The inquiry into the mysterious deaths of a brother and sister 46 years ago was renewed after serial killer John Cooper was implicated.
Griff and Martha Thomas were discovered dead in their remote Welsh farmhouse approximately 24 miles from Cooper’s home.
Evil Cooper, who is now 78 and serving a life sentence, gained the nickname “The Bullseye Killer” after appearing on Jim Bowen’s darts-based ITV quiz program.
In the award-winning television drama The Pembrokeshire Murders, he was portrayed as having committed four cold-blooded murders.
John Cooper is serving a life sentence after being found guilty of four murders. Police suspect he is perhaps responsible for at least two further mysterious fatalities.
Cooper was identified by police when a witness assisted in creating this sketch of the murderer, which was made a few weeks prior to his appearance on the popular ITV quiz show Bullseye.
Griff and Martha Thomas were discovered dead in their remote Welsh farmhouse approximately 24 miles from Cooper’s home.
In 1976, a prominent criminal psychologist suspects Cooper of murdering Griff and Martha in the Pembrokeshire town of Llangolman.
The Dyfed-Powys Police have begun a review of the case and are scrutinizing evidence gathered from the couple’s farmhouse and stored for the past 46 years.
Bloodstained Martha’s sewing machine was found inexplicably buried on the property.
Relatives of Griff and Martha, who were 73 and 70 years old at the time of the murders, have been told of the unexpected event.
Cooper was linked to their deaths after he was convicted of murdering farmers Richard and Helen Thomas in Milford Haven, twenty-four miles distant, in 1985.
Their home was destroyed in a manner identical to that of churchgoers Griff and Martha, also known as Patti, nine years previously.
An inquest determined that her brother unlawfully murdered Martha before setting himself on fire.
Professor Clive Sims, a criminal profiler, believes the brother and sister were murdered by an intruder following a botched burglary.
He stated, “There are sufficient similarities between the crimes to suggest Cooper is at the very least a suspect in this case.”
There was an empty cash box, the bureau has been broken into, the rear door is unlocked, and certain portions of this seem illogical.
In 1989, psychopath Cooper murdered Peter and Gwenda Dixon, whose bodies were discovered on the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path.
In 1996, he held a group of adolescents at gunpoint before committing a rape on one girl and a sexual assault on another.
Cooper, on the right, is currently serving a life sentence, but authorities continue to pursue him in relation to other unsolved homicides in the late 1980s and 1990s.
He has also been linked to the killings of farmers Harry and Megan Tooze in Bridgend, South Wales, as well as the mysterious death of 72-year-old widow Flo Evans, who was discovered fully clothed in her bathtub just two miles from Cooper’s home.
Cooper went to crime after winning £90,000 in a newspaper Spot the Ball contest and spending the entire amount on alcohol and gambling.
When he ran out of money, he resorted to burglary and was incarcerated when Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins restarted the inquiry.
The police compared footage from an episode of Bullseye from 1989 to a drawing of a suspect in the murder of the Dixons.
Luke Evans as Supt Wilkins in The Pembrokeshire Murders, the 2021 winner of the Bafta for outstanding television drama.
Cooper, portrayed by actor Keith Allen, was apprehended by means of cutting-edge forensic technology, and authorities are hopeful that other developments will help them solve the mystery surrounding the killings of Griff and Martha Thomas.
Detective Superintendent Paul Jones stated, “Over the past four decades, significant advancements in forensic science have occurred, which may yield further information in cases of this age.”
“Although the investigation was rigorous at the time, forensic science was restricted compared to what it is today. We will investigate whether new techniques might shed additional light on the events of 1976.”
We do not yet know what answers, if any, the forensic investigation will provide, but I am maintaining an open mind.