Case File 1 “The Grove of Children”

The following comes from a written recollections of a local police officer. The facts relate to the investigation into a rash of disappearances involving children. Information on this has been tightly controlled, and none of the locals have been willing to comment. This is not surprising as I soon found out. The disturbing nature of the crimes, especially in the end, has made them difficult to discuss. The fact that no one was ever charged for the crimes has been a point of contention among all members of the population, and to this day it seems that this may be the way it will remain.

The investigation began several years ago, after a child went missing from the local school. It was during recess, and there were several adults supervising the children. Yet despite the amount of the people watching no one was able to offer any information about how she had disappeared. It was at first assumed that she had simply wandered off the grounds, but as time passed it became increasingly clear that she was not merely lost. A large search was launched, including the vast majority of the local police, but no trace of the child was found.

The next disappearance occurred at a local park. A pair of twins were playing near one of the many benches, digging in the dirt and making tunnels with sticks. The parents were talking with another family and claim that it was not uncommon for the twins to go off on their own. When it was time for them to leave, they called for them but were unable to get a response. They went in search, but were unable to find anything save for a large bundle of sticks next to one of the holes.

Once again a large search was launched, but again little was found. It was determined that the sticks found at the park were young, and would have required a cutting implement to slice so cleanly. Only neither of the twins carried a knife of any sort. The only tangible piece of evidence that was found was a pair of “ribbons” tied to a tree near to the place where they disappeared. These were discovered a few days after the twins went missing. DNA evidence revealed that it came from the clothes of the boys, but nothing else was able to be drawn from it.

The most high profile of these abductions was that of the youngest member of the Wellington family. At around nine at night a call was placed to police after it was discovered that the child was missing from his room. His window was open, though it was doubtful that the boy could have escaped through there as the eight-year-old resided on the second floor of the home. The piece of evidence that tied it to the others was the long strip of cloth from the boy’s pajamas, tied to a tree on the grounds.

In total, over the course of a year seven children went missing from various locations along Wellington Street. It was at the end of that long year that the disappearances stopped. It also marked the time around which the bodies were found.

Although the searches that had been done were extensive, the woods proved to be difficult to cover. This was due mostly to their scope and the density of the trees, developed in part to an extensive fire that happened decades before. This caused to trees to grow close together, making some areas nearly impassable. However, after the loss of the Wellington child it was decided that these areas needed to be more extensively searched. And so a large expanse of trees was cut and cleared in order to aid in the search. In the end, what they found ended the career of several officers.

In a grove surrounded by trees, the operating officers, along with the one who provided me with this information, discovered the bodies of ten children. Their heads had been smashed in against the rocks, their brains and other tissues removed. The twins had been carefully arranged next to one another, an intricate set of knots joining their wrists. The reasons for this careful arrangement could not be determined, a tender display considering the brutality of the crime. The knot used also could not be identified in any known books. Six of them were later identified as being the children that had gone missing. The additional four were never able to be determined. The final one to be identified was the young Wellington boy. The teeth of the children had been scattered across the grove, making dental evidence impractical.

The officer who brought this to my attention resigned from force, and currently lives in a home several miles away. The first child, despite the continued efforts of the people of the community, was never found. No person was ever charged with the crimes, likely helping to contribute to the general distrust the people seems to have with the police force.

I understand the desire the people have to keep these things under wraps. But the pure violence of the crime, and the numbers involved leaves me wondering once again how such a terrible occurrence could have been kept quiet. The children were buried near one another in the local cemetery, save for the Wellington child, who was placed in the family plot.