The Puzzling Case of the ‘Lady in the Lake’

Carol Park’s body lay undiscovered for over two decades. When found, her husband found himself in the firing line. Despite Carol’s family believing he murdered his first wife, many believe he was wrongfully convicted, and appeal for his conviction to be turned, a decade after his suicide.

Gordon and Carol Park

Gordon Park worked as a primary school teacher in the small village of Leece, in Cumbria, England. He and Carol had two children together, as well as their adopted niece.

Park stated that in the years leading up to Carol’s disappearance, the couple had several affairs; but remained married. In 1975, the couple had a custody hearing for their children, due to their relationship collapsing, and Carol wanting to settle down with her lover.

Unfortunately, the hearing did not go as Carol had planned, and she made the ultimate sacrifice; moving back home into a loveless marriage to be a mother to her children.

In July 1976, the first day of the summer holidays, Gordon and the children went on a short break to Blackpool. Carol allegedly refused to go with them and opted to stay home, never to be seen again.

Because of the nature of their relationship, Gordon waited six weeks before reporting Carol as missing, assuming she had left for another man over the summer, while she was not working.

When she did not return to work in September, Gordon finally told his solicitor that she was missing, and informed her family in September 1976.

When asked for information, Gordon claimed he had returned home to an empty house on that day in particular. Carol had left her money and wedding ring behind, so he assumed that she had left him for another affair.

Police did inform Gordon that should a body be found, he would be the main suspect; however, nothing came of the missing person inquiry that was launched, and the case went cold.

Despite this, the family had their doubts and believed Gordon may have known more than he was reporting.

Between this point and 1997, Gordon remarried twice, having filed for divorce from Carol on the grounds of desertion He met both of these women through teaching, which, ironically, was also the same way he had met Carol.

The Discovery

On 13th August 1997, twenty-one years after her disappearance, amateur divers discovered Carol Park’s body, posed forever in the fetal position, at the bottom of Coniston Water.

Her eyes were covered with plasters, and she was wearing only a nightgown. Her body had been wrapped in a rucksack and various plastic bags, that had been tied with many knots. The bags also contained various items of clothing, shoes, and makeup, as well as lead piping, presumably to weigh the body down in the hopes of it not being found.

It was reported much later that the body had landed on a ledge of some sorts, but had it been discarded just metres further, it may never have been found.

A post mortem confirmed the body belonged to Carol Park, and detailed the extent of her injuries. She had severe injuries to the skull and face, which were thought to be caused by an ice axe, though this has since been disputed because of the damage caused to her teeth.

Park’s Arrest and Charges

At the time of discovery, Gordon Park was on a holiday with his third wife. Upon his return, he was arrested on suspicion of murder. One of the primary reasons for this arrest was the intricate knots used to secure Carol’s body. Gordon was a big fan of sailing and climbing, and would likely be proficient in tying complicated knots such as the ones used.

When interviewed by investigators, Park was said to be extremely emotionless. He allegedly did not speak of his first wife as though he loved her, and spoke of her more as a commodity or inconvenience, which heightened suspicion.

Gordon was charged with the murder of Carol Park and spent two weeks in Preston prison. After this fortnight, his solicitors persuaded the court to grant him bail, and all charges against him were dropped due to a lack of evidence.

New Evidence and Second Arrest

In early 2004, Gordon Park was arrested once again, due to new leads being pursued.

Investigators had revisited the site of the discovery and recovered pieces of slate and rock that matched those in the garden of the house the couple shared. Though this evidence was purely circumstantial, it was brought forward to court, in a trial lasting ten weeks.

The only evidence that was not merely circumstantial were two statements from inmates at Preston prison. One of these inmates was a man who suffered from severe learning difficulties, with a mental age of 9. Because of this, Police were reluctant to take him in as a witness, but found his difficulties caused him to be unable to fabricate or even remember imaginary stories.

Both inmates claimed that Gordon was emotionally suffering during his short stay in prison, and, possibly in a moment of weakness, admitted his guilt to each of them on separate occasions.

During the trial, the prosecution suggested that Park intended to strangle his wife, but instead used a weapon to deliver considerable blows to her head when she started struggling. After this, he secured her body in bags, and disposed of her in the lake, before resuming his daily activities.

In addition to this, the prosecution also speculated that Carol had been killed quite a while before the disposal of her body, and suggested she had been stored in a chest freezer for some time before Gordon eventually decided to leave her in Coniston Water.

Despite the evidence being purely circumstantial or based on inmate statements, Gordon Park was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Appeals and Gordon Park’s death

In 2007, the solicitors that represented Gordon Park released a public statement claiming that due to fresh evidence, they were launching a campaign to clear his name, as the case had been based on purely circumstantial evidence.

Supporters of Gordon claimed to have a signed statement from one of the witnesses, which stated that they were coerced and their words twisted.

In 2008, however, the appeal bid was rejected. Lord Justice Keene released the reasons for this, stating that the new evidence that was presented did not create a reasonable doubt in terms of his conviction.

On 25th January 2010, on his 66th birthday, Gordon Park was found hanged and unresponsive in his cell, where he was pronounced dead. Many believe that this suicide was an admission of guilt, however, his children still firmly attest to his innocence.

A second appeal began for Park in November 2019, due to new findings from the CCRC. They released new findings, which included Gordon’s DNA not being on the rope used to tie Carol’s body, and one witness statement being unreliable due to police coercion.

Despite these findings, the appeal was rejected in May 2020, and Park has not been posthumously pardoned.

Is this an unsolved mystery?

Ultimately there has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the handling of this case, and many people are still in support of Park, a decade after his death.

Though Carol’s family and friends believe justice has been served, Gordon’s family, and many of the public still maintain Gordon’s innocence, claiming that the investigation was flawed.

The pure timescale between the time of death and time of discovery made the investigation much harder, especially when it came to collecting evidence and tracking down potential witnesses.

One such witness who has been challenged is Joan Young, who came forward in 2004. She claimed to have seen somebody pushing a large bag over the side of a boat into Coniston Water.

This account was used in court, however many are quick to dismiss it, due to the lengthy passage of time between the event and the trial, and also with it being impossible to distinguish a person clearly from such a distance.

Finally, there is a huge discrepancy regarding the murder weapon. In court, an ice-axe was used as an example of something that could have caused Carol’s injuries, due to Gordon owning one, however, this was used purely as a reference point, and no actual weapon has ever been identified, again pointing to the possibility that Gordon had no involvement in his wife’s murder.

Ultimately we may never know what happened to Carol Park.

The suicide of Gordon meant any secrets he kept about the case went with him to the grave, and appeals for the case to be reopened are continuously rejected, with the courts believing that justice has been served, much to the disagreement of Gordon’s supporters.