Fifty-six-year-old van driver Arthur Cope was last seen by coworkers on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 7th, 1964. Presumably, after leaving work that day, he returned to his home, which was in a trailer at the Radcliffe-on-Trent Caravan Park on Wharf Lane in Nottingham, England.
Two days later, police discovered Arthur’s body in his residence. He had been savagely bludgeoned to death, and the inside of his trailer was an absolute bloodbath. Detectives found no sign of forced entry, and nothing to suggest that robbery had been a motive, leading to speculation that he may have known his killer.
The trailer was sent for forensic examination, and officers recovered several objects from the scene that could potentially have been used as the murder weapon. Despite the involvement of Scotland Yard, and the subsequent collection of over four thousand sets of fingerprints from locals and other persons of interest, though, no arrests were ever made.
In 2013, the case enjoyed a brief resurgence when a police station renovation turned up a forgotten bag in the attic that contained a bloodied set of bicycle handlebars though to be linked to the murder. Investigators were hopeful that a reexamination of the item would lead to a break in the case, but unfortunately, later testing demonstrated that the handlebars were not the murder weapon, and the furor eventually died down, once again leaving the death of Arthur Cope a complete mystery.
Crime Immemorial 