Seventy-three-year-old Richard Clarke was a father of two and a retired thatcher who lived in a house on Cranley Green Road in Eye, Suffolk, England.
On August 21, 2009, Richard and his friend Graham Borrill had been at The Horseshoes Pub in Billingford, Norfolk. Richard eventually called a cab and left, but was seen buying Chinese food on his way home at approximately seven p.m. Authorities estimated that he probably arrived at his residence about fifteen minutes later.
At eight o’clock, a man driving past the Clarke home spotted a man in the driveway holding his head as if injured; the witness believed this man to be Richard Clarke, and phoned emergency services.
Richard was taken to the hospital but later died from his injuries. From the look of his wounds, police suspected that the victim had been dragged to the ground and then beaten in the head, and thus began treating his death as a homicide.
Not long after, an unnamed man was arrested in connection with the crime but was eventually released without charge.
Richard’s friends and family criticized the Suffolk police for their “poor” investigation, accusing them of pursuing worthless leads and failing to look into more relevant ones. Suffolk police denied the allegations.
Crimestoppers have offered a £10,000 reward for information about the possible murder of Richard Clarke, but as of July 2024, his death is still a mystery.
Crime Immemorial 