CRIMINAL COLD CASES-FUGITIVES FINALLY BROUGHT TO JUSTICE-34-ROSE TWELLS

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ROSE TWELLS: A GUILTY CONSCIENCE BREAKS
IN A SURPRISE TWIST, ONE OF THE OLDEST, COLDEST CASES IN UNITED STATES LEGAL HISTORY WAS SOLVED RECENTLY WHEN A MURDERER WAS FINALLY CONVICTED OF HIS CRIME, A FULL TWENTY-SIX YEARS AFTER THE EVENT.

At the time, the brutal murder he committed had rocked the close-knit community in which it took place; but as the years passed and the case was filed away as unsolved, it seemed eventually to be forgotten by all but the victim's family and close friends. However, there was one person, the murderer's former girlfriend, who did not forget, and finally had the courage to tell what she had seen: and it was her evidence that began to warm the case up once more, so that finally the murderer was retried, and this time, convicted.

Beaten to death
Eighty-six-year-old Rose Twells lived in a large, imposing house in Woodbury, New Jersey. She was the widow of the former mayor of the town, and well known to local people. One night, on 20 December 1979, her peaceful, pleasant way of life came to an end. Intruders came into her house, dragged her to the staircase, tied her to it, and beat her to death with an iron pot.

The murder looked as though it could have been the results of a botched robbery, in which the thieves panicked and killed the owner of the house. Suspicion soon fell on the town troublemaker, Jeffrey Bayer, a surly, unmanageable teenager of sixteen. Jeffrey was the son of the town's mayor, Frederick Bayer, and had been a source of great embarrassment to his father with his wild, unruly behaviour. However, the violence of this crime was of a very different order to any of Jeffrey's previous escapades, and it seemed unlikely to the local police that he could have committed such a heinous crime.

Rose Twells: a wealthy woman who attracted the attention of a teen gone bad

However, eight days after the murder, young Bayer was brought in for questioning and asked to take a lie detector test. According to the police, he passed the test. No evidence linking him to the crime was found at Rose Twells' mansion, and the police were unable to find any clues that might suggest that Bayer was responsible for the murder. Without any other leads, the case began to go cold, and once the fuss about the murder had died down, it was filed away as unsolved.

Stealing a diamond ring
For many years, the Twells case was forgotten until a woman named Luanne Waller approached the police in 1993. Waller told them that she had been Bayer's girlfriend at the time of the murder, and that she had actually been involved in it.

According to her story, she had acted as a look-out, waiting outside the mansion while Bayer went inside to commit the murder. Waller asked the police to grant her immunity from prosecution before testifying against Bayer, which was eventually agreed, although it took many years to grant and further slowed down the proceedings.

From left to right, Mark English, Clifford Jeffrey and Jeffrey Bayer. English was acquitted of the charge of felony murder, but Jeffrey Bayer and Clifford Jeffrey were found guilty and are serving 30- and 12-year sentences in jail respectively

Waller went on to tell how Bayer planned the robbery of Twells' mansion with two friends of his, Clifford Jeffrey and Mark English. Bayer had noticed that Twells wore a ten-carat diamond ring, and was convinced that there would be other expensive items in the house for them to steal. Bayer also knew that the widow had entrusted his father Frederick with a key to the house. Bayer planned to steal the key and let himself and his friends into the house quietly one night.

Fear of reprisal
According to Waller, on the night of the robbery she herself remained outside the house and kept watch, while the three young men let themselves in. She did not see what happened next, but when they came out they told her in graphic detail. Apparently, Mark English had held Rose Twells down while Clifford Jeffrey had stolen her jewels and other valuables. Then Bayer had taken an iron pot and beaten the old lady to death with it. Not surprisingly, Waller believed Bayer when he said that if she went to the police, he would kill her. For that reason, she had remained silent for many years, but now, her conscience had led her to come forward with the story.

Bayer, now aged forty-one, was arrested and charged with the murder. He claimed to have had nothing to do with it. But by now, he had acquired a criminal record. Over the years, he had been in trouble with the law on numerous occasions, for robbery among other crimes. However, even though Bayer's record implied he was the kind of person who could well commit such a crime, there was still no actual physical evidence linking him to it, a fact which made it difficult to pin the murder on him.

Lie detectors do not detect lies – they detect stress in the body by measuring the respiratory rate (top two lines), the sweatiness of the fingertips (middle line) and the blood pressure (bottom line). The question being asked at the time is stated too

Bragged about murder Then another witness stepped forward. This was Shirley Logan, who at the time had been Clifford Jeffrey's girlfriend. Logan told how she had gone to a party a week after the murder took place and heard Bayer boasting to his friends about it. The police then tracked down other witnesses, including Bayer's former classmates, who told the same story: that he had boasted to them about murdering Rose Twells. And, apparently, as he continued his life of crime, Bayer had gone on bragging, this time to prison inmates who he had shared a cell with when he was imprisoned for his various felonies.

After much deliberation, the jury convicted Jeffrey Bayer of murder, based on the evidence of the witnesses. On 2005 he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. Clifford Jeffrey and Mark English were also charged with murder, and arrangements were made for them to be tried separately.

Once again, a murderer was brought to justice, long after the deed was committed. Bayer must have assumed, after so many years, that he had got away with his crime; yet, in a twist of fate that he did not foresee, the people he had boasted to about the murder of Rose Twells finally stepped forward and brought him his rightful punishment.