The unsolved murder of Shelley Morgan
On Monday, June 11th 1984 keen photographer and mum, Shelley Morgan dropped her children at school and headed to the Leigh woods area of Bristol with a plan to take photographs and draw there, she never returned home.
33-year-old Shelley’s body was found in October 1984 in a wooded copse off Long Lane, on Backwell Hill, she had been brutally stabbed on the day that she disappeared.
Background
Shelley Cameron Brian Morgan was born in 1951 in Iowa, United States. Her father was an art teacher. Her parents were delighted to find that their daughter was gifted.
She learned to talk at an earlier than average age — and kept on talking! Shelley wanted to travel & explore the world. She loved books and music and excelled at school. One of the major talents Shelley had was that she was good with her hands — drawing, making things and sculpting and, as she got older she learned sewing, making all kinds of things out of fabrics and fibres, including amazing stuffed dolls and animals, as well as making her own clothes.
When she was 17, Shelley was accepted into the American Field Service foreign student exchange program and spent that summer away from home, staying with a family in Japan.
She eventually decided to pursue a career in textiles and costume design and went to college & university to get qualifications in theatre arts.
After her second year at the university, she was offered a summer internship at an opera house in Rome after which Shelley started looking around for employment in Europe. She had always wanted to move to England, so when she managed to secure a job as wardrobe manager for the Liverpool Playhouse, she grabbed the opportunity and simply never returned to the US. The theatre lifestyle suited her and the challenges the work presented gave her a real feeling of achievement and excitement when she brought a project together.
During her years working at the Playhouse, Shelley met her first love, they got married, had a son and went to live in a small village in South Wales, UK. Shelley became a committed wife and mother. Shelley became pregnant again with a daughter.
A little later in time, it was discovered that their son had been born with a disability and he was diagnosed as autistic. In order for him to lead a full life he would need special education facilities and therapy that were not available in Wales, so Shelley and her family relocated to Bristol. Shelley started to think about returning to work as a designer. She was keen to complete her art degree so she started building a portfolio of artwork and photography to help her secure a university place.
On the day that Shelley disappeared Monday, June 11th 1984, she and her children, Charlotte & Liam left their home in Dunkerry Road, Bristol at around 8.30 am and walked to the school bus stop. She told the children that she intended to spend some time taking photographs and drawing in the Avon Gorge area and would meet them after school as always.
It is believed, but not confirmed that after dropping the children off, Shelley headed to the bus stop for the number 359 bus as this was the route that crossed the Avon Gorge on its way to Portishead.
The main area that Shelley was interested in visiting that day was Leigh Woods, a National Trust nature reserve. She particularly wanted to get photographs of the Clifton Suspension Bridge in order to paint from them later.
Shelley was carrying a distinctive multi-coloured carpet bag containing a camera tripod and a 35mm Olympus OM20 camera. Police were made aware of her disappearance after she failed to collect her children from school. The police used 80+ officers to search for Shelley, but they found it difficult to identify where she actually went after leaving the children on June 11th 1984.
Back in 1984, the bus route was probably somewhat different from today but it would certainly be the best bus route to reach Avon Gorge where she said she was going. Unfortunately, no one was able to confirm that Shelley actually used a bus on the day in question. One witness did say they believed that they saw Shelley talking to someone in a blue van near the entrance to Ashton Court Estates.
This intelligence has never been confirmed but if it was Shelley then she had gone in the opposite direction of the Bristol Bus Station. She may have got a lift from someone and taken a completely different route to the gorge. She could have been able to follow the Ashton Court Estate road to Bridge Road onto the Clifton Suspension Bridge. It does seem like a long way around to get to her desired destination.
There were also reported sightings of a woman sitting in a yellow lorry on Backwell Hill Road and of a woman in a BMW car parked on the Portishead-to-Bristol road. These women all apparently matched Shelley’s description but despite thorough investigation, the sightings were never confirmed and came to nothing.
There was also a report of a woman matching Shelley’s description being seen boarding a Weymouth to Channel Islands ferry but of course, these sightings were unsubstantiated and eventually, some four months later on Sunday, October 14th 1984 her body was found in a wooded copse.
The area where Shelley was found is known as Long Lane, in Backwell Hill, near Bristol Airport. Now interestingly Backwell Hills was where at least one potential witness claimed to have seen a woman matching Shelley’s description in a yellow lorry.
Police have not made it clear just how far along Blackwell hills Road the lorry was spotted, but it is interesting when a sighting was actually close to the location where Shelley was found. We could question the police search a little here as we must ask why after such a sighting was the area not searched thoroughly enough to have found Shelley much sooner.
The missing Olympus OM20 35mm film camera serial number 1032853 used by Shelley Morgan. Cost £130.00 at the time and is still very popular with collectors and film photographers today.
Her skeletal remains were discovered with a pair of torn and twisted tights around her ankle bones and her pair of sandals were found discarded in bramble bushes close by. Dental records were used to identify the remains as being Shelley's and a forensic examination revealed that she had been stabbed in the back some 14 times.
The police say that there was evidence the brutal attack had been sexually motivated and I have to draw your attention to the ‘Batman rapist’ investigation in which the unknown assailant had a fetish for tights and in fact ripped them before he raped his victims.
You can read a recent blog on the Batman rapist by the Cold case Detective HERE
Shelley’s camera, bag, red-framed spectacles and clothing that she had been wearing have never been found. Did the killer take them as trophies or more likely in order to speed up the decomposition process and make identification much more difficult?
Thirty-five years on from Shelley Morgan’s disappearance and the discovery of her remains the police thought that they had a breakthrough in June 2019 in the form of a new lead
Cold case detectives at Avon and Somerset Police discovered two ageing postcards which could hold vital evidence in their bid to solve the murder of Shelley Morgan.
As we know Shelley had been heading towards Leigh Woods to spend the day sketching and taking photographs with a 35mm Olympus OM20. The tear-off postcards discovered are from a calendar sold by the local Bristol Hospice charity in the 1980s or 1990s.
It is not clear to us so far as to where the postcards were found, but police say the locations are significant because they are linked to exact areas where Shelley had been going when she disappeared and where her body was found.
scene overlooking the River Avon in Bristol, taken from Bower Ashton — just below the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
St Andrew’s Church, from the direction of Backwell Hill.
I am sure it is possible to establish the year the tear-off postcards were in the Bristol Hospice charity calendar. If anyone reading this has one of them or indeed the relevant postcards we would love to hear from you.
It has not been made clear where the postcards were found but the question has to be asked, did the killer keep these postcards as souvenirs or trophies? Ultimately it seems likely he had the camera, what happened to it? Do you know the whereabouts of the Olympus OM20 camera, serial number 1032853?
Avon and Somerset police say they cannot reveal how they gained possession of the postcards or exactly how they may fit in with the investigation, but I strongly suspect that they are believed to have been taken with the missing Olympus OM20 camera.
DS Sarah Barnston of the major crime review team said: “Both locations are significant as they are linked to the areas where Shelley was heading for on the day she disappeared, and where her body was found four months later.”
My team and I have several suspects that we are hopeful of ruling out in this interesting case as well as at least two possible linked murders. Those are:
Ann Myring — Bristol, 1997.
Ann was abducted from her home in Bristol and has never been seen since. She lived in Great Stoke, which is midway between Bedminster and Thornbury (where the remains of Melanie Hall were dumped).
Sharon Hoare — London 1991.
Sharon was working in London as an escort when she was killed. She was from Bedminster, just like Shelley Morgan. The Metropolitan Police suspected a Bristol connection to her death and my team are inclined to agree.
I will leave this one there and hope that you will bring me lots of feedback on this one as we head toward an investigative documentary production of the case later in the year,
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