Age: 64
Sex: female
Date: 1 Jan 1993
Place: Falkirk
Norah Smith was murdered at her home.
A man was tried for her murder, but the case was found not proven. At the trial he said that somebody else did it.
He was later said to have had a history of violence against women and was said to pose a very serious risk to women he was involved with, particularly after drinking alcohol.
He later went on to murder another 24-year-old woman who he stabbed to death when he broke into her home in Norman Street, Netherfield in 2011 and was sentenced to 22 years in April 2012. The victim was his former girlfriend. At the time of the murder of his former girlfriend he had been banned from seeing her. He was said to have killed her in a jealous rage after a friend showed him a flirty text message that she had sent him.
He had also later been convicted of the rape of a woman in 1999 and sentenced to nine years.
Following his conviction for murder in 2016 it was said that the case of Norah Smith's murder would again be reviewed.
Norah Smith was also known as Norah Benzie.
She had been battered and strangled in her home on New Year's Day 1993. A pathologist said that Norah Smith died from strangulation with a ligature but that an attempt had been made to strangle her manually. He said that Norah Smith had also been hit with a hammer but that he thought that those injuries were caused after she died.
After murdering her, her killer had set fire to papers and furniture in her home to destroy any evidence.
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see Falkirk Herald
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