This is a curious tale that mixes some of my favourite mystery elements including espionage and folk horror! A group of boys trespassing on private land in England during WW2 in 1943 found the skeletal remains of a woman who had been stuffed inside a tree. To this day she has never been identified and mysterious graffiti started appearing locally asking ‘who put Bella in the Wych Elm?’ An intriguing story…
https://crimereads.com/who-put-bella-in-the-wych-elm/
Two years ago I made a somewhat popular post on /r/UnsolvedMysteries about the legendary UK cold-case 'Who put Bella in the Wych elm?'. Read it here.
In the two years since, I am glad to see more and more discussion on this case as it's been shared through podcasts, forums, and the like. I myself have actually received messages from several users over the years wanting to discuss it. As of recent, however, my interest had truly sparked again and I did some more digging.
The Murder
I suggest reading my aforementioned post for a clearer picture. But in general, the story goes like this. In 1942, two boys are out poaching for eggs in the then privately own Hagley Woods, in Hagley, England. Soon they climb a tree, and to their surprise, they find the remains on a human skull. Eventually, they contact an adult, who gets the police involved.
The Police find a number of strange pieces of evidence at the scene.
- The tree was hollow, and inside contained the rest of the remains of a human female, apart from a hand.
- The hand was found some distance from the tree. It had been completely severed.
- Pieces of Jewelry and valuables, suggesting this wasn't a robbery.
- The pathologist's report claims she was dead for at least 18 months before being found.
- A section of taffeta was found in her mouth, suggesting that she had died from suffocation
- Her jaw was found to be very irregular, which should have made her identity easy to find.
However, all of these clues lead to a dead end. The victim was never identified, and no one with her description (a very misshapen jaw) was ever reported missing. Rumors spread of witches and rituals, but nothing came of them.
Then, in 1944 on Upper Dean Street, Birmingham a message was graffitied onto a brick wall.
"Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood"
What is most strange about this message, is that it gives a name. Something the police were yet to find. While the name wouldn't lead them any further, this was not the last of the graffiti. Over the next fifty years, this phrase would pop up all over the West Midlands area. Most famously on the giant obelisk at Hagley, just under a mile from where the body was found.
Popular Theories
- Bella was a Nazi spy.
- A traveling gypsy, who was murdered by another gypsy
- A prostitute in the area had disappeared around the same time, locally known as Bella.
- A man called Jack
Hi folks, like many others I've long been interested in the “Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?” case. I've been off-handedly wondering about this for a while now, simply out of pure curiosity - is the wych elm tree where "Bella" was found still standing? Was it cut down? Memorialized in some way? Have there been any reported cases of supernatural activity surrounding the tree? (Not implying actual existence of the supernatural, just looking for reports of claims).
A Google search showed no photos of the tree itself that weren't older (B&W) and it's not mentioned anywhere on the typical sites you'd go to for into on the case. Since I haven't been able to find anything on the state of the tree in my research, I was just curious if anyone else had stumbled upon any info about the fate of this mysterious tree.
Thanks!
2018 update on "Bella's" facial reconstruction: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-after-75-years-face-14329271
Today we go over the circumstances which lead to a young woman being stuffed into a Wych elm tree and the mystery surrounding it.
We have a new email address so you can send in a true spooky story of your own to be featured on a later episode:
Myths_Misconceptions@outlook.com
In 2018 while driving through Hagley, England, I saw upon a hill nearby a great obelisk. Keen to know what's it was built for I found myself on a little google adventure.
The obelisk was built on the order of Lord Lyttelton, however, that is not its primary reason for being so famous. Graffitied on the side (at least at the time of my original research) was the phrase "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?".
So this begs some questions. Who is Bella? Why is she in a Wych Elm tree? And why graffiti this on an obelisk?
The start of this mystery begins in 1942, in the small village of Hagley, Worcestershire, England. Four young boys were poaching for Birds Eggs in the local Hagley Woods of the Hagley Estate.
At some point, one boy decided to climb a tree (A Wych Elm Tree, near Wychbury Hill) to hunt for birds' nests. However, it was not a bird's nest they found, but rather a human skull. This human skull was placed inside a hollow section of the trunk.
After returning home and informing their parents, the police get involved. When the police arrive at the area and search the rest of the trunk they find an almost complete skeleton, with a shoe, a gold wedding ring, and some fragments of clothing. The skull still had some tufts of hair and had a clear dental pattern, despite some missing teeth. A hand was also found some distance from the rest of the body.
The pathologist’s examination showed that it was of a female who had been dead about eighteen months (placing her death before October 1941). A section of taffeta was found in her mouth, suggesting that she had died from suffocation. Her jaw was found to be very irregular, which should have made her identity easy to find. However, after trawling through dental and medical records, they could find no clear identity.
Rumors of her being a sacrifice begin to appear, apparently related to black magic due to the separated hand and enclosing her body in a tree.
Police were at a dead end, and with World War 2 raging on, resources were limited.
Then, in 1944, a graffiti message appeared on a wall in Upper Dean Street, Birmingham, a close-by city. The message read "Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood". This is obviously referencing the murder, it has the village name, the tree she was found in, and now a name. The investigation reignited, with police trying to search for any missing persons called Bella. They would find nothing. To this day her identity is unknown.
But that isn't the end. This graff
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Just a thought for a creepy story from close to where I live. I'm about 15 minutes drive away from Hagley Woods in Worcestershire England and during WW2 there was a body found that nobody can identify. A couple of boys were looking for bird eggs in the woods to ad to their food rations and they found a very decomposed corpse stuffed inside a tree. They were trespassing and promised not to tell anyone but one of them caved to their parents and the authorities were called.
There were bones missing and a bunch of weird things about the remains. There are plenty of theories about who this young woman was, from Nazi spy to a witch's human sacrifice but due to lost evidence and sloppy police work nobody ever figured it out. Soon after that the "Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?" Graffiti started showing up in Hagley and Halesowen, apparently from someone that knew something about the body and never came forward.
When we used to walk our dog in the woods he'd freak out and refuse to go too far in, and especially wouldn't go near Wychbury monument. The graffiti still shows up al over the place. The police keep removing it because it scares people but it keeps showing up - especially on the monument.
A lot of creepy theories around the whole place, thought it'd be worth looking into.
Loving your vids and can't stop binging the creepy vibes,
Worcestershire, UK
https://preview.redd.it/iikk8hgynqr51.jpg?width=1632&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d1b65476b69cfe8287b6ee18e1e6f02e9c987013
I was just watching the most recent Buzzfeed Unsolved episode about the "Who put Bella down the Wych Elm" -case, and started to wonder; "Where might that tree be, if it still exists?". Kinda random, but I'm really curious about it. Help is appreciated.
Background
In 1943 the skeletonized body of a woman was found inside a tree by four young boys who were poaching in Hagley Wood, Worcestershire, England.
Following forensic examination, it was found that the skeleton was female, and had been dead for at least 18 months - this meant that her time of death was around October 1941. Taffeta was found in her mouth, leading to the theory that she died of suffocation. She was still warm when put inside the tree as rigor mortis would have made placing her there impossible.
This discovery took place during WW2 which complicated matters. Many people were reported missing during the war which made identifying her difficult, and police resources were low
In 1944 graffiti first appeared in Birmingham asking "Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood" Since then graffiti occasionally appears on the Hagley Obelisk, asking the same questions.
There were a number of theories as to who Bella was and why she was murdered. Was she a prostitute ? A spy ? Or was she killed in a cult ritual ?
Update
Caroline Wilkinson, a professor of craniofacial identification at Dundee University, has recreated Bella's face using photographs taken of her at the time. The actual skull could not be used as it was lost by police.
Sources
Article via Birmingham Mail with crime scene photos and further details on theories
i recently found out about this case. this is such and interesting and infuriating case because not only is it unsolved, the police have no idea who the victim is. they have a facial reconstruction which has been done recently, and they also have her dental imprints. the body of ‘bella’ was found in hagalwood by 4 teenage boys who were on the property illegally. one of them found a skull when he climbed up a wych elm tree while looking for bird nests. the four boys made a pact not to tell anyone about their discovery, but the youngest told his father who alerted the sheriff. the police went there the next day, and discovered a full skeleton which was fully clothed. the right hand, though, was severed and found 13 paces away from the body. there was also a belt, a gold wedding ring, and the whole outfit that the woman was wearing. there were pieces of rotting flesh on the top of her skull, and a few traces of mousy brown hair. after examining the body, the woman was found to be approximately 35 years old, had given birth at least once, and had an usual lower jaw. the police have no leads on who the woman is, or what actually happened. the body was said to be deceased at least 18 months before it had been found, and there was a witness who said that he heard a woman scream and later saw a schoolteacher walk in the opposite direction from where the body was found. theories vary from black magic, to witchcraft, and to espionage. but no one truly knows what happened except ‘bella’ herself and her killer.
