Ninety-six-year-old Edith Stuart had been a weaver before retirement, and had been married to a man named Bill who had preceded her in death by thirty years. When she was ninety-two, her family moved her into Cleveleys Park Rest Home in Lancashire, England, where she seemed content and in good spirits. But on October 18th, 2010, Edith would suffer an almost unimaginably horrible fate.
On that day, someone set the elderly woman’s bed on fire with her in it, likely igniting the blaze with a green lighter that was later found in the room. Edith was burned over fifty percent of her body, mostly around her back and legs, and though she was rushed to nearby Blackpool Victoria Hospital, she succumbed to her injuries the following day.
Authorities were baffled as to why someone would commit such an atrocious act against a helpless and harmless old woman, and they first investigated the possibility that one of the other residents—some of whom suffered from mental decline and memory issues—may have set the fire without realizing the gravity of what they were doing. However, the only other resident of the care home who was mobile enough to have possibly done the deed was found to have been provably in her room on another floor at the time the blaze was set.
Detectives next looked into the employees of the care home, two of whom were on duty at the time the murder took place. Both women allegedly gave muddled accounts of their whereabouts and actions at the time the fire alarm went off, but there wasn’t sufficient evidence to hold either one of them, and both were released. Authorities have also all but ruled out the possibility that an intruder broke into the care home and set the fire.
The bizarre and horrific crime remains unsolved, nearly fifteen years later.
Crime Immemorial 