Policing was different then. There was
none of the science that we have today.
This was seen as one of those cases that
was almost unsolvable.
>> And some people just have to live with
that emptiness and that sadness.
>> This man just killed in the night and
vanished.
>> Forensic reviews have been done so much
and nothing's come back from them and
this it just seemed to work.
>> Who was Louise Dunn? What can you tell
us about it? Well, it seems incredible
to be talking about this crime now
because she was a woman from a different
age. You know, she was a Victorian. She
was born in the 1890s.
So, in 1967, she was 75 years old. She
was twice widowed. Um, she had two
daughters, two and some grandchildren as
well. But she lived by herself in in a
neighborhood of Eastern, which is in
East Bristol. She was really well known
in the community, a big character.
>> She's quite lonely in some ways. because
she didn't have much contact with her
family. Um, she was a bit of a drinker.
She had once in the 1930s been part of
the sort of left-wing movement and her
husband, who was this rising star of the
the political spectrum then, could have
been mayor of Bristol, um, she was all
part of that, but but when he died early
in the 1940s, her life collapsed. She
turned to drink and she was a by the
late60s, she was a bit of a sad
character, but a well-known one in the
neighborhood of Eastern.
>> Yeah. an interesting life then certain
certainly mixed. Um, how did she die,
Rob?
>> It was overnight in June 1967
and neighbors, you know, it's Victorian
terrace houses. Neighbors reported
hearing a scream.
>> Uh, and she was so well known every day
she would stand at the front gate and
sort of pass comments, people walking
by. She was really security conscious.
But one day in 1967 in the summer, they
noticed she wasn't there and her window
was open and that wasn't like her. So
neighbors got worried. They called her
friends. Her friends came over, peeked
through uh the open sash window and saw
that her body was there. At first they
didn't think it was a murder. They
thought that she just died of natural
causes. Ambulances were called, then the
police, and they realized that it was it
seemed like a burglary that had got out
of hand. her bags have been rifled with
and and she had it was later described
died by um strangulation and esphixxia
>> and you know we're all talking about it
now of course because it's been so long
since since she was murdered but how big
was the original investigation
>> so this was the you know policing was
different then there was none of the
science that we have today it was all uh
low tech but high on manpower compos
which is the opposite almost to policing
today so the days before DNA There
wasn't any security footage anywhere.
You know, they were relying on things
like fingerprints and footprints and it
was I mean it was the days before even a
Somerset police. So, it was the City of
Bristol police and it was their number
one case. It was a huge uh
investigation.
Hundreds upon hundreds of officers
walking doing door-to-door inquiries
looking at the clues. And there were
clues at the time. There was a handprint
found at a rear window upstairs. there
was uh semen found on her. Um from that
they would have been able to potentially
get a blood type of the the man who had
killed her. Um but they had so little
else to go on back in those times. They
did a huge fingerprint search the whole
neighborhood. Every man aged 15 and
above was fingerprinted.
>> Uh so that was nearly 20,000 men
>> and they still couldn't find him. Right.
You know this man just killed in the
night and vanished.
>> Yeah. Um, you know, as you said though,
you know, things were very, very
different back then when it came to uh
DNA profiling, all these kind of things
and forensics, which we'll get on to.
Um, the investigation did eventually
peter out. Um, here is Louisa's
granddaughter, Mary Dayton.
>> I accepted it. I accepted that some
murders just never get solved.
Um,
and some people just have to live with
>> Well, in the decade since Louisa's
murder, as I mentioned before, um there
was a huge breakthrough in policing,
which was um DNA profiling, and this was
pivotal in finding Louisa's killer,
wasn't it?
>> It absolutely was, but this was seen um
as one of those cases that was almost
unsolvable. Um uh in the Aven Somerset
Force there were 30 murders that were
unsolved dating back to 1946
>> and this had been looked at a couple of
times over the years and had been deemed
as one of the ones that there probably
just wasn't enough evidence. Um so DNA
the DNA became a thing in policing in
1987 and 1988. In fact, the world's
first DNA conviction happened just a
mile away from the in Bristol that we we
the place we're talking about, a rapist
who was um jailed.
>> Um but it was and it had been used
successfully in other cases. There was
another case not far away in Bath Melan
Road. The school girl um her killer was
found after 30 years um a few years ago.
But when police officers were looking at
this one, it was always assumed that
there wasn't enough evidence in this
case. um for for it to be detected and
that the years went past and then the
decades were going past.
>> What what made them look again in in the
first place?
>> All the exhibits were put in boxes and
in laboratories and in freezers and it
was looked at in a light way a couple of
times in 2009 and 2014.
>> But then in 2023 there was a a proper
deep dive forensic review
>> and they looked at all the things that
were there. They had the the semen that
was found from her postmortem that had
vanished. They couldn't get the killer
through that,
>> right?
>> But then they looked at the skirt and
they did an initial screening of the
skirt to see if there was any semen. And
from semen, if there's semen, there's
high chance of DNA.
>> Even after so many years.
>> Even after so many years. Yeah. It it it
stays really well. It preserves really
really well.
>> They did an initial screening
>> and there was no marks on it. So the
scientist said, "Okay, if this was a
sexual attack, I'm going to look at two
areas." And he took a tiny little
cutting from the front of the skirt,
tiny little cutting from the back of the
skirt. The front one, nothing there.
>> The back one, tiny little thing, put it
under the microscope, and it was packed
full of DNA.
>> Goodness.
>> But that's one step. You've also got the
other step. Finding the DNA just means
one thing. You also need the killer to
have then reaffended and beyond the
National DNA register, of which there
are about six million people in the UK.
So, you need him and he's going to be an
old man now to be on the register. So,
what are the chances of that happening?
>> Okay.
>> Guess what? Really quickly, they look
>> Yeah.
>> And he's on it and he's in his 90s.
>> Goodness. Yeah.
>> And he's still alive.
>> And you spoke to Heidi Miller, um the
regional forensic investigator, telling
you what it felt like to finally find
Louisa's killer. Let's have a listen.
the fact that he was a 92-y old male, um
I it was just insane really. Um as much
as you go into it with the intent to get
a result, I think sometimes exhibits and
like you say, forensic reviews have been
done so much and and nothing's come back
from them and this it just seemed to
work.
>> What thoughts did you have, you know,
the chance of this man still being a
found and b alive?
>> Alive. Yeah. And that was the next step.
My first thought was, wow, he he would
never have thought that he's ever going
to be brought to justice for this crime
after all those years. I mean, you you
you've held that secret for such a long
time. That is yeah, in insane.
>> Well, that man was Ryland Ted Headley,
92 years old and living in Ipsswitch. Uh
but just identifying him through DNA
wasn't enough. What further
investigation did police have to do
before they could even arrest him?
>> Well, you're absolutely right. Getting
the DNA hit is one thing, but they need
to place him in Bristol at the time
because if he can prove that he was
living in another part of the country
and wasn't there at the time, well,
there's no case.
>> So, they needed to place him there. So,
this is where when you see all the old
dramas about cold case and all the long
work that goes into it. That's exactly
what happened. The police had to go off
to all the archives and find electoral
roles and find that he was living
>> just outside the area where the
fingerprints were taken. He was living
just a couple of streets away. So they
couldn't catch him through that. And
soon after this attack, soon after this
murder, it was clear that he'd moved to
the other side of the country to
Ipsswitch
>> where and when they looked on the police
national computer, they found that he
had a police record for raping two
elderly women in the 1970s and he was
given a life sentence for that in the
1970s that was later reduced to to seven
years um imprisonment. And that was all
when he was uh placed on in in trial
that was shown that was told the jury
was told that because it showed that he
had a prediliction towards this kind of
crime.
>> Yeah. Um so he was eventually arrested
all these years later he was jailed for
life in July. Um but the decades that he
spent you know of course there was that
jail that time in jail but evading
justice. Are police now considering him
a possible suspect in in other cold
cases as well? There are because you
have this extremely violent case in in
the 1960s and then you have a gap of 10
years when he attacks two women in 19
the 1970s and both Norfolk and and
Suffuk police have said that they are
are now looking at other cases from the
early '7s in particular where he admits
to being a prolific burglar and he
clearly has a modus operandi which
involves targeting lone women
>> entering their homes and stealing stuff
and then if they're they're also
sexually assaulting them. And so they
are looking at other cases there, but
there's there's no proof at present. And
it's important to say that he wasn't
caught because of those 1970s attacks.
He'd gone on and had been arrested and
and released without further action in
2012 for an assault, which is why when
his swab was taken, that's why he was on
the National DNA register.
>> And you talk about the DNA, the the
forensic, it was crucial to this case.
Um, but when police started the review
of Louisa's murder, that was in 2023,
but the science actually been in place
since the 1980s. So, why on earth did it
take so long?
>> Yeah. So, this is a review team. The
review team had only really been around
for about 20 years. So, and they they
have a massive workload. They've got 30
unsolved murders dating back to 1946.
>> But also, they're looking at recent
cases. So if there's a recent undetected
rape that's 6 months old and there's a
man who is likely to be going around and
potentially likely to reoffend, that
will get a higher priority than a murder
from the 1960s where the likelihood of
the man still being alive is quite
light. So that was there but it was only
I mean it shows you the brilliance of
the work and the brilliance of the
science and the brilliance of of hard
detective work that they could catch him
after after so long. And also incredibly
important, we heard from Louisa's
granddaughter there, to to the families
of the victims who finally have some
answers.
>> They know what's happened. Yeah. And
this impacted them that it's called a
cold case.
>> But I I've written books about cold
case. I've made films about cold cases.
You know that to the families involved
and to the witnesses and to everyone
who's involved in that case, it's never
cold. They remember this until the day
they die. and for Mary uh um Louisa's
granddaughter, you know, she finally has
the answers and I think that is some
comfort.
>> Okay. All right. Let's hope so, Rob. Uh
thank you. It's been fascinating talking
to you and you can watch Robert's
documentary on ITVX and YouTube. It is
called Cold Case Justice: Solving the
Murder of Louisa Dunn. Uh we put a link
in the show notes. Until the next time,
thank you for joining us.
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