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Man is guilty of 1967 rape and murder
Western Mail
|July 01, 2025
A 92-YEAR-OLD man has been found guilty of the rape and murder of an elderly widow in what is thought to be the UK’s longest-running cold case ever to be solved.
Ryland Headley, then aged 34, forced entry into the home of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in Bristol in June 1967 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. Police found no evidence of any violent struggle.
The case remained unsolved for over 50 years until Avon and Somerset detectives sent off items from the original investigation for DNA testing.
The 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 in 1977.
This story is from the July 01, 2025 edition of Western Mail.
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