The towpath murders (also known as the Thames Towpath Murders and the Teddington Towpath Murders) are a double murder which occurred upon a section of towpath between Teddington Lock and Eel Pie Island in Richmond upon Thames, London, England, on 31 May 1953. The victims were two teenage girls named Christine Reed and Barbara Songhurst who were ambushed by a lone individual as they cycled to their respective homes in Hampton Hill and Teddington. Both girls were overpowered, then violently raped and murdered before their bodies were discarded in the River Thames. The perpetrator, 21-year-old Alfred Charles Whiteway, was convicted of both murders in a trial held at the Old Bailey before Mr Justice Hilbery that October; he was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 December 1953.
The murders of Christine Reed and Barbara Songhurst became known as the "towpath murders" due to a towpath being both the location the victims were last seen alive and the site of their murder. The forensic methods used to link the perpetrator to both the victims and the weapons used in the commission of the crime were described as "one of Scotland Yard's most notable triumphs in a century".
Background
On the afternoon of Saturday 30 May 1953, 16-year-old Barbara Songhurst informed her parents of her intention to cycle from her Teddington home to spend the evening with her friend, 18-year-old Christine Reed, who lived in nearby Hampton Hill. Although Reed was two years older than Songhurst and the girls hailed from differing social backgrounds, the two were best friends, having become acquainted through their shared love of jazz music and dancing approximately one year prior. Both also enjoyed cycling, and had scrupulously saved their money to purchase their own bicycles: Reed had purchased a bicycle with money saved from her earnings as a machinist earlier in 1953; Songhurst had also recently purchased a new Phillips sports bicycle for £17 (the equivalent of approximately £416 ) with money earned via her employment as a chemist's shop assistant.
Later that afternoon, Reed, Songhurst and a friend named Joy Woolveridge cycled to a bebop concert to be held at York House, Twickenham, where several of their friends were also socialising. Several hours later, Reed and Woolveridge left the premises to visit a nearby café as Songhurst danced with an American soldier based at Bushy Park; she later joined her friends at the café.
Reed, Songhurst and Woolveridge left the café shortly before midnight; Woolveridge returned to her own home as Reed and Songhurst cycled approximately three miles to Reed's home in Roy Grove, Hampton Hill where, by prearrangement, Songhurst spent the night.
31 May 1953 At 10 a.m. on 31 May, Reed and Songhurst ate breakfast after Reed had redressed into a yellow buttoned cardigan, dark blue serge trousers, white socks and black block-heeled shoes; they then returned to Songhurst's home, where Barbara changed from her dancing clothing into a short grey jacket, tartan shirt, blue jeans, a distinctive waist-high, wide black belt with a large clasp buckle, white socks and black shoes before informing her mother she and Reed intended to cycle to Brighton. That afternoon, the girls returned to Reed's home before—at approximately 7:15 p.m.—cycling to a section of the River Thames towpath between Teddington Lock and Petersham, where several teenagers they both knew were camping on the opposite side of the river. The two spent several hours at this location, with the final ninety minutes including a game of Catch and Kiss.
Reed and Songhurst left their friends at approximately 11:10 p.m. As Songhurst's new bicycle was not fitted with lighting, one of the male campers, Peter Warren, lent her his cycle lamp; both girls agreed to return the lamp the following day. Several campers then watched the friends cycle in the direction of Teddington Lock, where they were to cross an iron bridge en route to their homes. The last individuals to see the girls alive were a young courting couple sitting alongside the towpath.
Discoveries
At 8:15 a.m. on 1 June, a man named George Coster discovered the body of a teenage girl floating face-down in the Thames as he cycled to work; he immediately notified authorities, who instructed the Marine Policing Unit to retrieve the body, which was then taken to Richmond mortuary.
Extensive injuries upon the body indicated the decedent had been violently murdered. A search of the vicinity revealed the girl had evidently been attacked approximately half a mile from the location of her discovery at a location known locally as Lovers' Glade. This site was approximately 400 yards from a lock within a secluded section of a secondary towpath which runs parallel to the main towpath by the Thames and is surrounded by shrubbery, trees and bushes. At this location, two large pools of blood were discovered in addition to numerous blood spatterings upon sections of shrubbery and ample sections of churned soil indicative of a ferocious physical struggle between the decedent and her murderer. A forensic analysis of the two pools of blood revealed one pool—located closer toward the centre of the towpath—to be type A and the other type O. The decedent in the river had type A blood. Furthermore, two pairs of women's shoes—one pair two sizes larger than the other—were recovered near a tall poplar tree from the crime scene, indicating more than one victim.
First autopsy The decedent's autopsy was conducted by pathologist Keith Mant, who described the victim as a brunette, Caucasian female in her mid-teens and () in height who had died approximately eight hours prior to her discovery. She had received a deep semicircular laceration to her left cheek, which had fractured her cheekbone in addition to three stab wounds to the back—each of which had punctured her lungs and had penetrated her body up to nine inches in depth and would have killed her within three to eight minutes. She had also received a laceration to her scalp, a skull fracture, and numerous scratches and bruises on her legs likely sustained as she fought her assailant. This theory was further supported by several fibers sourcing from a man's sports jacket recovered from beneath her fingernails. The girl had also been violently raped. Mant was also able to determine the weapons used to inflict the injuries to the decedent were a distinctive Gurkha knife with a double-edged, one-inch-wide blade and a small hatchet and that the perpetrator had likely been "a man of unusual strength".
Songhurst's parents formally identified their daughter on the afternoon of her discovery; her mother also informed police she had last seen her daughter in the company of Christine Reed on Sunday morning and that she had assumed her daughter had simply chosen to spend the previous evening at Reed's home, but had expected her home that day as her daughter had been looking forward to the upcoming Coronation of Elizabeth II and had entered a local bathing beauty contest in celebration of the occasion to be held the following evening. She had only learned her daughter was missing when she failed to show up for work that morning, and had also discovered from Reed's parents that their daughter was also missing.
Dredging of River Thames Formally establishing Songhurst's identity and learning her close friend was also missing led investigators to conclude Reed had most likely also been murdered. This conclusion was supported by the discovery of articles of Reed's clothing alongside garments belonging to Songhurst at the site where two individuals had evidently been violently assaulted and murdered. As such, a decision was made to dredge a three-mile section of the River Thames between Teddington Lock and Richmond.
Shortly after the Port of London Authority opened the sluices at Teddington Lock on 2 June, an electromagnet located Reed's distinctive blue-and-cream BSA bicycle beneath the river approximately one hundred yards from the site where the girls had evidently been attacked. A distinctive knife was also recovered from the riverbed, although this weapon was later determined to be unrelated to the case.
Second autopsy On the afternoon of 6 June, Reed's partially-clothed body was found submerged close to Glover's Island, less than one mile from Richmond Bridge. Her autopsy revealed she had received six stab wounds to her back, six stab wounds to her chest and one stab wound above her left wrist. One of the stab wounds to Reed's back had pierced her lung, while four of the wounds to her chest had entered her heart. Four deep laceration wounds were discovered upon Reed's skull, which had been fractured in two places and, like Songhurst, Reed had been violently raped. Reed's forearms and hands also bore numerous lacerations and bruises evidently inflicted as she attempted to defend herself. All the injuries had been inflicted with a hatchet and either a stiletto or Gurkha knife.
The pathologist who conducted Reed's autopsy placed the time of death as occurring between five and six days previous; he was also able to determine she had still been alive when thrown into the river.
Investigation The murders of Reed and Songhurst received considerable media attention, and over 200 investigators were assigned to the manhunt to apprehend the perpetrator or perpetrators. The individual assigned command of the investigation was Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Herbert Hannam, who initially believed the double murder had been committed by two men but soon revised his opinion to conclude the murders had been committed by a single individual. Numerous television and radio appeals encouraged potential eyewitnesses or individuals with information to assist in the intense police manhunt; these appeals were also broadcast in all cinemas within a ten-mile radius of Teddington Lock. A Sunday newspaper also offered a £1,000 reward to any individual who could provide information leading to the apprehension of the murderer.
Hannam established both girls had been responsible, family-oriented and virtuous, with no known enemies. Although both had enjoyed the company and attention of males, neither had been promiscuous, and both had been virgins prior to their rape. All individuals known to the girls—including the three camping teenage boys they had specifically cycled to meet on the date of their murder—were eliminated from police enquiries. As Songhurst was known to have frequently danced with United States Air Force servicemen stationed at Bushy Park, all personnel at the base were questioned and likewise eliminated. Over 1,600 individuals would be questioned and eliminated throughout the enquiry, and several known sex offenders interrogated and eliminated as suspects.
Both the time at which the murders had occurred and the somewhat secluded location of the crime scene led investigators to conclude the perpetrator was most likely either local to the area or someone familiar with local transport networks. Furthermore, as both victims had been riding bicycles at the time of their initial assault, and the wounds to both were similar in nature in addition to having been applied with considerable force, Hannam believed the murderer had likely incapacitated one victim by either stunning her with, or throwing the axe at her head or torso as she cycled along the towpath before rapidly overpowering the other victim—possibly by throwing a knife at her back.