Forty-seven-year-old Peter Thurgood lived in Whitehill in Hampshire, England. He was divorced but had reportedly been carrying on an affair with a married woman, forty-nine-year-old Lindy Benstead.
On April 22nd, 1986, Peter rented a silver Mazda and picked Lindy up from Old Thorns Golf Club, where she worked as a cleaner. The pair then drove to a clearing on Chapel Common near the village of Rake in West Sussex, presumably to have sex in the car.
Several hours later, a passing driver spotted their dead bodies lying near the vehicle in an open area alongside what was then the A3. They had both been killed by shotgun blasts, fired from point-blank range.
Lindy’s husband was considered the first suspect but was quickly dismissed as he had a solid alibi.
The crime, which became known as the Lovers’ Lane Killings, went cold not long after it occurred, and many years passed with no progress in the investigation.
But then, in 2018, Sussex police traveled to the United States to interview a man who claimed to have helped the killer. This individual, who has not been named, stated that he had actually picked the killer up in his car on the day of the shooting; the man was a deer poacher and had been covered in blood.
The informant also said that he had driven the supposed murderer to a spot where he disposed of the shotgun he’d used in the slaying. The informant further alleged that the killer was a local man. The man the informant had accused died in Hampshire in 2019.
Authorities thoroughly investigated this lead but later told the media and the victim’s family that there was not enough corroborating evidence to make an arrest.
The double murder of Peter Thurgood and Lindy Benstead, therefore, is still officially unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 