The Prices, Ivor and Maureen, recall seeing Carol at a childrens event at the civic hall in Barrow. One of them put it as the 15th of July, the Thursday. Mrs. Price I think thought it might have been a little earlier. They had seen Carol at the interval and again after the event. She seemed in Mr. Price's words very depressed. Mrs. Price said she seemed quiet and subdued.
Mrs. Regan, again the caretaker at Ascombe, remembered speaking to Carol she thought on the last day of term. That was one of our agreed facts is that that was Friday the 16th of July, the last day. She had seemed cheerful and had asked Mrs. Regan to visit her during the holidays. She talked of taking the children to Blackpool, she seemed happy about the prospect of a trip.
Mr. Moffatt, a colleague that I have already mentioned, said he had spoken to Carol shortly before the end of term. They had talked about prospects for the new term in September. He had the impression she was looking forward to it and lots of ideas about what to do with the children, and the conversation he said was a short and unremarkable conversation between colleagues. He said he did not know Carol Park particularly well. She seemed happy, but their relationship was not one that would have led Carol to confide in him about any inner troubles she might have had.
We also have the evidence of another possible sighting of Carol Park on that day from Mrs. Baines, whose statement was read to you. She was unable to attend because of her ill-health and had had recent cognitive difficulties, I think was the word. She said that in a 1997 statement that she had known Ivor Price in the 1970's, because he and she had attended the same church. She knew Carol. She and Carol had been in adjacent beds at a hospital before Carol was married. Carol had been kind and helpful to her. After that they tended to meet from time to time in the street and would talk. In one such talk, this must have been before August of 1967, Mrs. Baines heard that Carol was engaged to be married, and she had given Mrs. Baines the impression that she had "made it" because of the marriage into the Park family. Perhaps alone among the witnesses, she talked of Carol being snobbish after her marriage and that Carol had stopped speaking to her, and it was such an incident that Mrs. Baines recalled from the Charnock Richard service area. She told us in the statement that in the Summer of 1976, she and her family were embarking on a caravan holiday. They left home at about four p.m. her husband having finished work at three. They got to the service area at around six. There the family visited the lavatories, and as she walked to the ladies room, Carol Park was walking towards her. Mrs. Baines said in the statement she was sure that Carol had seen her. She deliberately turned her head away so as to avoid speaking. Mrs. Baines mentioned this to her daughter and again to her husband on return to the car. They then left the area, and Mrs. Baines thought no more about it. She remembered nothing about Carol's clothing, except that she was carrying a leather hunter handbag over her shoulder, as was her custom at the time. I am afraid a hunter handbag meant nothing to me. Maybe it did to the ladies on the jury. Anyway, later she saw a newspaper article reporting Carol Park's disappearance. She thought she had seen it in August or September of 1976. Mrs. Baines got in touch with Ivor Price, whom she knew better, and told him. Mr. Price had asked her to report the matter to the police, which she did and gave a statement. After the discovery of the body in 1997, she learnt that the original police papers had been lost and she was upset about that. She contacted Mr. Park's solicitors, and after that she considered the dates involved. She checked an old diary and found that the 17th of July, the date reported for Carol's disappearance had been a Saturday. On her husband's calendar, he had marked that day as the first day of his holiday. However, she said if he had worked on the Saturday, he would have finished at one p.m. Therefore she deduced that it was not the Saturday when they were travelling down the motorway, they must have set off the previous day, Friday the 16th. That was the day on which she said she saw Carol at Charnock Richard. Mrs. Baines thinks she had not realised this date mix up when she originally reported the matter to the police in 1976, and thought at that time the sighting was on Saturday the 17th of July. I think Counsel both suggest to you that Mrs. Baines must be mistaken about the date of the sighting. Well, you have heard the evidence and you will have to consider whether that is so or not. If it was Friday, did Carol come back to Leece later that night? We do not know.