Fifty-three-year-old Mabel Harper was a widow and a mother of three grown children, two of whom were in the military. She lived on Aubrey Avenue in Victoria Park, Cardiff, Wales.
On the evening of August 12th, 1943, Mabel had been visiting her sister in Gelligaer Gardens and left at about ten-fifty p.m., but she evidently missed the last tram, which obligated her to walk two miles back home through an extremely dark area that was flanked by tall trees. The area, in fact, would have been nearly pitch black, due to wartime blackouts. Mabel, sadly, never made it home that night.
The following morning, workers found her mostly nude body, lying in a large patch of blood on a grass verge off Western Avenue in Cardiff. She was gagged, had her clothes torn to ribbons, her ankles tied together with her own stockings, and her hands bound behind her back with strips of clothing. Her face had been beaten so severely that her dentures were smashed.
Police also discovered that the woman’s purse and a brown attaché case she’d been carrying were missing. Neither of these items was ever found.
Investigators focused their attention on soldiers who had been on a late-night pass that evening and also fingerprinted everyone in the area. Of particular interest was a man who had reportedly been standing on the curb across from where the murder had been committed, and who may have seen the crime occur. This man was in his mid-thirties and stood about six feet tall, with fair hair and a long, thin face. He was wearing a trilby hat and a fawn-colored raincoat. Police sought this man for questioning as a possible witness, but he was never found.
Likewise, another man who may have seen the murder from afar was described as being in his early thirties, standing about five-foot-six, with tousled fair hair that was bushy on top. He was wearing a dark, double-breasted suit, but no overcoat or hat. This individual was spotted standing on the Western Avenue bridge at about twelve-fifty a.m., and had allegedly shouted to the drivers of a truck and a van that passed him, though it isn’t known what he shouted. This person of interest never came forward either.
Only four weeks after Mabel Harper’s slaying, police admitted they’d hit a dead end, and the case subsequently went cold. No arrests have been made in the ensuing eighty years, and it seems likely that the murder will never be solved.
Crime Immemorial 