Crime Writer Trying to Solve Real-Life Murder
Pauline Rowson has been a crime writer for a number of years, but it’s only fairly recently that she’s begun to look at the real-life crime that may well have been the impetus for her fictional mysteries. Unfortunately, as the Portsmouth News reports, Rowson has hit a roadblock trying to uncover the truth behind the unsolved murder of her great-aunt:
campaigning for information about a 50-year-old real-life murder
mystery in her family has been refused access to the archives – because
of a remote possibility that the case may be reopened by police.And Hayling Island author Pauline Rowson fears the information will now be withheld until 2030 at the earliest.
February 12, 1959, Mrs Rowson's great-aunt Martha Giles was found dead
on the bowling green of Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital. The
nurse had been due to work a night shift on February 11, but on her way
to work she was battered with a rock and stabbed in the heart and lung.
The murder caused an outcry and was given national media coverage, but the 45 year-old's killer was never brought to justice.
The reason cited for the rejection? The FOI officers claim even the smallest chance the investigation could be reopened means the files should stay sealed. Rowson, however, plans to appeal and to contact her MP about it – and spread the word with news stories like this one…