Louis Wedge was three years old and lived with his parents in Maltby, South Yorkshire, England.
On April 4th, 1998, the child went to play with another three-year-old boy and a fifteen-year-old girl with learning difficulties, both of whom were his neighbors. The trio somehow ended up approximately three miles from Louis’s home, near an isolated railway line.
A short time later, the girl’s special needs teacher, David Jordan, saw the girl and the other three-year-old walking down the street covered in mud. Louis was not with them, and when asked where he was, the toddler reportedly said, “We’ve dipped him in the water. He’s not our friend anymore.”
The teacher took the children to the police station where they repeated their story. Upon searching the woods, officers discovered Louis drowned in a puddle, with bruising and minor cuts around his face.
When the fifteen-year-old girl’s mother was later interviewed by police, she said that her daughter had claimed the two three-year-olds had been arguing and that Louis had been knocked to the ground by the other boy. This child then allegedly held Louis under the water until he stopped struggling.
However, when investigators questioned the fifteen-year-old girl themselves, she would not confirm this story, and simply stated that Louis had been in the woods; she wouldn’t elaborate any further.
Though the coroner was almost certain that the child had been murdered, there was still enough ambiguity surrounding the circumstances to suggest it could have been an accident; therefore, an open verdict was returned. He further stated that even if murder charges had been filed in the case, there would have been no chance of prosecution, since the fifteen-year-old had severe learning difficulties and the other child was only three.
The possible slaying of Louis Wedge, then, remains unlikely to ever be resolved.
Crime Immemorial 