£20k reward for cold-case Esme murder

COLD case detectives are offering a £20,000 reward for information to help solve the murder of an elderly woman over 40 years ago.

- BY TOM PETTIFOR Crime Editor

Esme Hoad, 85, was beaten around the head with a blunt instrument and stabbed in the chest in her own home.

Police have rereleased e-fits of a couple they want to question and believe that a distinctive shoe mark left at the scene - revealing the branding “Banana” - could help to solve the case.

Esme lived alone in Tonbridge, Kent, and her body was found by officers on December 8, 1982, after neighbours had reported not seeing her for days.