Babes in the Wood: 30 years on and the sorrow will never go away

Thirty years ago today, Brighton was shocked to its core by the grim discovery of ten-year-old Nicola Fellows and her nine-year-old friend Karen Hadaway in Wild Park.

The alarm had been raised the day before on Thursday, October 9, 1986 when the two friends had gone missing and the case remains one of Britain’s most notorious unsolved murders.

The 30 years since have not soothed the hurt and loss felt by the two local families ripped apart by the most unimaginable of crimes.

The families joined together yesterday [Sun] and used the occasion to thank friends and the community for standing by them and supporting them through all the years of hurt.

Ian Heffron, uncle of Nicola Fellows, speaking on behalf of the family, said: “The family gathered on Sunday to mark the 30th year since the devastating loss of the two girls.

“It was highly tinged with sadness.

“Nothing can bring the girls back but we all have our memories that we will cherish on the day.

“We had a brief memorial service at the weekend and we would like to thank everybody in the past who has helped and supported us through this devastating situation since the girls were taken from us.”

The 30th anniversary comes after another difficult year for the two families.

In April vandals smashed a memorial bench in Wild Park in half that was dedicated to the two young girls.

The bench was replaced in June with a “hardwearing and resilient” version made of recycled steel and plastic with Brighton and Hove City Council and Sussex Police generously agreeing to meet the costs.

It was close to this bench that relatives of the girls gathered this weekend to remember their loved ones in a solemn and simple gathering.

The vigil is an annual ritual when the family go to a part of the park near a hawthorn tree which was the only part of the scene they were allowed by police to get close to.

It is known by family and friends as Nicky and Karen’s tree and is often garlanded in ribbons, trinkets, lanterns, flowers, cards and decorations.

PEOPLE STILL SEEK JUSTICE FOR MURDERED SCHOOLGIRLS

IN THE faded photos on their memorial tree, Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway stare across Wild Park.

Their gaze falls upon a father playing ball with his tiny son and dog, in the deep playing field flanked by banks of forest.

Two magpies peck on the ground. A dog leaps back into a waiting car near bushes where the leaves are turning golden.

Most days the scene is similar. Sounds of birdsong and dogs barking. Occasionally the tooting of horns as drivers pass the signs on the nearby road and follow the instructions: “Honk for Justice.”

For the past 30 years, this land left to the wild has kept the closely guarded secret of what happened to the two gilrs, neighbours and playmates.  It knows who or what put their bodies in thick undergrowth 40 yards from a pathway, close to where the hawthorn tree now stands in their memory.

Adorned with fairy lights and rose petals, there’s a toy rabbit at its foot and a freshly inked card on its branches from relatives who are not giving up trying to find out the truth.  As close in death as they were in life, Karen and Nicola were found huddled together in the bushes, with Karen’s head resting on her friend’s lap.

Two 18-year-old boys made the discovery less than 24 hours after a major search started for the girls, who were last seen alive at 5.30pm on October 9, 1986, after going out to play.

After the alarm was raised, relatives and friends joined more than 150 police officers and 30 detectives in a desperate hunt for the children.

Police visited all 7,000 people on the Moulsecoomb estate and a helicopter was called in to help in the hunt, which ended in heartbreak when their bodies were found at 4.20pm the next day.

Aileen Hayward, now 79, remembers taking part from her nearby home.

“We saw everyone searching and we wanted to help,” she said.

“It was nice that everyone wanted to help.

“I am glad I did not find them; I have got children of my own.

“It was terrible.”

In the investigation that followed, Brighton police sent 140 officers out to speak to residents, 80 of them from other subdivisions in Sussex. The inquiry was bigger than The Grand hotel bombing investigation.

Two schoolgirls took part in a reconstruction of the events leading up to the killings and up to 18,000 motorists using Lewes Road were quizzed in an attempt to find clues.

Yet to this day, no one has ever been convicted for one of the country’s most infamous crimes.

The years that followed tore the victims’ families apart.

Karen’s mother Michelle was six and a half months pregnant when her daughter disappeared.

She was so distraught at her daughter’s death that she and her husband Lee Hadaway decided they could no longer live in the house they had shared with their little girl and moved more than 50 miles away to Surrey.

They divorced six years later, blaming the tragedy for their split.

Lee returned to Brighton, became homeless and died in September 1998.

His family was convinced he never got over the death of his daughter and that he died from a broken heart.

A memorial bench was put in place soon after the girls’ deaths to mark the spot where they were found.

Hundreds of donations had poured in from members of the public.

The memorial was destroyed by vandals in June 2007 – a metre-long strip of wood was sawn from the bench in what appeared to be a deliberate attack.

Vandals struck again earlier this year, smashing the bench in half.

Both times the city has rallied round the family to replace the bench to retain the girls’ presence in the park.

For many people walking past the memorial on the anniversary of the murders, justice must still be done.

Caroline Fieldus, 55, goes to Wild Park regularly.

She said: “I remember police going to everyone’s houses during the search.

“It was horrible when they found them.  “The families and others come there all the time to pay their respects.

“But the problem is we still don’t know who did it.

“It makes you think, could I be walking past that person now?

“I worry it’s getting too late to find out.”

A young mother who lives opposite the park echoed that concern.

She said: “I think the biggest part of it is that the person was never caught and it is such a horrific act.

“They should be allowed to cover that area with banners calling for justice.

“Sometimes I take my children up to the memorial there and tell them ‘This is why you keep yourself safe’.”