An unsolved Murder, Stone Tape Theory and a Paranormal Investigation.
- paranormalovertone
- Feb 20, 2025
- 3 min read
Our latest investigation seemed like the perfect reintroduction to the paranormal; it allowed us to investigate the possibility of stone tape theory, it was interesting as it was an unsolved murder and finally, it was local.
The focal point of our investigation was the disappearance and subsequent murder of 52 year-old Solicitor, Herbert "Bertie" Wilkinson (although we did make an unscheduled stop at the site of a Roman Auxiliary fort too).
Born in 1915, Bertie lived in Middlewich, a rural town in Cheshire, England, until his untimely demise. Herbert lived on Lewin Street growing up, his family home now replaced with the Salinae Centre, and later moved to Nantwich road, where we started our investigation.
On the 2nd June 1967, Herbert left his house having hastily scribbled a note for his housemaid advising her that he was going to Manchester for the weekend. This is the last time we can definitively place Herbert to a location.
During the investigation following his disappearance, a few people stated they saw him, some said he was heading towards the canal, others said he was carrying a parcel under his arm. One woman, who had known Herbert previously, even stated that she saw him down Oddfellows Passage (a narrow, inconsequential passageway in the town, nearby to Herbert's office), 4 days after his disappearance on the 6th June, she noted he looked "ill, vacant and harassed".
At the time of his disappearance, Herbert was no longer technically a Solicitor, having been struck off 3 months prior. I've tried and failed to investigate the end of his career as a solicitor to no avail, some records state "irregularities at his practice" others state he was "ill in body and mind". A theory I have is that Herbert may have been shunned due to his sexuality.
Though not openly and outwardly gay, there was certainly a consensus locally that Herbert liked men "a little too much".
Could it be that someone outed Herbert to the regulatory powers and he agreed to be struck off as opposed to face prosecution? Let's not forget, if indeed he was homosexual, that would have been criminal behaviour in 1967...that is until the month after Herbert's disappearance whereby the Sexual Offences act gained royal assent and legalised homosexuality between 2 men (so long as the acts were conducted in private, consensual and both men had attained the age of 21).
Herbert's body was found on October 9th 1967 in a shallow grave within a small copse at the side of the Trent and Mersey Canal, close to the Hamlet of Whatcroft (a hamlet is a tiny village). Herbert's body was obviously quite decomposed by this point but a post mortem did manage to determine foul play in Herbert's death. Notably there were abrasions to his skull, potential ligature marks around his neck and also a 4x2 hole above his right ear. This led the police to believe there were 2 assailants.
You can hear my thoughts on this during the video. Unfortunately, Herbert's Murderer(s) were never brought to justice, even alluding the much heralded Arthur Benfield (of the Moors Murders fame) who was the Detective Chief Superintendent of Cheshire at the time.
As for the paranormal side of things, this case has all the hallmarks of a situation where stone tape theory would come to the fore. It is most likely that Herbert lost his life along the canal, and having walked (skidded and squelched) our way down the tow path for miles, we were disappointed by the lack of experiences we had.
As for an active haunting of the area, we did numerous call outs down the entire stretch of the river over the course of 4 hours, arriving back in to the town at 02:40 and unfortunately we didn't encounter anything.
We did experience a couple of momentarily weird things that would have been easy to go full blown "Most Haunted" on (numerous replays, boosting audio to the point it's pure white noise etc), but instead we decided to do the better thing and debunk our own experiences.
Being completely honest, I was disheartened at the result (or lack thereof) in this investigation, the amount of effort that went into it, both physically and the amount of research conducted, I really wanted to experience something tangible.
But! That won't stop us, we're on the lookout for new locations all the time, so keep your eyes peeled or even better, if you have had paranormal experiences and want to discuss them, reach out to us to feature on the podcast.
As for the investigation itself, if you haven't watched yet you can find it here:
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Stay weird, stay spooky.
Mike
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