0:10

Welcome to Unexplained Extra with

0:12

me Richard McClane Smith, where

0:14

for the weeks in between episodes, we look at

0:16

stories and ideas that, for one reason or

0:18

other, didn't make it into the previous show.

0:22

In last week's episode, The Dark

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Ascending, we took a trip to Chanctonbury

0:27

Ring in Sussex, England to

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shine a light on the many peculiar happenings

0:31

that are said to have occurred there and in the

0:33

surrounding countryside over the years. The

0:37

episode focused largely on Charles

0:39

Walker from the town of Worthing, who,

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after looking into a number of these strange events,

0:45

became convinced that a local occult

0:47

group known as the Friends of hecate

0:50

were operating in the area. It

0:53

was Walker's belief that this group may

0:55

even have committed murder as part

0:57

of a series of rituals they were conducted,

1:01

as many people have noted. However, despite

1:04

Walker's claims, very little has

1:06

been uncovered to prove that the Friends of

1:08

Hecateae even exist, let alone

1:10

were responsible for ritual murder

1:12

of humans or indeed dogs, which

1:15

they have also been linked with. As

1:18

one listener of the show kindly wrote in

1:20

to explain though historically

1:22

ancient worshippers of Hecateae did

1:25

sacrifice animals in the hope of gaining

1:27

favors from the Goddess, the Great,

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many Hecatea and practitioners of magic

1:31

that exist today are fervently

1:34

opposed to violence and cruelty and

1:36

are unlikely to do such a thing. Certainly,

1:39

there is no evidence that such practitioners

1:41

have ever made a human sacrifice to the goddess,

1:44

who is also considered to be the guardian

1:47

of dogs, all

1:49

of which makes this Hecatea connection

1:51

or the more fanciful attempts

1:54

to associate the group with Satanism,

1:56

a theme that was later picked up and expanded

1:59

on in a book by Toy Newton, author

2:01

of the nineteen eighty one magazine piece

2:04

about the Peculiar String of Events,

2:06

are also problematic. Without

2:09

wanting to go into too much detail since

2:11

it will likely feature on a future show, supposed

2:14

Satanism has long been demonized

2:16

pun intended as a practice of

2:18

heinous and wicked acts, as opposed

2:21

to merely being an outlet for nonconformist

2:23

and unorthodox ideas. That

2:26

said, it's hard to deny that this

2:28

small pocket of southern England for

2:30

whatever reason, has certainly had its

2:33

fair share of weirdness. In

2:35

fact, only last year, yet

2:38

another peculiar story emerged

2:40

from out of the shadows of the Sussex Downs,

2:43

as compelling as any other that had

2:45

previously come to light. In

2:53

nineteen forty six, nine year old

2:55

Anthea Ring was playing outside

2:57

her home in Surrey with her best friend when

3:01

the pair of them got into an argument.

3:04

Upset, Anthea turned to run

3:06

back inside, but was stopped in

3:08

her tracks when Peter called after

3:11

her. I don't care

3:13

if you tell on me to your mother, he said, she

3:15

isn't your real mother anyway.

3:19

Shocked and confused, Anthea

3:21

ran crying to her parents and demanded

3:24

to know what Peter was talking about. That

3:27

night, her parents, Margaret and

3:29

Douglas, revealed the truth that

3:31

when she was a newborn, Anthea

3:33

had been abandoned on the doorstep of

3:36

Worthing Hospital in Sussex. Thankfully,

3:40

the surprise revelation didn't appear

3:42

to upset Anthea too much, who loved

3:44

her kind and caring parents. Regardless,

3:47

she had even been a little excited at

3:50

having such a unique story to share

3:52

with all her friends. At

3:55

fifteen, Anthea went to work

3:57

at a department store in London before

3:59

moving to to train as a nurse. It

4:02

was there that she met and fell in love with

4:04

Francis, with whom she would have

4:06

two children, Jonathan and

4:09

later Christine. One

4:11

afternoon in nineteen sixty one, Anthea

4:14

was showing pictures of her baby Christine

4:17

to her parents when her father

4:19

Douglas went quiet for a moment, then

4:22

turned to look at her mother, Margaret. Is

4:25

it time to show her? He asked. Anthea

4:28

looked on, confused as Margaret

4:30

went upstairs, returning moments

4:33

later with an old newspaper clipping,

4:35

complete with the photo of a small

4:38

baby. Anthea

4:40

took the article and began to read.

4:44

It told the story of a Margaret

4:46

and Arthur DoD who'd been out

4:48

for a walk with their children on the Sussex

4:50

Downs one bright summer's afternoon

4:53

in August nineteen thirty seven.

4:57

The family had been walking along the side

4:59

of cisp Berry Ring, an iron

5:01

age hill fort barely two and a half

5:03

miles south of Chanctonbury Ring, when

5:06

Margaret heard something peculiar. Stopping

5:10

suddenly, wiping the sweat from

5:12

her brow, she told the others

5:14

to be quiet and listen whatever

5:18

for her husband had asked that

5:21

said, Margaret, can't

5:23

you hear it? It sounds

5:25

like a baby crying. Within

5:29

seconds, the family was staggering

5:31

about the hill trying to locate the

5:33

source of the sound, when finally,

5:36

hidden deep inside a BlackBerry bush,

5:39

they found it, a

5:41

tiny baby in a pink dress,

5:44

covered in scratches and mosquito bites,

5:46

with its hands bound tightly together.

5:51

Margaret immediately gathered up the baby,

5:53

and together the family went in search

5:55

of the nearest house to use a phone, eventually

5:59

ending up at a farm house in the nearby

6:01

village of Something. From

6:04

there, the police were called and a

6:06

baby promptly taken to Worthing

6:08

Hospital. After

6:10

careful examination, Mercifully,

6:13

despite a few minor injuries, the

6:15

baby was found to be in good health. However,

6:19

despite a national appeal for information,

6:22

the police were unable to ascertain who

6:24

her parents were or how she came

6:26

to end up abandoned in a bramble

6:29

bush on the Sussex Downs. It

6:32

wasn't long after that, having read

6:34

about it in the newspaper, Douglas

6:36

and Margaret contacted the hospital

6:39

and offered to adopt her. Are

6:44

you always taking care of your family?

6:46

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6:49

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7:53

Having learned the full story behind her adoption,

7:56

Anthea was understandably devastated,

7:59

but after discussing it with her husband,

8:01

decided not to share the news with her children,

8:04

but instead do her best to forget

8:06

it and move on. But

8:09

as the years wore on, the gnawing

8:11

urged to find out more only grew

8:13

more intense. In

8:16

nineteen ninety four, Anthea made

8:18

attempts to gather more information, contacting

8:21

Worthy police for any records they might

8:23

have regarding the original investigation,

8:26

but sadly, nothing significant

8:29

came to light. It

8:31

wouldn't be until two thousand and twelve,

8:33

when, after taking a DNA test,

8:36

that the by then seventy five year old

8:38

Anthea really started to get

8:40

somewhere. After

8:42

first matching with a woman in North Carolina

8:45

in the United States, Anthea

8:47

was eventually able to trace both sides

8:49

of her family to County Mayo and

8:52

County Gorway in Ireland. After

8:55

teaming up with Julia Bell, an

8:57

expert in genetic genealogy,

8:59

the pair were able to narrow things

9:01

down even further, until

9:03

finally they hit upon the name of

9:06

Lena O'Donnell from County Mayo.

9:09

O'Donnell was Anthea's birth

9:11

mother. A birth

9:14

certificate was quickly discovered that

9:16

revealed Anthea had officially been

9:18

born on twentieth of November nineteen

9:21

thirty six and given the name

9:23

Mary Veronica. Incredibly,

9:27

the identity of Anthea's father would

9:29

also be discovered soon after, thanks

9:31

to DNA evidence taken from a stamp

9:34

that he once used to send a letter

9:36

to a cousin of hers. His

9:38

name was Patrick Coyne, who traveled

9:41

to London from County Gorway to work

9:43

as a laborer in nineteen thirty six.

9:47

As Bell investigated further, it

9:49

appeared that Lena and Patrick were

9:51

not in a relationship when Anthea was

9:53

conceived, and it's not known

9:56

whether Patrick even knew that Lena

9:58

was pregnant. In

10:00

any case, Shortly after giving

10:03

birth, Lena O'Donnell moved

10:05

with her baby to a Roman Catholic care

10:07

home in Chiswick, West London called

10:09

Devonnook. That,

10:11

however, was the last recorded address

10:14

of Anthea's birth mother until

10:16

two years later, when she appears

10:18

again on an electoral role,

10:20

but with no mention of her baby. At

10:25

the time and even today, there

10:28

were many who considered an unmarried woman

10:30

with a baby to be a moral degenerate.

10:33

For years, the Catholic Church encouraged

10:36

women with so called illegitimate children

10:38

to give them up for adoption, with

10:40

many being sold to wealthy families.

10:43

In America, the Devonnook

10:45

Care Home was different, however, in

10:47

that it often encouraged mothers to keep their

10:49

babies if they could. Though

10:53

it isn't known for sure how Anthea ended

10:55

up separated from her birth mother, Julia

10:58

Bell has raised the tragic possible ability

11:00

that she may have been stolen and sold

11:02

on by a foster mother that had been trusted

11:05

to look after her when Lena was

11:07

out working. For

11:09

what reasons the baby's hands were tied,

11:12

and how it ended up left for dead

11:14

in a thicket of brambles remains

11:17

just another mystery of the Sussex

11:19

Strange. As

11:22

for Anthea herself, speaking

11:24

to the BBC about her story in

11:26

two thousand and eighteen, she

11:28

is now said to be at peace with the mystery.

11:36

Unexplained. The book and audiobook, featuring

11:39

ten stories that have never before been covered

11:41

on the show, is now available to buy

11:43

worldwide, who can purchase through Amazon,

11:46

Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among

11:48

other bookstores. All

11:50

elements of Unexplained, including the show's

11:53

music, are produced by me Richard McClain

11:55

smith. Please subscribe and rate the show

11:57

wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel

12:00

to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas

12:02

regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps

12:05

you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

12:07

You can reach us online at Unexplained

12:09

podcast dot com, or Twitter

12:12

at Unexplained Pod and Facebook

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at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash

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Unexplained Podcast. Now,

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it's time to take care of yourself. To

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make time for you. Teledoc

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gives you access to a licensed therapist

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to help you get back to feeling your best.

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Speak to a licensed therapist by

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phone or video anytime between

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seven am to nine pm local time,

12:43

seven days a week. Teledoc

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Therapy is available through most insurance

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Ladoc dot com.

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