The Girls in the Woods

0:00 Speaker 1: The Babes in the Wood Murders, Brighton, England, October nineteen

0:05 Speaker 1: eighty six. The wind rolled through the narrow streets of Musicom,

0:09 Speaker 1: carrying the scent of rain and sea salt, rattling old

0:12 Speaker 1: fences and pushing dead leaves along the pavement. Evening arrived

0:16 Speaker 1: early in Brighton during autumn. By five o'clock, the daylight

0:20 Speaker 1: had already begun, fading into a cold, gray haze on

0:24 Speaker 1: the Council Estate. Children still played freely in the streets

0:27 Speaker 1: like they always had. Parents shouted dinner times from open windows.

0:32 Speaker 1: Neighbors leaned across balconies, gossiping about bills, football and the

0:37 Speaker 1: latest rumors drifting through the community. It was the kind

0:40 Speaker 1: of place where everyone knew each other, the kind of

0:43 Speaker 1: place where nobody locked their doors, the kind of place

0:46 Speaker 1: where people believed nothing truly evil could happen. And that

0:50 Speaker 1: was exactly why the disappearance of two little girls would

0:53 Speaker 1: shatter the entire country. Nine year old Karen Hadaway was

0:57 Speaker 1: the sensible, one, quiet thought, soft hearted. Born just days

1:02 Speaker 1: before Christmas in nineteen seventy six, she was the middle

1:06 Speaker 1: child in her family and loved deeply by everyone around her.

1:09 Speaker 1: She had a gentle nature, but behind it hit a

1:12 Speaker 1: mischievous streak that appeared whenever she was with her best friend.

1:16 Speaker 1: Nikola Fellos was brighter, louder, fearless. Born in February nineteen

1:22 Speaker 1: seventy seven, she had a huge personality packed into a

1:25 Speaker 1: tiny frame. She laughed loudly, spoke quickly, and had the

1:30 Speaker 1: kind of confidence adults often found amusing in children together,

1:34 Speaker 1: they were inseparable. They didn't attend the same school, but

1:38 Speaker 1: it didn't matter. They lived near each other, played together

1:42 Speaker 1: every day, and wandered the estate side by side from

1:45 Speaker 1: morning until dusk. Whenever they were allowed outside. To the

1:49 Speaker 1: people around them, they were simply the girls. If you

1:52 Speaker 1: saw one, the other was never far behind. Back then,

1:56 Speaker 1: childhood looked different. Parents let their children roam parks and

2:00 Speaker 1: climb trees unsupervised. Nobody tracked locations, Nobody panicked if kids

2:05 Speaker 1: disappeared for a few hours. Brighton was considered safe, one

2:09 Speaker 1: of the happiest places in England, a close knit city

2:13 Speaker 1: full of artists, families and community spirit. But monsters do

2:18 Speaker 1: not always hide in dark alleys. Sometimes they walk openly

2:22 Speaker 1: among ordinary people. On Thursday, October ninth, nineteen eighty six,

2:27 Speaker 1: Nicola returned home from school around three point thirty in

2:30 Speaker 1: the afternoon. Shortly afterward, there was a knock at the door.

2:34 Speaker 1: Standing outside was a young couple asking for the family's lodger,

2:38 Speaker 1: a young man named Doogie. Nicola recognized them vaguely. The

2:43 Speaker 1: woman in particular had become the subject of cruel rumors

2:46 Speaker 1: spreading around the estate. Adults whispered about her, constantly calling

2:51 Speaker 1: her promiscuous, reckless, a slag, words far too ugly and

2:57 Speaker 1: complicated for a nine year old child to fully understand,

3:00 Speaker 1: and but children repeat what they hear. So Nicola looked

3:03 Speaker 1: at the young woman standing on her doorstep and bluntly

3:06 Speaker 1: called her exactly what the adults had been saying. The

3:09 Speaker 1: couple awkwardly left. What nobody realized at the time was

3:13 Speaker 1: that the man standing beside that teenage girl was named

3:16 Speaker 1: Russell Bishop, and years later, that small interaction would haunt

3:20 Speaker 1: investigators forever. Around five PM, Nicola laced up her roller

3:25 Speaker 1: skates and headed outside to meet Karen. Karen, still wearing

3:29 Speaker 1: her school uniform, hurried out in pink trainers to join

3:33 Speaker 1: her best friend. Both girls knew they only had a

3:36 Speaker 1: little time before dinner. Their mothers were already cooking at home,

3:40 Speaker 1: but for children, an hour can feel like an entire adventure.

3:44 Speaker 1: The girls wandered through the estate, laughing and talking, stopping

3:48 Speaker 1: to climb trees in wild park nearby. A local police

3:52 Speaker 1: officer spotted them balancing dangerously on branches and jokingly warned

3:56 Speaker 1: them to be careful before they hurt themselves. It was

3:59 Speaker 1: the last confirmed sighting of the girls while they were

4:01 Speaker 1: still safe. Afterward, Karen and Nikola visited a fish and

4:06 Speaker 1: chip shop, where they met an older teenage girl from

4:09 Speaker 1: the estate. Concerned that darkness was approaching, she walked them

4:13 Speaker 1: part way back toward home. By then, the October sky

4:17 Speaker 1: had almost completely darkened, street lights flickered alive one by one,

4:22 Speaker 1: the air had turned bitterly cold. The teenager eventually left

4:26 Speaker 1: the girls and headed home herself, believing they would be

4:29 Speaker 1: fine for the short remainder of the walk. She would

4:32 Speaker 1: later carry guilt for the rest of her life because

4:35 Speaker 1: somewhere between that moment and home, Karen had Away and

4:39 Speaker 1: Nikola Fellow's crossed paths with pure evil. Hours passed, dinner

4:43 Speaker 1: sat untouched on kitchen tables, Televisions glowed inside warm living rooms,

4:48 Speaker 1: waiting for the girl's favorite program, Top of the Pops

4:52 Speaker 1: to begin, but Karen and Nicola never came home. At first,

4:57 Speaker 1: their parents assumed the girls had simply lost track of time.

5:00 Speaker 1: Maybe they were at another friend's house, maybe they had

5:04 Speaker 1: wandered farther than usual. But as the minutes turned into hours,

5:08 Speaker 1: panic began spreading through the estate. Parents knocked frantically on

5:13 Speaker 1: neighbor's doors, children were questioned, parks were searched. By eight

5:18 Speaker 1: thirty pm, police had officially been called, the entire community

5:22 Speaker 1: erupted into action. Men and women bundled themselves into winter coats,

5:27 Speaker 1: carrying flashlights through freezing streets while shouting the girls' names

5:32 Speaker 1: into the darkness. Hundreds of volunteers joined the search through parks, alleyways,

5:37 Speaker 1: wooded areas, and abandoned lots. Police officers from surrounding towns

5:42 Speaker 1: flooded Brighton to help. Helicopters searched from above. Dogs combed

5:47 Speaker 1: the fields, but there was no sign of Karen and Nicola.

5:51 Speaker 1: Through the night, Nicola's mother walked for miles along Brighton seafront,

5:55 Speaker 1: searching boats, sheds, and empty beach houses. Witnesses later remembered

6:00 Speaker 1: hearing her screaming her daughter's name into the cold wind

6:03 Speaker 1: as dawn broke over the ocean. By the following afternoon,

6:07 Speaker 1: nearly twenty four hours had passed, Hope was beginning to die.

6:12 Speaker 1: Then came the strange man with the dog. Police officer

6:15 Speaker 1: Paul Smith was searching near Wild Park when a man

6:19 Speaker 1: walking a German Shepherd approached him. The man claimed his

6:22 Speaker 1: dog was a train tracker and offered to help with

6:24 Speaker 1: the investigation. Something about him immediately felt off. He looked exhausted, nervous, twitchy.

6:32 Speaker 1: Officer Smith politely declined the offer, explaining the police already

6:36 Speaker 1: had proper search dogs involved. The stranger shrugged and said

6:40 Speaker 1: he'd spent all day searching but was thinking about giving up.

6:43 Speaker 1: Smith urged him to keep looking. Then the man said

6:47 Speaker 1: something chilling. But if I find them and they're dead,

6:50 Speaker 1: he asked, I get nicked, wouldn't I arrested? Why would

6:55 Speaker 1: someone think they'd be arrested simply for discovering two missing children.

6:59 Speaker 1: The comment instantly unsettled the officer, but before he could

7:03 Speaker 1: think more about it, screams suddenly echoed through the park.

7:07 Speaker 1: Two young men had found something in the bushes. Police

7:11 Speaker 1: and volunteers rushed toward the scene, and there, hidden beneath

7:15 Speaker 1: branches in a makeshift den, lay the bodies of Karen

7:18 Speaker 1: had Away and Nicola Fellow's. The girls looked almost peaceful

7:22 Speaker 1: at first glance. Nikola lay on her back, one knee

7:26 Speaker 1: raised slightly. Karen rested on her stomach with an arm

7:29 Speaker 1: curled beside her, as though asleep, but their skin was

7:32 Speaker 1: pale and cold as marble. Officer Smith later said the

7:36 Speaker 1: silence at the scene was unbearable. One of the mothers

7:40 Speaker 1: was nearby searching when police tape began surrounding the area.

7:44 Speaker 1: The moment she saw it, she collapsed to the ground,

7:47 Speaker 1: screaming somewhere deep inside she already knew. Later that day,

7:52 Speaker 1: the girl's parents were forced to identify their children. No

7:55 Speaker 1: parent should ever have to endure such horror. Nicola's father

7:59 Speaker 1: reached into a pocket during the identification and found a

8:02 Speaker 1: fifty pence coin meant to be her pocket money. One

8:05 Speaker 1: final time, he placed it beside his daughter and whispered,

8:10 Speaker 1: here's your pocket money, Darling. The autopsies revealed details so

8:14 Speaker 1: horrifying they shocked even experienced investigators. Both girls had been

8:19 Speaker 1: strangled to death with bare hands. They had also been

8:22 Speaker 1: sexually assaulted, not only before death, but afterward as well.

8:27 Speaker 1: The realization sickened the nation. One child had likely been

8:31 Speaker 1: forced to watch her best friend die, knowing she would

8:34 Speaker 1: be next. Two innocent little girls had suffered unimaginable terror

8:38 Speaker 1: in their final moments, and somewhere nearby, their killer was

8:42 Speaker 1: walking free. Brighton changed overnight. Parents stopped allowing children outside alone,

8:48 Speaker 1: doors stayed locked, Fear settled over the city like a

8:52 Speaker 1: permanent fog. The murders became front page news across Britain,

8:57 Speaker 1: eventually earning the haunting title the Babes in the Wood

9:00 Speaker 1: murders Karen and Nicola were buried side by side in

9:04 Speaker 1: matching coffins beneath a shared headstone. Their fathers carried them

9:08 Speaker 1: into the church together while grieving police officers and hundreds

9:11 Speaker 1: of devastated locals watched in silence. The entire community mourned them,

9:16 Speaker 1: but mourning quickly turned into rage. People demanded answers, and

9:21 Speaker 1: investigators already had a prime suspect in mind. The strange

9:25 Speaker 1: man with the tracker dog was identified as twenty year

9:29 Speaker 1: old Russell Bishop. Born and raised in Brighton, Bishop worked

9:33 Speaker 1: odd jobs fixing cars, and lived with his girlfriend and

9:36 Speaker 1: young child in nearby Mile Oak. But there was something

9:39 Speaker 1: deeply disturbing beneath his ordinary appearance. Investigators soon realized Bishop

9:44 Speaker 1: was the very man who had stood on Nicola's doorstep

9:47 Speaker 1: the day she disappeared, alongside the teenage girl Nicola had

9:51 Speaker 1: insulted earlier that afternoon. He had seen the child only

9:55 Speaker 1: hours before her death, and now witnesses remembered more unsettling details.

10:00 Speaker 1: Bishop had scratches on his body shortly after the murders.

10:04 Speaker 1: He gave inconsistent statements, He behaved oddly during questioning. Most

10:09 Speaker 1: disturbing of all, police discovered he had a history of

10:12 Speaker 1: violence and disturbing sexual behavior. To detectives, the case seemed

10:17 Speaker 1: obvious Russell Bishop had to be the killer, but proving

10:21 Speaker 1: it would become a nightmare, despite the overwhelming suspicion surrounding him.

10:26 Speaker 1: Forensic science in nineteen eighty six was far less advanced

10:29 Speaker 1: than it is today. DNA testing barely existed in criminal investigations,

10:34 Speaker 1: and much of the physical evidence was inconclusive. Police charged

10:39 Speaker 1: Bishop with the murders anyway. The trial began in nineteen

10:42 Speaker 1: eighty seven. The nation watched closely. Parents across Britain prayed

10:47 Speaker 1: the monster responsible would never walk free again. But then

10:51 Speaker 1: came the devastating blow. The jury acquitted Russell Bishop not guilty.

10:56 Speaker 1: The courtroom erupted in disbelief, and Nicola's families were shattered

11:02 Speaker 1: all over again. Many believed police had arrested the right man,

11:06 Speaker 1: but simply lacked the science to prove it, and tragically,

11:09 Speaker 1: those fears would soon become horrifyingly justified, because after walking

11:14 Speaker 1: free from court, Russell Bishop remained among the public, untouched, unwatched,

11:20 Speaker 1: and years later he attacked again. In nineteen ninety, Bishop

11:25 Speaker 1: abducted and sexually assaulted a seven year old girl before

11:28 Speaker 1: leaving her for dead. Miraculously, she survived and identified him.

11:33 Speaker 1: This time, he could not escape justice. Bishop was sentenced

11:37 Speaker 1: to life imprisonment, but even behind bars, the shadow of

11:41 Speaker 1: Karen and Nicola's murders followed him endlessly for decades. Advances

11:46 Speaker 1: in forensic science continued improving. Eventually, investigators re examined evidence

11:52 Speaker 1: from the nineteen eighty six crime scene using modern DNA

11:55 Speaker 1: testing techniques unavailable during the original trial. The results changed everything.

12:01 Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, more than thirty years after Karen had away,

12:04 Speaker 1: and Nicolafellos were murdered. Russell Bishop was finally convicted of

12:08 Speaker 1: killing them. The families had waited over three decades for justice,

12:13 Speaker 1: three decades of grief, three decades of anger, three decades

12:18 Speaker 1: of knowing the truth long before the courts finally acknowledged it.

12:22 Speaker 1: When the guilty verdict was announced, many people cried openly

12:26 Speaker 1: in court, not because it could bring the girls back,

12:29 Speaker 1: nothing ever could, but because Karen and Nicola were finally heard,

12:34 Speaker 1: finally acknowledged, finally given the justice they deserved. Today, the

12:39 Speaker 1: Babes in the Wood murders remain one of Britain's most

12:42 Speaker 1: heartbreaking criminal cases, not only because of the brutality involved,

12:46 Speaker 1: but because it destroyed the illusion of safety in an

12:49 Speaker 1: entire community. Two little girls simply went outside to play

12:53 Speaker 1: and never came home.