Dedicated mother-of-four Sandra Phillips had only taken on her job running a sex shop in Swansea city centre in order to boost her family's low income.
She had been working as a manager at the Private Shop for just two to three months when she was raped, sexually assaulted, struck on the head, and strangled to death during a busy lunchtime as cars and pedestrians passed by.
On the day of her murder Sandra, of Fforestfach, drove her daughter Elizabeth Grace, then 14, to school before making her way to work. Her second husband Peter was working as a manager at the Co-Op store just a few hundred yards away from the shop where she worked.
Read more: Go here to read all the latest stories from the courts in Wales
But on June 14, 1985, the 38-year-old was discovered lying in a pool of blood. She was found behind the counter having been beaten about the face and head with a wooden implement. Her ribs were broken and her breastbone was fractured.
She had been covered with petrol, but not set alight, and a cord had been tied around her neck.
At around 2pm area manager Anthony Williams called in at the shop in Dillwyn Street when he noticed the store was closed. But when he used his spare keys to open the door he made the gruesome discovery.
Investigations were carried out and it was believed an old-fashioned telephone handset had been used to attack Mrs Phillips but the potential murder weapon and a set of missing keys to the shop have never been recovered.
Hours after the body was discovered hoards of people descended on the scene including passers-by and journalists but two members of the crowd caught the attention of the police.
Brothers Wayne and Paul Darvell were arrested on suspicion of murdering Sandra. They later faced trial at Swansea Crown Court where both were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 19, 1986.
The convictions were later brought to the Court of Appeal and overturned in 1992 with Wayne and Paul Darvell released from prison. Read more about that here.
This caused a massive setback in the search for the real killer with a catalogue of errors in the original investigation meaning it would be even more difficult to find any crucial evidence. The case was later re-investigated but while police say the investigation will never be closed all lines of inquiry have now been "exhausted".
To get the latest news from WalesOnline sent straight to your email inbox, including our regular Crime and Punishment updates, click here .
