It was Monday morning, August 25th, 1958, in the village of Denham, Buckinghamshire, and the knock on the back door of Dawn Warren, a chocolate-box cottage in the village, was answered by its owner, Mrs. Joyce Green, 31, who had just started her housework.
The man on the doorstep was five foot eight tall, of medium build and with a pale, thin face all in all a very good description considering it came from Mrs. Greens seven-year-old son. The intruder pushed in the kitchen door and forced mother and son back into the hall leading to the front of the cottage.
The man wrestled Mrs. Green on to the floor and strangled her to death. Her son ran upstairs but the man pursued him and locked him in a cupboard. He went back downstairs and tied Mrs. Greens ankles together.
Meanwhile, the boy broke out of the cupboard. The man ran upstairs again and assured the distraught lad that his mother was alive and well. He then put the boy into bed, covering him completely with the bedclothes.
The killer next carried Joyce Greens body upstairs, laid her on the double bed, propped up her body with a vanity case and pillows, untied the cords binding her legs together, and had sex with her corpse.
Still leaving Mrs. Greens son in his own bedroom, he ransacked the house, taking what money he could find. The boy raised the alarm soon afterwards.
Apart from the fact that a mysterious house caller had been seen in the village recently, there were no clues to Mrs. Greens killer.