Man Found Guilty Of Murdering Woman Born 133 Years Ago
A man has been found guilty of murdering a woman born 133 years ago.
A 92-year-old man has been convicted of r**ing and murdering a Bristol woman in 1967, a crime that went unsolved for nearly six decades.
On June 28, 1967, 75-year-old Louisa Dunne was found dead on the floor of her Easton home on Britannia Road. She had been strangled.
A neighbor, concerned after noticing her newspaper was untouched, discovered her body.
Despite extensive efforts at the time (19,000 fingerprint samples were collected from local males, 8,000 house-to-house visits, and 2,000 statements), the case went cold. For years, no suspect was identified.
That changed when detectives from Avon and Somerset Police reopened the case.
Louisa Dunne was found dead on the floor of her Easton home. Credit: Avon & Somerset Police
Advances in forensic science led to a breakthrough when DNA from s***n collected on a swab at the time of the original investigation was tested and matched to Ryland Headley, a convicted r**ist from Ipswich.
Headley, who was in his 30s when Mrs Dunne was killed, was found guilty of her r*** and murder following a trial at Bristol Crown Court.
He was arrested in November 2024.
Detective Inspector Dave Marchant described Headley as a ‘dangerous serial offender’ with a ‘shocking and abhorrent history,’ per the BBC.
Reflecting on the case, he said: “This is a marrying of old school and new school policing techniques,” and noted the emotional impact the breakthrough had on the investigation team: “There was a real sense of gravity when we were told the DNA result had come back positive.”
Mrs Dunne, who had been widowed twice, lived alone but was a familiar figure in her neighborhood.
According to the prosecution, Headley broke into her home, s**ually assaulted her, and then killed her.
Neighbors reported hearing a ‘frightening scream’ on the night of her death.
Further evidence linked Headley to the scene: a palm print recovered from a rear window of Dunne’s home was matched to his.
This conviction may mark the oldest cold case ever solved in the U.K. using forensic evidence.
Headley’s criminal past includes the 1977 r**es of two elderly widows, aged 84 and 79, in Suffolk, crimes police described as ‘eerily similar.’
Trevor Mason, a former Special Branch detective involved in those cases, told Channel 4 News that Headley was ‘worse than an animal,’ and that his victims ‘didn’t stand a chance.’
Although Headley denied involvement in Mrs Dunne’s r*** and murder, a jury has now found him guilty. He is scheduled to be sentenced for both crimes on Tuesday.