Last traces of teen who vanished after discovering horrifying truth about mum

Police are no closer to finding answers on a teen who disappeared after discovering a heartbreaking secret about her mother. Ruth Wilson was only 16 when on a chilly wet Monday afternoon in late November 1995, she called a taxi from Dorking railway station in Surrey and asked him to drop her off at a remote woodland area. In November this year it will be three decades since a "shy" but bright young girl, who on the surface had everything going for her, completely vanished without trace.

The driver, who was never named, left her at Box Hill - the summit of the North Downs in Surrey and a popular beauty spot - and she was never seen again. He reported that she was wearing clothes which were unsuitable for the cold winter weather and had no coat over her red jumper and black trousers. He also reportedly said she stood still in the same place in the rain and didn't move as he drove away, which he found strange.

When she failed to return home that night, her father Ian - a schoolteacher in a local school and parish councillor - and his primary school deputy head wife Karen Bowerman, reported her missing. Ruth was supposed to have been at The Ashcombe School in Dorking that day, where she was studying biology and chemistry A levels. She usually took the bus with her younger sister Jenny but told her she was going in later. She also declined a lift from her ex-boyfriend Will Kennedy, who she was still good friends with.

Instead she took a taxi to Dorking library where she spent a few hours and visited a florist called Thistles, ordering a bouquet of flowers for her stepmother. She gave instructions that they were to be delivered in two days' time and not before. She didn’t attach a card. Ruth then walked to the railway station where she ordered a taxi to Box Hill. At 4.30pm she was dropped at the entrance to a bridleway near the Hand in Hand pub, which is the last official sighting of her.

Surrey Police launched a massive search across 1,000 acres of parkland, using dog teams, heat-seeking equipment and a helicopter. One of her friends, Catherine Mair, found it strange this was done so rapidly. "I always thought it was odd that they launched such a huge search so quickly," she told The Daily Mail. "Teenagers fail to come home all the time. It made me wonder what they thought they knew.".

Catherine was 17 at the time of Ruth's disappearance and had recently moved away to Sheffield for a new start after leaving home because she was unhappy. It was something the two school girls, who grew closer during sixth form, had in common, according to Catherine. In fact Ruth, who she describes as "very shy and quiet" but "bright, interesting and funny," had asked if she could join her up north but Catherine wanted to get herself settled first.

To outsiders Ruth led a charmed life existence, living in a 17th-century cottage with her well-respected family. She was doing well at school, sang in a local choir, played electric guitar and was a bellringer at the local church. She was considering reading archaeology at university, so her future looked assured. However her upbringing had been overshadowed by the death of her mother Nesta who she was told had died at the age of 33 in a freak accident when she was just three and her sister Jenny was less than a year old. Her father Ian had always said that she tripped at the top of the stairs and broke her neck. Ruth, it seems, always blamed herself for her mum's tragic passing.

"Sadly, Ruth seemed convinced she was responsible," Catherine revealed. "She believed it was one of her toys that her mum had tripped over." Another of her friends, who asked not to be identified, also told the publication that she believed it was one of her toys that caused the accident. Before she went missing, Ruth reportedly decided to try and find out more about the circumstances of her mum's death. In early October 1995, it is said that she went to the public records office in London where details of births, marriages and deaths were stored to obtain a copy of the death certificate. Will, who was still her boyfriend at the time, reportedly went with her and they uncovered the horrifying truth that her mother had actually took her own life and didn't have an accident at all. She had killed herself just weeks before Christmas, according to her death certificate shown in a documentary about the case.

Catherine said Ruth was overwhelmed by the awful discovery. "Obviously it's crazy to find out that something you've been told your entire life isn't true, whatever the reasons. Understandably it left a lot of questions for her - why her mother, with two young babies, would take her life just weeks before Christmas. Ruth was distressed and confused and started asking some dark questions. She became fixated on getting to the heart of exactly what had happened.".