The Official Website of S. C. Lomax

 

 

 

 

 

Forty years on will this murder mystery ever be solved?

IT IS now forty years since one of the most shocking murders in Derbyshire took place, which led to a nationwide manhunt. Yet the police investigation, and the passage of time, has failed thus far to reveal the identity of the man who murdered 24 year old London teacher, Barbara Mayo, at Ault Hucknall, near Chesterfield.

 

Mayo had been hitchhiking up the M1 to Catterick in Yorkshire when she met her killer. Unconfirmed sightings placed her in Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, but her semi clothed body was found in woodland on 18 October 1970. She had been raped and strangled and was last seen alive on 12 October. It is believed she was killed on that date.

 

Extensive police investigations identified a number of suspects but there was never sufficient evidence to bring charges against any of them. Every Morris Traveller in the country was traced after a woman matching Barbara’s description was seen getting into such a vehicle in Kimberley, but to no avail. Even in recent years modern forensic techniques, with traces of DNA believed to be from Barbara’s killer having been identified on her clothing, have failed to identify the man responsible for this crime.

 

The police continue to investigate but unfortunately a number of red herrings have been provided. Scott Lomax, who wrote the book Unsolved Murders in and Around Derbyshire, which features this case, has passed on information to the police. Scott says: “During the research of my book a number of people contacted me suggesting that they knew who Barbara’s killer was. One man even told me he suspected it was his father. Yet these appear to be cruel hoaxes. It is now forty years since Barbara Mayo was killed but I still hope that her murderer can be caught.

 

“Although four decades have passed there is still every possibility that Barbara’s killer is very much alive and even living locally. He could well be in his sixties or seventies, harbouring his guilty secret. If he is still alive I hope, and believe that his guilty secret can still be revealed to the police before he manages to take it to the grave.”

 

Scott believes the police may have been wrong to concentrate on the Kimberley sighting: “The police concentrated on an unconfirmed sighting of someone who my have been Barbara getting into a Morris Traveller. As such they spent massive resources investigating the owner of every Morris Traveller in the country, which may have been totally irrelevant to the crime. I also know, contrary to what they said at the time, that the police did not question motorists who drove near the crime scene in the early days of the murder hunt. Time was wasted which could have been better spent hunting this killer.”

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Scott Lomax’s book Unsolved Murders in and Around Derbyshire contains 13 cold cases from the 20th century.

 

 


Available from Amazon by clicking below:
Unsolved Murders in and Around Derbyshire

 

 

 

 

 

 

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