Murder of Vera Page

No individual was ever charged with the murder of Vera Page. Percy Rush himself died of natural causes in Ealing in the autumn of 1961.

Strong physical and circumstantial evidence existed attesting to the guilt of a 41-year-old labourer named Percy Orlando Rush, whose parents lived in the same house as Vera. However, at a coroner's inquest held on 10 February 1932, a jury determined that insufficient real evidence existed to formally charge Rush with her murder. Officially, the case remains unsolved.

Though his movements on the date of the murder were never independently corroborated, at the subsequent coroner's inquest held on 10 February 1932, Rush claimed that on 14 December, his wife, Daisy, had been absent from the family home until the early evening and that he had opted to go shopping in Kensington after finishing work as he did not wish to be alone in the family home. He claimed to have returned home at approximately 8:30 p.m. and that his wife had returned home shortly thereafter. The two had gone to sleep at approximately 10:15 p.m. Rush further claimed to have not visited his parents on Monday 14 December, although he did admit he had typically visited his parents on a Monday. In response to specific allegations from the coroner that he had intentionally lured Vera to the coal shed close to Addison Road where he had then proceeded to rape, then strangle the child to death before later discarding her body in the front garden of 89 Addison Road, Rush became emphatic in his denials, claiming not to have known Vera as well as his initial witness statement to police had suggested and stating he had only ever spoken to Vera once.

The murder of Vera Page is a British unsolved child murder case from the early 1930s. On 14 December 1931, 10-year-old Vera Page was reported missing after she failed to return to her home in Notting Hill, London, from a visit to a nearby relative. The child's body was found two days later in undergrowth in nearby Addison Road. Vera had been raped, then manually strangled to death in a murder described by one detective as "the most terrible in which I had to deal with during my career".

To supplement the family income, Charles and Isabel occasionally allowed lodgers to reside in their home, although these lodgers were always either family members or individuals known to the family. In January 1931, the Page family moved from Chapel Road, Notting Hill (now known as St. Marks Place), to a three-storey house in nearby Blenheim Crescent. The family did not occupy the whole house, but rooms on both the ground floor and basement. Other occupants who resided in the upper floors of this property included a middle-aged couple named Arthur and Annie Rush, who had lived within the property for approximately twenty years.

On 14 December 1931, Vera left her home at 22 Blenheim Crescent at 4:30 p.m. to walk approximately fifty yards to the home of her aunt, Minnie, who lived at number 70 Blenheim Crescent. The purpose of this short journey was to collect two swimming certificates she had been awarded but had left with her aunt the previous day. When Vera had not returned home by 5:30 p.m., her father paid a visit to her aunt, who informed him Vera had collected her swimming certificates and then left her home at approximately 4:45 p.m., intending to return home in time for her evening meal. Having first visited the homes of all of Vera's friends and relatives in the hope his daughter may be with an acquaintance, Charles visited Notting Hill police station to report Vera as missing at 10:25 p.m. Assisted by several friends and neighbours, Vera's parents continued their search for her throughout the evening and into the morning. The following day, the child's physical description was circulated among local police and by the evening of 15 December, local media had been notified of her disappearance.

Percy Orlando Rush was a 41-year-old married man who lived close to Blenheim Crescent and who had worked as a flannel washer in a launderette in Earl's Court for two years. Rush's parents lived in the upper floors of 22 Blenheim Crescent, and he and his wife had lived in the premises until 1925, although after their relocation to nearby Talbot Road he had continued to regularly visit his parents, having a key to their home. Rush freely admitted to having known Vera—whom he described as "a nice little girl"—although he claimed to have not seen her for approximately three weeks before her disappearance.

Vera Isobel Minnie Page was born on 13 April 1921 in Hammersmith, London, the only child born to Charles and Isabel Page. The Page family were working-class. Vera's father was employed as a painter with Great Western Railways and her mother was a housewife. Vera has been described as a popular yet shy and well-behaved girl.