A horrific Christmas murder has gone unsolved for over 60 years after a mum was brutally killed in front of her young children.
Maureen Dutton was stabbed to death 14 times at her home in Knotty Ash on December 21, 1961. On the day of her brutal killing the 27-year-old mum had not left the house she shared with husband Brian on Thingwall Lane.
Brian, a research chemist for ICI in Widnes, arrived home at around 6pm expecting to find his wife and young sons waiting for him. But when he arrived he found the home in complete darkness and his family's half eaten lunch strewn across the kitchen table.
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When he entered the living room he found the body of Maureen lying on the floor with multiple stab wounds to her chest, throat and back. Her two-year-old son David was sitting looking at her mutilated body while 22-day-old Andrew lay in a basket just yards away.
A murder investigation was quickly launched by police from Old Swan Police Station. But officers were quickly stumped after the hunt for the murder weapon, believed to be a long bladed knife, came up short. Door to door enquiries were also carried out with neighbours and anyone in the vicinity questioned - but no one was seen coming in or out the home that day.
Maureen had not been robbed or sexually assaulted and neither of her sons had been harmed in any way. No sounds of a fight or screams were heard by anyone in the area and there wasn't any sign of forced entry or a struggle. So who killed Maureen Dutton and what was their motive?
Fake doctor
Police thought Maureen's killer may have gained entry to her home on some plausible pretext before putting a knife to her throat, forcing her to retreat backwards along the hall. When the news of Maureen's horrific murder hit the headlines a strong lead surfaced when a young woman living in Halewood reported an incident.
The day before the murder she was visited by a young man who claimed to be a doctor. Like Maureen she had recently given birth and assumed the doctor had been sent to examine her as part of her post-natal care. However when the woman's husband made enquiries about the mystery man, he was told there was no doctor operating in the area.
The couple contacted police to report a sexual assault. The man was described as between 27 and 30, wearing worn horn-rimmed glasses and a dark grey overcoat.
Due to there being no signs of a struggle or forced entry, police's theory was Maureen had welcomed the doctor into her home. But after he became inappropriate, he lost his temper and attacked her. The focus of the investigation swung towards tracking the fraudster but, in the background, one constant kept cropping up.
Good-looking man in the leather jacket
Neighbours began to talk of a good-looking young stranger in a leather jacket seen several times in the vicinity of Thingwall Lane on the day of the murder. According to witnesses he was spotted running very fast down the road that afternoon - and not long after was spotted being violently sick near the steps of Court Hey Methodist Church.
A witness noted the stranger kept his hands firmly wedged in his pockets while being sick - something they thought peculiar. Police had amassed 20,000 statements by January 17 and with the help of witnesses had put together an identikit of what they believed the man could look like.
It was carried on the ECHO ’s front page and more than 60 people responded within the first 24 hours of its publication. But each name suggested was eventually eliminated and the "good-looking man in a leather jacket" was never found.
The muttering Irish woman
The sighting of a young blonde woman, who was acting suspiciously on a bus she boarded close to the murder scene, was also investigated by police. She was seen boarding a number 10d bus on East Prescot Road, close to Thingwall Lane.
She had an Irish accent and was heard muttering incoherently about how she needed to get out of the city immediately. Witnesses on the bus recalled how the young woman was babbling about how she had "done something terrible" and how she was going to London to catch a plane.
When the woman exited the bus at Liverpool Lime Street, she kept repeating “Oh my god” over and over. But just like the "good-looking man", she was never traced again despite appeals in the press.
Cult sacrifice
One of the most bizarre theories detectives considered was Maureen had been murdered in a sacrificial killing. Police looked into the possibility that the mum-of-two was killed by a Polynesian cult as a sacrifice to their God Tiki.
It was believed the cult had some followers in the Liverpool area and it was discovered that its members believed in making sacrifices to Tiki during the winter solstice – the time period in which Maureen was murdered.
Members of the cult were also known to have a reverse swastika symbol tattooed on their upper left arms. The sacrificial theory was in the end ruled out as a motive for Maureen’s murder but it did lead police to a possible suspect.
A 24-year-old male nurse living in Upper Parliament Street was arrested and charged with theft of drugs and equipment from three Liverpool hospitals in 1962. He was also said to have masqueraded as a doctor and had a reversed swastika tattoo on his arm – the identification mark of a Tiki-worshipper.
Police thought it was the break through they had been waiting for. But soon after he was eliminated from inquiries too and detectives were back to square one.
Has Maureen's killer taken their brutal crime to the grave?
Despite a number of leads and various re-appeals for information Maureen's killer is still at large. It is likely, given the crime was over 60 years ago, her killer has taken the brutality of what they did and the reason behind it, to the grave. If the killer is still alive, he or she would likely be in their seventies or eighties now.
Very little has been published on David, younger brother Andrew and their grieving dad since the murder. But all three have been forced to live their lives without justice for their loving mum and wife.
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