Crimes.It reminds us of how dark the world really is.Some people find true crime stories to be disturbing(no hate). I, on the other hand like those stories.
So, today I would like to share a true crime story that I know. It is popularly known as "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm"
This incident took place at the background of England during 1943, During World War II.
On one fateful evening, in the month of April, right when the sun was setting, Four teenage boys were roaming in the Hagley woods, near Wychbury hills.
They were looking for rabbits or something like that which would feed their families and also take their mind of the German bombing raids.
They spotted at weird looking tree named "The witch elm" due to it's weird shape. One of the boys named Bob Farmer, decided to climb that tree.
As he sat up on the tree and looked down in the hollow of the tree he noticed something being inside it. As he grew curiouser and curiouser, he plunged his arm inside the hollow. To his utter Disbelieve he found a skull. Like a real skull.
At first, he and his friends thought it was of an animal or something, but apparently they saw something stuck to the skull which resembled human hair. (I wonder how they knew it was human hair! I must be really dumb)
So, they dropped the skull, like any normal human would , and ran back home. At first they decided that they will not tell about this to anyone ever.
But later they confessed it to it their parents.Keeping the skull a secret was getting hard for them, understandably.
Their parents informed the local police, like any normal parents would.
The police went to the tree and investigated the area and the tree properly.
The police found a woman's skeleton inside that hollow. A entire freaking skeleton!
A cheap gold imitation ring was found on her left hand, indicating that she was married. The police also found cheap clothes and a crepe soled shoe of size five and a half.
Disturbingly, the right hand of the dead women was completely sawed of and a few other bones of the skeleton were scattered.
The body or the whatever remained of the body of the poor woman was taken under for medical examination.
The medical examiner, Professor James Webster said that, the found woman was around 35 years old, with irregular teeth on the upper jaw, lightbrown hair and around 5 feet tall. She gave birth once in her life. She had been dead for about 18 months or more at the time of discovery.
He also said, it was impossible for the woman to have slipped in the hollow of the tree or to have crawled in the hollow of the tree. Someone put her there. Professor Webster also mentioned that the body was put there before rigor mortis set in.Rigor mortis is the phenomena when the body starts becoming stiff after death. He concluded that she must have been killed near the tree, for the killer set the body there "warm".
There was a piece of taffeta fabric found stuffed inside the mouth of the skull.
The police tried to identify the body. They tried to trace the shoe to it's manufacturer but the trail died cold with them tracing it to a small shop in Dudley.
There was practically no information to be found so the case was deemed a cold case.
Then in the year 1943, a weird message was seen chalked on a house near Old Mill. The message read "Who put Lubella in the Wych Elm?"
For the first time, the police had a name to work with. Lubella. Who was Lubella?
The police did not find huge leads on this but over the months more graffiti es started showing up.
Those read "WHO PUT BELLA IN THE WITCH ELM?"
The change in name was something the police couldn't understand.
The police came to the decision that the artist behind the graffitis knew something about "Bella".
They tried to trace down the artist but failed.
New messages started popping up around in the late 1940s again.
Each message reading the same "Who put Bella in witch elm?"
No one could figure out who "Bella" was.
The theories regarding the death of murder of "Bella" range from crazy to ballistic.
The 'fan' favorite theory is "Bella" as an victim of black magic.
According to anthropologist Professor Margaret Murray, the death of "Bella" might be an activity of Black Magic.
The severed hand suggested an occult practice called "Hand of Glory".
The scattered bones, the stuffed taffeta also suggested an involvement of occult practices.
The fact that she was "entombed" in a tree also suggested a type of "ritualistic" slaying.
A herb commonly known as 'Witch's hazel" which is commonly used in the practice of witchcraft was found in Hagley woods.
The theory states that, "Bella" probably pissed over a coven of witches and the witches killed her in a "witchy" manner as a punishment. Ironically, the tree she was entombed in was also called "Witch elm".
The next popular theory is that "Bella" was a spy.
I know. The jump between the two theories is a bit much......to say the least.
This theory starts with the discovery of an woman named "Anna". She allegedly wrote an letter to a few newspaper houses claiming that she had information about "Bella".
She was later interviewed and she revealed that "Bella" was a part of a German spy circle and she was supposed to find the location of the local munition factories.
"Anna" later was identified by as Unna Mossop. Her husband was allegedly an RAF pilot and he witnessed the murder of "Bella".
She stated that her husband and another spy named Van Rault went drinking to a pub and "Bella" got drunk and passed out. The two men then put her inside the tree, just to teach her lesson. When she woke up in the tree, she was unable to get out and died there. But this theory has a plot-holes according to me, I mean who cut her hand? who stuffed taffeta in her mouth? Who scattered her bones?
Then in later years, in some classified MI5 files, a spy named Josef Jacob, who was caught, had a picture of a German actress named Clara Baurele. She looked a lot like "Bella" and she was allegedly also a German spy. It could be possible that Clara was actually "Bella".
But this theory was later debunked since Clara was taller than "Bella".
This case remains unsolved till date and many facts and information have been perished by time.
This intriguing case might probably never get solved. Maybe the fact that this case is unsolved makes it more intriguing.
Thank you all for reading!
