February 21, 2025 • 41 mins
In this weeks episode we hear from people in the UK who have seen Large Panther/Puma type Cats. In some cases their pets were attacked and they were chased by the cats. Known as the beast of Bristol, this terrifying predator is roaming the SW
I have also included some strange unexplained deaths in the area and we look at the case of the Bristol Babes in the Woods
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/deborah-hatswell-bbr-investigations-cryptids-paranormal-unexplained-events--2840337/support.
I have also included some strange unexplained deaths in the area and we look at the case of the Bristol Babes in the Woods
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/deborah-hatswell-bbr-investigations-cryptids-paranormal-unexplained-events--2840337/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello everybody, and welcome back. Thank you very much for
joining me. In a recent podcast, I shared a freedom
and Information request. It showed that there were over fifteen
thousand large puma or panther like cats that have been
reported to the authorities in the Staffordshire area between the
years two thousand and eight and twenty seventeen. That figure
(00:54):
seems startling to say the least, but if like me,
you receive hundreds of report in a year of non
native big cats saving in the UK, it pales in
comparison to the reports being taken the big cat experts.
People in the UK have taken to sharing their experiences
with the newspapers as these large cats are becoming closer
(01:18):
and closer to our homes. Dog Walkers, hikers, ramblers are
all coming forward with their experiences and stories that's happened
over the years with large cats here in our country.
Now I could sit down and debate whether our government
knows are not you know, but that doesn't really help
(01:40):
in any way. It's great first safe Facebook forums, which
doesn't make people aware of the real dangers these cats present.
More and more people are reaching out as they have
been stopped in our rural places and many a dog
walker are reported being followed back to their car and
(02:01):
they felt both themselves and their pets were at risk.
In April of twenty nineteen, I came aware of an
attack on a family dog at home. When this story
hit the newspapers and the headline was dog attacked by
a panther before owner has a terrifying encounter with a
(02:21):
big cat in Cornwall. Fears have been raised for the
safety of children and pets after a dog were said
to have being attacked by a panther or puma, which
later ran at the dog's owner. The big black cat
is said to be stalking a Cornish village where several
pet cats have disappeared, and one dog has been left
(02:42):
leading from its injuries and with claw marks on its shoulders.
Police and the RISPCA you've confirmed that they have attended
the scene. Especialist forensics officers have taken casts of paw
prints measuring about five inches and said these have been
firmed by the Animal Charity to have been from a
(03:02):
big cat. A local farmer has also apparently discovered the
cat's dent on his land. Now James Stephenson, whose dog
was attacked so people needed to be aware because it
could take a child next, and he recounted his own
Harrowine experience with the animal. James, who was twenty three
at the time, said there had been top of the
(03:25):
beast in his village of Harrow Barrow for a few
weeks before the incident took place. He then spotted the
beast and it attacked his labrador Marley two days before
the terrifying moment he came face to face with it himself. James,
who lived with his mother Tricia in the village of Callington,
said he was in his garden with Marley and his
(03:46):
collie puppy Mazy, when the beast struck. He said, over
the last couple of weeks, we've seen this large black
cat walking down the back wall of the field. At
the back of the garden, he's on a stone wall,
often marrying something the size of a lamb in its mouth.
Whatever it's been carrying is about a foot off the ground,
(04:07):
so it's very big and heavy. We've not paid it
much attention because you know, big cats normally shy away
from humans. We're not sure whether it's a puma or
a panther, but it has been confirmed and it's a
big cat. We're under the impression that it's a humor.
We went round to warn neighbors, to tell them to
(04:27):
keep their dogs inside, you know, keep their children safe,
and they also think that they've seen something like the panther.
They normally come out at night in order to not
blow their cover or James said, but this one is
out any time of the day because it's adapted to
its surroundings. It got our attention most when we were
(04:48):
out in the garden. Marley is a rescue dog and
he has almost an acre of garden now because before
he lived in a confined space and he loves the
big garden. He walks around to make sure it's safe
and secure. Every night. It's a routine to make sure
that him and his family are safe. He was walking
(05:09):
towards the far end of the garden and I'm out
twenty feet from him, and he was suddenly taken down
to the floor, as if his legs had given way
underneath him, like he'd been pulled down. He's a very
agile dog, very careful. I thought he tripped on something
and hurt himself. I called him back and he was
(05:30):
already on his way beside me with his tail between
his legs and fair. He was covered in blood. He
had a big deep dash on his front left leg,
on one between his toes. Whenever his shoulders there was
a big black claw mark, as if a muddy claw
had been scraped down the side of him. He's still
(05:51):
not interested in going out in the garden at night.
He loved his garden and now he can't bear it.
The RSPCA said, probably already caught something and was eating
it in our garden, and that's why it didn't take Marla.
It was just protecting its food when it took him down.
(06:11):
He said that his mom first saw it and when
she did, she call the police and they advised her
to contact the RSPCA as it wasn't a police matter.
But when the family Cotton attacked the RSPCA after Marley
was attacked, officers from Devon and Cornwall police arrived and
they did confirm that something had been there which should
(06:33):
not be. James said. They actually sent Scenes of Crimes
officers who took plaster casts of paw prints from the garden,
which was sent to experts for analysis. They have since
confirmed that they were the tracks of a large cat.
Then came a more frightening encounter for James with the
(06:54):
animal in person in his own back garden. James, who's
an enngine, He said, for the past few nights, we've
noticed large footprints down the end of the garden. The
animals don't want to go out. On Saturday night, I
went out into the garden with the dogs, had a
big torch and we had to resort to putting big
(07:15):
floodlights up to scare this cat off. I saw two
large green eyes reflecting in the torch light at the
bottom of the garden. You know, you told to make
yourself appear big and aggressive and scare it off. So
I shouted at it and waving my arms around, and
he actually started to run towards me. That's very unusual
(07:39):
for a big cat, so it's obviously adapting to its
environment and has no fear of humans, James said. They
say you should never turn away or turn you back
on a large cat, and you should never approach it.
I was luckily enough that I was near the back door,
so I was able to get back inside when it
(08:01):
was coming at me, and then I didn't see it again.
The dogs were still being strange though it's not afraid
of humans like they normally are. There was a fair
distance between us and it should have turned and run away,
but it didn't. It was very scarer. You know. We
(08:21):
have an automatic lights on the front of the house
and we've noticed them for one as if something is
moving around out there and the dogs are still unsettled.
We were told by the police. To take it any further,
we would need to have it on video and we
would need a few other reports to back hours up.
(08:42):
But it's dangerous to children. If it will take a dog,
what else will it tack. So far, I've heard about
four or five pet cats in Harrow Barrow that have
gone missing in the past week alone. One neighbor said
there used to be a large amount of deer in
the field and there hasn't been any for four or
five months now. My mum's concerned for the dog safety.
(09:06):
One of us used to take them out on our
own let them run around. It just got to the
point where we have to take them both out on
leads now with at least two people at a time.
It is a great concern. None of us are resting
properly at night. We want to know if anyone has
a video camera to catch it on and we want
to raise the issue of safety for pets, especially for children.
(09:30):
Children in a light snack for something like this. These
cats come way up to one hundred and eighty kilos,
which is more than my dad and he's a big
ex rugby player. It's also a big concern because cornwall
thrives on farming and it could start on cattle our sheep.
He added that a local farmer had found a pile
(09:53):
of wood, chippins and logs and other items which indicated
a site where the animal had possible set up a
nest or den in an area of undisturbed woodland. James added,
I made contact with several cats, sanctuaries and zoos to
see if any of them would be interested in taking
it to one of the conservation sites where you know
(10:15):
that animal can be rehabilitated into a safe environment when
it can be cared for. Unfortunately, all of the places
that he contacted told him that they didn't have the
space or resources to take the animal, even if it
was tracked and captured. Now. That same year, in the
(10:35):
seventeenth of October twenty nineteen, another family dog was attacked
by a panther. The terrified owners, Cayley Holmes thirty one
and husband Adam thirty nine, had been walking rock while
across lobbrydor Loke when they came face to face with
a big cat in Collie Western in North hands Now.
(10:56):
The one year old dog had bolted off into the
woodland and they heard him growling before he had then
emerged from the bushes with bloody claw marks between his eyes.
Added a manufacturing engineer then went to investigate and was
left frozen to the spot when he looked up into
a tree and saw the panther like creature lurking in
(11:17):
Wakerley Wood. The couple discovered Loki had also suffered cuts
to his legs and they took him to a vets
the following day where he was given anti inflammatory medicine
to treat the wounds. The couple quickly rushed their pep
back to the car, drove back to their home and
reported the incident to the police. Mum of three, Kayley,
(11:39):
said it was about two or three times bigger than
the dog and it was all black. It was scruffy
looking and yellow eyes. Loki comes up to my knees
weighs about forty one kilo, so he's not a small dog.
This thing was massive and I don't know what else
it could have been other than a cart. We noticed
(12:00):
he was growling and then he came back with scratch
marks between his eyes. So my husband went into woodland
and that's when he saw it. It was at the
bottom of a hill and it looked right at my
husband and then it just sloped off into the undergrowth.
I think it was just frozen at the time. It
was about twenty meters away, but he says it felt
(12:22):
much closer than that. We got out there as fess
as we could. When we got home, we found Loki
had injuries to his back legs as well as to
cut to his face. You can see no domestic cart
could have caused that much damage. He hasn't been himself
since it happened. He's just been lying around all day
and been really out of sorts. It's only today that he's,
(12:46):
you know, starting to get back to the normal bit
of himself. It's been a very frightening experience and I
won't be taking the dog back there. I contacted the
police and I was told that there had been other
similar reports by other people. I've warned people on social media,
but a lot of people are saying that we're making
it up. I can totally assure them that we're not. Now.
(13:10):
A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police did tell The Daily Star
that the dog walkers had said that the beast was
bigger than their dog. She went on to add, we've
had reports of a rock while across labrador dog being
attacked by a large plaque cat in Waverley Woods opposite
Thin Shade Woods. On finding the dog, their owner no
(13:32):
sister was looking up into a tree and when they looked,
they described seeing a puma or a panther type cat
which was much bigger than their dog. Now. The sighting
is the latest in a long line of big cat
sightings in Northamptonshire. In nearby Rookland, local man Craig Smith
was convinced he also saw a panther in Wakeleywood around
(13:55):
the same time of year. In twenty twelve, a couple
spotted a big cat in the same woodlands, with other
sightings being reported in the nearby village of Breton. There
was also a sighting of a big cap in two
thousand and eight. In Wallingborough and in two thousand and
four there were six sightings across the area just two
(14:15):
weeks alone. Chris Lawton from Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary said that
the Wakey Wood sighting could have been a panther. He said,
there have been a lot of reports of it. A
lot of people have had stop going missing, such as
sheep and lambs. We once had a report from someone
staying at Barnsdale Lodge saying that they saw a big
(14:37):
cat coming across the road. I was contacted recently by
a witness who lives in the Cleveden area of the UK,
and she shared with me her own sighting of a
big cat, and she added some information on the strange
attack of an ostrich that is suspected there's been attacked
(14:57):
really or died because of a a large cat. The
lady who got in touch with me said, I watched
the YouTube video that you did talking about big cat
sightings in Gloucestershire and porter said, and I'm sure I've
seen a black cat in the back of someone's garden. Well,
it was more of a field to be honest. It's
the Cleveden to Porty Said road. I live in Cleveden
(15:21):
and my daughter lives in Porty said, and I've traveled
that road every day, sometimes multiple times a day. It's
just after the turning to Porty, said police headquarters. Whatever
it was it was bouncing along the back of a hedge,
and it was a large animal, all black and long,
curled up tail. I'm eighty percent sure it was a cat.
(15:43):
It bounced like a cat. It didn't move like a
dog at all. I've been around animals my entire life,
and no hour cat moves. I've never seen a dog
there in all the years i've gone past, at least
twenty years now. I'll send you a picture of the garden.
It was a summer on a bench in that area
and it's easily the side of the bench. I don't
(16:05):
know if you know of the article of the Knower's
Ark Animal Park. It's not far from us. Years ago
something jumped to seven foot fence killed the two EMUs
in there. I'm sure you can find it on the internet.
My sighting happened about eight years ago. Now, I wasn't
aware of the articles you mentioned, but a quick check
(16:26):
on Google led me to it. And it is bizarre.
The Guardian said, could a big can't be to blame
for the death of Olivia. The ostrich keepers at the
zoo in Raxol, near Bristol are trying to work out
what terrible fate has before in Olivia. One of their
two female ostriches or if i'd staff found Olivia very
(16:48):
much dead. Her head had been bitn clean off, and
at first they assumed a tenacious fox has slipped through
the defence and somehow managed to bring down the seven
foot tall bird. But from the shadows the big cat
experts have immerged to suggest that it might just have
been one of the wild cats that browned the area
(17:11):
of southwest England. Chris Hall of Big Cats in Britain
said they have already been several sightings in the Bristol
and Gloucestershire area, so it's quite likely that one of
these beasts is to blame. Ostriches and no pushover, and
it would have been have to have been a very
strong creature to try its luck with such a formidable bird. Now,
(17:35):
the run of bad luck for the zoo's ostrich block
began when Oscar, their male ostrich, began charging a section
of fence until he knocked himself senseless. That there was
called but couldn't save him. The cat experts said. He
believed it was possible a big cat was in the
area and could have spooked Oscar. Indeed, a sheep had
(17:58):
recently been badly maulled to monkeyper to sleep out in
the hope of seeing the big car. He said. The
sad thing is that if Oscar had still been around,
you would have seen the fox that attacks Olivia. The
females are more placid, more easily spooted. Now, I have
no knowledge of ostriches at all or how they behave,
(18:21):
but I know the huge animals. I find it really
hard to believe that a small British fox could take
on something that big ostriches and no pushovers. You know,
they have face beaks, clawed feet for a reason, and
the males can fight to the death in the wild.
So whatever spoot them or kill that female bird had
(18:43):
to be big. If there was no tear or opening
in the day fence, which was quite high, how did
a fox it over that fence, kill that bird and
climb back out to vanish into the night. Who knows? Now.
As horrific as those reports the death of the ostriches are,
(19:05):
it is not the only animal sanctuary in the Bristol
area that has lost animals due to unexplained deaths. I
was contacted several months ago by a lass that lived
in Bristol her entire life, and she had some concerning
information and some unexplained animal deaths in a woodland close
to her home. She said, we lived at Holyhead Animal
(19:28):
Sanctuary in Barrow Gurney, where my mum was a manager there.
I was about ten eleven at the time and there
are woods that joined on to the grounds of Barrow Hospital.
They are long gone now. In those woods we would
often find dead animals, deer, cows, pigs and sheep, all
neatly cut with what I said at the time, but
(19:49):
later they had been sliced in half with a laser
type thing and it was very precise. All of the
adults told us young ones it was a local farmer
dumping his dead livestock. Ever believed it due to their being,
you know, they found like this as well. A founder
wouldn't need to do that to slice an animal and
a half, and a poacher would just take the meat.
(20:11):
And how were they so neatly sliced? I went on
to meet a boyfriend years later who ran out of
those woods whilst taking away one night, swear he'd just
seeing a UFO in there. I'm sure there are other
locals who might have some knowledge about these animal deaths
if they came across them, you know, when they're walking
(20:31):
their dogs. And what's more concerning about this subject, it's
not just animals that are turning up dead in the
fields of Bristol. A man was found dead surrounded by
capple on the sixteenth of August twenty twenty one, and
it was reported that the man had been found in
a field in Marshfield, on the border with Sumrset and Wiltshire.
(20:53):
The man had died. He was local, aged in his eighties.
His body was found by a dog walker and plans
at least we related by the Ambulance service at five
fifty pm. It's next f kin aware. It's the very
sad story. Now a report in a local newspaper revealed
that a big cat had been reported to the police
(21:15):
as it was laying dead along the roadside. Now the
scene was on the M four nine near Bristol in
November twenty four so quite recently, witness Richie Cushions reported
his citing to a big cat research group on Facebook
and it is the latest report suggested in big kind
activity in the country. He said, as you come off
(21:38):
the M four down the M four nine where the
M five is, there's a big black catline dead in
the road. I couldn't stop as was touring my caravan,
but it was too big to be a domestic cat.
Wildlife expert and taxidermist John McGowan, who also starred in
a hit documentary Pantherea Britannica, is not surprised by the
(22:01):
lacest development. He said, big cats are killed on British
roads more common in them then you might think. The
authorities have been known to send out teams of people,
you know, marked vehicles to recover the bodies of cats
killed on our roads before the press or witnesses can
record the evidence. Now, in an area close by, there
(22:23):
is another account of a large black cat and a strange,
unexplained death the few hundred yards of each other. Now
a local woman who said to have seen a large
cat close to her home in May of twenty twenty.
She said she was out walking a dog when she
was left stunned after spotting a big cat in the
(22:43):
fields and woods around her home in Emerson's Green in
South Gloucestershire in May. The animal even picked up a
cent and began to walk to water. It was not
scared of her and it seemed the fact to be
stalking her. She said she believed the animal picked up
on the fact which she was in the area just
(23:04):
a few hundred feet away. Is a very strange and
unexplained death and that took place on the sixth of
May twenty twenty four so last year. Human remains have
been found in the field on the outskirts of Bristol.
Police have confirmed. Avon and Somerset Police were called to
Light Green just before midday on Tuesday, with fire crews
(23:27):
also in attendance. Four vehicles have been seen at Apple Grove,
a colby side next to a green space and a lake.
Police said the remains are yet to be identified and
the death is currently being treated as unexplained, adding that
further searches would be carried out a later day. This
(23:47):
case is still unsolved now. A big cat is seen
in Lee Bay. In twenty nineteen, this report went into
the paranormal database RUGS. Actually twenty nineteen, the Bristol Post
published the following article by Max Baker and Alexander Brock
(24:09):
entitled Bristol Man spots of puma while on holiday. Now,
a man claims that he had a tense encounter with
the puma while holidaying near the coast. Max Tennant was
enjoying a holiday in Willacombe when he spotted the reddish
brown creature one hundred meters ahead of him. He watched
(24:29):
it stroll up and down for around thirty seconds on
the cliffs above Lee Bay before his dogs disturbed the
creature and report Somerset Live. Now. Previously a skeptic, he
says the sighting is convinced it that the Beast of
ex Moore stories from the area are real. He'd also
(24:50):
spoken to a farmer who believes the big cart was
responsible for killing livestock. Describing the mysterious encounter, mister Tenant said,
it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I've got
seven or eight snaps of it in different positions, but
they're not great and not good quality, as it was
on my phone. At first I thought it was a fox,
(25:12):
so it had quite a reddish color to it, and
then I realized it was way too big and the
tail was massive. I've got a large border collar and
it was much bigger than my dog and the tail
was about a meat along with a distinct white bobble
at the end. It had black marks on its face
and we googled pumas we found they can come in
(25:34):
a variety of colors, and I know there are big
cats out there, Mister Tenant added he wasn't scared as
he watched the creature from afar. So as you can
see from a small selection I've shared tonight, big cats
have been seen all across the UK. One of our
(25:55):
witnesses spoke about hearing growls at home and it was
something I wanted to touch on personally, something I've not
spoken about before. I had a very strange experience recently.
I sat working in my bedroom as I often do
in bed on my laptop, was actually working on a podcast,
(26:16):
and my dog Roy was laid the side of me,
and for no reason that I could say, a picture
of a wolf that I have on the wall, I
was actually working on a dog. My story at the
time moved slightly and as the picture moved, my dog
looked at it directly and started to snarl and his
(26:40):
legs were displayed, his tackles were up, his eyes were rolling,
and he said, I've only ever seen him like that
once before, and that happened on the night just before
hired a night I did the same thing. He was snapping,
snarling at the wall, and he looked at whatever it
was that was terrifying as he moved seemed to move
(27:04):
out of the room. I was absolutely terrifying. Chatted with
my husband, and my husband came in. We couldn't see anything.
We couldn't find anything. Eyes even trying to wrap my
brains to think maybe it'd been a mouse or something
like that. Nothing, We couldn't find anything, and just kind
of filed it away as a very creepy experience. And
(27:25):
then last night we were in bed watching something on
the laptop, watch the Crying series with myself and my husband,
and the dog was asleep underneath the quilt on my
husband's side, as he normally is, and for no reasons whatsoever,
we don't understand why he suddenly jumped up out of
bed and he started to growl aggressively at the bedroom door.
(27:49):
Stance was the same, eyes rolling back, is back full on,
making himself up as big as he could and as
much of his threat as he could. As the door moved,
and once again he watched something. Both me and my
husband said it at the same time as it walked
across the room and went towards the cupboard in the corner.
(28:11):
He was up. He was on point. He was growling
at the corner, growling, grown and growling. Whereast we went
to get up to show him that there was nothing there.
He was stapping at us to get back and behind him.
It was a threat. It took quite a long time
to calming down, actually, and we even had to the
point of opening the cubby door to showing that there
(28:32):
was nothing in there. And he was on point for
most of the night, which is a really really strange
behavior for him. So I don't know, I don't understand,
but I know what it feels like to have growls
because the bit I forgot the important bit. As per usual,
for the first time it happened when the picture moved,
(28:55):
we actually heard a growl come from the corner, and
that bad. I wasn't too sure if that was him
in a different tone. I can't be one hundred percent,
but it was very unnerving and very startling and that's
why I'm sharing it with you tonight now. Now, our
next case tonight features a very different animal, indeed one
(29:18):
that is far sc area than any large cat. And
it was shared with me by the witness who lived
at the animal sanctuary where the dead animals with precise
lacerations were found. And she said, Hi, I contacted you
as I've had lots of odd things happened to me
in my time. My friend told me about your podcast
(29:38):
and I've listened to every episode since. I've had were
wolf sighting in Bristol many years ago. I also saw
three wolves again in Bristol, were not were wolves, but
very big wolves that nobody else saw but me. I
felt like I was barming, but I'm one hundred percent
that I saw them and they saw on me and
(30:01):
he looked right at me. The werewolf that I saw
didn't seem to see me or my boyfriend who was
with at the time. I was so scared I actually
wet myself. During my life, I've had lots of weird events.
I've seen an alien arm above my head. It's hard
to describe, but it looked like a spider like thing
(30:23):
with a tiny alien face surrounded with a glowing arm.
I've seen my grandfather's spirit and the ghost of a lady.
I saw the lady not far from where we had
the werewolf sighting. There has also been the sounds of
strange growling noises at home. It sounds like something demonic
(30:44):
is growling under a bed in my mum's spare room
that used to be in my old room. I've heard
it three or four times, myself and my mum hassard
it many more occasions. Again, all of this activity was
in a short distance from where I saw the werewolf
and the lady's ghost. I think all of this activity
(31:07):
is connected to my family and the land, as my
mum suffered an alien abduction in the very same area.
If you wouldn't talk about it for years, I've had
some odd experiences that I believe are alien like that
happened surrounding my artistic, non burbal ten year old son,
who seems to seek and feel energy changes. Me and
(31:31):
my daughter also pick up on dark energy. You did
so at Leewoods. We didn't see it clearly with the
naked eyes as it was dark, but we saw the
shape of something big and we felt terrified and jumped
into the car. There's a few more odd things that
have happened. He is, my mum and children have seen.
(31:53):
I think one that always stays with me that I
think of more than most is the experience with the werewolf.
I remember how it looked as it just stood there,
and it was the size of a pony. It was
on all fours, standing on a mound of grass, and
it was jet black. I didn't see its eyes or
(32:14):
its face, as it wasn't facing me, had on, but
it looked almost majestic. It was definitely covered in hair,
as you could see it blowing about. It was absolutely
massive and shaped like a German shepherd. I don't know
what else it would be. I've seen all shapes and
(32:37):
sizes of dogs with my mum's animal rescue work. This
was way bigger than a great day. It should have
seen us, and it would definitely have heard us, as
we had to run in its direction to get to
the long path on the hill. I just thought it
was coming for me from other side of the woods.
(32:58):
It'd be interested to see if any other people have
had sightings around this area. I've shared some stories tonight
that mention my predator of the animal kind. Now we
must not forget that sometimes humans can reach the deepest
(33:18):
steps of depravity. I'd like to wend our session tonight
and touch on the incredibly harrowing story of a brother
and sister went out to the park to see the
horses and never came home to mom and dad. This
case is known nationally in the UK, and the community
(33:38):
of Bristol felt the impact of this awful murder for
decades to come. And I sometimes wonder if all of
these experiences are mixed up along with the energy of
an area. As our earlier witness said, this is something
about that area the attracts so puts out a negative nager.
(34:03):
I don't know. It is a complete mystery, but as
I say, the Babes in the Wood mystery is one
that's gone on for over sixty eight years. After the
murder of two children in Bristol, a question has remained
unanswered for almost seventy years. Was it the man in
(34:28):
the blue suit? As their city endured a heat wave
in the summer nineteen fifty seven, Duwe and royster and
cheese baking age just seven and five at the time,
went missing, leaving their home in Stapleton to visit some
horses on Thursday, June the twentieth. The siblings were never
seen alive again. The disappearance led to a city wide
(34:51):
search and desperate appeal, the crowds of people volunteering their
time to help officer search for them. That was until
nine pm in July the first, when p c. Jefferson
and Brough saw a small hand in the undergrowth near
the river at Saint nos Mills Park. The hand belonged
(35:11):
to Little Royston and hidden beneath his body was the
body of his elder sister. At a press conference, police
declared the siblings had been murdered and that they had
boast the same fractured schools, having been bludgeoned with a
blunt instrument. Bristol's Babes in the Wood murders became the
subject to one of the biggest police investigations the country
(35:34):
had ever seen, with a mental institution at the focus
of it, and decades later it still remains unsolved. The
children had lived on Brockworth Crescent with mun Barbara and
Dad Jesse when they went hand in hand to see
the horse at a nearby field. Distracted by decorating Barbara
(35:56):
realized her children had not come home at seven pm
and immediate at the call of police. Thousands of people
volunted and police officers gave up breast days in search
for the missing children. It was days after they disappeared
the Bristol Evening Post received a letter saying the children
were alive and a two hundred pounds ransom demanded. The
(36:20):
letter writer said his brother would collect the money, but
if he should be detained, I shall kill the children
after two hours from the time he leaves here. Head
of Bristol's c ID Phillips described the letter as a
wicked and cruel hoax, and the search for the missing
children continued. Track of dogs from Dorchester and police divers
(36:42):
went into the river from all in the hope that
they would find the children alive. Firemen even pumped out
the water from deep Duchess Pond below Stop Park Hospital,
a popular spot for children to play in those days.
Woodland ponds and Outhouse, all within a five mile radius
of their home, was searched, and eleven days later, all
(37:05):
hopes of finding the brother and sister were shattered when P. S.
Brough made the horrific discoverer the murder inquirer soon focused
on a person known as the man in the Blue suit,
aged between forty five and fifty with fair and gray hair.
He had spoken to an off duty fireman at the
(37:25):
beauty spot while two children thought to be the Sheesby
children played at the riverside. Despite twenty five thousand people
had been questioned on more than two thousand statements taken
by police, the man in the blue suit was never identified.
Another focus of the hospital attention, with some of the
(37:46):
five thousand patients based at the nearby Stoke Park Hospital,
numerous false confessions came from the psychiatric hospital or police
check patients histories for violence. Among these question was a
patient known as the Storyteller, used to sit by the
river and tell children's tales of wild West hero Baby
(38:08):
Crockett and Swiss hero William Tell before they came to
the conclusion he was a harmless old man who they
just had a genuine love of children. A twenty five
year old nurse was held for thirty two hours of
questioning during the inquiry, but eventually released before he said
he would be forced out of Bristol over accusations he
(38:30):
was a child murderer, an anonymous handwritten letter written on
pale blue paper said to the police was said to
certain vital information about the murder, and it was then
the blue suit was recovered from a storeroom at Bristol
Mental Hospital and another patient was questioned multiple times, all
(38:53):
to no avail. It wasn't until nineteen sixty four that
a real break through in the case was thought to
have come. A home office psychologist Dr Hyatt William said
a man jailed for a minor offense confessed that he'd
killed two children, but had never been charged and had
since died. He said, I believed that he was killed
(39:16):
by his own conscience, concluded the psychiatrist. However, he refused
to name the children or the prisoner the citing confidentiality. Afterwards,
reporters were told the victims were a buying a girl,
that the Sheesby's being the only unsolved murder of that type.
(39:37):
Despite constant requests to see the prisoner's confession by Bristol's
Chief Constable, George Twist, he was never disclosed and the
murder remained unsolved. Jesse shes B, the children's father, said
at the time this confirmed to what I already know.
I was told unofficially by a policeman a few years
ago that the man they suspected murdering my children who's dad.
(40:05):
Thank you to each and every one of you that
have tuned in here tonight to listen to these stories.
No matter where you are in the world or what
you're doing. Just know that when I put these podcasts
together issue that I'm thinking about. So if there's a
story or a topic I haven't covered, or someone you'd
like me to interview, just let me know and I'll
(40:27):
do my best to make that happen. If you're a
new subscriber or an old one, thank you for joining
me and thank you for tuning in each week. And
on that note, I will be back on the same
day at the same time next week. Good Night everyone,
Hello everybody, and welcome back. Thank you very much for
joining me. In a recent podcast, I shared a freedom
and Information request. It showed that there were over fifteen
thousand large puma or panther like cats that have been
reported to the authorities in the Staffordshire area between the
years two thousand and eight and twenty seventeen. That figure
(00:54):
seems startling to say the least, but if like me,
you receive hundreds of report in a year of non
native big cats saving in the UK, it pales in
comparison to the reports being taken the big cat experts.
People in the UK have taken to sharing their experiences
with the newspapers as these large cats are becoming closer
(01:18):
and closer to our homes. Dog Walkers, hikers, ramblers are
all coming forward with their experiences and stories that's happened
over the years with large cats here in our country.
Now I could sit down and debate whether our government
knows are not you know, but that doesn't really help
(01:40):
in any way. It's great first safe Facebook forums, which
doesn't make people aware of the real dangers these cats present.
More and more people are reaching out as they have
been stopped in our rural places and many a dog
walker are reported being followed back to their car and
(02:01):
they felt both themselves and their pets were at risk.
In April of twenty nineteen, I came aware of an
attack on a family dog at home. When this story
hit the newspapers and the headline was dog attacked by
a panther before owner has a terrifying encounter with a
(02:21):
big cat in Cornwall. Fears have been raised for the
safety of children and pets after a dog were said
to have being attacked by a panther or puma, which
later ran at the dog's owner. The big black cat
is said to be stalking a Cornish village where several
pet cats have disappeared, and one dog has been left
(02:42):
leading from its injuries and with claw marks on its shoulders.
Police and the RISPCA you've confirmed that they have attended
the scene. Especialist forensics officers have taken casts of paw
prints measuring about five inches and said these have been
firmed by the Animal Charity to have been from a
(03:02):
big cat. A local farmer has also apparently discovered the
cat's dent on his land. Now James Stephenson, whose dog
was attacked so people needed to be aware because it
could take a child next, and he recounted his own
Harrowine experience with the animal. James, who was twenty three
at the time, said there had been top of the
(03:25):
beast in his village of Harrow Barrow for a few
weeks before the incident took place. He then spotted the
beast and it attacked his labrador Marley two days before
the terrifying moment he came face to face with it himself. James,
who lived with his mother Tricia in the village of Callington,
said he was in his garden with Marley and his
(03:46):
collie puppy Mazy, when the beast struck. He said, over
the last couple of weeks, we've seen this large black
cat walking down the back wall of the field. At
the back of the garden, he's on a stone wall,
often marrying something the size of a lamb in its mouth.
Whatever it's been carrying is about a foot off the ground,
(04:07):
so it's very big and heavy. We've not paid it
much attention because you know, big cats normally shy away
from humans. We're not sure whether it's a puma or
a panther, but it has been confirmed and it's a
big cat. We're under the impression that it's a humor.
We went round to warn neighbors, to tell them to
(04:27):
keep their dogs inside, you know, keep their children safe,
and they also think that they've seen something like the panther.
They normally come out at night in order to not
blow their cover or James said, but this one is
out any time of the day because it's adapted to
its surroundings. It got our attention most when we were
(04:48):
out in the garden. Marley is a rescue dog and
he has almost an acre of garden now because before
he lived in a confined space and he loves the
big garden. He walks around to make sure it's safe
and secure. Every night. It's a routine to make sure
that him and his family are safe. He was walking
(05:09):
towards the far end of the garden and I'm out
twenty feet from him, and he was suddenly taken down
to the floor, as if his legs had given way
underneath him, like he'd been pulled down. He's a very
agile dog, very careful. I thought he tripped on something
and hurt himself. I called him back and he was
(05:30):
already on his way beside me with his tail between
his legs and fair. He was covered in blood. He
had a big deep dash on his front left leg,
on one between his toes. Whenever his shoulders there was
a big black claw mark, as if a muddy claw
had been scraped down the side of him. He's still
(05:51):
not interested in going out in the garden at night.
He loved his garden and now he can't bear it.
The RSPCA said, probably already caught something and was eating
it in our garden, and that's why it didn't take Marla.
It was just protecting its food when it took him down.
(06:11):
He said that his mom first saw it and when
she did, she call the police and they advised her
to contact the RSPCA as it wasn't a police matter.
But when the family Cotton attacked the RSPCA after Marley
was attacked, officers from Devon and Cornwall police arrived and
they did confirm that something had been there which should
(06:33):
not be. James said. They actually sent Scenes of Crimes
officers who took plaster casts of paw prints from the garden,
which was sent to experts for analysis. They have since
confirmed that they were the tracks of a large cat.
Then came a more frightening encounter for James with the
(06:54):
animal in person in his own back garden. James, who's
an enngine, He said, for the past few nights, we've
noticed large footprints down the end of the garden. The
animals don't want to go out. On Saturday night, I
went out into the garden with the dogs, had a
big torch and we had to resort to putting big
(07:15):
floodlights up to scare this cat off. I saw two
large green eyes reflecting in the torch light at the
bottom of the garden. You know, you told to make
yourself appear big and aggressive and scare it off. So
I shouted at it and waving my arms around, and
he actually started to run towards me. That's very unusual
(07:39):
for a big cat, so it's obviously adapting to its
environment and has no fear of humans, James said. They
say you should never turn away or turn you back
on a large cat, and you should never approach it.
I was luckily enough that I was near the back door,
so I was able to get back inside when it
(08:01):
was coming at me, and then I didn't see it again.
The dogs were still being strange though it's not afraid
of humans like they normally are. There was a fair
distance between us and it should have turned and run away,
but it didn't. It was very scarer. You know. We
(08:21):
have an automatic lights on the front of the house
and we've noticed them for one as if something is
moving around out there and the dogs are still unsettled.
We were told by the police. To take it any further,
we would need to have it on video and we
would need a few other reports to back hours up.
(08:42):
But it's dangerous to children. If it will take a dog,
what else will it tack. So far, I've heard about
four or five pet cats in Harrow Barrow that have
gone missing in the past week alone. One neighbor said
there used to be a large amount of deer in
the field and there hasn't been any for four or
five months now. My mum's concerned for the dog safety.
(09:06):
One of us used to take them out on our
own let them run around. It just got to the
point where we have to take them both out on
leads now with at least two people at a time.
It is a great concern. None of us are resting
properly at night. We want to know if anyone has
a video camera to catch it on and we want
to raise the issue of safety for pets, especially for children.
(09:30):
Children in a light snack for something like this. These
cats come way up to one hundred and eighty kilos,
which is more than my dad and he's a big
ex rugby player. It's also a big concern because cornwall
thrives on farming and it could start on cattle our sheep.
He added that a local farmer had found a pile
(09:53):
of wood, chippins and logs and other items which indicated
a site where the animal had possible set up a
nest or den in an area of undisturbed woodland. James added,
I made contact with several cats, sanctuaries and zoos to
see if any of them would be interested in taking
it to one of the conservation sites where you know
(10:15):
that animal can be rehabilitated into a safe environment when
it can be cared for. Unfortunately, all of the places
that he contacted told him that they didn't have the
space or resources to take the animal, even if it
was tracked and captured. Now. That same year, in the
(10:35):
seventeenth of October twenty nineteen, another family dog was attacked
by a panther. The terrified owners, Cayley Holmes thirty one
and husband Adam thirty nine, had been walking rock while
across lobbrydor Loke when they came face to face with
a big cat in Collie Western in North hands Now.
(10:56):
The one year old dog had bolted off into the
woodland and they heard him growling before he had then
emerged from the bushes with bloody claw marks between his eyes.
Added a manufacturing engineer then went to investigate and was
left frozen to the spot when he looked up into
a tree and saw the panther like creature lurking in
(11:17):
Wakerley Wood. The couple discovered Loki had also suffered cuts
to his legs and they took him to a vets
the following day where he was given anti inflammatory medicine
to treat the wounds. The couple quickly rushed their pep
back to the car, drove back to their home and
reported the incident to the police. Mum of three, Kayley,
(11:39):
said it was about two or three times bigger than
the dog and it was all black. It was scruffy
looking and yellow eyes. Loki comes up to my knees
weighs about forty one kilo, so he's not a small dog.
This thing was massive and I don't know what else
it could have been other than a cart. We noticed
(12:00):
he was growling and then he came back with scratch
marks between his eyes. So my husband went into woodland
and that's when he saw it. It was at the
bottom of a hill and it looked right at my
husband and then it just sloped off into the undergrowth.
I think it was just frozen at the time. It
was about twenty meters away, but he says it felt
(12:22):
much closer than that. We got out there as fess
as we could. When we got home, we found Loki
had injuries to his back legs as well as to
cut to his face. You can see no domestic cart
could have caused that much damage. He hasn't been himself
since it happened. He's just been lying around all day
and been really out of sorts. It's only today that he's,
(12:46):
you know, starting to get back to the normal bit
of himself. It's been a very frightening experience and I
won't be taking the dog back there. I contacted the
police and I was told that there had been other
similar reports by other people. I've warned people on social media,
but a lot of people are saying that we're making
it up. I can totally assure them that we're not. Now.
(13:10):
A spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police did tell The Daily Star
that the dog walkers had said that the beast was
bigger than their dog. She went on to add, we've
had reports of a rock while across labrador dog being
attacked by a large plaque cat in Waverley Woods opposite
Thin Shade Woods. On finding the dog, their owner no
(13:32):
sister was looking up into a tree and when they looked,
they described seeing a puma or a panther type cat
which was much bigger than their dog. Now. The sighting
is the latest in a long line of big cat
sightings in Northamptonshire. In nearby Rookland, local man Craig Smith
was convinced he also saw a panther in Wakeleywood around
(13:55):
the same time of year. In twenty twelve, a couple
spotted a big cat in the same woodlands, with other
sightings being reported in the nearby village of Breton. There
was also a sighting of a big cap in two
thousand and eight. In Wallingborough and in two thousand and
four there were six sightings across the area just two
(14:15):
weeks alone. Chris Lawton from Rutland Wildlife Sanctuary said that
the Wakey Wood sighting could have been a panther. He said,
there have been a lot of reports of it. A
lot of people have had stop going missing, such as
sheep and lambs. We once had a report from someone
staying at Barnsdale Lodge saying that they saw a big
(14:37):
cat coming across the road. I was contacted recently by
a witness who lives in the Cleveden area of the UK,
and she shared with me her own sighting of a
big cat, and she added some information on the strange
attack of an ostrich that is suspected there's been attacked
(14:57):
really or died because of a a large cat. The
lady who got in touch with me said, I watched
the YouTube video that you did talking about big cat
sightings in Gloucestershire and porter said, and I'm sure I've
seen a black cat in the back of someone's garden. Well,
it was more of a field to be honest. It's
the Cleveden to Porty Said road. I live in Cleveden
(15:21):
and my daughter lives in Porty said, and I've traveled
that road every day, sometimes multiple times a day. It's
just after the turning to Porty, said police headquarters. Whatever
it was it was bouncing along the back of a hedge,
and it was a large animal, all black and long,
curled up tail. I'm eighty percent sure it was a cat.
(15:43):
It bounced like a cat. It didn't move like a
dog at all. I've been around animals my entire life,
and no hour cat moves. I've never seen a dog
there in all the years i've gone past, at least
twenty years now. I'll send you a picture of the garden.
It was a summer on a bench in that area
and it's easily the side of the bench. I don't
(16:05):
know if you know of the article of the Knower's
Ark Animal Park. It's not far from us. Years ago
something jumped to seven foot fence killed the two EMUs
in there. I'm sure you can find it on the internet.
My sighting happened about eight years ago. Now, I wasn't
aware of the articles you mentioned, but a quick check
(16:26):
on Google led me to it. And it is bizarre.
The Guardian said, could a big can't be to blame
for the death of Olivia. The ostrich keepers at the
zoo in Raxol, near Bristol are trying to work out
what terrible fate has before in Olivia. One of their
two female ostriches or if i'd staff found Olivia very
(16:48):
much dead. Her head had been bitn clean off, and
at first they assumed a tenacious fox has slipped through
the defence and somehow managed to bring down the seven
foot tall bird. But from the shadows the big cat
experts have immerged to suggest that it might just have
been one of the wild cats that browned the area
(17:11):
of southwest England. Chris Hall of Big Cats in Britain
said they have already been several sightings in the Bristol
and Gloucestershire area, so it's quite likely that one of
these beasts is to blame. Ostriches and no pushover, and
it would have been have to have been a very
strong creature to try its luck with such a formidable bird. Now,
(17:35):
the run of bad luck for the zoo's ostrich block
began when Oscar, their male ostrich, began charging a section
of fence until he knocked himself senseless. That there was
called but couldn't save him. The cat experts said. He
believed it was possible a big cat was in the
area and could have spooked Oscar. Indeed, a sheep had
(17:58):
recently been badly maulled to monkeyper to sleep out in
the hope of seeing the big car. He said. The
sad thing is that if Oscar had still been around,
you would have seen the fox that attacks Olivia. The
females are more placid, more easily spooted. Now, I have
no knowledge of ostriches at all or how they behave,
(18:21):
but I know the huge animals. I find it really
hard to believe that a small British fox could take
on something that big ostriches and no pushovers. You know,
they have face beaks, clawed feet for a reason, and
the males can fight to the death in the wild.
So whatever spoot them or kill that female bird had
(18:43):
to be big. If there was no tear or opening
in the day fence, which was quite high, how did
a fox it over that fence, kill that bird and
climb back out to vanish into the night. Who knows? Now.
As horrific as those reports the death of the ostriches are,
(19:05):
it is not the only animal sanctuary in the Bristol
area that has lost animals due to unexplained deaths. I
was contacted several months ago by a lass that lived
in Bristol her entire life, and she had some concerning
information and some unexplained animal deaths in a woodland close
to her home. She said, we lived at Holyhead Animal
(19:28):
Sanctuary in Barrow Gurney, where my mum was a manager there.
I was about ten eleven at the time and there
are woods that joined on to the grounds of Barrow Hospital.
They are long gone now. In those woods we would
often find dead animals, deer, cows, pigs and sheep, all
neatly cut with what I said at the time, but
(19:49):
later they had been sliced in half with a laser
type thing and it was very precise. All of the
adults told us young ones it was a local farmer
dumping his dead livestock. Ever believed it due to their being,
you know, they found like this as well. A founder
wouldn't need to do that to slice an animal and
a half, and a poacher would just take the meat.
(20:11):
And how were they so neatly sliced? I went on
to meet a boyfriend years later who ran out of
those woods whilst taking away one night, swear he'd just
seeing a UFO in there. I'm sure there are other
locals who might have some knowledge about these animal deaths
if they came across them, you know, when they're walking
(20:31):
their dogs. And what's more concerning about this subject, it's
not just animals that are turning up dead in the
fields of Bristol. A man was found dead surrounded by
capple on the sixteenth of August twenty twenty one, and
it was reported that the man had been found in
a field in Marshfield, on the border with Sumrset and Wiltshire.
(20:53):
The man had died. He was local, aged in his eighties.
His body was found by a dog walker and plans
at least we related by the Ambulance service at five
fifty pm. It's next f kin aware. It's the very
sad story. Now a report in a local newspaper revealed
that a big cat had been reported to the police
(21:15):
as it was laying dead along the roadside. Now the
scene was on the M four nine near Bristol in
November twenty four so quite recently, witness Richie Cushions reported
his citing to a big cat research group on Facebook
and it is the latest report suggested in big kind
activity in the country. He said, as you come off
(21:38):
the M four down the M four nine where the
M five is, there's a big black catline dead in
the road. I couldn't stop as was touring my caravan,
but it was too big to be a domestic cat.
Wildlife expert and taxidermist John McGowan, who also starred in
a hit documentary Pantherea Britannica, is not surprised by the
(22:01):
lacest development. He said, big cats are killed on British
roads more common in them then you might think. The
authorities have been known to send out teams of people,
you know, marked vehicles to recover the bodies of cats
killed on our roads before the press or witnesses can
record the evidence. Now, in an area close by, there
(22:23):
is another account of a large black cat and a strange,
unexplained death the few hundred yards of each other. Now
a local woman who said to have seen a large
cat close to her home in May of twenty twenty.
She said she was out walking a dog when she
was left stunned after spotting a big cat in the
(22:43):
fields and woods around her home in Emerson's Green in
South Gloucestershire in May. The animal even picked up a
cent and began to walk to water. It was not
scared of her and it seemed the fact to be
stalking her. She said she believed the animal picked up
on the fact which she was in the area just
(23:04):
a few hundred feet away. Is a very strange and
unexplained death and that took place on the sixth of
May twenty twenty four so last year. Human remains have
been found in the field on the outskirts of Bristol.
Police have confirmed. Avon and Somerset Police were called to
Light Green just before midday on Tuesday, with fire crews
(23:27):
also in attendance. Four vehicles have been seen at Apple Grove,
a colby side next to a green space and a lake.
Police said the remains are yet to be identified and
the death is currently being treated as unexplained, adding that
further searches would be carried out a later day. This
(23:47):
case is still unsolved now. A big cat is seen
in Lee Bay. In twenty nineteen, this report went into
the paranormal database RUGS. Actually twenty nineteen, the Bristol Post
published the following article by Max Baker and Alexander Brock
(24:09):
entitled Bristol Man spots of puma while on holiday. Now,
a man claims that he had a tense encounter with
the puma while holidaying near the coast. Max Tennant was
enjoying a holiday in Willacombe when he spotted the reddish
brown creature one hundred meters ahead of him. He watched
(24:29):
it stroll up and down for around thirty seconds on
the cliffs above Lee Bay before his dogs disturbed the
creature and report Somerset Live. Now. Previously a skeptic, he
says the sighting is convinced it that the Beast of
ex Moore stories from the area are real. He'd also
(24:50):
spoken to a farmer who believes the big cart was
responsible for killing livestock. Describing the mysterious encounter, mister Tenant said,
it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I've got
seven or eight snaps of it in different positions, but
they're not great and not good quality, as it was
on my phone. At first I thought it was a fox,
(25:12):
so it had quite a reddish color to it, and
then I realized it was way too big and the
tail was massive. I've got a large border collar and
it was much bigger than my dog and the tail
was about a meat along with a distinct white bobble
at the end. It had black marks on its face
and we googled pumas we found they can come in
(25:34):
a variety of colors, and I know there are big
cats out there, Mister Tenant added he wasn't scared as
he watched the creature from afar. So as you can
see from a small selection I've shared tonight, big cats
have been seen all across the UK. One of our
(25:55):
witnesses spoke about hearing growls at home and it was
something I wanted to touch on personally, something I've not
spoken about before. I had a very strange experience recently.
I sat working in my bedroom as I often do
in bed on my laptop, was actually working on a podcast,
(26:16):
and my dog Roy was laid the side of me,
and for no reason that I could say, a picture
of a wolf that I have on the wall, I
was actually working on a dog. My story at the
time moved slightly and as the picture moved, my dog
looked at it directly and started to snarl and his
(26:40):
legs were displayed, his tackles were up, his eyes were rolling,
and he said, I've only ever seen him like that
once before, and that happened on the night just before
hired a night I did the same thing. He was snapping,
snarling at the wall, and he looked at whatever it
was that was terrifying as he moved seemed to move
(27:04):
out of the room. I was absolutely terrifying. Chatted with
my husband, and my husband came in. We couldn't see anything.
We couldn't find anything. Eyes even trying to wrap my
brains to think maybe it'd been a mouse or something
like that. Nothing, We couldn't find anything, and just kind
of filed it away as a very creepy experience. And
(27:25):
then last night we were in bed watching something on
the laptop, watch the Crying series with myself and my husband,
and the dog was asleep underneath the quilt on my
husband's side, as he normally is, and for no reasons whatsoever,
we don't understand why he suddenly jumped up out of
bed and he started to growl aggressively at the bedroom door.
(27:49):
Stance was the same, eyes rolling back, is back full on,
making himself up as big as he could and as
much of his threat as he could. As the door moved,
and once again he watched something. Both me and my
husband said it at the same time as it walked
across the room and went towards the cupboard in the corner.
(28:11):
He was up. He was on point. He was growling
at the corner, growling, grown and growling. Whereast we went
to get up to show him that there was nothing there.
He was stapping at us to get back and behind him.
It was a threat. It took quite a long time
to calming down, actually, and we even had to the
point of opening the cubby door to showing that there
(28:32):
was nothing in there. And he was on point for
most of the night, which is a really really strange
behavior for him. So I don't know, I don't understand,
but I know what it feels like to have growls
because the bit I forgot the important bit. As per usual,
for the first time it happened when the picture moved,
(28:55):
we actually heard a growl come from the corner, and
that bad. I wasn't too sure if that was him
in a different tone. I can't be one hundred percent,
but it was very unnerving and very startling and that's
why I'm sharing it with you tonight now. Now, our
next case tonight features a very different animal, indeed one
(29:18):
that is far sc area than any large cat. And
it was shared with me by the witness who lived
at the animal sanctuary where the dead animals with precise
lacerations were found. And she said, Hi, I contacted you
as I've had lots of odd things happened to me
in my time. My friend told me about your podcast
(29:38):
and I've listened to every episode since. I've had were
wolf sighting in Bristol many years ago. I also saw
three wolves again in Bristol, were not were wolves, but
very big wolves that nobody else saw but me. I
felt like I was barming, but I'm one hundred percent
that I saw them and they saw on me and
(30:01):
he looked right at me. The werewolf that I saw
didn't seem to see me or my boyfriend who was
with at the time. I was so scared I actually
wet myself. During my life, I've had lots of weird events.
I've seen an alien arm above my head. It's hard
to describe, but it looked like a spider like thing
(30:23):
with a tiny alien face surrounded with a glowing arm.
I've seen my grandfather's spirit and the ghost of a lady.
I saw the lady not far from where we had
the werewolf sighting. There has also been the sounds of
strange growling noises at home. It sounds like something demonic
(30:44):
is growling under a bed in my mum's spare room
that used to be in my old room. I've heard
it three or four times, myself and my mum hassard
it many more occasions. Again, all of this activity was
in a short distance from where I saw the werewolf
and the lady's ghost. I think all of this activity
(31:07):
is connected to my family and the land, as my
mum suffered an alien abduction in the very same area.
If you wouldn't talk about it for years, I've had
some odd experiences that I believe are alien like that
happened surrounding my artistic, non burbal ten year old son,
who seems to seek and feel energy changes. Me and
(31:31):
my daughter also pick up on dark energy. You did
so at Leewoods. We didn't see it clearly with the
naked eyes as it was dark, but we saw the
shape of something big and we felt terrified and jumped
into the car. There's a few more odd things that
have happened. He is, my mum and children have seen.
(31:53):
I think one that always stays with me that I
think of more than most is the experience with the werewolf.
I remember how it looked as it just stood there,
and it was the size of a pony. It was
on all fours, standing on a mound of grass, and
it was jet black. I didn't see its eyes or
(32:14):
its face, as it wasn't facing me, had on, but
it looked almost majestic. It was definitely covered in hair,
as you could see it blowing about. It was absolutely
massive and shaped like a German shepherd. I don't know
what else it would be. I've seen all shapes and
(32:37):
sizes of dogs with my mum's animal rescue work. This
was way bigger than a great day. It should have
seen us, and it would definitely have heard us, as
we had to run in its direction to get to
the long path on the hill. I just thought it
was coming for me from other side of the woods.
(32:58):
It'd be interested to see if any other people have
had sightings around this area. I've shared some stories tonight
that mention my predator of the animal kind. Now we
must not forget that sometimes humans can reach the deepest
(33:18):
steps of depravity. I'd like to wend our session tonight
and touch on the incredibly harrowing story of a brother
and sister went out to the park to see the
horses and never came home to mom and dad. This
case is known nationally in the UK, and the community
(33:38):
of Bristol felt the impact of this awful murder for
decades to come. And I sometimes wonder if all of
these experiences are mixed up along with the energy of
an area. As our earlier witness said, this is something
about that area the attracts so puts out a negative nager.
(34:03):
I don't know. It is a complete mystery, but as
I say, the Babes in the Wood mystery is one
that's gone on for over sixty eight years. After the
murder of two children in Bristol, a question has remained
unanswered for almost seventy years. Was it the man in
(34:28):
the blue suit? As their city endured a heat wave
in the summer nineteen fifty seven, Duwe and royster and
cheese baking age just seven and five at the time,
went missing, leaving their home in Stapleton to visit some
horses on Thursday, June the twentieth. The siblings were never
seen alive again. The disappearance led to a city wide
(34:51):
search and desperate appeal, the crowds of people volunteering their
time to help officer search for them. That was until
nine pm in July the first, when p c. Jefferson
and Brough saw a small hand in the undergrowth near
the river at Saint nos Mills Park. The hand belonged
(35:11):
to Little Royston and hidden beneath his body was the
body of his elder sister. At a press conference, police
declared the siblings had been murdered and that they had
boast the same fractured schools, having been bludgeoned with a
blunt instrument. Bristol's Babes in the Wood murders became the
subject to one of the biggest police investigations the country
(35:34):
had ever seen, with a mental institution at the focus
of it, and decades later it still remains unsolved. The
children had lived on Brockworth Crescent with mun Barbara and
Dad Jesse when they went hand in hand to see
the horse at a nearby field. Distracted by decorating Barbara
(35:56):
realized her children had not come home at seven pm
and immediate at the call of police. Thousands of people
volunted and police officers gave up breast days in search
for the missing children. It was days after they disappeared
the Bristol Evening Post received a letter saying the children
were alive and a two hundred pounds ransom demanded. The
(36:20):
letter writer said his brother would collect the money, but
if he should be detained, I shall kill the children
after two hours from the time he leaves here. Head
of Bristol's c ID Phillips described the letter as a
wicked and cruel hoax, and the search for the missing
children continued. Track of dogs from Dorchester and police divers
(36:42):
went into the river from all in the hope that
they would find the children alive. Firemen even pumped out
the water from deep Duchess Pond below Stop Park Hospital,
a popular spot for children to play in those days.
Woodland ponds and Outhouse, all within a five mile radius
of their home, was searched, and eleven days later, all
(37:05):
hopes of finding the brother and sister were shattered when P. S.
Brough made the horrific discoverer the murder inquirer soon focused
on a person known as the man in the Blue suit,
aged between forty five and fifty with fair and gray hair.
He had spoken to an off duty fireman at the
(37:25):
beauty spot while two children thought to be the Sheesby
children played at the riverside. Despite twenty five thousand people
had been questioned on more than two thousand statements taken
by police, the man in the blue suit was never identified.
Another focus of the hospital attention, with some of the
(37:46):
five thousand patients based at the nearby Stoke Park Hospital,
numerous false confessions came from the psychiatric hospital or police
check patients histories for violence. Among these question was a
patient known as the Storyteller, used to sit by the
river and tell children's tales of wild West hero Baby
(38:08):
Crockett and Swiss hero William Tell before they came to
the conclusion he was a harmless old man who they
just had a genuine love of children. A twenty five
year old nurse was held for thirty two hours of
questioning during the inquiry, but eventually released before he said
he would be forced out of Bristol over accusations he
(38:30):
was a child murderer, an anonymous handwritten letter written on
pale blue paper said to the police was said to
certain vital information about the murder, and it was then
the blue suit was recovered from a storeroom at Bristol
Mental Hospital and another patient was questioned multiple times, all
(38:53):
to no avail. It wasn't until nineteen sixty four that
a real break through in the case was thought to
have come. A home office psychologist Dr Hyatt William said
a man jailed for a minor offense confessed that he'd
killed two children, but had never been charged and had
since died. He said, I believed that he was killed
(39:16):
by his own conscience, concluded the psychiatrist. However, he refused
to name the children or the prisoner the citing confidentiality. Afterwards,
reporters were told the victims were a buying a girl,
that the Sheesby's being the only unsolved murder of that type.
(39:37):
Despite constant requests to see the prisoner's confession by Bristol's
Chief Constable, George Twist, he was never disclosed and the
murder remained unsolved. Jesse shes B, the children's father, said
at the time this confirmed to what I already know.
I was told unofficially by a policeman a few years
ago that the man they suspected murdering my children who's dad.
(40:05):
Thank you to each and every one of you that
have tuned in here tonight to listen to these stories.
No matter where you are in the world or what
you're doing. Just know that when I put these podcasts
together issue that I'm thinking about. So if there's a
story or a topic I haven't covered, or someone you'd
like me to interview, just let me know and I'll
(40:27):
do my best to make that happen. If you're a
new subscriber or an old one, thank you for joining
me and thank you for tuning in each week. And
on that note, I will be back on the same
day at the same time next week. Good Night everyone,
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