A 92-year-old man was convicted on Monday of the rape and murder of a woman in southwestern England. This case marks the resolution of what is considered the U.K.’s longest-running cold case. A jury at Bristol Crown Court found Ryland Headley guilty of attacking 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in June 1967, after nearly six decades of investigation.
Prosecutor Charlotte Ream noted the horror of Dunne’s death, stating that she was attacked in her own home, a place where she should have felt safest. For 58 years, the crime went unsolved, allowing Headley to evade justice until now. Dunne’s body was discovered by a neighbor on June 28, 1967, following reports of a woman’s chilling scream that night.
An autopsy revealed that she died due to strangulation and asphyxiation, and it was determined that she had also been raped. The Crown Prosecution Service identified this case as one of the oldest cold cases ever resolved in the U.K. Investigators retained evidence from the crime scene, including Dunne’s clothing and a palm print believed to belong to Headley. Over the decades, initial police efforts failed to uncover a suspect, despite collecting thousands of fingerprint samples from local men and boys.
In 2023, the case was revisited, and forensic testing on Dunne’s skirt revealed DNA linking Headley to the crime scene. His DNA had previously been cataloged in the national database due to an unrelated incident. Following his arrest in November, details about Headley’s criminal past surfaced, including a conviction for raping two elderly women in the late 1970s.
Though most witnesses have passed away, their accounts from the original investigation were used effectively during Headley’s trial. Dunne’s granddaughter expressed her astonishment at the arrest, having previously accepted that some murders remain unsolved. Detective Inspector Dave Marchant emphasized the ongoing commitment to investigating other unsolved cases in the region.
Headley’s sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday.