Concern for the children's welfare was heightened by the fact that on the night of their disappearance, the temperature had fallen below freezing point, and the morning of 1 April saw a snowfall across Enfield.

Missing person posters distributed described Blatchford as 5 ft (150 cm) in height and wearing a green raincoat with red, stitched pockets, a floral blouse, and brown corduroy slacks.

Search and rescue dogs were also used to scour over 5,000 acres of local fields and woodland, and on 14 April,[18] the Daily Mirror published a national front-page article, offering £1,000 for the children's safe return.

[20] Eleven weeks later, on the evening of 17 June 1970, the bodies of both children were discovered in a bird-watchers' hide inside a densely wooded copse by a young man named Leonard Cook, who had been walking his Labrador dog through the edge of Epping Forest.

[16] Clothing belonging to both—including underwear—had been removed from their bodies, and Blatchford's slacks had been torn along the inner seams in a manner suggesting the garment had been purposely ripped from the waist downwards.

As such, Clarke returned an open verdict in the case, ruling the missing and removed clothing may have been caused by the wild animals which had evidently extensively attacked both bodies.

Blatchford's mother, Muriel, is known to have repeatedly remarked to reporters following the coroner's inquest that the "only animal" capable of removing her daughter's underwear, tights, and bra but leaving her raincoat and blouse intact must have been a human male.

[31] In May 1996, convicted paedophile and child killer Ronald Jebson contacted Scotland Yard to offer information regarding the Babes in the Wood murders.

His claims the two had lured both children into his car, then "raped and buggered" both in a cellar for several days before discarding their bodies on the outskirts of Epping Forest—with his being an accessory after the fact with regards to the disposal of their bodies—were investigated, but quickly discounted.

[37] Eleven days after the murders, Jebson was arrested in Nottingham for sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy whom he had lured into his car and driven to nearby woodland.

[38] Jebson was released from prison in 1973 and subsequently moved into the Hatfield home of his former school friend Robert Papper,[37] concealing the truth behind his criminal convictions for child molestation from the family.

Shortly thereafter, in June 1974, he lured Rosemary from her school to a field where he forced the child to participate in sexual acts before strangling her with a piece of twine as he again raped her.

[43] According to Jebson, early in the evening of 31 March 1970, he had encountered Blatchford and Hanlon by chance as he drove home from a job interview at a firm located on Ordnance Road, Enfield.

[n 5] He had lured the children into his Standard Ten vehicle, plied both with alcohol and cannabis and driven the two to the edge of Epping Forest, where he had earlier constructed a hide with willow branches.

Inside the copse, Jebson claimed his "aggressive nature" emerged, although, to his frustration, both Blatchford and Hanlon resisted his initial efforts to sexually interfere with them.

[16] Jebson further elaborated that, as a convicted child sex offender living locally, he had been questioned by police in relation to the disappearances in the days following the children's murder, but had denied any involvement.

Sections of the false account as to his movements on the afternoon and evening in question which he provided to investigators were corroborated by independent witnesses, who had seen Jebson inside an Enfield job-centre shortly before Blatchford and Hanlon disappeared.

[39] Blatchford's body was exhumed from the grounds of St James's Church to undergo a second forensic examination in an effort to verify Jebson's verbal confession.

He later entered a formal plea of guilty to both murders before Judge David Stokes at the Old Bailey on 9 May, with his defence counsel, John Evison, arguing his client had chosen to confess because he did not wish to take his crimes to his grave.

[47] Upon passing sentence, Judge Stokes branded Jebson a "wicked and perverted" individual, adding: "Thirty years ago you abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered two young children.

"[50] On the day of Jebson's conviction, the families of Blatchford and Hanlon congratulated retired Chief Superintendent Leonard Read and his successor, Detective Chief Inspector Declan Donnelly, for their collective insistence their children had been murdered despite the coroner's initial open verdict and their perseverance in ensuring the perpetrator's eventual confession and conviction.

[51] The parents of both children subsequently appealed to the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to impose a whole life tariff to ensure Jebson died in jail.

[54] Ronald Jebson died of kidney failure at the University Hospital of North Durham on 17 April 2015 at the age of 76, having signed an order instructing medical personnel that he not be resuscitated.