Valerie Haycock

discretion is always advised. Piddington is a village in south Northamptonshire, around six miles from Northampton town center. It's a small village with many facilities being located in nearby village of Hackleton. Forrest Road runs through the center of the village and today is made up of terrace and semi detached houses surrounded by fields and greenery. In nineteen sixty seven, Valerie

Haycock lived on Forest Road with her parents. Valerie was a friendly and happy person who was popular and was well loved by her family and friends. Her stepsister Jeanne would later say Valerie was friendly, she was a bubbly start of girl. She has been described as the baby of the family and very much loved and looked after. In nineteen sixty seven, Valerie was nineteen years old and had been working at a tie factory close to her home.

Like many people of her age, Valerie was trying to navigate her way through her teenage years and figure out what she wanted to do with her life. By July nineteen sixty seven, Valerie believed that she may have found a job that she would find rewarding and may kickstart her career. She told her family that she'd been offered a job as a nanny on a farm near Luton. Luton is around thirty six miles from Northampton, and Valerie was excited about the opportunity of getting a new job

and also to live somewhere other than her hometown. On July fourteenth, Valerie left her home in Forrest Road and traveled to nearby Hackleton. Here, her plan was to board a bus to Newton Pagnell, which is located just outside of Milton Keynes. Her plan then was to get another

bus which would take her to Luton. Her stepsister, Jeane, later explained that she was the one who put Valerie on the bus to Newton Pagnell that day, and that Valerie had promised to contact them by ringing the phone box in Piddington the next day to let them know that she'd got there safely. She left home wearing a t two piece miniskirt suit and carrying a suitcase with

her belongings in. There was nothing to suggest that there was anything unusual or strange about Valerie's decision to take up a job outside of Piddington, as during the nineteen sixties many people moved around for work and for new careers. Valerie's parents and family members waited eagerly for her phone call the next day so that they could hear all about her journey and what she thought about her new job. The phone call to the village phone box didn't arrive.

Her parents waited for several hours, perhaps thinking that Valerie had been delayed or was busy. When Valerie had still not phoned after hours had passed, her parents were worried about her and decided to contact police to report her missing. Northamptonshire Police were now involved with Valerie being reported as a missing person an investigation and began to try and locate her, and they did have some leads, given that they knew whereabouts she'd headed when she left Hackleton on

the bus. It reported that Valerie's family and friends traveled down to Luton to try and locate the farm where she'd been offered the job, but they were unable to find it. It would later be confirmed that police tracked down the family in Luton. They explained that they had indeed offered Valerie a job as a nanny, but that she had not turned up as she planned to do. This was confusing for her family, who couldn't understand what

had happened to her after she left Hackleton. Valerie's brother in law, Clive, later said that he'd been away for two weeks during the time that Valerie had been missing, and that when he got back he also tried to help search for her. He said, I had been on a fortnight's holiday, so Valerie had been missing quite some time by the time I heard what happened. I tried to muster things up, but things seemed to have died down. Her parents thought she would come back, and the police

didn't think anything had happened to her. This statement indicates that police perhaps assumed that Valerie may have gone somewhere of her own accord and had not vanished as a result of foul play. Valerie's family tried their best to try and locate any information. However, this proved to be quite difficult. The Salvation Army became involved in the search, as at the time they did try to track down missing people. However, they also couldn't find any trace of Valerie.

Like many missing person cases that we cover, it was as though she had just vanished. Chief Inspector Dennis Abraham said, she just seemed to have vanished off the face of the earth. Her name is still on the police missing person's list, but there's no information and nothing definite. Since she first went missing, her family knew her disappearance was very unlike Valerie. Her sister pat later said there are an awful lot of people who remember her and would

like to hear from her. Valerie was nineteen. She had boyfriends, but there was no reason for her to leave. She was not the sort of girl who would just go off, which makes it harder. Over the following years, Valerie's missing person case, while not closed, started to go cold, with less and less tips coming in. In nineteen ninety four, almost thirty years after Valerie's disappearance, her name was finally once again in the headlines, but unfortunately as part of

a tragic story. In nineteen ninety four, the news of the House of Horrors in Cromwell Street in Gloucester broke and made headlines around the world world. Fred and Rose West were arrested and their back garden was excavated. They would later be convicted of the murders of twelve women before burying their bodies in the cellar and the back garden. Valerie's case was brought up in relation to the case because it was believed that she may fit the profile

of one of their victims. This was due to her age and the fact that she was traveling from one place to another. Fred West was known to pick up young women who were waiting at bus stops or hitchhiking, and at least one of their victims had been working as a nanny at the time that she was murdered, which of course, was the job that Valerie was going to do. Articles at the time discussed the fact that Valerie had been missing from Northampton and that Fred West

was known to travel around the country. Valerie's sister Pat stated, if Rose West had any conscience at all, she would tell me if Fred had anything to do with my sister's disappearance. There was no reason for val to get up and leave. No one has heard a word from her in twenty eight years. That wouldn't be like her. We've tried to trace her and found nothing. Over the years, not hearing from her, we've begun to fear the worst. VAL's disappearance hit my mother and father very badly. They

were devastated. Val was the baby of the family and they never really got over it. They went to their graves without ever knowing what happened. I don't want that to be the case with me. When I read about the murders and how some of the girls were picked up at bus stops, I thought straight away about VAL's disappearance. If you're still alive, just let us know. Set our minds at rest. Gorcestershire Police were sent many profiles of

missing people to examine. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that Valerie was a victim of the wests. During the time that elapsed, Valerie's parents had passed away without finding out what happened to her or where she went, and so this must have been devastating for them. In two thousand and two, the case would finally be given a lead. A tip off came in from a witness from Northampton who claimed to have seen Valerie around a

week after she disappeared. He explained that he saw her in the Britannia Pub on Barrack Road in Northampton, and she was with two men. Police would later state that the two men that she had possibly been with were Irish and that they were employed by the council to paint road markings. The men lived in a caravan that they traveled the country with, and Valerie had possibly met them while frequenting local pubs. It was known that she'd

recently befriended them before she disappeared. It would turn out that there had been around seven sightings since Valerie disappeared, and six of these had been an Island. The police had previously had a working theory that Valerie may have left to live in southern Ireland, and so this witness putting her with two Irish men a week after she disappeared certainly was of interest to them. The Irish branch of Interpol took over investigations in Ireland looking into Valeriees

possible whereabouts. In two thousand and three, photographs of Valerie once again distributed to the public in the hope that they would jog someone's memory or they would recognize her as someone that they knew. A black and white photograph of Valerie as a teenager was posted in seven London train stations to further get her image and information out to more people. Another theory that has been put forward for why Valerie may have disappeared was that perhaps she

was pregnant before she vanished. At the time in the nineteen sixties, this would have been very difficult for a young single woman, and the stigma that was attached to it may have meant that she thought it was easier to leave her life behind. Her family have considered this as a theory. Her stepsister Jeanne said, I said to my stepdad after Valerie had gone that she could have been pregnant. He said she could have brought the baby home.

That wouldn't have been a problem. While this was a possibility, of course, there's little evidence to confirm it. In Valerie's case, there is very little evidence to go on aside from possible sightings in Ireland. She left with belongings which have never been found. Records indicate that She's never registered for tax or insurance, never claimed Social Security, and never applied

for a driving license in her own name. Since she disappeared, there have never been any official records of Valerie using her own identity. Has been extremely difficult to track down information given the time that has passed since nineteen sixty seven and the fact that the original case file has been lost, meaning that crucial information may now have been missed. There is the possibility that Valerie is out there somewhere, living a new life with a new identity, and that

someone does know where she is. They may not even know that she was ever missing. We don't know a lot about her whereabouts. However, by getting her information out there, we never know what may be uncovered. If you know anything about the disappearance of Valerie Haycock, please contact Missing People through her missing person profile in the show notes, or contact police on one oh one. Thank you for listening to day four of twelve Days of Missing Person

episodes in December. Stay tuned for Day five in a couple of days. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes. Every month. Can also get access to new episodes early in ad free. You can use the link in the show notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support us by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and

also just share the episodes. As always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen