It was about seven-thirty p.m. on the frigid, foggy evening of December 23rd, 1992, and fourteen-year-old Johanna Young set out from her home in Watton, Norfolk, England, presumably to visit her boyfriend, Ryan Firman. She was spotted near a chip shop in the city center by a handful of witnesses over the ensuing hour, but by eight-thirty, she had seemingly vanished into the night.
When the girl hadn’t come home by the following morning to go on her paper route, her parents summoned the police, and a massive search commenced. Despite their efforts, no trace of the girl was discovered until the day after Christmas, when a dog walker saw a pair of girls’ black sneakers in a hedge on Griston Road. A wider exploration of the surrounding area soon turned up Johanna’s remains, lying face down in a pool of shallow, icy water at the bottom of a clay pit. She was naked from the waist down, and her body was covered in scratches. An autopsy demonstrated that she had died from drowning after having her skull fractured, an injury which had rendered her unconscious. Despite the disarray of her clothing, however, it did not appear that she had been raped.
Investigators first questioned Johanna’s boyfriend, Ryan Firman, though they soon discovered that he and Johanna had broken up only a few days before, and that it was likely not his house to which Johanna had been heading on the night she died, even though the area where her body was found was quite near to Ryan’s home. But there was no physical evidence linking him with the crime, and numerous witnesses placed him at a pub playing snooker on the night of December 23rd, so he was promptly released.
On December 31st, the Eastern Daily Press newspaper received an eerie postcard that seemed to make cryptic reference to the murder, reading, “Griston Rd. Watton 23/12” and featuring two crude stick figures labeled “Youth” and “girl,” as well as a sketch of a motorcycle. This lead was pursued, but generated little progress.
For a time, police were looking into an unnamed older teenager, who other area kids reported sold them weed, had a violent temper, and had a crush on Johanna. This suspect allegedly left his job abruptly a few days after Christmas, and coworkers told investigators that he had had scratches on his face the last time they saw him. It was also later discovered that he had repainted his car only a few days after the murder. The boy was arrested and questioned, but refused to cooperate. Prosecutors eventually concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge him, and he was released.
The most recent developments in the case occurred in 2014, when two men from the Watton area—one in his thirties and one in his forties—were taken into custody. It is not clear whether one of these men was the same individual questioned at the time of the murder, when he would have been seventeen years old.
There has been no movement on the investigation in the past several years, though police are still hopeful that the killer will soon be brought to justice.
Crime Immemorial 