Dora Pratt was seventy-six years old and ran a corner shop on Bulstrode Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. She lived alone, in a house adjoining the shop.
The night of Friday, January 8th, 1982 had been unusually snowy, so much so that the scheduled Saturday soccer match between Ipswich Town and Manchester United had been postponed, though many supporters of the away team were already in town.
At around five a.m. on Saturday morning, Dora Pratt was discovered unconscious on the floor of her home next to her shop. She had been bludgeoned three times in the head with a sharp, heavy object. She was rushed to the hospital and stayed there for several weeks, though she was eventually released and went to live with her nephew. Fearful after the attack, she was making plans to sell her shop and her home and move away permanently.
But on July 6th of the same year, Dora died due to complications from the injuries sustained during the attack. The inquiry into the crime, now six months old, shifted to a murder investigation.
Police concluded that robbery had been the likely motive, as the till in the shop had been emptied out and there were reportedly a few other items stolen. A bag containing £200 was found in Dora’s home, however. It was believed that the killer had entered Dora’s home through the back door.
Detectives were able to trace and eliminate every single customer who had patronized Dora’s shop in the hours preceding the assault, with the exception of one man wearing steel-rimmed glasses who was never found. A photofit image of him was released to the public in the hopes of tracking him down for questioning, but his identity remains unknown.
The murder of Dora Pratt is still open, but unsolved more than four decades later.
Crime Immemorial 