North Wales Police have arrested four individuals in connection with the 1994 murder of Doreen Morris, a 64-year-old farmer's widow found stabbed and burned in her Holyhead home. The arrests, made 32 years after the crime, come after forensic advancements and a review of witness statements.
Morris was discovered in her burned-out bungalow in March 1994. A post-mortem examination revealed extensive burns and indicated she had been stabbed with a fork, an implement later found at the scene. Detectives initially suspected a botched burglary, as items were missing from the property. A bloodstained hi-fi tape deck and amplifier were recovered in nearby bushes.
The case remained unsolved for over three decades until a recent review by the North Wales Police Major Crime Review Team. Mark Pierce, senior review officer, stated that forensic results and a detailed review of witness evidence led to the arrests. The four individuals, a man and three women from North Wales, have been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Previously, Stuart Queen had implicated Joseph Carl Westbury, stating that Westbury confessed to the murder and to stabbing Morris with a fork. Queen also claimed Westbury had set fire to bedding to conceal the crime. Westbury, then 22, was charged with murder but acquitted by a jury in 1995. He denied breaking into Morris's property and died by suicide in 2016.
An inquest in 2023, which reopened the case, concluded that Morris's death was unlawful killing. Senior coroner Katie Sutherland found that Westbury and Queen had intended to burgle the bungalow. Sutherland determined that Westbury broke into the property, encountered Morris, bit her ear, stabbed her with a fork, and then set the bungalow ablaze after removing property. The coroner noted Westbury's propensity for extreme violence, citing an incident where he doused his wife with turpentine and threatened to set her alight, deeming his actions toward Morris as mirroring this pattern.
Morris's daughter, Audrey Fraser, had actively campaigned for the original inquest's finding of 'not ascertained' to be changed to unlawful killing. The reopened inquest concluded Morris died from a stab wound to the neck.
North Wales Police are appealing for information regarding Operation Epose and can be contacted on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.