Inquest into Wakefield schoolgirl Elsie Frost told murder 'split our family wide open'

Elsie Frost was just 14 when she was stabbed repeatedly as she walked home in Wakefield on October 9, 1965.

The schoolgirl was attacked as she walked through a railway tunnel off a canal towpath.

Elsie had been helping out at a school's sailing event at a quarry on the afternoon she died.

'Another murder may have been avoided if police acted on information' inquest told

After a cold case review in 2015, police named convicted child killer Peter Pickering as a suspect in the case, but he died in 2018 before he could be charged.

A new inquest into her death was ordered in April this year after an application from Elsie’s family, as new evidence had arisen since the original hearing in 1966.

Speaking at the inquest today (Monday, November 18), Colin Frost, who was just five when his sister was murdered, said: "Both my parents died with a huge amount of guilt over what they saw as actions - or inactions - they took on that day.

"Dad because Elsie had asked if he would pick her up from the quarry.

"Because he had been at work the night before and because it was a place Elsie had made her own way home from before, he refused.

"We were a small family and we were destroyed.

"We became very disjointed for a period of time.

"Dad had issues and I recall for many years after, if there was ever any mention of Elsie in the local newspaper, it would affect him.

"Elsie's murder split the family wide open.

"If you lose a young family member through natural causes it's very difficult to accept.

"But to lose one through unnatural causes - and it couldn't be any worse than this - it increases the distress."

Colin told the inquest he felt as though he lost "three mothers" after Elsie was murdered.

He added: "My mum had gone back to work because dad was struggling to make ends meet.

"Anne was mum number two as she was the oldest sister and she got married and left home, which left Elsie in charge and she was taken away as well.

"She was my big sister and carried out that role perfectly."

The inquest heard that Peter Pickering had first been identified as a suspect by Scotland Yard detectives just days after Elsie's death in 1965.

Pickering, dubbed "the beast of Wombwell", was convicted of murdering Shirley Boldy, 14, near Barnsley in 1972.

In 2018, he was convicted of raping another woman weeks before he killed Shirley.