thought he'd left before her since he wasn't still in the loo when she came out. Perhaps he did. If they entered it around 3pm and he left right away, and she waited for "some time", wouldn't he likely be quite a bit ahead of her? Or could have taken a slightly different route home?

Or, perhaps she didn't wait long enough: Her "some time" was really only about 10 minutes or so; he gets out, doesn't see her, and proceeds home, seen by someone along the way. Then, something happens. He has an accident, is struck by a vehicle and thrown quite a ways into underbrush, water, etc., etc., etc.

 

[RobinCAL]

I have to admit with the witness seeing Steven on his way to his home around the time of him being last seen by his mother...I am leaning towards something happening to him on his way back. Unless, of course...something happened when he got home.

 

[Skigh]

Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but doesn't this rather confirm the mother's version? She said she thought he'd left before her since he wasn't still in the loo when she came out. Perhaps he did. If they entered it around 3pm and he left right away, and she waited for "some time", wouldn't he likely be quite a bit ahead of her? Or could have taken a slightly different route home?

Or, perhaps she didn't wait long enough: Her "some time" was really only about 10 minutes or so; he gets out, doesn't see her, and proceeds home, seen by someone along the way. Then, something happens. He has an accident, is struck by a vehicle and thrown quite a ways into underbrush, water, etc., etc., etc.

If an accident had happened his body would have been found.
I think this sighting is implicating that he was so close to home it would be highly unlikely that he did not actually return home.

 

[RobinCAL]

If an accident had happened his body would have been found.
I think this sighting is implicating that he was so close to home it would be highly unlikely that he did not actually return home.

That's true...which would put into doubt the rest of their story about him not returning home.

 

[fridaybaker]

That's true...which would put into doubt the rest of their story about him not returning home.

Ahhh. Got it.

 

[Kitkat28]

I don’t believe for one minute that someone remembers seeing Steven on a specific date at a specific time. I defy anyone on here to tell me what they were doing on that day at that time, and describe every random stranger that they saw. Unless you can tie it to something massively significant like you were getting married or climbing Mount Everest, your brain just doesn’t have the capacity to remember every person you’ve seen every single day of your life.

IMO it’s either someone who just wants in on the action or a bit of police misinformation designed to draw out some truth from elsewhere.

 

[Anon49]

I don't know if this is relevant and was probably done too late but on looking at the Clark's house on Google earth they had a garage attached to the house to the right but on recent police/reporters photos there is now a window indicating it has been changed to a residential space. I'm struggling as to why a lone couple would need extra living space in such a large house already at the expense of storage space unless something maybe buried or hidden in the new foundations?

 

[ZaZara]

Parents arrested over suspected murder of son astonished as police search garden

The elderly parents arrested over the suspected murder of their son who vanished 28 years ago were “amazed” when police searched their property.

Doris and Charles Clark, both former police officers themselves, were home yesterday after their local force spent five days scouring the back garden.

David, 78, said: “I am amazed at the search, I have no idea at all why they did it.

"But I can’t say anything more because I am still under arrest and on police bail.”

 

[ZaZara]

I don't know if this is relevant and was probably done too late but on looking at the Clark's house on Google earth they had a garage attached to the house to the right but on recent police/reporters photos there is now a window indicating it has been changed to a residential space. I'm struggling as to why a lone couple would need extra living space in such a large house already at the expense of storage space unless something maybe buried or hidden in the new foundations?

Ever heard of age-proofing a house for instance?

 

[Anon49]

I wonder how long the parents waited to call the police to report Steven missing. How much longer did it take the police to investigate the toilets? What did they find there?

Google is telling me Marske to Saltburn is a 48 minute walk. That seems quite ambitious for someone with the reasonably severe disabilities that it sounds as though Steven may have had.

You can walk along the beach from Saltburn to Marske, I did years ago and it is a bit quicker

 

[Anon49]

Ever heard of age-proofing a house for instance?

Yes maybe, just an observation but they still look pretty fit and mobile to me from what I've seen and none of the reports suggest either of them have any mobility issues

 

[Alyce]

I don't know if this is relevant and was probably done too late but on looking at the Clark's house on Google earth they had a garage attached to the house to the right but on recent police/reporters photos there is now a window indicating it has been changed to a residential space. I'm struggling as to why a lone couple would need extra living space in such a large house already at the expense of storage space unless something maybe buried or hidden in the new foundations?

Hi Anon and welcome to Websleuths. There are some pics further back in this thread - I will find them and re post for you - which show that the garage conversion was not done until 2011 or later.
I don't think it's too unusual to convert a garage into additional living area. Better use of the space and very handy to have an extra toilet or even full bathroom/extra bedroom downstairs for later years. Storage can go into the loft /garden shed.

 

[Alyce]

Just bringing this back up for Anon and anyone else who might not have seen it. This is the last googleview of the house, September 2011, which shows the property still having a garage at that time.


خرائط ‪Google‬‏‏

 

[trendsetter]

Parents arrested over suspected murder of son astonished as police search garden

The elderly parents arrested over the suspected murder of their son who vanished 28 years ago were “amazed” when police searched their property.

Doris and Charles Clark, both former police officers themselves, were home yesterday after their local force spent five days scouring the back garden.

David, 78, said: “I am amazed at the search, I have no idea at all why they did it.

"But I can’t say anything more because I am still under arrest and on police bail.”

I presume by "David" they meant "Charles". Is it just sloppy reporting or am I missing something?

 

[Tortoise]

I presume by "David" they meant "Charles". Is it just sloppy reporting or am I missing something?

It could be he goes by his middle name, which might be David.

Electoral register entry linked previously in this thread shows he is Charles D Clark.

 

[beatrixpotter]

I'm very curious about that letter. But it doesn't sound like they've turned up a body yet. I'm not clear what motive the parents had for killing their son either. I mean it's always possible. People do horrible things all the time so I won't be terribly surprised if a missing son turned up in the garden. I'm on WS after all. But I also just don't feel especially suspicious of these parents either just because Steven is missing.

I read a story recently about a woman who had killed her 3 yo and kept her in a trunk in the closet for years. She has a lot of weird and suspicious behaviors that you certainly noticed after the body was reported. But I'm just not hearing anything off about this couple from any anonymous sources.

It seems really odd to me to arrest a couple over a letter you'd had for decades. What could have possibly changed that suddenly require an arrest? You'd think they had a really good reason but it just all implies incompetency on some level and some sort of gross over reaction after the fact. Not everyone who goes missing is buried in the backyard. If the letter had anything of real substance why now? I really thought they were going to find Steven based on their actions. But still no update of finding a body. Nothing. Just requests for people to dredge the recesses of their memories. People can't even accurately assess something they saw just after the fact. Certainly not decades later.

I sure wish someone would put some efforts into more recent cold cases where I live like Jenna Van Gelderen. They totally half assed that. That's the problem with only putting the effort in a few decades later.

 

[Anon49]

Hi Anon and welcome to Websleuths. There are some pics further back in this thread - I will find them and re post for you - which show that the garage conversion was not done until 2011 or later.
I don't think it's too unusual to convert a garage into additional living area. Better use of the space and very handy to have an extra toilet or even full bathroom/extra bedroom downstairs for later years. Storage can go into the loft /garden shed.

 

[Anon49]

Thankyou for your reply, I'm just trying to figure it out but something doesn't sit right and I have a bad feeling about the whole thing. There is definitely something really strange about this, as a mother you would never forget what happened that day, you would remember every second replayed over & over in your head. I have a SN son, he's 28 now, but I think you would not have just 'gone home and put the kettle on' without searching for a very long time & gone into those toilets, he was disabled, as a mother surely you would of suspected he was having some difficulty and gone into those toilets to check? And why did she wait until after 6pm when the father came home to go out searching?

 

[hettywainthropp]

Someone who lives near the Clarks said on here that the parents had told theirs that Steven + his father had argued about the football tickets. Was this information passed onto the Police?