On 29 April 1955. Mrs Elizabeth Currell took her dog out for a walk on the golf course and never returned. The next morning her body was found near the 17th tee, she had been battered to death with an iron tee-marker that lay nearby with a bloody palm print on it.

Over 9000 palm prints were taken in the area and one was found to match 17 year old Michael Queripel. He confessed to the motiveless murder and was sentenced to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure, the term given to life imprisonment when the prisoner is under 18 and too young to be executed.

Michael Queripel

At dawn on 29th April 1955 the battered body of Mrs Elizabeth Currell was found in the rough near the 17th tee on Potters Bar Golf Course. It was Mrs Currell's habit to walk her dog on the course each evening and her husband had reported her missing when the dog returned alone the previous evening.

A stocking had been tied around the dead woman's throat and she had been killed by blows from a heavy iron tee-marker that lay nearby. On the marker was a bloody palm print.

When the palm print was not found in police records, police decided to fingerprint local employees. Eventually over 9,000 sets of prints were taken and, on 19 August, a print was found that matched. It belonged to 17-year-old Michael Queripel, a clerk with Potters Bar Urban District Council.

Initially he told police that he had only discovered the body but then admitted the killing. He told police that he was out walking trying to clear a migraine, had seen the woman and hit out at her.

His trial for murder was at the Old Bailey on 12 October, where he pleaded guilty. He was ordered to be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure.

MurderUK.com