THE family of an elderly widow, whose death will be looked at again by detectives involved in the Cooper case, fear they may never get the answers they are looking for.

Flo Evans, of Rosemarket, was found drowned in her bath in February 1989, aged 73. An inquest recorded a verdict of accidental death, but relatives were not convinced, and called for the police to investigate further.

The family’s suspicions were aroused by a number of peculiar things about the way Mrs Evans’ house was found.

Mrs Evans was found fully clothed and wearing slippers, the kitchen fire which provided hot water had not been lit and the bath was half filled with cold water.

The TV was switched off by the button, but Mrs Evans always turned it off at the plug. The curtains were drawn and a soft brown leather purse was missing.

The family believe there would have been money in the house, but there was no sign of forced entry, and the doors were deadlocked.

A post-mortem found Mrs Evans had a cut on her forehead, which could have caused her to lose consciousness, but there were no other marks of violence.

Mrs Evans continued to run her smallholding after her husband’s death, and was described as an active woman.

She was a private, independent person, and her great-niece used to stay with her during the week.

Cooper and his wife lived nearby and he would visit and do odd jobs for her.

The house has since been demolished and relatives fear any evidence of foul play would have disappeared with it.

Mrs Evans’ niece Jean Murphy told the Western Telegraph this week that police had not yet contacted her.

She said: “We had suspicions about her death at the time, and still want answers so we can draw a line under it all. It was a shock when she died. I saw her earlier that day. Some things just weren’t right. We couldn’t find her purse and the bath was cold, and the cats were in.

“There are lots of unanswered questions.”

Mrs Murphy’s daughter Julie added: “It would be nice for Aunty Flo to finally get some closure and to find out what happened, but we are not that hopeful of getting answers.

“If someone came along and took her life – no-one deserves that, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to us. There were some funny things about the house at the time.

We’re not getting our hopes up, we may never know what happened to her.”