Further Reading for Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm & Richard Trenton Chase
Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?
Vampire: The Richard Chase Murders
Dracula Killer: Dracula Killer
No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World’s Premier Forensic Investigators
Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery
Episode: 10
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Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? is graffiti which first appeared in 1944 following the 1943 discovery of the skeletonised remains of a woman by four children inside a wych elm in Hagley Wood, Hagley (located in the estate of Hagley Hall), in Worcestershire, England. The victim—whose murder is approximated to have occurred in 1941—remains unidentified, and the current location of her skeleton and autopsy reportis unknown.
On 18 April 1943, four local boys (Robert Hart, Thomas Willetts, Bob Farmer and Fred Payne) were poaching or bird–nesting in Hagley Wood, part of the Hagley estate belonging to Lord Cobham[near to Wychbury Hill when they came across a large wych elm. Thinking the location to be a particularly good place to hunt birds’ nests, Farmer attempted to climb the tree to investigate. As he climbed, he glanced down into the hollow trunk and discovered a skull. At first he believed it to be that of an animal, but after seeing human hair and teeth, he realised that he had found a human skull. As they were on the land illegally, Farmer put the skull back and all four boys returned home without mentioning their discovery to anybody. However, on returning home, the youngest of the boys, Willetts, felt uneasy about what he had witnessed and decided to report the find to his parents.
Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer who killed six people in a span of a month in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed “The Vampire of Sacramento” because he drank his victims’ blood and cannibalized their remains.
On December 29, 1977, Chase killed his first known victim in a drive-by shooting. The victim, Ambrose Griffin, was a 51-year-old engineer and father of two.
He attempted to enter the home of a woman two weeks later, but because her doors were locked, he walked away. Chase later told detectives that he took locked doors as a sign that he was not welcome, but unlocked doors were an invitation to come inside. He was once caught and chased off by a couple returning home as he pilfered their belongings; he had also urinated and defecated on their infant child’s bed and clothing.
On January 23, 1978, Richard Trenton Chase broke into a house and shot Teresa Wallin (three months pregnant at the time) three times. He then had sexual intercourse with her corpse while stabbing her with a butcher knife. He then removed multiple organs, cut off one of her nipples and drank her blood. He stuffed dog feces from Wallin’s yard down her throat before leaving.
On January 27, Chase entered the home of 38-year-old Evelyn Miroth. He encountered her friend, Danny Meredith, whom he shot with his .22 handgun, then took Meredith’s wallet and car keys. He then fatally shot Miroth, her six-year-old son Jason, and her 22-month-old nephew David Ferreira, before mutilating Miroth and engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism with her corpse.
A visitor’s knock on the door startled Richard Trenton Chase, who fled in Meredith’s car, taking Ferreira’s body with him. The visitor alerted a neighbor, who called police. They discovered that Chase had left perfect handprints and shoe imprints in Miroth’s blood. Chase was arrested shortly afterwards – police who searched Chase’s apartment found that the walls, floor, ceiling, refrigerator, and all of Chase’s eating and drinking utensils were soaked in blood.