Anne Noblett - 30th December 1957.
Seventeen year old Anne Theresa Noblett was described by her father as a young girl with "no cares or worries whatsoever". Growing up as the only daughter to relatively affluent parents, Anne spent her teenage years studying at Watford Technical College and attending Rock'n'Roll dance lessons with friends.
It was upon her return from one of these lessons that Anne met a fate which would devastate her family and remain unknown 60 years on.
Profile
Anne was described as a shy, home-loving girl, whose disappearance came as a huge shock to her parents. Her younger brother, Hugh Noblett, described Anne as a "much-loved, gentle and caring sister" and her timid and harmless demeanour was referenced often by her family throughout the investigation of her murder.
She planned to return to her family home on the day before New Year's Eve in 1957 after leaving a dance lesson at the nearby Lourdes Hall. She told her friends "I'll see you on Friday" and made her way to her home of Marshalls Heath on the 391 bus from Harpenden. When she got off the bus, she began the walk up the country lane to her house, which was when a local girl named Shirley Edwards passed Anne whilst riding her scooter. This would be the last time that Anne was seen alive.
Circumstances
Within hours of her disappearance, people took to the winding country roads of Marshalls Heath to search for Anne to no avail. It was a month later, on the 31st January 1958, when R.A.F Aircraftsman Hugh Symonds and his younger brother Brian discovered the body of Anne whilst walking their dog in the woods. It is reported that Anne was discovered with her glasses on and it appeared that she had been stripped and redressed (from numerous buttons of her blouse being fastened incorrectly). This, and the fact that there were no apparent ill motives towards Anne, resulted in many people assuming that the motive was one of a sexual nature. From the information I have found it is likely that Anne died from asphyxiation and no wounds or signs of struggle were discovered on her body. In fact, Hugh Symonds and many police officers mentioned that Anne simply looked to be asleep.
One thing that baffled police was that the spot in which Anne was found was scoured on New Year's Eve by police and tracker dogs, and again on a later date by 300 appointed soldiers and local volunteers. Symonds stated that the body could be visible from up to 20 yards away, could it be possible that Anne's body was undetected by the hundreds of people searching for her body whilst in plain sight?
 |
| Searches for Anne's body began on New Years Eve, and 300 British soldiers were part of the search team. |
Perhaps even more baffling was the temperature of Anne's body, which police at the scene described as "fantastically cold". Of course, a decaying body left outside in the peak of the winter months would be cold, however, winter in Marshall's Heath that year was a notably mild one. This factor, and the way that Anne's body seemed to appear from nowhere, led Home Office Pathologist Dr. Francis Camps to suggest that the body of Anne Noblett had been preserved in a deep freezer for a good portion of the time that her body had been missing.
Police focused on this suggestion, perhaps as this was their only initial lead. The New Scotland Yard Murder Squad were called in to assist investigations and weather reports were analysed to rule out the possibility that Anne could have froze simply from being laid outside. Police searched all establishments with deep-freeze equipment within an approximate 30 mile radius. Searches were extended to poultry farms, factories and even, quite disturbingly, ice cream vans. The Deep Freeze theory began to spiral out of control and perhaps became too much for police. An unknown company executive told police that any vehicle could harbour low enough temperatures to have frozen the body simply by plugging an electric cable into the vehicle. He stated that a body could even be frozen in a bed by utilising sticks of dry carbon dioxide. Police exhausted all enquiries and the case of Anne Theresa Noblett's murder remains unsolved.
Throughout the investigation and up to 40 years after Anne's death, police would receive calls from a man who claimed to have information about the murder, and even admitted to the killing, however he would hang up before ever providing the information he claimed to have. The police were not the only people to receive these calls, Anne's mother was plagued with calls from people claiming that they murdered Anne, however many of them were believed to be hoaxes and no notable leads were followed. Hugh Symonds, the man who found Anne's body, was forced to sleep with a shotgun underneath his bed after he received a call stating that the caller would be over to "get" his son for discovering the body.
Theories/Notable facts
Perhaps the most looked towards theory as to why Anne's body was so cold is that her body was indeed kept in a deep freezer, however when police suggested searching buildings and houses in the area, the killer panicked and returned her to the woods. Her body could have been frozen for thousands of reasons, examples of such are preserving the body for sexual reasons; organ harvesting; or even the beginnings of Ed Gein type paraphernalia (Ed Gein was arrested on the 16th November 1957 for murder and stealing from graves in order to build a "woman suit" to reignite his late mother's presence, coincidentally this was 1.5 months before Anne Noblett's disappearance). Sadly, there are far too many possibilities and unless her killer is found, we will never know.
One thing that I found extremely interesting whilst researching this case were the apparent findings of biologists who were asked to provide a timeline. Biologists studied the growth of snowdrop plants and ferns underneath Anne's body, and compared this to the growth of the plants in the area surrounding it. They concluded that the growth of the plants was stunted by around two weeks and, on this basis, Anne's body must have been lain in her final resting place for at least a fortnight. This adds another layer to the mystery of Anne's death - if her body was in her final resting spot for two weeks, why was her body so cold when the winter was so mild? Could the Met Office's information be incorrect? Or was Anne's body possibly moved and returned to the spot in the woods? It is also important to note that police found no drag marks around Anne's body.
There are also no clear motives for Anne's death. Yes, as previously noted, Anne's clothes seemed to have been buttoned up incorrectly and Anne's family made it very clear that this is not something that Anne would do, however there were no physical signs of sexual assault. Anne did not have a boyfriend and was not noted to have had any enemies.
It seems as though the only way that we will find out the true circumstances surrounding Anne's death is if we ever find her killer.
Present Position
As I write this, police have launched a 60 year anniversary appeal for any further information surrounding Anne's death. They have urged anybody who saw anything suspicious around the time of Anne's death to come forward, no matter how insignificant the information may seem. Should you have any information, please contact the Hertfordshire Constabulary's non-emergency number 101 or their incident room on 01707 355666. Alternatively you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or through their website www.crimestoppers-uk.org (submissions are anonymous).
It seems as though the investigation surrounding Anne Noblett's death became more and more complicated and perplexing as each new lead was discovered, however I hope that Anne's family will finally find peace and some form of justice from the new appeal. Anne's gentle nature was referenced throughout almost all of the sources I have used to research and I am glad to have given a moment of remembrance and reflection to an often forgotten about young lady and the story around her unfortunate death.
Thank you for reading, Lyd.
| Author | Huw Wales |
| Article title: | Herts police appeal to solve a murder committed nearly 60 years ago |
| Website title: | hertfordshiremercury |
| URL: | http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/news/hertfordshire-news/police-appeal-information-solving-hertfordshire-969794 |
| Article title: | Police teased by mystery caller about murder case |
| Website title: | Watford Observer |
| URL: | http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/search/5780741.Police_teased_by_mystery_caller_about_murder_case/ |
| Article title: | The mystery of the 'Deep Freeze' murder |
| Website title: | BBC News |
| URL: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-42341980 |
Article title: | The ‘Deep Freeze’ Murder Ann Noblett, 17, of Marshalls Heath |
| Website title: | Stalbansreview.co.uk |
| URL: | http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/nostalgia/crimelibrary/annenoblett/ |
| Author | Nina Morgan |
| Article title: | Unsolved murder of 17-year-old: 60th anniversary police appeal |
| Website title: | Herts Advertiser |
| URL: | http://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/anne-noblett-anniversary-murder-appeal-after-body-found-in-whitwell-1-5329699 |
| Article title: | [Unresolved murder] In a mild January 1958, the frozen body of 17-year-old Anne Noblett was found in Hertfordshire woodland. Who was behind the 'Deep Freeze' murder? • r/UnresolvedMysteries |
| Website title: | |
| URL: | https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/7kdaq6/unresolved_murder_in_a_mild_january_1958_the/ |
No comments:
Post a Comment