Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today, we're going to
be exploring the nineteen seventy eight murder of fifty two year old Beryl Culverwell.
Her body was found in the garage of her own home. However, there
were so many odd elements to the crime and this, for the main part,
has led to the case remaining unsolved up to this day. This episode
contains some descriptions that listeners may find distressing, so listener discretion is advised.
The area of Whidcombe Hill is located in the city of Bath in Somerset.
Widcomb is a quiet residential district which is known for the beautiful architecture that Bath
is famous for. It was and still is a desirable place to live during
the nineteen seventies. Antony and Beryl Culverwell lived in Whitcombe in a home named
Wood Home. The couple had moved there in nineteen seventy six and together they
had three grown up children. Anthony and Beryl were in their fifties at this
point and were enjoying their lives together when they moved to Whitcomb Hill. They
quickly made good friends with their neighbors and joined the local community. Anthony Culverwell
worked as a stockbroker and Beryl was dedicated to her role as a charity worker
and volunteer. Beryl spent her days volunteering in various places around Bath whenever someone
needed her. She was extremely dedicated to her work at the organization Bath Maternity
Society that helped mothers in need. Beryl was known to be a friendly and
thoughtful person who wanted to help others as much as she could. Antony and
Beryl had been together for a long time, and in nineteen seventy eight they
celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. They were a happy couple in a very stable
period in their lives and since moving to Whitcombe Hill, had gone from strength
to strength. On Friday the thirteenth of January nineteen seventy eight, Anthony Culverwell
returned home around six oh five pm, where he noticed that his wife's car
was outside. Beryl would usually be at home when he returned, but it
wasn't unheard of for her to have nipped out to visit someone or for an
appointment. The house, however, was in darkness and when Antony entered the
home, he shouted Beryl's name. She didn't respond, and when he entered
the kitchen he became concerned. There were shoppings strewn around and dinner that Beryl
had clearly been preparing was burning in the oven. He couldn't find Beryl anywhere.
After searching the home thoroughly, it was only when Antony decided to open
the garage that led from the house that he discovered where Beryl was. He
discovered her body laying a pool of blood and wrapped up with twine. This
image must have been horrendous for Antony. In a complete shock. He immediately
ran next door to the Hall's home, who were their close friends, and
contacted police. They were dispatched to the usually quiet district of the city.
The scene in the garage was bloody and indicated a violent attack had taken place.
Beryl's body lay in a pool of blood, and there was a bread
knife located close to it. Her sheep's skin coat also lay close to her
body. Police were quite sure that Beryl had been attacked with the knife that
lay close by, given the wounds that they had found. They were later
discovered that she had indeed been stabbed with the eight inch bread knife, and
that this attack had been extremely brutal, with Beryl being stabbed around twenty times.
This indicated a huge level of violence in the case. Not only that,
but they would also later discover that she had been hit over the head
with the blunt object before she had then been stabbed. It would be speculated
that this had been done with the barrel of a twelve bore shotgun. Beryl
was found fully clothed, and there was no indication that she had been sexually
assaulted before being killed. The scene was strange, to say the least,
and police were left wondering why had someone wanted to kill Beryl and what were
the circumstances surrounding it. People in the area of Whitcomb Hill were horrified that
something like this could have happened, particularly to someone like Beryl, who by
all accounts was a well loved and respectable member of the community. Police began
to comb the house for all evidence that they could find, and an incident
room was set up at Bath Police station. Police used tracker dogs to search
the area in the hope that further evidence would be located. The murder clearly
had a huge level of violence, considering that not only was Beryl stabbed twenty
times, but she had also been hit over the head. There were no
signs of a sexual assault, and there was also no evidence of a struggle
taking place in the home. Police could find no sign that the house had
been ransacked, as though the motive had been robbery. There was something found
that was odd. A pair of secateurs had been taken from the Culverwell garage
and were found in the house. The telephone wires had been cut to the
home. It was thought that these secateurs had been used to cut the wires.
It was a strange scene and one that did not make much sense.
What was clear was that whatever had happened, Beryl had been interrupted in the
middle of putting her shopping away and making dinner. Pathologists had reported that they
believed she'd been killed not long after two pm, and therefore police were very
interested in Beryl's movements up until this time. On Friday, the thirteenth of
January, it was known that Beryl had gone shopping. She had gone into
Bath City Center to visit several shops. Police were not sure of all the
shops that she visited, and they did try to find out by publishing Beryl's
picture, hoping to reach shop assistance or people who were shopping that day who
might remember her. They could confirm that between eleven thirty and twelve pm,
Beryl bought something which cost forty six p from Max and Spencer. They also
knew from looking at the shopping that was at her home that at some point
between eleven thirty and two pm she had also bought potatoes, carrots, bacon,
a pasta and a chicken. This was just a normal shopping trip and
something that everyone does daily. They didn't seem to be anything out of the
ordinary about it. It seemed that Beryl returned home and then was killed shortly
afterwards. Police spoke about their theories at the time. Detective Superintendent John Robinson,
who was leading the investigation, told the press on the fifteenth of January,
I believe that this stage that while missus Culverwell was out shopping, the
garage doors were left open. If the connecting door was not locked, someone
could have gained access to the home. It's possible somebody tried to get into
the house through the garage and that missus Culverwell disturbed the intruder there seemed to
have been a struggle, and she had about twenty stab wounds to her front
and her head. These are likely to have occurred during a friends At time,
this seemed to be a possible theory. However, police could find no
one explained, fingerprints or forensic evidence which had been left behind, and the
neighbors had not heard any shouts or screams coming from the home. Police were
baffled by the scene and what the motive was for the killing. In the
search of the house, police had found a diary of Beryl's in her handbag,
and inside the diary there was a potential clue. Beryl had noted the
initials BMT or BNT at the time of two pm on the thirteenth of January.
This was of interest given that it was thought that Beryl died shortly afterwards.
It was later found that it was BMT and referred to Bath Maternity Trust,
where she was a volunteer. Why this was written in her diary for
this time, however, hasn't been published. Newspapers from the time also state
that more diary were found in the home in a lock drawer of addressing table.
In this diary there were several names of men and also several phone numbers
of which police wanted to trace. Every lead was followed up on in the
weeks and months following Beryl's murder, and it was hoped that something relevant would
come up. Police put out a message to all the dry cleaners in the
area to let them know if someone came in with bloody clothing to clean.
This was a good strategy, however, it also led to many people being
brought in for questioning that had nothing to do with the murder. A bloody
handkerchief that was found by the public was looked into and then ruled out as
having anything to do with the murder. One lead that police got early on
was that a car had been spotted at Beryl and Antony's home on the thirteenth
of January. This car has been described different ways in reporting from the time.
However, early reports state that it was a small cream or pale yellow
car that was seen leaving the Culverwell home around the time that Beryl had died.
Police were very interested in learning more about this car and who may have
been driving it. More information would eventually be given as it was reported that
a car fitting a similar description had almost hit another vehicle at the junction of
Claverton Down Road and Oakley Road in Whitcombe Hill at around one forty five p
m on Friday, the thirteenth of January. This car has been described as
an off white or yellow Mark three Cortina, however, in later reporting was
changed to a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. It's known that the police later did a
search of over thirty three thousand Volkswagen Beetle owners and so this was a significant
line of inquiry. It has also been connected to the car scene driving away
from the home that day, as it's reported that a reconstruction of a yellow
Beetle driving away from wood home was done by police. The car reportedly had
two men in it, and police were eager to speak to a woman and
her two children who were coming out of their home at the time of the
incident at the junction, in the hope that she had seen something and would
be able to give them more information. A photo fit of a man that
was seen in the car was created and it produced an image of a man
around thirty eight years of age with hair thinning at the temples. Witnesses did
come forward to say that during this incident. At the junction, they noticed
that the registration plate of the car may have had two eights and an L
in it. The information seemed to show that a car left wood home and
was driving at high speed, which then almost collided with other cars at a
junction, hating that it was driving erratically to possibly flee the scene. The
issue, however, was that they had no idea who was in the car,
and despite interviewing many people who owned a yellow Volkswagon Beetle, they couldn't
find any substantial links. An anonymous donor put forward one thousand pounds for any
information that could lead to solving the case, and this was I'm sure welcomed
by Beryl's family, who must have been devastated by the events that had occurred.
Beryl was not the usual victim, and she didn't appear to have lots
of risk factors which would have made her a target. People did come forward
with information, and some of it was of interest. A man who they
dubbed as mister X rang up with some information. It's not clear what exactly
he told police, however, it clearly involved some vehicles. He rang up
twice, once on February seventh, and again on fire. By the tenth,
he would not give any information about himself, saying that he was in
Bath in relation to analytic crime, so he didn't want to reveal himself.
The police said that they had promised this man anonymity. However, believed that
he may have been in Bath to have an affair and therefore did not want
to come forward. Another line of inquiry came from a boy that rang up
the incident room. He told police that he'd found a broken gun in the
hills somewhere in Bath. He said, it's all smashed up. If my
parents knew, they would tell me to deny it. The boy then asked
if the phone call was being recorded, before hanging up. He hadn't told
the police where he'd found this gun. This was of interest given that they
believed Beryl was hit over the head with a gun before being stabbed, The
force of which they believe may well have broken the barrel of the gun and
it could therefore being a broken off smashed up state. Another witness, a
pensioner, rang police to tell them that she believed she saw Beryl on the
day that she was killed. She said that Beryl was stood outside Sainsbury's Supermarket
and that she looked worried. The witness gave a description that was completely different
than the one from the photo fit from the car. They explained that he
was thirty to forty years old, five feet six to eight inches tall,
with dark, straight, ear length hair. He was clean shaven with a
fresh complexion. He was seen wearing a pale blue shirt, dark tie,
dark brown and fawn checked jacket and twill cavoy trousers. He was carrying a
brown leather case and police believe he had a car parked nearby. This man
was of interest to the witness because when Beryl left the supermarket, so did
this man. If this was Beryl, why was she looking worried and why
was she waiting outside. This was a large investigation and there were many leads,
but police struggled to pin down a particular suspect our specific motive for the
killing. In the months that followed, they began to hit a brick wall
and little progress was made. Police told the Western Daily Press, we are
keeping an eye on all murders throughout the country to see if there were any
similarities with the Culverwell killing. If there is, we send an officer to
the scene as soon as possible for him to interview people concerned. The fact
that there might be similarities is perhaps the only real chance we have of finding
the killer. Our incident room will remain open and we will never give up
the hunt. Unfortunately, police implied that they may only know who killed Beryl
if the killer were to strike again. Since nineteen seventy eight, there has
not been much movement, despite the huge inquiry to begin with and the effort
that had been put in to try and find Beryl's killer. In two thousand
and three, the investigation was relaunched by Bath Police to try and dig up
some new evidence. Sergeant Bob Allard of Avon and Somerset Police said at the
time we found the body in the garage, it was quite a horrendous sight.
After so many years, we are still really no further forward as to
who was responsible. The big question is why was missus Culverwell murdered. This
is the question that everyone is wondering about Beryl's case, given that there was
no apparent motive and the reason why an intruder wanted to enter Beryl's home is
unknown. It is reported in an article from the BBC in two thousand and
three that Anthony Colverwell had passed away and their three children had moved away from
the area. The fact that Beryl's murder is still under solve, no doubt,
weighed upon their family. The fact that such a violent killer has not
been brought to justice and could have still been on the loose is also worrying.
This is an old case, but you never know if new information will
come out, and it only takes one person to come forward. If you
know anything about the murder of Beryl Culverwell, then please contact police on one
oh one. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to
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ways. I'm Caprice and this has been unseen People People for People for peop