Elsie Frost was murdered on 9 October 1965 in Wakefield in the UK. She was 14. The murderer hasn't been caught. iPM investigates this unsolved case. ||||| A man in his 70s has been arrested on suspicion of the murder of a schoolgirl more than 50 years ago. 
 
 The police investigation into the death of Elsie Frost, 14, in West Yorkshire in 1965 was re-opened last year after a series of reports on BBC Radio 4. 
 
 Police say a 78-year-old man was held in Berkshire. The BBC understands his name is Peter Pickering. 
 
 Elsie was stabbed to death in a tunnel beneath a railway line in Wakefield on 9 October 1965. 
 
 She had been on her way home from her school's sailing club, close to the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Canal. 
 
 A large police operation followed. The area was searched for the murder weapon, which was never found and hundreds of people were interviewed but no-one was ever convicted of her murder. 
 
 As the 50th anniversary of her death approached, her older sister, Anne Cleave, contacted BBC Radio 4's PM programme, which started to look at what had happened. 
 
 As a result, police launched a new investigation. It has involved a team of 14 and thousands of pages of written evidence have been examined. 
 
 'New information' 
 
 In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said: "Officers from West Yorkshire Police`s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET) arrested a 78-year-old man in the Berkshire area on Tuesday 27 September on suspicion of the murder of 14-year-old Elsie Frost. 
 
 "The man is now in custody at a police station within the Thames Valley force area and will be questioned by West Yorkshire officers". 
 
 Image copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption Elsie's body was found on 9 October 1965 beneath a railway line in Wakefield 
 
 It is only the second arrest since the killing. The first was in 1966 when a 33-year-old man was charged with her murder. The case was thrown out in court after a judge instructed the jury to find him not guilty. 
 
 Reacting to the arrest, Elsie Frost's younger brother, Colin said: "As a family, we're very pleased. All we wanted was to be taken seriously. 
 
 "We were aware that mistakes were made in 1965 but we've been impressed with the commitment of West Yorkshire Police in the reinvestigation - the number of officers involved, the number of agencies involved. 
 
 "We wanted the re-investigation to be re-opened and that's what we've achieved." 
 
 Det Supt Nick Wallen, who is leading the investigation, said: "We have received significant numbers of calls and emails from members of the public offering new information, and have generated new lines of inquiry which officers have been progressing ever since." 
 
 He praised Elsie Frost's family for their perseverance and said they are being kept fully informed. ||||| Police officers investigating the murder of a schoolgirl who died more than 50 years ago have arrested a man in his 70s. 
 
 Elsie Frost, a 14-year-old school prefect, was walking alongside a canal towpath in her bright red jacket, floral skirt and new shoes when she was stabbed in her back and head on 9 October 1965. 
 
 A new investigation into Elsie’s murder was launched in 2015 by West Yorkshire police, involving a team of 14 police officers who examined thousands of pages of written evidence. 
 
 On Tuesday, officers from the force’s homicide and major inquiry team arrested a 78-year-old man in Berkshire – named locally as Peter Pickering – on suspicion of her murder. He is now in custody at a police station in the Thames Valley and will be questioned by West Yorkshire officers. 
 
 Although Elsie was murdered more than half a century ago her family never gave up hope of finding her killer. 
 
 
 
 The horrific events that Saturday afternoon in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, left scars on the close-knit community: Elsie’s parents, railway worker Arthur and his wife, Edith, died without seeing anyone brought to justice for their youngest daughter’s murder. 
 
 
 
 But last year the case was reopened when her siblings 69-year-old Anne Cleave, who was 18 at the time of the murder, and 58-year-old Colin, who was six, contacted the media calling for a fresh investigation. 
 
 Elsie’s sister said the family would continue to push for justice. “It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. We were aware that there had been mistakes in the early days, but the police have worked really hard on our behalf to get this far in the past year,” she said. 
 
 “You are never quite aware what you will feel like when these announcements are made. We have both felt queasy and a bit stressed when we found out about the arrest. The bigger step will come if he is charged.” 
 
 While the family did not know how the case would develop, she added that the police had been “amazing” at keeping them informed. 
 
 “When you have got something you are looking for, and that’s justice, then you have to keep pushing for it. We want justice for Elsie.” 
 
 Speaking about the new arrest, Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen, senior investigating officer, said: “A re-investigation into Elsie’s murder was launched in 2015 by West Yorkshire police, backed by a publicity campaign on the 50th anniversary of her death. 
 
 “Since then we have received significant numbers of calls and emails from members of the public offering new information, and have generated new lines of inquiry which officers have been progressing ever since. 
 
 “Following those inquiries we have now arrested a 78-year-old man in the Berkshire area and will be interviewing him under caution to progress our investigation.” 
 
 Colin Frost told the BBC: “As a family, we’re very pleased. All we wanted was to be taken seriously. 
 
 “We were aware that mistakes were made in 1965, but we’ve been impressed with the commitment of West Yorkshire police in the reinvestigation – the number of officers involved, the number of agencies involved. 
 
 “We wanted the investigation to be reopened and that’s what we’ve achieved.” 
 
 On the day of her death, Elsie had gone to watch her friends learn to sail at a water-filled gravel pit known as Millfield lagoon near her home in the suburban area of Lupset, on the south side of Wakefield. 
 
 According to one version of events, she chose a different route home to her friends along the towpath to avoid getting her new shoes muddy. As she entered a 30ft tunnel beneath a railway embankment she was struck from behind and stabbed. 
 
 A post-mortem examination found she had been stabbed five times – twice in the back, twice in the head, once through the hand – with the fatal blow piercing her heart. 
 
 Despite her terrible injuries, Elsie managed to stumble through the tunnel to the bottom of what locals called the “ABC steps”; a steep flight of 26 steps up to the main road. 
 
 She was found dying at the bottom of the steps by a local man, Thomas Brown. 
 
 Brown, who had taken his three-year-old daughter, Beverley, five-year-old son, Martin, and their dog Pip for a walk, saw Elsie face down and assumed she had fallen down the stairs. 
 
 Within minutes, others appeared on the scene and waited with her body while Brown ran to call for an ambulance and the police. They included lock-keeper Ralph Brewster and John Blackburn, one of the sailing instructors from the lagoon. 
 
 Back at Elsie’s home in Manor Haigh Road, her parents received a visit from the police, who informed them that their daughter had died. 
 
 A clear motive was never established by police. The pathologist who examined the Snapethorpe high school pupil’s body gave the cause of death as “shock and haemorrhage due to multiple stab wounds”. 
 
 The hunt for the killer made national news for weeks. West Yorkshire police combed the area for clues and divers searched the river and lagoons for the murder weapon. Scotland Yard detectives joined the investigation. 
 
 Police officers went from door to door interviewing every man living in the area. About 12,000 men were questioned by police, including members of her own family. 
 
 While the police investigation continued, an inquest was opened and adjourned by the Leeds and Wakefield coroner, Philip Gill. 
 
 One arrest was made at the time of the murder, but a judge cleared Ian Bernard Spencer, who was 33 at the time, of any involvement. ||||| Responding to news of the arrest last night, Mrs Cleave, said the development represented a “step in the right direction”. 
 
 She said: “It has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. We were aware that there had been mistakes in the early days but the police have worked really hard on our behalf to get this far in the past year. 
 
 "You are never quite aware what you will feel like when these announcements are made. We have both felt queasy and a bit stressed when we found out about the arrest. 
 
 “We don't know how things are going to develop. When you have got something you are looking for, and that's justice, then you have to keep pushing for it. We want justice for Elsie.”
– When 14-year-old Elsie Frost was found dying of multiple stab wounds in a tunnel under a West Yorkshire train overpass in October of 1965, the news of her vicious murder "caused widespread shock and revulsion" across England, reports the Telegraph. But in spite of police questioning 12,000 men, only one suspect was ever arrested in the intervening five decades, and the case against him was ultimately thrown out for lack of evidence. Elsie's parents both died without learning who had killed their daughter, and her older sister and younger brother say that after all these years they want justice, and "didn’t want to die thinking we had not done anything." Now, finally, police say there's been a break in the case. A year after Elsie's siblings asked police to reopen their investigation—which they did following a BBC Radio 4 series on the murder—authorities say they've arrested a 78-year-old man, reports the BBC. Peter Pickering, who was born in Manchester, apparently had links to Yorkshire, where Elsie was murdered, and would have been in his mid-20s in 1965. Though a murder weapon was never found, Elsie, who was said to have taken a different route home from school because she didn't want to get her new shoes muddy on her usual route, was found stabbed twice in the back (one pierced her heart), twice in the head, and once through the hand, reports the Guardian. (Forensic evidence helped solve this 43-year-old cold case.)