Police look again at 52-year-old murder

For 52 years it has remained an unsolved and apparently motiveless murder of an 18-year-old woman in her own home.

May Thompson was stabbed 36 times in the kitchen on 15 February, 1952.

As was usual in those more trusting times, the front door had been left unlocked.

The brutality of the attack shocked detectives who took 3,000 statements in their hunt for the killer.

Today police revealed that the murder case has been re-opened after they received fresh information from a "significant witness". Officers hope technology could help crack the oldest undetected murder on their files.

Detective Inspector Neil Redhead, leading the investigation, said: "Over the last few months we have received a great deal of information not recorded at the time from an important source who was a friend of the victim. As a result we are taking a fresh look at the case." Police are still keen to talk to several people.

On the night of her death, youths playing near Miss Thompson's home in Low Spennymoor, Co Durham, heard a scream and saw a youth pedal away on a bicycle. He has never been traced.

Officers also want to talk to a man wearing a trilby who visited Miss Thompson and her father for supper a few months before she was killed.

Someone still regularly leaves f lowers on Miss Thompson's grave, said officers.

Mr Redhead added: " May suffered horrific injuries and we have been unable to establish a motive for her killing.

"On the evening she died, as was commonplace in those days, the front door to her home had been left unlocked so any callers would have had easy access to the property."

Miss Thompson's parents had separated. A brother now lives in Australia.

She was described as a shy girl who regularly went to the cinema with male and female friends.

Mr Redhead admitted that the time lapse would make his inquiry difficult but remains optimistic the case could be solved.

He said: "Although May was murdered more than half a century ago, she was only 18 at the time and had friends around the same age as herself and a little younger, so it's quite probable there are people still alive who knew her.

"I would like to speak, in particular, to the man in the trilby, the cyclist and also to the person who still regularly puts flowers on her grave."