Widower’s brutal murder solved after half a century

Oct 16 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

A BRUTAL murder in Cheshire has finally been solved after more than half a century.

Walter Albert Humphrey, 71, of Silk Mill Street, Knutsford, worked as a night petrol salesman at the town’s Highway Garage.

The widower, well-known to many in the town, was bludgeoned over the back of the head while at work in the early hours of Monday, January 26, 1953, and later died in hospital.

He was discovered shortly after 12.30am by two young men who were travelling to Preston after a weekend away in the Midlands.

They had pulled up just outside Knutsford for something to eat and drink, and while sitting in their Morris 8 Tourer, heard several shouts.

At first they thought the shouts had come from coaches carrying airmen back to base, and around 12.35am, as they were low on petrol, they stopped at a garage nearby before continuing their journey.

The driver said in his statement to police: “As my headlights swung past, they picked up the form of a man lying on the floor on his side.

“We rushed to him and said ‘It’s all right, old fellow’.

“I realised that was where the shouts had come from.”

Mr Humphrey told the men that he had been hit from behind and seen nothing.

They drove the injured man to Knutsford police station five minutes away.

The cash box which contained the garage float of £5 was kept in the office bolted to a bench. An unsuccessful attempt had been made to wrench it free.

Mr Humphrey died in hospital at 10pm that evening.

One set of fingerprints from the scene were preserved by police.

In 1993, the Cheshire Constabulary installed the Automatic Fingerprint Recognition Computer (AFR).

In 2007, during a periodic review, a match was found between the fingerprints recovered from the cashbox and a known criminal.

Further inquiries confirmed that a petty criminal, who had been in the Cheshire area at the time of Walter’s death, was the likely killer.

Police said they would not name that man, who moved to Italy, and has died in recent years. Detective Inspector Jo Miller said: “In this case, the fingerprints of the offender had been recovered in respect of acquisitive crime many years after Walter’s murder.”

She said: “This was a brutal, callous, and cold-blooded attack on an elderly man, and while we are now, with the passage of time unable to bring the offender to justice, it is satisfying to be able to complete the work begun by my predecessors within the Cheshire Constabulary so diligently over half a century ago.”

The family of Walter Humphrey have been informed.

They have asked not to be identified, but said: “We would like to commend Cheshire Police for their success and diligence in solving this case, and for pursuing inquiries over such a protracted period of time.”

liammurphy