Sixty-two-year-old grandmother and mother of three Violet Milsom was described by neighbors as a “nice old lady” who lived alone with two cats in a basement flat on Ashley Road in St. Paul’s, Bristol, England.
At around four-forty-five p.m. on September 30th, 1985, Violet was seen going to the shops near her home, and was later known to have withdrawn her £37 pension from the bank. She then presumably went back to her residence.
On Tuesday, October 1st, a friend came over to the flat to help Violet with the gardening but instead found the woman dead. Her hands had been tied behind her back with a pink nylon belt.
It was later determined that she had been sexually assaulted, and brutally stabbed to death with a five-inch knife.
The killer had actually cut the ties around her wrist before fleeing the scene. Oddly, the pink belt used to bind the victim did not match any of her clothing and was believed not to belong to her.
There was no sign of forced entry, indicating Violet may have known her killer. It was also determined that the money she’d withdrawn the day before was missing from her purse.
One neighbor told police that they’d heard some shouting and banging noises on the night the murder took place, but couldn’t be certain that Violet’s flat was the source of the sounds.
Other witnesses came forward and provided more leads. One told authorities that Violet had reported an attempted robbery at her flat on September 3rd; three boys had smashed a window but had run away when they were spotted.
There were also accounts of four unidentified people standing near Violet’s gate at around eight-thirty p.m. on September 30th, and multiple reports of a man banging his head against a garden wall and saying “Oh no” over and over about thirty minutes before Violet’s body was discovered.
Despite a wealth of witness statements, Violet’s killer was never identified, and a new plea for information was released to the public in 2017. Investigators still hope that DNA evidence will one day pinpoint the person responsible, but as of September 2024, the violent rape and murder of Violet Milson is still unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 