DNA helped solve a case that had been going on for more than half a century.
Britain's oldest unsolved murder and rape case, dating back almost 60 years, has been solved. A 92-year-old man, Ryland Headley, was recently found guilty of murdering 75-year-old Louise Dunn, who was found strangled in her Bristol home in June 1967.
BBC News Ukraine writes about this
The initial investigation at the time was inconclusive – police collected thousands of fingerprints and carried out numerous searches, but no prime suspect could be identified. It was not until decades later, when the case was reopened by Avon and Somerset police, that modern techniques, including DNA analysis, helped identify the perpetrator.
A biological sample found at the crime scene was found to contain traces of Ryland Headley, a man who was in his 30s at the time of the crime.
Detective Inspector Dave Marchant, who led the investigation, described Hadley as a dangerous serial offender with a sordid past. He said the case was a real mix of old and new methods for the police that had finally worked. Marchant said it was likely to be the oldest unsolved murder case in the UK to be successfully closed.
Headley was arrested in November 2024 at his home in Ipswich. After his arrest, experts compared his palm print with the print found on the window of Louise Dunn's house – they matched.
Evidence also suggests Hadley has previously admitted breaking into the homes of two elderly women, aged 84 and 79, and raping them in Suffolk in 1977. The crimes, police say, were eerily similar in style to the murder of Louise Dunn.
Suffolk detective Trevor Mason, who handled the 1977 cases, called Hadley “worse than an animal” because of the cruelty of his actions. He also noted that Hadley's victims were elderly and physically weak, so they had no chance in a fight against the criminal.
On the day of the tragedy, neighbors remember hearing a woman's terrible scream, but no one could help or identify the culprit then. One of the first signs of trouble was that neighbors noticed that the newspaper that was usually brought to Louise was not picked up from her doorstep the next morning.
Ryland Headley was found guilty of murder and rape after a trial at Bristol Crown Court. He denied the charges, but the evidence was overwhelming. Headley is now awaiting sentencing, which is expected to be announced soon.
Let us recall that earlier we wrote about a 17-year-old rapist in the Kharkiv region who tried to burn his victim alive.
