WHO MURDERED ANNIE BORJESSON?
ALLAN GRAHAM MURDER – 1970
February 18, 2023
Unsolved Murders
This 12 year old boy went to Appleton’s sweet shop in Gerald Street, Benwell to buy cigarettes for a family member in 82, Gerald Street, maybe for himself as well, since it was recorded that he was a streetwise lad with a nicotine habit.
Seemingly, and within minutes, he was never seen again.
The police investigation into Allan’s murder made little progress despite a reconstruction, statements from innumerable people, the deployment of 40 detectives, at least as reported in the ‘Evening Chronicle’, so the case entered Tyneside folklore as an unsolved murder.
The following day, a farm worker found Allan’s body in a ditch close to Callerton Grange Farm, situated on the road up to the top of Darras Hall and Birney Hill. If, as reported, it was a water-filled ditch, then the site is adjacent to the B6323 at Callerton Lane Ends and the ditch forms part of the Dewley Burn.
- Allan had been strangled.
The original farm buildings are no longer there having been bought and subsequently demolished. In their place are a mixture of stone built flats and houses, accessed from Stamfordham Road via a long, uninspiring driveway.
According to a witness, on the day (Saturday) Allan disappeared off the face of the Earth, a man described as in his mid twenties, shouted at Allan from the driver’s seat of a blue van and told him to get in the van. The driver was known to Allan and the assumption is that he did get in the vehicle. A further witness interviewed by the police said it was a blue van with double doors at the rear and circular chrome fittings, housing headlights, describing it as wider than it was tall.
A number of assumptions are made at this point:
Allan knew the driver
The van was a ‘tradesman’s van – plumber, joiner, electrician or similar
The driver knew Allan and also knew where he was on that day
Perhaps the driver was an uncle, cousin or family friend.
Had the man in his twenties been sent across the Tyne from his mother’s house to collect Allan from his brothers in Gerald Street?
Who was the owner of the blue van?
- Police Records
Currently, I have no access to police records and am only slowly building a profile of the crime scene, the victim and the offender. So, the search for ‘pointers’ in this case will continue.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the discovery of Allan’s body the following day.
He was found in a ditch by a farm worker the following day: he had been strangled.
Strangulation is almost immediate. A way of closing down a conversation or argument. It is abrupt and suggests that the victim has ‘information’ to share which the murderer would prefer not to have in the public domain.
It has been reported by family members who knew Allan, that he was a streetwise kid and would certainly not have got into the blue van with a total stranger. The driver called out to him by name, they knew one another.
- When Allan got in the van, what was the intention of the driver?
- Was the intention to murder the young lad, or was it an argument that simply got out of hand?
- The police record suggests that they had no idea when Allan was murdered.
- Was it on the same day, or the following morning?
- No one has established a timeline from the point of Allan getting in the van to the time when he was found.
- Was there any DNA?
- Did Northumbria police trawl the databases for owners of blue vans?
- Did they have any idea of the make of the vehicle?
- Did the forensic team called to the crime scene indicate how long the body might have been there based on the state of rigor of the body?
- What about lividity? Had the body been kept in the van for a time before being dumped and which the ‘pooling’ (lividity) would have been able to determine.
*The images are looking up the street, 82 is on the right side of the street, picture of 82 attached.
The view down the street from the position of the photo taken in the middle of the road is adjacent to the house, number 82. – Distance is approx 80 metres.
Finally, at least for now, what was in the mind of the driver who had murdered Allan that he would drive from the point where the lad had been murdered to the outskirts of Ponteland near Callerton Lane and the farm, to dump the body in a ditch.
More supposition here – maybe the tradesman who took Allan also knew the area because he had been employed in this area by a customer. Darras Hall is very close to the crime scene. Did anyone employ a tradesman with a blue van for joinery, electrical or plumbing work?
The disposal of the body is the final conundrum.
The route from Gerald Street in !970 to Callerton would have been pretty slow. It also involved some major roads in Newcastle, like Benwell Lane, Atkinson Road, Condercum Road, West Road, before driving through Throckley and thereon to the junction of Ponteland Road and Stamfordham Road, arriving near Callerton Lane Ends and Callerton Grange Farm to dispose of a child’s body.
Hours of daylight in late January are quite short. It is not light until 8am and the light slowly turns to darkness as early as 4pm in the afternoon.
So, was Allan murdered on Saturday, and his body dumped later that day, or did the murderer wait until the following morning knowing that Allan was dead already?
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