ITV News 11 June 2024

[0:00 – 0:22] Robert Murphy (ITV News): Cameras are seldom allowed into this secret location. The storehouse which is home to the files of Avon and Somerset Police’s 31 unsolved murders. On these shelves, in the boxes, are there answers to who killed Shelley Morgan? The question has tormented her family since the moment she vanished 40 years ago today.

[0:23 – 0:34] Detective Inspector Dave Marchant (Avon & Somerset Police): Shelley was a mother of two young children. She was 33 years old at the time of her disappearance on the 11th of June 1984. She was an American citizen who had travelled the world but then come to reside in England where she was married and had her children.

[0:35 – 0:40] Detective Inspector Dave Marchant (Avon & Somerset Police): She resided in Bristol with her children and her husband was living in Wales renovating another address.

[0:41 – 1:06] Robert Murphy (ITV News): The details of Shelley’s disappearance were always sketchy. She left her home in Dunkery Road in Bedminster shortly after 8.30am on June 11th 1984 with her children who then went to school. Then witness accounts differ. One person thought she caught a bus into Bristol. Another was convinced they spoke with Shelley on a bus to Long Ashton. The mum got off around 11.15am. She was seen speaking with a van driver moments later.

[1:07 – 1:30] Robert Murphy (ITV News): A third person said she saw Shelley in a council-type van. Shelley was declared missing when she failed to pick up her children from school. [hoax call audio: Is in a watery grave. I’m not certain whereabouts.] Then there was this hoax call which police recorded a man claiming Shelley’s body was in a river. [hoax call audio: Also wrapped in a uh, uh sheet. You’ll be able to find her.]

[1:31 – 1:34] Robert Murphy (ITV News): The truth was discovered in October that year.

[1:35 – 1:41] Reporter (ITV News): Shelley Morgan’s decomposing body was found in a shallow grave here in this copse a long way from the nearest road.

[1:42 – 1:48] Robert Murphy (ITV News): With no CCTV and DNA a few years away, her killer has evaded justice for four decades.

[1:49 – 1:50] Robert Murphy (ITV News): Shelley’s sister made this plea a few years ago.

[1:51 – 2:13] Holle Brian (Shelley’s sister): As long as we carry Shelley in our hearts, she’ll always be with us. But we’re all getting older, and the time is going to come when all those doors are closed. We beseech you, if you know anything about what happened that day back in June of 1984, please come to the police. Maybe you were afraid to speak out at the time. Maybe your situation has changed.

[2:14 – 2:25] Robert Murphy (ITV News): Forensics are tricky, but Gary Mason who as a detective ran Shelley’s missing person inquiry in June 84 and then set up the forces cold case team, says there is hope.

[2:25 – 2:43] Gary Mason (ex-detective): One never knows the way forensic develops. There are some old cases where they say there’s no forensic evidence and then with new forensic techniques they can find such minute bits of DNA and enhance it and get results. So I wouldn’t say never.

[2:44 – 3:02] Robert Murphy (ITV News): And police are still searching for some of Shelley’s belongings. Her clothes, her distinctive glasses and bag have never been found. Nor her camera. She was a keen photographer and artist. Police know its serial number. They’ve now ruled out any significance about postcards which they made in their last appeal a few years ago.

[3:03 – 3:28] Robert Murphy (ITV News): Police do have some working assumptions. The first being that Shelley’s killer had links with both Leigh Woods, from where she was likely abducted, and Backwell, where her body was found months later. And while forensics are challenging, police believe the pivot point in this case could be in somebody’s conscience. Either that of her killer, or more likely, in the person in whom he confided, perhaps even decades ago.

[3:29 – 3:32] Robert Murphy (ITV News): Robert Murphy, ITV News.