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Mary Kriek

Age: 19

Sex: female

Date: 5 Jan 1958

Place: Dedham Road, Boxstead, Colchester, Essex

Mary Kriek was found battered to death in a dry ditch in Boxted near Colchester on 6 January 1958.

She was Dutch and had recently come to England to learn English and was staying at a farm.

It was thought that she had been beaten to death with a hatchet, axe, tyre-lever or hammer. Her inquest heard that she had been hit 17 times with the weapon which was never found.

Her cause of death was given as being due to head injuries.

The police later said that they were satisfied that Mary Kriek was murdered at Boxted where her body was found. They had initially said that her head injuries were very extensive and that it could not be said whether or not they had been inflicted at the spot where her body was found.

The press said that the police were looking for a 'bus-stop' killer who struck when the moon was full. Her murderer was also known as the Moon Killer.

Mary Kriek was described as a pretty Dutch blonde. She had been working as a domestic help at Bull Banks Farm in Eight Ash Green near Colchester. She had been in Britain for about a month having arrived on 7 December 1957. Following her murder her parents came over to England to talk to detectives but their visit was only made public after the fact and had been kept secret at the time.

She was described as:

  • Aged 19.
  • Tall.
  • Blonde.
  • Carrying a brown suede shoulder-type handbag of Continental design along with an overnight bag.

The police said that they were looking into the similarity between her murder and that of Anne Noblett. It was said that they had both been last seen at bus stops and it was thought they had both been lured or dragged into a car after which they were murdered and then dumped and that the police were considering the possibility that they had been lured by the same driver.

The police said, 'He may be a maniac killer who is travelling the country by car to lure teenage girls to their deaths'.

She had spent the Sunday, 5 January 1958 in London with a 20-year-old German girlfriend who worked at Earls Colne in Essex.

The last part of her journey back had been by bus which dropped her off about 100 yards from Bull Banks Farm where she was living at about 10.45pm. As the bus pulled away her friend said that she saw Mary Kriek wave at her before turning to head home. However, that was the last time that she was seen alive.

She was found dead in the dry ditch along the Dedham Road  the following day in Boxted near Colchester, about 12 miles away from where she was staying.

The police said that they were trying to fill in the gaps between when she got off the bus and when she was found in the ditch.

However, they said that they thought that her killer must have used a vehicle in order for her body to be found 14 miles away in the ditch.

On Wednesday 15 January 1958 the police said that they were considering a theory that Mary Kriek had not gone straight home after getting off the bus and that she had in fact gone the other way towards a parked car following information given to them by a passer-by. It was said that the passer-by had seen her cross the road,  heading away from the farm, and go off towards a car that was parked about 300 yards away. the passer-by said that there had been a full-moon and that he had been able to see Mary Kriek well. He added that he noticed that she had been carrying an overnight bag that was similar to the one found by her dead body.

Three other people also came forward to say that they had seen Mary Kriek walking away from Bull Banks Farm.

The police said that they were trying to find her brown leather suede handbag which was missing. It was not thought to have contained a lot of money at the time she was murdered. They said that they were also trying to trace a scarlet leather diary that she was thought to have kept in her shoulder-slung handbag and which had contained the names and addresses of people in England given to her by her sister. It was reported that Interpol were contacts with a request to send a photograph of the type of bag that Mary Kriek was thought to have been carrying. Her bag was described as a Continental handbag and a facsimile of it was later sent over. They were also requested to make inquiries in Holland about her murder and the police confirmed that enquiries were being made in both Germany and Holland but would not state the nature of those enquiries.

The police said that her handbag was a vital link in their inquiries.

A small overnight bag was found near her body and it was thought to have contained her nightclothes.

Her blood stained clothing was sent to the Metropolitan Police Laboratory at Scotland Yard for analysis.

Mary Kriek's employer said, 'She came over here a month ago to work as a domestic help, mainly to learn the language. Mary could speak English reasonably well, but we had to speak slowly to her. She may have been called to a car and gone close because she could not understand what the driver was saying and then have been grabbed'.

Her employers were also questioned about any letters that Mary Kriek might have written that would throw light on friends that she had made in Britain or on her activities.

In their search for the murder weapon the police carried out dragging operations in a river and soldiers from barracks in Colchester were called out  to assist in the search. Four frogmen from Essex were also called in to search the River Stour for clues.

Mine detectors were also used in the search.

It was noted on Monday 20 January 1958 that snow that had blanketed the area around Colchester had hampered the police search for clues.

The police said that they were also trying to trace the car that Mary Kriek was thought to have been last seen walking towards, which was described as a large two-tone saloon car that had been seen near Foxes Corner, Aldham, near the spot where Mary Kriek had got off the bus on the night she was murdered. It was said to have been blue on top and fawn beneath. The car was also said to have been seen by two other witnesses, once at about midnight by a courting couple on 5 January 1958 and then later by a railwayman at a point where the Ipswich Road joined the Colchester by-pass. The railwayman added that he recalled seeing a girl and a man in the back seat.

On Thursday 16 January 1958 it was reported that the police were called to Fairhazel Gardens in Hampstead where a two-tone shooting-brake was reported to have been parked for the previous five days. It was found near a block of flats and was later towed to West Hampstead Police Station. It was a Ford shooting brake with a wooden body and index number BRU 581 and was apparently hand-painted. However, it was later ruled out of the investigation.

The police carried out spot checks on vehicles passing the spot where Mary Kriek was found and a mass census was carried out by about 100 police officers resulting in about 4,000 forms being filled out following door-to-door inquiries and speaking to about 8,000 people in the area between the farm where Mary Kriek worked and where she was found near Boxted. By the time of the inquest the police said that they had interviewed 20,000 people, taken many hundreds of statements and checked on 5,000 vehicles and their occupants, having searched every road and by-way leading from Bull Banks Farm to the spot where she was found.

Enquiries were also made at American Air Force bases at Bentwaters near Ipswich and Wetherfield near Colchester where more than 1,000 privately-owned cars were inspected for any signs of bloodstains or a struggle. During the enquiries blood stained clothing was found and it was taken to Scotland Yard's crime laboratory for tests to determine whether it was the same blood group as Mary Kriek's.

It was said that electric 'brain' machines at four East Anglian air bases were used to reveal the registration details of every car resembling the two-coloured car seen near the farm at the time Mary Kriek got off the bus. The car was described in the newspapers as the 'murder car'. It was said that more than 200 two-toned cars were found to be owned by servicemen. It was reported that detectives sat in offices at US airbases all day checking on every vehicle and asking the owners to account for their movements on the night of the murder and that each of the vehicles was examined minutely by experts with magnifying glasses for traces of blood.

Sightings of a coloured man having been seen in the locality of the farmhouse several times before the Sunday 5 January 1958 were also made.

Other reports were made of a man that had been 'kerb crawling' in a car in the area some days before she was murdered.

Turf from near the spot where Mary Kriek was found was also dug up and taken to London for scientific tests.

The police later said that they thought that certain people were scared and had been holding back information and appealed for such people to come forward. A police superintendent said, 'If you or your friends know anything, however meagre, and are still afraid of going to the police, tell the Sunday Pictorial'.

It was heard that during the investigation into her murder that the police had compiled a minute-by-minute diary of her movements during the weeks before her murder. It was noted that it did not contain the name of a man friend that she was thought to have had.

It was said that her death had been foretold in the stars.

On Tuesday 21 January 1958 it was reported that the police were not ruling out any connection between Mary Kriek's murder and an attack on a 23-year-old girl cyclist in Essex the day before. The girl was Irish and had been a nurse at the Three Counties Hospital about a quarter of a mile away. She had been cycling home in the dark at the time and it was thought that she would have been unlikely to have stopped to talk to someone that she didn't know. She had been battered and criminally assaulted and left lying face upwards in the ditch. She was fully clothed but it was said that much of her clothing was disarranged. Her bicycle was found a few yards away having been flung off the road. She was found by a man as he was cycling to work. It was also reported that she was found by workers going to work in the dry ditch. It was said that her body was near a telegraph post and not far from a wood known locally as 'Lover's Valley'. She was found about 200 yards from the main entrance of the adjoining Fairfield Chest Hospital.  It was noted that the location was only a few miles away from Whitwell where the body of Ann Noblett was found in January 1958 and 20 miles away from Hemel Hempstead where Dianna Suttey was murdered having been strangled and battered and flung into a ditch in September 1956. However, the police said that there was no evidence to connect the assault to the murder of Mary Kriek who was also found in a ditch.

It was also reported on Tuesday 21 January 1958 that another 23-year-old woman from Westcliff in Essex had also been stripped and assaulted by a man in Belfairs Wood, a few miles from Southend.  She was a competitor at horse shows in Essex and had been on her way to feed her horses at Chandersley when she was dragged from her bicycle by a man who then tried to tie her to a tree. However, she managed to fight back and grab her jacket and run off to Wittering Cottage where she knocked up the occupants who then called the police. She described the man that attacked her as:

  • About 20-years-old.
  • 5ft 6in to 5ft 7in tall.
  • Medium build.
  • Dark hair.
  • Clean shaven.
  • Wearing a fawn slide fastener jacket, grey trousers and brown crepe soled shoes.

An earlier assault which took place in August 1957 was also considered during the investigation. It was said that a mystery blue van had been involved in an attempt to kidnap a girl on the main London road out of Colchester and the police thought that they might have been connected. The incident was said to have been possibly witnessed by an American man and a Canadian man, both of whom were high ranking officers and who had since returned to their own countries and it was said that the police had turned the attention of detectives to the United States and Canada where they were making enquiries into the matter. The two officers had been staying at the Crouchend Court Hotel on the outskirts of Colchester at the time.

Mary Kriek's funeral took place on Saturday 11 January 1958 at Colchester cemetery. It was reported that there were about 13 people in attendance including her father, sister and her previous employers. Two uniformed policemen walked in front of the hearse and four others were at the cemetery. A police car also followed the cortege. She was said to have been buried in a simple coffin.

Mary Kriek's inquest was held on Tuesday 29 April 1958 in West Bergholt, Essex at which a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown was recorded.

The conduct of the press in regards to the murder investigation was criticised in the press for being intrusive.

It was reported on Wednesday 9 April 1958 that The Press Council had made enquiries following the publication in The Times newspaper  of a letter that drew the attention to the behaviour of 'a majority of the national daily newspapers' concerning the murder of Mary Kriek. However, The Press Council said that whilst it agreed that the letter had been made in good faith that it nevertheless made several misleading statements and stated that their enquiries found no evidence that reporters that had been making enquiries had been callous, offensive or unscrupulous and stated that the writer of the letter to The Times had failed to substantiate their charges against the 'majority of the national newspapers', although it did find that there was one instance of a serious inaccuracy in a report. The Press Council added that they found two episodes of badgering, one being the Press car's pursuit of the family on the road from Harwich and the other being a Press photographers entry into a man's garden, matters which The Press Council strongly condemned.

On Thursday 19 June 1958 it was also reported that the president of the Institute of Journalists at an Institute conference in Birmingham spoke out over the 'spleen or jealousy' in attacks on the Press and suggested that MP's who had endorsed recent attacks would be better employed in seeking remedies for the ever-growing amount of crime instead of harrying those whose task it was to record it. It was reported that he was referring to the recent allegations of intrusion by the press following the Munich air disaster and the murder of Mary Kriek.  He said that the attacks showed 'an insidious longing, inspired by spleen or jealousy, for some kind of control or censorship whose full implications were not understood by those that wanted them. He said, 'Despite these events, it is still frequently the duty and task of the Press to intrude, where the circumstances and the public interest clearly justify intrusion'.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.lindastratmann.com

see National Archives - HO 332/16 - STA 502/3/33, MEPO 2/9822

see Gazette News

see OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. "Search For Gun In Triple Murder." Times [London, England] 8 Jan. 1958: 5. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 3 Mar. 2013.

see Daily Mirror - Tuesday 07 January 1958

see Daily Herald - Friday 10 January 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Tuesday 07 January 1958

see Sunday Mirror - Sunday 06 April 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Friday 17 January 1958

see Sunday Mirror - Sunday 13 April 1958

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 29 April 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Wednesday 09 April 1958

see Birmingham Daily Post - Thursday 23 January 1958

see Manchester Evening News - Thursday 19 June 1958

see Leicester Evening Mail - Saturday 11 January 1958

see Western Mail - Tuesday 21 January 1958

see Daily Mirror - Wednesday 08 January 1958

see Manchester Evening News - Saturday 11 January 1958

see Western Mail - Thursday 16 January 1958

see Western Mail - Saturday 14 June 1958

see Daily Herald - Saturday 14 June 1958

see Daily Herald - Wednesday 30 April 1958

see Daily Mirror - Saturday 22 March 1958

see Shields Daily News - Wednesday 15 January 1958

see Shields Daily News - Monday 20 January 1958

see Shields Daily News - Tuesday 21 January 1958

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Monday 20 January 1958

see Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 29 April 1958

see Shields Daily News - Thursday 16 January 1958

see Belfast Telegraph - Tuesday 14 January 1958

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Friday 10 January 1958

see Belfast Telegraph - Monday 13 January 1958

see Shields Daily News - Tuesday 07 January 1958