£10,000 Reward Offered in Suffolk Muder

The family of Richard Clarke and Crimestoppers are offering a £10,000 reward to help find his murderer.

He was the victim of an assault in the driveway of his house in Park Dale, Cranley Green Road, Eye during the evening of Friday 21st August 2009 into the early hours of Saturday 22nd August 2009, which left him with a fatal head injury.

Despite a long and high profile investigation, the murderer has never been found.

Richard went to The Horseshoes Public House in Billingford on the Friday afternoon and left in a taxi. He stopped to pick up a Chinese meal in Eye at about 7 pm and he arrived home at about 7.15 pm. A witness saw a male, believed to be Mr Clarke, apparently sat in his driveway holding his head just after 8 pm. It is possible he had sustained his head injury by this time. The next time he was seen was when he was discovered seriously injured in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Crimestoppers is urging any member of the public with information to come forward by calling 0800 555 111 – the 24 hour anonymous phone line run by the independent charity. It was a warm August evening and people may remember it as the weekend of the final Ashes test.

Did someone display unusual behaviour that night? Has someone confessed to being involved? What happened to Richard Clarke after he arrived home on that Friday night? Who was involved in any assault on him? It is thought that the answers may lie within the local community. Perhaps someone has witnessed or knows something which they feel is not important. Crimestoppers wants to receive any information – no matter how insignificant it may seem.

Ann Scott from Crimestoppers says, “This murder has robbed a family of their father, partner and grandfather. He was assaulted and left to die alone overnight on the driveway of his own home. Please come forward to the independent charity Crimestoppers so this awful crime can be solved. We do not ask for your name and no call is traced or recorded. You won’t have to go to court – we only want to know what you know, not who you are. In the 22 years that Crimestoppers has been running we have never broken our anonymity promise.”

The family of Mr Clarke, who are offering £5,000 of their own money for information, says, “Our dad is dead and our lives will never be the same. After bereavement, we must slowly start to put our new lives together and move forward with some hope in our heart. So we are asking you to come forward whether you know the whole story or any small part, even if it appears minor or irrelevant.”

Rewards can only be claimed by calling Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.