Home International Man arrested over 1993 unsolved Tooze murders faces no further action

Man arrested over 1993 unsolved Tooze murders faces no further action

0
1

Man arrested over 1993 unsolved Tooze murders faces no further action

Image source, South Wales Police
ByOwain Evans

BBC Wales
  • Published

A man arrested in connection with one of Wales’ most notorious unsolved murders is no longer under investigation, police have said.

Harry and Megan Tooze were found dead with shotgun wounds in a cow shed at their farm in south Wales on 26 July 1993.

South Wales Police said an 87-year-old man who had been arrested in December last year as part of a review of evidence was no longer under investigation and had been released with no further action.

Police had made the arrest as part of a forensic review of the cold case in 2023 as they investigated the deaths of Harry, 64, and Megan, 67.

The retired fruit wholesaler and his wife had left their farm at Tŷ Ar y Waun, in Llanharry, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and drove their Land Rover to Tesco in nearby Talbot Green to do their weekly food shop, stopping to collect their pensions on the way home.

They were seen arriving back home at 11:00. At about 13:30, two gun shots were heard by neighbours, but this was not considered unusual on a farm.

The entrance gate to a farm can be seen with a green horse trailer on the right.

The couple’s daughter Cheryl raised the alarm when her regular daily call to her parents went unanswered that evening.

Officers went to the farm and found the couple’s bodies in a cow shed.

Both had been shot in the back of the head from a distance of about 3ft (0.9 metres), then covered in carpet and hidden under hay bales, detectives said.

Investigators believed Harry and Megan had not been killed in the cow shed. It was thought they had been carried there after their deaths.

People attend a funeral in formal attire. Centrally a woman with ginger hair and a tall man with brown hair and glasses look down at the coffin with forlorn expressions on their faces.

Their daughter’s boyfriend Jonathan Jones was found guilty of their murders and sentenced to life in prison in 1995, but was later freed on appeal.

Jones, who was a self-employed recruitment consultant, had told police he had taken the day off work on the day the Toozes were killed and was in Orpington, Greater London.

His partial thumbprint was also on a cup and saucer that had been found in the couple’s living room.

He was arrested that December, five months after the murders.

The couple’s daughter stood by him, moving in with his family in Caerphilly after his arrest.

A year after his conviction, Jones was released on appeal. Three appeal court judges took five minutes to reach their decision.

The original trial judge was criticised, and it emerged police had failed to seal the crime scene properly.

South Wales police said the forensic review of the case, which is being led by the Major Crime Investigation Team, would continue.

Det Supt Mark O’Shea said the force remained “committed to solving these dreadful murders” and he encouraged anyone with information to come forward as it “may help us get justice for the family”.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: BBC