Yorkshire Evening Post – Thursday 11 February 1943

The Goldthorpe Murder
Girl’s Movements On Night Before Her Death

Police were still engaged to-day in combing the Goldthorpe district for information bearing on the death of Gladys Merrick (16), munition girl, of Thurnscoe, whose body was found on a plot of land behind a club Goldthorpe on Monday.

The girl’s mother to-day said that before going out on Sunday night her daughter said she would back home at her usual time, which was 9.30. She did not say she was going to her grandfather’s at Goldthorpe, but when she did not return Mrs. Merrick thought she might have done so. A neighbour said that on Sunday evening Gladys came into her house and when the o’clock wireless programme came on she asked “Is that seven o’clock?” She said she had someone to see and she went out.

The girl’s father. Private George Merrick, of the Army Catering Corps, arrived home from the South of England last night.