On the evening of October 21st, 1971, nineteen-year-old newlywed Susan Turner attended a birthday party in Hartlepool, England, along with her husband of only five months, George. Susan was four-and-a-half months pregnant.
At some point after the party, while the couple was walking home, they got into an argument, and George stalked off and left her. He later told authorities that when he came back to get her, she had vanished.
The following day, two schoolboys playing in a derelict house in Hartlepool came across the remains of Susan Turner. Her stockings and shoes had been removed, leaving the lower half of her body nude, but the killer had then draped a fawn-colored dress and a brown leather coat over her. She had been strangled to death.
Detectives questioned locals and truck drivers who sometimes used the area to park overnight, but they actually suspected that Susan’s husband George may have been the one responsible. According to some sources, Susan had been having an affair with her cousin’s husband, a fact which may have been the source of the argument on the night she was killed.
George denied involvement, and even Susan’s mother did not believe he had killed her, stating that he had adored her and that the relationship had been solid and happy.
Though George did stand trial for the murder of his wife, there was no forensic evidence at all tying him to the crime, and after only four days, he was acquitted.
Though some still maintain that George Turner was indeed the killer, others believe that Susan was the victim of a completely random attack. As of this writing in 2023, no further arrests have been made, and the murder is still unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 