The locals of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England, know the area for its beauty and its scenic bike trails and hiking trails. However, the English and serious ghost hunters know Cannock Chase for something far more sinister. During the 1960s, an evil monster prowled the area seeking young female victims.

Marc Hoover.

Margaret Reynolds, a six-year-old girl, vanished while on her way to school in September 1965. A search party of 2,000 people searched for her. They didn’t find her.

Before 1965 ended, a five-year-old girl named Diane Tift left home to visit her grandmother. She never made it. Her brother Terrance was the last person to see her alive.

On January 12, 1966, a man found the body of a dead girl in a ditch in Cannock Chase. The police soon arrived to investigate. After removing one body, they found the crumpled body of another dead girl. Someone had murdered the girls and then stacked them on top of each other. Margaret Reynolds and Diane Tift were no longer missing—they were dead.

In August 1967, a man had approached a seven-year-old girl named Christine Darby. He had pulled up to Christine and persuaded her to get into his car. Another child witnessed Christine enter the stranger’s car. No one saw Christine alive again. Someone found her body within several days of her disappearance. Her unknown killer sexually assaulted, strangled and then dumped her body a mile away from the other two murdered girls.

The killer eventually got careless. While driving his green and white Corsair, he tried to abduct another girl. Fortunately, a neighbor saw the abduction attempt and yelled at the man. The neighbor then called the police. The neighbor observed the car’s license plate. The car belonged to a factory worker named Raymond Morris. He was a creepy man that had allegedly taken photos of schoolgirls in 1966. However, there wasn’t enough proof to arrest him for anything. He would eventually kill at least one young girl. Authorities arrested and then tried Morris in 1969 for killing Christine Darby.

One officer involved in the investigation said Morris had cold-calculating eyes and showed no remorse. It’s believed he killed the other two girls, but there was only enough evidence for Morris to be charged with killing Christine. He would never see another day outside of prison. A jury convicted Morris in two hours on February 18, 1969. He received a life sentence. After spending forty-five years in prison, he died on March 11, 2014.

However, this isn’t the end of the story. Since Halloween is near, I want to tell you about an old legend that people from many nations have shared in various languages. It’s the legend of the black-eyed-children. For many years, people have claimed to have encountered ghostly children without eyes. Some claim they are aliens while others have claimed they are ghosts of murdered children. Most likely, you have either read about this legend or seen a movie about it.

Cannock Chase is one place where people have claimed to see a ghostly girl walking the trails. Those who have been unfortunate enough to see her claim she has no eyes. She has two dark orbs that have replaced her eyes. Some people think Christine Darby spends her eternity wandering because she cannot see. And the reason she cannot see is that Raymond Morris put a blindfold on Christine after abducting her. Others think Morris may have also killed and sexually assaulted many other young girls. No one knows exactly how many children Raymond Morris killed. Is it possible that spirits of these deceased girls are still seeking the justice they never received while alive?

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.