Jacqueline Palmer-Radford

Jacqueline Palmer-Radford was found dead on her kitchen floor by her son at about 5.15pm on 1 April 1992.

She had been suffocated and sexually assaulted.

She last spoke to her mother at 9.15am that morning, after taking her children to school at about 9am and told her that she was going shopping.

However, Jacqueline Palmer-Radford failed to pick her younger son up from school at 4pm and was found by her other son dead at 5.15pm.

Although her body was found at about 5.15pm, it was thought that she had been murdered earlier that morning, about five hours before she was found.

There were no signs of a break in at the house and nothing had been stolen.

Jacqueline Palmer-Radford had recently separated from her husband and had been expanding her social circle and starting new hobbies including tennis, as well as starting an Open University Course. Her husband, who was German-born, had been living in Sussex at the time and he was held for two days by the police but later released without charge.

The police said that they were looking to trace two cars and several people that had been seen in the area around the time of her murder.

The first was a small dark coloured saloon or hatchback car, thought to have been a dark-brown Vauxhall Chevette. It was first seen the day before her murder by a woman as Jacqueline Palmer-Radford had been collecting her children from their school in Crowthorne, about four miles away from Eversley. The woman said that the car had been on the road on the opposite side of the road from where the parents usually parked. The woman said that there had been a man in the car and that he didn't seem to be watching the school gates and appeared tense and serious and was staring straight ahead of him.

The following day, a man that was driving through Eversley to go to work in Reading said that as he got to Riversdale House at about 9.10am he saw a brown Chevette type car stopped in the road, indicating right to go into Riversdale House. However, he said that it was just standing there and that there was no oncoming traffic and that after 10 to 20 seconds the brown Chevette style car then pulled into Riversdale House. He said that when he then continued and passed Riversdale House he looked into the drive and said that he saw no other vehicles on the gravel drive. No one saw the car leave the drive.

The man seen in the brown car was described as being about 40 years old with sandy coloured hair which was mid-brown and scruffy on the top. He had been wearing a white shirt over a grey pullover. He was noted as having a particularly pale complexion and looking ill.

Another car was seen in the car park of an office, Astra House, further along the street. It was a beige car and had a woman in it. The car was noticed by employees at the office block as they arrived for work in the morning at about 8.30am. They said that they had not seen the woman or the car before and that the woman was a stranger. They said that she had been wearing a green scarf that was covering most of her hair and had been reading a newspaper.

One of the employees said that the woman made her think that she didn't want to be recognised. The beige car was said to have still been out in the office car park later that morning but in a different parking space. The woman that saw the car said that the woman was still in the car but that she had taken her scarf off and was looking through some items or paperwork.  The woman that saw her described her as very slim, pale, with red or ginger short hair. It was said that the woman was in the car park for at least two and a half hours.

Another man that the police said they were trying to identify was a smartly dressed man who was seen in the driveway of Riversdale House at about midday. He was said to have had a clip board and looked like he might have been an estate agent or surveyor taking details of the house. The man was described as being between 28 and 35 with short, neat, light hair and wearing a smart grey suit and it was thought that he might have dropped his pen as a pen was later found in the drive.  It was noted that there were plans to sell the house although at the time it wasn't on the market.

The police said that they were also keen to identify another man who was seen running down the street nearby at about 11am carrying two bags, a Sainsburys bag and an airline holdall. He was seen running about 300 yards away from Jacqueline Palmer-Radford's home at the roundabout near the White Hart pub wearing a raincoat, jogging bottoms and wearing training shoes.

Other items that the police said they found that would have bearing on the murder included a pen that was found in the drive, (possibly dropped by the man seen with the clip-board), that was estimated to be worth about £30 and an Open University brochure that had the name Lawrence Gillam on it with a time, 10.40.

The pen was described as being quite common and to retail for about £30 to £32 in most outlets and to have been a Schaeffer pen with a design on it.

The open university prospectus had the name Lawrence Gillam on it with the time 10.40 and the police said that they thought that Jacqueline Palmer-Radford might have had an appointment and that they would like to know who Lawrence Gillam was.

Jacqueline Palmer-Radford had lived in Eversley for about two years having lived in Aldershot previously with her husband who had been in the army.

The police said, 'If she had suffered a violent death, we would think we were looking for a stranger. But on this occasion, we have someone who doesn't appear to have struggled to get on the premises and she was then suffocated. Who did it and why is still a complete mystery'.

During their investigation the police went to Germany to carry out investigations.