YouTube plea to help trap Georgina's killer (From Andover Advertiser)

YouTube plea to help trap Georgina's killer

12:00pm Monday 6th July 2009

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MURDER squad detectives have turned to YouTube in the latest phase of their hunt for the killer of the widow of a Basingstoke coffee merchant.

Last Thursday, on what would have been Mrs Georgina Edmonds’ 79th birthday, officers revealed that they had released a five-minute video on the popular Internet site in an effort to reach a wider audience, and hopefully someone who will have key information about the brutal killing.

Mrs Edmonds – the widow of Harry Edmonds – was murdered on January 11, 2008. She was tortured and stabbed repeatedly with a kitchen knife in what is believed to have been a bid to get her to hand over her cashcard PIN.

She was also beaten around her head with a marble rolling pin taken from the kitchen of her riverbank home, Fig Tree Cottage in the grounds of Kingfisher Lodge, Brambridge.

The hunt to find who killed Mrs Edmonds has been one of the biggest undertaken by detectives from the major crime department. Many hundreds of lines of inquiry have proved fruitless so far.

The five-minute video appeal – which can also be seen on The Gazette website – features footage and images from the inquiry as well as reconstructions.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Barton said: “We may be 18 months down the line but the brutal murder of this defenceless and vulnerable woman cannot be lessened.

“While her children and grandchildren must try to continue with their lives, the impact of losing a much-loved mother and grandmother in such a truly abhorrent way will never leave them.

“By releasing this footage, we aim to reach an even wider audience in the hope that someone somwhere will complete the missing piece of this jigsaw.

“Whoever did this needs to know that we will not go away. We remain as determined as we were in the initial days of the inquiry to bring Mrs Edmonds’ killer to justice.”

Mrs Edmonds was murdered some time between 11.15am and 3.15pm. Shortly before, she had been visited by her hairdresser for her weekly appointment and had settled down after making herself lunch.

Mrs Edmonds’ killer locked the pensioner inside her house, taking the keys with him as he fled. She was left lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor, where she was found at 5.30pm by her distraught son Harry – who now runs the family business, The Edmonds Group from Basingstoke – when he returned from work.

The police still want to trace a man who tried but failed to withdraw cash from a machine at the Tesco garage in Twyford Road, Eastleigh, on the night of the murder because the PIN number was incorrect.

He was seen covering his face from the cameras and wearing a fluorescent yellow jacket. A number of items taken from from Mrs Edmonds’ home have never been found.

They include a silver credit card holder, a brightly coloured key fob with a key attached, a Lloyds chequebook and cash card, and a black Radley handbag.

A £30,000 reward has been offered for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the killer.

Anyone who might be able to help the police inquiry should contact the Operation Columbian investigation team on 0845 045 4545 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Alternatively write to Freepost, Operation Columbian or email operation.columbian@hampshire. pnn.police.uk.

Click on "video" above to see the police video appeal that has also been uploaded to YouTube

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