On the early afternoon of February 11th, 1993, a neighbor entered the bungalow of eighty-two-year-old Doris Shelley in Martlesham, Suffolk. Ever since Doris had been beaten and robbed of all her life savings in a home invasion back in June of 1991—the amount stolen in excess of twelve-thousand pounds—she had been a terrified recluse, and her neighbors would generally go out of their way to pop in on her regularly and see if she was doing all right.
But on this particular day, Doris Shelley was not all right. The neighbor found her cowering in a corner of the kitchen, blood pouring down from her head. The elderly widow was taken to the hospital, but died from her injuries eleven days later. Forensic examination determined that the victim had been beaten and kicked multiple times before having her skull fractured by some unknown blunt instrument.
The investigation into the savage and random murder ended up going nowhere, the only possible clue to the assailant a mysterious red Ford Sierra which witnesses had seen in the driveway of Doris’s home on the day of the attack.
For a time, authorities believed that the killing of Doris Shelley might have been carried out by the same offender who perpetrated at least one violent robbery in September of 1992, in which a female postal carrier was hit over the head and robbed, but later forensic evidence seemed to discount this notion.
The inquiry was given a renewed push in 2018, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Doris’s death, but so far, no substantial leads have been forthcoming.
Crime Immemorial 