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The brutal killing of innocent Esther Soper remains one of Plymouth's most infamous unsolved murders.

The quiet grandmother, a devoted member of the Plymouth Brethren, was discovered dead after being bludgeoned with a cider bottle and then strangled with her own tights on New Year's Day 1976.

The 51-year-old's death sent shockwaves through the city and sparked a major manhunt. But no suspect was ever questioned and no arrests were made.

The cold case was reviewed in 1997, DNA evidence analysed and enquiries made as part of a second attempt to find the murderer. In 2004 police reviewed the case once more.

But widow Mrs Soper's killer has never been found and may still walk the streets today.

The murder of Esther Soper

(Image: Paul Slater)

It was the morning after the night before and most people in Plymouth were enjoying a day off after seeing in the New Year.

But in a quiet Mutley street, two people were about to make a chilling discovery.

Esther Soper, a grandmother and devoted member of the Plymouth Brethren, had failed to turn up at a meeting earlier in the day.

And so two concerned members of the Brethren called at the house in Trematon Terrace at around 9pm on January 1, 1976.

They found the 51-year-old wrapped in her curtains. She had been bludgeoned with a cider bottle and strangled to death with her own tights.

The mystery of who murdered the quiet and religious community member from Plymouth remains unsolved to this day, despite hopes that DNA improvements over the years would lead to the identification of her killer.

Who was Esther Soper?

During the run-up to her death, Mrs Soper had been trying to sell her property, which turned out to be a key aspect of her murder inquiry.

Mrs Soper had made a number of appointments for people to view the house near the time of her death.

Police took a particular focus on a “Clifford Sparks”, who had booked to see the property for a second time on New Year’s Day, after having seen it only a few days previously.

At the time, the police believed that the name may have been fabricated by an estate agent – fairly common practice in those days – after intensive investigations failed to find any links between anyone named “Clifford Sparks” and Mrs Soper.

The case is reopened

The case was reviewed in 1997 using DNA technology. Her clothes were sent to a forensic laboratory in Chepstow but only Mrs Soper’s DNA was found on the items.

Though Mrs Soper was not a well-known figure in the community, detectives never found anything to relate her death to the Brethren or her religious beliefs.

Back in 2004, when the case was being reviewed, retired senior detective Barry Jolliff, said: “Esther Soper was part of the Plymouth Brethren and so didn’t socialise with the rest of the community a lot.

“Forensic science is always changing and developing.

“I am very confident that in the future the scientists will come back to us with something we can work on. We need to find alien DNA so we can start eliminating people from our list.

“It may not lead us straight to the killer but it will really help narrow down the search.”

Evidence suggested that Mrs Soper’s home had been ransacked and the killing may have been part of a simple theft gone wrong, but police refused to rule anything out.

After her husband, who used to work in Plymouth’s Dockyard, died, she made the move to Mutley Plain, where she became a member of the Plymouth Brethren’s Exclusive Order, which is the strictest section of the religious group.

In 2004, retired detective superintendent John Smith – who worked on the original inquiry and helped detective Jolliff with the review – said: “There were over 80 detectives working on the inquiry at the time. And then there were uniformed officers carrying out house-to-house inquiries and searches.

“I remember we made inquiries among a lot of estate agents, particularly in the North Hill area of Plymouth. The inquiry at the time was extremely thorough.”