On this day in 1975 the body of missing heiress, lesley whittle, was discovered down the deepest shaft of the underground drainage system of bathpool park.
she had been kidnapped on 14th of jan 75, and had remained undetected,despite clues pointing to the system until 7/3/75.
the whole police investigation was littered with errors and bad feeling between the main 3 investigating forces,and to a lesser extent the post office murder teams. Lesley was from shropshire, the police in mercia, were annoyed that the body was to be held in staffordshire. in fact the inquest was held at kidsgrove town hall. the head of staffordshire cid in control of the staffs investigation, harold wright was born in church street, butt lane.
scotland yard did a 'search' of bathpool on the 17/18 and found 'nothing of significance'' to be found there. but evidence was scattered all over the parkland. the kidsgrove locals in the tradition of finders keepers over the next few week took torches, bino's, stopwatch, camping equipment. and only handed them in went the police went public.

this leads to the possibility that the teenager was alive and could have been saved if the scotland yard search had been a bit more useful.

but only one man if he pushed the girl,or she slipped, in his presence or not?

THE PLOUGH WAS USED AS THE MAIN FOOD CANTEEN AS THE POLICE STATION'S CANTEEN WAS A BIT OVERRUN WITH PAPERWORK.

JUST my annual piece of local history

and the policeman who disovered the body was loggerheads cllr p.maskery