Research Essay Source 1:

Aged 25, Denise dotes on him and is very protective.

But, a routine trip to the shops just before his third birthday is about to rip this young
family apart.

Denise is out with James at the Bootle Strand shopping centre.

She's momentarily distracted and takes her eyes off James.

Sadly it’s long enough for him to disappear.

The police are called after security staff fail to locate him.

She describes him again as wearing a blue anorak with a hood and mustard coloured
lining, silver-coloured tracksuit bottoms and white trainers.

At 4pm a young PC who’s carried out a thorough search of the shopping centre is
comforting a distraught Denise.

By 5.30pm the shopping centre closes for the day. The police launch a major search
for a missing child in Bootle, Liverpool.

By Friday night he’s still not been found.

The police and security staff work through the night at the Strand shopping centre
to sift through the CCTV footage.

Their efforts are rewarded when they pinpoint James leaving the butcher’s shop
earlier that day.

Unbeknown to her, James is now on the top floor and appears to be following two
boys.
 The footage reveals the haunting grainy image of the last recorded moments of
James Bulger.

Two boys can be seen with James, one boy is holding James’ hand.

They are all heading towards the exit and the direction of the Leeds Liverpool Canal.

All of this took place on Friday 12 February 1993.

Research Essay Sources 2:

Research Essay Source 3:

Works Cited
Rice, Gerry, and Terry Thomas. “James Bulger — a Matter of Public
Interest?” International Journal of Children’s Rights, vol. 21, no. 1,
Jan. 2013, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.1163/157181812X633842.