Fresh appeal launched as Bedfordshire murder case features on TV documentary
Carol Morgan was killed in 1981, her husband Allen being jailed last year for his involvement
Bedfordshire Police are re-issuing an appeal for information decades on from a partially solved cold murder case.
An investigation into the murder of Carol Morgan in Linslade in 1981 was reopened by police six years ago, which led to her husband being put behind bars last year for his involvement in her death.
The case is now to feature in a two-part documentary on ITV.
Retired Detective Superintendent and former head of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, Carl Foster, led the investigation into the 1981 murder of Carol Morgan.
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, he said: "The murder of Carol Morgan, which was committed on the 13th of August 1981, was an undetected cold case murder investigation, which had been subject to occasional review.
"As all undetected murders are, they're never closed."
The decision to reopen the case came in 2018 when Mr Foster was leading the cold case unit.
"I read a report that had been written by one of my team around a review of that murder investigation and made the decision to reopen the investigation because I felt there were opportunities and lines of inquiry that needed to be pursued, hopefully in an attempt to finally solve the case and secure justice for Carol and her family", he said.
What happened to Carol Morgan?
A brutal assault took place in Morgan’s Store on Finch Crescent, in Linslade, a grocery shop run by husband and wife Allen and Carol Morgan, on the 13th of August 1981.
Carol Morgan suffered between 10 and 15 blows during the attack and died.
Detectives working on the case in 1981 were unable to gain sufficient evidence to charge anyone with her murder, despite a painstaking investigation which involved speaking to hundreds of people from the area as well generating 7,000 original documents.
Carol’s murder remained unsolved until detectives from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit re-opened the case in 2018.
The review by the Cold Case Investigation Unit established that there were further opportunities to progress the investigation.
In 2023, Allen was arrested and charged with conspiring to kill Carol.
Over a nine-week trial, the jury were presented evidence from people who knew the defendants and victims at the time. It was also revealed that the killer, who has never been identified, had stolen cash from a secret drawer in the office, suggesting they had been given inside knowledge, and the money was part of the payment for the murder.
Allen Morgan was convicted by a jury at Luton Crown Court in June last year of conspiracy to murder Carol Morgan.
The process of reopening cold cases
Cold case reviews are a routine part of police work, retired Detective Superintendent Foster explained.
He said: "There are a number of cases that we continue to review that are either unsolved by virtue of the fact that somebody was actually charged at trial and was acquitted for that crime.
"So essentially, the crime remains undetected and therefore subject to review, or alternatively, in a much smaller number of cases, where there were literally lines of inquiry which led to nothing to nobody being identified and nobody being prosecuted."
Such cases remain open indefinitely and are subject to periodic and continuous review.
New forensic techniques can further play a crucial role in revisiting past cases.
Mr Foster said: "What leads to a case being reopened is effectively if there are lines of inquiry identified that have never been pursued.
"And equally, as forensic science and technology improves and moves forward, if there are opportunities for us to revisit something that was previously looked at but the science has moved on and it enables us to conduct new analysis and tests, then obviously we'll revisit that line of inquiry."
The role of witnesses
In the Morgan case, a key witness played a pivotal role, as Mr Foster explained.
"This witness was spoken to back in 1981, but because of her circumstances at that time and the influences that one of the defendants had over her, she was never going to reveal the information that she knew," he said.
Decades later, when detectives revisited her, and the situation had changed, which led to key evidence being revealed.
Mr Foster said: "She literally said, 'I've been waiting for you to come and see me for almost 40 years.'
"She had been checking on the Bedfordshire Police website to see if there was any news about the case.
"She assumed that the case was resolved and closed because she'd never seen anything, and it's literally that knock on the door that then prompts her to give us the information that, without exaggerating, absolutely breaks the case and enables us to go to court and prosecute."
The ongoing investigation
Although Alan Morgan was convicted in connection with the murder, one critical question remains unanswered: the identity of the individual who carried out the fatal attack.
The case remains open, and is still being investigated, with active lines of inquiry.
Mr Foster said: "We firmly believe that anything's possible, and until you exhaust every opportunity that exists and either find a piece of evidence or feel that you've asked all the questions and there's just no chance of getting to the bottom of whatever that question might be, then we won't close it. We'll keep going."
A TV documentary
The upcoming ITV documentary aims to shed light on the police work behind such investigations.
Mr Foster sees this as an opportunity to build public confidence, and said: "I think it's really important to demonstrate that in amongst all of that kind of negative coverage, the majority of cops, the bulk of us, are out there working to do the right thing for the public.
"We are trustworthy, we are delivering results, and we do want people to come forward to speak to us.
"There’s a whole team of people that worked their socks off on this case for what is now seven years since we reopened the case in 2018. That demonstrates the kind of commitment and dedication of the teams that I had the privilege of leading."