Exclusive:
The son of a couple found butchered in their flat in south London in 1986 is calling on the public to come forward with any information about the grisly murders after a trial ended without conviction
The unsolved axe murder of a couple has been examined by police for the first time in 37 years.
Brian Price, 43, and Susan Tetrault, 36, were found naked and butchered in bed after a suspected gangland attack. But police closed the case when a convicted armed robber was acquitted of their murders at the Old Bailey.
Now, Brian’s adopted son Ray wants it reopened and the Met Police have requested the forensics file. Ray said: “Brian was a proper father to me, I owe him everything – if it wasn’t for him I could have gone into care. I’m trying to repay that debt now by finding out who killed him.”
Ray, 63, a retired fire training consultant from Birmingham, said that while investigating Brian’s murder he was warned by one of his dad’s former associates: “These are extremely dangerous people, don’t get involved.”
Brian and Susan were killed in her first-floor flat in Clapham, South London, in July 1986 with an axe she kept to chop wood. Pillows had been put over their faces and they were so mutilated they had to be identified by fingerprints.
Brian was a high-level drug trafficker whose exploits included escaping from a South African jail after being caught with 6,000 LSD tabs in 1973. And three years before their murders, both he and Susan were jailed for drug smuggling.
Brian was caught taking 80kg of cannabis from Morocco to Cornwall on a boat. In jail he met robber Dean Alexander, then 25, and the pair are believed to have planned to import heroin from Turkey with a Cypriot gangster. The deal is thought to have fallen through and the pair had just returned from the Mediterranean island when Brian and Susan were murdered.
Australian Alexander, then a budding rock guitarist, admitted having been in Susan’s flat on the night of the killings. He said he left to visit his girlfriend but ended up walking the streets all night because he was unable to see her. Brian’s ring and contacts book were found at Alexander’s home. He also had £1,000 of the dead man’s cash.
But a jury took 90 minutes to acquit him after a two-week trial. Outside court, he said: “I feel brilliant”. Alexander has changed his name and is now the director of a counter surveillance company. He is married with a son and lives in the south of England.
Ray has spoken to Alexander’s brother, a private detective, about the case and also enlisted the help of a criminologist in his search for justice. And he is campaigning for the closure of a loophole in the law which means that murder cases such as this one, where a suspect is acquitted, can be classified as “detected/solved”.
He added: “Brian and Susan deserve justice. If you knew Brian, or have information, please get in touch.”
Scotland Yard said: “A suspect was arrested but acquitted in 1987. Reform of double jeopardy legislation has enabled retrial of previously acquitted defendants if new or compelling evidence comes to light. We welcome any new information that may further enquiries. All acquitted cases are periodically reviewed.”
