'Nude In The he Nettles' Murder Story

2022-10-03 17:03:03 Written by CHARLES GRAY

In 1981 police covering North Yorkshire received an anonymous phone call from a well-spoken man informing them of where to find a set of human remains.

 

Little did they know that 40 years later, the murder case, which has been dubbed the Nude in the Nettles, would remain a complete mystery.

 

One theory is that she was an escaped prison inmate, another is she was one of the victims of Peter Sutcliffe - AKA The Yorkshire Ripper, but the true circumstances have never been established.

 

Police do not even know her name.

 

It was on the morning of Friday, August 28, 1981, that Constable John Jeffries of Ripon police received a call at the station from a man described as well-spoken and with a slight trace of a local accent.

The caller said: “Near Scawton Moor House, you will find a decomposed body among the willow herbs.”The man gave police instructions of where to find the body but when asked for his name, responded he couldn't share his identity, citing “national security".

To this day the man's identity remains unknown.

 

When police arrived at the rural scene within the North York Moors, they discovered the mysterious caller was right.

 

Tangled among the 6ft herbs, they came across the horrific site of a woman's decomposed remains between two small conifer plantations just to the side of an unclassified road leading from Sutton Bank to the villages of Scawton and Rievaulx.

The CID were called to the scene and investigations found the woman was around 5ft 2ins tall and estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old.

 

She had short, dark hair and there was evidence she had broken her right ankle at some point.

 

Based on the staining of her teeth, it was speculated she was a heavy smoker and drinker.

 

An autopsy concluded her body had been at the remote location where she was for around two years. Police considered the woman as a murder victim.

Experts also theorised she had been a mother and had given birth possibly two or three times.

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BY CHARLES GRAY

05:00, 1 NOV 2021UPDATED13:02, 2 NOV 2021

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In 1981 police covering North Yorkshire received an anonymous phone call from a well-spoken man informing them of where to find a set of human remains.

 

Little did they know that 40 years later, the murder case, which has been dubbed the Nude in the Nettles, would remain a complete mystery.

 

One theory is that she was an escaped prison inmate, another is she was one of the victims of Peter Sutcliffe - AKA The Yorkshire Ripper, but the true circumstances have never been established.

 

For all of the latest crime news in Yorkshire click here

 

Police do not even know her name.

 

It was on the morning of Friday, August 28, 1981, that Constable John Jeffries of Ripon police received a call at the station from a man described as well-spoken and with a slight trace of a local accent.

 

The caller said: “Near Scawton Moor House, you will find a decomposed body among the willow herbs.”

 



Sutton Bank, North York Moors(Image: ALH1/Flickr)

The man gave police instructions of where to find the body but when asked for his name, responded he couldn't share his identity, citing “national security".

 

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To this day the man's identity remains unknown.

 

When police arrived at the rural scene within the North York Moors, they discovered the mysterious caller was right.

 

Tangled among the 6ft herbs, they came across the horrific site of a woman's decomposed remains between two small conifer plantations just to the side of an unclassified road leading from Sutton Bank to the villages of Scawton and Rievaulx.

 

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The CID were called to the scene and investigations found the woman was around 5ft 2ins tall and estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old.

 

She had short, dark hair and there was evidence she had broken her right ankle at some point.

 

Based on the staining of her teeth, it was speculated she was a heavy smoker and drinker.

 

An autopsy concluded her body had been at the remote location where she was for around two years. Police considered the woman as a murder victim.

 

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Experts also theorised she had been a mother and had given birth possibly two or three times.

 



The woman's body was believed to have been left in the overgrowth in the North York Moors for two years

No jewellery or clothing of any kind was found with the body, which implied someone had tried to conceal the victim's identity.

 

This led to the term The Nude in the Nettles being coined as the media interest increased.

 

The wider investigation discovered some women's clothing, a black evening gown and some underwear, hanging from a tree about a mile away from the body and though the items could not be proved to belong to the woman, no one come forward to claim them.

There was a significant number of appeals by police to find out information about the woman and the anonymous caller but after three months they were still none the wiser.

 

At this point medical students produced a waxwork of what the woman could have looked like, which was the first time British police had ever used a wax facial reconstruction.

The investigation led to 164 missing women being traced but nobody could offer any insight into the identity of the "Nude in the Nettles".

 

One line of inquiry was that she was a runaway inmate from Askham Grange open prison.

 

But this soon got nowhere when the missing prisoner proved she was alive and well, sending officers two thumb prints and a signature from Ireland.

 

Her cause of death was officially recorded as an “unexplained incident”, with the actual cause being impossible to determine due her body being victim to the elements for so long.

 

In a solemn ceremony attended only by police, councillors and journalists the “Nude of the Nettles” was buried in Malton in 1983 and the wider intrigue surrounding the case would also be put to bed for nearly three decades.

Then in 2011, investigators made a fresh appeal for the unsolved murder and announced they were reopening their investigation.

 

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said at the time: “Somebody, somewhere must know this woman’s name.

DNA material was collected from the thighbone and teeth before she was reburied in a unique service in which the reverend said: “God loves her even if we don’t know who she was."

 

Forensic experts were successful in obtaining a full DNA profile but tragically none of the families who came forward were a match and she did not match the profile of any missing persons in the national DNA database.

 

Shortly thereafter, a retired policeman named Chris Clark would come forward with the belief the unidentified woman could have been a victim of the “Yorkshire Ripper”, Peter Sutcliffe, who it's believed could have been responsible for up to 17 unsolved murders.

 

But to this day, despite the best efforts of police and the immense speculation from the public, the identity of the 'Nude of the Nettles” remains a mystery, along with the identity of her killer and the mysterious caller who tipped off the police.

Source:

Yorkshire Live