On January 19, 1968, at 4:40 PM, Sandra’s 5-month-old baby, Kimberly Jackson, was in her pram in the back garden of their home in Norton, Stockton, England. Sandra was preparing a bath for Kimberly and making a bottle of milk to feed her. At that time, she was looking out from the front window of her ground-floor apartment in Carmel Garden.
While Kimberly’s mother was looking out the window, she saw a teenage boy, about 13 or 14 years old, taking a pram that looked like Kimberly’s. After preparing the bath and bottle, when Sandra went back to the garden to fetch Kimberly, she found that both the baby and the pram were missing. She was very frightened, and when she realized her daughter was missing, she remembered seeing a boy taking a pram that looked like Kimberly’s. She ran to the alley beside the flats but found only the pram there. Sandra then went to nearby schools, hoping to find the boy who took the pram, but she did not find any such boy there.
Kimberly’s pram was found in a parking area in Amble View. The police then began a search around Fleet Bridge Road. About half an hour later, Kimberly’s body was found face down in the water at Billingham Bottoms pool. This area is 300 yards from Kimberly’s home. Mrs. Enid Hey, whose house was also in Carmel Garden, reported that she had spoken to the boy who had taken Kimberly. According to Mrs. Enid Hey, “He was wearing a dark-colored anorak and had a pleasant voice. He asked me where No. 36 was, and when I said it was on the other side of the road, he replied that it was upstairs.”
Around 4:45 PM, other residents of the neighborhood also saw a teenage boy. Mrs. Vera Reed, who lives in Amble View, saw a boy taking a child in a pram through a rubble-filled wasteland. She thought he might be playing. The police conducted inquiries in approximately 6,000 houses and took statements from about 600 people. Kimberly’s mother and Mrs. Hey also visited 19 schools and spoke to nearly 2,000 boys on their own initiative, but no trace of the teenage boy was found.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Collinson, head of Durham County CID, said that the boy had acted hastily. Based on the witness statements, the police created a sketch and description of the boy, but to this day, the teenage boy has not been found, and no one has been arrested for the murder.
In July 2004, Sandra’s 26-year-old son died from an overdose of drugs and alcohol, although he had been clean for 18 months his cause of death was heroin, methadone and alcohol poisoning. His death triggered Sandra, and in 2004 she renewed her appeal. She told reporters that forensic advances had been made and requested that the fingerprints and DNA found on the pram be retested. She hoped that the culprit in Kimberly’s cold case could now be caught.