MURDER
CASE #: 1986-39
Susan Tetrault
Status:
Open
Date of Offense:
Date of Offense:
Jurisdiction:
Offense Location:
Clapham, London
Summary:
Susan Tetrault and Brian Price were found axed to death in their bed at a property in St Alphonsus Road, Clapham on Sunday 13 July 1986. It was thought their deaths had been drug related. Despite the passage of nearly four decades, the murders of Brian Price and Susan Tetrault remain unsolved.
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Offense:
On the evening of Sunday, 13 July 1986, Price and Tetrault were found dead in their flat. The couple appeared to have been suffocated in their sleep with pillows. Their heads had then been hacked with an axe that Tetrault kept to chop wood. The injuries were so horrific that they had to be identified by their fingerprints. They had been hacked to death with a chopper taken from the kitchen. However, the murder weapon was not found.
Additional Details:
They were married under common law. It was noted that in 1983 they had both been jailed at Plymouth Crown Court for their part in a drugs-smuggling operation across the south-west of England. They had been smuggling 80kg of cannabis with a street value of £250,000 from Morocco in a steel sloop that Brian Price had built himself. Brian Price was sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment whilst Susan Tetrault was sentenced to 4 years' for distributing the drugs in London. He had been released from the UK prison a month before his murder, after which the police said they believed that he went to Athens and Cyprus on a business trip, which was later thought to have been associated with another drug smuggling operation, but to have returned on the Wednesday 10 July 1986. A close friend of theirs was tried for their murder at the Old Bailey in 1987, but acquitted after being found not guilty of murder. A man named Dean Alexander was tried for the murders but acquitted after a two-week trial. Alexander was a professional thief Brian met in jail, who admitted been in the flat on the night of the killings. The police said that they were trying to trace people in the Southampton area that knew or associated with Susan Tetrault and Brian Price, who were the latest two people in the drugs ring to have been murdered. It was said that there were as many as eight other people involved in the drugs ring that might have been targets for the hit man. Brian's adopted son Ray wants it reopened and the Met Police have requested the forensics file.
Case Last Updated:
Associated Persons
Ray U. (Other) - Living
Brian P. (Spouse) - Deceased
Dean A. (Person of Interest) - Unknown
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