I watched as my mum was brutally stabbed to death then burned before my eyes… 30 years later, I’m still trying to find her killer
- EXCLUSIVE: Family of mother murdered in 1993 speak out amid hunt for killer
- Karen Hales, 21, who was stabbed to death in front of her 18-month-old daughter
- The killing happened at her Ipswich home in Suffolk with her body being torched
- Her daughter has now spoken out as the family launches a fresh plea for help
A woman who saw her own mother being murdered when she was a toddler has spoken of her pain about the killer still being on the loose nearly 30 years on.
Emily Hales was just 18-months-old when her mother Karen Hales, 21, was stabbed multiple times in front of her and her body set on fire at their home on a Sunday afternoon in 1993.
Karen’s father Graham Hales found Emily sobbing, but otherwise uninjured, beside the burning body of her mother in the kitchen when he turned up with his wife Geraldine to visit her.
Less than an hour before their gruesome discovery, Karen’s fiancée Peter Ruffles, then 22, had gone to work and left their house in Lavenham Road, Ipswich, Suffolk.
The killer of the young mother who seemingly had no enemies has still not been identified, despite a huge police hunt, and the offer of a £50,000 reward for information.
Police who described the murder of shop assistant Karen as ‘horrendous’ believe that she was killed shortly before her body was found.
Karen Hales, 21, was stabbed multiple times in front of her 18-month-old daughter Emily before her body was set on fire at their home on a Sunday afternoon in 1993
Karen’s father Graham Hales found Emily sobbing, but otherwise uninjured, beside the burning body of her mother in the kitchen when he turned up with his wife Geraldine to visit her. (pictured are police at the scene of the crime)
Less than an hour before their gruesome discovery, Karen’s fiancée Peter Ruffles, then 22, had gone to work and left their house in Lavenham Road, Ipswich, Suffolk (pictured)
Karen”s daughter Emily, now 31, has spoken out following the fruitless hunt for her mother’s killer (Emily is pictured as a young girl)
Officers strongly suspect that she knew her killer and may have let them into the house as there were no signs of a break-in.
Two men were arrested shortly after the murder, but both were released without charge. One of them, a 30-year-old man was reported to have been questioned for 48 hours before being freed.
The fruitless hunt has left Emily and her family frustrated and angry that they have been cheated of justice for three decades.
Emily, now 31, was so young at the time that she has no memories of Karen, let alone the awful day on November 21, 1993, when she was murdered.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, she told how she still grieved every day for her mother and was refusing to give up hope that her killer might one day be found.
Emily who is now a hairdresser living in Ipswich with a five-year-old son said: ‘Every day is so hard. I miss and think about her every day.
‘I constantly wonder what life would be like with her here with me. Every birthday wish I have made, I wish for her to be back with us.
‘I have no memories of my mum which is so sad. Now as a mum myself it’s even harder. I’m forever hoping one day the killer will be found.’
Karen Hales, is pictured with her baby daughter Emily before the loving mother was brutally stabbed to death in her own home
Newspaper clippings from the time reported the horrifying attack, which shocked the nation
In a new appeal for anyone with information to speak to police, Emily – who spoke on condition that contemporary images of her and her family were not used – added: ‘I know there is somebody out there that knows something and I also think more than one person knows.
‘Somebody is keeping a secret for the person that killed her. I don’t know how they can carry on living their life as if nothing has happened.’
Emily’s grief is shared by Karen’s parents Graham, 77, and Geraldine, 78, who still live in the house where she grew up in Barham near Ipswich.
The couple have become disenchanted with police because of the failure to catch her killer and fear that mistakes may have been made early in the investigation.
Mother-of-three Geraldine who has always been partially sighted, believes the shock of Karen’s murder led to her eyesight rapidly deteriorating and her becoming registered blind.
Speaking from her home, she said: ‘Karen was a beautiful girl and she loved life, although she was a bit of a devil at school.
‘She enjoyed pranks and getting up to mischief by doing things like turning on the fire alarm. We had 21 years of her life before that horrible day 30-years-ago.
‘She had been with Peter for about six years and they were fine. She loved Emily to bits.
‘I am sure she would have been so proud of her grandson if she was around now. He is a lovely clever, little boy.’
Georgina Hales who is registered blind and her husband Graham pictured in the churchyard at St Mary and St Peter’s church in Barham, Suffolk, where their daughter Karen is buried
Emily’s grief is shared by Karen’s parents Graham, 77, and Geraldine, 78, who still live in the house where she grew up in Barham near Ipswich. Karen Hales (centre) is pictured with her older sisters Angela (right) and Jackie (left)
Geraldine recalled how Karen and Peter, a mechanic for Ipswich Buses, had bought their two bedroom semi-detached starter home when she was pregnant.
Karen had worked at Debenhams before combining being a mother with a part time job working evening shifts on the Boots counter at her local Sainsbury’s store in Hadleigh Road, Ipswich.
Peter told police how everything was normal when he had left for work at around 3.50pm on November 21 with Karen waving him goodbye at the door after handing him his packed lunch.
Retired digger driver Graham and Geraldine went to see their daughter at around 4.40pm and came across the scene of horror.
In an exclusive interview with MailOnline, Graham said: ‘We walked down the path and I said, “There is something wrong. Emily is really, really crying”.
‘I knocked on the door and got no answer. Then I looked through the letter box and saw smoke. I tried the door and it was unlocked so I went in.
‘Then I found her in the kitchen. Her body was near the worktop and flames were coming up around 18 inches around her.
‘From her waist upwards, her clothes were burned away and the back of her head was burned. There was a lump of cloth smouldering.
‘A high chair was also lying down and it was over the top of the flames. The high chair had started to catch fire and there was a smell of burning.
‘When I moved Karen, I knew she was gone. I thought at first she had been electrocuted because of the fire. Then I saw the stab wounds in her chest.
‘Emily was standing in the kitchen in the other side of her mother, and I just picked her up and gave her to Gerry. I wanted to get her out of the smoke.’
Geraldine added: ‘Emily was crying her eyes out. She didn’t know what was going on. At the time she could only a couple of words like ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’.
‘There was no way she could explain what had happened, let alone say who had done it.’
Graham said he immediately dialled 999, and police and firefighters rushed to the house which was blanketed in snow.
He remains annoyed that police allowed firefighters to go inside, potentially destroying footprints in the snow which may have been left by the killer.
Graham said: ‘I had already put the fire out, so there was no need for them to rush in. It should have been preserved as a crime scene. I knew there was nobody else in the house.’
He said that he and his wife had been out visiting different people earlier in the afternoon because they ‘couldn’t settle’.
Before visiting Karen and Emily, he and Geraldine went to Peter’s bus depot in Constantine Road so he could quickly check glow plugs in the diesel engine of his pick up truck which were playing up.
Graham said: ‘Peter had been out the night before for a get together with his workmates. I asked him how the evening went and he said, ‘Karen will tell you all about it.’
The fruitless hunt has left Emily and her family frustrated and angry that they have been cheated of justice for three decades. Emily is pictured as a baby
Flowers spelling out the word ‘mummy’ were pictured on the grave of Karen Hales who was stabbed to death in her home in 1993
er heartbroken parents Georgina and Graham still tend loving to their daughter’s grave
Peter later told Karen’s parents and the police that she had mentioned someone trying the front door handle of their home while he was out on the Saturday night.
The incident apparently scared Karen, but Peter put it down to local children messing around.
Graham added: ‘She was a bit nervous about living in the house because there had been break-ins in the area.’
Police found two large Laser kitchen knives missing from the house after Karen’s body was found, along with her purse containing a small amount of cash.
Karen’s parents were questioned by police, along with Peter, and detectives tried to reassure the family that they would catch the killer.
The investigation became what was then one of Suffolk Police’s biggest ever murder hunts with more than 1,400 potential lines of inquiry pursued.
A re-enactment staged for the BBC Crimewatch programme in March 1994 failed to crack the case.
The programme featured an actress playing Karen enjoying life as a devoted mother and taking her daughter swimming at the Crown Pools in Ipswich.
On the day of her murder, she was shown on the programme cleaning the house after waving Peter goodbye, while Emily played happily with toys before the killer struck.
Geraldine gave a moving insight into how her grand-daughter was coping in the programme, saying: ‘Every morning, Emily cries for Mummy.
A BBC Crimewatch reconstruction, featuring an actress playing Karen Hales waving to her partner as he left their house in Ipswich before she was murdered in 1993 in front of her 18-month-old daughter
‘During the day, she is asking where Mummy is. Peter and I do the best we can, and Graham, but we can’t take the place of Mummy.’
A £50,000 reward offered by Suffolk Police, the Evening Star newspaper and several local business people in 2005 also failed to lead to a breakthrough.
In the aftermath of the murder, police revealed they were trying to trace a man wearing a parka coat with a grey fur-lined hood who had been seen hurrying down a nearby alleyway by two youths taking a short cut.
Detectives released an e-fit image of the man who was about 5 ft 10 ins tall, of slim build with thin dark hair cut short.
A couple passing in a car believe they saw the man in an irritated state running in front of their car across London Road at the rear of Karen and Peter’s house.
The same man might also have been spotted by a woman walking her dog as he ran across nearby Chantry Park.
Peter and Emily started living with Graham and Geraldine in the months after the murder but then took his daughter to live with his parents, and later his sister before getting a house himself.
Karen’s parents (pictured) were questioned by police, along with Peter, and detectives tried to reassure the family that they would catch the killer. But so far, no-one has been caught
Karen’s family are still hopeful a renewed appeal might shed fresh light on the murder (pictured is Karen’s grave)
Geraldine said: ‘The police kept coming round and telling us that the case would be solved within six months – but nothing happened.’
The couple had hopes that advances in DNA evidence might finally identify the killer, but tests around three-years-ago failed to reveal anything.
Graham said: ‘There was some vomit on Karen’s skirt. It wasn’t from her because they knew what had been in her throat, so they believed it was from someone else.
‘But it was mixed up with her blood and when they tested it, only her DNA came up.
‘I believe the evidence of what happened was in the house, but forensics were not so advanced when it happened.
‘The police only came up with my fingerprints, and Karen and Peter’s. There was no evidence of anyone else going in there.
‘We still think about it every day. You just can’t get over something as awful as this.’
Geraldine who has five grandchildren and six great grandchildren, added: ‘It has tormented me for 30 years. I think I will die not knowing what happened.
‘I can’t understand what kind of person would have done this in front of an 18-month-old child.’
Emily said she did not find out her mother had been murdered until her Geraldine gave her basic details several years after it happened.
She told the BBC ten-years-ago: ‘Nan said she first told me about it when I was eight or nine but without the full detail and not the gruesome part.
‘I know everything there is to know now. I wanted to find out what happened. I want to know more – who did it? Why?
‘I wish I could remember what happened as obviously that would help. I honestly can’t remember a thing.
‘A police officer asked me recently if I had ever been interviewed. I haven’t, but there’s nothing I could say that would help.
‘I obviously didn’t really know her because I was only 18 months old. I’ve got photos and stuff but it’s obviously not the same.
Karen Hales, 21, who was stabbed to death in front of her 18-month-old daughter Emily in 1993 at her home in Ipswich, Suffolk
‘I remember her by the photos. It’s hard but I have to try to move on.’
Suffolk Police have insisted that they are ‘not giving up’ on the investigation into Karen’s murder, and feature it on their website giving details about unsolved cases.
A media appeal on the 25th anniversary of Karen’s death prompted 18 separate calls from members of the public, leading to police pursuing ‘a number of lines of enquiry as a consequence’.
Detective Superintendent Andy Smith, the former Head of the Norfolk and Suffolk Police’s Major Investigation Team, said at the time: ‘This demonstrates to me that there remains the possibility that there are other people who have knowledge or information which could assist this investigation. My appeal to them is to make contact and help us solve this horrendous crime.
‘In particular I want to be sure that we have established as much detail as possible about Karen’s life and personal circumstances, so would like to hear from people who knew her in whatever form, whether they were her friends, work colleagues or other acquaintances.
‘We want to be sure we know as much about her as we possibly can, including places she was frequenting and everyone she was associating with, particularly in the days and weeks leading up to her brutal murder on November 21, 1993.
‘Although I retain a completely open-mind as to who is responsible for killing Karen, I think there is a strong possibility that her attacker was known to her and that is why it is so important for us to know everything about her.
‘Karen was just 21-years-old and the mother to an 18-month-old daughter who had to grow up never knowing her mum.
‘Her murder was truly devastating for her entire family and if there is someone out there who can help us but is reluctant to do so, I would like them to think about a couple of things in particular that might help them to change their mind.
‘Please think about that baby girl, left alone in the house where her mum had been stabbed to death and set alight and who was lucky to survive the fire.
‘Please think about the parents who discovered their daughter’s body and rescued their granddaughter from the fire. If you think you can help, then please call us.
‘Friends or relatives of the killer may have noticed a change in their behaviour around the time of the murder, but either didn’t think anything of it at the time, or had suspicions but felt obligated not to say anything, or may have been afraid to do so.
‘If that applies to you, then please remember that it is never too late to come forward and we will treat any information we receive in the strictest confidence.’
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Unsolved Case Team on 01953 423819, or by emailing [email protected]
Alternatively, you can contact the charity Crimestoppers 100% anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via their website:
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