SYDNEY JOHN DOE
In January 2012, one of Australia’s most baffling unsolved mysteries began when staff at a primary school in Sydney discovered a large pool of blood inside a children’s cubby house on the playground. Forensic investigators determined the blood belonged to an unidentified male—possibly a child or small adult—and the volume suggested the victim was unlikely to have survived. Yet despite extensive DNA testing, missing-person checks, and police inquiries, no body was ever found and no one has been identified.
This mystery takes place in Riverwood in Sydney, Australia.
Riverwood is a suburb in southern Sydney, located about 19–24 km south-west of the Sydney CBD, within the local government areas of the Georges River Council and City of Canterbury-Bankstown.
As of 2021, the population of Riverwood was around 12.5k. That same year, the population of Sydney was just over 5m.
Riverwood Public School is a government run school for children in Kindergarten to Year 6 (around 5-12 years old). It is a very small school, with around 140 students enrolled. 72% of students come from a language background other than English.
Australian summer holidays occur in December/January each year. The holidays over 2011-12 ran from Tuesday 20 December 2011 to Monday January 30 2012. During this holiday period, most schools close down totally and are locked up. Teachers do return prior to students for lesson planning etc but intermittently.
On January 13, 2012, a pest controller was on the school premises getting the area ready for the children to return a few weeks later. That person did not notice anything out of place or untowards at that time.
The children returned on Monday January 30. On January 31, a large pool of blood was discovered in a cubby house on the school grounds.
Authorities were called to investigate. When the authorities arrived at the scene, the blood was believed to be still “relatively fresh,” as it was noticeably not entirely wet nor fully dry yet.
“We’ve got no information at all that it’s a murder other than the fact that we’ve got a large pool of blood,” Campsie Local Area Commander Superintendent Stephen Blackmore said.
“And whoever basically owns that blood would have suffered a significant injury which could have led to death if it wasn’t medically treated.”
“We’re now treating this as a possible homicide and seeking public assistance to identify who the victim is,” Superintendent Stephen Blackmore said.
“From our examination of the crime scene, we are of the belief the blood could possibly be from a child or small adult.”
Police have been unable to trace a victim.
“From the amount of blood found within the cubby house, we strongly suspect the victim sustained a very significant injury and most likely would not have been able to get up and walk away from the area, Supt Blackmore added.
“We’re not talking a punch in the nose … we’re talking a substantial injury. This was not a cut hand, that sort of thing, it was far more serious than that,” Supt Blackmore said.
Supt Blackmore said that someone must know what had happened in the cubby house.
“Somebody who’s been part of your life who you haven’t seen since January … we’d like to hear from you,” Supt Blackmore said.
Campsie police Detective Inspector John Betell said police believed ‘‘a child or small adult’’ had met foul play because of the shape of the blood stain.
‘‘From the way the blood was positioned …[it] looked like half the imprint of a small body,’’ Detective Inspector Betell said.
The precise forensic measurement of the blood has not been released, but it has been described as more than a litre of blood. The pool of blood was said to be in about one square metre of the cubby and was estimated at around 1.5 litres (about 0.4 gallons).
For context:
An average adult has about 5 litres of blood.
1.5 litres represents roughly 30% of an adult’s total blood volume.
If the victim was a child, the loss would represent an even larger proportion of their blood volume.
As we mentioned, the blood was identified as belonging to a male.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, it is believed there may have been blood outside the cubby house that was washed away by heavy rain in late January.
Police and State Emergency Services officers searched swampland the size of a football field behind the school, but never publicly released if anything was found.
The cubby house was removed from school grounds and taken apart in the hope of finding any other clues like hair, fingerprints or DNA.
Nobody has ever come forward to police with an explanation about the blood.
Investigators examined unsolved missing person cases and student absentee records, without any success.
FRED THE HEAD
Fred the Head is the informal name given to an unidentified homicide victim whose remains were discovered in 1971 in rural England.
This John Doe was discovered completely by chance in March 1971 by David Nathan. David was a special constable and was off duty at the time. He was walking to an area to carry out some shooting practice.
The area he found Fred in was an island on the River Trent, which was accessible only via a footbridge or a long and unpaved track. The area was said to be mostly barred by a locked gate. David had access to open the gate.
He tripped over what he initially thought was a bag of cement sticking out of the ground. When he looked closer, he realised it was actually part of a human skull protruding from a shallow grave. The grave was around four feet or 1.2m deep.
“Unfortunately, I remember the day very vividly,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it, I was going out shooting. What I found was like what a dog had unearthed, what looked like an old bag of cement. I went back and got a spade and found the body.”
Police were called and uncovered the remains of a man buried in a kneeling position with his wrists and ankles bound, wearing only socks and a wedding ring. When examined, investigators noted several bizarre details:
He was wearing pinkish-beige socks with mustard-coloured heels and toes. — no other clothing. The socks were found to have been purchased from a stall in Burton, England.
A gold wedding ring (believed to be a woman’s ring) was found on a finger on his right hand. The ring was found to have been manufactured between 1967 and 1968 by Henry Showell in Birmingham, England. 5,000 rings were made in the same style. The wearing of a wedding ring on the right hand is also more common in some European countries including Norway, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Russia, Portugal, Spain and Belgium, than it is in Britain where it is traditionally worn on the left hand.
There was no identification, no missing person immediately matched to him, and no obvious explanation for the unusual items found with the body.
It was estimated that the man had died 12-18 months prior to his body being found.
No clear cause of death:
It’s believed to be a homicide, but the exact circumstances are unclear. Authorities are also exploring a theory that he may have been a victim of serial killer Anthony Hardy, although this offender’s confirmed victims have exclusively been women. The possibility of the decedent potentially being misidentified as male was suggested, but disproved by investigators.
More info about Anthony Hardy – Anthony John Hardy was an English serial killer who was known as the Camden Ripper for beheading and dismembering some of his victims. In November 2003, he was sentenced to three life terms for three murders, but police believe he may have been responsible for up to six more.
Odd personal clues: The socks and wedding ring feel intensely personal — but without context, they’re just haunting details with no story behind them.
Victim characteristics:
Short, brown to black, straight hair.
Thin build.
Extensive dental work.
Partial upper denture, likely fitted less than six months prior to death.
Neck condition (wry neck/torticollis), which would have caused his head to lean to the right.
Protruding chin.
Small hands.
Well-maintained short fingernails.
Likely aged between 23-39 at the time of death.
Other points –
This doe became known as Fred the Head as the skull was the first part of the body to be unearthed.
As mentioned, the area was usually kept secure via a locked gate. Police considered it secure enough to rule it out as a route for any suspect.
Fingerprints were taken of Fred but have never been matched to anyone.
In 2014, Fred’s skull was tested by experts from the University of Derby. They concluded that it was likely to be of Hungarian, Danish or British origin.
SOURCE LIST
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Sydney_John_Doe_(2012)
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mystery-of-the-blood-in-school-cubby-house-20120217-1tcmx.html
https://nicolehenley.medium.com/the-strange-case-of-the-bloody-cubby-bc6c0e3d6c5a
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_the_Head
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Fred_the_Head