Did Griff Thomas really murder his sister?

On a chilly Saturday morning in December 1976, postman Nigel Rossiter stepped exterior an remoted farmhouse in West Wales.

It was his first week on the job, and he discovered two letters nonetheless mendacity on the ground of the veranda the place he had despatched them a number of days earlier than.

The scent of burning inside raised the alarm. This led to the invention of two our bodies – a badly burned man and his sister, with extreme accidents

Dyfed-Powys Police are actually finishing up a forensic evaluate to see if the case needs to be reopened, nearly 50 years later, after the household challenged the official model of occasions.

Describing what occurred, Nigel, then 19, stated: “I used to be like 'Hiya, anybody right here?' I began shouting.

“As quickly as I opened the door, I may scent the burning, the smoke, the chimney, I assumed.”

Then he discovered the charred physique of 73-year-old Griff Thomas mendacity in a pile of charred trash on the kitchen flooring.

Officers arrived and moved additional into the house, the place they found a second brutal scene.

The physique of Griffin's sister Martha Marie – generally known as Buddy – was slumped on {a magazine} rack within the nook of the lounge, with extreme head accidents.

Chairs had been knocked over and an upturned tv lay at Grandma's ft.

It was nonetheless switched on, with the sound filling the room.

A 70-year-old grandmother was crushed to demise.

Finan Samson Farmhouse, half a mile exterior the village of Llangolman in East Pembrokeshire, was now the scene of a homicide.

A month later, detectives got here to their conclusion – Griff had “most likely” killed his sister in a match of rage after arguing about cash.

However practically 50 years later, surviving household, associates and neighbors of the siblings nonetheless battle to make sense of the police model of occasions.

“There's no method Griff would have smashed the furnishings,” stated Hugh Absalom, whose father is Griff's and Patty's cousin.

“Grandmother wouldn’t have been ready to try this hurt.

“Griff went to his grave branded because the assassin of his personal sister, who he had lived with all his life, part of his life by way of thick and skinny.

“It's not truthful, it's not proper.”

After requires the case to be reopenedDyfed-Powys Police Introduced in October 2022 It is going to perform a forensic evaluate of fabric collected by police on the time to see if trendy methods can “shed additional gentle” on what occurred.

That evaluate, known as Operation Hallam, continues to be ongoing and has been dubbed a brand new BBC podcast Demise on the FarmNow investigating the 50-year-old case.

Mr Absalom stated the evaluate staff had been requested to contemplate exhuming the our bodies in order that they might be examined within the gentle of recent forensic methods.

“Forensics has come a good distance for the reason that '70s, and I'm certain they’ll see them in a brand new gentle now,” he stated.

In December 1976, as information of the tragedy unfold across the close-knit neighborhood, Dyfed-Powys Police launched a double murder investigation and arrange an incident room within the heart of the village.

The case was led by a well-known detective who solved it Dangerous canuck chase killsDet Ch Supt Pat Molloy.

Greater than 1,200 individuals had been spoken to and cops knocked on doorways in a five-mile radius.

Within the coming weeks, 572 males gave police alibis that excluded them from the investigation.

However Christmas got here and went, and the New Yr got here, and no leads emerged.

And so the main focus of the inquiry turned.

In late January 1977, Det Ch Supt Molloy reached his conclusion.

She declared that Griff had “most likely” killed her sister – presumably by hitting her over the pinnacle with a kitchen chair – earlier than setting the fireplace, the place she lay down and died.

For individuals who have recognized siblings all their lives, the scene is meaningless.

Mr Absalom, who grew up close by and was 15 on the time, recalled how their deaths despatched “shock” by way of the neighborhood.

“I by no means heard any struggle between them, not even a light argument,” he stated.

“These are God-fearing individuals, and the church is all the pieces to them.”

The siblings had been revered and appreciated locally and had been lively members of close by Rydwilm Chapel.

Each lived with their aged father in Finan Samson till his demise in 1967.

They continued to function the farm into the Seventies earlier than retiring and renting out the land.

Anne Gibby, whose father was additionally a cousin of Emlyn's siblings and witnessed the horrific scene: “From what my father stated in regards to the scene, he felt it was bodily not possible for him to have accomplished it.

“It was with him all his life and he talked about it till the day he died, there was no method Griff may do this.”

That is an opinion that many locally agree with.

They level to particulars in regards to the case which have many doubting Det Ch Supt Molloy's conclusions.

Griff was final seen in Charing Cross, an area store, on Tuesday afternoon, December 7, and it’s believed that he and his grandmother died later that night.

Two half-drunk cups of tea, and a plate of bread and butter and crisps had been present in the lounge – prompting hypothesis that another person had been dwelling that night.

The shop-bought cheese and newspaper had been nonetheless within the pocket of the jacket Griff was carrying when he died.

A considerable amount of Griff's blood was discovered on Patti's stitching machine, the duvet was changed – a portion of the left thumbprint discovered within the blood on the duvet was not recognized.

Native residents reported that their sheep, which barked when somebody visited the farm, had disappeared, and that it had drowned within the farm properly – though this was not talked about within the police report.

Maybe most significantly, the frail, arthritic Griff, who used a stick across the farm, suffered from curvature of the backbone, and had “claw-like” fingers, lingered doubts that he can be bodily able to doing what he was charged with. of

“He typically couldn’t discover the web page within the hymn-book, together with his fingers, as he sat beside Griff in church. [so] I’ll assist him,” stated Mr Absalom.

“One time he dropped his glasses and couldn't catch them to select them up.

“The best way she was killed, she was bled past recognition, there's no method he may have accomplished it, bodily or mentally.

“Wanting on the proof, it doesn't add up.”

In his report, Det Ch Supt Molloy dismissed the potential for a 3rd social gathering killing the siblings as “distant to the purpose the place it may be discounted”.

However he additionally acknowledged that there was nothing of their background to justify such an act of violence.

Many consider Griff was disturbed by an intruder hitting the bar when he got here dwelling from the shop – maybe somebody they knew demanding cash from them.

They had been recognized to be comfortably off – the farmhouse contained greater than £2,000 in money after their deaths and so they left £35,000 in financial savings and investments.

On February 17, 1977, a jury in Haverfordwest returned verdicts for wrongful demise in opposition to Buddy Thomas and a responsible verdict in opposition to Griff.

10 weeks after their deaths, the case was closed.

However over the a long time, calls to clear Griff's identify have mounted, together with a marketing campaign run by neighborhood newspaper Clebron.

Its editor, Hefyn Wynne, stated: “Many believed that another person, a 3rd social gathering, was concerned within the demise, however the public lacked the affect or energy to problem the police model of occasions.

“Then the individuals took energy.

“The Thomases had been extremely revered locally. Pat Molloy tried to recommend that they had been lonely and continually preventing, however that was not supported by the information.”

Denzil Davies, who generally labored on Ffynon Samson's farm as a youngster: “The police stated they interviewed all of them throughout their investigation, however I wasn't interviewed and neither had been my associates.

“If this judgment was handed down at this time, the neighborhood would have stood up and stated, 'No, you need to look deeper.'

“However even when nobody disagreed with them, we might by no means have challenged them.”

Griff and Grandma Thomas are laid to relaxation collectively in a grave at Rydwilliam Chapel, overlooking the inexperienced valley and river Cledaw the place they had been baptized.

For Hu Absalom, the marketing campaign to take away Griff's identify continues.

However he accepts that the probabilities of uncovering the reality about what occurred at Finan Samson could also be diminishing.

“Time shouldn’t be on our facet. It's going to be 50 years since all this occurred, and yearly the quantity of people that find out about them is lowering,” he stated.

“To stroll as much as my mother and father' graves, I’ve to go Griff and Grandma's graves.

“Every time, I’m going and discuss to them and inform them I'm nonetheless preventing for the trigger.”

Dyfed-Powys Police stated in an announcement {that a} forensic examination of the case is taking a look at proof gathered from the unique investigation within the gentle of recent forensic methods to evaluate whether or not new proof could be gathered.

A spokesman stated: “The timeframe for the completion of the evaluate is unknown at this stage, nevertheless the work could be very a lot ongoing.

“We’re in shut contact with the household and are continually updating them on our progress.”