Crime Immemorial

It was the afternoon of December 30th, 1957, and seventeen-year-old Ann Noblett had been at a dance class in the town of Harpenden, in Hertfordshire, England. After the class ended, she boarded the Green Line bus that would carry her back to her home in Marshalls Heath. Witnesses saw her get off the bus at around six o’clock p.m. and begin walking up the lane. A local girl named Shirley Edwards, riding by on her scooter, saw Ann as well, but as far as is known, she was the last person to see Ann alive.

The Noblett family were quick to report Ann missing when she failed to return home that night; Ann was a quiet, conscientious girl who was something of a homebody and not prone to go wandering around at all hours of the night. Police organized extensive searches around the area, but found no trace of the girl.

As the new year was ushered in, there were still no new leads, and in fact it would be a full month before Ann’s whereabouts would be discovered. On January 31, 1958, RAF pilot Hugh Symonds and his fourteen-year-old brother Brian were walking their dog Rip in the woods when they stumbled across Ann’s body lying in a clearing about a hundred yards from the lane.

Though she was dressed and was still wearing her glasses, her clothes were in disarray, suggesting that she had probably been sexually assaulted, and perhaps re-dressed by her killer. Cause of death appeared to be suffocation, and the location where her corpse turned up was nearly seven miles away from the Noblett residence. Robbery did not appear to be a motive, for her purse was found nearby, and still contained thirty shillings.

There were several unusual aspects surrounding the finding of Ann’s remains. First of all, the area where the body was discovered had been searched numerous times in the previous month by teams of investigators, volunteers, and tracking dogs. Not only that, but the lane adjacent to the site was a frequently used cart track and a common shortcut for gamekeepers and locals alike. It seemed strange that her body had lain undiscovered for as long as a month, suggesting that perhaps her killer had only recently dumped the remains, perhaps after hearing the news that police had been planning to search all the buildings in the area surrounding her home.

Second of all, Ann’s body was found frozen nearly solid. Though it was winter, the season had been an unusually mild one. Upon consulting a meteorologist, who did not believe that Ann’s body could have frozen simply by lying outside in the cold for several weeks, police began to pursue the theory that Ann’s killer had kept her body on ice or in a large freezer for a significant period of time. The media soon picked up on this bizarre detail, and began referring to the crime as the “Deep Freeze Murder.”

The subsequent investigation largely focused on local farms that utilized large deep freezers for their poultry and vegetables, and on employees of nearby companies that drove refrigerated vans or ice cream trucks. Unfortunately for authorities, the roads surrounding the dump site were constantly trafficked by commercial vehicles, many of them refrigerated, and while police interviewed hundreds of potential witnesses, none came up with any pertinent information. The closest thing investigators had to a lead was a single local person who claimed they had seen a black car in the area which was driven by a middle-aged man wearing horn-rimmed glasses. This vague description, not surprisingly, led absolutely nowhere.

Though there was some later controversy over whether Ann Noblett’s body had indeed been kept in a freezer for a month before being dumped or had been lying in the woods the entire time, in the end the distinction did not help bring closure to the case. The only clues the police established about the likely killer were that it was probably a local familiar with the area, and probably someone from one of the surrounding farms that owned a large freezer.

Aside from that, no progress could be made, and no serious suspects in the “Deep Freeze Murder” were ever put forward. The most recent case review took place in 2017, but authorities are not optimistic about ever solving the crime, as no physical evidence remains, and the perpetrator is likely deceased.