Forty-six-year-old electrical engineer and father of three Eamonn Bloodworth had been spending the night of Saturday, October 18th out on the town of Leicester, England with a group of his friends. The last place he was known to have visited before calling it a night was a club called Stilettos, which he left at around two in the morning.
At some point on his way home, he was attacked by an unknown assailant.
A short time later, his lifeless body was discovered lying face down in a puddle of blood at the corner of Ravensbridge Drive and Blackbird Road, his wallet and cigarette lighter missing. An autopsy found that he had been kicked and stomped to death.
Police found no witnesses who had seen the crime occur, and CCTV footage of the area was no help either. The case seemed doomed to remain unsolved.
But in 2004, a twenty-eight-year-old man named Neil Smith was charged with the murder when his girlfriend claimed he had texted her after having an argument with her that night, confessing that he’d beaten Eamonn Bloodworth to death in a frenzy of misplaced rage. Smith was placed on trial, and other witnesses came forward to claim that the accused had left voice messages on his girlfriend’s phone, taking credit for killing the man and blaming his girlfriend for making him angry enough to do it.
The prosecution also asserted that Smith had left Leicester suddenly right after the slaying, though it was unclear if he’d already had plans to go out of town prior to the crime.
Smith vehemently denied the charges, stating that he had been out earlier that night, but had been in a good mood and had not argued with his girlfriend. He said he’d only had a couple of drinks before getting a taxi home fairly early and going to bed. He told the court that his now ex-girlfriend and her friends were making up lies about him for some unfathomable reason.
The court evidently agreed with Neil Smith’s version of events, because the accused was eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence. The killer of Eamonn Bloodworth, then, is still unidentified.
Crime Immemorial 