Drilling equipment seen entering serial killer Fred West Gloucester cafe in search of possible victim

Drilling equipment seen entering serial killer Fred West Gloucester cafe in search of possible victim

Southgate Street, Gloucester, UK.

19th May 2021.

Investigation police officers enter the Clean Plate cafe in the centre of Gloucester with drilling equipment.

Police searching the premises for a suspected victim of serial killer Fred West have found six "anomalies" they want to excavate.

Mary Bastholm went missing in Gloucester in 1968 and police have been searching the cellar of the premises where she used to work.

Six parts of a toilet area are to be excavated, Gloucestershire Police said.

The force is in contact with West's son Stephen, who said his father admitted killing the 15-year-old.

Officers were contacted on 7 May by a TV production company who were filming at The Clean Plate cafe in the city.

West, who took his own life in 1995 before he could stand trial for the murders of multiple women and girls, was a regular at the cafeteria, then called the Pop-In Cafe.

Initial searches of the cellar had revealed what looked like blue material.

Miss Bastholm was wearing a blue coat, blue and white dress and was carrying a blue bag on the day she went missing, the force said.

Det Ch Insp John Turner said the excavations, due to begin today, would reveal "once and for all" if the teenager's remains were buried there.

The force is in contact with West's son Stephen, who said his father admitted killing the 15-year-old.

Officers were contacted on 7 May by a TV production company who were filming at The Clean Plate cafe in the city