Who killed American Shelley Morgan in Somerset, UK 35 years
Aug 12, 2019 23:15:13 GMT
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Post by hi224 on Aug 12, 2019 23:15:13 GMT
Shelley Morgan was born in 1951 in Iowa, United States. According to her sister, Holle Brian, she was creative from an early age and would make "elaborate stuffed dolls and animals" as well as design and create her own clothes. After educational trips to Japan and Italy, she emigrated to Liverpool in 1972 to work as a wardrobe manager for the Liverpool Playhouse. She later met and married her husband, Nigel, before moving to a small village in South Wales and gave birth to two children, Liam and Charlotte.
Upon discovering Liam was autistic, her family made the decision to move to Bristol in order for him to receive the education and therapy he required.
The homemaker expressed a desire to return to work as a designer and wanted to finish her arts degree to improve her employment opportunities.
On Monday, June 11, 1984, Shelley escorted her children, Liam and Charlotte, to their school bus in Bristol.
Carrying a distinctive multi-coloured carpet bag containing a camera tripod and 35mm Olympus OM20, the American-born artist told her children she was going to take some pictures of the Avon Gorge.
Husband Nigel, then 33, had meanwhile been away at the couple's second home, a cottage in the Brecon Beacons.
Police were alerted to her disappearance after she failed to pick up her children from school. A team of 80 detectives began working on the case and tried to piece together her last known movements.
Detectives at the time theorised Shelly caught a local bus from Bedminister's East Street, travelled to the city's main bus station and boarded the 359 service to Portishead.
Police officers had issued an appeal to anyone who may have seen her on the buses but no one came forward.
There were a few leads that came forward with police wanting to trace the driver of a blue van seen speaking to Shelley near the entrance to Ashton Court.
Calls reported the sighting of a woman sat inside a yellow lorry in Backwell Hill Road while other witnesses spotted a BMW car parked on the Portishead-to-Bristol road, but the leads never amounted to anything. There were also reports of a woman matching her description seen boarding a Weymouth ferry but ultimately the clues led nowhere.
Her case was even featured on BBC's Crimewatch programme which featured a reconstruction of her last walk from home.
The broadcast triggered an anonymous call to the police in September 1984 which claimed Shelley's body would be found in a "watery grave" at a given location.
Eight police divers searched the spot and never found her body or any clues - so the call was put down to a hoax.
Police officers put up two hundred posters between Bristol and North Somerset seeking information about her disappearance with no avail.
Tragically, on Sunday, October 14, 1984, her body was discovered by a boy in a wooded copse off Long Lane in Backwell Hill, near Bristol Airport.
Her naked skeleton was found with just a pair of torn and twisted tights around her ankle bones.
A pair of sandals was found discarded in brambles nearby.
Dental records confirmed it was Shelley's body and a forensic post-mortem examination revealed she had been stabbed in the back 14 times.
There was evidence the brutal attack had been sexually motivated.
Neither the camera, the bag, or the clothing she was wearing, including red-framed glasses, have been found to this day.
Cold case detectives at Avon and Somerset Police believe the discovery of two ageing postcards could hold vital information in their bid to solve the murder.
Shelley had been heading towards Leigh Woods to spend the day sketching and taking photographs with a 35mm Olympus OM20.
The tear-off postcards are from a calendar sold by the local Bristol Hospice charity in the 1980s or 1990s. It is not clear where the postcards were found, but police say the locations are significant because they are linked to areas where Shelley had been going when she disappeared - and where her body was found.
One is of a scene overlooking the River Avon in Bristol, taken from Bower Ashton - just below the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Another postcard is of St Andrew's Church, from the direction of Backwell Hill.
DS Sarah Barnston, of the Major Crime Review Team, said: "We'd like to speak to anyone who may have bought this calendar or who kept the tear-off postcards with these specific images, possibly for some time.
An Olympus OM20 - the same camera model Shelly Morgan owned at the time of her disappearance. Police are advising police to check for a camera with the serial number 1032853 "Shelley was carrying camera equipment at the time - including a 35mm Olympus OM20 which cost £130 at the time and is still popular with collectors.
"It has the serial number 1032853 on it. Sketching materials in a large patchwork-style shoulder bag, her clothing and red-framed glasses were also never recovered.
"Our latest re-investigation has identified new material of interest which may have forensic potential, utilising the latest scientific techniques."
Police receive "encouraging number of calls" following fresh appeal American artist Shelley Morgan suddenly disappeared and her body was found four months later in North Somerset (Image: Shelley Morgan's family) A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police told Somerset Live that officers received numerous calls with "potential information and intelligence" after releasing images of the postcards and camera.
The Major Crime Review Team are continuing to access clues that lead to finding Shelley Morgan's murderer.
He said: "We've had an encouraging number of calls with potential information and intelligence which we'll be following up.
"We're still trying to establish the year the tear-off postcards were in the Bristol Hospice charity calendar and want to speak to anyone who still has the calendar containing these images, or anyone who knows of someone who kept these specific postcards for a period of time.
"We also still need information about the whereabouts of Shelley's Olympus OM20 camera, serial number 1032853.
"We'd ask people with this model of camera to check the serial number to see if it matches and call the Major Crime Review Team on 101 if it does." www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/murder-shelley-morgan-full-story-3193516
Upon discovering Liam was autistic, her family made the decision to move to Bristol in order for him to receive the education and therapy he required.
The homemaker expressed a desire to return to work as a designer and wanted to finish her arts degree to improve her employment opportunities.
On Monday, June 11, 1984, Shelley escorted her children, Liam and Charlotte, to their school bus in Bristol.
Carrying a distinctive multi-coloured carpet bag containing a camera tripod and 35mm Olympus OM20, the American-born artist told her children she was going to take some pictures of the Avon Gorge.
Husband Nigel, then 33, had meanwhile been away at the couple's second home, a cottage in the Brecon Beacons.
Police were alerted to her disappearance after she failed to pick up her children from school. A team of 80 detectives began working on the case and tried to piece together her last known movements.
Detectives at the time theorised Shelly caught a local bus from Bedminister's East Street, travelled to the city's main bus station and boarded the 359 service to Portishead.
Police officers had issued an appeal to anyone who may have seen her on the buses but no one came forward.
There were a few leads that came forward with police wanting to trace the driver of a blue van seen speaking to Shelley near the entrance to Ashton Court.
Calls reported the sighting of a woman sat inside a yellow lorry in Backwell Hill Road while other witnesses spotted a BMW car parked on the Portishead-to-Bristol road, but the leads never amounted to anything. There were also reports of a woman matching her description seen boarding a Weymouth ferry but ultimately the clues led nowhere.
Her case was even featured on BBC's Crimewatch programme which featured a reconstruction of her last walk from home.
The broadcast triggered an anonymous call to the police in September 1984 which claimed Shelley's body would be found in a "watery grave" at a given location.
Eight police divers searched the spot and never found her body or any clues - so the call was put down to a hoax.
Police officers put up two hundred posters between Bristol and North Somerset seeking information about her disappearance with no avail.
Tragically, on Sunday, October 14, 1984, her body was discovered by a boy in a wooded copse off Long Lane in Backwell Hill, near Bristol Airport.
Her naked skeleton was found with just a pair of torn and twisted tights around her ankle bones.
A pair of sandals was found discarded in brambles nearby.
Dental records confirmed it was Shelley's body and a forensic post-mortem examination revealed she had been stabbed in the back 14 times.
There was evidence the brutal attack had been sexually motivated.
Neither the camera, the bag, or the clothing she was wearing, including red-framed glasses, have been found to this day.
Cold case detectives at Avon and Somerset Police believe the discovery of two ageing postcards could hold vital information in their bid to solve the murder.
Shelley had been heading towards Leigh Woods to spend the day sketching and taking photographs with a 35mm Olympus OM20.
The tear-off postcards are from a calendar sold by the local Bristol Hospice charity in the 1980s or 1990s. It is not clear where the postcards were found, but police say the locations are significant because they are linked to areas where Shelley had been going when she disappeared - and where her body was found.
One is of a scene overlooking the River Avon in Bristol, taken from Bower Ashton - just below the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Another postcard is of St Andrew's Church, from the direction of Backwell Hill.
DS Sarah Barnston, of the Major Crime Review Team, said: "We'd like to speak to anyone who may have bought this calendar or who kept the tear-off postcards with these specific images, possibly for some time.
An Olympus OM20 - the same camera model Shelly Morgan owned at the time of her disappearance. Police are advising police to check for a camera with the serial number 1032853 "Shelley was carrying camera equipment at the time - including a 35mm Olympus OM20 which cost £130 at the time and is still popular with collectors.
"It has the serial number 1032853 on it. Sketching materials in a large patchwork-style shoulder bag, her clothing and red-framed glasses were also never recovered.
"Our latest re-investigation has identified new material of interest which may have forensic potential, utilising the latest scientific techniques."
Police receive "encouraging number of calls" following fresh appeal American artist Shelley Morgan suddenly disappeared and her body was found four months later in North Somerset (Image: Shelley Morgan's family) A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police told Somerset Live that officers received numerous calls with "potential information and intelligence" after releasing images of the postcards and camera.
The Major Crime Review Team are continuing to access clues that lead to finding Shelley Morgan's murderer.
He said: "We've had an encouraging number of calls with potential information and intelligence which we'll be following up.
"We're still trying to establish the year the tear-off postcards were in the Bristol Hospice charity calendar and want to speak to anyone who still has the calendar containing these images, or anyone who knows of someone who kept these specific postcards for a period of time.
"We also still need information about the whereabouts of Shelley's Olympus OM20 camera, serial number 1032853.
"We'd ask people with this model of camera to check the serial number to see if it matches and call the Major Crime Review Team on 101 if it does." www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/murder-shelley-morgan-full-story-3193516