Man convicted of murder in the UK’s longest-running cold case

A 92-year-old man has been convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in southwestern England, marking the UK’s longest-running cold case to be solved. Ryland Headley, then aged 34, was found guilty of attacking 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in June 1967 by a jury at Bristol crown court.

Prosecutor Charlotte Ream described the horrifying attack on Dunne, who was killed in her own home where she should have felt safe. The crime remained unsolved for 58 years until Headley was identified as the perpetrator. Dunne was found dead in her home on June 28, 1967, having been strangled and asphyxiated. She was also sexually assaulted.

Investigators retained Dunne’s clothing, including a blue skirt, and other samples from her body for further examination. A palm print found on a window at the crime scene was believed to belong to Headley, who used it to enter the house. In 2023, the case was reexamined, and DNA recovered from the skirt linked Headley to the murder scene after his DNA was added to the national database in 2012.

Forensic scientists concluded that the DNA from the skirt matched Headley’s, and the palm print also belonged to him. Headley was arrested at his home in Suffolk in November. He had previously been convicted of two counts of rape in the late 1970s for attacking women aged 79 and 84 in Ipswich. Testimonies from the two women were read during Headley’s trial.

Detective Inspector Dave Marchant, the senior investigating officer, expressed the power and harrowing nature of hearing the victims’ voices from the 1977 offenses. Dunne’s granddaughter, Mary Dainton, shared her shock upon hearing of Headley’s arrest, as she had accepted that some murders go unsolved. Marchant is collaborating with the National Crime Agency to determine if Headley may be connected to other unsolved crimes in the Avon and Somerset area.

Headley is set to be sentenced on Tuesday, as justice is sought for Louisa Dunne after nearly six decades.