Three girls, each 16 years old, died near Port Talbot and Neath in South Wales in 1973. One died in July and two in September. For almost three decades no one was identified. In 2002 DNA testing led police to identify Joseph Kappen, a Port Talbot man who had died in 1990, as the person responsible for all three deaths. He was not charged or tried, and no court or coroner finding against him is on record.
Kappen grew up in Port Talbot. National World reported that he was arrested dozens of times for theft, burglary and assault. The New Statesman described him as a truck driver and sometime nightclub doorman. He had a wife and children; his marriage ended in divorce in 1980, according to National World.
National World and Hello! both report that he was questioned in 1973 as one of the many men who fitted a description police were working from, and that nothing came of it at the time. He died of lung cancer in 1990.
The three victims were Sandra Newton, Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd. All three were 16. Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd were friends, and Hello! describes them as best friends.
The two incidents were separate. Sandra Newton died in July 1973. Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd died about two months later, in September 1973. The New Statesman places the deaths in Llandarcy and Tonmawr, villages near Port Talbot, and Hello! places the September deaths at Llandarcy. The Arts Desk, reviewing the BBC drama, refers to the earlier killing as a murder in Neath. Which village belongs to which victim is not settled.
The July death and the September deaths were not treated as linked when they happened. Woman & Home and National World both report that police handled the first death as its own inquiry. After the September deaths a much larger operation began, which National World calls the biggest manhunt in Welsh history. Its scale was vast: a team of about 150 officers interviewed about 35,000 men who fitted the description police held in some way. National World adds that every member of staff at the local steelworks, which employed about 13,000 people, was interviewed.
ITV News Wales quoted a former South Wales Police detective, Paul Bethell, in 2016 saying that a huge manhunt was launched in 1973 and that the killer evaded police. The inquiry ended without an arrest. The deaths stayed unsolved for the next three decades.
Police reopened the case in the early 2000s. Hello! reports that testing showed one man was responsible for all three deaths, and that officers worked through a shortlist of about 500 men. Woman & Home reports that this work led police to Kappen. Channel 4 News reported in 2013 that a DNA method first applied in 2002 was used in a triple murder investigation in south Wales.
Hello! and Woman & Home report that he had died by then, and that police sought permission for an exhumation.
The Home Secretary at the time, David Blunkett, gave permission for the exhumation. Woman & Home dates the exhumation to May 2002 and adds that his DNA was then examined in Swansea. ITV News Wales described the case as the first UK murder case in which a dead suspect was exhumed to prove guilt.
The tests showed, according to National World, that Kappen was responsible for the three deaths, 29 years after the killings and more than a decade after his own death. The date of the police announcement and the force's exact wording are not on record.
Kappen was dead before any proceedings could begin. He was not charged, not tried and not convicted, and the three deaths are attributed to him by police on DNA evidence. No coroner's or court finding is on record, and no review of the case after 2002 is on record beyond the broadcasting of 2023.
The BBC dramatized the case in a four-part series that began on BBC One in May 2023. The New Statesman reviewed it on May 15, 2023, and Woman & Home and Hello! published background pieces the same week. Nation.Cymru reported in April 2023 that the drama was set in 1973 and in the early 2000s and was based on a case solved almost 30 years after the killings with the help of pioneering DNA evidence. ITV News Wales had reported in 2016 that the investigation became one of the most successful cold case reviews South Wales Police had run.
The Arts Desk and the New Statesman, reviewing the 2023 drama, say police failed to connect the July death to the September deaths, and the New Statesman suggests that misogyny probably played a part. That is a reviewer's reading of the drama, not a finding by any court or inquiry.
July 1973: Sandra Newton, 16, dies near Neath.
September 1973: Geraldine Hughes and Pauline Floyd, both 16, die at Llandarcy. A large manhunt begins.
1980: Kappen's marriage ends in divorce.
1990: Kappen dies of lung cancer.
Early 2000s: South Wales Police reopen the case.
May 2002: Kappen's exhumation, with the Home Secretary's permission.
2002: DNA testing leads police to identify Kappen as responsible for the three deaths.
March 2013: Channel 4 News reports the DNA method first used in a triple murder case in south Wales in 2002.
August 2016: ITV News Wales interviews the former detective Paul Bethell.
May 2023: The BBC broadcasts a drama based on the case.