'I didn't think I'd ever be down here again' friend returns to murder scene for first time in 50 years

As the 50th anniversary approaches of the unsolved murder of West Yorkshire teenager Elsie Frost, her close friend breaks a half century silence to recall the guilt she has lived with ever since the crime.

64-year-old Janis Hirst and Elsie were close pals through junior and secondary school.

Both dreamt of being nurses and would chat about their hopes as they walked every weekend to the Wakefield sailing club they were members of.

But on 9 October 1965, Janis had to go grocery shopping for her ill mother so was unable to join her pal that Saturday afternoon to teach scouts how to sail on a local lagoon.

Over that weekend, Janis was told her dark-haired, slim-built friend had been stabbed to death as she walked home alone from their usual sailing session at Horbury Lagoon, her body found at the bottom of 26 steps, dubbed the ABC steps by locals in Thornes.

ITV Calendar took mum-of-two Janis back to the crime scene as she paid tribute to her friend.

Janis became a cadet nurse at 16 and wrote a letter to Elsie telling her she was fulfilling their dream and wished she was with her. In a second letter when she was in her 40s, Janis apologised for not being with her at the end and asked Elsie to forgive that.

Rumours abounded as to who killed Elsie with one local man arrested, and charged but was later cleared when the police offered no evidence to the court in Leeds. Janis wonders if one of the rumours that Elsie came upon two men in the long grass and was killed to keep her silence has any truth.

As she has done every October 9, Janis, now a grandmother-of-four, will set aside a few minutes and have a chat with her beloved friend.

Janis spoke to David Hirst in her first television interview: