Fifty-three-year-old Alan Holmes spent Christmas Day of 1995 with friends, having dinner in west London. At approximately midnight, his friends dropped him off in front of his flat in Camden Town. It was the last time he was seen alive.
On January 4th, 1996, colleagues phoned the police to report that Alan had not been to work for several days, and no one had been able to get hold of him. Officers forced their way into his residence, where they found him near death, lying face down and fully clothed. He had been tied very tightly to his bed and was suffering from severe dehydration and injuries from being unable to move his limbs for ten days.
Alan was rushed to the hospital, and was able to tell detectives that some men broke into his flat and tied him up in order to get him to tell them the PIN numbers on his bank cards. Indeed, it was discovered that £1,000 had been stolen from two of Alan’s accounts. There was CCTV footage of the money being withdrawn, but the individual in the video was not able to be identified.
Sadly, Alan Holmes succumbed to his injuries the day after arriving at the hospital, meaning authorities were now dealing with a murder investigation. Five men were arrested in connection with the crime later on in 1996, but all were released without charge.
A new appeal for information was publicized in late 2010, but as of this writing in August 2024, there have been no further developments.
Crime Immemorial 