If 21-year-old Diana Davidson had taken more interest in cricket she might still be with us. As it was, she tired of watching a match in which her boy friend was playing at Paddock Wood, Kent, on JULY 20th, 1969.
She went off for a walk, and no more was seen of her until she was found murdered a week later. Her naked body lay in an orchard a mile from the cricket ground, and she had been raped and strangled.
Blood found on her bra and dress turned out not to be hers, but to be of a group possessed by only 10 per cent of the population. And the police also had another clue: a three-foot length of braid, like dressing-gown piping, found at the crime scene.
The investigators ran blood tests on several local men, and on August 10th they found a match with a sample from 30-year-old Roy Carter, a bachelor who had recently moved to the district.
He was in his garden when officers went to bring him in for questioning… and his dog was tethered by a length of braid identical with the piece found near Diana’s body.
Under interrogation he confessed to the killing. At his trial his plea of guilty to manslaughter was rejected by the Crown, and he was jailed for life for Diana Davidson’s murder.