Sixty-four-year-old Eric Carver lived alone in a house in Lenton, Nottingham, England. On December 23rd, 1980, he was found bludgeoned to death in his bed. Forensic examination determined that he had been struck between seven and ten times in the skull with a wrench or a hammer and that he had likely been killed sometime between the evening of December 21st and the early morning hours of December 22nd.
Because there were no signs of a struggle, it was further surmised that Eric had been attacked while he slept. The killer had probably gained entry through a broken kitchen window at the rear of the residence, then proceeded to the upstairs bedroom without being detected. Nothing else in the house appeared to be disturbed, so robbery was ruled out as a motive.
Nearly two years later, a nineteen-year-old man named Patrick Nolan confessed to the crime after a series of police interrogations. Though he immediately recanted his confession, stating that he had been tired and was only telling the investigators what they wanted to hear, he was placed on trial and convicted of murder.
Patrick Nolan spent fourteen years in prison before an appeal in 2006 found that he had very likely succumbed to interrogative pressure and given a false confession. As there was no evidence other than the confession linking him to the murder, his conviction was overturned and he was finally released.
The slaying of Eric Carver, therefore, remains officially unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 