Elsie Frost: members of 1965 youth club urged to come forward

People who went to a Wakefield youth club in 1965 are being asked to contact the police over the unsolved murder of a teenager that year.
DCI Elizabeth Belton Colin Frost at the scene of  the murderDCI Elizabeth Belton Colin Frost at the scene of  the murder
DCI Elizabeth Belton Colin Frost at the scene of the murder

Detectives investigating the murder of Elsie Frost have urged anyone who attended Balne Lane Youth Club in 1965 to contact them.

And now have re-opened their investigation into Elsie’s murder, which shocked the city and has remained unsolved for half a century.

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Elsie was 14 when she was found stabbed at the bottom of the ABC steps, near Horbury Lagoon and the Calder and Hebble Canal, 50 years ago today.

Elsie FrostElsie Frost
Elsie Frost

Last week a new appeal for witnesses was made by detectives, who said they are looking into new lines in enquiry over the murder.

They said a number of telephone calls and e-mails have since been received.

Police said evidence from Elsie’s father suggested that the night before the attack on October 9 that year, she attended Balne Lane youth club in her “best clothes”, quite different from her usual anorak and casual dress. She had also asked permission to stay later.

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Police want to hear from members of the youth club because they don’t believe they were all spoken to after the murder.

They also want to trace a man in a white coat seen riding a bike near the murder scene that day. He was not interviewed in the original police investigation.

Detective chief inspector Elizabeth Belton said: “He was aged 25 – 30 years old riding a black bike with a basket on the front and wearing a white lab type coat possibly of the style then worn by someone who could have been a delivery boy, butcher or abattoir worker.”

The identity of someone Elsie may have been seeing in secret - possibly a boyfriend - in the weeks before her death, could also hold clues to the murder.

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DCI Belton added: “I would continue to ask anyone who has information about that man, or a man Elsie may have been meeting in secret to contact the Major Investigation Review Team.

“Finally we would now ask for anyone who attended Balne Lane Youth Club in 1965 to contact us, please, as we do think that all members were spoken to at the time of the murder.”

This afternoon 14 white doves will be released to mark each year of Elsie’s life at a memorial service at St George’s Church in Lupset.

A tree dedicated to Elsie will also be planted at Wakefield Crematorium.

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Elsie’s brother Colin Frost and Sister Anne Cleave said in a statement: “We are extremely encouraged by the responses already received from the public following the new appeal made last week and it is our hope that this will continue.

“We still have many unanswered questions and we will therefore continue to pursue the answers to those questions.

“It is our hope that this information will lead to us getting justice for Elsie after all these years.

“Elsie remains ‘never forgotten and always remembered.”

Anyone with information about Elsie’s murder can contact the police by calling 101.

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