[4] On the morning of 28 March 1987, Fleet dropped her sister off to go shopping, then called in at a bakery and petrol station, before heading to Worlebury Hill to walk her two dogs.

[2][7] Fleet was stabbed with a knife ten times, beaten around the head and body, and strangled in what was described by Avon and Somerset Police as a "motiveless, vicious attack on a frail old lady".

[4] Upon discovering Fleet, Lewis ran to a nearby house on Worlebury Hill Road and alerted David and Hazel Davies that her "friend had collapsed".

A task force of approximately 120 officers were assigned to the case and carried out an examination of the murder scene,[8] while house-to-house enquiries and vehicle checks were made in the surrounding residential areas.

[9] By the end of March 1987, police had taken approximately 70 statements, received 70 phone calls from members of the public, and had followed up 200 lines of inquiry.

[3] On 31 March 1987, police put up 500 posters in Weston-super-Mare and Worlebury Hill in the hope it would lead to further members of the public coming forward with information.

[7] On 4 April 1987, 50 police officers returned to the crime scene to speak to walkers, joggers and horse riders looking for leads.

She subsequently phoned a further three times over the following week, but refused to give her identity out of fear for her safety and would ring off before being questioned in detail.

[17] The police remained interested in speaking to the individual in the "distinctive" ski jacket and the young man seen running in Ashbury Drive.

[19] A youth wearing a ski jacket was reported by at least two witnesses running from the vicinity of the murder scene shortly before the body was discovered.

[14] A witness on a stationary bus, only 50 yards from the murder scene, also reported seeing a youth walking past wearing what they described as an anorak.

[20] Six weeks into the investigation, police received new information from a man about a youth, aged 16 or 17, who he saw chatting with Fleet at Worlebury Hill on 26 March 1987 at 4:10pm, two days before the murder.

[34] Numerous pieces of evidence from the original inquiries, including clothing, blood samples and fingerprints, were reanalysed using the latest techniques in forensic testing and DNA analysis.

[36] The police carried out further DNA analysis on remaining evidence and received a number of calls with new leads, some of which provided names, but no further developments in the investigation were announced.

[37] There has been speculation that Fleet's murder may be linked to the similarly apparently motiveless killings of the 14-year-old schoolgirl Kate Bushell at Exwick, Devon, in 1997, and 41-year-old woman Lyn Bryant at Ruan High Lanes, Cornwall, in 1998.