10 Real Life Horror Stories That Will Freak You Out

4. Bella In The Wych Elm (1943)

The mystery surrounding the murder and very strange disposal of "Bella", as she came to be known, was rather overshadowed at the time it was discovered by World War Two. Four boys were poaching in Hagley Woods, near Wychbury Hill in April of 1943. Believing that the woods would be a good places to hunt birds and gather wild eggs, Bob Farmer attempted to climb a Wych Elm tree to investigate nests.

As he was climbing, he glanced into the hollow trunk of the tree and discovered a skull, which he initially took as that of an animal. After removing the skull, and finding human hair and teeth, Farmer realised he was holding a human skull. The boys returned the skull to the hollow and fled, as they were on the land illegally, poaching. Once home, the youngest boy reported what he had seen to his parents, who in turn alerted the police. When the police found the tree in question, they discovered a full human skeleton, a single shoe, some fragments of clothing and a gold wedding ring. Strangely, a severed hand belonging to the corpse was found buried nearby.

The body was identified as that of a woman, who had died 18 months before her discovery - placing her murder at the time of October 1941. Taffeta was found deep inside her mouth, suggesting that she had been forcibly choked to death. Additionally, her body must have been placed in the hollow tree whilst still warm, as her body could not have been forced into the space after rigor mortis had occurred. Police admirably managed to construct an accurate picture of the woman from items found with the corpse.

Unfortunately, the ongoing war meant that many people were killed, reported missing, or perished in explosions leaving no body or evidence, as well as people regularly moving as their houses were destroyed or bombing threatened their homes. This meant that the woman could not have been identified at the time, and at some point her skeleton was lost, and is to this day missing. In 1944, a piece of graffiti appeared in Upper Dean Street, Birmingham reading "Who put Bella down the Wych Elm - Hagley Wood." Again in 1999, "Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm?" appeared on a monument in Wychbury Hill, Hagley. It appears that the mystery of Bella's murder and her identity lives on.