Denise Bulger was frantic when her 2-year-old son James vanished on a frigid day in February 1993, from the New Strand Shopping Center in Bootle, in northern England.
Denise, her sister-in-law and the child had stopped inside a butcher shop when James disappeared.
Nine hours later, as authorities searched for any sign of the boy, they were shocked by what they saw on CCTV footage: two young boys, with one holding James’ little hand, leading him away from the store.
“You had to look twice because it was surprising,” Detective Inspector Jim Fitzsimmons of the Merseyside Police told 60 Minutes Australia in 2021.
“I remember I had to think, ‘What does that mean?’ It was just something I didn’t expect to see.”
James Bulger.
AP Photo/PA
James didn’t leave the store on his own. “He was guided,” Fitzsimmons said. “This was an abduction.”
The sweet little boy’s chilling disappearance turned into one of England’s most horrifying cases when police learned the truth about what had happened to him.
Two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, led James for two miles to a deserted section of train tracks in Walton, Liverpool, where they tortured and killed him.
Robert Thompson.
AP Photo/PA
They struck him with bricks, stones and a piece of metal, according to a 1993 story in The Guardian.
They also reportedly banged his head on the ground and threw paint in his eyes, the BBCreports.
After mercilessly beating James, they left his lifeless body on the train tracks, where it was severed in half by a train, according to The Guardian.
On Feb. 20, 1993, the pair were both charged with abduction and murder. Nine months later, on Nov. 24, 1993, they were convicted of killing James.
During the trial, prosecutor Richard Henriques told the jury that when Denise was in the butcher shop, she “believed James was by her side when she was being served — but when she looked down, he was gone,” The Guardian reported.
Witnesses said they saw James crying and in distress as he was led away from the shopping center by the two boys, but figured he was with his two older brothers, the prosecutor said.
James’ remains were found with multiple fractures to the skull, bruising on his face and cuts on his lip, The Guardian reports.
The two boys had tried to kidnap another 2-year-old boy at the shopping center, but that boy’s mom saw her son with them and yelled for her son to return to her, the prosecutor said, according to The Guardian.
At the time of the trial, the boys were not publicly identified because they were minors.
They were sentenced to be detained indefinitely “at Her Majesty’s pleasure,” the BBC reports.
In June 2001, when Thompson and Venables were 18, they were released on parole and given new identities so they could maintain anonymity, according to the BBC.
In 2010, Venables returned to prison for violating his parole. After being released in 2013, he was sent back to prison again in 2017 for possession of child sexual abuse images, the BBC reports.
In 2023, he appealed for release on parole but was rejected. During that hearing, James’ father, Ralph Bulger, wept on the stand, asking the court to keep Venables in prison.
The stress of losing their son led Denise and Ralph to divorce.
In 2013, Ralph, told the BBC that “losing James just ripped us apart.”
