Today marks exactly 30 years since a teenage couple stumbled across the body of a baby girl in a lake.<\/p>\n
The unidentified child, named Baby April by police, had been strangled with a pair of tights and wrapped in plastic before being thrown into the water in Singleton Lake, Ashford.<\/p>\n
The crime scene at Singleton Lake, Ashford, in 1995. Picture: Kent Police<\/p>\n
A murder inquiry was launched and – despite an extensive investigation completed by police at the time – the parents were never identified.<\/p>\n
Officers said the 7Ib infant was not born with a medical professional on hand and the umbilical cord was roughly cut.<\/p>\n
She was strangled, had tissue paper stuffed in her mouth and was wrapped in a \u2018Motaworld\u2019 carrier bag.<\/p>\n
A post-mortem revealed she was born between March 25 and April 3, 1995, making her just days old before dying of asphyxiation.<\/p>\n
Baby April was laid to rest at Bybrook Cemetery in Kennington in February 1996, 10 months after the grisly discovery was made.<\/p>\n
Baby April was found at Singleton Lake, Ashford on April 3, 1995
Tributes to Baby April where she is buried at Kennington’s Bybrook Cemetery<\/p>\n
Sixteen years after the murder, her body was exhumed and reburied in 2011 to gather more DNA samples, but it did not lead to any major breakthrough in the investigation.<\/p>\n
Now, however, police are making a renewed appeal for information from the public as the killer continues to walk free.<\/p>\n
DI Lee Neiles, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, is leading the cold case team and believes scientific advancements could lead to a major breakthrough.<\/p>\n
“This is a horrific case of a newborn baby girl being killed and discarded in a lake,\u201d the 45-year-old said.<\/p>\n
“April would be 30 years old now and who knows what she would be contributing to society, but someone ended her life in the most unimaginable way and prevented that young baby growing up to be a girl and a woman.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sgt Gavin Hart and DI Dave Withers emerge from the tent at Baby April’s grave in 2011. Picture Martin Apps
Police at the scene near Singleton Lake, Ashford, in 1995. Picture: Kent Police<\/p>\n
“I have no doubt someone out there has information in relation to this case, and now that three decades have passed, it has to be the time to do the right thing and come forward so that we can get justice for April.<\/p>\n
“Advances in forensic science, particularly familial DNA, now give us an even better chance of establishing who her parents are.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge the mother of April to come forward now, rather than we come to you.”<\/p>\n
Three decades on, neighbours in Singleton continue to feel the devastating impact the murder created throughout the suburb.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember a baby being found in the lake and never finding out who she was,” said Pearl Yates, 77, a mum-of-two and Manorfield resident.<\/p>\n
Pearl Yates has lived in Singleton for 27 years
Singleton Lake as it is today<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was, and still is, very sad and just troubling to think about such a dear little thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalking by the lake is so lovely when it\u2019s good weather, so it\u2019s hard to imagine that is where it sort of went on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been at Singleton 27 years and never remember anything as bad as that happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Appleton is another who remains stunned by the incident.<\/p>\n
The then 40-year-old window-seller had just arrived home from work when he saw the land surrounding his Lakeside home was engulfed with emergency services.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came home and saw police vehicles everywhere. There were probably 10 or 15 officers but I assumed someone had drowned,” he said.<\/p>\n
Peter Appleton lived next to Singleton Lake at the time of the incident
Lakeside, Singleton has four homes which are the nearest residential to Singleton Lake<\/p>\n
With his property being one of the four detached houses closest to, and overlooking, the lake, the dad-of-three says he was immediately greeted at his home by detectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo officers knocked on my door asking me if I had seen anything involving a baby,” the now-Bradbridge Green resident added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo until then I wasn\u2019t aware of anything until I heard about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I just think about what life that girl could have had now and what they would have become. To do that to a child is just wicked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mum-of-three Sally Gathern, now a Labour councillor on Ashford Borough Council, says it was not just neighbours in Singleton who felt the devastating impact of Baby April\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n
She says what happened \u201crippled\u201d across Ashford from Singleton\u2019s tight-knit community.<\/p>\n
A note left at the grave of Baby April at Bybrook Cemetery in Kennington<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people who moved here were younger people with families as they were the type of houses being built, so news of what happened travelled quickly,\u201d the Singleton West representative said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends of mine who didn\u2019t live in Singleton were shocked and upset by it at the time as it rippled across Ashford.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt never goes away and it\u2019s never been solved and a lot of people remember that. It was just such a tragedy all round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a baby in 1996 soon after it happened and remember it well living in Red Tree Orchard, so it really hit home.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for something so horrific to happen at the lake was such a shock and made something already horrific even more so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Singleton’s Sally Gathern<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, mum-of-two Jean Leahy, 76, who had moved from Kennington\u2019s Sherwood Close to just off Tithe Barn Lane at about the time April was discovered, says she \u201cstill can\u2019t believe what happened\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re a parent it really hits home and brings back awful memories,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to walk there every day, but unless I\u2019m with someone now I won\u2019t go alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The renewed police appeal comes just weeks after a woman pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of a baby boy whose body was discarded in bin bags in Warrington, near Manchester, 27 years ago.<\/p>\n
Joanne Sharkey, of Denham Close, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to causing the death of \u2018Baby Callum\u2019 – named after the Callands district of Warrington – after his body was discovered in 1998.<\/p>\n
Baby April is buried at Bybrook Cemetery in Kennington<\/p>\n
The 55-year-old admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child at Liverpool Crown Court on March 6.<\/p>\n
DI Neiles says the similar nature of the case to that of Baby April\u2019s contributed to the renewed Singleton appeal.<\/p>\n
Officers are appealing to anyone who may have information about the Baby April case to come forward.<\/p>\n