Fifty-five-year-old John Malthouse was something of a wanderer, and believed to be homeless in the summer of 1986. Originally from North East England, John arrived in Cambridge on August 20th of that same year.
Witnesses spotted him at the Fort St. George pub two nights later, asking patrons for cigarettes and drinks. An hour after that, he was seen talking to a blond man on a bike, and subsequently, a female witness reported hearing two men arguing loudly in the public bathrooms near the pub. John had been seen at around eleven-thirty p.m., walking across Midsummer Common toward the toilets.
The following night, John Malthouse was found by a cleaner in a non-functioning toilet stall. He had been brutally raped and murdered, and was left nude from the waist down. The rest of his clothing was later found in the nearby river.
It appeared that whoever had attacked John had sexually assaulted him with a broom handle, then beat him several times in the head. The cause of death was brain swelling stemming from this assault. Authorities believed it may have taken him up to five hours to die from his injuries.
Despite a massive investigation that saw thousands of people interviewed, the case essentially went nowhere, and no arrests have ever been made, though police have reported they do have a few persons of interest.
In 2019, a cold case specialist was assigned to review the homicide, but as of this writing in September of 2024, the rape and murder of John Malthouse remains unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 