Introduction.

I went back and forth over which case to use for my first entry onto this blog. After doing quite a bit of research into the criminal history records, I discovered the case of 4-year-old Joyce Cox from Cardiff.  A warning to all, this isn’t going to be an easy one to describe, and it won’t be an easy read either I’m afraid.  Whilst no murder cases are easy to go over, child murders are particularly brutal.  And as a mother to a young girl myself, this one hit home with me in a way I never expected.  So, here goes.

Background.

Joyce Irene Cox was described by those who knew her as a plump girl, with fair skin and hair, and very rosy cheeks.  On September 28th, 1939, she was only days from her fifth birthday when she went missing whilst walking home from her morning school in the borough of Whitchurch, Cardiff. At the time, she had been wearing a blue velvet frock, a dark blue coat, plaid socks, ankle strap shoes, and she had been carrying her gas mask, which had her name and address written on it.  The last person to see her alive was her older brother Dennis, who was seven at the time.  He and a friend were walking with her, but they lost track of Joyce, last seeing her in Velindre Road, Whitchurch. 

Her mother hadn’t seen her since 8.30am that morning when Joyce and Dennis had left for school together.  They routinely came home at around 12.30 for their lunch, so when Dennis turned up at home without Joyce in tow, their mother went to her sister in law’s house, to see if Joyce had gone there for lunch instead.  When she wasn’t there, Mrs Cox spent the next couple of hours visiting relatives, Joyce’s school and looking around the main roads.  When she still hadn’t been found at 3pm, Mrs Cox called the police and reported Joyce missing.

Discovery of the body.

Over the next few hours, the police questioned Joyce’s school friends, several of whom claimed they had seen her in a place known as ‘Lucky Lane.’  A man from the local post office also backed up these claims.  A search party of over 200 people was assembled to look for the young girl, consisting of police officers, soldiers, girl guides and boy scouts.  They searched the area tirelessly for the next 36 hours, until on 29th September, Joyce’s body was discovered only two miles from her home.  According to reports, a man amongst the volunteers had been searching with his spaniel dog.  As he walked by a disused railway embankment near Coryton Station, he felt the dog tugging him in a direction different to the one he was following.  He let the dog guide him, and when they reached some bushes, he discovered the partially clothed body of the four-year-old in some tangled undergrowth.  She had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

Police Investigation.

In the time that followed the discovery of Joyce’s body, the police searched the scene. A tobacco pouch was found, and her gas mask was found a little further away some time later. A copy of the Western Mail newspaper was also found nearby.  Some of her missing clothes were also found on 2 October 1939 in some bushes some distance from where her body was found. 

The police stated in a press conference that they were pursuing the line of inquiry that indicated that Joyce Cox had not met her death at the spot where she was found, stating that the evidence supported the theory that she had been carried down the railway cutting before her body was placed in the bushes.

On 2nd October 1939 the Western Mail wrote 

“Extended Search for Child’s Assailant. 

There were no fresh developments over the week-end in the search by the Glamorgan County Police for man wanted in connection with the discovery of the dead body of Joyce Cox, aged five, at Cory ton, near her home at Whitchurch, Cardiff, on Friday evening. The police have not issued a description of the wanted man, as was hinted might be the case on Saturday, but they have intensified and widened the scope of their inquiries. A post-mortem examination of the child's body was carried out Saturday by Dr. J. M. Webster, the Home Office pathologist, but the result has not yet been made known. It is probable that the findings will be withheld until the opening of the inquest, which may be held to-day.”

The police took about 1,800 statements during the initial investigation. A seven-year-old boy said that he had seen Joyce Cox on the evening that she vanished walking along with a man that he described as being dressed in black and old looking and who he had never seen before.

At the time the police said that they were looking for a man with a limp and wearing a black suit and cap who had been seen talking to a little girl.

Other reports stated that the police were looking for a man with a slouch.

The police also said that they were interested in interviewing a man who was seen on the road to Merthyr on the day that she was missed.

Another suspect was said to have been a man that had been seen at the time pushing a wheelbarrow with a sack over it.

Enquiries were also pursued at a mental hospital in the vicinity.

During the investigation, inquiries were made at the Whitchurch Infants School where every child answered a questionnaire. Amongst the questions that were asked were:

• Did you know Joyce Cox?
• When did you see her last?
• Where did you see her and what time was it?
• Did you see her with any man?
• Has any man recently offered you pennies or sweets?
• If so, can you describe him?

It was noted that a large number of children had replied that they had seen Joyce Cox on the Thursday, but no one had seen her after 1pm.

It was also noted that there were a number of affirmative replies to the question whether regarding whether they had been offered pennies or sweets, but few of the children could describe the people that had done so.

Funeral.

Her funeral was on Wednesday 4 October 1939. Her school friends lined the route from her home to the cemetery and her coffin was carried by four soldiers who were comrades of Joyce Cox's father who was in the army.

On the 5th October 1939, the Western Mail ran a story on the funeral. 

“Funeral of Whitchurch Murder Victim. 

There was a large attendance of women, schoolmates, and representative’s various bodies at the funeral of little Joyce Cox (victim of the Whitchurch murder), which took place on Wednesday. The coffin was borne from the house, in Heoldon. to Whitchurch Methodist Church, where a service was held before interment in St. Mary's Churchyard. The Rev. Harry Wilkinson officiated.”

Her father, who had been serving in the army, returned home to help comfort his family. He said of his daughter;

‘She was a doll of a girl. Only last Monday I had promised her a present for her birthday and she was full of childish excitement and anticipation. Now this has come. It is terrible.

Inquest.

An official report in the Western Mail on 3/10/1939 stated, 

“Inquest on Cardiff Murder Victim Opened. 

Mr. David Rees, coroner for East Glamorgan, on Monday opened and adjourned for one month the inquest on Joyce Irene Cox, aged four, whose body was found in a railway cutting near Coryton, Cardiff, on Friday. The Assistant Chief Constable of the County. Superintendent Beirne. Superintendent William McDonald, and Inspector Seymour represented the police. Arthur James Cox, the father, who was in soldier’s uniform, said that his address was 50, Heoldon, Whitchurch. Before he was in the Army he was a labourer with the Cardiff Gas Company. His daughter would have been five years of age this month. She was healthy and very strong and had never been accustomed to wandering around, alone. No other witnesses were called.”

When the Coroner summed up at the inquest, he explained to the jury that they had to consider whether the person unknown was guilty of manslaughter or murder. He also added that it was clearly established by the evidence that Joyce Cox had been taken to a house before being taken to the spot where her body was found.

He also said that it was apparent from the medical evidence that Joyce Cox had had a meal the one given to her by her mother before she had gone to school that morning.

The pathologist at the inquest said that Joyce Cox was a healthy child but that she had a lymphoid tissue condition that rendered her more liable to death from shock, noting that her cause of death was due to shock and partial strangulation. He said, 'One must take four o'clock as the focus on either side of which death might have taken place, the period covering two or more hours on either side of four o'clock'.

At the inquest, a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown was returned.

It was noted that after Joyce Cox's mother identified Joyce Cox's clothes at the inquest she collapsed. After she was assisted out of the court at Whitchurch, a man shouted, 'What the ---- did you want to show her the clothes for?', but he was immediately silenced by the police officers there.

The Western Mail reported on 31st October 1939 – 

““Death by person or persons unknown” was the verdict returned at the resumed inquest at Whitchurch, Cardiff, on Monday on Joyce Cox, aged five, daughter of Mr, and Mrs. A. J. Cox, Heoldon, Whitchurch, whose outraged body was found on September 29 in a disused mineral railway cutting near Whitchurch.”

Follow Up Investigation.

Whilst in 1939, the police were never able to find the person that committed the terrible crime that ended little Joyce Cox’s life, her family never gave up hope that her killer would be found. 

In 2015, Joyce’s cousin Terry Phillips, accused the Metropolitan Police of a cover up after they refused to open the public record on the case that is kept at the National Archives, numbered MEPO 3/676. The file is closed until January 1st 2024 but the police said, 'A named subject who was a suspect is described derogatorily and should not be associated with these matters. As an unsolved murder, with potential of reinvestigation at any indeterminate stage, practice to close for 100 years is invoked. However unlikely, indeed remote, it may be that this case is re-opened, we must afford for that possibility. Putting information into the public domain will include naming specific persons who may yet be identified. These persons who may be living may have been witnesses and/or interviewees and who were not prosecuted and who therefore must be regarded as innocent parties. Persons will have given witness statements in the expectation that their information would not become public knowledge'.

In September 2017, the police said that they were carrying out a cold case review and said that the prime suspect in the case had died decades earlier. However, it was noted that there were two main suspects.

South Wales Police is now undertaking a cold case review of the documentation gathered by the former Glamorganshire Constabulary in the aftermath of the murder.

In a letter to Joyce's cousin Terry Phillips, Chief Inspector Mark Kavanagh wrote: "A prime suspect was identified early on in the original inquiry and remains the main focus of interest in this case. The team is undertaking intelligence research to identify what information is available about this individual."

Mr Phillips, who wasn't born at the time of the murder and is now 73, said: "Together with other members of my family, I have been shocked to learn that the police now conclude that the primary suspect died as long ago as the 1950s.

"I was told that documentation relating to the case could not be published because of the possibility that it named a suspect who was still alive. The new information from the police suggests that isn't the case. I have written to the National Archives asking the chief executive to look at the case for publication again."

Conclusion.

Whilst the person or persons who did this awful thing has to date never been found and brought to justice, the family of Joyce Irene Cox has never received any kind of closure.  Although a conviction wouldn’t bring back the young girl, who would now be in her late 80’s with a family of her own, it would bring the family that lost her some much needed peace to know that the monster that took her away was behind bars. According to the police, the prime suspect died decades ago.  And even if the killer was still alive, by now it’s likely they would be over 100 years old.

So, although the evidence in the case will be opened to be viewed by the public in January of next year, unless the police reopen the case, and pour more resources into it than they likely possess for an 84 year old cold case, unfortunately the likelihood is that we will never know who committed such dreadful acts on a young girl who should have been just starting her life.