Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a fantastic day out, Ragged Rambling with Maximillion in North Norfolk. Among the many sites we visited was the church at Metton. One thing about our Rambles is that you never quite know what you will discover, and the eclectic nature of this site is very much a reflection of the spectrum of emotions generated by engaging sensitively with historic spaces. This was once such occasion...
Being born in the sixties, Maximillion and are both old enough to remember the tragic story of April Fabb. On Tuesday April 8th 1969 at about 1:40pm thirteen year old April cycled off to her sister's house in nearby Roughton. Just after 2:00pm a farm worker saw her cycling along through Metton in the direction of Roughton. A few minutes later her blue and white bike was found abandoned in a field. From that day to this no-one has ever seen her again. I think that, from this distance of time, we have to assume that she was murdered on, or around, that day.
It must have been an endless torment for her parents and family, never to have found her body. Maximillion and I are both parents, and we agreed that this must be the worst nightmare imaginable. Although April's monument doesn't lie over her body, it does mark her memory. We hope that, one day, her remains may be found and a kind of closure be brought to this awful chapter. We also sincerely hope, that if the perpetrator of this crime is still alive, that they be discovered and have to answer for all the immeasurable pain they have caused.
Here's how Peter, a former classmate, remembers her:
"April was my classmate at the time of her disappearance and I remember her very well. She had sat on my knee at the school dance and when the girls played hockey with the boys , she had playfully used her stick to stop me in what could have been quite a devastating way. She was a very popular girl , full of life vivacious and pretty. On the day she went missing I was also out on my bike fishing with a friend but had cycled home alone.
When I left school I worked with her father for a short time. The pain he felt was etched on his face at all times and I can not put into words how sorry I felt for him and the rest of April’s family.
I will always remember her. God bless you April."
This case has never been closed...
Norfolk Constabulary
~ Munro Tweeder-Harris ~
I remember this case. As a small child it was the first time I was aware of wrong in the world.
ReplyDeleteSo unspeakable sad...
ReplyDeleteThis was the first missing person story I ever read .. I was possibly the same age as April when I read it and it suck .. So so sad and for her parents and family must be a living hell . Wherever you are, whatever happened to you, I won't ever forget you April .. .
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