Boy found dead in Sussex: ON TV TONIGHT, January 19, True TV cold case investigation starring Emilia Fox into boy who disappeared 42 years ago on the day Prince Charles married Diana

The 42-year-old case of a missing boy found murdered in West Sussex is to be investigated by a ‘cold case’ TV programme. Eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra disappeared near his home in Putney, London, on July 29, 1981 - the day of the royal wedding between the then Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Seven months later, two pigeon shooters found the boy’s body in a muddy copse near Rogate, nearly 50 miles away. Sussex police carried out an intensive investigation but no suspect was ever charged. Now a TV series, In The Footsteps Of Killers, featuring actress Emilia Fox and criminologist Prof David Wilson, is reopening the case on Channel 4 at 10pm on January 19. The programme will also be available to watch on the All4 streaming service. Former Midhurst & Petworth Observer chief reporter Dave Monk - who is interviewed on the documentary - recalls the murder case that still affects him to this day.

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Memories came flooding back when, out of the blue, I received a phone call about a murder I’d covered as a reporter more than 40 years ago.

On the line was a producer of a ‘cold case’ TV programme, investigating the killing of eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra, whose body was found just south of the A272 near Rogate in February 1982.

The documentary team had tracked me down from library files of Midhurst & Petworth Observer stories I had written about the case.