How blood-curdling scream led to 48-year murder mystery amid fears young mother was killed by 'Saturday Night Strangler'
NEARLY 50 years ago, a blood-curdling scream pierced the night air – indicating the “Saturday Night Strangler” may have struck again.
Women in the South Wales was left terrified by the rampaging killer, who earned his gruesome nickname by strangling his victims.
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Their worst fears were confirmed when the body of 23-year-old Maureen Mulcahy was discovered in a wasteland.
The young mother was the fourth woman to be found strangled in the Neath and Port Talbot area in three years.
Immediately serial killer on the loose, Police were desperate to solve Maureen's murder and end his reign of terror.
But 48 years later, the case is still cold.
The horror unfolded on February 23, 1976, when Maureen left the Green Meadow pub around 11 p.m.
A friend had offered the mother a ride home, but she refused and was never seen alive again.
About an hour later, at midnight, a woman heard a “petrified” scream as someone shouted, “Oh my God.”
Maureen's body was discovered in a rubbish tip the next morning just 600 yards from the pub.
Police confirmed she had been punched in the face and then strangled.
There were no signs of sexual assault and Maureen had not been robbed.
Teen strangled with her own skirt
The grim circumstances were enough to frighten anyone, but Maureen's death sent shockwaves through a community already haunted by the knowledge that a serial killer was walking among them.
With three chillingly similar murders to his name, it was feared the mysterious Saturday Night Strangler had claimed a fourth victim.
Are massacre started in July 1973 when I was 16 years old Sandra Newton disappeared after a night out in Briton Ferry.
Her body was discovered three days later in a ditch at a coal mine in nearby Tonmawr.
The teenager was raped before being strangled with her own skirt.
And then, two months later, friends Geraldine Hughes And Pauline Floydboth 16, were found dead in a wooded area near the village of Llandarcy.
The pair were fully clothed with a five-foot rope wrapped around their necks, leading police to believe the killer had asked them to get dressed again after raping them.
The triple murder sparked the biggest manhunt in Welsh history – with conclusion from the police the suspect had to be a local.
This eventually led them to Joseph Kappen, who owned an Austin 1100 – the same car Geraldine and Pauline got a ride in the night they were massacred.
Officers went to his home and discovered his vehicle on blocks, with Kappen claiming it was not roadworthy at the time.
His wife also provided a false alibi – meaning South Wales Police were forced to abandon the investigation without sufficient evidence.
The suspect however, was never far from the thoughts of the force and progress was made in 1998 DNA meant officers could revisit the triple murder in an attempt to formally link Kappen to the vicious crimes.
Clues from beyond the grave
But there was a problem: Kappen had died eight years earlier and his DNA was not in the police database.
Undeterred, police took the extraordinary decision to exhume his body, the first action of its kind in Britain.
As the first shovel hit the ground, witnesses chillingly heard a loud clap of thunder overhead – indicating that police had “digged up the evil”.
The gamble paid off and Kappen's remains turned out to be a perfect match with DNA found on clothing belonging to Sandra, Geraldine and Pauline.
Officers had finally found the Saturday Night Strangler – almost thirty years after he first terrified young women in the city.
But for Maureen's anguished family, there was no such closure.
Police believed Kappen was behind her murder, but there was no DNA evidence linking him to the gruesome crimewas impossible to say with certainty.
Now officers have once again appealed for information in the hope that Maureen – unlike her suspected killer – can finally rest in peace.
A spokesperson for South Wales Police told The Sun Online: “All historical murder cases, often referred to in the media as cold cases, are allocated to the specialist crime case. judgement unit and remains under active consideration and will be subject to re-examination as new information is received or as there is progress in forensic investigations. science.
“Every case is assessed periodically. When information comes in from the public or other forces, we act on it.
“South Wales Police has achieved significant success, with cold case reviews being one of the first police forces in the country to establish a police force judgement team in 1999 to conduct cold case reviews.”
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