It was February 21st, 1976, and twenty-two-year-old Maureen Mulcahy left her two children—four-year-old Penny and one-year-old Sean—in the care of her mother before going over to a friend’s house in Aberavon, Wales. Maureen and the friend then walked down to the nearby Green Meadow pub, where they both enjoyed a few pints of cider.
At around eleven p.m., Maureen was spotted leaving the pub, looking a little unsteady on her feet, but otherwise managing just fine. Her home, on Burns Road in Sandfields, was less than a mile away.
An hour later, a neighbor heard what sounded like a woman screaming, and then saying, “Oh my God.” Unfortunately, as the elderly woman was accustomed to the sounds of drunken arguments and screaming occurring whenever the pubs let out for the night, she didn’t feel the need to phone the police about the disturbance.
The next morning, a man walking his dog found the body of Maureen Mulcahy lying only partially concealed just off the road. She was still dressed, though her clothing was askew. Later examination demonstrated that she had not been raped, but the cause of death was strangulation, and police speculated that the crime had likely been sexually motivated.
Perhaps the most compelling person of interest in the murder of the young mother was truck driver and suspected serial killer Joe Kappen. Though Kappen died in 1990, later DNA tests linked him to the rapes and strangling deaths of three teenage girls in 1973: Sandra Newton, Pauline Floyd, and Geraldine Hughes. Significantly, Kappen lived in Sandfields, only yards from where Maureen Mulcahy’s body was found, at the time she was murdered in early 1976.
At this stage, there is insufficient evidence to link Kappen with the murder of Maureen Mulcahy, but Welsh authorities are actively pursuing the investigation.
Crime Immemorial 