The Vanishing That Haunted a Family for Eight Decades
A family has launched one final campaign to solve the heartbreaking mystery of a three-year-old boy who disappeared without trace nearly eighty years ago. Peter Greenwood vanished during a simple game of 'follow the leader' on the evening of April 30, 1946, in the seaside town of Withernsea, East Yorkshire.
A Brother's Lifelong Guilt and a New Generation's Quest
Peter had been walking home from a local cinema with his nine-year-old brother, Bill, and their sister. The children were playing when Bill turned around to discover his younger brother had completely vanished. Peter was never seen again, despite extensive searches and years of appeals in the local press.
The tragedy cast a long shadow over the family. Peter's mother, Marion, died just six months later at age 29, utterly overcome by the agony of her loss. His brother Bill carried the weight of the disappearance his entire life, feeling responsible as the eldest sibling.
Bill Greenwood died in 2023 at the age of 86, having never discovered what happened to his little brother. His great-niece, Kizzie Elliott, 36, has now taken up the cause. "He carried a tremendous amount of guilt," Ms Elliott revealed. "I know it's something he never got over."
Dead Ends and a Glimmer of Hope
Bill spent decades searching for answers, but his efforts often hit dead ends. In the 1990s, he was told that all the original police case files from 1946 might have been destroyed after being transferred to York.
However, there is now a renewed sense of hope. Ms Elliott has spoken with the Humberside Police cold case team, who believe the files might still exist in a vast archive building, though locating them will take time.
The family's determination has been strengthened by an anonymous note Bill received in 2002, more than half a century after the disappearance. It claimed someone had seen a little boy jumping from the seawall into the water, though the author never came forward again and Bill remained suspicious of the correspondence.
Ms Elliott, who now lives in Surrey, explained her motivation: "Now that I have a three-year-old child myself, it hits in a very different way. I can't imagine what it must have been like." She hopes to finally see the police statement her grandfather gave as a child and understand the exact nature of the original search.
As a result of the fresh appeal, residents in Withernsea have begun recalling conversations their parents and grandparents had about the case at the time. For a family that has waited eighty years, any new information could finally bring peace.
