Rose West’s daughter says her evil mum knows what happened to Mary Bastholm, 15, but will take secret to her grave
ROSE West's daughter says her twisted mum may know what happened to 15-year-old Mary Bastholm - but fears she will take the secret to the grave.
Mae says the notorious serial killer might know crucial details about the waitress, feared chopped up and buried beneath the café in Gloucester where she was working when she vanished in 1968.
For the past week cops have been digging up the basement of the Clean Plate - just half a mile from the Wests' notorious home at 25 Cromwell Street.
The Sun exclusively revealed the news of the startling development in the 53-year-old case.
Mae told the Sunday Mirror: “I definitely want Mary’s family to have closure. It’s just so difficult that it all can’t be sorted out in one go.
When asked if she believed her estranged mum would give any details about Mary, she replied: “She won’t. I think Mary’s murder was before her time but how do I know what they discussed?”
Mae then added: “I probably asked mum about Mary when we were in safe houses. Police said we were the best officers they’d known - we’d question mum about things that they had just told us."
He diabolical dad is said to have carried out building work in the café’s basement a month before Mary went missing and years before his son told cops his sick dad has confessed to killing her.
West's first victim Anna McFall, who was killed in 1967, also worked at the diner, where the serial killer was known to be a regular customer.
Rose was also once reportedly spotted at the café - which was previously known as The Pop In - when she was younger.
It is now suspected that Mary was buried there after being murdered by builder West.
But Mae reportedly said: “How can they have evidence of a body being there?
“We’ve been trying to work out what they’ve found because they never contact us. My dad needed to know where everything was, so would he have taken that risk in the middle of a busy town?"
West abducted, sexually abused her and chopped up Mary's body before dumping it under the café, it's claimed.
The dramatic café development came after a TV production crew led by Sir Trevor McDonald uncovered potentially vital new evidence.
The team - who are making a documentary for ITV - took a cadaver dog to The Clean Plate on Southgate Street.
Mr Goatley said that although Fred West is believed to have confessed to murdering Mary, Rose West has "always denied everything".
He said: “I did ask her about Mary Bastholm and she simply responded, ‘Well I wasn’t on the scene then’.
“She was just 14 at the time, but there are a lot that links them. Fred West said in a taped interview that they were in a car going along Bristol Road when the police were doing spot checks at the time, but this was retracted because it was thought they were not together at that point.
“But from my research I believe Fred met Rose long before they claimed, when he lived in a caravan in Stoke Orchard, near to where Rose lived with her family near Bishops Cleeve.
“It was there that Fred West had young girls back to his caravan and went out looking for them.
“I think Rose West was a prime candidate for him to pick up. I have spoken to people that have told me they knew each other a lot earlier than we think.”
Mary’s friends have campaigned for years for police to dig up the café.
Childhood pal Chris Roberts said Mary knew West and had been seen in his car on several occasions.
Mary vanished on the night of January 6, 1968, while waiting at a bus stop on Gloucester’s Bristol Road on her way to see boyfriend Trevor Merrett.
She was clutching a Monopoly board game she planned to play. Several of its pieces were found on snow-covered ground near the bus stop.
Mary was wearing a fashionable lime green mini-skirt, dark pin-striped coat and also had a royal blue umbrella.
A silver locket on a chain, which the family believes belonged to Mary, was subsequently found by police at 25 Cromwell Street.
The café first came to the police’s attention after depraved Fred and his wife Rose were arrested.
Mr Roberts said the diner's tenant at the time told cops he had found a school exercise book, possibly belonging to Mary, secreted behind brickwork in the basement’s toilet area.
The dig comes too late for Mary’s immediate family, who all died without knowing what happened to her.
Her mother Doreen passed away in 1983, and father Christian in 1998.
Mary’s brother Martin died aged 77 in 2019 and her other sibling Peter went to his grave aged 75 last year.
Peter had said that he always believed she was one of West's victims.
He said: “I would like to find out what happened. Both my parents died without knowing what happened to her.”
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Mae was beaten by her mother and sexually abused by her father. Her older sister Heather, 16, and step-sister Charmaine, eight, were among their many victims.
Fred, 53, killed himself in jail in January 1995 before he could stand trial on 12 murders. Rose was later convicted of 10 killings.