Whitehall1212 – Peter Williams Case. 520203

Badges. night sticks, police officers.
Police Officer Carrying Nightstick. "Used with permission from Microsoft."

In what appears to be a flawless murder, with no identifying marks left on a body, and no fingerprints or other evidence left to point to the killer, Invistigators are baffled. Only the most vague of descriptions of the dead woman can be given on the circulars posted all over the city. With clues and leads dried up, the anonymous woman is buried, and the unsolved case closed.

On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, the chief investigator on the case encounters a little girl on the street. The tyke is crying about her mom who never came home for Christmas. In comforting her, he notices that the girl is a smaller image of the mysterious dead woman. In taking her home, the cops now have some names and places to go on, but will it only lead to more dead ends? Peter Williams and his daughter Iris are staying with his mother in law, and there’s a regular stream of letters from the missing wife.

Call it a hunch, but the cops feel there’s there’s something not quite right about the details in the story. Investigation turns up that there’s no hair dressers in the town where the letters are postmarked from who have hired anyone with the name of Jessie Williams. Checks on arrest records turn up key indications that Peter could be forging Jessie’s unique style of handwriting. Is that enough for a judge to decide a case on? Dramatic voiceover tells the epilog to the story, and the fate f the killer who was put on trial.