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Kill Total: |
1 |
Kill place: |
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Kill date: |
July 1976 |
Victim(s): |
Wife - Carol Park |
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Date of Birth: |
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Marital Status: |
Married |
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AKA: |
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Occupation: |
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Gordon Park killed his
wife, then dumped her body in a lake in 1976.
He battered his wife Carol to death with an ice axe and
dumped her weighted body in Coniston Water in July 1976.
Mrs Park had embarked on affairs and left home twice to
live with lovers.
Mr Park had told the jury at his trial in 2005 that "he
loved his wife and would never have harmed her".
He claimed he had taken their children on a trip to
Blackpool on the day his wife vanished. Mrs Park went
missing on 17th July 1976, from her home in Leece on the
outskirts of Barrow in Cumbria.
A post-mortem examination in 1997 showed that Mrs Park's
skull had been attacked and "her face had been shattered
by a number of blows".
After delivering the fatal blows, Park had carefully
wrapped up his wife's body for disposal.
It was trussed up in the foetal position indicating it had
been done within four hours of death and before rigor
mortis had settled in.
There had been a "meticulous" use of knots, which
implicated Park, who was a climber and sailor with an
"unusual interest" in knots.
Mrs Park was discovered wearing a nightdress, 75ft down at
the bottom of the lake in 1997 by amateur divers, and
brought to the surface by police divers on 13th August
1997. Gordon Park was initially arrested in 1997 but was
released due to lack of evidence, and then re-arrested in
2004.
29th January 2005 a jury at Manchester Crown court
found him guilty, after dismissing his not guilty plea.
Gordon Park was sentenced to life in prison.
