Vera Page | |
|---|---|
 Vera Page, pictured in April 1931 | |
| Born | 13 April 1921 Hammersmith, London, England, UK |
| Died | 14 December 1931 (aged 10) Kensington, London, England, UK |
| Cause of death | Manual strangulation[1] |
| Body discovered | 89 Addison Road, Kensington, 16 December 1931[2] |
| Resting place | Gunnersbury Cemetery, Hounslow, London, England 51°29′41″N 0°17′05″W / 51.4946°N 0.2848°W (approximate) |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Student |
| Known for | Unsolved murder victim |
| Parent(s) | Charles and Isabel Page |
The murder of Vera Page is a British unsolved child murder case from the early 1930s. On 14 December 1931, 10-year-old Vera Page was reported missing after she failed to return to her home in Notting Hill, London, from a visit to a nearby relative. The child's body was found two days later in undergrowth in nearby Addison Road. Vera had been raped, then manually strangled to death in a murder described by one detective as "the most terrible in which I had to deal with during my career".[3]
Strong physical and circumstantial evidence[4] existed attesting to the guilt of a 41-year-old labourer named Percy Orlando Rush, whose parents lived in the same house as Vera.[5][6] However, at a coroner's inquest held on 10 February 1932, a jury determined that insufficient real evidence existed to formally charge Rush with her murder. Officially, the case remains unsolved.[7][8]
- ^ Murder in the 1930s ISBN 978-0-881-84855-7 p. 61
- ^ "Vera Page Crime: Police Investigations Extended". The Glasgow Herald. 22 December 1931. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ Murder in the 1930s ISBN 978-0-881-84855-7 p. 56
- ^ The New Murderers' Who's Who ISBN 978-0-880-29582-6 p. 305
- ^ Murder in the 1930s ISBN 978-0-881-84855-7 p. 62
- ^ Murder in the 1930s ISBN 978-0-881-84855-7 pp. 61-63
- ^ "Girl Murdered: Demonstration Against Suspect". The Age. 12 February 1932. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
- ^ Murder in the 1930s ISBN 978-0-881-84855-7 p. 63