Elsie Frost - brother’s emotional appeal for help in finding the killer 50 years on

The brother of Elsie Frost visited the scene of her brutal unsolved murder today to make an emotional appeal for help in finding her killer.

Colin Frost went to the ABC steps near Horbury Lagoon for only the second time since 14-year-old Elsie’s death on October 9, 1965, to speak of the family’s new hope for justice.

Police have re-opened the investigation into Elsie’s murder and made a new appeal today for anybody with information to come forward.

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Speaking at a press conference at the murder scene, Mr Frost said: “We have more hope now than we ever have had. The answer to Elsie’s murder lies in Wakefield. Someone has lived with guilt inside them all their lives.

“We have accepted the killer may not be alive now, but they may be. There may not be good news at the end of this but we have got hope that there will be justice. Justice for the family and for the people of Wakefield as well.

“Like us, they have never forgotten Elsie.”

Elsie was found on the ABC steps, near Horbury Lagoon and the Calder and Hebble Canal, at around 4.15pm on October 9, 1965, after being stabbed several times.

She had been watching friends sail at Horbury Lagoon before leaving to walk home at around 3.50pm.

Elsie Frost, died October 1965, aged 14.Elsie Frost, died October 1965, aged 14.
Elsie Frost, died October 1965, aged 14.
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Police said the were following new lines of enquiry in the case and have released a new picture of Elsie and a map tracing her final movements.

Detectives want to trace a man in a white coat seen riding a bike near the murder scene that day. He was not interviewed in the original police investigation.

They also believe Elsie may have been seeing somebody in secret - possibly a boyfriend - in the weeks before her death and are keen to identify that person.

Detective chief inspector Elizabeth Belton, who is leading the enquiry, said Elsie and her family could still get justice despite the length of the time since her murder.

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She said: “If there is any new line of enquiry in a unsolved case then we will reinvestigate. And we do have new information.

“We want justice for Elsie and her family. We want to give them the answers as to what happened that day.”

DCI Belton said evidence from Elsie’s father suggested that the night before the attack she attended Balne Lane youth club in her “best clothes”, quite different from her usual anorak and casual dress.

She had also asked permission to stay later.

A friend of Elsie’s also told police Elsie, in the run up to the attack, she had been leaving the sailing club at the lagoon early to meet a man.

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When she left at around 3.55pm on October 9, DCI Belton said she walked a considerable distance away from her home address when she could have taken a shorter route home.

The teenager could have turned down an earlier bridge to reach her house in Lupset but continued along the path before turning into the ABC tunnel where the attack took place.

DCI Belton said: “It makes you think, is she meeting somebody? Has she met somebody special?”

Mr Frost and Elsie’s sister Anne Cleave have been searching for the truth after the murder case was never solved.

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Mr Frost, who was six when Elsie died, also spoke of the family’s anguish over the past 50 years. “Our family went from being complete to incomplete in a matter of seconds” he said. “We could not and would not talk about it until my dad passed away.

“That’s when Anne and I decided to start pushing to find answers to the case again.”

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