On October 20th, 2001, in Northern Ireland, a thirty-six-year-old man would disappear after spending a night out with friends, only to turn up brutally slain shortly afterward.
Apparently, Hugh Cameron had been fearing for his life for several months, although none of his friends or family seem to know exactly why. According to his former girlfriend Karen Kennedy, Hugh had been threatened and had gotten into an altercation at a wedding reception he’d attended earlier in 2001, and he had evidently also been attacked by someone who broke into his home. Karen further stated that Hugh had taken to keeping an iron bar next to his bed for protection.
On October 20th, though, whoever was after Hugh appears to have made his or her move. The young man vanished after spending a night out at the Joymount Arms pub in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. Weeks later, his body was found floating in the river Skeagh, near Glenarm, about twenty miles from where he had last been seen alive. He had been stabbed in the chest eight times, beaten in the head with a blunt object, and had his throat slashed.
Hugh’s ex-girlfriend Karen Kennedy was extensively questioned in the crime, but never charged. Likewise, four men were reportedly interrogated in December of 2001, but it also appears that there was insufficient evidence to charge any of them with the murder.
The BBC featured the unsolved case on the popular Crimewatch program in spring of 2002, but as of this writing, there have been no further developments in the investigation.
Crime Immemorial 