On 8 August, Straffen was again at the cinema when he met 9-year-old Cicely Batstone. He first took Cicely to a different cinema to see another film and then went on the bus to a meadow known as "Tumps" on the outskirts of Bath. There he strangled her to death. The circumstances of the murder left many witnesses who had seen Straffen with the girl. The bus conductor recognised him as a former workmate, a courting couple in the meadow had seen him very closely, and a policeman's wife had also seen the two together. She mentioned it to her husband; when the alarm was raised the next morning, she guided police to where she had seen the two, and Cicely's body was discovered. Her description of the man was enough to identify Straffen immediately as the suspect.