Sixty-one-year-old Michael “Joe” Shipton worked as a general gardener and odd-job man, and lived alone in a house in The Plashets, Sheering, Essex, England.
On Sunday, March 25th, 2006, a friend of his became concerned when he couldn’t get hold of Joe, and went to the house to check on him. There, he found the man dead; he’d been beaten repeatedly in the head with a blunt instrument.
Police found no sign of forced entry, leading them to speculate that Joe had perhaps known his killer. They further estimated that he had been killed at some point between four-thirty p.m. on Friday and ten a.m. on Saturday.
Several hundred people were interviewed in connection with the crime, including every single resident of Sheering, but no compelling suspects came to light, not even when the murder was featured on the popular Crimewatch program.
As of May 2024, the case remains open and a reward is still on offer, but no arrests have been made, and the identity of the individual who battered Joe Shipton to death is a complete mystery.
Crime Immemorial 