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100-year-old murders still baffling investigators

 

Burton Mail

by DANIELLE HARRISON

Last updated: 10/05/2010 08:05

 

NOTORIOUS murders in Burton and South Derbyshire are among some of the oldest ‘cold cases’ to go unsolved across the UK.

The deaths of Herbert Nottingham Turner, whose throat was slashed in Swadlincote, and the murder of teenager Clara Durose, found dead in a Burton dairy farm refrigerator, still remain a mystery and are among hundreds of deaths to go unsolved across the country.

 

The findings were revealed as part of a BBC Freedom of Information Act request, which revealed 1,143 unsolved murders dating back as far as 150 years ago.

 

Turner, originally of Pontefract, was found dead in the early hours of November 29, 1908.

Commonly known as Mexican Joe, he was a travelling entertainer who would perform tricks in pubs across Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

 

Meanwhile, 15-year-old Clara Durose, a domestic servant, was killed at Rolleston Park Farm in 1910, by a single wound from an unknown instrument which penetrated her skull.

 

The BBC findings stated London’s Metropolitan Police had the largest tally of cold cases at 341, dating back to 1996.

West Midlands Police were next in line with 78 unsolved cases and Greater Manchester with 54.

 

Only six of the 50 police forces who responded had no unsolved homicides which dated back beyond a year.

 

A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: “Developments in DNA technology can lead to murders being solved years later.”

 

Both the death of Turner and Durose have been well documented by Derbyshire crime writer Scott Lomax in his book Unsolved Murders in and Around Derbyshire.

 

He said: “This book is the culmination of four years of original and painstaking research which has already generated new leads to several of the cases featured.

 

“This new information is being investigated by the police and I continue to work with them.”

 

 

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