UK UK - Natalie Putt, 17, Dudley, West Midlands, 1 Sept 2003

MelmothTheLost

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This case of a missing teenage mother had completely passed me by but is being reinvestigated following tip-offs from members of the public.

Detectives investigating the 2003 disappearance of teenage mother Natalie Putt begin exhuming graves at a cemetery


Detectives investigating the disappearance of a young mother who went missing 14 years ago are exhuming several graves in a cemetery half a mile from her home as they launch a murder inquiry.

Natalie Putt was 17 when she left her home in the Lower Gornal area of Dudley, West Midlands, to go to a local shop in September 2003.

She was never seen again and left behind her baby son, Rhys, who was just 11 weeks old.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...me-graves-14-years-Natalie-Putt-vanished.html

The article mentions that an 18 year old local man was arrested and questioned in March 2004 but later released without charge. I wonder if that was her boyfriend, presumably the baby's father, Kevin McCallum.
 
Graves exhumed following fresh leads in cold case of missing teenage mum

Natalie Putt, 17, left her home in Thornleigh, West Midlands, to go to a local shop in September 2003 but never came back.

The teenager left behind her 11-week-old son.

Police admitted they believe the young mum is no longer alive and they are now heading up a murder enquiry.

Fresh information in the cold case has prompted detective to exhume several graves from Ruiton Cemetery, half-a-mile from her home.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/81...se-missing-teenage-mum-West-Midlands-cemetery
 
I saw this on FB and came here - thanks for setting up the thread Melmoth. There's something quite creepy about this. ""We also believe that at least two people know what has led us to this site and they may have further information which could assist our search. We would very much like to hear from them.""

And they're not just digging, they're exhuming graves - so I wonder if one of the people worked at the graveyard and managed to bury her with someone else? How awful
 
Just read about this case and did some quick research. In the below map I understand that Natalie lived on Thornleigh and was reported to have left here on the 1st September 2003 to go to the shops? and the (disused?) graveyard now being searched is shown in red? Any locals know exactly where she lived on Thornleigh and any other details about the case?

K9wc.png
 
I've been trying to find out something about this disused cemetery but there's nothing about its history - particularly when burials started and ended there and whether it was attached to a since-demolished chapel of some sort. However it seems likely to me to have been attached to a non-conformist chapel.

Obviously if you're going to dispose of a body, doing so in an abandoned cemetery seems a safe bet.
 
On a side note, Natalies boyfriend at the time has done very well for himself

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I've been trying to find out something about this disused cemetery but there's nothing about its history - particularly when burials started and ended there and whether it was attached to a since-demolished chapel of some sort. However it seems likely to me to have been attached to a non-conformist chapel.

Obviously if you're going to dispose of a body, doing so in an abandoned cemetery seems a safe bet.

It ook to me as if it was possibly a Congregational Church cemetery, but if so it was still in use in 2004:

http://www.martin-nicholson.info/cemetery/cemeteryruiton.htm

It may still be open.

http://www.britishlistedbuildings.c...upper-gornal-and-woodsetton-ward#.WTb_usa1uUk

http://www.sedgleymanor.com/churches/churches.html

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4287804
 
@Ellmau

I don't believe it is that church/graveyard. The police are searching the area I highlighted in my previous post. It looks overgrown and abandoned as far back as 2009 (Google Street View) but don't the situation in 2003.

The media are calling the graveyard Ruiton Cemetery which is confusing.
 
Just read about this case and did some quick research. In the below map I understand that Natalie lived on Thornleigh and was reported to have left here on the 1st September 2003 to go to the shops? and the (disused?) graveyard now being searched is shown in red? Any locals know exactly where she lived on Thornleigh and any other details about the case?

K9wc.png
You are defintely correct. Local newspaper are saying it is Duke street and that it was 150m away form Natalies home

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Im thinking she must have lived in this vicinity although that is pure speculation based in the 150m quote. I've done a google walk up there looking to see if could see something which resembled the house Natalie was stood in front of in that infamous picture. I couldnt. But it may not have been her home and such a long time has passed that it looks like many of the homes have been privately bought and done up.

I did wonder initally if her garden backed on to where they are exhuming now...that would have been interesting however i would have hoped that police would have checked there before now if that were the case

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6d585b7786f7dd4bdb17b24d72bf38d7.jpg


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In the BBC update they get even more specific:

He said the specific information the force received came from a man in a telephone box in the Lake Street area of Gornal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-40170407

I think it very unusual for the Police to say specifically where a anonymous tip came from!? A quick look on Street View shows only one phone box on lake Street. Me thinks the Police know who they seek....
 
I wonder if this shop was a shop way back when Natalie vanished and if so, whether this was the local shop she was going to. Its only a 12 min walk from her road

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