Photo of Allen Morgan aged 31 in 1981 (Image: PA)
The unsolved murder of Carol Morgan, which had baffled Bedfordshire police for over four decades, finally gave up answers when a cold-case team reopened the files in 2018.
Detective Superintendent Brian Prickett, who led the initial investigation in the early 1980s, vividly remembers the horrifying scene he encountered on 13 August 1981. He found Carol’s mutilated body in a convenience store on a council estate in Linslade, near Leighton Buzzard.
“It was the worst attack I’ve seen on a human being, definitely,” he said. “I went into the storeroom and saw the body of Carol Morgan, and that was a horrendous scene. It’s as clear in my mind as it was 40-odd years ago.”
From the outset, suspicion fell on Carol’s husband, Allen Morgan. Despite reporting the discovery of his wife’s body after taking their two children to the cinema, investigators quickly grew suspicious.
Prosecutors later argued that the cinema trip was part of a “cast-iron” alibi, suggesting that Allen had hired a hitman to murder his wife and stage it as a robbery. The store had indeed been robbed, with £435 in cash and some cigarettes missing, but the brutality of the scene suggested a deliberate attack rather than a botched theft, reports the Mirror.
Morgan’s conduct following the murder raised eyebrows. “Allen Morgan showed none of the concern expected from a man who had just lost his wife in a horrific murder,” Prickett said.
Appeal poster after the murder (Image: PA)
The retired detective remembered Morgan as “a womaniser, and arrogant and bossy,” traits that only heightened suspicions, according to the BBC.
Circumstantial evidence, including the couple’s financial woes and Morgan’s apparent lack of commitment to the marriage, bolstered the case against him.
Witnesses reported seeing a man with a bag leaving the shop and getting into a dark green estate car, a lead police followed for months. “We got a lot of circumstantial evidence early on about Allen Morgan,” Prickett said.
“He’d indicated he wasn’t going to make a go of his marriage. I don’t think Allen Morgan knew how much we suspected him at the time.”
Despite this, the investigation was hampered by a frustrating absence of direct evidence. Officers attempted to coax Morgan into making a mistake during media interviews, and he did speak candidly to journalists, appearing oddly indifferent to his wife’s murder.
BBC Look East reporter John Kiddey recalled interviewing him at the time. “His whole demeanour… was weird. He didn’t react in any way as you’d expect a man whose wife had just been brutally murdered to react,” Kiddey remarked.
Carol Morgan (Image: PA)
“When I asked him, ‘How do you feel your wife has been murdered?’ I imagined him to burst into tears. He didn’t… he amazingly said ‘I’ve lost business, I’ve lost money’ rather than I’m devastated my wife is dead. I just couldn’t believe what he was saying to me.”
The initial probe enlisted more than 80 officers, who pursued numerous avenues of investigation from a cramped incident room in Leighton Buzzard.
They even brought in a forensic hypnotist and made appeals to local football supporters via Luton Town FC’s scoreboard, whilst a local businessman put up a £5,000 reward for information.
Yet the perpetrator remained free, and the case stagnated despite reviews every two years.
It wasn’t until Det Supt Carl Foster assumed control of the cold-case review team in 2018 that fresh leads surfaced.
One witness in particular, Jane Bunting, now in her 50s, disclosed information she had concealed for decades.
“Her first response was, ‘I’ve been waiting for you to come see me for 40 years,'” Foster said.
At the time of the killing, she had been 17 and devoted to Margaret Spooner, Morgan’s then-lover.
Bunting gave evidence that Morgan had enquired whether an ex-boyfriend would know anyone who could kill Carol.
She had not informed police at the time because she “owed” Margaret and was reluctant to come forward. With approximately 6,000 documents to examine, detectives tracked the couple’s subsequent lives in Brighton, apprehended them three times, and covertly recorded conversations.
In 2019, Margaret Morgan was heard saying “Shush,” seemingly conscious of the recordings, whilst Allen reassured her in a letter: “Trust works on both sides. If I didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be here and I would not.”
Det Supt Foster highlighted the importance of these recordings: “I don’t think you need to be a police officer to listen to those recordings and think if you’re innocent and haven’t done anything why are you shushing each other and making comments like ‘they might be recording us’? … if you’ve got nothing to hide speak freely and openly.”
Allen Morgan, 73, and his second wife Margaret Morgan (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The arrests resulted in a trial at Luton Crown Court, where Allen Morgan, now 75, was found guilty of conspiring to murder his wife and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 21 years and 325 days.
The judge described the savagery of the killing as shocking and characterised Morgan as “wicked.”
Margaret Morgan was cleared of the same charge and made no comment as she departed court. Despite Morgan’s conviction, the identity of the actual perpetrator remains a mystery, with investigators suspecting the use of an axe or machete in the attack.
Det Supt Foster said: “In the absence of a confession, we may never know who carried out the physical act of murdering Carol. However, we will do all in our power to secure new evidence and bring them to justice.”
Reflecting on the initial investigation, Prickett added: “When you’re dealing with a case that goes on and you can’t detect it – it’s a thorn in the side because it hasn’t been successful. It’s always a thorn in the side – you’re trying to get some justice for the victim’s relatives.”