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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today, we're going to

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be exploring the nineteen seventy eight murder
of fifty two year old Beryl Culverwell.

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Her body was found in the garage
of her own home. However, there

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were so many odd elements to the
crime and this, for the main part,

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has led to the case remaining unsolved
up to this day. This episode

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contains some descriptions that listeners may find
distressing, so listener discretion is advised.

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The area of Whidcombe Hill is located
in the city of Bath in Somerset.

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Widcomb is a quiet residential district which
is known for the beautiful architecture that Bath

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is famous for. It was and
still is a desirable place to live during

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the nineteen seventies. Antony and Beryl
Culverwell lived in Whitcombe in a home named

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Wood Home. The couple had moved
there in nineteen seventy six and together they

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had three grown up children. Anthony
and Beryl were in their fifties at this

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point and were enjoying their lives together
when they moved to Whitcomb Hill. They

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quickly made good friends with their neighbors
and joined the local community. Anthony Culverwell

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worked as a stockbroker and Beryl was
dedicated to her role as a charity worker

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and volunteer. Beryl spent her days
volunteering in various places around Bath whenever someone

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needed her. She was extremely dedicated
to her work at the organization Bath Maternity

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Society that helped mothers in need.
Beryl was known to be a friendly and

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thoughtful person who wanted to help others
as much as she could. Antony and

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Beryl had been together for a long
time, and in nineteen seventy eight they

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celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. They
were a happy couple in a very stable

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period in their lives and since moving
to Whitcombe Hill, had gone from strength

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to strength. On Friday the thirteenth
of January nineteen seventy eight, Anthony Culverwell

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returned home around six oh five pm, where he noticed that his wife's car

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was outside. Beryl would usually be
at home when he returned, but it

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wasn't unheard of for her to have
nipped out to visit someone or for an

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appointment. The house, however,
was in darkness and when Antony entered the

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home, he shouted Beryl's name.
She didn't respond, and when he entered

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the kitchen he became concerned. There
were shoppings strewn around and dinner that Beryl

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had clearly been preparing was burning in
the oven. He couldn't find Beryl anywhere.

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After searching the home thoroughly, it
was only when Antony decided to open

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the garage that led from the house
that he discovered where Beryl was. He

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discovered her body laying a pool of
blood and wrapped up with twine. This

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image must have been horrendous for Antony. In a complete shock. He immediately

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ran next door to the Hall's home, who were their close friends, and

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contacted police. They were dispatched to
the usually quiet district of the city.

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The scene in the garage was bloody
and indicated a violent attack had taken place.

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Beryl's body lay in a pool of
blood, and there was a bread

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knife located close to it. Her
sheep's skin coat also lay close to her

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body. Police were quite sure that
Beryl had been attacked with the knife that

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lay close by, given the wounds
that they had found. They were later

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discovered that she had indeed been stabbed
with the eight inch bread knife, and

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that this attack had been extremely brutal, with Beryl being stabbed around twenty times.

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This indicated a huge level of violence
in the case. Not only that,

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but they would also later discover that
she had been hit over the head

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with the blunt object before she had
then been stabbed. It would be speculated

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that this had been done with the
barrel of a twelve bore shotgun. Beryl

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was found fully clothed, and there
was no indication that she had been sexually

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assaulted before being killed. The scene
was strange, to say the least,

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and police were left wondering why had
someone wanted to kill Beryl and what were

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the circumstances surrounding it. People in
the area of Whitcomb Hill were horrified that

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something like this could have happened,
particularly to someone like Beryl, who by

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all accounts was a well loved and
respectable member of the community. Police began

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to comb the house for all evidence
that they could find, and an incident

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room was set up at Bath Police
station. Police used tracker dogs to search

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the area in the hope that further
evidence would be located. The murder clearly

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had a huge level of violence,
considering that not only was Beryl stabbed twenty

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times, but she had also been
hit over the head. There were no

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signs of a sexual assault, and
there was also no evidence of a struggle

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taking place in the home. Police
could find no sign that the house had

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been ransacked, as though the motive
had been robbery. There was something found

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that was odd. A pair of
secateurs had been taken from the Culverwell garage

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and were found in the house.
The telephone wires had been cut to the

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home. It was thought that these
secateurs had been used to cut the wires.

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It was a strange scene and one
that did not make much sense.

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What was clear was that whatever had
happened, Beryl had been interrupted in the

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middle of putting her shopping away and
making dinner. Pathologists had reported that they

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believed she'd been killed not long after
two pm, and therefore police were very

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interested in Beryl's movements up until this
time. On Friday, the thirteenth of

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January, it was known that Beryl
had gone shopping. She had gone into

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Bath City Center to visit several shops. Police were not sure of all the

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shops that she visited, and they
did try to find out by publishing Beryl's

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picture, hoping to reach shop assistance
or people who were shopping that day who

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might remember her. They could confirm
that between eleven thirty and twelve pm,

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Beryl bought something which cost forty six
p from Max and Spencer. They also

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knew from looking at the shopping that
was at her home that at some point

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between eleven thirty and two pm she
had also bought potatoes, carrots, bacon,

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a pasta and a chicken. This
was just a normal shopping trip and

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something that everyone does daily. They
didn't seem to be anything out of the

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ordinary about it. It seemed that
Beryl returned home and then was killed shortly

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afterwards. Police spoke about their theories
at the time. Detective Superintendent John Robinson,

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who was leading the investigation, told
the press on the fifteenth of January,

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I believe that this stage that while
missus Culverwell was out shopping, the

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garage doors were left open. If
the connecting door was not locked, someone

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could have gained access to the home. It's possible somebody tried to get into

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the house through the garage and that
missus Culverwell disturbed the intruder there seemed to

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have been a struggle, and she
had about twenty stab wounds to her front

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and her head. These are likely
to have occurred during a friends At time,

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this seemed to be a possible theory. However, police could find no

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one explained, fingerprints or forensic evidence
which had been left behind, and the

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neighbors had not heard any shouts or
screams coming from the home. Police were

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baffled by the scene and what the
motive was for the killing. In the

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search of the house, police had
found a diary of Beryl's in her handbag,

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and inside the diary there was a
potential clue. Beryl had noted the

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initials BMT or BNT at the time
of two pm on the thirteenth of January.

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This was of interest given that it
was thought that Beryl died shortly afterwards.

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It was later found that it was
BMT and referred to Bath Maternity Trust,

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where she was a volunteer. Why
this was written in her diary for

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this time, however, hasn't been
published. Newspapers from the time also state

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that more diary were found in the
home in a lock drawer of addressing table.

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In this diary there were several names
of men and also several phone numbers

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of which police wanted to trace.
Every lead was followed up on in the

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weeks and months following Beryl's murder,
and it was hoped that something relevant would

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come up. Police put out a
message to all the dry cleaners in the

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area to let them know if someone
came in with bloody clothing to clean.

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This was a good strategy, however, it also led to many people being

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brought in for questioning that had nothing
to do with the murder. A bloody

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handkerchief that was found by the public
was looked into and then ruled out as

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having anything to do with the murder. One lead that police got early on

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was that a car had been spotted
at Beryl and Antony's home on the thirteenth

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of January. This car has been
described different ways in reporting from the time.

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However, early reports state that it
was a small cream or pale yellow

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car that was seen leaving the Culverwell
home around the time that Beryl had died.

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Police were very interested in learning more
about this car and who may have

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been driving it. More information would
eventually be given as it was reported that

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a car fitting a similar description had
almost hit another vehicle at the junction of

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Claverton Down Road and Oakley Road in
Whitcombe Hill at around one forty five p

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m on Friday, the thirteenth of
January. This car has been described as

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an off white or yellow Mark three
Cortina, however, in later reporting was

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changed to a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.
It's known that the police later did a

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search of over thirty three thousand Volkswagen
Beetle owners and so this was a significant

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line of inquiry. It has also
been connected to the car scene driving away

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from the home that day, as
it's reported that a reconstruction of a yellow

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Beetle driving away from wood home was
done by police. The car reportedly had

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two men in it, and police
were eager to speak to a woman and

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her two children who were coming out
of their home at the time of the

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incident at the junction, in the
hope that she had seen something and would

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be able to give them more information. A photo fit of a man that

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was seen in the car was created
and it produced an image of a man

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around thirty eight years of age with
hair thinning at the temples. Witnesses did

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come forward to say that during this
incident. At the junction, they noticed

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that the registration plate of the car
may have had two eights and an L

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in it. The information seemed to
show that a car left wood home and

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was driving at high speed, which
then almost collided with other cars at a

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junction, hating that it was driving
erratically to possibly flee the scene. The

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issue, however, was that they
had no idea who was in the car,

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and despite interviewing many people who owned
a yellow Volkswagon Beetle, they couldn't

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find any substantial links. An anonymous
donor put forward one thousand pounds for any

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information that could lead to solving the
case, and this was I'm sure welcomed

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by Beryl's family, who must have
been devastated by the events that had occurred.

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Beryl was not the usual victim,
and she didn't appear to have lots

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of risk factors which would have made
her a target. People did come forward

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with information, and some of it
was of interest. A man who they

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dubbed as mister X rang up with
some information. It's not clear what exactly

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he told police, however, it
clearly involved some vehicles. He rang up

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twice, once on February seventh,
and again on fire. By the tenth,

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he would not give any information about
himself, saying that he was in

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Bath in relation to analytic crime,
so he didn't want to reveal himself.

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The police said that they had promised
this man anonymity. However, believed that

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he may have been in Bath to
have an affair and therefore did not want

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to come forward. Another line of
inquiry came from a boy that rang up

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the incident room. He told police
that he'd found a broken gun in the

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hills somewhere in Bath. He said, it's all smashed up. If my

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parents knew, they would tell me
to deny it. The boy then asked

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if the phone call was being recorded, before hanging up. He hadn't told

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the police where he'd found this gun. This was of interest given that they

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believed Beryl was hit over the head
with a gun before being stabbed, The

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force of which they believe may well
have broken the barrel of the gun and

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it could therefore being a broken off
smashed up state. Another witness, a

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pensioner, rang police to tell them
that she believed she saw Beryl on the

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day that she was killed. She
said that Beryl was stood outside Sainsbury's Supermarket

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and that she looked worried. The
witness gave a description that was completely different

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than the one from the photo fit
from the car. They explained that he

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was thirty to forty years old,
five feet six to eight inches tall,

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with dark, straight, ear length
hair. He was clean shaven with a

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fresh complexion. He was seen wearing
a pale blue shirt, dark tie,

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dark brown and fawn checked jacket and
twill cavoy trousers. He was carrying a

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brown leather case and police believe he
had a car parked nearby. This man

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was of interest to the witness because
when Beryl left the supermarket, so did

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this man. If this was Beryl, why was she looking worried and why

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was she waiting outside. This was
a large investigation and there were many leads,

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but police struggled to pin down a
particular suspect our specific motive for the

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killing. In the months that followed, they began to hit a brick wall

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and little progress was made. Police
told the Western Daily Press, we are

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keeping an eye on all murders throughout
the country to see if there were any

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similarities with the Culverwell killing. If
there is, we send an officer to

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the scene as soon as possible for
him to interview people concerned. The fact

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that there might be similarities is perhaps
the only real chance we have of finding

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the killer. Our incident room will
remain open and we will never give up

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the hunt. Unfortunately, police implied
that they may only know who killed Beryl

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if the killer were to strike again. Since nineteen seventy eight, there has

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not been much movement, despite the
huge inquiry to begin with and the effort

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that had been put in to try
and find Beryl's killer. In two thousand

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and three, the investigation was relaunched
by Bath Police to try and dig up

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some new evidence. Sergeant Bob Allard
of Avon and Somerset Police said at the

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time we found the body in the
garage, it was quite a horrendous sight.

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After so many years, we are
still really no further forward as to

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who was responsible. The big question
is why was missus Culverwell murdered. This

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is the question that everyone is wondering
about Beryl's case, given that there was

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no apparent motive and the reason why
an intruder wanted to enter Beryl's home is

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unknown. It is reported in an
article from the BBC in two thousand and

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three that Anthony Colverwell had passed away
and their three children had moved away from

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the area. The fact that Beryl's
murder is still under solve, no doubt,

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weighed upon their family. The fact
that such a violent killer has not

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been brought to justice and could have
still been on the loose is also worrying.

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This is an old case, but
you never know if new information will

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come out, and it only takes
one person to come forward. If you

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know anything about the murder of Beryl
Culverwell, then please contact police on one

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oh one. Thank you for listening
to today's episode. If you'd like to

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can use the link in the show notes

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to visit Patreon and see what we
offer. You can also support us by

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00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:51.960
reviewing the podcast wherever you listen,
including Spotify, and also just share the

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episodes. You can subscribe on YouTube
and follow us on social media as our

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ways. I'm Caprice and this has
been unseen People People for People for peop