Alice Rowley

Edna Rowley and Alice Rowley were murdered above the shop they ran at 94 Greswolde Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham on Wednesday 23 December 1987.

Alice Rowley had been strangled with a ligature whilst Edna Rowley had been smothered to death and had heavy bruising about her eyes.

They were found by the police in their flat adjoining their shop after neighbours said that they had not seen them all day. Alice Rowley was found in the living room on the ground floor whilst Edna Rowley was found in a bedroom upstairs.

The post mortems showed that Alice Rowley had been strangled with a scarf or towel that was never found. She had had ligature marks around her neck.

The police said that they thought that it had been a robbery gone wrong and that they thought that the sisters had been killed after one or both of them had tackled an intruder.

It was also said that a major theory was that the murderer had been a vagrant passing through the city.

They were last seen on the Tuesday night, 22 December 1987 at about 6.45pm.

Following the discovery of their bodies it was determined that the following items were missing:

• Two boxes of chocolates.
• A bottle of Tia Maria.
• A brown suitcase or holdall.
• A Toshiba radio cassette player.
• Cash from the till.

It was noted that other items had also possibly been stolen as Christmas gifts that had been sent to them by relatives and friends had been torn open and the police said that they were building a list of items that they thought had been taken, including household goods and toiletries.

There was no sign of a break-in or forced entry and the police said that they thought that Edna Rowley and Alice Rowley might have known their killer. The police said that the sister's would have been unable to have offered any resistance and thought that they had been killed just so that the shop could be searched.

The police found an untouched meal was found laid out on a table along with a full pot of tea in the kitchen.

An empty crisp packet, a Walkers Bitza Pizza packet, was found at the bottom of the stairs but it was noted that it was not a brand that was sold in the shop and not known how it had got there.

Two people later reported having seen what was thought to have been the same man near the shop on 22 December 1987 at about 7.30pm. The first witness said that they had seen a man standing inside the front door of the shop and knocking on the internal glass door whilst the other witness said that they had seen the same man at about the same time walking towards the shop.

The man was described as:

• White.
• Middle aged, mid-40s to early 50s.
• 5ft 11in tall.
• Medium build.
• Scruffy appearance like a vagrant.
• Greasy black hair, heavily streaked with grey.
• Wearing a green or brown jacket and dark trousers.

A drawing was published of the man and the police said that he remained the chief suspect. It was said that the drawing was reckoned to have been a good likeness and the picture was circulated round pubs, cafes, hostels and night shelters.

Edna Rowley and Alice Rowley were spinsters and had run Greswolde Stores on the corner of Greswolde Road and Grove Road in Sparkhill for over 50 years.

It was noted that a bogus water board official had called at the shop eight days before the murder but he was never traced.

During the investigation the police fingerprinted hundreds of men and women in five roads in the neighbourhood but no positive matches were made. In September 1988 it was reported that the police had embarked on a massive operation to fingerprint every man in the Sparkhill area. It was noted that a number of unidentified fingerprints were found during the initial examination of the premises.

They also took 2,500 statements, fed 7,000 names into a computer and visited more than 4,000 homes.

A detective said:

It was noted that in September 1988 a woman had visited a cash and carry store where she had given her card number but had made a mistake and had instead given a number that matched the cash and carry card number of Edna Rowley and Alice Rowley. The woman was arrested on the spot and taken to a nearby police station for questioning but later released after it was found to have been a mistake. It was said that the two numbers were similar but that it turned out to be a genuine error.

Their funeral took place in Sparkhill on Friday 29 January 1988.