On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 2nd, 1973, fifteen-year-old Jackie Seston was at her home on Mountsteven Avenue in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. Somewhere between one-thirty and two-thirty p.m., someone entered the residence, raped her, and stabbed her to death.
Not long after the shocking crime, a man named Albert Taylor was arrested. He had been dating Jackie’s older sister, and had also been the one to find the body. When he gave an account of his movements on the day of the murder, he specifically claimed that he had been at Peterborough train station at one-fifteen p.m. and had heard the clock ticking as he stood on the platform. He then said he had arrived at the Seston home at around two p.m., when he discovered Jackie’s remains and frantically fled from the house.
Because the prosecution argued that the clock at Peterborough station was silent, it was argued that Albert was lying, and he was ultimately found guilty of the slaying.
However, on appeal, it was found that the clock had a fault which had caused it to tick from time to time. Since the clock had been the main piece of evidence that Albert was not being truthful, this revelation caused his conviction to be overturned on appeal. Albert Taylor had served nearly five years in prison.
After his release, the case once again moved to the unsolved column, and has remained there ever since. As of this writing in October 2024, the identity of the person who raped and murdered Jackie Seston in her home is still a mystery.
Crime Immemorial 