In the autumn of 1979, an unidentified woman would turn up dead in southeast England. Informally known as Bedgebury Doe, the victim was found in Bedgebury Forest in Kent on October 24th.
The victim was a white woman between twenty-five and thirty-five years old, with shoulder-length brown hair and brown eyes. Post-mortem examination suggested that she had given birth to at least one child. The woman was discovered fully clothed, in a black dress, black shoes, and a black turtleneck sweater. It appeared that she had been bludgeoned to death.
Her identity was a complete mystery to authorities, who speculated that she might have been an Eastern European hitchhiker, or a prostitute who plied her trade from the nearby Spitalfields Market.
Shortly after the body was found, police questioned a fifty-four-year-old truck driver named Harry Pennells. Investigators had found traces of blood in the cab of Pennells’ vehicle, and there was also speculation that particles discovered on Bedgebury Doe’s clothing could have come from a foam mattress he kept in the truck.
Pennells denied involvement in the murder, though he admitted that he had picked up a hitchhiker matching the victim’s description at a service station on the M1 on October 19th, who told him her name was Marjory or Margaret. Pennells claimed, however, that he had dropped the woman off at a pub in south London the following morning, unharmed.
For many years, the inquiry spun its wheels, until finally in 1999 authorities felt they had sufficient evidence to charge Harry Pennells with murder. At his subsequent trial, though, Pennells was acquitted, and the homicide was slotted once again into the unsolved files. To this day, the identity of Bedgebury Doe is still unknown.
Crime Immemorial 