Unsolved Murders: True Crime Stories

Bella in the Wych Elm

One Sunday morning in April 1943, during the dark days of WW2, four teenage boys made a terrifying discovery that would baffle the police and remain a mystery for over 70 years.

The boys were searching for birds nests at Hagley Woods, a private estate near Birmingham in England's Midlands. Climbing up an ancient old wych elm tree, 15-year-old Bob Farmer saw something truly terrible.

Looking down the hollowed out trunk, Farmer noticed a strange object staring back at him from the dark interior. The teenager was horrified when he realised it was a human skull.

A clump of hair hung off the remaining flesh on the forehead, and two crooked teeth gaped out of the mouth. After the boys had a good look at their horrific find, they put it back in the tree and left the woods.

They agreed amongst themselves not to tell anyone about their discovery. They were trespassing in the woods, poaching no less. If they told the police they could be in big trouble.

But one of the boys was so upset by what he saw he told his father and the police were soon called to the area. What they found inside the old tree trunk was bizarre.

The skeleton of a young woman, minus one of her hands. A piece of taffeta was stuffed in the skull's mouth. Some scraps of clothes with the labels cut out, battered shoes and a gold ring were also found in the tree.

Nearby were the bones of the woman's hand, scattered next to the tree. The police were troubled by the unusual circumstances of the woman's death, were sinister forces at work in Hagley wood?

Pathologist James Webster was able to determine the victim had died around 18 months ago, was around 35 years of age with mousy coloured hair, was 5ft tall, had given birth in the past and had irregular teeth.

Webster could find no obvious injuries and concluded she had probably died as a result of the cloth stuffed down her throat. He also believed she had been placed in the tree shortly after death because the space was so tight inside she would not have fitted once rigor mortis had set in.

From Webster's work, the police managed to create a detailed description of the woman. But nobody came forward and a search of 3000 missing persons cases around the country proved fruitless.

A nationwide search of dental practices also drew a blank. The woman had had dental work done within a year of her death, but there was not a trace of her presence at any surgery.

The flurry of press interest soon faded. The travails of the war were at the centre of most people's thoughts. The area had suffered 3 years of Luftwaffe bombing and life was hard.

As Christmas 1943 approached, people had forgotten about the strange case of the woman in the tree. Until the graffiti started.

"Who put Luebella down the wych–elm?" the first one said. Then "Hagley Wood Bella". Soon it settled on "Who put Bella in the wych–elm?". The graffiti appeared on walls throughout the West Midlands, seemingly by the same hand. Someone, it seemed, knew more than they were letting on.

From then on, the woman found in the old elm at Hagley would be known as Bella, even by the police. But they were never able to find who was responsible for the graffiti and were no closer to answering its question.

Was the writer of the graffiti taunting the police? Had they killed Bella or knew who had?

Folklorist Margaret Murray suggested Bella may have been killed in an occult ceremony, the removal of the hand typical of a black magic execution.

The theory that Bella had fallen victim to a coven of witches was popular for a while, but with the absence of any genuine leads from the police the case eventually went cold.