Speaker 1: Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith, where
Speaker 1: for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories
Speaker 1: and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the previous show. In last week's episode, The
Speaker 1: Dark Ascending, we took a trip to Chanctonbury Ring in Sussex,
Speaker 1: England to shine a light on the many peculiar happenings
Speaker 1: that are said to have occurred there and in the
Speaker 1: surrounding countryside over the years. The episode focused largely on
Speaker 1: Charles Walker from the town of Worthing, who, after looking
Speaker 1: into a number of these strange events, became convinced that
Speaker 1: a local occult group known as the Friends of hecate
Speaker 1: were operating in the area. It was Walker's belief that
Speaker 1: this group may even have committed murder as part of
Speaker 1: a series of rituals they were conducted, as many people
Speaker 1: have noted. However, despite Walker's claims, very little has been
Speaker 1: uncovered to prove that the Friends of Hecateae even exist,
Speaker 1: let alone were responsible for ritual murder of humans or
Speaker 1: indeed dogs, which they have also been linked with. As
Speaker 1: one listener of the show kindly wrote in to explain
Speaker 1: though historically ancient worshippers of Hecateae did sacrifice animals in
Speaker 1: the hope of gaining favors from the Goddess, the Great,
Speaker 1: many Hecatea and practitioners of magic that exist today are
Speaker 1: fervently opposed to violence and cruelty and are unlikely to
Speaker 1: do such a thing. Certainly, there is no evidence that
Speaker 1: such practitioners have ever made a human sacrifice to the goddess,
Speaker 1: who is also considered to be the guardian of dogs,
Speaker 1: all of which makes this Hecatea connection or the more
Speaker 1: fanciful attempts to associate the group with Satanism, a theme
Speaker 1: that was later picked up and expanded on in a
Speaker 1: book by Toy Newton, author of the nineteen eighty one
Speaker 1: magazine piece about the Peculiar String of Events, are also problematic.
Speaker 1: Without wanting to go into too much detail since it
Speaker 1: will likely feature on a future show, supposed Satanism has
Speaker 1: long been demonized pun intended as a practice of heinous
Speaker 1: and wicked acts, as opposed to merely being an outlet
Speaker 1: for nonconformist and unorthodox ideas. That said, it's hard to
Speaker 1: deny that this small pocket of southern England for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: has certainly had its fair share of weirdness. In fact,
Speaker 1: only last year, yet another peculiar story emerged from out
Speaker 1: of the shadows of the Sussex Downs, as compelling as
Speaker 1: any other that had previously come to light. In nineteen
Speaker 1: forty six, nine year old Anthea Ring was playing outside
Speaker 1: her home in Surrey with her best friend when the
Speaker 1: pair of them got into an argument. Upset, Anthea turned
Speaker 1: to run back inside, but was stopped in her tracks
Speaker 1: when Peter called after her. I don't care if you
Speaker 1: tell on me to your mother, he said, she isn't
Speaker 1: your real mother anyway. Shocked and confused, Anthea ran crying
Speaker 1: to her parents and demanded to know what Peter was
Speaker 1: talking about. That night, her parents, Margaret and Douglas, revealed
Speaker 1: the truth that when she was a newborn, Anthea had
Speaker 1: been abandoned on the doorstep of Worthing Hospital in Sussex. Thankfully,
Speaker 1: the surprise revelation didn't appear to upset Anthea too much,
Speaker 1: who loved her kind and caring parents. Regardless, she had
Speaker 1: even been a little excited at having such a unique
Speaker 1: story to share with all her friends. At fifteen, Anthea
Speaker 1: went to work at a department store in London before
Speaker 1: moving to to train as a nurse. It was there
Speaker 1: that she met and fell in love with Francis, with
Speaker 1: whom she would have two children, Jonathan and later Christine.
Speaker 1: One afternoon in nineteen sixty one, Anthea was showing pictures
Speaker 1: of her baby Christine to her parents when her father
Speaker 1: Douglas went quiet for a moment, then turned to look
Speaker 1: at her mother, Margaret. Is it time to show her?
Speaker 1: He asked. Anthea looked on, confused as Margaret went upstairs,
Speaker 1: returning moments later with an old newspaper clipping, complete with
Speaker 1: the photo of a small baby. Anthea took the article
Speaker 1: and began to read. It told the story of a
Speaker 1: Margaret and Arthur DoD who'd been out for a walk
Speaker 1: with their children on the Sussex Downs one bright summer's
Speaker 1: afternoon in August nineteen thirty seven. The family had been
Speaker 1: walking along the side of cisp Berry Ring, an iron
Speaker 1: age hill fort barely two and a half miles south
Speaker 1: of Chanctonbury Ring, when Margaret heard something peculiar. Stopping suddenly,
Speaker 1: wiping the sweat from her brow, she told the others
Speaker 1: to be quiet and listen whatever for her husband had
Speaker 1: asked that said, Margaret, can't you hear it? It sounds
Speaker 1: like a baby crying. Within seconds, the family was staggering
Speaker 1: about the hill trying to locate the source of the sound,
Speaker 1: when finally, hidden deep inside a BlackBerry bush, they found it,
Speaker 1: a tiny baby in a pink dress, covered in scratches
Speaker 1: and mosquito bites, with its hands bound tightly together. Margaret
Speaker 1: immediately gathered up the baby, and together the family went
Speaker 1: in search of the nearest house to use a phone,
Speaker 1: eventually ending up at a farm house in the nearby
Speaker 1: village of Something. From there, the police were called and
Speaker 1: a baby promptly taken to Worthing Hospital. After careful examination, Mercifully,
Speaker 1: despite a few minor injuries, the baby was found to
Speaker 1: be in good health. However, despite a national appeal for information,
Speaker 1: the police were unable to ascertain who her parents were
Speaker 1: or how she came to end up abandoned in a
Speaker 1: bramble bush on the Sussex Downs. It wasn't long after that,
Speaker 1: having read about it in the newspaper, Douglas and Margaret
Speaker 1: contacted the hospital and offered to adopt her. Are you
Speaker 1: always taking care of your family? Do you often take
Speaker 1: care of others and not yourself. Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself, to make time for you. You
Speaker 1: deserve it. Tele adoc gives you access to a licensed
Speaker 1: therapist to help you get back to feeling your best
Speaker 1: to feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak
Speaker 1: to a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments
Speaker 1: are available seven days a week from seven am to
Speaker 1: nine pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe
Speaker 1: you feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you
Speaker 1: might be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc
Speaker 1: can help. Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches,
Speaker 1: so they make it easy to change counselors if needed.
Speaker 1: For free teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers.
Speaker 1: Download the app or visit teledoc dot com forward slash
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast today to get started. That's teladoc dot com
Speaker 1: slash Unexplained Podcast. Having learned the full story behind her adoption,
Speaker 1: Anthea was understandably devastated, but after discussing it with her husband,
Speaker 1: decided not to share the news with her children, but
Speaker 1: instead do her best to forget it and move on.
Speaker 1: But as the years wore on, the gnawing urged to
Speaker 1: find out more only grew more intense. In nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: Anthea made attempts to gather more information, contacting Worthy police
Speaker 1: for any records they might have regarding the original investigation,
Speaker 1: but sadly, nothing significant came to light. It wouldn't be
Speaker 1: until two thousand and twelve, when, after taking a DNA test,
Speaker 1: that the by then seventy five year old Anthea really
Speaker 1: started to get somewhere. After first matching with a woman
Speaker 1: in North Carolina in the United States, Anthea was eventually
Speaker 1: able to trace both sides of her family to County
Speaker 1: Mayo and County Gorway in Ireland. After teaming up with
Speaker 1: Julia Bell, an expert in genetic genealogy, the pair were
Speaker 1: able to narrow things down even further, until finally they
Speaker 1: hit upon the name of Lena O'Donnell from County Mayo.
Speaker 1: O'Donnell was Anthea's birth mother. A birth certificate was quickly
Speaker 1: discovered that revealed Anthea had officially been born on twentieth
Speaker 1: of November nineteen thirty six and given the name Mary Veronica. Incredibly,
Speaker 1: the identity of Anthea's father would also be discovered soon after,
Speaker 1: thanks to DNA evidence taken from a stamp that he
Speaker 1: once used to send a letter to a cousin of hers.
Speaker 1: His name was Patrick Coyne, who traveled to London from
Speaker 1: County Gorway to work as a laborer in nineteen thirty six.
Speaker 1: As Bell investigated further, it appeared that Lena and Patrick
Speaker 1: were not in a relationship when Anthea was conceived, and
Speaker 1: it's not known whether Patrick even knew that Lena was pregnant.
Speaker 1: In any case, Shortly after giving birth, Lena O'Donnell moved
Speaker 1: with her baby to a Roman Catholic care home in Chiswick,
Speaker 1: West London called Devonnook. That, however, was the last recorded
Speaker 1: address of Anthea's birth mother until two years later, when
Speaker 1: she appears again on an electoral role, but with no
Speaker 1: mention of her baby. At the time and even today,
Speaker 1: there were many who considered an unmarried woman with a
Speaker 1: baby to be a moral degenerate. For years, the Catholic
Speaker 1: Church encouraged women with so called illegitimate children to give
Speaker 1: them up for adoption, with many being sold to wealthy families.
Speaker 1: In America, the Devonnook Care Home was different, however, in
Speaker 1: that it often encouraged mothers to keep their babies if
Speaker 1: they could. Though it isn't known for sure how Anthea
Speaker 1: ended up separated from her birth mother, Julia Bell has
Speaker 1: raised the tragic possible ability that she may have been
Speaker 1: stolen and sold on by a foster mother that had
Speaker 1: been trusted to look after her when Lena was out working.
Speaker 1: For what reasons the baby's hands were tied, and how
Speaker 1: it ended up left for dead in a thicket of
Speaker 1: brambles remains just another mystery of the Sussex Strange. As
Speaker 1: for Anthea herself, speaking to the BBC about her story
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eighteen, she is now said to
Speaker 1: be at peace with the mystery. Unexplained. The book and audiobook,
Speaker 1: featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on
Speaker 1: the show, is now available to buy worldwide, who can
Speaker 1: purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores.
Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the
Speaker 1: show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel to get
Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories
Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can reach
Speaker 1: us online at Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at
Speaker 1: Unexplained Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash
Speaker 1: Unexplained Podcast. Now, it's time to take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: To make time for you. Teledoc gives you access to
Speaker 1: a licensed therapist to help you get back to feeling
Speaker 1: your best. Speak to a licensed therapist by phone or
Speaker 1: video anytime between seven am to nine pm local time,
Speaker 1: seven days a week. Teledoc Therapy is available through most
Speaker 1: insurance or employers. Download the app or visit telldoc dot com,
Speaker 1: Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast Today to get started. That's t
Speaker 1: e Ladoc dot com. Slash Unexplained Podcast