Wealthy businessman Ken Brown was shot dead at point-blank range in his chicken coup in 1994.
Thirty-one years later, the motivation for his killing and the identity of his killer remain a complete mystery.
Now the Channel 4 series In The Footsteps of Killers, starring Silent Witness actress Emilia Fox and criminologist Professor David Wilson, will take a look at the case, sifting through the evidence in the hope of finding the key to solving it.
Here’s what we know about the murder which shocked a rural Leicestershire community.
Ken Brown was a wealthy businessman who ran a chain of pubs, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs across four counties from Yorkshire to London.
The 56-year-old, originally from Falkirk in Scotland, lived at a large sprawling property, Hunter’s Lodge in Barrow upon Soar, near Loughborough, with nine acres of grounds.
He shared his home with his then 31-year-old business partner Graham Bailey, who was away on a two-week business trip at the time of the killing.
Although rarely seen by neighbours, Mr Brown was known to leave his home every day, either by car or helicopter, to visit his businesses.
And he kept a menagerie of animals, including chickens and geese, which he would go out to feed every evening and later lock up for the night.
Before his death, he had spent a large sum of money on security around his home, including remote-controlled iron gates at the entrance, high fencing and motion-activated security lighting.
On the night of Thursday, 25 August, 1994, Mr Brown had spoken on the phone to his business partner’s mother at 8pm.
But when he failed to make an arranged call to a business associate at 11pm, they called his home and got no reply.
Mr Brown’s body was found by his cleaner in the chicken coup of his estate the next morning at 10am.
A post-mortem revealed he had died from a single bullet wound to the chest, which had been fired around 12 hours before he was discovered.
Businessman Ken Brown was shot dead in August 1994 (Photo: BBC)Why has Ken Brown’s murder remained unsolved?
Despite a nationwide manhunt, an appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch and even the offer of a £50,000 reward from Mr Bailey for information, the killer has not been identified or caught.
Two men were arrested in connection with the case, but they were never charged.
Among the theories is that Mr Brown was the victim of a professional contract killing. It was thought that a successful businessman like Mr Brown was likely to have made some enemies over the course of his career. Police questioned a number of his business associates across the country and internally.
There have even been suggestions that the murder may have been linked to that of former television presenter Jill Dando, shot on her doorstep in Fulham in 1999, because of the similarities between the two killings.
Another theory is that Mr Brown knew his killer and the murder was personally motivated, but this also remains unsubstantiated.
What the Leicestershire Police team investigating the death did discover was that Mr Brown had been shot at point-blank range by someone using a shotgun and a unique modified Eley LG cartridge.
This type of cartridge was relatively rare, only about 1,000 were made in the UK each year, and were usually used for hunting large animals such as deer and wild boar.
There were no signs of a break-in or burglary at the property.
But in the days before the killing, there was some suspicious activity around the estate, which has remained unexplained.
A white Mercedes had been spotted a number of times driving fast on the roads around Mr Brown’s property.
Two men wearing combat gear had also been found to have set up a camp at a lake nearby, studying a map and claiming to be waiting for a friend to go fishing.
On the night of the murder, a 4X4 vehicle was seen parked outside Mr Brown’s estate at around 10pm.
And two men were seen wearing balaclavas or hats in fields near Mr Brown’s home on the night of the murder.
A fresh appeal for information was made 10 years after the crime in 2004, at the time Detective Chief Inspector Jim Donaghy said he believed somebody in Barrow could hold clues to the case.
He said: “People do talk, especially if they feel the attention is going off and the police are losing interest.
“That will never happen in this case. We constantly review these sorts of inquiries, murders and homicides.
“So if anyone has any more information, I would ask them to come forward, pass that to me and let us be the judge of that and assess.”
Twenty-one years on from that, officers are still hoping that someone will finally talk and provide the key to solving the case.
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