Eighty-four-year-old Elizabeth Harriett Dymott, a retired teacher, had lived alone in a rather dilapidated bungalow at 37 Onibury Road, Southampton, ever since the death of her sister on Christmas Day 1966. She did have another sister, still alive, but that lady was blind and lived in a residential care home. Something of a recluse, Elizabeth’s only regular caller was a nephew, Thomas William Dymott. Thomas would call on his aunt on a fairly regular basis to make sure she was well. Her only other visitor was a jobbing gardener, Leonard King, who called occasionally to trim trees or do other odd-jobs about the gardens.