Reclusive life of man wrongly jailed for murder of future in-laws

EXCLUSIVE Reclusive life of man wrongly jailed over 1993 shotgun murder of future in-laws at their South Wales farmhouse is revealed by his neighbours – as police reopen case

A man who married the daughter of a couple he was accused of murdering at their farmhouse is living as a recluse 30 years later as police announce they have reopened the case, MailOnline can exclusively reveal today.

Jonathan Jones was cleared of blasting his future in-laws Harry and Megan Tooze to death with a shotgun, but the double murder at a farm in South Wales in July 1993 remains unsolved.

Jones, who says he has suffered three decades of ‘inner turmoil’, hopes a forensic review of the murders will lead police to the real killer of his wife’s parents.

Locals say Jones, 63, and Cheryl, his wife of 25 years, are rarely seen together and say he lives alone at the marital home, a modest semi in Caerphilly.

A neighbour said: ‘You never see him, not even to put his rubbish out. I haven’t seen Cheryl there for quite a while.’

But the couple were filmed together by ITV this week after South Wales Police announced top forensic scientist Dr Angela Gallop has been brought in.

Jones, who wrongly served a year of a life sentence for the murders, claims to have worked with police to find the true killer. The former self-employed recruitment consultant says he is ‘hugely excited’ that the forensic team will crack the case.

Jonathan Jones (right), who was wrongly accused of the murder of his future in-laws. His wife of 25 years Cheryl is picture on the left  

Pictured here is Harry Tooze, who was shot dead at his South Wales farmhouse in 1993 

Megan Tooze was found dead alongside her husband

He told ITV Wales: ‘There hasn’t been a day in the last 30 years where we haven’t thought about, and most days talked about, some aspect of this case. Inside I think we are both hugely excited but we are trying to contain that and manage as best we can.

‘I have high hopes that the new technology will yield some results that will help us get to the bottom of this.

Jones is pinning his hopes that the fresh inquiry will exonerate him completely and at the same time identify the real killer.

He said: ‘I’m very aware that there have been huge advances in DNA technology over the last 20 or so years. Without wanting to raise expectations too high, I have high hopes that the new technology will yield some results. [If fresh evidence was found], it would lift a weight that both Cheryl and I have been carrying for 30 years. We will be delighted when and if that happens.’

Fruit farmers Harry and Megan, 64 and 67, were shot at point-blank range, in the grounds of their isolated home in Llanharry, near Bridgend. Their murders have been linked to serial killer John Cooper who is serving a whole life sentence for the shotgun murders of two couples in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s.

Forensic experts explore the crime scene in the rural south Wales farmhouse where Harry and Megan Tooze were killed in 1993

Police officers pictured in 1993 with sniffer dogs along the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path

The method and execution-style killings were trademarks of Cooper, known as the Bullseye killer who appeared on the darts quiz show with the same name.

Jones refused to comment on Cooper as a potential suspect when a TV dramatisation of the killings titled the Pembrokeshire Murders was screened in 2021.

He said at the time: ‘People have approached us with information since it happened and we have passed their information to South Wales Police. We have been in contact on a fairly regular basis for what is now decades.’

Only-child Cheryl stood by Jones when he was charged with the murder of her parents Harry and Megan following a botched murder investigation.

On the night the bodies were found, uniformed police officers contaminated the murder scene by trampling over the couple’s farmhouse and outbuildings. But the most serious blunder was they allowed Jones into the farmhouse giving an explanation why his fingerprint was found on a teacup in the kitchen.

Jones was found guilty of their murder but cleared at the Court of Appeal where Cheryl was waiting with open arms to greet him. She was three months pregnant when they married in 1998 and set up home in Caerphilly, 13 miles from Harry and Megan’s farmhouse.

In the ITV Wales interview, Cheryl told how she is still haunted at losing both her parents at the hands of a mystery gunman.

Now 63, she hopes the forensic review may finally get justice for her parents 30 years after their bodies were found in a cowshed, covered in carpet and under bales of hay.

She said: ‘It never goes away, you wake up in the morning and it hits you, what happened. This is such a welcome development.

‘It’s giving me renewed hope, I’ve been wanting this to happen for such a long time. I don’t believe anyone could commit a murder of that nature and not leave traces.

‘It being difficult is the understatement of the century. We’ve lived in limbo for such a long time.

‘I’ve always tried to remain focused. It’s been like being on an emotional rollercoaster.

‘You think oh yes it’s going to be solved and then you go down again and up again and it’s really wearing, so now I really really welcome this development.’

Jones was inside the couple’s £260,000 home but didn’t come to the door or answer his phone when MailOnline called.

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