Police in the UK have reopened the search for a sailor who went missing 38 years ago and is believed to have fallen victim to serial killer Allan Grimson – known as the Frankenstein killer. Simon Parkes, a sailor with the UK’s Royal Navy, was last seen in December 1986 when his ship was docked on the island of Gibraltar, and now police are searching a parking lot in the area after receiving a fresh tip-off. Excavations are taking place in Gibraltar and, separately, in the British naval town of Portsmouth.
Parkes was based on the HMS Illustrious in Gibraltar in 1986, and police have since discovered that he went drinking with Grimson on the evening he disappeared. The 18-year-old vanished on December 12, the exact date that Grimson’s previous victims were killed. Mr. Parkes was found beaten to death with a baseball bat and his ear cut off with a knife.
Margaret Parkes, Simon’s mother, said she has never given up hope that she would find out what happened to her son and called Grimson “a very dangerous man who should never be released.”
Grimson was jailed for life in 2001 for the murders of 18-year-old sailor Nicholas Wright in 1997 and 20-year-old Sion Jenkins in 1998. In 2022, however, the killer argued that he should be released on parole after serving 21 years.
In both killings, Grimson met his victims at bars and invited them back to his apartment, where he made sexual advances. When his victims spurned his advances, he raped them and beat them to death. The bodies were found on roadsides, and the killer later confessed to his crimes.
At his initial trial, the Judge, Mr Justice Cresswell, described him as a serial killer who murdered in “horrifying circumstances.” Police believe he may have killed as many as 20 people. The parole board previously denied his petition, but he is due for another hearing in February this year.
