Nicknamed the “mansion murder,” the unsolved case of a wealthy architect found dead in his expansive 50-room estate continues to baffle investigators. The incident, which took place in September 1987 at Heath House in Hopton Heath, Shropshire, involved Simon Dale, a 68-year-old recluse with impaired vision.
Authorities initiated a murder inquiry into Dale’s death, focusing on his former wife, Baroness Susan de Stempel, a member of the affluent Wilberforce family. The couple had acquired the Jacobean mansion together in 1972, but their marriage dissolved in 1973, leading to a contentious dispute over the property.
Baroness Susan de Stempel faced accusations of murdering Dale, allegedly driven by a longstanding feud over the mansion. Despite the intense trial in 1989, where the baroness portrayed Dale negatively, she was acquitted due to a lack of concrete evidence.
In a separate revelation during the investigation, it came to light that the baroness had orchestrated a scheme to exploit her elderly aunt, Lady Margaret Illingworth, who suffered from dementia. The elderly lady’s assets, including money, gold bars, and valuable artworks, vanished mysteriously, leading to her demise in a nursing home in 1986.
The baroness was later convicted in 1990 for embezzling over £500,000 from Lady Illingworth and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Despite the conviction, the whereabouts of the missing gold bars remained unknown. The unresolved murder of Simon Dale and the disappearance of Lady Illingworth’s fortune continue to haunt investigators to this day.