WHILE THE WORLD WAS GLUED TO ITS TV SCREENS IN JULY 1981, A BOY WAS KIDNAPPED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
0 n Wednesday 10 May this year, senior detectives from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team visited the home of Vishambar Mehrotra. They came to inform him that, based on new evidence unearthed by a BBC podcast and a Channel 4 documentary, they were reopening the cold-case murder of his eight-year-old son Vishal. And while 42 years have passed since the family’s lives were changed irrevocably, the news that Vishal’s killers may one day be brought to justice is something they have been waiting a lifetime to hear.
It was 29 July 1981, and the day that is remembered globally as the day a young Diana Spencer married Prince Charles is alsothedayabright, beautiful boyvanished into thin air. That day, lawyer Vishambar, Vishal, and his little sister Mamta took the train from the family home in Putney into central London, accompanied by their live-in nanny Joannita Carvalho. The children’s mother had separated from Vishambar two years earlier and had returned to their native India. London was abuzz with excitement about the royal wedding, and street parties and celebrations were in full swing. Vishambar’s office had decided to celebrate by inviting employees and their families to watch the procession from their enviable vantage point overlooking the streets below. The party began at 11.30am, in time to catch a glimpse of the carriage carrying Diana to St Paul’s as it passed below. After the festivities, the family returned home to watch the rest of ceremony on TV, taking a District Line train to East Putney just after 1pm. The family were set to depart on a holiday to Jersey the next day, but Vishal had a cough, so the children’s nanny took the kids to go and buy cough medicine. Vishambar went straight home, and fell asleep as soon as he got there. A few minutes later, Vishal said he was also tired and wanted to go home, rather than go and buy the medicine. The journey back to their house was not far and he’d walked the route on his own many times before, though today the streets were deserted. When Mamta and the nanny returned to the house, there was no sign of Vishal. Assuming he had gone to play at a friend’s, the nanny and Mamta took a nap. But when they awoke at 4.30pm, Vishal still had not returned and concern began to grow. There was no question of him getting lost on his journey back, and he wasn’t with any of his friends. So, at 7pm, Vishal was reported missing, and the following morning, the police began combing the surrounding areas. In the weeks that followed, they interviewed thousands of people and searched hundreds of homes, but Vishal had vanished without a trace.
