After four hours out playing, eight-year-old Helen Bailey rushed home, changed her dirty clothes, washed herself and then went out again. She never returned. Some hours later on Monday, August 11th, 1975, her body was found on scrubland in the Great Barr area of Birmingham. She died from a single stab wound.
She had refused to say how she became dirty or why she was so keen to change her clothes. The police theory is that she might have struck up a friendship with a paedophile who sent her home to tidy herself up before returning to him. But there were no obvious signs of sexual assault. The Home Office recorded the murder as motiveless.