ALMOST 50 years ago, a bloodcurdling scream pierced the night air – signalling the “Saturday Night Strangler” had potentially struck again.
Women in South Wales had been left terrified by the rampaging killer, who gained his grisly moniker by throttling his victims.
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Their worst fears were confirmed when the body of 23-year-old Maureen Mulcahy was discovered on wasteland.
The young mum was the fourth woman to have been found strangled in the Neath and Port Talbot area within three years.
With a serial killer on the loose, police were desperate to solve Maureen’s murder and end his reign of terror.
But 48 years later, the case is still cold.
The horror unfolded on February 23, 1976, when Maureen left the Green Meadow pub at around 11pm.
A friend had offered the mum a lift home but she refused and was never seen alive again.
Around an hour later at midnight, a woman heard a “petrified” scream as someone yelled out: “Oh my god”.
Maureen’s body was discovered just 600 yards from the pub on a rubbish tip the following morning.
Police confirmed she had been punched in the face then strangled to death.
There was no sign of sexual assault and Maureen had not been robbed.
Teen strangled with her own skirt
The grim circumstances were enough to terrify anyone but Maureen’s death sent shockwaves through a community already plagued by the knowledge a serial killer was walking among them.
With three chillingly similar murders under his belt, it was feared the mysterious Saturday Night Strangler had claimed a fourth victim.
His killing spree began in July 1973 when 16-year-old Sandra Newton vanished after a night out in Briton Ferry.
Her body was discovered three days later in a ditch near a coal mine in nearby Tonmawr.
The teen had been raped before being strangled with her own skirt.
Then, two months later, pals Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, both 16, were found dead in a wooded area near the village of Llandarcy.
The pair were fully clothed with a 5ft rope wrapped around their necks – leading police to believe the killer asked them to get dressed again after he raped them.
The triple murder sparked the biggest manhunt in Welsh history – with police concluding the suspect had to be a local.
This eventually led them to Joseph Kappen, who owned an Austin 1100 – the same car Geraldine and Pauline were seen getting a lift in on the night they were slaughtered.
Officers went to his home and discovered his vehicle on blocks, with Kappen claiming it was not roadworthy at the time.
His wife also gave a false alibi – meaning without enough evidence, South Wales Police were forced the drop the investigation.
The suspect was never far from the force’s mind though and in 1998, advances in DNA meant officers could revisit the triple slaying in an attempt to formally link Kappen to the evil crimes.
Clues from beyond the grave
But there was a snag – Kappen had died eight years earlier and his DNA was not on the police database.
Undeterred, police made the extraordinary decision to exhume his body in the first move of its kind in the UK.
Chillingly, as the first shovel hit the ground, witnesses reported a loud thunderclap overhead – suggesting the police had “unearthed evil”.
The gamble paid off and Kappen’s remains were found to be a perfect match to DNA found on clothing belonging to Sandra, Geraldine and Pauline.
Officers had finally found the Saturday Night Strangler – almost 30 years after he first struck fear into young women in the town.
But for Maureen’s agonised family there was no such closure.
Police believed Kappen was behind her killing but with no DNA evidence linking him to the gruesome crime, it was impossible to say for certain.
Now, officers have once again appealed for information in the hope Maureen – unlike her suspected killer – can finally rest in peace.
A South Wales Police spokesman told The Sun Online: “All historic murder cases, often referred to in the media as cold cases, are allocated to the specialist crime review unit and remain under active consideration and will be subject of re-investigation as and when new information is received or when there are advances in forensic science.
“Each case is reviewed periodically. If information comes in from the public or other forces we act on it.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
“South Wales Police has had considerable success with cold case reviews being one of the first forces in the country to set up a review team in 1999 to conduct cold case reviews.”
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