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The naked body of Margaret Reynolds lay just inches away. Her body was skeletonized, and none of her clothing was ever recovered save for one shoe. As such, [[pathology|pathologists]] were unable to determine her cause of death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=1565&termRef=Margaret%20Reynolds|title=Unsolved Murders: Margaret Reynolds|publisher=unsolved-murders.co.uk |date=1 January 2008 |access-date=21 November 2021}}</ref> The ”[[modus operandi]]” of both murders also led investigators to link the 1964 abduction and attempted murder of Julia Taylor to the same perpetrator.<ref name=”Real956″/>
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The naked body of Margaret Reynolds lay just inches away. Her body was skeletonized, and none of her clothing was ever recovered save for one shoe. As such, [[pathology|pathologists]] were unable to determine her cause of death.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=1565&termRef=Margaret%20Reynolds|title=Unsolved Murders: Margaret Reynolds|publisher=unsolved-murders.co.uk |date=1 January 2008 |access-date=21 November 2021}}</ref> The ”[[modus operandi]]” of both murders also led investigators to link the 1964 abduction and attempted murder of Julia Taylor to the same perpetrator.<ref name=”Real956″/>
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===Investigation===
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Prior to the discovery of the children’s bodies, police had concluded their abductions were linked. Investigators contacted [[Scotland Yard]], seeking the assistance of experienced investigators. Two individuals from the Yard’s [[Major investigation team (Metropolitan Police)|Murder Squad]] were dispatched to Staffordshire to assist in the investigation.
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Prior to the discovery of the children’s bodies, police had concluded their abductions were linked. Investigators contacted [[Scotland Yard]], seeking the assistance of experienced investigators. Two individuals from the Yard’s [[Major investigation team (Metropolitan Police)|Murder Squad]] were dispatched to Staffordshire to assist in the investigation.
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Although unable to identify the children’s murderer, investigators felt certain the perpetrator would strike again. In preparation, the head of Staffordshire [[Criminal Investigation Department|CID]], Detective Chief Superintendent Harry Bailey, devised plans to set up [[roadblock]]s on all minor and major exits from the vicinity of Walsall within twenty minutes of any reported child abduction. Neighbouring police forces were also notified of this plan.<ref>”Real-life Crimes” {{ISBN|978-1-856-29978-7}} pp. 956-957</ref>
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Although unable to identify the children’s murderer, investigators felt certain the perpetrator would strike again. In preparation, the head of Staffordshire [[Criminal Investigation Department|CID]], Detective Chief Superintendent Harry Bailey, devised plans to set up [[roadblock]]s on all minor and major exits from the vicinity of Walsall within twenty minutes of any reported child abduction. Neighbouring police forces were also notified of this plan.<ref>”Real-life Crimes” {{ISBN|978-1-856-29978-7}} pp. 956-957</ref>
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==Christine Darby==
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2:30 a.m. on 19 August 1967, a seven-year-old named Christine Darby was lured into a grey car as she played with friends near her home in Camden Street, [[Caldmore]], Walsall.<ref>”The New Murderers’ Who’s Who” {{ISBN|978-0-245-54639-6}} pp. 219-220</ref> The individual had asked Darby and her friends if they knew the directions to Caldmore Green. When the children pointed the direction to this individual, adding his intended destination was just a short distance up the road, he had feigned confusion and asked Christine to enter the car and show him the way. The child—whose parents did not own a car—had entered the vehicle excitedly.<ref>{{cite news |title=From the Archives: Was Little Christine Just ONE of Raymond Morris’s Victims?|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/from-the-archives-was-little-christine-just-one-124800 |newspaper=The Birmingham Mail |date=13 May 2010 |access-date=22 November 2021}}</ref> Her friends then noted the vehicle headed in the opposite direction to Caldmore Green—the direction of Cannock Chase.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/LIVING%3A+Crime+-+Plimmer%27s+Casebook%3A+How+police+finally+caught+Cannock…-a086029116 |title=Crime – Plimmer’s Casebook: How Police Finally Caught Cannock Chase Child Killer after Biggest Manhunt in the Midlands|publisher=thefreelibrary.com |date=19 May 2002 |access-date=23 November 2021}}</ref>
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2:30 a.m. on 19 August 1967, a seven-year-old named Christine Darby was lured into a grey car as she played with friends near her home in Camden Street, [[Caldmore]], Walsall.<ref>”The New Murderers’ Who’s Who” {{ISBN|978-0-245-54639-6}} pp. 219-220</ref> The individual had asked Darby and her friends if they knew the directions to Caldmore Green. When the children pointed the direction to this individual, adding his intended destination was just a short distance up the road, he had feigned confusion and asked Christine to enter the car and show him the way. The child—whose parents did not own a car—had entered the vehicle excitedly.<ref>{{cite news |title=From the Archives: Was Little Christine Just ONE of Raymond Morris’s Victims?|url=https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/from-the-archives-was-little-christine-just-one-124800 |newspaper=The Birmingham Mail |date=13 May 2010 |access-date=22 November 2021}}</ref> Her friends then noted the vehicle headed in the opposite direction to Caldmore Green—the direction of Cannock Chase.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/LIVING%3A+Crime+-+Plimmer%27s+Casebook%3A+How+police+finally+caught+Cannock…-a086029116 |title=Crime – Plimmer’s Casebook: How Police Finally Caught Cannock Chase Child Killer after Biggest Manhunt in the Midlands|publisher=thefreelibrary.com |date=19 May 2002 |access-date=23 November 2021}}</ref>
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The child witnesses to Darby’s abduction immediately reported the incident to her mother, who in turn immediately notified police. With assistance from neighbouring police forces, the devised plan to install roadblocks at all minor and major roads exiting Walsall was immediately implemented.<ref>”Not the Moors Murders” {{ISBN|978-0-863-83473-8}} pp. 66-69</ref>
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The child witnesses to Darby’s abduction immediately reported the incident to her mother, who in turn immediately notified police. With assistance from neighbouring police forces, the devised plan to install roadblocks at all minor and major roads exiting Walsall was immediately implemented.<ref>”Not the Moors Murders” {{ISBN|978-0-863-83473-8}} pp. 66-69</ref>
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Questioned by police, the witnesses to Darby’s abduction explained the man had been in his thirties, clean-shaven and with dark brown hair. He wore a white shirt and drove a grey car—possibly an A55 or A60 “Farina” model [[Austin Cambridge]] or [[Morris Oxford]]—and spoke in a notable local accent. One of the children in particular, seven-year-old Nicholas Baldry, remained adamant the man had pronounced Caldmore Green as “Carmer Green”, as only a local individual would.{{refn|group=n|In Walsall, the phonetic pronunciation of the district of Caldmore Green is “Carmer Green”;<ref>”Not the Moors Murders” {{ISBN|978-0-863-83473-8}} p. 69</ref> the vernacular the abductor had used. Individuals from towns less than twenty miles away did not pronounce this location in a local dialect.}} This information solidified the police view they were hunting a local man, as opposed to someone who might have pronounced this location as “Kald-moor” (as a stranger to the area would read the location from a roadmap). This led
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Questioned by police, the witnesses to Darby’s abduction explained the man had been in his thirties, clean-shaven and with dark brown hair. He wore a white shirt and drove a grey car—possibly an A55 or A60 “Farina” model [[Austin Cambridge]] or [[Morris Oxford]]—and spoke in a notable local accent. One of the children in particular, seven-year-old Nicholas Baldry, remained adamant the man had pronounced Caldmore Green as “Carmer Green”, as only a local individual would.{{refn|group=n|In Walsall, the phonetic pronunciation of the district of Caldmore Green is “Carmer Green”;<ref>”Not the Moors Murders” {{ISBN|978-0-863-83473-8}} p. 69</ref> the vernacular the abductor had used. Individuals from towns less than twenty miles away did not pronounce this location in a local dialect.}} This information solidified the police view they were hunting a local man, as opposed to someone who might have pronounced this location as “Kald-moor” (as a stranger to the area would read the location from a roadmap). This led police to concentrate their hunt in and around Walsall.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Morris, Raymond Leslie| access-date = 9 September 2009| publisher = real-crime.co.uk| url = http://www.real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/docm.htm#Morris,%20Raymond%20Leslie| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090218234139/http://www.real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/docm.htm#Morris,%20Raymond%20Leslie| archive-date = 18 February 2009| url-status = dead}}</ref>
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===Second manhunt===
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On 22 August
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By the early hours of 20 August, police had initiated a thorough search of Cannock Chase for the body of Christine Darcy. As approximately thirty per cent of the surface of Cannock Chase was covered by fir trees, dense foliage, [[Shaft sinking|mine shaft]]s, clay pits and [[fox hole]]s, any [[Search and rescue|aerial search]] of the terrain would be ineffective. As such, over three hundred police began searching Cannock Chase on foot, with the operation beginning at a pool close to Mansty Gully. Within hours, a pair of child’s knickers were discovered snagged against a tree.
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On 22 August, a soldier who was a member of a search party found the sprawled, naked body of seven-year-old Christine Darby beneath [[wikt:brushwood|brushwood]] only a mile away from where Reynolds and Tift were discovered.<ref name=”SteveMadeley”/><ref name=”Borrell”/> Two individuals who had been on Cannock Chase on 19 August reported to investigators they remembered seeing a grey [[Austin Cambridge|Austin A55 or A60]] parked close to the location where the child’s body was discovered. The vehicle in question had been driven by a white male with dark hair.
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==Investigation==
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==Investigation==
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