It could have been a precursor to the Soham murders when the bodies of brother and sister June and Royston Sheasby, aged seven and five respectively, were found in a shallow woodland grave not far from their home in the Stapleton area of north Bristol.
Both had fractured skulls and although the motive was assumed to be sexual, as in the case of the Soham murders, the bodies were too badly decomposed to be certain.
The two children were last seen alive on Thursday, June 20th, 1957, in Snuff Mills park, but their bodies were not found until July 1st. Nearby were four large mental hospitals with hundreds of male patients, many of whom frequently broke their parole terms, and some of whom had records of committing sexual offences against small children.
Every patient who was in the wood on June 20th was eliminated from police inquiries. Later the police revealed that they had interviewed 25,000 people in an in-depth investigation occasionally marred by false tips and cruel anonymous letters which wasted many hours of police time.