What was the Norma Dale ‘red shoe murder’, when did it happen and why was no one caught?
Four-year-old was found strangled just sixty yards from her home in Yorkshire but police have never caught her killer
COPS have re-opened a murder case from seventy years ago in a bid to find out who murdered four-year-old Norma Dale.
The little girl was found dead on wasteland near her her home in North Yorkshire with one red shoe missing in the 1940s,
Here we look at the facts of the case.
Who was Norma Dale and when was she murdered?
Norma Dale, four, was from Tang Hall in Yorkshire and was playing outside on September 21 1946 when she vanished. Her mum, Francis Dale, last saw her alive that afternoon when she "ran in from play and took a bun".
She "heard her chattering for a few minutes" whilst she went out to pick black blackberries, but when she returned home Norma had disappeared.
Norma's body was found the next day at 10:15am by local schoolboy Michael Duffy,11. He led Norma's dad, Cyril Dale, to his daughter who was lying dead on a piece of wasteland at the bottom of the street near a lorry, just sixty yards from her home in Rawdon Avenue.
Her body was lying "five yards" from the back of local resident Mr Glover's lorry and "three or four feet" from the fence of another neighbour, Albert Langan.
Norma had been strangled and her killing became known as the Red Shoe Murder because when she was found she was only wearing her left red shoe.
What happened to Norma Dale?
The case was never solved, but the postmortem revealed that Norma had been strangled shortly after she went missing.
The inquest found that "the murder must have taken place in the neighbourhood, and the body must have been hidden until a later time".
While we don't know what happened for sure, her family and residents of the area at the time have several theories.
Her cousin Alan Powell, 80, told the : "Norma had walked in and seen something she shouldn’t have seen, and was murdered because of it.
“I remember laying on the floor at home pretending to read a comic, but listening to my parents and one of mum’s sisters or brothers talking about it. From what I can remember the person they suspected had an alibi for the crucial ten minutes, but who the person was, I wouldn’t like to say."
Another one of Norma's cousins, Brian Dale, wrote a book, One Red Shoe, with his wife Beth about the murder. But they did not publish it for fear of legal action, despite allegedly naming Norma's killer.
Beth she worked with police and compiled 30 files of evidence for two years which led her to name Norma's alleged murderer in the book - a woman, who at the time when the book was to be released, was still alive and living in York. She said she was restricted from publishing due to libel laws and had "lots of death threats".
Beth also claimed that Norma's late mum Francis, who died in 2003, wanted the book published but the immediately family of the woman she accused didn't.
Timeline of events according to inquest
September 21 1946
2:00pm: Norma's dad, Cyril, claims he left home to watch the local rugby team
2:30pm: Neighbour Annie Langan says she saw Norma outside her home on Rawdon Avenue
2:35pm: Mary Hanby, 15, claims she saw Norma "running along Rawdon Avenue"
2:45pm: Albert Langan claimed he saw Norma's dad, Cyril, go by his house on a bike, just shortly after he thought he heard Mrs Dale calling for Norma to come home
3:00pm: Mrs Dale returns from picking blackberries but there is no sign of Norma
3:30pm: Alarm is raised that Norma is missing
6:00pm: Search witnesses went to the waste ground near the lorry but there was no sign of Norma's body
September 22 1946
10:00am: Mr Glover goes back to his lorry, and claims he never saw Norma's body there despite it being found a few feet away fifteen minutes later
10:15am: Michael Duffy finds Norma's body and leads her dad Cyril to his daughter
Why was no-one caught for murdering Norma Dale?
More than 1,000 people were interviewed by police and ten acres of waste ground were cut down in a hunt for Norma's missing right shoe.
Police at the time were hopeful that they would find Norma's killer, even telling the Yorkshire Press days after her murder that they were "not doing too badly" and were "optimistic" that they would "reach a successful conclusion".
North Yorkshire Police even met with detectives in Scotland Yard in a bid to crack the case, but no-one was ever arrested.
Several witnesses were questioned during the inquest, including neighbour Albert Langan, whose fence was just "three of four feet" away from where Norma's body was found and Mr Glover, who was the driver of the lorry.
When questioned by during the inquest Mr Langan said that he was sure he saw Mr Dale go by his house at 2:45pm on a bike - and that he "spoke to him and said, 'have you lost he bairn?' "
But the constable said that "there was no alarm then" and that the "real alarm rose around 3:30".
Mr Langan denied seeing Norma that day, telling the inquest he "could have been mistaken" and that "It could have been the Saturday before" that he spoke to Mr Dale. He claimed he went to a football match with a friend just before 3pm.
Mr Glover, who lived two doors down from Mr Langan, said he drove his lorry home that Saturday afternoon, arriving back at 2:50pm. He said he didn't visit the lorry again until 10am the next morning and that the body was not lying nearby or he would have seen it.
The inquest concluded that Norma had been murdered "by some person unknown".
Why have police re-opened the Norma Dale case?
It is believed that police have launched a cold case review after new information was brought to light by Norma's family.
Just weeks before announcing the case would be re-investigated Detective Superintendent Dai Malyn, head of North Yorkshire Police’s Major Crime Unit, said he would be happy to meet with Norma’s family.
He told The on in September that “It would appear from recent press coverage that Norma’s family may hold some information and, if they wish, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with them to discuss further, in the hope of bringing some closure for this family.”
He said:“The murder of a child is a horrendous and tragic event for a family to experience, whether it is a recent occurrence or 70 years ago.
“No homicide investigation is ever closed.
"If there is anyone who holds fresh information or evidence that has the potential to identify and ultimately convict the person responsible, we would appeal for them to come forward.
However he also added that there would be "challenges" and "there is every chance the suspect has died".
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