UK UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995

[Resourceress]

Yeah I agree. From what I remember of using the internet in high school in the late 90s, it was basically like a computerized encyclopedia.

Point is, I don't see internet grooming in this case—especially since not every school or household even had internet access.

This case would be so much more straightforward if she were leaving an online footprint

I still feel hung up on the library trip. 3 hours is a long *advertiser censored* time to be in a library for a teenager. Would indicate to me she is either studying, killing time until she does something specific planned - or avoiding going home - .

People were obviously able to place her at the library for the 3 hours but no one noticed what she was doing ? Would love to know if that was a regular thing she did.

Honestly, I feel like the family know alot more than they are letting on and are probably relieved this case is cold.

 

[Konstantin]

This case would be so much more straightforward if she were leaving an online footprint

I still feel hung up on the library trip. 3 hours is a long *advertiser censored* time to be in a library for a teenager. Would indicate to me she is either studying, killing time until she does something specific planned - or avoiding going home - .

People were obviously able to place her at the library for the 3 hours but no one noticed what she was doing ? Would love to know if that was a regular thing she did.

Honestly, I feel like the family know alot more than they are letting on and are probably relieved this case is cold.

I don't know if it's a fact that she was placed for three hours in the library. But given that it's known she spent time there maybe she was placed there for the three hours. So she must have at least looked like she was reading or studying or it would have been noticed by whoever was able to confirm she was present there for that time.

I assume she was passing time there because she didn't want to go home and waiting until it went dark or started going dark so she could go to Box Hill for whatever reason she went there for--either to end her life (I don't think this is the case, and I hope I am right!), stage her suicide to make her parents feel bad/put them off the scent for where she was really going, or just to meet someone up there away from the main high street or town so it would be less likely she'd be spotted and found out. The evidence, what little there is, does point to Ruth having planned her disappearance. I don't believe for a moment that she could do that without others being involved to help her. Unless she did take her own life and for some reason her body just hasn't been found up there. I think that is very unlikely though.

 

[Resourceress]

I agree, I dont think it possible that her remains are still in the area unless she was murdered and the body was covered up or buried. Even then, her remains were possibly disposed of elsewhere.

There are plenty of hints that she was planning to run away. But I agree that she must have had help in that case so someone does know something .. (she wouldnt have been a driver, so if she were to run away she must have been driven by someone - I am assuming this as she would have been spotted on public transport or if she were walking along motorways ect).

 

[Mayfly]

I agree, I dont think it possible that her remains are still in the area unless she was murdered and the body was covered up or buried. Even then, her remains were possibly disposed of elsewhere.

There are plenty of hints that she was planning to run away. But I agree that she must have had help in that case so someone does know something .. (she wouldnt have been a driver, so if she were to run away she must have been driven by someone - I am assuming this as she would have been spotted on public transport or if she were walking along motorways ect).

She could easily have used public transport. It is worth remembering that CCTV on buses didn't become a thing until 2008, firstly in London and then other areas began to have them. In late November 1995 the only way Ruth would likely have been conclusively identified was if a fellow passenger actually knew her or she drew attention to herself in some way. Trains had them earlier but I'm not sure they were standard in the mid-90s.

It has always seemed to me that Ruth chose to leave and the evening rush hour, four weeks before Christmas, was an ideal time to just slip away.

 

[alb1on]

It has always seemed to me that Ruth chose to leave and the evening rush hour, four weeks before Christmas, was an ideal time to just slip away.

My only problem with this is that there is no public transport where she was dropped by the pub, not even an infrequent bus as far as I know. So her only real option to link up with public transport would have been to make her way down to the Reigate Road using the public paths which cross the hillside from where she was dropped down to the road. This would have taken her to both bus stops and Betchworth station - but why would she do that as it would take her back near to home where she would be much more likely to bump into someone who knew her? And why try that route, which is not paved paths, in fading light?
I am inclined to agree, on balance, with the proposition that she had help from someone who met her.

 

[Catdetective]

This case would be so much more straightforward if she were leaving an online footprint

I still feel hung up on the library trip. 3 hours is a long *advertiser censored* time to be in a library for a teenager. Would indicate to me she is either studying, killing time until she does something specific planned - or avoiding going home - .

People were obviously able to place her at the library for the 3 hours but no one noticed what she was doing ? Would love to know if that was a regular thing she did.

I'm the same age as Ruth and grew up near to her. Just trying to cast my mind back to 1995 and think about public libraries back then and what she might have spent 3 hours doing. I'm assuming she wasn't doing school work.

Most people didn't have access to internet at home or if they did, it was a very slow dial up service. I remember spending time in my local library looking at lots of college/university prospectuses, and also they had things like books/magazines with information about travelling/volunteering schemes/BUNAC and similar. Could she have been researching a possible 'new life' in some way?

 

[Toodles5000]

Yeah I agree. From what I remember of using the internet in high school in the late 90s, it was basically like a computerized encyclopedia. You used it to look up information that you otherwise would've needed a library for, and that was pretty much it. Oh and, of course, song lyrics when they didn't come with the cassette or CD lol.

I don't remember instant messaging platforms. In fact, ICQ came out in late '96, followed by AIM in '97. There may have been online forums (similar to this one), but I don't think you could send private messages through them; it all would've been public.

Point is, I don't see internet grooming in this case—especially since not every school or household even had internet access.

I was in high school in the early 1990's and my parents got dial-up Internet through Prodigy. It had mail/message-type capabilities - I had my own login and made friends with a few folks on some music forums and we were able to message each other privately. It may have been easier than a lot of people think.

 

[Atoz]

From my own perspective, being a teen in the 90s, the library would have been the only indoor place I could go that would feel safe to waste time apart from being at home.

I think for going to the top of the hill via taxi to be some form of misdirection would be an outside chance, and if so, it would be formulated in conjunction with someone else (probably older).

But the hyper awareness of movement wasn't so acute in the mid 90s. Back then we didn't have smart phones and CCTV everywhere. If going up there was misdirection then it surely had the influence of someone else.

 

[Konstantin]

I was in high school in the early 1990's and my parents got dial-up Internet through Prodigy. It had mail/message-type capabilities - I had my own login and made friends with a few folks on some music forums and we were able to message each other privately. It may have been easier than a lot of people think.

not so much in the uk.

 

[Konstantin]

But the hyper awareness of movement wasn't so acute in the mid 90s. Back then we didn't have smart phones and CCTV everywhere. If going up there was misdirection then it surely had the influence of someone else.

i think this is an excellent point. We should be mindful of not trying to view this case through contemporary eyes and mindset around awareness of movement, tracking etc. we tend to be hyper aware of this now because it’s a reality in our lives but back then there was no tracking as we have it now.

if Ruth didn’t go up there to end her own life —and I think and hope she didn’t — then she most likely went up to meet someone. It does fit with her apparently planning to run away, her waiting in the library all day could have been to kill time until she could meet her friend—whoever that was. If so then the choice of meeting spot could be very significant. I do think in that case she put the notes where she did expecting them to be found. Although that part of the story makes least sense to me. Because it’s an odd place to leave them unless she was planning to scare her parents with the possibility of her suicide then she planned to turn up again— but couldn’t.

if she did choose to run away for good then something must have been terribly wrong at home beyond her being very distressed at learning about her mum.

 

[JSolt1210]

I was in high school in the early 1990's and my parents got dial-up Internet through Prodigy. It had mail/message-type capabilities - I had my own login and made friends with a few folks on some music forums and we were able to message each other privately. It may have been easier than a lot of people think.

not so much in the uk.

I'm not familiar with Prodigy, but it sounds to me like AOL. I guess the next question would be how much Ruth used her computer a lot at home. Because, in this time period, I don't remember being able to access my own e-mail or instant messages by using computers outside my h0me network. If that was the case with Prodigy, then whatever communication Ruth may have had, would've been from her house.

Would LE even have thought to do forensic analysis on a home computer back then? I certainly don't recall hearing that in the news, but I was about to turn 14, so I didn't exactly pay attention to stuff like that lol.

 

[Atoz]

From my own perspective, being a teen in the 90s, the library would have been the only indoor place I could go that would feel safe to waste time apart from being at home.

I think for going to the top of the hill via taxi to be some form of misdirection would be an outside chance, and if so, it would be formulated in conjunction with someone else (probably older).

But the hyper awareness of movement wasn't so acute in the mid 90s. Back then we didn't have smart phones and CCTV everywhere. If going up there was misdirection then it surely had the influence of someone else.

If going to meet someone else, it would likely be someone older who had a car and asked to collect her from there so as not to be seen.

If that's the case, was this person doing it so that Ruth could sleep away undetected. Or because they wanted to to do something bad to her? Grooming occurred long before computers.

 

[Antonia]

Just catching up with this thread after recently finding out about Ruth's disappearance and watching the Martin Bright/Liam MacAuley documentary (Vanished: The Missing Surrey Schoolgirl). It's an intriguing case, and there are many interesting points and theories in this thread. A few other thoughts have come to mind:

There's a detail on Nesta Wilson's death certificate (attached in this post: UK - UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995) that caught my attention, one that I don't think anyone else has mentioned - that Nesta died at hospital, so some time after hanging herself. So desperately sad. Perhaps this aspect affected Ruth badly, too, as well discovering how her mother died.

Also, like others here, I have wondered if Ian Wilson had any involvement in Nesta's death (directly or indirectly), and wonder if the possibility was considered or investigated sufficiently at the time.

The open letter Ian wrote to Ruth in 2006 (Daily Mail, 21.12.2006) seems very strange - quite narcisistic and victim-blaming - as suggested here: THE EXTREMELY BIZARRE & MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF RUTH WILSON, Cold Cases with Colette

(analysis of the open letter from ~27m 10s). The letter begins: "Dear Ruth, We still have the presents we bought you for Christmas in 1995.", full text at: 'MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON' by scepticpeg: MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON

Apparently, a body can easily be missed, despite intensive searching for four weeks, eg Richard Morris, diplomat missing for five months before his body was found in August 2020: BBC News 'Richard Morris: Body found in search for missing diplomat': Richard Morris: Body found in search for missing diplomat However, I am not sure this is a good example, as I would lean towards the theory that the body was placed there after the search.

I'm fairly conviced Ruth went missing deliberately and is out there somewhere - that's what the available evidence seems to show, and that she had help, and someone knows more than they are saying.

 

[Konstantin]

Just catching up with this thread after recently finding out about Ruth's disappearance and watching the Martin Bright/Liam MacAuley documentary (Vanished: The Missing Surrey Schoolgirl). It's an intriguing case, and there are many interesting points and theories in this thread. A few other thoughts have come to mind:

There's a detail on Nesta Wilson's death certificate (attached in this post: UK - UK - Ruth Wilson, 16, Dorking, 27 Nov 1995) that caught my attention, one that I don't think anyone else has mentioned - that Nesta died at hospital, so some time after hanging herself. So desperately sad. Perhaps this aspect affected Ruth badly, too, as well discovering how her mother died.

Also, like others here, I have wondered if Ian Wilson had any involvement in Nesta's death (directly or indirectly), and wonder if the possibility was considered or investigated sufficiently at the time.

The open letter Ian wrote to Ruth in 2006 (Daily Mail, 21.12.2006) seems very strange - quite narcisistic and victim-blaming - as suggested here: THE EXTREMELY BIZARRE & MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF RUTH WILSON, Cold Cases with Colette

(analysis of the open letter from ~27m 10s). The letter begins: "Dear Ruth, We still have the presents we bought you for Christmas in 1995.", full text at: 'MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON' by scepticpeg: MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON

Apparently, a body can easily be missed, despite intensive searching for four weeks, eg Richard Morris, diplomat missing for five months before his body was found in August 2020: BBC News 'Richard Morris: Body found in search for missing diplomat': Richard Morris: Body found in search for missing diplomat However, I am not sure this is a good example, as I would lean towards the theory that the body was placed there after the search.

I'm fairly conviced Ruth went missing deliberately and is out there somewhere - that's what the available evidence seems to show, and that she had help, and someone knows more than they are saying.

While I don't think it's fair to blame Ian for Nesta's death-- post natal depression is very real, people suffer horribly and with no warning, and people do kill themselves as a result-- and this is a very misunderstood illness even today, definitely back then.

He was bereaved too and must have had extremely complex feelings about that. Guilt. Anger at his wife for leaving him with two little kids. Shame, because people in the community would whisper about him. So yes, people don't always handle grief and loss in the way that we would "expect" them to. Imagine if you lost your partner in horrific circumstances and people whispered about maybe you killed her? I can't imagine that being at all easy to deal with. Especially if you are someone who buries their emotions.

That said there was clearly a whole load of tension between Ruth, her father and her step mum. Having Ruth kept in the dark about her birth mum's death was almost certainly never going to end well for Ian. Especially if Ruth remembered her mum and remembered the trauma of losing her. It would have made her question everything she had ever been told and I get the impression that Ian isn't the most approachable of fathers in terms of emotional stuff. Ruth had a lot of questions, she must have done, and she was just ignored-- I find the last interaction between her and her father as very sad and telling-- he was busy so told her to move out of the way. When her mum died, Ruth was sent to live with relatives I believe, so again she must have felt she was being kept out of the way, walls of silence around her, a loss that is never even explained to her honestly. Of course she is going to think all kinds of sinister things, she is a teenager, confused and bereaved, any grieving process she went through would have been shattered because her mum's death wasn't what she'd thought or been led to believe.

Yes, the letter is very odd. I wonder if Ian is very angry at Ruth because she ran off, certainly there is enough to make it look like she might have been trying to give the impression of suicide, and left him with ambiguous loss, although perhaps he is fairly certain she's alive. You never know what's going on behind closed doors so we will never know what happened between Ruth and her father. I hope Ruth is happy, whereever she is. I don't want to believe she is dead. I think it's very likely someone helped her get away from there and her friends are not telling everything. Her dad not wanting to get involved suggests either he sweeps emotional stuff under a carpet and just denies and ignores, or he knows she's alive and doesn't want to go through a charade of trying to find her.

 

[alb1on]

Her dad not wanting to get involved suggests either he sweeps emotional stuff under a carpet and just denies and ignores, or he knows she's alive and doesn't want to go through a charade of trying to find her.

I agree with all you say but do not think he knows that she is alive. If so I think he would have told the police (either out of duty or because not to do so would risk the police being very unhappy if they found out). And, as mentioned before, I do not think the police have definite information because, if they had, there would have been no need for the case reviews and the case would have been quietly forgotten.

 

[Resourceress]

(analysis of the open letter from ~27m 10s). The letter begins: "Dear Ruth, We still have the presents we bought you for Christmas in 1995.", full text at: 'MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON' by scepticpeg: MISSING: OPERATION SCHOLAR: RUTH WILSON

___

I found that article posted above really interesting. I find it odd how the father writes as though he is almost stating the facts of the events at first, with little expressive emotion. It reads to me as if he is either angry at Ruth or writing it to address sceptical public, rather than Ruth (although it is addressed to her).

I also think that - although Ruth does seem to have chosen to run away - doesnt mean that she didnt meet a foul end... She could have been assisted to run away by someone with other intentions. Or she could have been targeted by a stranger who identified her as a vulnerable person. It is really common for runaways to be targeted in this way (especially children and young girls).

There's some cases below of runaways who were abducted/ murdered like this;

Disappearance of Asha Degree - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Murder of Amber Creek - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A watershed case: Richezza Williams, 20 years later

The body of 13-year-old runaway Richezza Williams was found in 1996. One of the accused killers remains at large.

www.lehighvalleylive.com

 

[alb1on]

There's some cases below of runaways who were abducted/ murdered like this;

Disappearance of Asha Degree - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Murder of Amber Creek - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

A watershed case: Richezza Williams, 20 years later

The body of 13-year-old runaway Richezza Williams was found in 1996. One of the accused killers remains at large.

www.lehighvalleylive.com

But very different cases. Either much younger and more vulnerable (Asha Degree) or younger and in an at risk environment (Richezza Williams). Wilson was from a stable background and as low risk an area as is possible, and long before the days of internet grooming. She was also very intelligent and clearly planned events in some detail, and had a motive for choosing to disappear.

You may be right that something happened after she went missing but I cannot see anything which is in common with the cases cited.

 

[Resourceress]

But very different cases. Either much younger and more vulnerable (Asha Degree) or younger and in an at risk environment (Richezza Williams). Wilson was from a stable background and as low risk an area as is possible, and long before the days of internet grooming. She was also very intelligent and clearly planned events in some detail, and had a motive for choosing to disappear.

You may be right that something happened after she went missing but I cannot see anything which is in common with the cases cited.

The only thing in common with those cases is that they all were runaways. (Assuming Ruth is also a runaway)

I honestly don't believe that Ruth had the masterplan or resources available to successfully dissapear on her own without being discovered. How would she get money at such a young age without someone dodgy AF involved? And what would be in that for them I wonder?

The only scenario I can see her still being alive is if she is homeless on the street somewhere and no one bothered to check who she is.

 

[Resourceress]

The only thing in common with those cases is that they all were runaways. (Assuming Ruth is also a runaway)

I honestly don't believe that Ruth had the masterplan or resources available to successfully dissapear on her own without being discovered. How would she get money at such a young age without someone dodgy AF involved? And what would be in that for them I wonder?

The only scenario I can see her still being alive is if she is homeless on the street somewhere and no one bothered to check who she is.

Sorry I just remembered she is 16 and already working in music shop -

But eventually as time went on and workplaces need to check ID ect, she must have had to get a fake ID or something. How do you even begin to navigate government gate ways, tax ect on fake documentation in UK ? It is hard enough as an actual citizen >_<

I really don't think she would have resources to accomplish that on her own at all.

 

[Resourceress]

On another note, I havent seen any mention of Ruth carrying any luggage or having taken any personal effects or clothes ect from her house ?

Not definitive proof that she didnt intend to leave for long. But definitely odd behaviour to run away with nothing on her person.