Crime Files: the heartbreaking mystery of Solihull’s Milk Carton Kids, 26 years on

The disappearance of Patrick Warren and David Spencer in Chelmsley Wood in 1996, also known as the Milk Carton Kids case, has remained one of the West Midlands’ most heartbreaking unsolved mysteries.

Patrick and David, who were aged 11 and 13 respectively at the time of their disappearance, vanished on 27 December 1996, and haven’t been seen since.

Over the last 20 years, West Midlands Police have investigated numerous leads, looking into suspects in the process, but no trace of the boys has ever been found.

In December 2021, David’s brother Lee O’Toole, led a community search to find the boys on wasteland by Solihull Moors Football Club. The local community also came together to help with the dig, but there still hasn’t been a breakthrough.

With the boys now missing for 26 years, we’ve taken a look back over the case which shocked Solihull and the rest of the country.

Disappearance of David and Patrick

On the evening of Boxing Day 1996, Patrick and David, who were best friends, left their Chelmsley Wood homes to play outside. Patrick left the house with his new bicycle, while David was on foot.

A police officer later said that he had seen the boys playing with another group of children in Meriden Park that afternoon. After returning home, they told their parents of their plans to visit one of Patrick’s brothers that evening. This was the last time their parents saw them. The boy vanished after going out that evening.

The last known sighting of Patrick and David was just after midnight by a petrol station attendant who gave them a packet of biscuits. Patrick’s brand-new red bike, which he received as a Christmas gift, was found abandoned behind the petrol station by a phone box.

In the days following their disappearance, police told the media that there was no reason to suppose that the boys had come to any harm.

In the weeks and months that followed, police thought the boys had ran away, but as the years went by, it became clear that something had happened to them.

In the 1980s, advertisements on milk cartons in the US were used to publicize cases of missing children.This tactic was deployed for the first time in the UK in 1997, when Patrick and David’s faces were among the first to appear on milk cartons in the groundbreaking campaign launched by the National Missing Persons Helpline in April that year. This is where the name Milk Carton Kids came from.

Suspects and leads

After years of fruitless searches, in 2003, the force announced that they had arrested a 37-year-old man in relation to the disappearances, but the man was later released on bail and has never been charged.

The prime suspect in the case was Brian Lunn Field. He is a convicted rapist and murderer - and was living in Solihull at the time of Patrick and David’s disappearance, working as a self employed gardener.

In 2001, Field was arrested for the abduction, rape and murder of 14-year-old Roy Tutill in Surrey in 1968. He confessed to the crime after DNA evidence surfaced in 2003.

David and Patrick were playing close to Field’s Solihull home during the evening of their disappearance. Police interviewed Field in prison in 2006 about the disappearance of Patrick and David.

But Field denied any involvement in the case and there was police said there was insufficient evidence to charge him. Officers dug up land in 2006 that he used as a dumping ground at Old Damson Lane in Solihull, but nothing was found.

West Midlands Police later revealed that Field was driving round the area of the boys’ last sighting in a van on the night of their disappearance, and that he was doing so while drunk. Field was known to have committed most of his crimes while intoxicated.

Graham Hill was the detective that got Field to confess to Tutill’s murder in 2001. He spoke to Field a number of times for West Midlands Police about the disappearance of the boys in Solihull.

In the 2021 documentary series Footsteps of Killers, Hill said he believed Field was responsible for the boys’ disappearance.

Community searches

Solihull resident Mike Aymes used to drink in local pubs with Brian Field.

Aymes has said he saw Field digging and filling holes at wasteland behind Solihull Moors FC’s ground following the boys’ disappearance. This sparked a renewed community effort to search for the boys, lead by David’s brother Lee in 2021. Community members searched the area in Solihull and dug up ground at the location in Elmsdon.

Despite police urging residents not to take matters into their own hands, almost £15,000 had been raised through a GoFundMe page towards the search, but there still hasn’t been a breakthrough.

Police said they had assessed the area in 2006 and again in recent years.

Is the case still open?

When BirminghamWorld asked West Midlands Police for the latest update on the case, the force said a current review of the case is ‘still in progress’.

A statement from West Midlands Police, read: “This very sad case has been reviewed several times and a current review is still in progress. We continue to ask anyone with information regarding the boys’ disappearance and who has not yet contacted us, to please do so. We will always act upon new information.

“Please contact us via Live Chat on our website or call us on 101. Our thoughts remain with all those affected by this tragedy.”