International police watching a man they suspected of being involved in a brutal murder noted that his behaviour was peculiar. When he left England, for instance, he went to Australia where he advertised to buy a flying saucer.
The victim, Dr. Helen Davidson, who had practised in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, for some years, was killed by a single blow from the branch of a poplar tree, which was found lying on the ground nearby.
Dr. Davidson, 54, left her home in North Road, Amersham, in the afternoon of Wednesday, November 9th, 1966, in her Hillman car with her wire-haired terrier dog Fancy, after her husband, a retired bank worker, had gone off to do a part-time job.
In the early hours of the next morning the car was found in a lay-by on the AmershamBeaconsfield road. A few hours later her body was found in a clearing in Hodgemoor Wood, half a mile from her car. Fancy was cuddled against her body.
Forensic evidence showed she died immediately from the first blow she received, but her attacker had continued to batter her.
The motive wasnt sexual, nor was it robbery. It was suggested that the attacker might be a vengeful patient, or that Dr. Davidson had surprised a courting couple or a man indecently exposing himself who, recognising her, killed her to prevent his identification. The weapon used indicated that the attack must have been unpremeditated.
The suspect eventually returned to England from Australia, and was convicted of an assault on an elderly man. In an interview in the Bucks Free Press in 1986 he said, I have not pleaded innocent yet. I have not pleaded guilty yet. Time will tell. Destiny will tell. I have said to the coppers that I could have had a bloody blackout and I could have done it.