UK UK - Rita Ellis, 19, Beaten, sexually assaulted & strangled, RAF Halton Camp, 12 Nov 1967

[dotr]

Nov 2019
"Help find my sister's killer" direct appeal to the public from sister of murdered RAF Halton servicewoman Rita Ellis 52 years to the day since the attack

Rita Ellis was murdered at the RAF Halton on November 11 1967

“She was shy and was very beautiful and had a huge mop of black hair. “We had bunk beds and we had the smallest room in the house because my older brothers had the bigger one. When she was away I used to write letters to her on the camp, I still have them because they were returned to the family after what happened.”

But the family dynamic changed forever on November 12 1967, when police knocked on the door to tell Tina’s parents the unimaginable news that Rita’s body had been found on land close to the RAF Halton Camp.

Rita had been strangled with an item of her own clothing, and sexually assaulted. Items that she had packed for a night of babysitting for Wing Commander Royston Watson and his wife lay strewn around the wooded area.''

''The theory is that while waiting to go babysitting close to her barracks block, Rita got into a car which she believed was her lift.

However, there was a disco taking place at the Halton Camp that night, and it is thought that the car was being driven by the perpetrator of the crime.

Tina said: “She was trusting, but she was always a very strong person and she was tall. “I’ve always thought how could one person overpower her? She really wasn’t a mouse.” And understandably for the Ellis family it was very hard to move on with their lives, particularly for Rita’s mother who suffered from a number of disabilities, and died on November 11 1994, the anniversary of Rita’s death.''

 

[dotr]

''She was discovered beaten and strangled near to where she worked and her killer has never been found. A bag found after the murder of 19-year-old Rita Ellis''
Nov 2017
Breakthrough in murder of Halton nurse killed in 1967 | Daily Mail Online
''Murder mystery of teenage girl who was strangled with her own underwear could be solved 50 years after her death thanks to DNA breakthrough

• Rita Ellis was 19 when her body was found by a dog walker near a railway line
• She was found beaten and strangled near work and killer has never been found
• But now detectives believe advances in DNA techniques have enabled them to build a full profile of the killer and have eliminated 200 of 1,000 suspects ''

''There were two events being held at the RAF camp that night, bingo and a disco, meaning there were hundreds of people on the base.
Miss Ellis, who was stationed at the camp, was last seen alive at 8pm on the Saturday in her accommodation at Halton, near Aylesbury.

Her body was found the next morning by a dog walker near a disused railway in the area.''

Police said they believe the offender was a young man, possibly in his teens to 20s, making him in his 60s to 80s now.''

 

[RobinCAL]

This is incredibly heartbreaking. Thank you for creating this @dotr

 

[dotr]

This is incredibly heartbreaking. Thank you for creating this @dotr

It really is heart-breaking, especially so because Rita's mother died on the anniversary of her dear daughter's murder.
LE have full DNA, hoping that one day very soon they will find a match, it is hard to think that the perp only did something like this once, imo.

 

[RobinCAL]

I'm so glad DNA is kept most of the time with cases like this, and especially old cases too. It just gives a sliver of hope and we've seen recently so many old cases being closed because of a DNA match.

That's awful to hear about her mother, and to know she never had closure or the truth.

 

[ctaylor]

I found this archive article from the Daily Mirror of 3rd January 1968 about a girl who was attacked 4 miles away from where Rita was found only 6 weeks after Rita's murder. She was left for dead but survived and the police at the time obviously think it is the same attacker and if you zoom in you can see an identikit drawn up after this girl's evidence.

 

[Al Ka]

I found this archive article from the Daily Mirror of 3rd January 1968 about a girl who was attacked 4 miles away from where Rita was found only 6 weeks after Rita's murder. She was left for dead but survived and the police at the time obviously think it is the same attacker and if you zoom in you can see an identikit drawn up after this girl's evidence.

Thank you, very interesting. Can you please provide the link to the source? Unfortunately writing on this image is too small and I would love to read the full article.

 

[ctaylor]

Thank you, very interesting. Can you please provide the link to the source? Unfortunately writing on this image is too small and I would love to read the full article.

Yes it is small, sorry I thought it might let you zoom in. If not I got it at the British Newspaper Archive site. You need a subscription but you do get 3 pages free without subscribing. It will not allow me to link the exact article but the website is here - Register | British Newspaper Archive

And if you do create an account, it was from the Daily Mirror, dated 3 January 1968.

 

[ctaylor]

FYI, There's a new documentary on this case on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 10pm called In The Footsteps of Killers, for those of us in the UK and Ireland. Emilia Fox from Silent Witness and David Wilson present it. I can see they did an episode last week on Suzy Lamplugh who has had several documentaries like this but this is a rare chance for Rita's case to be shown mainstream.

 

[dotr]

Thanks @ ctaylor for the heads up!

June 14 2021
What happened to Rita Ellis?
''Ellis was a 19-year-old woman serving at RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire.

After spending her childhood in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, she joined the Royal Air Force in April 1967.

She completed her training at RAF Spitalgate in Grantham, Lincolnshire before moving to Halton to work in the kitchens at St Mary’s Hospital.

What happened to Rita Ellis?
Ellis was killed on November 11, 1967.

She had been due to babysit for Wing Commander Roy Watson and his wife on the evening of her murder.

Her body was found the following morning in Rowborough Copse, a woodland not far away from Halton.

Ellis had been sexually assaulted and strangled, with the murderer attempting to hide her body in the woods.''

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

C4 doc probes murder of Rita Ellis - beaten & strangled with undies at RAF base

 

[dotr]

C4 doc probes murder of Rita Ellis - beaten & strangled with undies at RAF base

From link, thanks.. rbbm.

''Despite the obstacles, David believes the programme has identified a “likely suspect” - whose DNA has never been tested by the police.''.

“As a production company, we were able to identify a number of other trainees who've never been approached by the Thames Valley police and have never given a DNA sample - our suspect among them."

''Criminologist David says the aim of the programme is not just to retell the story but to prompt more leads, and help the police.

"We want to harness the public's interest in true crime, to help solve mysteries," he says.

"People who saw Don't *advertiser censored** With Cats and Making a Murderer know cases can be solved by members of the public who are sometimes dismissed as armchair detectives, but often have legitimate information, which might push the case forward.''

 

[Kasmeer]

''Despite the obstacles, David believes the programme has identified a “likely suspect” - whose DNA has never been tested by the police.''.

“As a production company, we were able to identify a number of other trainees who've never been approached by the Thames Valley police and have never given a DNA sample - our suspect among them."

Now that bit is interesting; it wasn't reflected in the programme (unless I was really failing to pay attention at the end!); I'm glad to know they did come up with some ideas which might be of some use, as the programme itself seemed as though its only use would be to put the case back into the public eye, seeing as every path they went along ended with "already ruled out by DNA test". The awareness side alone made it worthwhile though, as I'd never heard of poor Rita until now, here's hoping the publicity and the research done for the programme will help.

 

[SBops]

Where was the Wing Commander when she was murdered?

 

[ctaylor]

I hate to say it but I felt that documentary was not good or helpful at all. It was less like a serious documentary and more like an episode of Silent Witness, with all of those pensive close ups of Emilia Fox. There was a part where Emilia and David Wilson were in a wooded area and Emilia said "I think this is exactly where she was found". Well, obviously. It is well known where she was found and that's why you and the camera crew are there (!)

It was almost embarrassing when they named a few witnesses and built up the reasons why they may be the killer and then said the police contacted them to say they had evidence about 50 years ago to prove the same people were not involved.

There was another part where David Wilson said to Emilia about "sex crimes that you uncovered". This was simply not true, she uncovered nothing. The police knew about them at the time and they were in the public domain on newspaper archives. Really badly done and of course at the end they tried to pass the fact that it "must be someone she knew" off as some kind of breakthrough. David Wilson should be embarrassed and I felt the show was disrespectful to Rita to be honest.

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Have to agree with above. This whole series with also Suzy Lamplugh, has been very amateurish and not uncovered anything not already in the public domain. And why Emilia Fox is there, just because she was in a TV drama series dealing with forensics, didn't lend any weight at all.

 

[ctaylor]

I'm glad I am not alone in feeling that way about it. I didn't see the Suzy Lamplugh episode but will not bother watching it. Totally agree on Emilia Fox. She had no reason to be there.

 

[Kasmeer]

Totally agree, all three episodes in the series were terribly presented, and the first two told me nothing I didn't already know, the Suzy Lamplugh one in particular passing off things already shown on Channel 5 earlier this year as "new revelations". I only got as far as this episode because it was a case I didn't already know anything about and I wanted to learn about it.

The whole "lets reinvestigate an old case" thing is ok in programmes where they go in saying "this is what's already known, lets look a bit closer", while fully acknowledging the original investigations, but not when it pretends to uncover new info only to then mention "oh yeah the police already knew about this and ruled him out years ago". As for all the fake phone conversations etc... well maybe that's what you get when you use an actor to present but it just wasted time for me. Very disappointing series.

 

[dotr]

19-year-old Rita Ellis was murdered on November 11, 1967 (Image: Thames Valley Police)
By Dave Doyle and Rachel Sloper 2 OCT 2021 rbbm.
Rita Ellis: A savage murder, a cold case and a sealed file
''A recent documentary sought to crack the cold case – but its efforts were stymied by uncooperative police officers and sealed government files.
Read on for the scant details of this mysterious case, which may not be solved until these secret files are finally opened in 2070.''
''The 19-year-had joined up earlier the same year, completing her basic training in Lincolnshire before her transfer to Buckinghamshire.

Friends described her as “shy” and “a gentle soul”. When Wing Commander Roy Watson and his wife asked her to babysit on the evening of November 11, she agreed.''

"The camp employed more than 2,500 people, many of whom were attending one of two on-base social occasions taking place that night – a disco and a bingo game, to which local civilians were also invited.''

''Investigations later revealed that another car had arrived shortly before the Wing Commander’s white sedan, pulling up alongside Rita.

She had climbed in and, having never met Wing Commander Watson before, she seemingly accepted that the man driving it was her superior officer.''

''But despite recovering DNA evidence of the killer’s identity from the crime scene, it was never matched to a living suspect.

At the inquest into her death, the coroner opined that the killer would likely strike again. He may have done so, as the following month two more local teenagers were attacked by a man in similar circumstances.


Both lived to tell the tale, with a student nurse attacked in Little Tring describing her attacker as aged 25–30 with a long face and “puffy” eyes.''

''The criminologist – along with co-presenter Emilia Fox, who played Dr Nikki Alexander in BBC crime drama ‘Silent Witness’ – did his own research, deducing that Rita likely knew her killer.


But he was stopped short of unmasking the murderer when he was told that important evidence was locked away in Britain’s national archive, marked as classified for reasons of national security.''