Finding bird nests was a common activity for kids in the 1940s. Sometimes the children looked for nests in public places, and sometimes they made their way to private property where there were many trees.
On April 18, 1943, several boys went on their "hunt" to Hagley Woods (West Midlands area).
They wandered for a while in search of their prey, until they saw the Scottish elm, which was a great place to look for bird nests. One of the boys quickly climbed a tree and began to peer into the darkness of the hollowed out tree.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw what he believed to be the skull of an animal. Stretching out a stick to the skull, he froze, realizing that this skull does not belong to an animal, but to a person. The skull was intact: with clumps of hair and teeth. He quickly dropped the stick and climbed down from the tree. After telling their friends about their terrible find, some of the boys wanted to inform the police about it, but others were against it, as they invaded someone else's property when they found the skull and could be punished. In the end, they decided to keep the find a secret and quickly left this terrible place.
The elm tree in which the skull was found.
However, one of the boys could not get the incident out of his head and finally told everything to the parents who reported it to the authorities.
The police immediately launched an investigation and removed the skull from the tree. After removing leaves and dirt from the hollow of an elm tree, they also found a complete skeleton, with the exception of one arm. A shoe, a ring and a piece of tissue in the skull's mouth were also found at the site. Then they found a missing hand next to a tree under the leaves and branches.
The human remains were sent to a forensic authority, where they said the skeleton belonged to a woman of about 35 years old and that she died at least 18 months ago. A terrible statement was also made that the woman was probably placed in the hollow of a tree during her lifetime or immediately after death. The tissue in the mouth indicated death by suffocation.
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A skull found inside an elm tree.
Due to the ongoing war, there was a large flow of people passing through the area, and the police had a slim chance of identifying the dead stranger.
At the time, many believed that she was doing secret work for the enemy. This would mean that the woman's death was the secret murder of an uncovered spy. But she could also be local. However, the best the authorities could do was try to name the remains and develop a theory about how it got there. The best option was to try to identify by the teeth. But, unfortunately, this did not provide answers.
Description of the remains of a woman found by the police.
The police then reverted to the assumption that the woman was involved in some kind of covert operation for the Germans. Did someone kill her because she was a spy? Or was she the one who discovered the secret activity and needed to be silenced? Some locals even believed that there was something supernatural about this crime. Some occultists believe in the presence of the “hand of Glory,” a severed hand, which is an occult artifact with magical powers. Could this be the reason that one arm was found separate from the rest of the body?
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In the months that followed, police made no progress in identifying the skeleton. In December 1943, a mysterious inscription appeared on the monument near the tree: "Who put Bella on the elm?" The dead woman's name was Bella?
Strange inscriptions appear at the site of the discovery of the mysterious skeleton.
The police were flustered - it was a very unusual name, and so it would seem easy to track down a woman with that name in official records or to interview residents of the area. But the search did not return any positive results.
The police did discover that there was a prostitute named Bella who disappeared from Birmingham in 1941, but has never been linked to the remains.
After a while, an inscription appeared: "Who put Bella in the witch's elm?" A similar inscription sometimes mysteriously appeared at this place. The last lettering appeared in June 2016 on a piece of cardboard with a clearly written question.
Inscriptions asking about Bella appear regularly.
Time passed, and things did not move from a dead center. Over time, the investigation of the crime progressed less and less. Also, unfortunately, the skull mysteriously disappeared from the collection of the police museum.
Clara Bauerle.
Various women, including gypsies and local prostitutes, have been offered as Bella over the years. The most likely candidate, many researchers believe, is a German actress and singer named Clara Bauerle. She was suspected of espionage. She disappeared in 1941, which is consistent with the assumption of the time of death of the owner of the skeleton.
Although the story of the woman in the tree has been forgotten, legends about her are still circulating among the locals, who still live with the hope of ever solving the mystery of the woman in the tree.