Kate Simpson was described as independent, friendly and “without an enemy in the world” – but she was brutally murdered in her own home in 1988 and her killers have never been brought to justice
On February 27, 1988, a beloved and friendly widow was brutally murdered in her own home in Hartburn.
The cold-blooded murder of 94-year-old Kate Simpson sparked the largest murder investigation in Cleveland Police’s 15-year history at that time.
Three Stockton teenagers were sentenced for her death but were later released after their convictions were deemed unsafe. Since then, no one has been held accountable for the cruel crime against the elderly pensioner.
Mrs Simpson was described as independent, friendly and “without an enemy in the world”. In 2019, a specialist team of investigators revisited the case and sought help from the public.
It’s now almost 37 years since her murder, but the force says it will “look into any new information” and is “keen to speak with any witnesses”. Mrs Simpson had lived alone in her three-bedroom semi on Hartburn Avenue, near Ropner Park, since her husband, a British Rail executive, died 20 years previous.
Friends said she was perfectly capable of looking after herself. A pathologist who conducted the post mortem said, aside from the horrific injuries she sustained at the hands of her killer, Mrs Simpson had been a healthy woman, reports Teesside Live.
Dr Harvey McTaggart stated: “She would have got the telegram off the Queen.”
On a Saturday, February 27, at 9.45am, Mrs Simpson rang her best mate who lived close by to give her shopping list. It was at 3pm, when the friend came round with the groceries, that she found Mrs Simpson’s front door open.
She discovered her mate lying on the living room floor with a kitchen carving knife in her chest. The blade had cut through her aorta and she also had bruising on her face and injuries to her neck.
Detective Chief Inspector Ron Newsam of Cleveland CID, who led the investigation, said at the time: “It was a callous and totally unnecessary attack on a defenceless old lady. She was very friendly, very gentle, well-respected and did not have an enemy in the world.”
Officers worked 12-hour shifts on the case and followed 1,707 lines of inquiry, took 1,093 statements, made 1,200 house-to-house inquiries and set up a road block that stopped more than 2,000 vehicles. Detective Inspector Dave Scott, one of the senior detectives involved, said at the time: “I have never known detectives so enthusiastic about detecting something.
“Everyone took it so personally and they were all aware of the way she had been brutally murdered.”
He was one of the first on the scene.
“I just felt sorrow,” he told the Evening Gazette at the time. “Here was a defenceless old lady, she’d been a mature woman at the beginning of the First World War, now she’s been killed in a brutal manner.
“I felt anger, of course, a sense of despair, but what it also did was create this desire to detect – there was no chance this crime was going to be undetected.”
Two weeks after Mrs Simpson’s body was found, three local teenagers were charged with her murder. The young men received life sentences after a jury convicted two of them for murder and one for manslaughter.
However, their convictions were overturned in 1992 by the Court of Appeal, which criticised the evidence presented against them and the Crown Court judge’s summary to the jury. Following their release, police stated they weren’t seeking other suspects and wouldn’t reopen the case.
In 2019, a cold case team member told Teesside Live that they suspected “artifice” burglars, known for using distraction techniques, were involved, with at least two individuals partaking in the crime, though not all may have intended the fatal outcome. A Cleveland Police spokesperson commented: “We would welcome and look into any new information and would therefore be keen to speak with any witnesses or anyone with knowledge of this offence. Our thoughts and sympathies remain with Mrs Simpson’s family on this sad anniversary.”