A WIDOWER has appealed for justice more than 40 years after his wife was brutally murdered in Colchester.

Tony O’Connor, in his seventies, still wants answers after his wife Kay, 37, was killed in their home on March 1, 1974.

She was found stabbed, kicked, punched and strangled in Wickham Road while Tony was working in London.

Mr O’Connor, who still lives in Colchester, said: “I would like to find out if anyone knows anything.

“When I heard about the recent murders in Colchester, it brought it all back.”

He believes his wife’s murder was a targeted attack, but does not knowwhy or by whom.

He said: “This one wasn’t on a path like the recent two (James Attfield and Nahid Almanea), it was in our house.

“I still can’t think of anyone who would have wanted to hurt her.”

The case was reopened on the 30th anniversary of the murder after new evidence emerged, but the killer was still not brought to justice.

Mr O’Connor said: “I used to speak to a detective.

“He always said a case is never closed until they find something.

“I know they have to get it 100 per cent right.

“If they had DNA at the time, it probably would have been solved, but without it there are a lot of problems.

“Maybe the tests they can do nowwould help.”

Mr O’Connor was working away in London when he heard what happened.

He said: “I came back and there were police at the door.

“They took me to my mother’s.”

After finding out about her murder, he was questioned as a suspect, which he said was very difficult to cope with, and quickly eliminated from inquiries.

He hopes the cold case team at Essex Police can find something.

He said: “I sit back and think who could have done it and it would mean a lot to know.

“Sometimes it drifts and then it comes back to you.

“There are a lot of questions.”

Shorthand typist Kay O’Connor was killed in the kitchen of her home in Wickham Road, Colchester.

Her body was discovered next to a bloodied knife, and some of her clothes had been torn off.

She had been off work that day and had gone shopping in Butt Road before visiting her mother, who lived just two doors from her.

She then went to the Post Office to pick up her mother’s pension and returned home.

The killer is believed to have entered through a back alley before smashing open the back door.

Police do not know if he was waiting for her or burst in, but some time between 2.30pm and 4.10pm, on March 1, 1974, she was attacked and killed.

She was beaten and strangled to death before some of her clothes were removed and she was stabbed twice.

Neighbours discovered hern body after hearing noises coming from the house.

More than 2,000 statements were taken and a further 339 people were questioned.

THE family of another woman killed in Colchester have spoken out to try to help police catch Kay O’Connor’s killer.

Suzanne Wells was killed by her husband, Maurice, then 33, at their home in Gloucester Avenue,
Colchester.

In September 1976, armed police were involved in a seven hour siege as Mrs Wells lay dead in the front garden while Maurice Wells held their seven-month-old daugher hostage.

Eventually he gave himself up.

At court, in January 1977, he denied murder, but admitted manslaughter, and was jailed for ten years.

Since then, the family of Mrs Wells have devoted their time to trying to solve other murders in and around Colchester.

They want justice for other families, justice they feel they never received.

One family member, who asked not to be named, said: “We gave police information about Kay O’Connor’s murder because we think too much has been hushed up.

"If we can help her family, then that is something.

“We tried ten years ago and we are trying again now.

"There is a cold case team and they should look at the murder of Kay O’Connor again.”

In 2004, BBC Crimewatch ran an appeal on cold case murders.

Kay O’Connor’s killing did not feature, but the programme prompted a number of phone calls about her murder.

New evidence was presented to Essex Police and the investigation was reopened in August, 2004.

At the time the evidence was not revealed, but now The Gazette has been given a copy.

It is alleged potential suspects took evidence from the police and destroyed it.

The information was considered strong enough to reopen the case in 2004, but no arrests or charges followed.

Mrs Wells’s relative said: “With DNA techniques and what they have now, there may be a chance
for Kay’s family.”