This episode contains distressing themes and descriptions of sexual violence.

This podcast is intended for a mature audience.

Listener caution is advised.

The autumn air was chilly even though it was warm for an afternoon in October.

Brown leaves rustled under the feet of children and their dog Pip as they walked towards

the river.

Thomas Brown held Pip's lead tightly while his five-year-old son

and three-year-old daughter happily led the way on the familiar route. Something caught

Thomas' attention at the bottom of a set of stone stairs known to locals as the ABC steps.

26 stone platforms jutted out from the steeply sloping hill towards the canal towpath,

a stone for each letter off the alphabet.

A young girl was curled up at the bottom off the stairs.

Her legs folded beneath her as if she were crying.

Thomas wondered if she was upset or had fallen, but the reality was far worse. He wrote many documents, he wrote poems, he wrote songs, he drew pictures.

In many ways he was his own worst enemy because those, that layer upon layer upon layer

of what I would describe as circumstantial evidence really hit home to me that this individual,

this dangerous sexual, homicidal predator was responsible for Elsie's death.

Welcome to Season 9, Episode 7 of They Walk Among Us, a podcast dedicated to UK true crime.

In 1965, Wakefield had a population of around 60,000 people.

The majority of residents in the fast-growing city on the banks of the River Calder were the young

families of miners or railway workers.

It was roughly 4.15pm on Saturday, October 9th, when Thomas Brown walked down the ABC steps

...