Peter Watts: The Boy Who Died 200 Miles From Home | Midweek Mini

[gentle music] Sunday, the 18th of January, 1976, Colwyn Bay, North Wales.

For Peter Watts and his family, there was nothing about that afternoon that suggested it would become the beginning of a mystery lasting half a century.

Peter was 15 years old.

He attended Eirias High School and lived with his parents and his brother, Mark.

According to later accounts from the family, Peter's parents were planning to go out that afternoon with Mark.

Peter decided not to join them.

He had schoolwork to finish.

There was a mock exam coming up, and the story Peter gave his family was completely ordinary.

He wanted to stay home and revise.

Mark would later remember putting his head around Peter's bedroom door before leaving.

Peter appeared normal.

There was no obvious distress, no dramatic argument, nothing that made his brother think this goodbye was going to be different from any other.

It was simply, "See you later." And then Mark left the house with their parents.

At some point shortly afterwards, however, Peter changed his plans.

He left a short note.

According to police accounts, it said that he was going to help out a friend with some homework.

Again, nothing particularly alarming.

A 15-year-old leaving the house on a Sunday afternoon, the sort of thing that could happen in thousands of homes across Britain.

But this is where certainty begins to disappear.

Police later believed that Peter went to Colwyn Bay Railway Station.

A member of railway staff recalled selling a teenager matching Peter's description a ticket to Chester.

The ticket was apparently purchased using a £10 note.

But even that detail would later become controversial.

Peter's brother Mark has said that he was never completely convinced the railway employee could positively identify Peter, and that matters because almost the entire reconstruction of Peter's final journey depends on that sighting being correct.

The theory investigators eventually worked with was that Peter boarded a train heading east, the 5:15 service from Holyhead towards London.