Suspects in Karen Hales murder case dead, say police

Three suspects in the case of a young mother who was killed in front of her daughter have all died, police have said.

Karen Hales, 21, was stabbed numerous times and her body set on fire at her home in Ipswich on 21 November 1993. Her killer has never been found.

Suffolk Police made the revelation about the suspects during a BBC Crimewatch appeal.

Andy Guy, the force’s major crime review and unsolved crime manager, said he hoped anyone with information about them may now feel comfortable coming forward with new information.

All three suspects, who have not been named, had been “violent, involved in drugs and domestic burglaries,” Mr Guy said.

He said it was hoped anyone who had been reticent about coming forward would now feel able to.

“Any sense of fear or old allegiances should now be set aside,” he said.

“Whatever information you have – however small or insignificant it may seem – could prove vital and help us to provide Karen’s family with the answers they deserve.”

On the day she was killed, Ms Hales was with her 18-month-old daughter, Emily, at home in Lavenham Road.

At the time police found her purse was missing, along with two Laser knives.

“Karen didn’t have any secrets we could find, just a typical working mum,” said Mr Guy.

“She wasn’t involved in anything unsavoury; she wasn’t involved in crime or drugs or anything like that.

“There’s no reason why anybody would harm her – it’s just unfathomable.

“We know Emily [her daughter] was in the house and what’s horrendous is that whoever started that fire, they were condemning 18-month-old Emily to death.

“The person or people responsible for this would have used violence elsewhere. Your first offence, you don’t murder a woman; start a fire with a small child there.”

Miss Hales’s fiancé Peter Ruffles, Emily’s father, had left the house at 15:50 GMT to go to work.

Shortly before 16:40, her parents, Graham and Geraldine Hales, called in at the house and entered through the unlocked front door.

They were confronted with smoke and flames and found their daughter had been stabbed and an attempt made to set her alight.

“I put the rest of the fire out with some water and then I noticed the stab wounds and realised she’d been murdered,” said Mr Hales.

“I couldn’t help her; every night I dream about this.”

Mrs Hales said she was “shaking from head to foot” as she held her granddaughter and the realisation her daughter had been killed hit.

Mr Guy said police were also looking at the possibility of using advances in DNA technology to examine items confiscated from the home at the time.