From murdered TV star Jill Dando to ‘torso in the Thames’ boy – 11 cold cases that remain unsolved

From the murder of a TV star to a banker gunned down at his front door while his children slept upstairs, some of Britain’s most horrific and gruesome murders have remained unsolved for decades.

These are cases that not only brought local communities to a standstill, but entire nations. 

They have left families and friends of victims having to endure years of heartache and unrest as those responsible have lived for years without facing justice.

MailOnline has looked back at 11 notorious murder investigations that detectives have been unable to crack despite decade long probes. 

Suzy Lamplugh

The murder of Suzy Lamplugh more than 35 years ago remains one of the most notorious unsolved cases in Britan. 

The estate agent, 25, disappeared after leaving her office in Fulham, west London, on July 28, 1986.

She had been making her way to meet a client who called himself ‘Mr Kipper’ at a house in the same area.

Ms Lamplugh was spotted by a witness arguing with a man in Shurrold Road before getting in a car with him

Her car, a Ford Fiesta, was recovered later the same day around a mile from where she was last seen.

She was declared dead, presumed murdered, eight years later in 1994.

The only suspect in the case is John Cannan, 66, who is currently seving three life sentences after being convicted of murdering Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1987, the attempted kidnap of Julia Holman and the rape of an unnamed woman in Reading in 1986.

He was interviewed several times in connection with Ms Lamplugh’s death and remains a prime suspect.  

Three days before she disappeared, Cannan was released from a hostel at Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London, where he had been serving a six-year sentence for rape.

The spotlight was shone on him again in October 2018 when police pulled up a patio at the former address of his mother Sheila in Sutton Coldfield. 

The then owner of the property revealed that a police team spent six months searching the patio. No evidence was recovered.

Jill Dando

Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando was shot dead outside her flat in Fulham, West London, in 1999

The former Crimewatch presenter was shot in the head outside her west London home in 1999.

In 1987, she worked for Television South West, then BBC Spotlight before being transferred to London the following year where she went on to achieve national fame. 

The shooting, another of Britain’s most infamous unsolved crimes, shocked the capital and the population as a whole.

Ms Dando, 37, was found by neighbours slumped against her front door in a pool of blood after suffering a single gunshot wound to the head. 

Her murder prompted a huge investigation led by Metropolitan Police and resulted in Barry George being sent to prison for murder in July 2001.

However, he was granted a retrial on appeal and was unanimously acquitted by a jury in August 2008.  

It has long been suspected that Ms Dando was shot by a professional assassin.

A blue Range Rover that was parked illegally on the street where she lived, Gowan Avenue, was caught on CCTV driving away at speed from the area. 

The Met, though, has not been able to crack the case in more than a decade since George was found not guilty.

A police spokesperson said in a recent statement: ‘The Metropolitan Police Service fully investigated the circumstances into the murder of Jill Dando.

‘Two trials took place and the investigation was subject to an internal review.

‘If any new information comes to our attention then this will be investigated.’

Ms Dando’s family still remain ‘hopeful’ her killer will be brought to justice one day.

Adam – torso in the Thames 

A photo was released in 2011 claiming to be Adam – though the claim was withdrawn a year later. His body was found in the Thames by an IT consultant

In September 2001, a member of the public made the most horrifying of discoveries.

Aidan Minter was walking across Tower Bridge in central London towards a business meeting when he spotted the body of a young boy in the River Thames.

A short time later, police pulled the body of boy believed to be just five or six from the water.

The boy, named ‘Adam’, is believed to have been smuggled into the country from Nigeria before being murdered in a ritualistic killing. 

A post-mortem examination revealed he died from trauma to the neck and head. His limbs have never been recovered.

Tests on the body and stomach found he had only been in the UK for a matter of days before he was murdered and that he was most likely to be from southwestern Nigeria, near Benin City. 

Police issued a graphic of the five-year-old’s severed torso with the distinctive red shorts in a bid to get more information about the boy, who has not been identified

It is believed he may have been smuggled into the country especially to be sacrificed in a ceremony.

In September, Metropolitan Police issued a fresh appeal to mark 20 years since his death.

Despite several arrests, police are yet to charge anyone with in connection with his death. 

Detective Chief Inspector Kate Kieran, a homicide detective from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: ‘It is incredibly sad and frustrating that Adam’s murder remains unsolved.     

‘This young boy has not and will not be forgotten. He deserved better and we will not give up on him.’

Alistair Wilson

A photo of banker Alistair Wilson and his young son Andrew at Culbin Woods near Nairn in 2004

Alistair Wilson was halfway through reading his young son a bedtime story when he was gunned down with a World War Two pistol on his doorstep.  

On November 28, 2004, Mr Wilson spent the perfect Sunday rambling along the blustery Scottish coast with his wife Veronica.

After returning to his home in Nairn, he had dinner with his family and tucked his two young boys into bed.

However, hours later a strange man came to the door asking to speak to the 30-year-old banker.

The man is believed to have been shaven, aged 35-40, described as stocky and wearing a baseball hat with a dark blouson jacket.

Mr Wilson spoke to him for a few minutes before shutting the door and returning to his wife with a blue envelope – this was the last time she ever saw him. 

The envelope had a piece of paper in it with the name ‘Paul’ written on it, but it had disappeared when Mrs Wilson came outside to see her husband covered in blood.

He was shot twice in the head and once in the body.  

A replica of the gun, a WWII pistol, which was used in the killing of Alistair Wilson in 2004

Baffled police have as yet been unable to solve the murder but in December 2016 they revealed more about the gun that was use to kill Alistair. Pictured, forensic police officers at Alistair’s home after his brutal murder 

His son Andrew Wilson, who was just four at the time, said: ‘Someone came to our family home on a Sunday evening while my dad was reading my brother and me bedtime stories after our bath. 

‘The next thing I know I am looking at my dad lying in our doorway covered in blood.’ 

The investigation remains one of the most baffling unsolved cases in Police Scotland’s history. 

Originally the murder probe focused on Mr Wilson’s career with the Bank of Scotland.

He worked for them in Edinburgh before moving to Nairn 18 miles from Inverness, where he worked with small companies across the Highlands and Islands.

The entire investigation has seen 14,000 people spoken to, 3,500 statements given and 1,000 door-to-door inquiries carried out in Nairn. 

The gun was found down a drain near their home 10 days later.       

Eve Stratford

Eve Stratford was found with her throat slashed on the evening of March 18, 1975 by her boyfriend Tony Priest, the lead singer with the pop band Onyx

Eve Stratford was a 22-year-old glamour model working at the Playboy Club in London’s Park Lane when she she was found with her throat slashed.

She was last seen walking alone near her home in Lyndhurst Drive, Leyton, shortly before 4pm on a snowy day on March 18, 1975.

The bunny girl, though, was later found dead by her boyfriend Tony Priest, the lead singer of pop band Onyx, in the bedroom of her home at around 5.30pm.

She was raped before being slashed between eight and 12 times in a bloody and gruesome killing.  

Ms Stratford was found with a nylon stocking tied around one ankle and a scarf binding her hands behind her back. 

A blood-splattered bouquet of flowers she had bought earlier that day lay next to her body. 

However, no one has ever been charged in connection with her death. 

This map shows the three unsolved murders all took place in close proximity  – police  believe all three were victims of the same killer

Detectives believe she may have known her killer and invited him into the flat she shared with Tony.

Six months after Eve’s death, 16-year-old Lynne Weedon was brutally attacked and raped in an alleyway near her home in Hounslow, west London.

She died after being found barely alive at an electricity sub station the next day.

Former Met Police detective Colin Sutton believes a third woman, Lynda Farrow – who was knifed to death in her home four years later in 1979 – was also a victim of the same killer.

Eve and Lynne’s murders were linked in 2007 after matching DNA was discovered on the victims, who did not know each other. 

Tracey Mertens

Mother-of-two Tracey Mertens was blindfolded and doused in petrol before being set on fire in a Cheshire courtyard.

Her ‘violent and horrific’ death came just two days before Christmas in 1994. She was left to die before being found barely conscious by a member of the public.

Tracey was able to give as detectives information about her abduction, but she died in hospital around 12 hours later.   

She lived in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, with her children and partner Joey Kavanagh – an allegedly in-debt drug user with whom her relationship was strained.

It is understood he travelled away from the area on the day of the incident, before two men barged into her home and bundled her into a yellow Ford Escort.

She was blindfolded and dragged into the courtyard, where she was found by a passer by with 95 per cent burns to her body. Detectives investigating the incident subsequently found a petrol canister nearby.

Despite it being a cold winter night, her clothes were said to still be smouldering, with her rescuer saying he initially thought she was wearing a costume.

Ms Mertens described her attackers as two black men around aged 30. She said both were big, of a fat build and had Birmingham accents.

Despite being able to provide this vital information, no one has ever been charged in connection with her death. 

Melanie Hall

Melanie Hall, 25, a clerical worker at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, was killed more than 25 years ago and police are renewing their appeal for information and witnesses to find her killer

Melanie Hall was enjoying a night out in Bath, Somerset, when she disappeared on June 9, 1996.

Efforts to trace the whereabouts of the then 25-year-old were unsuccessful until her remains were found dumped by the M5 in South Gloucestershire by a workman clearing undergrowth 13 years later.

Ms Hall, a clerical worker at Royal United Hospital in Bath, was last seen at around 1.10am sitting on a stool on the edge of the dance floor in nightclub Walcot Street – renamed ClubXL before closing in 2017.

In March 2014, police appealed for information about a White Golf GTI with links to the Pentwn area of Cardiff, which they believed could be of significance to the investigation.

A then 45-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder in June 2016 after voluntarily attending a police station in Wiltshire.

It followed the discovery of DNA evidence close to the site where she was found. However, he was released without charge three months later.

Police closed off the road after Melanie’s body was discovered at the side of the M5 in 2009

The e-fit issued by police as part of the probe into the murder of Melanie Hall

He was arrested after Melanie’s parents offered £50,000 of their own money as a reward for information on the 20th anniversary of their daughter’s death. 

Avon and Somerset Police renewed its investigation in October last year – 24 years after Melanie’s disappearance.

Detectives released details about a possible sighting of her arguing with a man outside the club in Bath where she had last been seen.

The force also issued an E-fit hoping to identify the man who two witnesses said they saw with a woman matching Melanie’s description. 

There have been 11 arrests during the murder investigation, but no one has ever been charged.

Daniel Morgan

Daniel Morgan, a private investigator, was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on March 10 1987

The murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan has been dubbed the ‘most investigated unsolved murder in the history of the Metropolitan Police’.

The father-of-two was was found with an axe embedded in his heat at a pub car park in Sydenham, south east London, on March 10, 1987.

Two sticky plaster strips had been wrapped around the handle of the axe to protect from any fingerprint evidence. 

Despite five police inquiries and an inquest, no-one has been brought to justice over the murder in more than 30 years.

The private investigator had been looking into allegations of police corruption when he was killed. 

Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick apologised after an inquiry into the murder of Daniel Morgan found the force was ‘institutionally corrupt’

A damning inquiry that concluded in June earlier this year branded the force ‘institutionally corrupt’. 

It added that the force had been more interested in protecting its reputation than solving the murder. 

The more than 1,200-page report also said the Met’s handling of the murder scene in 1987 was ‘totally inadequate’ as it was not secured and was left unguarded. 

It added that officers who took bungs in brown envelopes, ‘moonlighted’ in other jobs and sold lucrative information to criminals, may have scuppered the probe into Mr Morgan’s murder.  

Following the inquiry, Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said it is a ‘matter of great regret that no one has been brought to justice’ in the case of Mr Morgan.

Kate Bushell

Kate Bushell, 14, had her throat in a field just 300 yards from her home in the Exwick area of Exeter, Devon, on November 15, 1997.

Schoolgirl Kate Bushell grotesquely had her throat slit in a field just 300 yards from the front door or her home.

The 14-year-old was walking her dog in Exeter, Devon, when she was attacked at around 4.45pm on November 15, 1997.

When she failed to return home, concerned parents Kerry and Suzanne went out to search for her.

Her father, a retired local Government officer, found Kate with the dog waiting nearby at around 7.30pm. 

An inquiry into her death, its biggest ever murder investigation, cost Devon and Cornwall Police more than £1 million.

Kate Bushell’s father found her body just yards from their family home in Exeter (pictured)

A fresh appeal for information from the force in 2018 generated new leads.

Officers received 204 calls and messages identifying 10 new significant lines of enquiry, including the names of potential suspects. 

The appeal also included pictures of the type of kitchen knife used in the murder and news of a forensic breakthrough.

However, no arrests or charges have been brought in connection with the murder of the schoolgirl.

Billie-Jo Jenkins 

Billie-Jo Jenkins was just 13 when she was found dead in Hastings, East Sussex, in 1997

Billie-Jo Jenkins was just 13 when she was battered over the head at least 10 times with an 18-inch iron tent peg.

She was found in a pool of blood in the back garden of her foster father Sion Jenkins’ house in Hastings, East Sussex, on February 15, 1997.

He was initially jailed for life in 1998 for her murder, but was acquitted following two retrials.

The full cost of the investigation, taking into account the trials and subsequent appeals, stands at around £10m.

Billie-Jo was battered over the head at least 10 times with an 18-inch iron tent peg as she painted patio doors.

Billie-Jo’s family has previously called for police to investigate convicted M25 rapist Antoni Imiela over the death.

In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of the brutal killing, the school girl’s mother Deborah Barnett called for police to reopen the case.

In response, Sussex Police said unresolved major cases are assessed every two years to examine if any new information has been provided or to consider advances in investigative techniques that would make reopening the probe viable.  

Penny Bell 

Detectives investigating the 30-year-old murder of Penny Bell (pictured) in Greenford have revealed that a witness came forward to say they saw a man in his underwear on the day she was killed

Mother-of-two Penny Bell was stabbed more than 50 times in the car park of a leisure centre in Ealing, west London.

The 43-year-old was found dead on June 6, 1991, but no one has been convicted of her death more than three decades later. 

In the months leading up to the fatal stabbing, extensive building work had been taking place at her home in Denham, Buckinghamshire, where she lived with husband Alistair and their two children.

Penny was said to have kept a meticulous record of the spending on the building work.

Three days prior to her death, Mrs Bell went to a bank in Kilburn High Road and withdrew £8,500 in cash from her joint personal account.

The money was paid to Mrs Bell in used £50 notes and handed to her wrapped in a brown manila envelope.

It is believed Bell did not mention the cash withdrawal to anyone, despite its size, nor did she refer to it in her financial notes.

To date, the money remains unaccounted for and the reason for its withdrawal is still unknown. 

On the day of her death, Mrs Bell appeared to be in more of a hurry than usual, too, and told one of the builders she had an appointment she could not miss.

She was last seen leaving home at 9.40am in her pale blue Jaguar XJS.  

She was last seen leaving home at 9.40am in her pale blue Jaguar XJS (pictured). At around midday, police were called to Gurnell Grove Swimming Pool over reports of a woman slumped in the driver’s seat of her car, covered in blood

Mrs Bell’s daughter Lauren said she lives with the image of her mother’s last moments as she urged Penny’s killer to confess. Pictured: Husband Alistair and son Matthew at Penny’s funeral

However, she was found slumped in the driver’s seat of the car covered in blood later the same day. 

Under Bell’s body, on the centre console, was a wallpaper sample which officers believe had been opened there as if Bell were looking at it or showing it to someone else before the attack.

A post mortem examination found the had suffered more than 50 stab wounds.

In January 2019, a new witness came forward to report that they believed they had seen a man in his underwear walking across the footbridge that crosses the A40 Western Avenue in Greenford on the day Penny was killed.

The man appeared wet, as if he had just washed, according to the witness, who recalled seeing the man at around 10.50am to 10.55am.

On the 30th anniversary of the murder earlier this year, daughter Lauren said she has ‘lived a nightmare’ since her death.

She added: ”Now I have a message for mum’s killer – if you have any conscience, this must be torturing you too and I’m asking you to confess to put my family out of our misery.’ 

‘I can never bring mum back but you can end our misery by confessing so mum can rest in peace and my family is freed from this purgatory.’