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Carol Ann Stephens

Age: 6

Sex: female

Date: 7 Apr 1959

Place: Horeb, Llanelli, Carmarthen

Carol Ann Stephens was strangled and sexually assaulted and then dumped in a ravine near Horeb, 60 miles away from her home.

She disappeared from her home in Malefant Street, Cathays, Cardiff shortly after going out on an errand and was found two weeks later on 21 April 1959 in the ravine near Horeb near Llanelli, Carmarthen.

Carol Stephens had gone out just after midday on 7 April 1959 to buy some cigarettes and sweets for her mother and after she returned she rush straight back out again to play and was never seen alive again. Her mother later said that it was 'Almost as if there had been a pre-arranged something that had prompted her to go back out'.

The shop that she had gone to had been in Dogfield Street.

The ravine that Carol Stephens was found in was 20 feet deep and near to Five Roads in Horeb, five miles north of Llanelly. It was thought that she had been dead for at least a week by the time she was found. The ravine had a small stream in it and her body had been concealed by overhanging leaves and branches.

When she was found she was still wearing the same clothes that she had been when she was last seen but her skirt was round her ankles and her shoes were off, one being found 5ft away and the other 15ft downstream.

Horeb was described as a small hamlet with the only industry there being a brickworks but it was thought that the murderer would have had some familiarity with the area and all the employees at the brickworks were interviewed.

A man said that he saw Carol Stephens approach a car that had been parked at the corner of Robert Street and Fairoak Road, near the Fairoak garage and knock on the door. He added that he saw a man sitting inside the car either reading or writing on some papers.

The police said that they were trying to trace the driver of a small green saloon car that she had had a ride in about a week before she disappeared. Another witness said that they had seen Carol Stephens get out of the green saloon car near to her house.

It was heard that some weeks before her murder Carol Stephens that she had told some of her friends that she had an uncle that was taking her for lovely rides in his motorcar.

The neighbour that saw the green car drop Carol Stephens off sometime on 1 or 2 April 1959 said that he thought it was strange at the time that the car had dropped her off around the corner from her home and not outside it.

The car was also seen by a 16-year-old who said that he had seen a dark-haired man wearing a trench coat and a brimmed hat inside reading some papers.

It was also noted that another 6-year-old friend of Carol Stephens had liked collecting the number plates of cars and it was initially thought that he had collected all the numberplates of cars that had been in the area that day, but it was later found that he hadn't made a note of the number of the green car.

The police later said 'It’s obvious Carol did not walk to Llanelli', and a nationwide campaign was launched to warn children of the dangers of talking to strangers after it was thought that the explosion of car ownership in the United Kingdom was leading to an increase in people using them to abduct children. It was said that at the time there were only three cars on the entire street with 160 houses and as such seeing a car was a novelty.

During the early part of the investigation the police considered her father a suspect. Her real parents were divorced and Carol Stephens was living with her mother and step-father whilst her real father, who it was suspected wanted her back, was living in London. However, when the police spoke to her father he was able to prove that he had been in London at the time of her disappearance.

Her inquest concluded on 1 July 1959 with a verdict of murder by some person or persons unknown but it was noted that her cause of death was never fully disclosed although it was reported at the earlier hearing on Friday 24 April 1959 that it was thought that she had been suffocated although it was also said that there were no apparent injuries and little evidence to indicate her cause of death.

It was added that absence of injuries to her body suggested that she had not been thrown into the ravine.

The contents of Carol Stephens stomach and intestines were also examined and found to be free from poisons.

It was reported that after her body was found that the police carried out intensive and widespread inquiries along the 60 mile route between Cardiff and Horeb and had taken a number of statements from children that had been invited to go for rides by car drivers, with a police spokesman saying, 'It was amazing how many children seem to have had these invitations. The children's statements have to be very carefully examined and checked, and in most cases they don't lead anywhere'.

It was also noted that the police questioned hundreds of motorists and commercial drivers.

The police also searched fields around Horeb as well as farming communities.

A police spokesman also said, 'The considerable distance between Cardiff, the place where the child was reported missing, and the spot where her body was discovered, adds to our difficulties, but we are not without hope. Usually investigations into a murder are confined to a comparatively small area, but in this one considerable distances have to be covered to link up one inquiry with another'.

On Friday 24 April 1959 it was reported that a crowd of about 300 people had gathered in front of Llanelly police station after a rumour went around that a man had been taken to the station for questioning over the murder. However, the police said that there was no truth in the rumour whatsoever.

On Monday 27 April 1959 it was reported that no children in Horeb had been allowed out on its own following the discovery of Carol Stephens's body and it was said that 'Parents are genuinely afraid'.

In November 2020 it was reported that new information had come to light after police said that they had identified a travelling sweet salesman that had links to both Cathays and Horeb. It was additionally noted that Tuesdays were at the time market days in Cardiff and Cathays would have been on a major route out of Cardiff. The man was said to have been questioned at the time of the murder but to have had an alibi, saying that he had been unwell and had also hit a dog with his car which had later run off.

The man was said to have died in Penarth in 1973 but that his wife died in mysterious circumstances around 1969 by gas poisoning. It was heard that her inquest returned a verdict of accidental death but that it was suspected that the man had somehow planned her death. It was heard that the man would play a trick on his son in which he would turn off the gas and then ask him to make a cup of tea for his mother and that when he couldn't light the gas that he would tease him about not being man enough to make a cup of tea. However, at the inquest it was suggested that his son had at some point tried to play the same trick on someone but had inadvertently left the gas on resulting in the death of his mother, the man's wife. It was said that suspicion fell on the man for both the death of his wife as well as Carol Stephens although nothing was ever proved. The man was said to have previously worked at the brick factory in Horeb and would have known the area.


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

see news.bbc.co.uk

see National Archives - MEPO 2/9892

see BBC

see Mirror

see Shields Daily News - Friday 01 May 1959

see Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail - Thursday 23 April 1959

see Shields Daily News - Thursday 23 April 1959

see Shields Daily News - Friday 24 April 1959