POLICE believe they can solve a 47-year-old murder case.
But it may well be the killer is now dead.
Halifax shopkeeper Emily Pye was battered to death in her corner shop in Gibbet Street in June 1957.
The killer's motive was probably robbery as a few pounds were missing from the till.
More than 30 years later in May 1988 a mystery man claimed his father had made a deathbed confession to the crime.
He made the claim in a phone call to a newspaper.
Detectives are today appealing for the caller to get in touch again.
Det Supt John Parkinson said: "He told the newspaper his father had admitted to Emily's murder two or three days before he died.
"The caller refused to give his details because his mother was still alive at the time and unaware of her husband's secret.
"We would very much like to be able to close this case and are appealing to this man to get in touch with us.
"It is more than 16 years since he made the phone call to the newspaper.
"We have made extensive inquiries to trace the caller, but without success.
"With the passage of time he may feel more able to speak to us now than he did back in 1988."
Miss Pye, 80, lived alone at the general grocery shop which she had run since July 1928.
It had been open as normal on Saturday, June 8, 1957, but when relatives called to see her later the same afternoon they discovered that she had been battered to death.
Her body was found in the living quarters.
She had been beaten with a blunt instrument and suffered a fractured skull.
Officers can be contacted at Halifax Police Station on 01422 337021.
