Seventy-six-year-old Elsie Freeman, sometimes known as Viva, was a retired nurse who lived alone in a somewhat run-down house in Impington, near Cambridge, England. She was a rather mysterious woman, introverted and reclusive, and didn’t associate with any of her neighbors. It appeared that the only place she was ever seen was the local post office.
On March 7th, 1998, a family member who had become concerned about Elsie entered her house on Mill Road. There, they found Elsie’s lifeless body in her bedroom. The victim had her hands and feet bound, and had been beaten to death.
Authorities immediately suspected a robbery gone wrong, and surmised that the killer had entered through a broken side window. The house was largely hidden from the road by trees and thick shrubbery, so it would have been easy for someone to approach the residence undetected.
In fact, there had been several robberies in the vicinity at around the time of Elsie’s murder, so investigators pursued that lead diligently. One man in his forties was arrested in connection with a local robbery, but there was not enough evidence to charge him with homicide. Police suspected that he had some items in his possession that had been stolen from Elsie’s home, however.
The case was reopened in 2005 after new DNA evidence was extracted from evidence left at the scene, but unfortunately, the developments yielded no new leads. The murder of Elsie Freeman is considered a closed case, though authorities review it every two years, and will examine any new information provided.
Crime Immemorial 