UK UK - Maria Aldridge, 17, Birmingham, 29 February 1968

I see Maria is mentioned in relation to a skull found a few years ago but doesn't seem to have her own thread here yet.

'I hope somebody killed her': Mother-of-five says it is too painful to imagine that her sister who has been missing for 50 years is being held captive

• Student nurse Maria Aldridge, of Stourport, Worcs, vanished, aged 17, in 1968
• Maria had been working at Birmingham's Dudley Road Hospital
• Mysterious personal ad to 'Nurse M' ran in Birmingham Mail, 1968 - but all police leads went cold

A man believed to be called Paul Gough travelled to Maria's family home in Stourport, Worcestershire, to tell her mother that she had disappeared from the hospital dormitory where she was living during her training.

Mary [her mother] and Cathy [her sister] went looking for her but were instead handed her belongings by a matron who said she was no longer there.

Click to expand...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hopes-somebody-killed-searching-50-years.html

It rather sounds as though her exact date of disappearance isn't known for definite.

Needless to say, the idea that she would have been held captive for 50 years is highly unlikely.

Doe Network entry for Maria:

Name

Maria Bernadette ALDRIDGE

Missing since February 29, 1968 from Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom

Classification: Endangered Runaway

Case File 1352DFUK

Vital Statistics

Date of Birth - 2 October 1950
Age at time of Disappearance - 17
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5" (165 cm)
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Light brown short wavy hair; brown eyes. Medium build. She wore glasses.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Maria, who was a student nurse at Dudley Road Hospital in Birmingham, went missing in 1968.

She was last seen sometime between February and June 1968. It was assumed at the time she had just run away from the Old Hulme nurses training centre which is where she lived whilst working at the hospital, which is now known as City Hospital.

Maria lived in Kidderminster with her family before she moved to Birmingham to work. No trace of her has previously been found. But the case was reopened in 2009 when a letter from Maria to her mother was discovered, which was dated 28 February 1968. The letter discussed her life in Birmingham and mentioned several friends including “Sue” and “Evelyn”, who police believe may also have been cadet nurses.

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases-int/1352dfuk.html

I have never heard of this case although I was born in Birmingham and was at school there in 1968.


I am very surprised if the police were unable to trace any former staff when they reopened the case in 2009. My sister was a student nurse about 6 years later (1974) in Birmingham and I know she remains in contact with some from that time and could certainly give numerous names - unfortunately she was at another hospital. I also suspect some of the names may be doubtful. No one named Olfrey appears in Ancestry databases to fit the Dave Olfrey named. It is easy for a name to be slightly misremembered.


On a quick look one thing came up which may merit a look by the authorities. In April 1968 a 3 month old baby died as a result of a mistake in medicine dosage at Dudley Road. It sounds as though the authorities conspired at the inquest to blame the student nurse who fetched the drug (but passed it to a doctor to administer). Details can be found at https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1968-07-11a.885.7. I have no reason to think the student nurse in question was Maria but given the timing it would be worth checking the records of the inquest. Unfortunately I cannot do so as they are not on line and I no longer live in the area. At minimum this would rule this out as a motive for disappearance.

alb1on said:

I have never heard of this case although I was born in Birmingham and was at school there in 1968.


I am very surprised if the police were unable to trace any former staff when they reopened the case in 2009. My sister was a student nurse about 6 years later (1974) in Birmingham and I know she remains in contact with some from that time and could certainly give numerous names - unfortunately she was at another hospital.

Click to expand...

Indeed. It seems to me that student nurses who were 18 in 1968, and therefore born in 1950 +/- 1 year or so, would only be 67 now, and many might well have still been employed in the NHS until just a few years ago. No doubt some of that cohort may have died in the meantime, or emigrated, but I would have thought it possible to find at least some of them.

I wonder if they could be found on Facebook? Or could your sister ask around her contacts and see if any of the names rings bells? She might have worked with one or two over the years if she remained in the area.

I also suspect some of the names may be doubtful. No one named Olfrey appears in Ancestry databases to fit the Dave Olfrey named. It is easy for a name to be slightly misremembered.

Click to expand...

I do not have a subscription to Ancestry but I do use other genealogical resources, including FreeBMD (www.freebmd.org.uk/) which you are no doubt familiar with. OLFREY seems to be a pretty rare surname in the UK, but OLFORD seems to be more common. It would be useful to know if any of the names which are mentioned were of people around Maria's age, who might have been her fellow students, or perhaps somewhat older, such as supervisors. I noticed that there were a handful of David OLFORD's listed, of whom the following seems the most promising.

[SIZE=+1]Births Sep 1937 [/SIZE]

---

On a quick look one thing came up which may merit a look by the authorities. In April 1968 a 3 month old baby died as a result of a mistake in medicine dosage at Dudley Road. It sounds as though the authorities conspired at the inquest to blame the student nurse who fetched the drug (but passed it to a doctor to administer). Details can be found at https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1968-07-11a.885.7. I have no reason to think the student nurse in question was Maria but given the timing it would be worth checking the records of the inquest. Unfortunately I cannot do so as they are not on line and I no longer live in the area. At minimum this would rule this out as a motive for disappearance.

Click to expand...

Now that is interesting. Aren't inquest records sealed, though there may be a report on the inquest in the local papers?

Just thinking about this, and I could be waaaaaay off base, but.

Although the surname Aldridge is a local (West Midlands) place-name based one, the names of Mary (the mother) and Maria Bernadette suggest (dare I say it?) an Irish Catholic background.

The Daily Mail article linked to in my initial post includes a photo of Maria and her sister Cathy in what appear to be First Communion dresses.

I wonder if Maria simply made a bid for freedom and walked away from what might have been a very old fashioned and strict family environment. Maybe she simply ran away to join a commune or a group of hippies and spent the next 20 years living in a tipi in deepest, darkest Wales.

Unfortunately my sister was in specialist training at Selly Oak, miles across the city and gave up nursing in the 80s.

I had forgotten about inquest records being closed for 75 years so, as you say, the only option is local paper coverage. I have checked the British Newspaper Archive which is on line but unfortunately the main local papers (the Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Post) are only included up to 1954. In practice this means they can only be checked on microfiche at Birmingham Central Library. I will do so when I get a chance but it is likely to be a few months.


I cannot rule out your David Olford, but St Austell is as far from Birmingham as you can get in England! Unfortunately I suspect the answer could be any number of name variants.


I am pretty sure the family of Maria was at least catholic on her mothers side given a maiden name of McGinty. However, I do not see it as a very strict household given her letter home talking about boyfriends and clubs. I knew a few catholic families in Birmingham at that time and they seemed no different or even more religious than anyone else.

Article from two years ago about her sister who has never stopped searching

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/devoted-sister-still-searching-missing-7731091

A devoted sister has told of her heartbreaking search for her elder sibling who went missing 46 years ago in the hope that Midlanders can help reveal her whereabouts.

Cathy Phillips has relived her anguish in the lead up to Maria Aldridge’s 63rd birthday.


Maria was 17 when she disappeared without a trace while working as a student nurse in Birmingham.

Latest figures have revealed that there are currently 136 British children who are missing – six of these are from Birmingham.

Cathy, who lives in Canada, said: “I need to connect with people in the Midlands. I hope they can help me to find Maria.”

Back in 1968 the mysterious message almost went unnoticed.

It read: “NURSE M – Meet 7p.m. 63 bus, Monday, June 3rd. Hope to see you, Simon”.

But detectives spotted it among the personal ads running in the Birmingham Mail in 1968.

And it became a sign of hope for the family of Maria Aldrige, a 17 year-old student nurse who went missing while training at Birmingham’s Dudley Road Hospital (now known as City Hospital) 46 years ago.

Police believed it was a clue that could lead to them to the whereabouts of the young woman.

Another lead was a man, believed to be called Paul Gough, who travelled to Maria’s family home in Stourport, Worcestershire, to tell her mum Mary O’Sullivan that she had disappeared.

Mary and Maria’s younger sister Cathy Phillips then went to the hospital dormitory in search of her.

But the resident matron told them she was no longer there and handed them all her belongings.

Paul Gough hasn’t been seen by the family – or police – since.

Mary spent the rest of her life looking for Maria.

She even reported to disappearance to police on the Fred and Rose West inquiry in the 1990s.

But checks against the grisly remains discovered below the patio and in the cellar at 27 Cromwell Street in Gloucester drew a blank.

Mary died in 2005 aged 93.

Cathy is still searching

“I have had a wonderful life but there has always been part of me missing,” said Cathy, now a 61 year-old mum of five, who lives in Ontario, Canada.

“I will never give up looking for Maria.

“I need to connect with people in Birmingham and I hope they can share her information so that I can find the man who came to my house and told us Maria was not at the hospital.

I wonder if the sister knows about WS and whether she would want to join in?

I was under the impression (and admittedly purely through reading rather than any personal experience) that hospitals and nurses were run very strictly in those years. I wonder why the nurses's disappearance wasn't reported more formally.

My first assumption was to wonder if Maria planned to go away, either for a brief time or for a longer time, and told the hospital this, which is why they didn't initially report her as missing. But then surely when the family went down, they would have been told this. It seems like when they went down, they were just told she had gone and had no further information. As though the hospital didn't care. But surely someone knew something.

She either left of her own accord or was taken, but wouldn't there at least be friends/work colleagues who could pin point her last shift/evening etc?

it seems as though the extreme lack of information around the time of her disappearance is the real issue. It's hard to know where to search if you don't have any clue at all.

I don't know if I can link as it's another forum not MSM but they quote an article (sadly the link to the article is missing) saying the police wroge to every person in the UK called Maria Aldridge and said that she could remain anonymous if she wanted, they just wanted to know if she was okay, but nothing came up

Littlegreenlady said:

I don't know if I can link as it's another forum not MSM but they quote an article (sadly the link to the article is missing) saying the police wroge to every person in the UK called Maria Aldridge and said that she could remain anonymous if she wanted, they just wanted to know if she was okay, but nothing came up

Click to expand...

I had seen this but it only raised a simple question in my mind; did the police write to every person still called Maria Aldridge or did they extend this to those who now have another name through marriage but were born Maria (or Marie allowing for transcription errors) Aldridge. This is relevant as Ancestry includes marriages of Maria Aldridges (and even one of Marie B Aldridge) from a reasonable time period.


On the subject of how hospitals were run; I think they were much more relaxed by the late 60s. Certainly Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham was extremely relaxed by 1974 according to my sister.

Maria's Facbook page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/112295329030/


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

naomiuk said:

Maria's Facbook page
Log into Facebook | Facebook


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Just to add for future reference with regards to time frame - FB page mentions that Maria's work schedule was discovered. She has worked May 12 -19 but did not turn up anymore to pick up her pay on May 24th.

Also to add Maria's Aldridge middle name is Bernadette.



She is about 14 at this photo above.




Unknown how old she was on this photo but well, fairly young.

Over 51 years, time for her sister to have an answer.

Name: Maria Bernadette Aldridge
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: February 29, 1968
Location Last Seen: Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Physical Description
Date of Birth: October 2, 1950
Age: 17 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: Unknown (medium build)
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Wore glasses; hair was light brown, worn short and wavy

Identifiers
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown

Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance
Ms. Aldridge was a 17-year-old cadet nurse, who was believed to have disappeared sometime during the summer of 1968. While in her second year at her nurse cadet course, she lived at the Old Home Nursing Home at the Dudley Road Hospital, now known as City Hospital. Records show the teenager was studying at the hospital until at least May 1968, but her last contact with family was 28 February 1968 via a letter to her mother found in 2009.

The letter refers to her life in Birmingham, referring to friends named "Sue" and "Evelyn," who are presumably other cadet nurses. Other names mentioned in the letter were Dave Olfrey, Patrick McGill, Christopher Fair, and Jim Taylor. Another person that the police would like to locate is Paul (or John) Gough, who was believed to have been Ms. Aldridge's boyfriend at the time. He traveled to Maria's home in Stourport, Worcestershire, to tell her mother, Mary O'Sullivan, that Maria had disappeared. He has not been seen or heard from since. Maria's mother and sister, Cathy, went to the hospital dormitory to look for her, but was instead greeted by the house matron who handed over Maria's belongings to them.

There was also a mysterious personal advertisement in the Birmingham Evening Mail, which ran on June 1, 1968: "NURSE M – Meet 7p.m. 63 bus, Monday, June 3rd. Hope to see you, Simon." Police believed it was a clue that could lead them to the whereabouts of the young woman, but it did not provdie any leads. Her sister, Cathy Phillips, who now lives in Canada, continues to search for her sister. Detectives from the West Midlands Police are eager to speak with anyone who may have known Ms. Aldridge and/or lived at the Dudley Road Hospital site during this time

1352DFUK - Maria Bernadette Aldridge

Surely there should have been more than the House Matron just handing over her belongings. Why did the hospital not contact her parents?

Bumping for Maria, as we approach the 53rd anniversary of her disappearance...

Hi.

New here and maybe asked in the past but here I go.

Following recent Police interest into a 1999 missing person case in Smethwick coming to light, has got myself interested in local missing people cases.

Looking at Maria Alridge case (plus myself working out of City Hospital) and what appears to be a very poor investigation conducted by Birmingham City Police is shocking.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a one stop website with all Police information made public.

Thank you

RantUK said:

Hi.

New here and maybe asked in the past but here I go.

Following recent Police interest into a 1999 missing person case in Smethwick coming to light, has got myself interested in local missing people cases.

Looking at Maria Alridge case (plus myself working out of City Hospital) and what appears to be a very poor investigation conducted by Birmingham City Police is shocking.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a one stop website with all Police information made public.

Thank you

Click to expand...

I am pretty sure no such site exists for the police. It is generally a case of ploughing through old newspaper reports, either online at various subscription sites or in libraries on microfiche. This does sometimes produce new information, especially on old cases, as newspaper reporting in the past - especially as far back as this case - was far more thorough and fact based rather than the superficial clickbait approach common today. However, having said that, when I checked the old Birmingham Mails a while after my previous post, I did not find the inquest report (but as I only had limited time I could have missed it).

On the police investigation I am inclined to disagree with characterising it as very poor. This was a missing person case of an employed teen who had her own life, career and accommodation so would not have been high priority in the initial critical period, and that would probably still be the case today. But the police did then go to some lengths, contacting Maria Aldridge's nationwide and identifying the newspaper advert. This suggests some effort on their part. I was brought up in Birmingham in the 60s and early 70s and know that the city police were not great (the standing joke was that the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad were named after their own activities), but they do seem to have been active with this case. My main concern with them would be the failure to make contact with staff from the period when they reopened the case - but that is no criticism of the earlier response.