A 92-year-old man on Monday was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in southwestern England in what is thought to be the UK’s longest-running cold case ever to be solved.
A jury at Bristol crown court found Ryland Headley, then aged 34, guilty of attacking 75-year-old Louisa Dunne in June 1967.
“Louisa Dunne died in a horrifying attack carried out in the place where she should have felt safest — her own home,” prosecutor Charlotte Ream said. “For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the man we now know is responsible, avoided justice.”
Dunne was found dead in her home by a neighbor on June 28, 1967. The cause of her death was found to be strangulation and asphyxiation. She had also been raped.
Investigators retained Dunne’s clothing, including a blue skirt, and other samples from her body for further examination. They also recovered a palm print from a window which Headley is believed to have used to gain entry to her home.
In 2023, the case was reexamined and the skirt was sent away for forensic testing in May last year. DNA recovered from the item of clothing linked Headley to the murder scene after his DNA was added to the national database in 2012 for an unrelated incident.
Forensic scientists concluded that DNA from the skirt matched Headley’s and the palm print was also his. Headley was arrested at his home in Suffolk in November.
Headley was convicted of two counts of rape in the late 1970s, after he attacked women, aged 79 and 84, in Ipswich. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 1978 and was jailed for seven years.
Testimonies of the two women were read during Headley’s 2025 trial.
“Hearing the voices of the victims of his 1977 offenses is just incredibly powerful and harrowing,” said Detective Inspector Dave Marchant, senior investigating officer for the case. “I think it gives us an insight into probably what happened within 58 Britannia Road (Dunne’s home) to some degree.”
Dunne’s granddaughter Mary Dainton said she was stunned when she heard that Headley had been arrested. “I accepted that some murders just never get solved and some people have to live with that emptiness and sadness,” she said.
Marchant said he is working with the National Crime Agency to determine whether Headley may be responsible for any other unsolved offenses over the years. “Crimes of this magnitude should never go unpunished and we will remain relentless in ensuring we do everything we can to advance other unsolved murder cases in the Avon and Somerset area,” he said.
Headley will be sentenced on Tuesday.
