A STORY featured in the Advertiser/Messenger in 2002 about a young Bromsgrove woman who was brutally murdered during the Second World War is to be the subject of a popular BBC programme.

In October 1944 Bromsgrove was stunned by the news that Florrie Porter, a clerk, had been found stabbed beneath a veranda at the village school, just yards from her family home in Littleheath Lane, Lickey End.

The horrific crime has never been solved.

The chief suspect was an American GI stationed at All Saints' who had been seen accompanying Florrie the previous night at a pub in Bromsgrove town centre.

It was widely believed the soldier was whisked back to the States before police could catch up with him.

The murder has captured the imagination of American author Elizabeth Ruffin, who lives in Kidderminster and who believes she may be related to Florrie.

When Elizabeth appealed in our paper for information for a book she is writing about the murder the BBC picked up on the story.

Elizabeth and a film crew were on location in Bromsgrove and Lickey End yesterday (Tuesday) filming for the programme, which is set to be broadcast on Inside Out, which is screened on Monday nights.

Film producer/presenter Matthew Gull said it will probably be broadcast during the second week in February. Filming continues all this week and next, when a reconstruction of 1940s Bromsgrove will take place.

"I have wanted to tell Florrie's story for some time, partly as a memorial to her," Elizabeth said.

The programme contains much new information, but Elizabeth is keeping some of the choicest revelations for her book, Remembering Florrie, which is set to be published in the spring.

pete.lammas@midlands.

newsquest.co.uk