The Cannock Chase murders also known as the A34 murders , the Babes in the Ditch murders and the Half-Day murders [2] [3] were the murders of three girls aged between five and seven in Staffordshire , England , between and Raymond Leslie Morris was arrested for the attempted abduction of an intended fourth victim on 15 November Although never charged with the murders of the first two victims discovered on Cannock Chase, following Morris's conviction, a police spokesman informed the media all investigators involved in his apprehension remained convinced that all three children had been murdered by Morris, [7] [5] [8] who is also believed to be responsible for the abduction, sexual assault, and attempted murder of a fifth girl in The manhunt to identify and apprehend Morris is reported to be one of the largest initiated to apprehend a child killer in British history.
The child was informed her mother had asked this individual to transport her to her aunt's home to "fetch Christmas presents". Taylor was found alive by a passing cyclist approximately fifty minutes later. This individual would later state he had overheard "weak, sobbing" noises as he cycled in the pouring rain and darkness and had stopped his bicycle to investigate the sounds; he immediately flagged down a passing van, which drove the sobbing and bleeding child to a hospital.
Had the cyclist not overheard, then observed the child in this ditch, she likely would have died from exposure [14] within twenty minutes. Taylor could remember little about her ordeal, her abductor or his vehicle beyond sobbing and begging her abductor to drive her home when she noticed he had driven past her aunt's home and his conversation suddenly became more lurid in nature. Despite intense efforts to locate this car, the vehicle was not traced. On the afternoon of Wednesday 8 September , a six-year-old girl, Margaret Reynolds, disappeared from a location close to her home on Clifton Road, Aston as she walked the short distance from her home to the Prince Albert Primary School.
She was last seen alive by her older sister, Susan, when the two parted company to walk in separate directions to their respective schools, having returned to their home for lunch. When the child failed to return home from school, her parents quickly learned she had not attended any classes that afternoon. The Reynolds immediately reported their daughter missing to police.
In the weeks following Reynolds' disappearance, police officers questioned over 25, individuals in and around Aston. Two hundred posters featuring a composite photograph of the child in the clothes she was last seen, with an accompanying appeal for witnesses to contact police were printed by the Birmingham Evening Mail.
