Age: 40
Sex: male
Date: 27 Sep 2004
Place: Cannon Street, Old Town, Swindon
Mick Love was found dead following a night out in Swindon on 27 September 2004.
He had been stabbed three times.
A 37-year-old man was tried for his murder at Bristol Crown Court in July 2005 but acquitted. However, following the trial, the police said they were not looking for anyone else.
Mick Love had gone out with some friends in Old Town, Swindon, on the evening of 26 September 2004, and was found dead in the early hours of the following day in Cannon Street, shortly before 5.30am.
The police said they thought he had been robbed.
He was last seen in CCTV leaving the Bombay Brasserie in Regent Circus with a friend at 3.12am. After leaving they walked up Victoria Road where they parted company by the junction of Durham Street near the Jewel in the Crown.
Mick Love was thought then to have continued up Victoria Road where he was robbed. He was found about 250m away from where his friend last saw him.
The police determined that his sim card was in his phone at 3.33am, but that by 3.48am it had been removed and a new one put in. The police said that they thought that Mick Love had been robbed between those times, with the killer removing Mick Love's sim car and putting his own in.
It was thought that he had been seen by a member of the public lying in the road at the junction with Cannon Street and Victoria Road at 4.10am, but the person had taken no action.
He was later seen by a policeman about 5.10am, who thought he was drunk.
During the investigation they said they were looking to trace two men that were seen in Victoria Road, opposite the junction with Cannon Street, at 5.10am. They were described as appearing to be in high spirits and drinking cans of larger.
They were described as having been both white, of average height and build and to have been wearing dark clothing. One of them had short dark hair, whilst the other had light hair.
His inquest revealed that he had been stabbed in the stomach, abdomen and back, with the blade of the knife snapping off at the hilt. The pathologist said that he found:
Mick Love had been a postman.
It was noted that his case was no longer considered unsolved by the police as it had come to court, even though no one was convicted, meaning that Wiltshire Police did not have to consider it as an unsolved case in their records.
A friend of Mick Love said:
The man that had been with Mick Love shortly before he was murdered said:
