I decoded the killer’s taunts and won £25k
‘I can hardly believe it’
At 76, David Ashworth had never won a competition in his life.
But that all changed on Saturday, when he scooped £25,000 by becoming the latest winner of the Daily Mail’s murder mystery competition.
Now the retired design engineer and his wife Mary, 77, are dreaming of a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia and helping their grandchildren with university costs.
Mr Ashworth had already played two previous rounds of the murder mystery challenge. But it was third time lucky for him and Mrs Ashworth, a retired librarian, when he solved the puzzle.
Speaking from his home in Claverham, North Somerset, hours after being told the thrilling news, Mr Ashworth said: ‘I can hardly believe it, I’ve never won anything like this before.’
Explaining why he played the game, he said: ‘I was more doing it for amusement, I certainly wasn’t waiting by the phone expecting to win.’
Now the couple, who have been married for 51 years and have read the Mail for over four decades, are planning how to spend the cash. ‘We do like travelling. ‘We’ve done a cruise to Norway on the Hurtigruten before, we may go back again now,’ Mr Ashworth said.
‘It would also be nice to visit somewhere we’ve never been before. Australia is somewhere we’ve always wanted to visit, but we’ve never really had the kind of money to do it.’ But they also plan to share the money with their family. ‘I would like to help the grandchildren with the hardship of university expenses. I know it costs a lot to go nowadays,’ Mr Ashworth added.
Last week readers were challenged with solving the murder of headmaster James Starkey, who had been found dead at the foot of a staircase.
Inspector Morris and PC Briggs were questioning suspects Gloria Grey, Oliver Lucas, Ronald Bundy, Violet Young and Lionel McGrath – all teachers at the school.
the killer gave himself away by taunting Morris and Briggs with numerical clues – such as placing a number 12 rugby shirt on a bust of code-breaker Alan turing.
Morris then alerted Briggs to nautical flags at the crime scene that signalled the message: ‘I’m going in reverse’.
PC Briggs later matched each number to a corresponding letter of the alphabet – but in reverse order, meaning the number 26 signalled the letter ‘A’, while 25 meant ‘B’.
Briggs and Morris arrested science teacher Oliver Lucas, who admitted murdering Mr Starkey by pushing him down the stairs.
Mr Ashworth spelt out ‘Oliver’ after collecting the corresponding numbers. the father-of-two said: ‘the clues weren’t too tricky – once you knew the alphabet was reversed it was quite simple.’