disappearance of Lee Boxell

{{Infobox person

| name = Lee Boxell

| image = Lee Darren Boxell.JPG

| caption = Boxell at a party in 1987

| birth_name = Lee Darren Boxell

| birth_date = {{birth date|1973|02|16|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Surrey,{{cite news|title=£20,000 Reward for Missing Boy Information |date=10 February 2014 |url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2014-02-10/20-000-reward-for-missing-boy-information/ |accessdate=5 July 2020|publisher=ITV News}} England

| disappeared_date = 10 September 1988 (aged 15)

| disappeared_place = Sutton, England

| disappeared_status = {{Missing for|1988|9|10}}

| education =

| height =

| father = Peter Boxell

| mother = Christine Boxell

}}

Lee Darren Boxell (born 16 February 1973){{cite news|title=£20,000 Reward for Missing Boy Information |date=10 February 2014 |url=https://www.itv.com/news/london/update/2014-02-10/20-000-reward-for-missing-boy-information/ |accessdate=5 July 2020|publisher=ITV News}} was a British schoolboy who disappeared from the London Borough of Sutton in England on 10 September 1988, aged 15. He was last seen in Sutton High Street before saying he might go to watch a football match at Selhurst Park in Croydon. At the time of his disappearance, Boxell was described as {{convert|5|ft|7|in|abbr=on}}, of slim build with light brown hair; he was wearing black jeans, a white Flintstones T-shirt and brown suede shoes.

Despite a lengthy police investigation and numerous appeals, there have been no further sightings of Boxell since the day of his disappearance. His parents, Peter and Christine, have kept his bedroom exactly how it was the day he went missing.{{cite news|url=http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/9939202.Lee_Boxell_s_parents_fear_their_missing_son_was_murdered/|title= Lee Boxell's parents fear their missing son was murdered|website=www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk|accessdate=26 November 2019}}

Disappearance

On the morning of Saturday 10 September 1988, Lee Boxell left his home in Cheam, in the London Borough of Sutton, to meet a friend at 11am in the nearby town of Sutton. Boxell and his friend spent a couple of hours window shopping and parted company at 1pm. When he was leaving, Boxell said he might go to Selhurst Park football stadium to watch a match between Charlton Athletic F.C. and Millwall F.C.{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/lee-boxell-missing-teenager-sutton/|title=The Missing Teen Whose Cold Case Was Revived with the Probe of a 'Warlock' Paedophile Ring|website=Vice.com|date=3 June 2019}}

Despite extensive appeals on both the BBC's Crimewatch and at Selhurst Park and other football stadiums, no one has come forward with any confirmed sightings of Boxell at any of the football grounds in the area. However, a witness did come forward to say that they had spotted him outside a Tesco location on Sutton High Street (now an Asda) at 2:20pm. This meant it was unlikely that he would have made it to any of the football grounds in the area in time for a 3pm kick off. He has not been seen since.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qrmwl/profiles/lee-boxell-disappearance BBC One - Crimewatch, 14/02/2013 - Lee Boxell disappearance]

Subsequent events

In 2012, a further witness stated that Boxell attended an unofficial youth club in the annexe of St Dunstan's Church in Cheam, known as "The Shed", which was previously unknown to the police. Following extensive inquiries the police found out that paedophiles were operating in the area at the time Boxell disappeared.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21469464 BBC News - Paedophiles active when Lee Boxell vanished in 1988] William Lambert, the St Dunstan's graveyard digger who ran The Shed, was jailed for eleven years in 2011, when he was aged 75, after sexually abusing four girls who attended the club.{{cite news|title=Missing or Murdered: Channel 5 Show Looks at Lee Boxell Disappearance from Sutton Over 30 Years Aago |date=7 January 2020 |url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/missing-murdered-channel-5-show-17524194 |accessdate=5 July 2020|publisher=My London News}} Between June and September 2012 the police excavated part of the St Dunstan's graveyard, digs which resumed in April 2013.[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/graveyard-searched-for-signs-of-lee-boxell-who-went-missing-in-sutton-24-years-ago-8162602.html Graveyard searched for signs of Lee Boxell, who went missing in Sutton 24 years ago - Crime - News - London Evening Standard]

In 2013, to coincide with what would have been Boxell's 40th birthday, Crimewatch featured another appeal for information, working on the new theory that Boxell attended The Shed on the day he disappeared.{{Cite web |url=http://content.met.police.uk/Appeal/New-appeal-for-missing-person/1400015168267/1257246745782 |title=New appeal for missing person - Metropolitan Police Service |access-date=2013-03-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304022721/http://content.met.police.uk/Appeal/New-appeal-for-missing-person/1400015168267/1257246745782 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |url-status=dead }}[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21452494 BBC News - Lee Boxell case: Fresh appeal 25 years on for missing teen] Following this appeal, there was an allegation of sexual abuse never before reported, and police began working on the theory that "Lee may have died after intervening to try to stop sexual abuse at a youth club in Cheam".{{Cite web |url=http://content.met.police.uk/Appeal/Crimewatch-reconstruction-on-missing-person-Lee-Boxell/1400015424333/1257246745782?scope_id=1257246764325 |title=Crimewatch reconstruction on missing person Lee Boxell - Metropolitan Police Service |access-date=2013-03-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231555/http://content.met.police.uk/Appeal/Crimewatch-reconstruction-on-missing-person-Lee-Boxell/1400015424333/1257246745782?scope_id=1257246764325 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead }}[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21613502 BBC News - Lee Boxell detectives 'close in on two persons of interest']

In 2018, a Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that cold case detectives had interviewed a potential witness and new information was being investigated that could lead to Boxell's remains being found.{{Cite news|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/police-breakthrough-hunt-missing-lee-13028457|title=Police get a breakthrough in hunt for missing boy 30 years after he vanished|last=Pettifor|first=Tom|date=2018-08-03|work=mirror|access-date=2018-08-05}} The following year, Boxell was featured in a missing person campaign promoted by Italian football club AS Roma.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/49892443|title=AS Roma: Why did Italian club decide to announce signings alongside missing children?|publisher=BBC Sport|date=26 November 2019}}

Potential suspects

In 2001, links were suggested between Boxell's disappearance and the late Brian Lunn Field, a paedophile and serial sex offender who had recently been arrested for the 1968 murder of Roy Tutill.{{cite news |title=Mother dismisses link to missing son |url=https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/6384364.mother-dismisses-link-to-missing-son/ |access-date=27 November 2021 |work=News Shopper |date=30 November 2001}}{{cite news |last1=Innes |first1=John |title=Paedophile murderer escaped justice for 33 years before DNA trapped him |work=The Scotsman |date=16 November 2001}}{{cite web |author1=Real Crime |author1-link=Real Crime |title=Mr Nice Guy |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=706d0-0CtmA |publisher=ITV |access-date=27 November 2021 |format=TV Documentary |date=24 June 2002}} His body was found in woodland three days after his disappearance. Tutill had been abducted from a street in Chessington, less than four miles away from Sutton where Boxell was last seen. Boxell's mother dismissed a link, stating that she believed Field was in prison from 1987 to 1990. However this is inaccurate, as although Field was convicted in 1986 of the abduction of two boys in his car and given a four-year sentence, he did not serve the whole sentence and was released in 1988 (the same year Boxell disappeared). Field is also suspected by police of being responsible for the abduction and murder of Patrick Warren and David Spencer, two boys who vanished from Solihull, West Midlands, in 1996 while Field was driving around in a van in the vicinity of where they were last seen.{{cite web |title=In the Footsteps of Killers: The Milk Carton Kids |url=https://www.channel4.com/programmes/in-the-footsteps-of-killers/on-demand/71234-001 |website=All 4 |publisher=Channel 4 |access-date=27 November 2021 |format=TV Documentary |date=2021}} These boys have also never been found.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20120430050847/http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/leeboxell Lee Boxell on Missing People]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM8ceF3j-wA Lee Boxell disappearance on BBC Crimewatch UK on 08/12/1988 at 9:32 mins-12:10 mins]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZWX4bIDiA Lee Boxell disappearance on BBC Crimewatch UK Update on 08/12/1988 at 08:00 mins-08:35 mins]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130218091209/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0151zcg Lee Boxell disappearance on BBC Crimewatch on 14/02/2013]

Category:1988 in London

Category:1980s missing person cases

Category:Incidents of violence against boys

Category:History of the London Borough of Sutton

Category:Unsolved murders in London

Category:Missing English children

Category:Missing person cases in London

Category:September 1988 in the United Kingdom

Category:People educated at Cheam High School