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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 are exploring the

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nineteen seventy four murder of Tom Hewitt
in Berry. As many of you may

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already know, I am from Berry
and so when I came across this case,

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I had to cover it. It's
rare for me to come across a

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case I haven't heard of so close
to home, and it was one that

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I needed to get covering. Tom's
case has remained unsolved for many years,

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with his family attempting to get further
coverage of it. The case deserves to

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have more publicity and certainly another look. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners

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may find distressing, so listener discretion
is advised. The town of Berry is

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located around thirty miles from the city
of Manchester and is famously known around the

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world as a market town. Bury
grew in population and size during the Industrial

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Revolution when the Manchester boom in industry
extended to many of the towns surrounding it.

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Bury was a mill town where textiles
were manufactured, and as a result,

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many people moved into the area,
making it an often crowded place to

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live. During Victorian times, many
of the areas within the town were industrial,

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and moving into the present day,
a lot of these areas are still

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evident within the town itself. The
mills have been repurposed into housing or entertainment

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spaces, and several of the areas
being used for other businesses and workshops.

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One area in the town which is
known for this until the present day is

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Freetown. This area still contains many
manufacturing units, businesses, and garyeers.

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During the nineteen seventies, Bright Street, which is located in this area,

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was one such place. On Saturday, the seventh of September nineteen seventy four,

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Bright Street had its usual number of
people coming and going down its narrow

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roads and bricklined street. Ian Cottrell
was a co owner of a garage on

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Bright Street, and he traveled to
it around eleven thirty that morning. When

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Ian got to the garage, however, he came across a disturbing and upsetting

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sight. The co owner of the
garage, Tom Hewitt, who was thirty

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at the time, had injuries to
his head and it was obvious that these

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were severe. He was lay in
a pool of blood. Tom was still

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alive when Ian discovered him and he
got in touch with emergency services. Tom

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was taken to Salford Royal Hospital.
It was clear that the injuries that he

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had suffered were extensive, and despite
Tom receiving medical help at the hospital,

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he passed away the next day from
those injuries. It was clear from the

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outset that Tom had been attacked and
murdered given the types of injuries that he

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had sustained. It would later be
reported that he had been beaten around the

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head several times with the blunt instrument, which was believed to be an iron

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bar, which was stated was one
of Tom's own work tools from the garage.

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Contemporary reporting from the time states that
a customer at the garage had discovered

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him in a pool of blood.
However, more recent reporting states that it

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was Ian Cottrell, who was a
co owner of the garage. I'm unclear

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why this discrepancy occurred, However,
the reporting was only two days old at

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that point, and therefore perhaps there'd
been a miscommunication. Police began working the

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case as a murder investigation immediately.
He began inquiries into Tom Hewitt and his

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life to try and find out more
about him and his movements before his death.

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House to house inquiries began in bright
Street and extra detectives from Manchester sia's

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crime Squad were drafted in to help
with these inquiries. Tom lived in Rosedale

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Avenue in the area of Sharpool's in
Astley Bridge in Bolton, around seven miles

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from Bury. He lived with his
partner, Sylvia, and they had a

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son together called David. Tom and
Sylvia were due to be married just weeks

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after Tom's murder. Tom had been
previously married before to his first wife,

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Pam, and they had another son
together called Paul. At the time that

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Tom was murdered. Paul was just
eight years old. Tom Hewitt therefore had

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a lot to look forward to and
had a lot going for him at the

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time that he was killed, and
all of this was cut short by this

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brutal crime. As well as going
door to door to try and locate anyone

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that might have seen anything suspicious or
knew anything about the murder, they also

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spoke to people who knew Tom,
like his friends and family. It's reported

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that police spoke to customers and friends
at his favorite pubs like the Swan Hotel

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on Tattington Road and Blighty is located
in Farmworth. They also went to visit

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people who knew him in Wales,
Derby and Stoke in the hope that this

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would lead them to more information or
more evidence. During the course of the

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investigation, police did find some more
information that was of interest. Early on,

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police reported that they were interested to
speak to a man who was seen

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to be visibly angry when attending the
garage in the two weeks prior to the

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murder. Detective Chief Superintendent Wilkinson said, you may have had a perfectly valid

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reason for visiting the garage. We
would like to speak to him, if

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only to eliminate him from our inquiries. The man was described as being between

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the ages of thirty five to forty, around five feet eleven inches tall,

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of a stocky build, and he
was seen to be wearing a dark suit.

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He had been seen looking agitated and
asking for Tom. The man had

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reportedly called up the garage on the
Thursday before Tom was murdered. Contemporary reports

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refer to one line of inquiry that
the police were investigating, which was that

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Tom was what they described as a
ladies man. Detective Chief Superintendent Wilkinson stated

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that he was very fond of Female
company, and in a Birmingham Male article

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from the ninth of September, he
explained that this fact has led them to

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be interested in this agitated man.
He said, it cannot be overlooked that

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the angry man may be a jealous
husband or boyfriend, but he may have

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had a perfectly valid reason for visiting
the garage and we would like to speak

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to him. There didn't appear to
be any evidence that conclusively linked this theory

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to any suspect or anything concrete that
the police could work with. This seemed

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to just be a possible theory.
Another line of inquiry that the police were

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interested in was an early sixties Jaguar
Mark ten car with an Irish registration number.

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They wanted to interview the driver of
this car in relation to the murder.

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However, not much has been reported
on as to why this was.

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The police investigation was seemingly quite large
and quite thorough, with involvement with Interpol

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and the investigation going as far as
New Zealand. Despite this, police did

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not get the breakthrough that they needed
in the investigation and they continued to struggle

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for leeds. Weeks and then years
began to pass with Tom's murder remaining unsolved.

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The years turned into decades and Tom's
murder remained an unsolved case for Greater

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Manchester Police. Tom's family had to
cope with the fact that they had lost

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a beloved father and partner, but
also the fact that nobody had been brought

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to justice for it. Paul Tom's
son continued to hope that someone would come

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forward with information or that some breakthrough
would be made. Its reported that in

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the early nineties the case had been
nearly cracked. However, nothing seemed to

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have come from that, and it's
unclear why it was thought to have been

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almost solved. This has not been
published or reported on. In two thousand

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and one, Grenada TV Unsolved did
a reconstruction of the moments leading up to

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Tom's murder, and it was hoped
that this would finally bring forward the leads

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that the police needed to solve the
crime. Paul Tom's son was seen on

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the footage visiting his dad's grave in
Ashley Bridge, where he was buried and

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where he'd lived at the time that
he was killed. Paul visits every year

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on the anniversary of his death,
and he has been a strong advocate in

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his dad's case. He stated in
the Bolton Evening News, I'm still hopeful

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about the killer being found. I
spoke to Bury Police after the program went

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out and they said that there had
been some phone calls but nothing substantial to

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go on. A Greater Manchester Police
spokesman said there were a few phone calls

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following the program, but only with
information we already had. This was no

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doubt disappointing, but it once again
got Tom's case back in the headlines and

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it meant that there was some hope
that the right person with information may come

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forward. With this hope, Paul
continued you to try and drum up new

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information, and he made the announcement
that he was putting up his savings of

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ten thousand pounds to anyone who could
help with the investigation. He explained.

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The money is a lot, but
it's nothing compared to the satisfaction of finally

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being able to catch the killer so
Dad can rest in peace at last.

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At times it's been a living hell. Police agreed that this may indeed help

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with the investigation, and Detective Chief
Inspector Frank Raggitt from Berry CID said mister

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Hewitt's reward is very generous and maybe
the trigger needed to make someone come forward.

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Despite all of the appeals, reconstructions, and Paul Hewitt's reward, nothing

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substantial appears to have been discovered from
the investigation. There is little that has

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been reported or published about the movements
before Tom's murder, and unfortunately, the

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footage from the unsolved episode with the
reconstruct doesn't appear to be publicly available.

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Paul has stated about the murder,
I'm always wondering what happened. I just

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want to know the truth. Did
he upset someone by ripping them off over

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a clutch? Was it something more
serious? Or was there some other reason

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we don't know about. I can't
stop thinking that the person who did it

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is still out there. The fact
that the motive appears to be unknown for

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the murder makes this case all the
more odd and tragic. Why did someone

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want to murder Tom and in such
a brutal manner? At this point,

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this is unknown, and it's part
of the reason I'm sure why it is

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still unsolved. In twenty sixteen,
The Very Times published an article which discussed

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Tom Hewitt's case and gave some interesting
insight into the original investigation. The article

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centered around farmer Greater Manchester Police officer
Alan Williams, who served on the force

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from nineteen sixty eight until nineteen eighty
nine. He stated in the article that

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he found out in two thousand and
three from one of his friends who had

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opened the cold case into Tom's murder
at that time, that he had once

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been a suspect in the murder.
Alan Williams wrote a book called The Truth

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Fairy, which was a memoir of
his life. He wrote that his dad

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had had an encounter with Tom Hewitt
during a minor car collision in nineteen seventy

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three. He stated, my father
had been driving through Berry when he was

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involved in a minor collision. The
other driver, with what my dad described

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as an old banger, seemed a
nice fellow who told Dad not to be

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concerned by the minor damage. Alan
Williams stated that around a week later,

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his dad received an invoice for forty
five pounds to pay for the damage to

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Tom Hewitt's car. Alan Williams said
he and a colleague on the police force

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looked into Tom and found that he
had sold the car already with no damage

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reported on it. They told Berry
c ID and they arrested Tom on charges

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of obtaining money on false pretenses.
Tom originally pled guilty, but then changed

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and stood trial instead. Alan Williams
said, I was present at the trial

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and the solicitor trashed my dad and
he came away from the dock in tears.

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I said to somebody after the trial, I hoped to sort mister Hewett

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out one day. What a rash
comment to make. He then found out

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that due to this comment, he'd
been on a list of suspects in the

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murder. Given this had occurred just
five months before the murder took place.

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Talking about his friend and colleague who'd
opened the cold case, he said he

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was amazed to find me along with
my dad as suspects. Of course,

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both of us were cleared of any
involvement and the case from it unsolved to

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this day. I was shocked to
find out that they could consider me a

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suspect. My dad was interviewed by
police at the time of the murder,

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but it was a big surprise that
I was linked to it too. The

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fact that police looked into many different
angles for the murder, including motives related

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to his business, personal reasons,
or people who had come across him over

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the years or in the area all
showed that there wasn't a concrete motive for

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why the murder had taken place.
Despite the many different angles that were looked

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into, it is still not been
solved, and there hasn't been many updates

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at all since the articles published in
two thousand and one and two thousand and

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two, and then the later article
with Alan Williams in twenty sixteen. Tom

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Hewitt's case does not contain a whole
lot of information and unfortunately there aren't many

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indication as to what happened to him. There are suggestions that perhaps police believe

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that the answer did lie with someone
who knew Tom, was acquainted with Tom,

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or lived in the area. However, their motives are very unclear,

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and if the police do have some
indication, they've not reported it. It's

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so tragic that Tom's case has not
been solved and his families still have to

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wonder what happened. I think it's
so important to cover the case on the

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podcast because someone does know the answer, and someone may have divulged this to

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someone over the years. It's so
important that they come forward with what they

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know. If this is true,
If you know anything about Tom Hewitt's murder

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in Berry in nineteen seventy four.
Please contact police on one oh one.

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I'm Caprice and this has been unseen
the sh