Grim mystery of human remains in Birmingham is revisited in a true crime documentary The Skull On Oxford Road

Watch an exclusive new true crime documentary, which looks at a mysterious case of a human skull found in a skip. The horrifying discovery was made 18 years ago and we still do not know the dead person’s identity. 

Watch the full documentary - The Skull On Oxford Road - at shotstv.com or on Freeview channel 276.

In the TV show, Journalist Mike Lockley revisits this grim and bizarre case, which made national headlines in 2006 when a teenage girl’s skull was found on Oxford Road in Acocks Green.

Police remain unsure how long ago the girl died or even how she died. The bone showed no sign of trauma wounds from an attack. 

DNA profiling leaves police baffled

Showing an artist’s impression, Mr Lockley explains that the only thing that forensics could determine was that it was a young woman with ‘prominent front teeth’. DNA profiling revealed the skull did not belong to anyone on the missing person’s files. Police believed death occurred years before the 2006 alarm. Carbon dating at Oxford University made the picture no clearer. 

Experts give their views and theories on what could have happened, in the twelve minute programme, which can be watched in full at this link. 

Missing person theories

Criminologist Robert Giles believed it could belong to Birmingham student nurse Maria Aldridge, aged 17, who went missing in 1968. DNA, however, did not match. There were also unfounded links to Nicola Payne, the Coventry teenage whose disappearance in 1991 sparked a huge search. 

University research into skull

Caroline Dundee, a specialist in forensic anthropology at the University of Dundee, was called upon to create an image, which resulted in the picture handed to the press. Det Chief Insp Holmes added: “The university said whoever the skull belonged to would have been alive in the 1950s, which obviously makes it more imperative that someone comes forward and assists in the investigation.”

A spokesperson for Birmingham Police said: “We have carried out a thorough investigation, but the skull has never been identified and it has not been linked to any ongoing investigations. We believe it may have been imported and part of a collection long before there were restrictions on the trade of skeletons.”

Watch the trailer above, or watch the full documentary at this link.