Sleepy English town roused by murder mystery
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2012/01/sleepy-english-town-roused-by-murder.html
ANMER, England – The quintessentially English sleepy hamlet of Anmer on the edge of Queen Elizabeth's favorite country estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, looks like the kind of place a young Agatha Christie might have scouted out for her next detective novel.
But now, the tiny village of 29 houses and 63 residents, many of whom work on the royal estate and who, out of loyalty to the queen, don't like talking to outsiders, is the setting of a real-life British murder mystery.
Just days after the British royal family gathered at Sandringham House for their annual Boxing Day pheasant shoot, a tale of intrigue mystery with all the hallmarks of a 1930s whodunit began to unfold.
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PHOTOS: Human remains found on queen's estate
A local man out walking his dog on New Year's Day stumbled upon the decomposing corpse of a young woman, lying unburied in woodland only a mile from the house where the queen and her closest relatives were spending the Christmas holidays on the 20,000-acre estate.
Police have yet to identify the victim but say it could be one of two Eastern European women, both of whom went missing from nearby Cambridgeshire last summer. Tests show the victim to be between the ages of 15 and 23, and that the body had been lying there for up to four months — near a field where it is believed the royal family was out shooting last week.
The region around the estate, where Princess Diana was born, is marked with stately homes, farm workers' cottages, rolling fields, winding country lanes, isolated woodlands, pretty churches with lichen-covered headstones in the graveyard and, of course, the aristocracy. It feels like a long way from the rest of civilization, making it perhaps the perfect place to dump a body, locals say.
Even so, taxi driver Robert Sharp, 36, said it is a shock that something like this has happened in such a rural community.
"You expect this kind of thing in big cities but not out here, in a little village," he said. "There's crime everywhere but much more so in the city. They say the body might have been there for months — it's not a surprise, really, because around here everything is so spaced out. There are only dog walkers and farmers' fields."
Indeed, there is very little of this type of crime in this remote part of Norfolk where you might not come across another soul for miles. Not for many years has the community had to deal with an unidentified body in its midst.
The last time was in 1974, when the headless body of a pregnant woman was discovered. She has never been identified. The same year, a young woman disappeared from a local campsite but no corpse has been found.
Residents say there has been some speculation about the grim discovery but people aren't worried for their safety. They believe whoever dumped the body must have known the area, obscure woodland at the end of a farm track not far from the royal stud farm where the queen breeds racehorses. The stables are the only buildings anywhere near where the body was found.
Neville Bromwich, 76, wonders why the body wasn't discovered by any other of the many dog walkers who frequent the area.
He has been going to the Sandringham estate to walk his dog for the past two years. People he has met on his walks haven't said much about it.
"There was one chap, though, who wondered how many more bodies might there be out here," he said, gesturing to the acres of woodland beyond an open patch of grass where his terriers were playing.
Millicent Langford, 72, and her husband, Rex Langford, 75, live in Cambridge and have been visiting the estate to go walking for the past 50 years.
"There are so many people who come walking around here it must have been a midnight job," said Rex Langford, speculating on the time of day the body might have been left. "It won't make people nervous though. There have been so many murders over Christmas, every time you open the paper there's another one. It's getting like America."
As the local dog walker made his grim discovery, at least 1,000 residents turned out to applaud the queen's husband, Prince Philip, just out of the hospital after having surgery to unblock a coronary artery. He walked with his son, Prince Charles, from Sandringham House to the nearby church for a New Year's Day service.
The royal family is hugely popular in the region, despite it being an area of high unemployment. Supermarket chains ASDA and Morrisons provide limited job opportunities for young people and a glance at the ads in the local paper shows that jobs paying more than the minimum wage are scarce.
Jon Buss, editor of the Lynn News newspaper in the medieval market town of King's Lynn, 10 miles from the royal estate, said local residents love the Windsors.
"Having Sandringham on the doorstep cements affection for the royals among local people — you often see them around," he said. "The queen always attends the January meeting of the Sandringham Women's Institute. They often visit local businesses and charities. The Queen Mother used to pop in to a local department store to do her clothes shopping when she was in town."
The queen makes frequent visits, traveling by train from London. Prince Philip also drops in regularly to go shooting. In the past, royal family members would have taken their own private train but now, in these times of austerity, the royal entourage merely books out the first-class carriages on the normal commuter train from London's seedy King's Cross station.
So far, DNA tests on the corpse have proved inconclusive, but fears are mounting that the body is that of Alisa Dmitrijeva, a 17-year-old Latvian student who disappeared from King's Lynn in August. Police have visited her family in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, 11 miles away.
Police are investigating a link to the disappearance of a 29-year-old mother from Lithuania Vitalija Baliutaviciene, who lived in Peterborough, 30 miles away. She disappeared in August on her way to work.
Rimas Venclovas, 46, has been charged with Baliutaviciene's kidnapping and murder after being extradited from Lithuania, but no remains have been found.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment saying it is a matter for the police.
But now, the tiny village of 29 houses and 63 residents, many of whom work on the royal estate and who, out of loyalty to the queen, don't like talking to outsiders, is the setting of a real-life British murder mystery.
Just days after the British royal family gathered at Sandringham House for their annual Boxing Day pheasant shoot, a tale of intrigue mystery with all the hallmarks of a 1930s whodunit began to unfold.
*
PHOTOS: Human remains found on queen's estate
A local man out walking his dog on New Year's Day stumbled upon the decomposing corpse of a young woman, lying unburied in woodland only a mile from the house where the queen and her closest relatives were spending the Christmas holidays on the 20,000-acre estate.
Police have yet to identify the victim but say it could be one of two Eastern European women, both of whom went missing from nearby Cambridgeshire last summer. Tests show the victim to be between the ages of 15 and 23, and that the body had been lying there for up to four months — near a field where it is believed the royal family was out shooting last week.
The region around the estate, where Princess Diana was born, is marked with stately homes, farm workers' cottages, rolling fields, winding country lanes, isolated woodlands, pretty churches with lichen-covered headstones in the graveyard and, of course, the aristocracy. It feels like a long way from the rest of civilization, making it perhaps the perfect place to dump a body, locals say.
Even so, taxi driver Robert Sharp, 36, said it is a shock that something like this has happened in such a rural community.
"You expect this kind of thing in big cities but not out here, in a little village," he said. "There's crime everywhere but much more so in the city. They say the body might have been there for months — it's not a surprise, really, because around here everything is so spaced out. There are only dog walkers and farmers' fields."
Indeed, there is very little of this type of crime in this remote part of Norfolk where you might not come across another soul for miles. Not for many years has the community had to deal with an unidentified body in its midst.
The last time was in 1974, when the headless body of a pregnant woman was discovered. She has never been identified. The same year, a young woman disappeared from a local campsite but no corpse has been found.
Residents say there has been some speculation about the grim discovery but people aren't worried for their safety. They believe whoever dumped the body must have known the area, obscure woodland at the end of a farm track not far from the royal stud farm where the queen breeds racehorses. The stables are the only buildings anywhere near where the body was found.
Neville Bromwich, 76, wonders why the body wasn't discovered by any other of the many dog walkers who frequent the area.
He has been going to the Sandringham estate to walk his dog for the past two years. People he has met on his walks haven't said much about it.
"There was one chap, though, who wondered how many more bodies might there be out here," he said, gesturing to the acres of woodland beyond an open patch of grass where his terriers were playing.
Millicent Langford, 72, and her husband, Rex Langford, 75, live in Cambridge and have been visiting the estate to go walking for the past 50 years.
"There are so many people who come walking around here it must have been a midnight job," said Rex Langford, speculating on the time of day the body might have been left. "It won't make people nervous though. There have been so many murders over Christmas, every time you open the paper there's another one. It's getting like America."
As the local dog walker made his grim discovery, at least 1,000 residents turned out to applaud the queen's husband, Prince Philip, just out of the hospital after having surgery to unblock a coronary artery. He walked with his son, Prince Charles, from Sandringham House to the nearby church for a New Year's Day service.
The royal family is hugely popular in the region, despite it being an area of high unemployment. Supermarket chains ASDA and Morrisons provide limited job opportunities for young people and a glance at the ads in the local paper shows that jobs paying more than the minimum wage are scarce.
Jon Buss, editor of the Lynn News newspaper in the medieval market town of King's Lynn, 10 miles from the royal estate, said local residents love the Windsors.
"Having Sandringham on the doorstep cements affection for the royals among local people — you often see them around," he said. "The queen always attends the January meeting of the Sandringham Women's Institute. They often visit local businesses and charities. The Queen Mother used to pop in to a local department store to do her clothes shopping when she was in town."
The queen makes frequent visits, traveling by train from London. Prince Philip also drops in regularly to go shooting. In the past, royal family members would have taken their own private train but now, in these times of austerity, the royal entourage merely books out the first-class carriages on the normal commuter train from London's seedy King's Cross station.
So far, DNA tests on the corpse have proved inconclusive, but fears are mounting that the body is that of Alisa Dmitrijeva, a 17-year-old Latvian student who disappeared from King's Lynn in August. Police have visited her family in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, 11 miles away.
Police are investigating a link to the disappearance of a 29-year-old mother from Lithuania Vitalija Baliutaviciene, who lived in Peterborough, 30 miles away. She disappeared in August on her way to work.
Rimas Venclovas, 46, has been charged with Baliutaviciene's kidnapping and murder after being extradited from Lithuania, but no remains have been found.
Buckingham Palace has declined to comment saying it is a matter for the police.
