Reinvestigation in 2023... Perpetrator's DNA Found on Clothing
Committed Similar Crimes Even After the Murder
The perpetrator of a rape and murder case that remained the longest unsolved case in the United Kingdom has been apprehended after 58 years. The criminal, who committed the crime in his 30s, has only now, as a man in his 90s, been brought to justice.
On July 1 (local time), the BBC reported that a jury at Bristol Crown Court recently found 92-year-old Ryland Headley guilty of the rape and murder of Louisa Dunn in 1967. In June 1967, Louisa Dunn, who was 75 years old at the time, was found dead on the living room floor of her home in Bristol, England. According to the police investigation at the time, the cause of death was determined to be strangulation, and it was also revealed that she had been sexually assaulted during the incident.
Ryland Headley, 92, convicted in 1967 of rape and murder of Louisa Dunn. Photo by Avon and Somerset Police/PA
The case attracted significant public attention, and the police collected fingerprints from 19,000 men, visited more than 8,000 households, and obtained around 2,000 witness statements. However, no decisive clue emerged. The murder case, which remained unsolved for over 50 years, reached a turning point in 2023 when the police reopened the investigation.
The police submitted Dunn’s skirt, which had been preserved since the incident, for forensic analysis. As a result, the perpetrator’s DNA was detected on the garment. Fortunately, Headley’s DNA had already been registered in the national database in 2012 due to a separate incident. A palm print found on a window at Dunn’s home was also confirmed to belong to Headley. Consequently, in November of last year, the police arrested Headley at his home on suspicion of murder. Previously, Headley had committed a series of similar crimes targeting elderly women who were unable to resist. Even after killing Dunn, he broke into the homes of two other women (aged 84 and 79, respectively) and was convicted of sexual assault, receiving a seven-year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported that Dunn’s granddaughter, Mary Daint, was shocked to hear of Headley’s arrest. She said, "I had come to accept that some murder cases remain unsolved forever, and that some people must live with that emptiness and grief." Detective Inspector Trevor Mason, who worked on the investigation, described Headley as "worse than an animal" in an interview with local media, adding, "What the victims went through was truly horrific, and they had no strength to resist."
Meanwhile, some civic groups in the UK have criticized the country’s low rape conviction rate and the extremely slow judicial process in connection with this case. According to the UK Office for National Statistics, there were 71,227 rape cases reported to the police in 2024. However, the UK charity 'Rape Crisis' criticized that only 2.7% of the tens of thousands of rape cases resulted in prosecution.
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