Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?
Our latest murder mystery party game is inspired by this legendary unsolved true crime!
This week, we released our next murder mystery party, The Wych Elm! The Wych Elm is a murder mystery game for 6-10 players, set in Worcestershire, England. But this game is unique! Typically our murder mystery games are entirely works of fiction, but this murder mystery game is a true crime based on a real occurrence of about a terrible discovery and an unclosed case. While the details below are true, the story of Bella and the Wych Elm is something that sounds straight from a murder mystery novel.
The Discovery
In 1943, four boys were searching Hagley Woods, a part of the Hagley Estate for bird nests, as the sun started to set. Hagley Estate belonged to Lord Cobham, and the boys were anxious to get home for fear of being caught out late and trespassing. Upon discovering a wych elm, one of the boys climbed up inside looking for a bird nest, only to discover a human skull. Running home, they promised they wouldn’t tell a soul.
However, the youngest of the group alerted their parents, prompting a police investigation. When they returned to the scene of the crime, they found an entire skeleton, lodged inside the wych elm with a variety of objects, including a wedding ring, shoes, cloth. Curiously, one of the hands was missing from the skeleton.
Stranger still, no one came forward to report a missing woman and no identity was ever confirmed. This may not have been all that unusual however, as WWII created a large number of missing and displaced persons. But as the weeks went on, the identity of the woman in the wych elm, who killed her, and why, remained a secret.
Then the graffiti showed up. Around town, a mysterious message started appearing with the same question, “Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?”. The use of a name reigniting interest in the case but attempts to find “Bella” or the author of the question, were unsuccessful.
So who put Bella in the Wych Elm?
That’s the mystery! No one really knows, but there are a few theories…
Theory 1: Bella was killed as part of a satanic cult or ritual.
A few ideas point to this: the spookiness of the wych elm, a piece of taffeta cloth found in the skeleton’s mouth, and the fact that a left hand was buried separately from the skeleton, which some believe to be a “black magic execution” where the body is trapped in the tree and the hand cut off. Perhaps a ritualistic killing to prevent the victim from using black magic or cursing its murderers?
Theory 2: Bella was killed to “teach her a lesson”
Another theory claims two men were drinking with Bella one night out in town when she became drunk and passed out. Then the two men carried her to Hagley Wood to hide her in a wych elm, as a lesson for partaking too much. She was then trapped there and met an unfortunate end.
Theory 3: Bella was killed in the crossfire of a WWII spy ring.
The theory goes that Bella was the Dutch girlfriend of a German intelligence recruiter and ran afoul of a spy ring, and was then killed for knowing too much. She has numerous identities amidst these theories–a cabaret singer, a barmaid, a refugee, an actress, a spy–all whom were killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and knowing too much.
So what do we think happened?
Well, we of course can’t say for sure. But speculation, of course, is what drives most true crime fans, and we were eager to explore both the uncertainty of the woman and the mystery of what could have happened to her. The story is both sad and compelling–who was this woman? What was her connection to the town that she mysteriously died in? Why was she in the woods? We were also intrigued about the legacy that this incident left on the town–particularly the graffiti that has been showing up in Worcestershire for years–as well as the story of four children finding a skeleton in a tree and how their lives could have been changed from that point. We decided to tell the story through their eyes and the ways in which they could be forever haunted by their discovery. But we need your help to finish the tale and close the chapter.
The Wych Elm is available for 6-10 players, all gender neutral characters!
Available in True Crime Version and a Halloween Version!
Our newest murder mystery party, The Wych Elm, is for 6-10 players, all gender-neutral characters and picks up 15 years after Bella’s discovery at the old Hagley Estate. You and your friends will play a suspect and an investigator to uncover a buried true crime and discover what really happened to Bella, or at least, how we chose to imagine it. We hope you enjoy being a part of the mystery.
