The Challenge: week one

The Strangler in the Copse

Railwayman Robert Cox often takes the more pleasant route to work, across a local copse in Leighton Buzzard. One mid April morning in 1937, when flowers are returning to their colours and trees again thickening with leaves, birds sing Cox along his way as he thinks of his duties for the day.

Then Cox’s reassuringly predictable routine is shattered. At 7am, he catches sight of an odd-looking bundle partly hidden by the trees. Angry at the apparent sullying of his favourite beauty spot, which has escaped the bleak hand of the machines that have been rapidly consuming the land, he takes a closer look. A bleaker sight than he could ever have imagined confronts him: the almost naked body of a young woman, who is still uncomfortably attractive even from beyond the grave.

Maintaining his composure, as he knows a man in his position must, he runs back to the nearby town. No-one can believe such a terrible thing could have happened in a place of beauty. Soon, however, as one then two, four and eight people rush to the scene to see for themselves, their worst fears, and greatest excitements, are confirmed.

It is then the turn of the ill-experienced, local police service to take charge. They soon identify the body as Ruby Anne Keen, a 23-year-old factory worker who lived with her widowed mother, elder sister and brother in Leighton Buzzard. She had been an attractive girl who enjoyed the attentions of the young men in the district.

After a closer inspection of the body it is discovered that Keen has been strangled, after a fierce struggle, with a black scarf that she had been wearing. The crime scene also reveals that someone knelt astride the girl at some point during or after her murder. Was this the killer? From plaster casts of the impressions in the sandy soil, senior police officer Sir Bernard Spilsbury manages to get a clear imprint of the material that may now be critical in the hunt for the killer.

But where next to turn for evidence? Which question would you ask next?

What was the weather like the day before?

For whom did Ruby work?

Where are Ruby’s parents?

Did Ruby have a boyfriend?

Find out which is the right question to ask

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