DNA evidence ends 30-year hunt for killer and rapist

A nightclub bouncer whose body was exhumed last month was blamed by police yesterday for the murder and rape of three teenage girls almost 30 years ago.

The disclosure that Joe Kappen, who died from cancer at the age of 49 in 1990, almost certainly killed the 16-year-old girls in South Wales is the result of new DNA evidence. The forensic examination of Kappen's body found a match with DNA samples taken from the bodies of Sandra Newton in July 1973, and Pauline Floyd and Geraldine Hughes in September 1973.

Police are now examining other unsolved murders and sexual assaults throughout the country to discover if Kappen, who worked as a driver in the 1970s, committed further crimes. Police are concentrating their inquiry in the Scunthorpe and Humberside area, where Kappen lived in the mid-70s, and yesterday issued a photograph of the former bouncer to help jog people's memories.

Sandra Newton was abducted after trying to hitchhike to her home in Neath from a nightclub in the town on 15 July 1973. She was raped, strangled and her body was dumped in a culvert beneath a mountain roadway at Tonmawr, Neath.

Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd were sexually assaulted and strangled to death in woods near their homes in Llandarcy, Neath, in the early hours of 16 September 1973. They were last seen hitchhiking home from a nightclub in Swansea.

Kappen was questioned in the early stages of police inquiries into the murders, along with hundreds of other men. He was one of more than 10,000 owners of a white Austin 1100 car, which was one of the main lines of the investigation. But he said he was at home when the murders happened.

The murder inquiries were reopened last December when new DNA evidence showed the three cases were linked. Detectives trawled the national database and discovered a near match. It belonged to a relative of Kappen's who had been tested as part of a different inquiry. That led back to Kappen, who remained on police files as a possible suspect.

The body of Kappen was exhumed during a two-day operation at Goytre cemetery, in his home town of Port Talbot, last month.

As a result of the new DNA evidence, South Wales Police said yesterday that they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the murders of the teenagers.

Detective Chief Superintendent Wynne Phillips said the DNA results were conclusive. "On the basis of the evidence obtained, we can say that if the suspect was alive today, he would have been arrested, interviewed and is likely to have been charged with these offences," he said.

At the time of the murders, Kappen was aged 32 and was living with his wife and three children in Port Talbot.

Geraldine Hughes's father, Denver, 72, said yesterday: "We have relived what Geraldine must have gone through every night for nearly 30 years. Now we know for certain who killed our daughter and we can find some peace."

Mr Hughes, speaking at his home in Llandarcy, added: "When we heard about the police breakthrough we couldn't believe it at first. We were so shocked my wife and myself broke down and cried all night.

"We took flowers to Geraldine's grave and had a few quiet words with her and we felt we had put her to rest properly," he said.