In a landmark achievement for British policing, the 1967 rape and murder of a Bristol grandmother has been solved after 58 years, marking what is believed to be the longest-running cold case ever cracked in the UK, and possibly the world.
The Forgotten Box and a Fresh Look
In June 2023, Major Crime Review Officer Jo Smith was asked to examine the long-dormant case of Louisa Dunne. The 75-year-old had been brutally attacked in her home on Britannia Road, Easton, in June 1967. A mother, grandmother, and well-known local figure, her killing had remained a mystery despite a massive investigation that saw police take 19,000 palm prints.
Smith's first step was the police archive in Portishead, where she found three ageing boxes of evidence. These items, marked with simple cardboard labels, had never undergone modern forensic examination. With a colleague, she meticulously re-packaged everything into forensic bags, hoping technology could succeed where the original inquiry had not.
"I was quite excited, but it wasn't met with a huge amount of enthusiasm initially," Smith admits, noting scepticism about the value of testing such old evidence. The boxes returned to storage for eight more months until a new Senior Investigating Officer, DI Dave Marchant, took charge. With an engineering mindset, Marchant saw it as an absolute priority. "Why wouldn't we give it a go?" he said.
A DNA Match and a Race Against Time
The forensic process was slow, with live cases taking precedence. Then, in August 2024, while on summer holiday, Smith received the breakthrough message. Forensic scientists had obtained a full DNA profile from the rapist from Dunne's skirt, and it had matched a name on the national database. The suspect was 92-year-old Ryland Headley, living in Ipswich.
The team immediately sprang into action. "When we realised how old he was, we didn't have the luxury of time," Smith stated. Over eleven intense weeks, they combed through 1,300 original statements and 8,000 house-to-house records. A colleague scoured 1967 archives at Bristol City Hall, finding a record of Headley living in the area on the third day.
The investigation revealed a chilling pattern. After Dunne's murder, Headley had moved to Ipswich, where in 1977 he pleaded guilty to raping two elderly women, aged 79 and 84, in their own homes. He had initially received a life sentence, but an appeal supported by a psychiatrist citing "sexual frustration" in his marriage saw it reduced; he served just three to four years.
Justice Served After Six Decades
In June 2025, Ryland Headley was found guilty of the rape and murder of Louisa Dunne and sentenced to life. The judge told him he would die in prison. For Dunne's granddaughter, Mary Dainton, it was a moment she never believed would come. The family had lived with the stigma of the crime, and Dainton's mother, estranged from Dunne at the time of the murder, was profoundly affected.
For Jo Smith and the Avon and Somerset Major Crime Review Team, the success was vindication. The team, which won Investigations Team of the Year in November 2024, operates by reviewing unsolved murders, rapes, and missing person cases. Smith reflects on the unique nature of cold case work: "It started with me trying to get someone to take some notice of my baby, that box – and I was able to see it through right until the end."
The case underscores how historical crimes can be solved with persistence and advances in forensic science. With around 130 cold cases still in the Avon and Somerset archives alone, Smith and her colleagues are confident this will not be their last success. "We'll be forever opening boxes," she says, determined to deliver long-awaited answers for other families.
