Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?

Well, hello there, my name's Ben.

I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a true crime podcast.

Warning, the following podcast material intended warman's your audience, the listener just question.

For some reason, you like caught me off guard at that intro. I did, like I was just sitting here drinking my tea and be like, oh shit, this is what we're doing.

You watched me hit record.

I didn't action. My MIC's in the way. I can't see.

Well, you're staring at your microphone, man, I guess is it an interesting microphone? How's that vantage point?

Oh? Well, you know I have micshus in my face.

Well that's because it is face. It's right there.

Yeah, welcome to wicketing ground. How's everyone doing. We're actually drinking hot drinks today, not alcohol. I was freezing. I need a tea.

I am tired. I needed coffee.

There you go, yeah boom.

And we're recording early today.

Oh yes, we're basically like, got our homework done early for once in our lives.

Instead of recording the day before the podcast night before, the night before, literally hours before, we're actually a whole day ahead. It's Sunday right now.

Sunday Night.

Good for us, high five.

And this one five I hit my mic way to go. I'm actually really proud of us, Like, seriously, we deserve that patent on the back.

We do, we do oneundred percent. We also need a pat in the back for something else that's going on. What's that The website that.

We're starting that you're doing, it looks freaking bab.

It's it's pretty blah right now.

I thought it looked good.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that it's bare bones at this moment, and I'm sure by the time we get it updated. We're starting to updated, but uploaded and out there on the interwebs for people to go visit, it's still gonna be pretty bare bones and we'll just develop it over time. But to get something.

Out there, it doesn't have to be fancy.

No, it's not gonna be fancy.

We're not fancy, but I mean, like, it's not.

Going to have a bunch of stuff on it. It's going to be pretty basic. You can listen to the podcast episodes on there. We're gonna have a little bit of a blog that we're not going to post a lot on, but we will post some updates that sort of stuff, some little bit of behind the scenes for you guys, and other.

Stuff, stuff and things, stuff.

And things and things and stuff.

There you go. It sounds awesome. Everyone's going to want to check it out exactly just like our description, just like everyone's gonna run.

We sold it. We sold it. We're going to be a whole Netflix series here seeing with this website, just people like, oh my god, get them on Netflix and need a show speaking a show. Actually that was a good like interlude with this.

What was actually transitions ad on the back. Wow.

So we started doing a little bit of logging today. Yeah, so we're going to post stuff on a YouTube channel soon. We were going to give that out to you guys soon. We don't even know the name of It's not gonna be Wickeding Graham, I don't think, because it's going to involve like more lifestyle lifestyle stuff.

Well yeah, because the blog today was like just a shit show really of our life. It was because our life is kind of a shit show right now, and I just wanted to say too. Our tiny home is officially started being built.

Yes, the constructions being built.

We got photos on Friday.

It was unreal and We talked about that in the blog that we're going to get up hopefully soon, but god knows when.

Yeah, so that's super cool. It's yeah, it was a bit of an interesting blog, but it's still that's just what our life is right now.

Yeah. You can tell we're tired, you can tell we're run down. You can tell we're also like excited for what's happening.

But I'm like, this close to being on the verge is starting to drink coffee, Like shit, we're getting there by the end of the summer. I might be drinking coffee.

We need to get you. We need to get a French press so you can have actual like delicious.

It's coming. I need it. It's coming. And then one more quick thing. So much to talk about. We had our giveaway we did, which was super cool. Thanks for entering every one.

I'm actually pretty pumped to give this away.

Yeah, so we're gonna announce it tomorrow or Monday, but then you guys will be hearing this on Tuesday, so it's already announced the winner, So.

Hour tomorrow, but you're yesterday if you're listening to this on Tuesday, Yes, tomorrow or Monday, we're posting it on Instagram. The winner. It's already been closed, but the winter is being announced Monday.

So congrats early. Congrats to them.

Okay, I thought you're almost gonna say it. Just congrats to them. Don't say who, don't give it away.

I'm not. I want to, but I'm not. I'm keeping a secret for once in my life.

Congratulations. So all this craziness aside, Are you ready for the story?

I am, because I will. You've given me a little bit of a hints, but I've never heard of this, so I'm pretty calmed.

Well, this one. This is the story of a girl crowded river and drowned the whole. Sorry, I've been wanting to do that since we started this podcast.

I'm into it already. Let's go.

She looks so sad and photographs and.

What No, who is it again?

It's some bands, it's not. It's a dude singer.

Okay. Well, you like Avrilvine, so I thought.

It was just love Avril. She's my girl. She's my girl. I'm not afraid to admit that you're not. But anyways, this is the story of a girl.

But it's at it is.

This is a story of who put bella in the witch elm. This is a mystery that has been baffling people for years. Ke we just jumped up as a as a visitor here. So he may bump microphones.

He's doing good so far.

So far, he might he might bother you, but he's he's an attention horror. Let's put it that way.

He likes his attention.

Yep. Okay, So let's get into this on who put Bella in the witch ow Wow? Okay, Okay. So on April eighteenth, nineteen forty three, at the height of the Second World War, four boys were in the area of Witchbury Hill. This is a hill situated off Birmingham Road in Worcestershire, England. Okay, I thought, I totally thought it was going to be pe.

She did that really good because I almost cringed for you.

That's like one of the worst words to pus in the English language. I nailed.

I would honestly probably not even do the case if I had to say that, fucking.

World, that's that's a legitimate response right there. I was mortified about it. I think I think that's the only time I put it in here, So I think I'm good from here on the job. So anyways, the four boys were Robert Hart, Thomas Willette's, Bob Farmer, and Fred Payne. Okay, now these four boys that were out poaching and bird nesting, Okay in the Hagley Wood.

What does that mean? Bird nesting?

I'll get into it here in a second.

Oh.

Okay, in Hagley Wood, which is like this specific forested area Okay, and it's a part of the Hagley Estate which belongs to Lord Cobham near Witchbury Hill. So it's this estate land owned by this dude basically, so it's private property.

So okay, Yeah, I was just going to say they're like trespassing basically.

Yeah. Okay, So like the poaching and bird nesting, it wasn't an uncommon thing really because we're talking World War two, which is like people are low on rations, you know, families are pretty poverty stricken sort of thing. So basically what they're doing is they're going out searching and raiding bird nests for eggs.

Really.

Yeah, so they're trying to they're scavenging for food where they can't, it's what they're doing. So, yeah, they're out trying to find fine eggs for their families and stuff. It's kind of sad, it is. I can't imagine having to go through a time where you're actually out looking for eggs just to survive.

Yeah, because I can't imagine it's like tasty that the eggs are finding.

Well, I mean depends on the eggs really, but I guess. But yeah, I mean food is food at that point in time, right, Okay. So while they're out looking in the woods and searching for these these nests and eggs, they came across a large witch elm tree, which would be an ideal location for birds to nest in. So one of the boys, Bob, began to climb the tree and look for a nest. As he climbed, he glanced down into the hollow trunk of the tree and saw a skull sitting in the darkness.

That would be such a scary sight.

It I can't imagine. I would have shit myself.

Oh yeah, I would have fallen out of the tree, broke a leg.

He didn't shit himself, He didn't fall out a tree, he didn't break a leg. At first, he actually thought it was an animal skull. Oh, may have crawled in the tree, you know, to like die of old age. Or something like that, or whatever it may be. He quickly realized that when he grabbed the skull to pick it up, there was long hair attached and the human teeth gave way, just for him to realize it wasn't an animal, it was human remains.

Oh man, okay, So like the hair stays attached with these skulls.

Well, like think like dried skin and stuff like. It's like when you find a bone, there's stuff stuck to it. Still it's not perfectly bleached clean, depending on how long it's been there.

I gah.

So there was still hair, not fully attached, but there was still hair attached to the skull.

I don't really know if I've really seen anything like that, So I don't. I have no idea.

I've got a picture I can show you later, okay, okay, an actual picture of the skull that was found. So really, so we already went over this. The boys were doing a few things wrong here. They were trespassing on property. Yeah right, so they're poaching like it's it's not They

Oh that's kind of shocking, but.

We all know what happens when you're like, we're not going to talk, it's going to be a secret. Someone talks.

Yeah, always when they're young, right, Yeah.

I believe they were like young teenagers, like fourteen or something like that.

Yeah, so that's not going to get held in.

Yeah. So once they got home, the youngest boy, Thomas, he didn't like what happened. He didn't sit easy with them, right, so he reported what he found to his parents. Okay, his parents in turn quickly called the police, and the Hagley Wood quickly transformed from a quiet, somber forest into a sorrow and active crime scene.

M dun dun dum. Yeah.

I can't imagine just being out in the bush with the boys kind of things, hanging out with the friends, and you're just like, we just found a dead body.

I know.

That seems to happen a lot in Hollywood though.

Well that's honestly too. How like a lot of bodies are found though it's like people well going for a walk or something, or like fishing or something, and they come across like like, if I ever found a dead body, I would I think that would haunt me for a life probably, Like that's terrifying.

So they found a dead body. Imagine going for a run, your morning run, you find a dead body. That's what these boys are doing. That's yeah, happened, that's what they're going through.

Yikes.

So the skull that was found clearly is valuable evidence in that it's still had some tots of hair. You know, you can have some DNA could show what the person may have looked like. Whatever that is.

Well, and I'm just gonna say it's good that they probably said something because they touched or the one boil least touched it.

It's like, well, I've seen mixed reports on it. That's why I didn't include this on the air. How they picked it up. Some reports said they picked it up with a stick. Oh okay, so I wasn't. I couldn't find definitive answers on that.

Well, yeah, I definitely wouldn't want to just grab it.

And this isn't the forties two. I'm not too sure how fingerprints necessarily worse true. So they also had dental patterns despite some missing teeth. But the police, hold on, I totally missed my sentence up, messed my sentence up there, that's right, Okakay, So yeah, they still had a clear dental pattern despite some missing teeth. Okay, there we go.

I don't know how old this person is.

We're getting into it. So the police not only pulled a skull from the witch Elm hollow, there was also an entire skeleton inside the tree. The only thing that was missing was a hand. Further investigation revealed a trail of finger bones scattered around the outside of the tree as well, to make up said missing hand.

Really yep, that's kind of odd.

Definitely, And there's that kind of plays into some theories later.

On too, like that's really weird. Just they removed their fingers and sprinkled it around the friggin tree like it was sparkles.

It was sparkling, like just some very dust.

It's weird.

Well, there's some we'll get into it later. But one of the things is it could potentially be animal even right, animals could have gotten to the bones, So, I mean, we don't know for sure. Police also found clothing remnants, a shoe, inside the tree, and the other shoe was outside the tree, a gold wedding ring and some costume

I have like a million questions, like I'm not honestly holding back so much.

Okay, hit me with a couple of questions. I'm not going to answer them right now. Just hit me and let's see what's on your mind.

I'm curious, Well, I want to know how old they are? For one now they've all left me for some reason.

Just how old are they now?

No, there was another one that was like burning and I put it aside. Oh my gosh, what the heck was it? Oh it's gone, it's gone.

Okay, Okay, it's.

Going to come back to me and I'm going to intrupt you and ask.

Oh great, okay, Well, moving on from that, Once the remains were recovered from the tree, medical examiner professional sorry Professor James Webster was called in to investigate. He discovered a number of crucial facts about the remains. He was able to identify the body was female remains.

Okay, that was one question.

He believed the woman had passed away approximately eighteen months prior to being discovered, so that would put it in October of nineteen forty one. Okay, yeah, which provided months a fairly specific timeline to police, which was good.

Because my other question was like, could could they just have crawled in there and then got stuck and then died. Maybe it's not even foul play. That was my other thing.

That kind of gets into some theories which I didn't really touch on that one specifically, but there was some talk about a person climbing in there on their own, and they wouldn't have been able to do so without severely harming themselves.

Oh okay, Okay.

Theoretically so okay, Okay. Anyway, I wasn't supposed to answer your question, should I just did? Damn it?

I that have been last episode two.

We're bad for that.

Yeah, we're bad. We just like to answer each other or something wrong with that.

No, okay, moving on, moving on, and not answering your questions anymore. Listen to the story, figure it out, okay, okay. So Professor Webster also deduced that the woman had met her and close to the scene. He realized that with the small opening in the hollow of the witch elm, she wouldn't have been able to be put inside the

Oh okay, so interesting.

And there is a quote here actually from the medical examiner, Professor James Webster. It's an excellent place for the concealment of a murder, and I think it indicates local knowledge.

Well, that does actually seem like an awesome place to store a body.

Yeah, And if you look at like what a witch elm looks like, it's not really any tree that you would think of. It's almost like this big mass of jumbled twigs and branches, and like the trunk is super thick, but it's made up of like almost several different trees. Oh and then it's like fairly stumpy with like major branches going out, so it's like this crazy mass of shit and it'd be a great place to put a body.

Are you gonna post a picture of what it like? A tree like that looks like? Yeah? Probably could, at least in our stories because I'm intrigued or I.

Mean, if you're not wanting to see her Instagram, there's always Google. But yeah, I'll definitely at least Instagram. I was trying to be nice and not push our social media. Okay. So Professor Webster's finding also indicated that the woman had been approximately thirty five years old at the time of her death.

Okay, it's pretty young.

She had light brown hair and had been found to have given birth to one child, and her skeleton measured just five sorry I wrote that funny, just five feet in height.

Oh.

Her bones also showed that she had no signs of disease or trauma, but her lower jaw showed natural irregularities and distinctive overlapping front teeth on the bottom. So because of these irregularities in the jaw, police were confident they were they would soon establish her identity.

Oh okay, I was like, what does that mean. Okay, So she's.

Got fairly distinctive bottom teeth.

Well, and she's quite short too.

Yep, exactly. And there was actually one tooth that had recently been pulled. I didn't put this in here, but it's worth noting. Oh, okay, there's one tooth that was actually recently pulled to they're confident that maybe they could find a dental record of some way missing, you know. With this dental record, it seemed like a good place where they're going to be able to find who this person is.

And I should say she's petite, not short, because there's nothing wrong.

With being VI space efficient there.

Yeah, and she's a mom. Yeah, so yeah, there's quite a little details there, definitely.

So these facts were of course crucial, all these facts that we've been talking about to the investigation. The determining facts exactly on what made her meet her end was more difficult than anticipated, though it was not certain exactly the cause of her death there, but there was a piece of taffaa found shoved in her mouth and taffida. I had had.

To google this, okay, I was like, because I don't know what that is taffaa.

And this is directly from Google believe it was Wikipedia. Uh, this is defined as a fine, lustrous silk or similar synthetic fabric with a crisp texture. So the piece of cloth basically.

Okay, like she could have gotten it, what would that be called it? Have it over her mouth or whatever, like exphyxiated, exsixiating. Yeah, that's what I was trying to think of it. I was like, it was not grumb into my brain.

My next line here. This led investigators to believe the cause of her death may have been exphyxiation. Okay, but but one thing though, this cloth is where did this come from? It's not matching her clothes or anything. It's just this random cloth shoved in her throat. So kind of weird, kind of suss if you ask me.

Yeah, but I feel like if you were doing that to someone, you'd take whatever you had that you were doing it with. Yeah, I don't I would anyway. I don't know what that says about me, but I am minded.

You're careful, you're going to cover your track. But I mean, if it was someone who shoved it down her throat and then they shoved, we're in a witch elm. They're like, no one's ever going to find her.

That's true. They probably and especially eighteen months later, like, actually that's not that long. They probably anticipated it would have been way longer, probably years and years.

Well, private property often in this bush on this trun never found. Probably exactly. I would have thought if it was me put in that body there, but like, good luck, not happening.

Yeah.

But if there's anything that this podcast is teaching me, it's that, Yeah, you need to cover your tracks because you're gonna get caught.

So you are.

So clearly police were keen to establish an identity of the female victim, and of course the identity of someone who may or may not have murdered said victim.

Right.

This pushed them to actually put and publish a probable description of the victim out in the paper in hopes that the public may help find this individual, and they published it on April twenty fourth, nineteen forty three. Okay,

That's a really good description. It is like really good.

So that's what they had to go on for the public to be kind of helping them and try and get identified for this person. Okay, the description didn't lead to much. It did lead to some tips being called in and such, but none of them really came out with helpful information after being investigated. So they were kind of just dead ends and no one really.

Had which is sure interesting because I feel like just the fact alone that she was wearing a wedding ring that someone you think would be missing.

Her would think huh Okay, I'm.

Very totally Some answers like I know you said this is a mystery, but I'm like, I need to know a bit more here.

Well, let's see where we go. So we already talked about the dental record. While they were investigating leads from the call ins, police were also chasing the dental records, okay, and like I said, the distinctive protruding teeth. They were hoping that no, we got someone who should be fairly identifiable, but it was to no avail. They couldn't find anything in dental records. Useless, useless dang. Yeah, so gang dang.

Oh, okay, that can actually super explain it.

Then, yeah, I mean, there's no dental records of her around here or anything.

So because even if she was from a different area and was reported missing, the local police might not have no idea exactly.

So we're going to get into a little bit of that later on. The theories are.

At the end, okay interesting.

They also tediously searched through piles and piles of missing persons reports to see if any of them matched the description of the deceased, but again there were no leads. And I can only imagine going through the missing person's reports for that because we're talking World War II here. How many missing persons do you think there are?

No kidding? So, yeah, that definitely adds to it, doesn't it. Yep, never thought about that.

So the investigation then turned towards the personal effects found on the scene. The crape. Sold shoes were traced to

They're like doing so much.

Here, they are doing a lot and everything is cold. Yes, everything's cold. The complexity of this like investigation just meant like everything was getting colder by every week that went past, and it was ridiculous. The numerous tragedies over war actually

Oh really, hey, yeah, because that is honestly one thing that probably helps so much, well, it helps with like anything really is word of mouth.

Hey, yeah, exactly. So there was an inquest for what was being called the Tree murder riddle at the time, and the verdict returned as murder by some person or person's unknown, and that seemed to be the end of the case.

Until Okay, I'm like, well that's not satisfying for me. Can we go on a little more?

There's a little more here. Until Christmas of nineteen forty three, the case took an even more perplexing twist, which was about six months after the investigation started, mysterious graffiti began to appear in the area, chalked on a wall of an empty premises in Birmingham, where the words who put Bella down? The witch elm Hagleywood.

Whoa.

This marked the first time the mysterious murdered woman had been given a.

Name name Yeah, because I'm like, they had no.

Idea in her name, they had no idea her name, and all of a sudden, she's now being called.

Belle Ella, which I actually really liked that name.

It's a nice name.

It's a really nice name.

So the writing on the wall was considered to be too high for any of the young kids in the area or anything to just be doing a harmless prank. So it was considered that it was an adult doing this and they took it very seriously.

Well, yeah, because this adult obviously had some inside ing bo if it.

Was accurate, because it Oh my god, look at that. It's true.

Her name's Bella.

So shortly after Descrubb discovering the writing, another message was actually discovered. It had been reported months prior to this one, but had yacht net but had not yet been connected to the case, making this the first connected but the second one in the series of graffitis.

Oh.

The other message that was done months prior read who put Lubella down? The witch Elm And it was on a house on Hayden Hill Road not far from the area.

And this was even before Okay, wait, would that have been before the body was found?

No, it was after, because this.

Okay right, it was like six months later.

Yeah, so it would have been. I couldn't find exactly when the first one on the house was written, so I'm assuming it's probably like three months or something like that after the body was found, And then when the second one was found six months later, they realized that the first one was also part of it. So Yeah, a little bit of a topsy turvy thing going on there. But we have two messages discovered.

Yeah, someone's playing with them.

Yep. Now, both these messages were done in the exact same handwriting and the spelling for which ELM was done exactly correct, because which elm isn't witch, it's wyh.

Oh really yes, okay.

So they both were in the same handwriting and spelled the name of the tree correct, which most people would spell it incorrect.

Huh.

Interesting, So it gave police very good reason to suspect that this was the same person, and they had good knowledge of what may have happened. Yeah, so now people were on the lookout for someone named Bella and they were once again looking for the public's help. So in nineteen forty four, more messages actually began to appear with similar writings and words, but eventually they began to all say the same thing. Who put Bella in the witch Elm.

Well, that's not satisfying at all. I want to know.

So through the decades, as more and more notable messages appeared in the same handwriting.

As well, I just have to say one thing really quickly though. If it was just some random person who had no connection to this case whatsoever, Like, I don't feel like they go on with it, Like I don't think so either, boring and what's the point, right, So I think that this person knows something or had something to do with it.

I think so too. And like, continuing through the decades, the same person was writing messages and they could identify through the handwriting.

You know, yeah, no, I yeah, I don't think.

Of course as copycats. Though they are getting copycat messages, they can identify, they can identify which your copycat and which are not. But at one point I believe it was like in the seventies or something like. That was the last message from the original.

Handwriting, really so it went on for it did.

We are still getting messages to this day though from copy cats.

What a waste of resources. Don't be a copycat.

But the message has been slightly altered over time, and now the message is who put Bella in the witch elm? Spelling it the incorrect way?

W I t h okay, because it's not the main person exactly, and they're just thinking it's spelled that way. Okay.

Two people out there who are SMRT thinking that they got this.

No, I would spell it wrong.

Stay at home, play a call of duty. We don't want to talk to you. Fuck off. So anyways, a little more modern part to this story, where am I here? Okay? So before we do get to the theories, Professor Caroline Wilkinson of the Craney Official Identification at Dundee University recently released photographs. A recently used photographs taken at the time to digitally reconstruct what Bella may have looked like.

Oh okay, that's cool.

She could not use the actual skull, though she had to go by photographs and I want to ask, why do you think she was not able to use the skull?

Well, I was thinking. My first thought was because they don't have it anymore.

Yep. The skull was lost. They lost Bella's fucking skull, like the police.

Yea, what the shit? Really yep, because I was like, oh, maybe they like like buried it or something. No, how do you lose a fucking skull?

I don't know. It had been housed at the Birmingham Birmingham Forensics Lab then moved to the Politi City base.

Someone must have stole it or something. That's mess.

I don't know. The skulls whereabouts are not known. Cool and it's actually been like admitted by police yet we don't fucking know.

That's sad.

There's been investigators looking into it and they can't find documentation or anything on where her skull is. Nothing, it's just gone.

Well don't know. I feel like someone would have to steal it then maybe potentially or would have been nicer. She was like laid to rest.

But okay, so you're gonna hate me for this, but that is all we know about Bella in the witchell I figure that was coming out. We don't know very much, so.

They don't even haven't even fully identified her. They don't even fully know if her name is Bella.

No, we do not. Bella is just as of right now, a pseudonym.

That's crazy.

Yeah, then she has a kid somewhere out there, somewhere out.

There that doesn't make any sense.

So we are going to get into the theories though, And there's some stuff in here that's it's kind of crazy. Craig Cray. Let's see they.

Check the other trees, maybe the fellow families in there.

I'm sure they would have checked the other trees. Like the whole forest was basically a crime scene at that point.

Right, Okay, so well there goes that theory.

I need you to talk for a minute because I'm going to take a sip of coffee.

Enjoy your coffee. Ben will have a pause break here.

Can you can you sing us some Jeopardy music?

Do Do Do Do? Do? Do? Do? Do that Jeopardy? It is okay because you gave me a look. I was like, am I singing the wrong song?

I just didn't expect you to actually do it and then the enthusiasm. Dude, you didn't give a fuck. I loved it.

You asked me to do something. I did it for once. Never listened to what you asked.

You don't ever listen to me at all.

I'm not very good at listening.

Get married, kids, This is this is what you have to look forward to.

Oh it isn't great, then it isn't great.

I never said it was bad at all. I said this is get married kids, this.

Is what you have to very little enthusiasm though.

Yeah, just like you sang Jeopardy.

With I wasn't talking about my marriage.

Okay, anyways, let's move on here. I love you, babe, I love you, but leaving me Jesus hanging there. Wow, cut me deep. Okay, let's get onto the theories.

Okay, yeah, let's do it.

So the first theory is it was a ritualistic thing. So Bella's identity came two years after her discovery. There was Margaret Murray, a philosopher, professor at folkloris and folklorist at University College in London. She theorized that the real answer to Bella's end lay in the fact that one of her hands was detached from the body. Its fingers were scattered around the witch elm sprinkled You mean sprinkle, Yes, actually I think you said glittered around. I think sparkled around.

Keep it. I'm already confused, Like, sorry, was she aren't they aren't they use an already dead person for this ritual? Or like they were like sacrificing her?

I believe sacrificing yes.

Oh okay, So if it was like a cult thing like probably no one would ever say yeah exactly.

And there were rumors of riches and witches sabbaths there we go in the Hagley Woods, and it made its way around the community very fast, and people knew about it, and Margaret, along with many others, are convinced that Bella had been sacrificed by her coven in a witch trial. To this day, people are enthralled with this theory. Police, however, can't find any evidence to link this theory to the Hagleywood remains.

That's interesting and honestly kind of makes a lot of sense that the police wouldn't find anything with that really.

Yeah. The only thing that I'm thinking about though, is if the hand was severed, there is a very very high chance you're going to see marks on the wrist or something like that from a knife, like in the bones.

Right, Yeah, because and that was never said anywhere.

That was never said anywhere. There was never as far as I've found, there were no marks of any cutting

It's and that would have been noticed, Yeah.

It would have been noticed. So I think that one's out the window, just just because of that, just because of that.

So, but did you ever find anything to it say that the hand was like torn off or that's what we're assuming it was.

The hand was separate from the body. It never said any nowhere does it ever say the hand was cut, ripped or anything. The hand is separate from the body. That's it, because I'm assuming they say that and not cut, because there are no marks to say it was cut, so they can't tell. So I'm gonna say the hand was separated naturally.

But how though, like, how would animal have gotten in there? And what kind of animal rat? I guess, yeah, I guess so Ripley, Like when she found that bone down the hill.

That one time, oh my parents place, she hit the jackpot.

She was, Yeah, she was just like tickled pink with.

Herself, comes running up the hill with a moose bone.

Yeah, well, let's clarify it was a mood.

Now she comes up with a human fear. Okay. The second and most popular theory is that she was a Nazi. Spot sounds far fetched, but let's get into it, and I'm gonna explain why. Okay, this theory came to you came to light like. Ten years later, a woman going by the name of Anna of Claverly wrote a letter to the local newspaper stating that she had information regarding Bella's death. It just so happened. Hold on, sorry, I just so happened. There we go. I wrote this little

Oh that's amazing. I love when that happens.

So the letter that she wrote to the paper says, this, finish your articles Ari the witch Elm crimes. By all means, they are interesting to your readers, but you will never solve the mystery. The one person who could give the answer is now beyond the jurisdictions of earthly courts. The affair is closed and involves no witches, black magic or

That's kind of like a confusing letter. I'm not going to lie.

Well, basically she's saying the person responsible for said person's death also died. They're not alive anymore.

Yeah, okay, I gat that that.

And the person who died, Bella, was Dutch and arrived in England illegally in nineteen forty one.

Oh okay, that's.

Essentially what it's saying. What it's saying. Yeah. So the person who wrote this letter Anna was later identified as Una Mosop and was interviewed by a journalist, Wilfred Byford Jones, who later published the letter I just wrote. And she said that Bella had been a German spy who worked for or So I worked with a British officer, among some other colorful characters in the army and all that

Well, that's what I thought you were going.

To say, munitions factory. So AMMO making ammunition?

Okay? Yeah.

So she alleged that her pilot husband, Jack Mosap, had witnessed Bella's death.

Who's who's the husband? Whose husband? Anna's husband?

Anna's real name?

Okay, so I thought it was Bella's husband.

I was like, Anna is the pseudonym for the person who wrote the letter?

Okay?

They were found to be Una Mosap.

Okay.

So, according to or Una, I guess Bella was a member of a spy ring seeking information about the location of the factories. Blah blah. Sorry I backtracked a little bit there. Okay. So she alleged that her pilot husband Jack had witnessed Bella's death. Bella apparently got into a deep got in too deep with aspy ring and a

Okay. And also, and I just realized too in my head that like Bella's family, if it was times of the war and stuff, could have died too, and that's it'd be why she never got reported missing.

Oh exactly, that missing's persons report. That's a very real thing. Yeah, there's theories that you know, she could have been just another casualty of war, never reported missing. That is a true, very true thing, because we are in the height of World War two and this whole spy thing, missing person's thing, like, that's very real stuff for this time. There is another variation in the story though, that h because this one that I just read comes from Anna or Usa. This

Died in there and couldn't get out.

Yeah, kids don't shove people in trees as a prank. That's a fucking dumb thing to do.

Yeah that, I don't think that. I don't know that one is dumb.

Okay. So another one is she was actually an actress who was also kind of spyish espionage anyways. So in January of nineteen forty one, a German Man named Joseph Jacobs had parachuted into the Hagleywood area and was captured. He told the home guard that he was he was going to make contact with a woman named Clara Burial Borel. Anyways, sorry, Clara from here and out, okay. Jacobs explained that Clara had been a German cabaret singer and actress before being

Interesting, Well, it isn't. At one point when they first started writing those messages like graffiti, Yep, wasn't it something before Bella? Like it was a different was it Loubella? Loubella?

It was Lubella was the first message, and then after that it was referred to as Bella.

Okay, interesting, Okay.

So after thoroughly investigating Jacob's man who parachuted in though authorities determined that he could not be released and was killed by firing squad, he was actually the last person to perish at the Tower of London. This, though, begs the question could the remains in the Hagley would be you know Clara who had never managed to rendezvous with Jacobs. There is actually a historical document that shows that Claaria

Was she made married, I'm.

Not too sure about that one.

Huh.

However, did she have a child? I don't know that one. I didn't do an abundant reason. I know.

Sorry, my brain is just like going here.

However, there is a release of a long lost quote unquote long lost German records which indicate Claire had actually died in German in Germany in nineteen forty two, largely putting this theory to rest. But I just want to say, cover ups from government spies in World War Two, maybe something that's keeping us from knowing the truth. Like, I'm sure that's not an abnormal thing. Yeah, oh she was really a spy. No, she just actually just died.

Yeah. So this is just it's not at this point just never going to get solved.

There is another theory, the last theory here that I'm going to cover, and there's some other minor ones out there that are just kind of like completely left wing. Okay, but this other, this last one hear I'm going to talk about she was actually a prostitute.

Okay.

So the speculation is that Bella may have been someone with a transient lifestyle, a person not easily traced in life, thus not particularly missed in death. It suggested that Bella was a prostitute who worked in the streets around Hagley wrote. According to police files, there was a Bella who disappeared in nineteen forty one, which would fit the timeline of

Interesting and being like that too, you could just have jewelry and have had it on your finger and it meant nothing really too yep.

And to note that rolled gold wedding ring was quote unquote cheap as well.

Okay, so resting.

Yeah, And that is the story of who put Bella in the witch Elm still unsolved to this day, and I'm going to assume never to be solved, especially considering the fact that we don't know where her fucking head is.

Oh yeah, that's bad. Yeah, that's really bad.

Bad.

Do they have the rest of her body or did that happen to go missing too.

I would assume they have the rest of her body. I would assume, but I mean I don't know.

Jeez, huh so interesting interesting, Yeah, Okay, these cases are kind of fun. And the fact that it just like gets your your gears turning and your imagination.

You think, you try and like put those things together. Yeah, even if the theories are completely left wing, like don't make any sense or whatever, it's fun to humor them sometimes. Yeah, so my my theory, I'm I think I'm gonna go more for the transient.

One, the gypsy thing.

I think so, I think Bella just happened to be some one who may have been not from the area, so come in with a gypsy caravan or some sort or just traveling along, made her way in and was camping around, living around, doing whatever she wanted, just to kind of live and get by. For one reason or another, she got in it with someone else and they killed her and hit her body.

That one does make a lot of sense, because it makes a lot of sense that she never got reported. You know, so I don't know, what do you think? I think that one. I like that one does make a lot of sense. But then also the the spy one too.

That letter being written in though too, but it was ten years after the fact that it was written in huh, so who knows?

Yeah? Interesting?

Yeah, hit us up on Instagram. Let us know what you guys.

Yeah, I want to know. It's always interesting to hear what other people think too.

I've got quite a few. It wasn't gonna be posting them up, so he'll probably do like two separate posts at least for this one.

Okay, let us know. I'm intrigued.

Yeah, and until we see you guys' messages, make sure you guys stay wicked.