Detectives hold a village meeting in effort to unmask colonel's killer

On a normal day, the only visitors who pack themselves into the small whitewashed building that serves as Furneux Pelham's village hall are the members of the local baby and toddler group.

But these are not normal times in this verdant corner of the Home Counties, where large timber-framed houses look on to the 13th-century parish church and where affluent professionals come in search of a rural idyll within easy reach of London.

Last night the snug village hall was packed with more than 250 people who braved driving rain to attend a meeting called by Hertfordshire Police with the purpose of solving the murder of Robert Workman, the 83-year-old former lieutenant colonel shot dead on the doorstep of his weatherboarded cottage nine days ago.

For a community where crime had hitherto consisted largely of raids on garden sheds, it has been a rude awakening. Fiona Harris, 34, who has lived in the village for 25 years, emerged from the hour-long meeting uncertain whether the random nature of the killing had convinced her that it could not happen again.

She said: "I am reassured that this is a rare event but this is such a random thing to have happened. No one seems to know why this man was killed and you can't help but be concerned for your loved ones if, like me, you have an elderly mother who lives alone."

The sense of fear in Furneux Pelham was underlined by the decision of police to offer panic alarms to residents. By the end of the evening up to 40 had been taken, mostly by women and the elderly.

Chief Superintendent Andy Wright, who chaired the meeting, said that police thought that the killer might have attended. He said: "The purpose of this evening was to offer reassurance to the community. But obviously we had officers from the inquiry there observing."

The killing of Riley, as he was known, has given rise to a profound sense of ill ease after detectives voiced their belief that the killer was a local. They have focused their investigation on the identity of the 999 caller who, in sending an ambulance to Col Workman's home nine hours after his brutal death at about 8pm on Wednesday 7 January, revealed an apparently intimate knowledge of Furneux Pelham.

The Rev Robert Nokes, rector of St Mary's Church, which overlooks the colonel's cottage, Cock House, said his parishioners were anxious that the uncertainty surrounding the killing should be dispelled. "The fact that it is so mysterious is creating a sense of nervousness," he said.

With its cast of countryside stalwarts ­ ranging from an army officer and vicar to the 24-year-old rat-catcher arrested and released within hours of the discovery of the body ­ the temptation has been to see Col Workman's killing as coming straight from the pages of an Agatha Christie novel.

But despite the appearance of a cosy village where secrets are difficult to keep, it seems Furneux Pelham, about 10 miles north-west of Bishop's Stortford, is not the sort of close-knit community where Miss Marple would have felt at home.

The police officer heading the murder hunt, Detective Superintendent Richard Mann, said that none of the 70 calls received following the release of a tape of the 999 call had led to a firm lead on the identity of the caller in a community of fewer than 70 homes. The recording featured a man in his 50s or 60s telling the emergency operator that an ambulance was needed for Hollyhock Cottage on the Causeway in Furneux Pelham.

Det Supt Mann said: "It was a very distinctive voice and the caller used certain terms and pronunciations which we think would stand out. So it is slightly disappointing that we have not had anyone come forward who can identify this caller."

Ch Supt Wright said that it was clear that the caller had knowledge about Col Workman's death that possibly only his killer could have known.

During the meeting, the tape of the call was played twice but police said no locals had come forward to identify the caller. One police source added: "It is not a village where everybody knows everybody else. Most calls have been people giving their opinion on the accent or saying that the pictures of Col Workman look like Tony Martin [the Norfolk farmer jailed for shooting dead a burglar]."

Detectives admit they remain unclear about a motive for the killing of Col Workman, who had spent eight years caring for his paralysed wife until her death last spring.

Yesterday, a temporary steel plate stood in place of the lime green wooden side door which the officer had opened to his killer. He died almost instantly from a shotgun blast to the heart. Neighbours thought the noise was a car backfiring or someone shooting rabbits.

The door, peppered with pellets, has been taken away by forensic experts along with the telephone box in the nearby village of Braughing where the 20-second 999 call was made at 4.57am the next morning.

Inside the house, Col Workman's valuable collection of silverware, dating back to the antiques business he ran after leaving the Army, were untouched.

Det Supt Mann admitted that the murder hunt may have been hindered by the fact that police did not realise that Col Workman had been shot until three hours after his body was found, as his clothing apparently concealed the fatal injury. And a number of people, including neighbours, walked around the crime scene.

"Clearly, we would rather that delay had not occurred," he said. "We simply don't know yet whether it has prevented us gaining any further information."

In the absence of a clear lead, two Hertfordshire detectives will arrive today in Australia to talk to his elder brother, Cecil, 88, and nephew and niece.

Meanwhile, those who knew Col Workman, who was frail and would spend much of his time reading, reflected on his isolation born out of his love for his wife. Mr Nokes said: "He selflessly devoted himself to his wife. After her death we didn't see him often."

In a village of strangers, it was an isolation that could be allowing his killer to hide.