Perhaps the most high profile case in Norfolk’s history, which continues to be prominent in the public’s mind despite the many years that have passed.

The details here have been gleaned from various places in the public domain and brought together into one hopefully informative document.

Background

April Fabb was born on 22 April 1955 in Metton, Norfolk. She lived at 3 Council Houses with her father Ernest, mother Olive, and an older sister. An ex-classmate described her as a very popular girl, full of life, vivacious and pretty. Both parents have sadly died without knowing what happened to their daughter, mum in 2013 aged 93 and dad in 1998.

The Circumstances

At about 1:40pm on Tuesday 8 April 1969, April, aged 13, left her home to visit another older sister who lived on Cromer Road, Roughton with her husband, just two miles away.

She had a packet of 10 cigarettes, 5 ½d and a handkerchief in the saddlebag of her blue and white BSA bicycle. She was going to give the cigarettes to her brother in law for his birthday. She was wearing a wine coloured woollen skirt, a green jumper, a pair of long white socks and a pair of wooden soled sandals with red straps and brass buckles.

Shortly after leaving home she met two friends at the “Donkey Field” next to Harrison’s Farm on Cromer Road in Metton. After ten minutes she left stating she was on her way to her sister's.

At 2:06pm, Farmer Harrison from Harrison’s Farm was driving his Range Rover when he saw April riding her cycle along Roughton Road, Metton in the direction of Roughton. This was the last known sighting of April who never made it to her sisters.

At 2:12pm Ordnance Survey workers in a van saw April’s bicycle lying in a field on the Metton to Roughton Road just a few hundred yards from where she was last seen. The bike was about six feet from the edge of the field. There were no tracks, which suggested the bike had been thrown there.

What happened in those six minutes between 2.06 and 2.12 has been a mystery for 50 years.

At 3pm, David Empson was driving his brown Vauxhall Viva towards Metton, on the Cromer Road. His mother was in the passenger seat and she saw April's bicycle lying in the field. They interrupted their journey by turning left off the Cromer Road at Pillar Box Corner, then left again into Back Lane to examine the find.

They stopped in Back Lane near to where it had been seen, but it was not possible to see the bike directly from the road as it was the other side of a small embankment. David climbed over it and crossed the freshly ploughed field, looked at the bicycle, returned to his mother where they discussed what they should do. It was agreed they should take the bicycle to the local police station and hand it in. David went back across the field, picked up the bike and put it in his car. An action he was later to publicly regret.

They took the bike to the Police House at Roughton and handed it over to the care of PC Chiddick. PC Chiddick took the bike and placed it in his garage. The significance of the find was, at this point, unknown. David Empsom suggested that it was possibly stolen. The cigarettes, money and handkerchief were still in the saddlebag.

It was not until 8.45pm that concern for April began to surface. She had not returned home, and her mother had, until then, assumed she was still at her sisters. As neither family had private telephones, it was impossible for them to ring and check.

Night was coming and April’s bike had no lights, she was also afraid of the dark. Olive Fabb rode to her daughter’s house, hoping her youngest would be there. Sadly she was not. On her journey back to her own house, Olive met her husband, Ernest. She explained the situation with as much as she knew – that April was not home and that she had not arrived at her sisters. Ernest immediately went to the rectory and began calling around. She was not in the hospital, her friends had last seen her about two o’clock. At 10pm the police were called in Cromer. PC Chiddick took the call.

During the course of the call, where her father described her and her bicycle, PC Chiddick realised who the owner of the bicycle that sat in his garage was. The beginning of the police investigation into the disappearance of April Fabb was finally underway.

The Investigation

An RAF helicopter, dogs and local volunteers were used on the first day to search a 2-3 mile area immediately surrounding where April’s bicycle had been found. Officers on the ground undertook a thorough search by hand, and slowly people within the vicinity began to come forward.

An elderly couple had been parked in a layby on the other-side of the field between the period of April’s last sighting and the discovery of her bike. From their statements it is clear they did not hear or see anything suspicious at the time, but it is also possible they may have been dozing in the warm spring afternoon sunshine.

Other leads developed too. Train drivers at Norwich and North Walsham reported seeing her, as did a bus driver from Norwich who claimed to have seen her at Victoria bus station in London. These were ruled out when another young woman, who looked similar to April, came forward to say it was her.

Two lady residents in Roughton, from two separate locations, reported hearing a scream or shriek shortly before 11pm on the evening April disappeared. Both women were rural folk and were used to the night time noises of the countryside. Both were adamant that it was not a fox or an owl or any of the other curious, but natural, noises that populate the night. Neither woman reported hearing any vehicle associated with the scream.

A traffic accident was ruled out as there was no damage to the bike, which was well looked after and almost in a new condition.

A total of 1971 statements were taken and 419 House to House questionnaires completed. Enquiries stretched as far afield as Australia.

There was a vague description of a grey car seen in Metton, and a red mini with the newly introduced reflective number plates. The direction and route these cars took is not known.

There was a van with two men in it who had been seen trying to sell carpets who were regarded as suspects but the van and its occupants were traced and completely eliminated.

Another van, a scruffy black Morris, was seen driving erratically through Metton. This vehicle was to lead to the identification of a major suspect, but also an elimination, although doubts about that suspect continue to linger.

It was discovered that several young boys had been spotting cars and taking their registration numbers. In all 406 numbers had been recorded, although some of them had been recorded incorrectly, and others it seemed were pure invention to increase the numbers taken. The registrations could prove valuable as some of the records were on the fateful day, and covered the period from 1.45pm. What was important in these records was not just what was recorded but what was not recorded. The red mini with the new plates would have been a good one to log, but it was absent from the list.

Despite all that information, April hasn't been seen since.

The full circumstances of April Fabb’s disappearance is documented in the book ‘THE LOST YEARS - The story of April Fabb’ by Maurice Morson, a retired Police Officer who worked on the case.

On the 2^nd of September another child, eleven year old Stephen Newing, vanished from outside his home in Fakenham, just twenty or so miles from Metton.

Less than a year after April's disappearance, another teenage girl, Susan Long, was found murdered just ten miles away.

In 1997, the Royal Air Force used thermal imaging cameras to locate ground disturbances since April’s disappearance, but nothing was found. Which suggests her body was dumped out of the area.

In January 2010 the site of an old well was excavated in the locality where April disappeared. The result was negative.

In 2010 a team of forensic anthropologists started a project using GIS mapping technology to ascertain if it can help with locating April’s location. This project is likely to be long term and results are not expected in the near future. Eight years later they are still to be published.

So, what happened to April?

An accident would probably have resulted in damage to her bike. The perpetrator would then have panicked and hidden the body nearby, and not very well as it would have been in a hurry, so she would have been found by now.

She may have run away. But, that would have been totally out of character for her. She may have gone off voluntarily with somebody else but, from what we know of her personality, both of these scenarios are extremely unlikely. And she would have surely reappeared by now, especially for the funerals of her parents.

Kidnap? Maybe. But a kidnapper would now probably be well into their seventies and surely couldn't have kept her hidden for 50 years.

If murdered, somebody has carried this with them for 50 years. It would take a particular kind of person to be able to live with that knowledge. Like a serial killer.

If ex-Pc Clark's evidence is reliable, it seems very likely April was abducted and murdered by Robert Black. He was apparently in the area at the time and it fits his MO. He left the other bodies all within 26 miles of Ashby De La Zouch, but that was because it was on his route back to London where he lived.

So, April could either also be in the Midlands or somewhere off the A11 between Norwich and London.

If you have any information please contact me.