Harry and Megan Tooze were killed at their farmhouse home in Llanharry on 26 July 1993
Police hope advances in forensic science will finally lead them to the killer who brutally murdered a married couple at their farmhouse 30 years ago.
Harry and Megan Tooze were shot dead at their home in Llanharry, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 26 July 1993.
Their daughter’s boyfriend Jonathan Jones was found guilty of their murders and sentenced to life in prison in 1995, but was later freed on appeal.
South Wales Police has launched a forensic review into the cold case.
The announcement comes on the 30-year anniversary of the double murder that shocked a close-knit rural village and intrigued the nation.
Supt Mark Lewis, who is leading the review, said they would be looking at exhibits retained from the original case using the latest forensic techniques.
The case remains one of Wales’ most notorious unsolved murders
“As years have gone on, forensic science has moved on, there are new sensitivities in relation to DNA, in relation to the way we look at other evidence, whether that’s fibres, whether that’s blood,” he said.
When asked how likely it was that they would ever solve the murders, he said: “The honest answer is I don’t know if we will find the killer from this forensic review – we know forensic science has moved on, there might be other opportunities now. I am cautiously optimistic but I can’t say if we will or not.”
‘A difficult secret to keep’
Supt Lewis appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
“To kill two people in their own home with a shotgun in broad daylight – I think that would be a difficult secret to keep, so I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody knows who the killer is and where information might be to lead us to that killer,” he said.
Anyone with information has been asked to submitted it to the investigation using an online public portal.
The bodies of the couple, who were in their 60s, were found in the cowshed at their farm the day after they were reported missing.
They had both been shot in the head with a shotgun and covered in carpet.
The couple were shot dead at their home in Llanharry
A neighbour later told police they had heard two gunshots at about 13:30 on the day they were reported missing but had assumed Harry was out shooting rabbits.
At the time, their daughter Cheryl’s boyfriend Jonathan Jones, then 35, was a self-employed recruitment consultant.
He told police on the day the Toozes were killed he took the day off work and went into Orpington to look for office space to rent, but police could not find anybody who had seen him that day.
The Toozes’ daughter Cheryl and Jonathan Jones at their funeral
His partial thumbprint was also on a cup and saucer that had been found in the couple’s living room.
He was arrested in December, five months after the murders.
Cheryl stood by him, moving in with his family in Caerphilly after his arrest.
A year after his conviction Jonathan Jones was released on appeal. Three appeal court judges took five minutes to reach their decision.
The original trial judge was criticised and it emerged police had failed to seal the crime scene properly.
Cheryl Tooze and Jonathan Jones kissing outside court after his conviction was quashed
Former BBC Wales journalist Penny Roberts was the first reporter on the scene in 1993 and reported on the case throughout her career.
She recalled arriving to a “terrible scene” shortly after the bodies were discovered.
“There was blood in the cowshed, it was a very sobering scene,” she said.
She hopes the forensic review will finally lead police to the killer.
“The community of Llanharry and Harry and Megan’s own family really want justice now,” she said.
“At first we all thought it was a random killer, then it was almost like an execution.
“Either way, everybody was very, very frightened and even now, 30 years on, there’s rumour and gossip around these murders and I think for them, for the community, they need answers.”
