SEVENTEEN years after she was tortured, violated and bashed to death in her home, Singleton great-grandmother Margaret ‘‘Peggy’’ Howlett’s murder is being re-investigated.
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Her family is relieved and determined to find her killer.
‘‘We’ve never given up,’’ Mrs Howlett’s daughter-in-law, Singleton councillor Alison Howlett, said.
‘‘When I sat on the grass beside her body I gave her that commitment.
‘‘I sat with her to give her some dignity because the person who killed her gave her no dignity and no respect.
‘‘We want to know where is this person who violated a beautiful woman?
‘‘While ever no one’s been made accountable, whoever it is is still out there. Peggy deserves justice, and the family deserves answers and some closure.’’
Police from the Northern Region unsolved homicide team travelled to Singleton last week to tell Mrs Howlett’s family they were reopening a case many fear could stay unsolved.
‘‘Out of the blue they’ve rung to speak to us, but it’s very good news,’’ Alison Howlett said.
The family had never accepted that Mrs Howlett’s murderer would not be caught because of the horrific nature of her death and fears that her killer would strike again.
Mrs Howlett, 84, died on April 2, 1994. Her body was found by firefighters in the home where she had lived for 66 years after her killer tried to set the building alight.
She was sexually assaulted and bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument that has not been found.
Alison Howlett told police this week that the family was about to set up a website about Mrs Howlett’s unsolved murder after almost giving up hope on police.
The family was devastated last December when the Newcastle-based unsolved homicide team lost its final investigator because of transfers and stress leave.
The reinstated team has four officers.
Alison Howlett said she gave police 85 questions in 2008 that the family believed remained unanswered from previous police investigations.
This week investigators gave an undertaking to provide answers to as many of the questions as possible, she said.
A $100,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of Mrs Howlett’s killer is still available.
The family is pushing for the reward to be increased.
A police spokesman confirmed the matter was being reinvestigated.
Witnesses will be contacted in coming weeks.
Alison Howlett criticised fellow councillor Fred Harvison after he questioned the council’s costs over attempts earlier this year to access her own private emails that included information about Mrs Howlett’s murder.
The council discontinued the attempt after both sides agreed to pay their own legal costs.
