Susan Long, an insurance clerk at Norwich Union in England, actually lived in the market town of Aylsham, but often traveled by bus to Norwich for work and to visit her boyfriend, who lived there.
After spending a pleasant evening at the Gala Dance Hall on March 10th, 1970, Susan bid her boyfriend goodbye and walked to the nearby bus stop to catch the 10:25 back to her home in Aylsham. Several other passengers confirmed that Susan had boarded the bus alone, and had gotten off at her regular stop, Aylsham Market Place, at about ten minutes past eleven p.m.
On the following dawn, a milkman making his rounds at around five a.m. discovered Susan’s remains more than a mile away from where she had disembarked from the bus. She had been raped and strangled.
An examination of the body produced two main lines of forensic evidence. The first of these was a smattering of automotive paint flakes, found stuck to Susan Long’s clothing. Police were able to determine that if the flakes had come from the car which had presumably been driven by her murderer, then this vehicle had originally been painted blue, but had been painted over with a metallic maroon color. Despite the specificity of this clue, however, no solid leads were produced.
More promising was a semen sample, from which DNA was later successfully extracted. Upon analysis, it was found that the killer possessed a very rare blood type. Although blood samples were taken from thousands of men in the Aylesham area, so far no matches have been found, lessening the possibility that the killer of Susan Long was local to the town where she was murdered.
The Norfolk cold case unit continues to investigate the crime, hoping that the DNA evidence will one day unveil the perpetrator.
Crime Immemorial 