As soon as cold case officers knocked on the door of Jane Bunting’s house, they knew they had found the person they were looking for.
The detectives had reopened the investigation into the brutal murder of Carol Morgan, 36, who was found bludgeoned to death in her shop storeroom in August 1981. In 2018, the force returned to every house they originally door knocked on in the original murder probe, including the house of Jane, a 17-year-old who had been tutored by teacher Margaret Spooner, who had been having an affair with Carol’s husband, Allen.
Jane wasn’t living there anymore but her mum told officers: “My Jane’s been waiting 40 years for you to speak to her.” The former student, now 60, who had become friends with Spooner and had also briefly lived with the Bunting family, had been harbouring a secret for all those years.
She would later tell detectives how, a few months before Carol’s murder, she overheard an “appalling” conversation in the pub between Morgan and her ex-boyfriend that stayed with her. Morgan had asked if he knew anyone who could kill, with him saying: “’I hate Carol’, ‘I don’t want to be married to her’, ‘I wish she’d die’, ‘Wouldn’t an accident be nice?’.”
The Morgans had spiralling debts, and Carol had left everything to her husband in her will. Meanwhile, the shop had a life insurance policy linked to it.
Bedfordshire Police Detective Constable Denise Brown, who features in ITV documentary – The Real Unforgotten – told the Mirror: “There wasn’t hard evidence, there wasn’t CCTV, we’d been slowly building a circumstantial case and so when Jane came along, that was the final thing for us. It put that piece of the jigsaw in place.”
Following a trial at Luton Crown Court, it was proven that Morgan had indeed hired a hitman to end his wife’s life, and was found guilty of conspiring to murder. He was sentenced to 22 years behind bars last summer. His lover Margaret, whom he went on to marry and subsequently became Margaret Morgan, was found not guilty of the same offence.
“It’s the truth that gets revealed in these investigations and allowing loved ones to hear that and find some measure of peace and healing in that,” DC Brown, who revealed the team keeps Carol’s photo on a board in their office, continued. “It’s easy to remember him, and easy to forget Carol. Our focus is always on her.”
Carol’s beloved niece, Julie Welsh, 59, who also features in the new ITV documentary about the harrowing cold case, hopes Morgan rots in jail. “I really think he should be one of those where you lock him up and throw away the key, that’s how I feel,” Julie told the Mirror. “It’s so hard to say his name. My whole family feel like that. He is, in my eyes, a monster.”
On August 13, 1981, Carol, 36, was found hacked to death in the storeroom of their shop in Linsale, Beds. Allen Morgan said he’d discovered the body after returning from the cinema with his two stepchildren. He immediately raised the alarm, reporting that £500 in cash and £120 worth of cigarettes were missing from the till.
The case has remained unsolved for over four decades, with the killer still walking free. However 37 later, the case was reopened in 2018, which saw more than 80 officers work around the clock to piece together what happened on that fateful night.
For Julie, the reopening of the case was a difficult pill to swallow. While her aunt is always in her thoughts, the painful sadness and grief she felt as a teenager was brought back up again.
All her hopes were pinned on them finding something on Morgan. Unfortunately due to her demanding job caring for children with autism, she was unable to attend the trial.
“I wanted to look at him in the eye and get some sort of payback,” she reflected. “I don’t know how I would have reacted being there but I’m sure I would have been very angry and very grief stricken and then also very relieved to hear the outcome that came.”
It is the hope of Carol’s family and Bedfordshire Police that as the new series shines a light on Carol’s story, it jogs the memories of those who lived in the area. Police are still appealing for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward, with the aim of bringing complete justice for Carol.
Julie pleaded: “This man has got to be found if he’s still alive. That is the final part of resolving this horrible, horrific murder.”
“There is a huge part of the story we don’t know, who did kill her? Who is out there?” DC Brown questioned. The detective says that reopening cold cases is important for several reasons, not only to remember victims and honour them, but also to reinforce public trust. “Time doesn’t diminish the value of a case; justice being pursued doesn’t have an expiration date,” she said.
“It sends a message that no case is too old or insignificant to warrant attention. Stories of cold case murders, and there are a lot of cold case rapes as well, I think these stories reflect broader human experiences of loss and resilience and hope.
“For me, telling this story might reinvigorate other people’s desire to remain hopeful and persistent and resilient in finding the truth of whatever their story is or whatever they experience.
“It’s a shared responsibility to protect and keep society safe and putting this out on TV, some people might feel like they have a responsibility to tell us they have knowledge. I’m sure somebody does.”
*The Real Unforgotten airs 18th February, 9pm on ITV1 & ITVX. Both episodes will drop on ITVX on February 18th. The second episode will air on ITV1, 25th February.
If you have information on the murder of Carol Morgan, you can call 101 and quote in relation to ‘Operation Markdown.’