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When four-year-old Joyce Cox was found murdered and sexually assaulted by a railway line the crime shocked Wales.

But 75 years on the youngster, who was last seen with a gas mask slung over her shoulder near her Cardiff home, has never received justice.

Officers investigating the harrowing crime quizzed more than a thousand people and followed numerous leads. It was reported they were on the brink of finding the killer, who strangled the schoolgirl on Thursday, September 28, 1939. But they never did.

The legacy of Joyce’s death, which happened just weeks after Britain declared war on Germany, still resonates in the family today as they continue in their quest for answers.

Joyce’s mother, Irene, was Dave Gilkes-Cox’s nan. Joyce would have been Dave’s auntie, had she survived.

“My gran never said anything at all to me about it, my father and mother were the ones who broached it,” said the dad of two, who now lives in Australia.

“From an early age I knew there was something a bit different because I had to keep an eye on my brothers at the time, and then on my sister.”

His wife, Victoria, said Joyce’s death was always “the elephant in the room”.

“No-one ever wanted to upset Irene because she had been through hell,” she said.

Irene died in 2003.

“I think she blocked it out,” Victoria said.

“I don’t think she talked to anyone about it.

“When her health deteriorated and her mind used to wander she used to mention a little girl but she would never call her by name, ever.

“It was the stiff upper lip – she just got on with it. That is what her generation were like.”

Joyce was buried in St Mary’s Church graveyard, Whitchurch, Cardiff. The exact location of her grave is not known. But her name now also adorns her mother’s tombstone.

After her death her father, quoted in Wales on Sunday’s sister title the South Wales Echo on September 30, 1939, as Private AR Cox, said: “She was a doll of a girl. Only last Monday I had promised her a present for her birthday and she was full of childish excitement and anticipation.

“Now this has come. It is terrible.”

Police searched for “a man with a slouch” seen “pestering” people on Whitchurch common.

The Echo reported the force were investigating whether a “young boy” or “sex maniac” could be behind the crime.

They considered whether a former Whitchurch Mental Hospital patient was responsible.

And officers searched for a “muttering” tramp spotted by a cyclist.

The police were expected to “yield an early result” after seven-year-old schoolboy Allan Lloyd told detectives he saw Joyce walking with an “old looking” man in black suit and cap. She had her gas mask over her shoulder. The pair were talking.

Victoria did not think Irene “ever really spoke to anyone about it”.

“If she ever cried it was something she did in private,” the 37-year-old said.

Joyce was discovered at 7.30pm on the day of her death. Police took photos by torchlight and searched for miles around the scene.

William Ward, the father of a girl of similar age to the youngster, found the body in a railway cutting at Coryton, north Cardiff, when his spaniel, Jean, began straining at the leash.

“I had the shock of my life when I saw the huddled body of the girl in a horrible condition,” he said at the time.

When police arrived they found a copy of the Western Mail. On it was a pencilled quote. It is not known what it said.

The South Wales Echo reported she had been “outraged” and her death – just days before her fifth birthday – was “probably due to shock.”

Initially it was unclear whether she had died where she lay. Later police thought her body had been dumped.

“There were no rumours of who had taken her or why it had happened,” Dave said.

“You look at a lot of the murders that have happened in recent years and mostly they are to do with someone they know.

“But our family never pointed the finger at anyone, within the family or without.

“We just didn’t know. I spoke to my father’s cousins before I left to come to Australia and they did not know anything.”

The community turned out in force for Joyce’s funeral.

As her coffin was carried to the church women wept “unrestrainedly.” Hundreds lined the path and “large numbers” of her schoolmates attended.

Her casket was carried by four troops from the 53rd Welsh Divisional Signals, her father’s division.

As it was lowered into the ground onlookers “stood on graves and tombstones.”

“My mother and father never told me anything about it until I was maybe 14,” Dave said.

“Everything clicked with me then about why I was keeping a close eye on my brother and sister.”

He “just accepted” what he was told.

“I couldn’t say I was shocked or anything like that,” Dave said.

“It meant I was responsible for my siblings and that I had some pressure.

“I guess that is the legacy of what happened, knowing what we know about Joyce being abducted and murdered. We know that happened.”

Dave watches his own kids like a hawk.

“I’ve a radar system that goes off when I can’t see them,” the 59-year-old said.

“I like to make sure they are in bright clothes so I can see them.

“When we are out and about and going to swimming pools and places like that I like to be able to see them.

“I’m very cautious and watch over other people with them. We have not said a great deal about it but we have broached the subject that there are people out there that take people.”

His children “know one of our family was taken”.

“But they are too young to understand, they are only seven and nine,” Dave said.

“We would not want to frighten them. They have to enjoy their childhood.”

Victoria tried to find out more about what happened from South Wales Police using the Freedom of Information Act.

The force was unable to give them much help.

“We were told there was very little they could give us because it is an unsolved murder case,” Victoria said.

“Even though in reality they will never solve it. But they have over 40 files on it.

“They said it was very difficult to give us any sort of detail because there is too much information.

“We just know the basics – that she went missing on her way home from school.”

She had been playing with friends near her home in Whitchurch after leaving school at noon.

She then stopped at her grandmother’s home on Velindre Road. By 12.45pm she had left to go home on Heol Don.

But she never made it.

“There are some family members that were around at the time and remember it but very little is known about what happened,” Victoria said.

“I believe it is the oldest unsolved murder in Wales.”

With today’s technology the killer would probably have been caught.

“The police have said that if it happened now they would have solved it,” Victoria said.

“The clothing that was found with her DNA on was not handled properly. So they are contaminated and they cannot now go back for DNA.

“We now have CCTV so they would have picked her up on that now.

“It would be a very different case now. But, as it is, the likelihood is that whoever did it is now dead.”

South Wales Police insisted “no unsolved cases are ever ‘closed’.”

A spokeswoman said: “Any new information which is received in relation to this or any other case will be fully investigated.”