Cold Case SOLVED After 36 Years By Chewing Gum | Nova Welsh Case… | Mysterious Hook 

In July 1981, a 24-year-old mother of two, Nova Welsh, disappeared without a trace in Birmingham, England. No one knew what had become of her until three weeks later when her decaying body was found inside a storage cupboard in her own home. Detectives launched an investigation but would not make a breakthrough until 36 years later. Nova’s killer was all the while right under their noses.

So who was this individual, and what was their motive for taking Nova’s life?

Hi, and welcome back to Mysterious Hook. Today, we’re looking at a case where DNA from chewing gum helps solve a crime after 36 years. But first, if you have time, please subscribe to the channel.

So, without any further ado, let’s dive right into this mystery.

Today’s case will take us to Birmingham, a city in the metropolitan county of the West Midlands in England, with a population of more than one million people. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom.

It’s also known as the City of a Thousand Trades due to its status as the world’s first manufacturing town. Birmingham is famous not only for its manufacturing roots but also well known for its heritage in the world of food and cuisine, legendary rock music, and bustling nightlife.

Nova was born in 1957 in Jamaica. She was not an only child but had a younger sister by the name of Valerie.

Nova grew up into a carefree and happy child whom everyone in the neighborhood couldn’t help but love.

“Nova was a lovely person, always happy and smiling,” said Nova’s best friend, Lorna Edmund.

When Nova was 10 years old, her mother, Lorna Welsh, decided to move to the United Kingdom in search of greener pastures. It was quite a tough decision as it meant she had to leave behind the people and place they had become so familiar with.

However, the desire to give her girls the best in life helped her to remain resolved to leave the country.

Not long after making the decision, Lorna and her daughters traveled to the UK and began their lives afresh. Life in the United Kingdom was very different from what they were used to, but as time went on, the family adjusted and settled well into their new environment.

When Nova was around the age of 16, she met and fell in love with Osmond Bell, a young boy who was also the same age as her.

In no time, they both started a romantic relationship.

Perhaps Nova was simply blinded by love, or perhaps she only wanted her independence, but a few months down the line, she made known her intention to leave home.

She told her mother that she and Osmond had decided to begin living together.

It is not clear if Lorna approved of this decision or not, but regardless, Nova eventually moved and went to live with Osmond.

Two years later, Nova and Osmond welcomed their first child. It was a boy, and they named him Jonathan.

Four years later, they had another son, and he was given the name Lee.

Nova was a devoted mother to her young sons and loved them wholeheartedly.

To provide for themselves as well as their children, the couple took up different jobs. Nova worked as a part-time cleaner, while Osmond was a builder.

Life seemed to be going at a pretty good pace, but sadly, things would not stay the same.

At some point, the love between Nova and Osmond began to deteriorate. The spark that had been there at the beginning of their relationship gradually faded.

The consequence of this was that the couple began to quarrel more frequently. It became common for neighbors to hear the sound of the couple’s noisy fights in their apartment located in the Ladywood area.

Their disagreements also sometimes escalated into violence, with Osmond hitting her and leaving her with bruises.

With each passing day, Nova became increasingly unhappy in her relationship, and she confided in her younger sister Valerie as well as some close friends about what she was going through.

In the end, she made up her mind to give love a chance with someone else.

She told Osmond that she was no longer interested in the relationship, but despite her ending things, Osmond was not ready to let her go.

In May 1981, Nova met a man by the name of Wayne Newby, and they both got into a relationship.

As their romance progressed, Wayne would sometimes visit her at her home.

This did not sit well with Osmond, and it gave him more reasons to fight with Nova.

In June 1981, Nova’s stepsister Sonia visited her for a few days.

During this period, Sonia witnessed one of their fights and how ugly it could get.

On that particular day, Sonia had been in the living room when she heard a scream from the direction of the kitchen.

It was unmistakably Nova’s voice, and she quickly ran to the kitchen to find out what was wrong.

What she saw alarmed her.

Nova was down on the floor while Osmond stood angrily over her with a dishcloth wrapped around his hands.

In the moments that followed, Sonia made it clear that she would call the police, but Osmond tried to stop her from taking this action.

When police officers later arrived at the house, they asked what had happened, and Nova was the one who did the explaining.

She told them that she and Osmond had been arguing and she wanted him to leave the house.

She never told police that the real reason why they had argued was because she had gone out the previous night and Osmond had not been pleased about this.

He had confronted her when she got back from her outing, and things had escalated from there, with him grabbing her by the neck and trying to strangle her.

After Nova was done talking, officers moved to where Osmond was and spoke to him.

He did not argue but packed his bags and left the house.

It was a moment of relief for Nova, and she knew that things would become less heated from that moment.

She was right.

With Osmond no longer around, she had the freedom to spend more time with her lover Wayne.

There was no longer the worry of having to meet an angry Osmond after getting back from a late-night outing.

She also had more reasons to laugh and was generally happier.

But as it turned out, Nova’s newfound joy would be short-lived.

On July 24, 1981, Nova took her two sons, Jonathan and Lee, to stay with their father Osmond.

She had earlier made plans to go dancing with Wayne and some of her friends, and because of this, she did not want to leave her two sons all alone in the house.

Apart from this, she also felt like taking them over would be a great way for them to bond with their father.

After dropping the boys over at Osmond’s place, she made for the club where she and Wayne had agreed to meet.

That evening was fun-filled as she danced to her heart’s content, and with Wayne by her side, she felt once again like a teenager in love.

By the time she decided to leave the club, it had already gotten dark.

She bade Wayne and their other friends goodbye and left for her apartment.

That would be the last time any one of them would see her alive.

The following morning, which was July 25th, 1981, Nova’s neighbors Carmen and Wendell Turner, who lived in the flat below hers, were awoken by a noise.

It was coming from Nova’s apartment above, and it was the familiar sound of an argument that they had heard many times before.

This time around, they could only hear Nova crying.

On the evening of that same day, another neighbor saw Nova and would later tell the police that she appeared visibly upset about something.

Almost seven hours later, at around 12:30 a.m., Carmen and Wendell heard a loud bang from above.

While contemplating what or who could have made such a noise in the middle of the night, a second bang followed.

That particular one sounded like somebody kicked a door.

Carmen and Wendell listened for more sound, but it never came.

Without any further disturbances, they went to sleep and did not think much about the noise they had just heard.

The following morning, July 26th, 1981, Nova’s mother Lorna became worried because she had not heard from her daughter.

It was unlike Nova to go for such a long period without contacting her family, and Lorna began to fear that something might have happened.

She decided to call Nova’s apartment, but there was no answer.

After several attempts, she became even more concerned.

She then contacted Nova’s friends and asked if they had spoken to her, but nobody had heard from her since the night before.

As the hours passed, Lorna’s worries continued to grow.

She eventually decided to go to Nova’s apartment herself to check on her.

When she arrived, she immediately noticed that something was wrong.

The apartment door was locked, and there was no sign of Nova anywhere.

Lorna knocked repeatedly and called out her daughter’s name, but there was no response.

She contacted the authorities, and police officers soon arrived at the apartment.

When they entered the home, they immediately noticed signs that something terrible had happened.

The apartment was in disarray, and there were signs of a struggle.

Furniture had been moved, and items were scattered around the rooms.

The officers searched the apartment and eventually made a horrifying discovery.

Inside a storage cupboard, they found Nova’s body.

The condition of the scene shocked everyone.

Nova had been dead for several weeks, and her body had begun to decompose.

The discovery confirmed everyone’s worst fears.

The woman who had disappeared without a trace had been murdered inside her own home.

The police immediately began treating the case as a homicide investigation.

Detectives carefully examined the apartment, collecting every possible piece of evidence that could help them identify Nova’s killer.

They questioned neighbors, family members, and anyone who might have information about what happened.

One of the first people detectives wanted to speak with was Osmond Bell.

Given their troubled relationship and history of domestic violence, investigators considered him a person of interest.

However, Osmond denied having anything to do with Nova’s death.

He claimed that after leaving the apartment, he had moved on with his life and had no reason to harm her.

Despite his denial, detectives continued looking into his background and his relationship with Nova.

They also interviewed Wayne Newby and Nova’s friends to understand more about her life before she disappeared.

Wayne told investigators about their relationship and how happy Nova seemed during their time together.

He explained that he had last seen her when they left the nightclub on July 24th.

At that point, the investigation had very few answers.

The police knew Nova had been killed, but they did not know who was responsible or why.

The case quickly became one of the most challenging investigations in the area.

For years, detectives followed leads, questioned suspects, and reviewed evidence, but the truth remained hidden.

Nova’s family was left devastated.

Her mother Lorna struggled to understand how someone could take away her daughter’s life.

She wanted justice, but as the years passed, hope began to fade.

The case eventually became another cold case sitting unsolved in police records.

But decades later, advancements in forensic technology would give investigators another chance.

The evidence collected back in 1981 had never been forgotten.

And one small piece of evidence would eventually reveal the identity of Nova’s killer.

It was something most people would have overlooked.

A simple piece of chewing gum.

Years went by, and the case of Nova Welsh remained unsolved.

The investigation had gone cold, but detectives never completely gave up.

The evidence collected from the crime scene was carefully preserved, including items that had been recovered from Nova’s apartment.

As technology advanced, investigators began to re-examine old cases using new forensic methods.

Decades after Nova’s murder, detectives decided to take another look at the evidence.

Among the items that had been preserved was a piece of chewing gum that had been discovered during the original investigation.

At the time, investigators had no way of extracting useful information from it.

But with modern DNA technology, they hoped it could finally provide answers.

Forensic experts analyzed the chewing gum and managed to recover a DNA profile.

The discovery gave investigators a new direction.

The DNA profile was compared against databases, but initially, there was no match.

However, detectives continued their efforts.

They began using advanced genealogical techniques to search for possible relatives connected to the DNA.

After years of uncertainty, investigators finally identified a possible suspect.

The DNA pointed them toward a man named Michael Hames.

Detectives began looking into his background and discovered that he had lived in the same area as Nova at the time of her murder.

They also discovered that Michael had known Nova.

The evidence suggested that he had been connected to her life shortly before she was killed.

Investigators gathered enough information to confirm that Michael was the person responsible for Nova’s death.

After 36 years, the mystery surrounding Nova Welsh’s murder had finally been solved.

However, Michael Hames would never face justice in court because he had already died.

Even though the killer was no longer alive, the discovery still brought some answers to Nova’s family.

For decades, they had lived without knowing what happened to their beloved daughter, sister, and friend.

Nova’s family expressed relief that the truth had finally been revealed.

They knew that nothing could bring Nova back, but knowing who was responsible gave them a sense of closure.

The case of Nova Welsh showed how advances in forensic science could help solve even the oldest mysteries.

A tiny piece of evidence that was once overlooked became the key to unlocking the truth.

After 36 years, a mother finally received the answers she had been waiting for.

Nova’s story remains a reminder that no matter how much time passes, investigators will continue searching for justice.

Because even the smallest piece of evidence can one day reveal the truth.