22th November 2008

We arrived at The Coach & Horses a short drive from Clapham Village to conduct a briefing for the night’s investigation at just after 20:00 hours. At just before 21:00 we drove to Clapham Village to make the short walk up the path near the tree and beginning of the wood. The historic 13th Century Church of St Mary’s is just opposite. I took some baseline readings at 21.06. The thermometer came up with -1; it was definitely a bitterly cold evening for an investigation. No EMF fields were detected and photos and video footage were taken of the area along with an EVP experiment. Nath mentioned he caught an image of someone called Gillian. We all decided to make our way up the path of Clapham woods which heads west. We came to the first fork in the woods Nath mentioned another name Peter almost like an imprint from another time. When we eventually arrived at the first fork we took the path which forks to the left. Gillian seemed to make herself known to us upon reaching the bench. Again no out ordinary temperature readings were taken due to the extreme cold of the weather. No EMF fields were detected. Nath said the woman called Gillian was still active was very upset by what had happened to her before she had died. We conducted an EVP experiment at the bench in order perhaps to draw out Gillian hopefully to communicate with her. Tammy had also taken extensive video footage of the area. We all decided to move on further up the path heading north now and we joined the muddy road which is obviously used by the farmer for moving his tractor to the local fields. We made our away along this road and up a sty and walked over the field Nath mentioned another person in this area called Leon, which would prove relevant later on. As we made our way over to another sty we entered the back of the historical church of St Mary’s which we must say is a very peaceful and pleasant place even at night. St Mary’s was being patrolled by the local ginger cat which was very friendly and followed us for a short while. We had returned  to the spot we had previously started at. I mentioned to the others about the path which leads to the right which had been interesting on other visits as it had caused battery drain on a camcorder and video footage of an orb had been recorded. We made our way up this path Clare mentioned she had a headache but apart from that this, area of the woods seemed uneventful and peaceful. We all decided to call it a night due to the extreme cold! We made our way back to the car. We concluded our investigation at approx 23:00. Tammy had brought along some of the history of Clapham woods and more importantly about the murders which had occurred. Nath having no prior knowledge or insight had mentioned Gillian / Peter / Leon. We were all shocked by Nath’s accuracy and must emphases this is genuine. I Johan of SPI would personally like to thank the other members of the group for coming on such a bitterly cold evening.

The first such case was that of Police Constable Peter Goldsmith in 1972. Goldsmith, 46, was a former Royal Marine Commando and an experienced rambler who was in excellent physical condition. He was last seen in June that year, walking across the Downs and carrying a large holdall. His body was found six months later, hidden in a patch of thick bramble.

In August 1975, pensioner Leon Foster was found in the woods, by a couple searching for a lost horse, three weeks after his wife had reported him missing.

The murdered woman was Miss Jillian Matthews – a 37-year-old divorcee and a homeless schizophrenic, who went missing in September 1981. Her body was discovered six weeks later in a state of partial undress, having been raped and strangled. No one was ever charged with her murder.

Comments from our Investigations

Johan – I think Clapham is definitely worthy of a revisit there is just something about that little wood. I think it hides many secrets!

Clare – I agree with Johan, I would also like to go back and investigate further into the woods the other side of the cow field where I feel the real evil is lurking.

Nath – A tragically active site. But ‘Devil Worship’? I think not! This would actually be a lovely place to visit in the summer.

Tammy - Clapham woods I found to be a very spooky place, there was definatley something in that atmosphere which I can't explain, I would love to come back another night & investigate further with the team as I feel we have just scratched the surface with this place.

 Photo's : We managered to take an unsual photo of a hooded figure very interesting. 

 EMF METER : No emf reading we detected during the course of our investigation. 

 THERMOMETER : -1 minimum  degree ( very cold ) 0 , 1 respectively . It was really too cold to be able detect small changes.

 EVP : No EVP's we found during our investigation.

 Weather Condition : Clear night but extremely cold . Full moon.

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