I was playing detective from my armchair, then I discovered the terrible secret that had haunted my family for decades.

When Anna Allan decided to trace her family tree, the last thing she expected was to discover a shocking family secret.

Days after joining Ancestry.com, Anna, from Bridgwater, Somerset, was shocked to discover that her aunt, Patricia Cupit, had been murdered on her way to school when she was just six years old.

Anna Allan joined Ancestry.com to learn more about her family historyCredits: Jon Rowley

What she found out was that her aunt Patricia Cupit was murdered on her way to school when she was 6 years old.Credit: provided

After teaming up with a historian who delved deeper into Pat’s case, Anna uncovered the full story of what happened to her aunt.

Anna, 56, said: “I started looking into my family tree because I didn’t know much about my mother’s side of the family.

“My parents separated when I was four and I had limited contact with my mother.

“I was absolutely devastated to hear what happened to my aunt. I cried reading her story.

“Now I am determined to keep his memory alive.”

Anna was soon contacted by another family member, who revealed that Anna’s aunt, Patricia Cupit, had been murdered in the 1940s by a soldier.

She Googled Pat’s name and discovered a website dedicated to “Little Pat,” run by local historian Darren Norton.

Darren, from Brandon, Suffolk, discovered Pat’s story and has spent more than 20 years painstakingly researching what really happened.

He said: “I was amazed that I had never heard of this story before and couldn’t believe it wasn’t better documented.

“My own child was about the same age as Pat, so it really touched me.

“The more I learned, the more determined I was to find out what really happened to Pat.

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“It was amazing to hear from Anna and have her help uncovering the story.”

Born in October 1935, Patricia Cupit was pampered by her parents, Leonard, who was in the RAF, and Anne, a housewife, and led a happy life in their home in Mitcham, south-west London.

When war broke out in 1939, Pat was evacuated to live with her parents’ friends, Albert and Flo Pask, in the small hamlet of Riddlesworth, Norfolk.

Pat was pampered by her mother Anne, a housewife, and led a happy life in their home in Mitcham, south-west London.Credit: provided

War breaks out and her father Leonard Cupit is in the RAF, Pat is evacuated to live with her parents' friends, Albert and Flo Pask — War breaks out and her father Leonard Cupit is in the RAF, Pat is evacuated to live with her parents’ friends, Albert and Flo PaskCredit: provided

Anna says it is important that her aunt's life is commemorated — Anna says it is important that her aunt’s life is commemoratedCredits: Jon Rowley

On Tuesday 5th May 1942, little Pat was walking the mile between her home and the local school when she was spotted by Private James Wyeth, who was working at a nearby army camp.

He had a violent past, with previous convictions for assaulting two women, and was serving a sentence in Borstal when he was recruited for the army.

He had never seen Pat before, but he would later tell police that he felt compelled to follow her.

When Pat didn’t come home from school, her panicked foster parents began searching frantically for her, before eventually discovering her bloodied body lying under a tree.

Police quickly focused on Wyeth as a suspect, after other soldiers reported that he had disappeared from the camp and returned red-faced and flushed.

He initially told police he had gone out of his way to pick up a newspaper, spoken to a co-worker, then read the paper for 30 minutes – but he eventually confessed to stabbing and strangling Pat.

What is the easiest way to research your family history?

How do I research my family tree online?

There are several websites that will guide you in building your family tree.

The largest site in the UK is Ancestry.co.uk, which has 2.4 million paying subscribers.

Other services including genealogy.com, genesreunited.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk are also available.

How does it work?

You’ll need some basic information to get started, including the names, birthplaces, and birthdates of parents and grandparents.

But soon, sites will begin to help you put the pieces of the puzzle together by searching censuses, military records, church records, passenger records and even criminal records.

Ancestry.co.uk highlights records of people who may be related to you so you can check them and, if correct, add them to your tree.

The information you find is organized into an easy-to-navigate family tree – with records stored for the relevant parent.

Ancestry has over 18 billion records worldwide, which have helped create over 80 million family trees.

Wyeth was sentenced to hang for Pat’s murder, although the Home Office later revoked his sentence on grounds of insanity, and he was sent to Broadmoor Secure Unit, where he remained until his death in 1983.

Although Pat’s parents had another daughter after the war – Anna’s mother – the trauma took its toll on her mother, and she was regularly taken home by the police after being found in the middle of the night, wandering the cemetery in her nightdress.

Anna added: “I understand why the family didn’t talk about what happened for so long.

“But now that I know Pat, I think it’s important that we commemorate his life.

“I discovered there was no headstone where she is buried in Streatham Cemetery, so I arranged for one to be installed this summer.

Anna and Darren are now planning to hold a small memorial service for Pat at the cemetery in October this year, on what would have been Pat’s 90th birthday.

Anna said: “In a way I owe my life to Pat’s death. If she hadn’t been murdered, her parents probably wouldn’t have had another child and I probably wouldn’t have been born.

“That’s why it’s even more important to me that she’s never forgotten.”