March 1971 an off-duty police officer is enjoying a walk in Burton-On-Trent, Staffordshire, not knowing he would discover and open a case that would leave police baffled even to this day known as “Fred the head”.
March 1971
March 1971 an off-duty police officer is enjoying a walk in Burton-On-Trent, Staffordshire.
He comes across something and on closer examination identifies the item as a skull fragment.
Police attended the scene and the body of a male was found in a shallow grave, his wrists and ankles had been bound behind his back and was found without any item of clothing except for a pair of pink socks.
It is believed the victim was also wearing a 9ct Gold lady’s ring which Henry Showell LTD made around 1967 – 1968.
It was identified that the body had been there for 6-12 months which would determine his death occured around 1970, The body was found in a very remote and difficult location in a field off Newton Road only accessible by a long narrow path or through a locked gate.
The investigation
Now the investigation into this case was difficult as there were no witnesses or reports of a missing person which matched the known details of the victim.
This together with the limited forensic methods and information the case went cold and is still unsolved to this day.
Victim profile of Fred the head
Putting together a victim profile of what we know so far.
Age: Between 24 – 36 years
Height: 5ft 7″
Build: Thin
Date found: 26th March 1971
It was also found the victim had a neck condition known as Torticollis which caused the head to lean to the right which is quite a unique piece of information.
The body was also found in a kneeling position with as mentioned above the hand and feet bound behind the victim’s back.
The mystery continues and in time the victim became known as “Fred the Head”.
Developments to this day
There have been up-to-date methods used to try and identify the remains such as DNA which brought no joy, there have also been quite a few suggestions of who the remains may be but the case is still ongoing and this case still remains a mystery.
There are also multiple podcasts setup specifically to find information and solve this mystery, If you would like to discover more and listen in a fantastic example is: fredthehead.info
Possible occurrences
Looking at the things we know we don’t have much to go on in terms of theories and finding the truth behind the mysterious remains.
What we know so far:
- The victim found without clothing
- Only wearing socks and a ring
- Skull was visible to passer by
- Found by off-duty police officer
- Hands and feet bound behind back
- Found in the kneeling position
In my opinion the shallow grave and the skull visible to a passer by is a very important detail in this case as it could be due to one of two scenarios, Either an accident or a statement.
If you research true crime and watch true crime documentaries/series you’ll come across the shallow grave quite often and normally it’s done on purpose by the culprit to make sure the body is found and this gives them their own version of satisfaction.
If this is the case we could then look at the culprit being an experienced or developing killer and looking at how the body was found I would suggest they have killed before, due to the tieing up of the victim in such a vulnerable way and how they left the victim with only socks and a ring on the finger this looks like a statement that they have embarrassed the victim.
On the other hand, You could also suggest the culprit was an amateur who didn’t have much experience and was in a rush or panic to bury the body and this would explain the shallow grave but in my overall opinion leaving socks and a ring on the victim isn’t an accident, why take everything else except those two things?
Could it be to give the police something to go on to keep the case going which is very common in serial killer cases as they want to be found and they want to be known to police and the public.
Another suggestion is the victim was involved in sexual intercourse or act at the time and this is what led to the body only wearing socks and a ring, was it a sex act gone wrong and panicked, the body was dumped quickly or was the murder planned as part of this to make the victim vulnerable.
Conclusion
Fred the head case is very mysterious and strange to say the least and the main thing that does stick out to me is the socks and ring left on the victim, this has to mean something as it’s very hard to understand why the victim was naked apart from those two items.
If it was a robbery it doesn’t make sense whatsoever to leave valuables such as the ring on the victim so I think this does rule out robbery altogether unless there was other valuables inside the clothing.
The evidence and facts we know does point towards murder in some degree the way the body was found isn’t normal, the way he was tied up is a unique way of disposing of a body and the body was in a kneeling position gives the sense of dominance, power and embarresment to the victim and culprit.
Like mentioned above this is still an unsolved mystery and there are many theories and scenarios that point in many directions as to what happened to this poor man that led to his death and been dumped and buried in a shallow grave.
If you do have any theories of your own please do post them below as they could turn out to be helpful in solving this case in time.
Read more unsolved cases by clicking here.
Useful information and sources:
FredtheHead.info – Fred the head podcast and additional information
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