The West Midlands police in the UK are all having a celebratory pint down the pub this weekend after closing a 5 century-long case. A girl, who went missing in 1972, has finally been found after 50 years, alive and well, but not due to their detective work.
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Sheila Fox was reported as missing by her family all the way back in 1972. This was in the year's way before mobile phones, the internet, or social media. Even many of the forensics and crime-fighting methods we have now were in their early days. It was a lot easier to go missing and stay that way.
The girl was 16 and suspected of running away with an older man. Her family thought she may have eloped, and simply forgotten to leave a message on the fridge or whatever people did before texting. Her family had apparently kept an open mind about her disappearance.
However, 50 years later, the police made a discovery about the missing girl. After unearthing a picture of Fox, police latched onto the evidence, and using modern technology, were able to locate her once again.
50 Years Out Of The Loop For The Missing Girl
The police were overjoyed with themselves. One less missing person file jamming up the shelves. Detective Sergeant Shaw boasted, "We're absolutely delighted to have found Sheila after more than five decades. We searched through every piece of evidence we could find and managed to locate a photo of Sheila. We are a small team of officers and I'd like to recognize the work of DC Shaun Reeve, who managed to resolve this case with help from the public. Every missing person has a story, and their families and friends deserve to know what happened to them and, hopefully, be reunited with them."
Another missing girl case closed after 50 years. But, they were a little late to the party. According to the family, Fox had been found back in the 1980s. Sheila's cousin had a good laugh about the whole situation. "She got back in touch with her family in the 1980s. But by then the whole family had moved to Canada. I'm a bit surprised to see them [West Midlands Police] patting themselves on the back for the investigation"
In fact, it wasn't super sleuth Reeve who solved the case at all. It had been closed all along and someone had just forgotten to sign it off.
