For more than forty years, Allen Morgan—a convenience store owner from Linslade, Bedfordshire—believed he had evaded being caught as a killer. But cold case investigators found a witness—who was a teenager at the time of the murder —who said when detectives finally showed up that she had been expecting them to visit for four decades.
Morgan had gone to the Odeon theatre in Luton with his step-children on the afternoon of August 13, 1981. When he got home, he went to his store and found his wife Carol dead. Cigarettes and cash were stolen.
Even though detectives knew that Morgan was having an affair with a woman named Margaret, they zeroed in on a man with unusual “piggy” nostrils who had been observed fleeing from the store. In an effort to defend his reputation, Morgan gave many interviews to the media; nonetheless, the true killer remained elusive.
The murder investigation, which began in a hot and claustrophobic incident room in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, involved more than eighty officers. One possible lead was a dark green estate vehicle that had been parked close to the store when the murder had taken place. The police even sought the help of a forensic hypnotist to get further confessions from eyewitnesses. A local businessman offered a reward of £5,000 for information.
Although the case was reviewed every two years by the authorities, the killer was never apprehended, and society appeared to have moved on. That was before Det. Supt Foster became the leader of the cold case review team.
He decided to revisit all of the original interviewees. Jane Bunting, upon answering the door, said she had been waiting for that day for the past 40 years.
June told Foster that Morgan had asked her if she knew anyone willing to kill his wife.
Ultimately, Morgan was convicted of conspiracy to murder. Margaret was acquitted.
The killer was not found. Carol was killed with either a machete or an ax.
Foster is still determined to find out who the physical murderer is.
