Cold case cops make breakthrough in hunt for killer of Carol Ann Stephens, 6, found dead weeks after ‘going out to play’
COLD case cops investigating the murder of a six-year-old girl over 60-years-ago have shared vital clues in the mystery.
Carol Ann Stephens, just six, was snatched from her Cardiff home on April 7, 1959, while playing with pals in the street.
Two weeks later on April 22, her body was found in a ravine 60 miles away in the isolated hamlet of Horeb, Carmarthenshire.
It’s thought she had been dead for a week before being discovered in the stream.
In the months leading up to her murder, Carol had spoken of her “new uncle”.
The day she vanished, eye witnesses said they saw her approaching a dark green car before tapping on the window and getting in.
Speaking on ITV’s Cold Case Detectives on Thursday, veteran detective Gerry Blake revisited the tragic case.
Gerry knew Carol as a child and her murder mystery was a reason he joined the police.
He hoped modern DNA technology could be used to finally find her killer – starting with suspect Ronald Edward Murray.
Gerry told the show: “There was a lot of circumstantial evidence suggesting Ronald Murray’s involvement in the alleged offence but there wasn’t that golden nugget I would say…
“So there wasn’t enough to charge.”
Murray worked for Carson’s Chocolates in Bristol and the company gave their workers green Morris Minors.
This revelation matched the description of the car Carol got in that fateful day.
Murray also worked at a brick factory in Horeb, near to where Carol was found.
But unfortunately the modern DNA testing in the documentary could not return back a conclusive result, meaning Carol Ann’s murder remains unsolved
Scientists have recommended that Carol Ann’s clothes are kept and could be tested again in three to five years if DNA testing develops further.