UK UK - Karen Hales, 21, Ipswich, 21 November 1993

[KarenUK]

Karen Hales was found murdered in in the afternoon of Sunday 21st November 1993. The murderer had also tried to set her body alight, all in front of her young daughter.
There was no sign of forced entry
Karen's parents are still alive, and they and her daughter Emily needs answers

Karen Hales murder - 25th Anniversary appeal

Daughter of murdered Ipswich woman Karen Hales thinks about her every day as 23-year-old cold case remains unsolved

Killer 'deprived son of grandmother'

'I wish I could remember the killer'

 

[StarrChance]

Some more information on this blog
Who killed Karen Hales?

Also
My partner's murder changed me forever

It seems like this evil person would have other crimes !

 

[jaejae]

Here is a report about murders in East Anglia and the brutal murder of Karen Hales is included:

11 unsolved murders, deaths and disappearances still being probed by police

I was going to say that parts of Essex fall under the umbrella of East Anglia but some say it does and some say it does not it appears:

East Anglia - Wikipedia

 

[jonmarbles]

does anybody know what he used to burn the body there seems be som confusion over weather he brouht it with him or found it in the house.

 

[RobinCAL]

Cold case detectives still hopeful of solving Karen Hales murder

 

[dotr]

Cold case detectives still hopeful of solving Karen Hales murder

Karen Hales was 21 when she was murdered in Ipswich Picture: SUPPLIED BY FAMILY

''Karen Hales was stabbed to death in front of her 18-month-old daughter, Emily, and her body was set on fire at her home in Lavenham Road on November 21, 1993. She was just 21 years old.

On the day of her murder – a Sunday – there was at least two inches of snow on the ground, and not many people on the streets.

Her long-term partner, Peter Ruffles, had left the couple’s home to go to work at 3.50pm''.

 

[dotr]

rbbm
Ipswich mum’s brutal death has haunted family and detectives for last 25 years
''Police have never been able to trace a man seen in an alleyway between Lavenham Road and London Road, wearing a blue parka coat with a fur-lined hood, around the time of the murder.''

''Karen was careful about allowing people in her home, and would have been more cautious after a scare the night before she was killed, when someone turned the handle of her front door.

Psychologists suggested Karen knew her killer and invited them into the house. It may have been an acquaintance from work or her personal life, they said.''

''Although a motive remains unclear, criminal profilers thought the scene was consistent with a sudden assault, motivated by anger, due to the weapon being a knife from Karen’s kitchen and the fire being started with materials in her home''.

An identical purse to that belonging to Karen

E-fit issued in connection with the crime

A watch found on the grass verge in Lavenham Road

 

[Legally Bland]

Crimewatch appeal from March 1994. First item, starts about 55 seconds in:

 

[dotr]

Surely this has nothing to do with the murder of the American woman in Bristol, but cannot help but notice that both Karen and Shelley each had a embroidered tapestry-like bag/ wallet stolen. Again, just a coincidence, they looked somewhat similar and both wore large glasses and also had children.
fwiw, speculation, imo.
Ws thread..
UK - UK - Shelley Morgan, 34, (Former Iowan), Bristol, stabbed,11 June 1984

The Mirror

 

[JayBix]

Does anyone know if Steve Wright was ever a suspect in this & if so has he been eliminated? He both lived in Suffolk at that time & had a moustache similar to the man in the e-fit, in fact that e-fit looks alarmingly similar to how Wright looked back then.

 

[JayBix]

 

[Westchester76]

Such a bizarre case. The Crimewatch reconstruction, had shown that Karen had seen someone trying the handle of her front door the night before, but it was locked, and she was too scared to shout out. Of course this was only reported by the husband after the murder.
If true, on the following day Karen would of almost certainly had the doors locked when her husband left for work. Therefore, her murderer was let in to the house by Karen.
The timing, suggests the killer waited for the husband to leave before going to the house. I think it was just an hour or so, between her husband leaving, and her parents arriving at the house (and they had seen her husband at work on route). The culprit didn't bring the weapon to the house as she was killed by a knife that was in her kitchen.
It surely had to be someone she was friends with, who possibly wanted more, and he lost his temper when he was rejected after coming into the house, or someone she was having an affair with or an Ex. The burglar theory doesn't add up to me, as it was a late afternoon on a Sunday, and he would of known there was someone in the house, with the lights being on. Does a petty burglar stab a young mother to death in front of her baby, and try to set fire to the house, if he is rumbled. Surely not.

 

[chips1986]

Oh any theories on this one I'm stumped

 

[sportstergirl]

I don't think this is Steve Wright. The MO & victim are not his signature.
I'm more inclined to think the killer was known to Karen and it escalated to murder. Stabbed with a kitchen knife and burned with petrol. The petrol could have been taken from a nearby vehicle.

 

[Melquiades]

No sign of forced entry, killed with weapons from inside the house, daylight hours … feels like the husband/partner should be turned inside out as a suspect. He was at the house at 3:50 and the body discovered at 4:30 so it certainly seems well within the timelines.

The ‘intruder trying the door late at night’ story from the husband doesn’t seem to line up with an unarmed killer being let into the house at 4 pm, either.

 

[sportstergirl]

The partner was at work on the late shift as a fitter at the bus depot. He had a cast iron alibi. Can't see this being solved anytime soon unfortunately

 

[trendsetter]

No sign of forced entry, killed with weapons from inside the house, daylight hours … feels like the husband/partner should be turned inside out as a suspect. He was at the house at 3:50 and the body discovered at 4:30 so it certainly seems well within the timelines.

Sunset in Suffolk on this date was at about 15:55 so you shouldn't describe it as 'daylight'.

 

[Melquiades]

The partner was at work on the late shift as a fitter at the bus depot. He had a cast iron alibi. Can't see this being solved anytime soon unfortunately

Unless the reports I’m reading are wrong the partner left home at 3:50 pm and the body was found at 4:30 pm.

The assumption is that the murderer arrived basically immediately after the partner left and I don’t see how it isn’t a stretch to wonder if she wasn’t already dead when he left.

Sunset in Suffolk on this date was at about 15:55 so you shouldn't describe it as 'daylight'.

Yeah, 3:56 pm but light lingers a bit after that so twilight-ish is probably a better description. But my point was less about the exact level of light and more that it still would have been a time with busy streets etc. and home invasion attacks in nice suburban areas (which it looks like Lavenham Road is) at this time of day are *very* rare.

 

[Westchester76]

Unless the reports I’m reading are wrong the partner left home at 3:50 pm and the body was found at 4:30 pm.

The assumption is that the murderer arrived basically immediately after the partner left and I don’t see how it isn’t a stretch to wonder if she wasn’t already dead when he left.



Yeah, 3:56 pm but light lingers a bit after that so twilight-ish is probably a better description. But my point was less about the exact level of light and more that it still would have been a time with busy streets etc. and home invasion attacks in nice suburban areas (which it looks like Lavenham Road is) at this time of day are *very* rare.

The husband kills his partner/wife viciously, in front of their young daughter, then tries to set fire to the kitchen / house, with his daughter still in her play pen, and then pops off to work, where he sees Karen's parents less than 30 mins later, on their way to the house.
Don't buy that.
IMO the culprit was watching the house, and waited until the husband left. I think he knew Karen, so was invited in. An argument esculated and he killed her, panicked and tried to set a fire to erode evidence.

I've heard theories that it was a burgler, however he would of known there were people home. ( The lights would of been on) Do burglers rob houses in the afternoon, knowing there are people home?

The key is the kitchen knife (never found) that was used as the weapon, and the fact there was no forced entry to the house. This suggests the culprit (if it wasn't the husband) did not plan to murder Karen, and was let into the house by Karen.