May Richards

May Richards died from a heart attack after being tied hand and foot by an intruder who broke into her home in Sportside Avenue, Walkden on 21 April 1987.

She was found in a sitting position behind her front door after the police forced their way in following reports from worried neighbours. Neighbours said that they became alarmed after finding the lights at her home were out but the gas fire was still burning.

The police said that they thought that she had been tied up by a burglar and that she had fallen as she tried to reach the front door to raise the alarm.

Her house was found to have ben rifled.

Her post mortem examination found that she had died from heart failure but the police said that they were treating the case as a murder inquiry.

During the police investigation into her murder the police visited 1,400 homes, questioned 2,900 people and took 502 calls from the public.

It was reported that May Richards was seen by neighbours to have let a gipsey woman into her house shortly before the murder. She was seen at her house between 10am and 11.30am on 21 April 1987. The neighbour that saw the woman going in, a 67-year-old woman, said that she saw her go in but didn't see her come out. She said:

Neighbours reported having seen a woman dressed in black peering through May Richards windows shortly before the murder and the police later said that they were trying to trace a gipsy woman that they knew had been selling lucky charms in the area.

However, the police said that tracking down the movements of the gypsies was a huge problem and that when they managed to track those down that they wanted to question that their enquiries were invariably met with silence.

The gipsey woman was described as:

• Aged 20-40.
• Between 5ft 4in and 5ft 6in tall.
• Wearing dark clothing, possibly a green or black coat, black trousers and at some stage a head scarf.

She was said to have visited a number of houses in the area in addition to May Richards's home. The police appealed for anyone that had seen the woman in the Whittle Street Estate area to come forward. Sportside Avenue was described as having been on the Brindley Estate.

She was described as having been carrying a number of plastic bags and it was initially thought that she might have been selling goods of collecting jumble.

The police said:

May Richards was described as having been about 5ft tall and to have been wearing a red cardigan, brown shoes and a beige skirt.

Her house in Sportside Avenue was described as a two-bedroomed terraced council house.