The UK’s longest-running cold case has been solved, with 92-year-old Ryland Headley found guilty of raping and murdering Louisa Dunne.
Headley was found guilty at Bristol Crown Court today of forcing entry into the home of 75-year-old Mrs Dunne in Bristol in June 1967, when he was 34, before attacking her.
The mother-of-two’s body was found by neighbours inside her terraced home on Britannia Road in the Easton area of the city on the morning of June 28.
A woman was heard screaming hours before Mrs Dunne, who had been twice widowed and lived alone, was discovered dead.
Mrs Dunne, who was using the front room as a bedroom, was found lying on a pile of old clothes, and police found no evidence of any violent struggle in the house.
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The case remained unsolved for over 50 years until Avon and Somerset detectives sent off items from the original investigation for DNA testing.
Those results provided a DNA match to Headley, who since the murder had moved to Suffolk, and had served a prison sentence for raping two elderly women.
Headley, of Clarence Road, Ipswich, had denied rape and murder but was found guilty of both charges by the jury at Bristol Crown Court.
The defendant, now aged 92, did not give evidence during the trial.
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