The Babes in the Wood murders are the murders of two children which occurred in a copse in Sewardstone, Essex on 31 March 1970. The victims, Susan Muriel Blatchford (age 11) and Gary John Hanlon (age 12), were lured from an unknown location close to their north London homes into a copse on the outskirts of Epping Forest, where they were raped and murdered by known paedophile Ronald Jebson. Their bodies were discovered on 17 June, 78 days after the two were reported missing by their parents.
The case remained unsolved for almost thirty years until 61-year-old Jebson, serving a life sentence for the 1974 murder of an eight-year-old girl named Rosemary Papper, confessed to their rape and murder in 1998. He was convicted of both murders in May 2000. Jebson subsequently died in prison in 2015.
Blatchford and Hanlon became known as the "Babes in the Wood" due to the location of their murders and the subsequent discovery of their bodies. They also became known by this epithet as the coroner was unable to determine if they died of exposure or foul play at the initial inquest into their deaths, leaving an initial possibility the children had died by misadventure.
Disappearance Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on the afternoon of 31 March 1970, 11-year-old Susan Blatchford left her home in Riley Road, Enfield, north London, to call at the home of her school friend, 12-year-old Gary Hanlon, who lived in nearby Marrilyne Avenue. Hanlon's mother, Beryl, answered the door. According to Beryl, Blatchford simply asked the question, "Is Gary there?" Shortly after her son joined his friend outside the front door, he asked his mother for permission to join his friend for a walk. His mother agreed, upon the promise he would return in one hour for dinner. The two are known to have walked down Marrilyne Avenue hand-in-hand, with Hanlon holding his football beneath one arm.
The final verifiable sighting of Blatchford and Hanlon occurred at approximately 5:30 p.m. On this occasion, the two were seen walking across a nearby field. No known subsequent sightings of the two were reported to police. Missing person reports were filed by both sets of parents at Ponders End police station at approximately 8 p.m. the same evening.
Investigation The following day, the Metropolitan Police launched an intense manhunt to locate the children. This operation was headed by Chief Superintendent Leonard Read, and at its peak 600 officers were assigned full-time to the case. Concern for the children's welfare was heightened by the fact that on the night of their disappearance, the temperature had fallen below freezing point, and the morning of 1 April saw a snowfall across Enfield.
On 1 April, Superintendent Read visited both families to learn more about their children's friendship. Read quickly discovered Blatchford—the youngest of four sisters—was the more confident character of the two, and although she occasionally experimented with make-up and had recently begun flirting with boys her age, was very much a tomboy and enjoyed playing football, climbing trees and playing with boys' toys such as Hornby train sets. Furthermore, at the time of her disappearance, Blatchford was markedly excited about the upcoming wedding of her sister Linda, in which she was to be a bridesmaid. Hanlon, although described by his family as a "plucky boy", was shy by comparison. Hanlon was the youngest of three siblings. He enjoyed exercise, and his one great love was football. This shared interest had been a major factor in the children's friendship.
Investigators quickly discounted any possibility of the children having run away, as neither had taken any personal possessions and the two had only recently become acquainted at Albany School. Missing person posters distributed described Blatchford as () in height and wearing a green raincoat with red, stitched pockets, a floral blouse, and brown corduroy slacks. Hanlon was described as being just () in height and was last seen wearing a brown cardigan, a fawn patterned pullover, and blue jeans.
Police conducted house-to-house inquiries at over 4,350 homes locally, and over 15,000 people—including several known sex offenders—were interviewed. Over 200 potential sightings of the children were investigated, although each failed to prove fruitful. Underwater search and recovery units searched local rivers, canals, reservoirs, and flooded gravel pits. Search and rescue dogs were also used to scour over 5,000 acres of local fields and woodland, and on 14 April, the Daily Mirror published a national front-page article, offering £1,000 for the children's safe return. Despite these efforts, no clue as to the location or fate of either child was uncovered. By mid-April, Scotland Yard had become active in the manhunt, and the search for Blatchford and Hanlon had expanded nationwide.
Discovery Eleven weeks later, on the evening of 17 June 1970, the bodies of both children were discovered in a bird-watchers' hide inside a densely wooded copse by a young man named Leonard Cook, who had been walking his Labrador dog through the edge of Epping Forest. According to Cook's statement to investigators, his dog had entered the copse and refused to return. When he had entered the copse to search for his dog, he observed a child's foot inside what appeared to be a hide fashioned from branches and bracken. The copse was less than six walking miles from the children's homes, within sight of Sewardstone Road at Lippitts Hill, and had been searched by police officers and search dogs on 9 April.
Both children were discovered lying on their backs, side by side, with Blatchford's arm found draped across Hanlon's body. Their bodies were covered with leaves, twigs and branches. Clothing belonging to both—including underwear—had been removed from their bodies, and Blatchford's slacks had been torn along the inner seams in a manner suggesting the garment had been purposely ripped from the waist downwards. Both bodies were so badly decomposed that pathologist James Cameron could only confirm their identities via dental records.
Although sections of the press speculated the children had died of exposure due to the climate on 31 March and 1 April, the clothing of each child strongly indicated both had been redressed after their deaths, leading both sets of parents and several police officers to strongly suspect they had not died of natural causes. However, due to the extensive decomposition of both bodies, very little forensic evidence remained.
Initial inquest The inquest into the deaths of Blatchford and Hanlon was held in September 1970. At this hearing, the coroner, Charles Clarke, was unable to determine a cause of death for either child or determine whether either had been the victim of any form of sexual assault. As such, Clarke returned an open verdict in the case, ruling the missing and removed clothing may have been caused by the wild animals which had evidently extensively attacked both bodies. Although Superintendent Read attempted to convince his superiors at Scotland Yard that all the known facts of the case clearly indicated the children had been abducted and murdered, he was informed that no financial or physical resources could continue to be used on a case of murder he could not prove had been committed.
Cold case The deaths of Blatchford and Hanlon were never classified as a murder investigation, and none of the physical evidence recovered at the crime scene was preserved. The case gradually became cold, although several senior investigators never doubted the insistence of Read that the deaths were a clear case of murder. In his final report pertaining to the case, Read wrote: "Unless somebody surrenders himself or comes into custody and admits this offence, it is most unlikely that it will ever be resolved."
Both sets of parents also remained convinced that their children had not died via a form of misadventure or natural causes. Blatchford's mother, Muriel, is known to have repeatedly remarked to reporters following the coroner's inquest that the "only animal" capable of removing her daughter's underwear, tights, and bra but leaving her raincoat and blouse intact must have been a human male.
Contact with authorities In May 1996, convicted paedophile and child killer Ronald Jebson contacted Scotland Yard to offer information regarding the Babes in the Wood murders. Initially, Jebson claimed to have witnessed the children's murder, but to have not been responsible for their deaths, which he blamed on Robert and Maureen Papper—the parents of the eight-year-old girl he had murdered in 1974 and for whose murder he was serving a term of life imprisonment at HM Prison Wakefield. His claims the two had lured both children into his car, then "raped and buggered" both in a cellar for several days before discarding their bodies on the outskirts of Epping Forest—with his being an accessory after the fact with regards to the disposal of their bodies—were investigated, but quickly discounted.
Perpetrator Ronald Jebson was born Ronald Harper in August 1938. He was conceived outside of wedlock and was adopted as an infant. His adoptive parents subsequently changed his surname to Jebson.
Jebson was raised in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. He was a loner who had been convicted of indecent exposure at age 15 and had begun actively sexually abusing children shortly thereafter. He is also known to have formed a close friendship with paedophile Sidney Cooke. By 1958, Jebson was an alcoholic and amphetamine addict. Unable to hold any form of employment for a length of time, he had enlisted in the British Army in 1960 but had been discharged following a period of being absent without leave.
By 1970, Jebson had amassed a lengthy criminal record for various offences ranging from petty theft to rape. His most recent conviction had been for the December 1968 sexual assault of a six-year-old girl of acquaintances of his whom he had molested in her bedroom. He had been released from custody for this offence on 2 March 1970, meaning he had been at liberty for just 29 days when he abducted Blatchford and Hanlon.
Eleven days after the murders, Jebson was arrested in Nottingham for sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy whom he had lured into his car and driven to nearby woodland. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for this offence, to be served at HM Prison Wandsworth.
Third murder Jebson was released from prison in 1973 and subsequently moved into the Hatfield home of his former school friend Robert Papper, concealing the truth behind his criminal convictions for child molestation from the family. He left the Pappers' household in the spring of 1974 following an argument stemming from Maureen Papper's general unease regarding his demeanour around their six children, particularly their eight-year-old daughter, Rosemary Ann. According to Robert Papper, his wife discreetly informed him: "I don't like him. There's just something about him I just don't like."
Reportedly, Jebson informed the Pappers as he left their household: "I'll do something you'll regret. I'll get even!" Shortly thereafter, in June 1974, he lured Rosemary from her school to a field where he forced the child to participate in sexual acts before strangling her with a piece of twine as he again raped her. Jebson then concealed Papper's body in a corner of the field. He was arrested the following day, and readily admitted to the murder.
Sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation he serve a minimum of twenty years' imprisonment for Papper's murder, Jebson was incarcerated at HM Prison Wakefield.
Confession Two years after Jebson had initially contacted authorities, on 24 August 1998, he contacted Edmonton Police Station from HM Prison Wakefield. On this occasion, he expressed his wish to formally confess to the Babes in the Wood murders.