Eighty-six-year-old Sarah Hill was a tiny woman, standing only four-foot-ten and weighing a little over one hundred pounds. She had spent her entire life working in the cotton mills near her home in Lees, Greater Manchester, England. Now retired, she lived alone in a house on Thomas Street, and because of her frail health and deafness, rarely went out. Her neighbors routinely helped her with any tasks she needed done.
On the evening of February 12th, 1982, Sarah was sitting in her armchair reading the newspaper as she usually did when an intruder broke into her home through the kitchen window. The attacker proceeded to beat Sarah mercilessly around the head and face before doing a peremptory ransack of the place and fleeing.
The following morning, a concerned neighbor called the police since she hadn’t heard from Sarah, and when authorities arrived, they found the small, elderly woman dead on her living room floor. Her skull had been fractured by an unknown blunt object.
The assailant had dumped out a few drawers in the residence, but it wasn’t clear if anything was stolen.
Detectives interviewed thousands of people following the shocking crime, but sadly, none seemed to have any information that would help bring the perpetrator to justice. As of June 2024, the horrific murder of Sarah Hill is still unsolved.

