Murders of Kate Bushell and Lyn Bryant

Kate Bushell was found with her throat cut approximately 300 yards (270 metres) from her home in 1997. Lyn Bryant was stabbed a number of times in 1998; in an unusual development, her killer appeared to have returned to the scene four months after the murder to place her missing glasses back at the site. Both women were attacked while walking dogs along isolated rural lanes, and investigators have identified similarities in the circumstances of the two killings that they believe indicate a high possibility the crimes are linked.

The apparent lack of motive in both killings, combined with their violent nature and the possible connection between them, led to fears at the time that a serial killer was operating in the south-west of England. In 2018, a DNA profile was reported to have been isolated in the Bryant case, which renewed hopes that the person responsible could eventually be identified. Speculation has also connected the two murders to the earlier killing of 66-year-old Helen Fleet, who was killed in 1987 while walking her dog in Worlebury Woods, Weston-super-Mare; in 2018 a retired detective, Chris Clark, raised the possibility of a link, citing similarities including the randomness of the attack, the dog being left unharmed, and a reported sighting of a pale van near the Fleet murder scene. If a single perpetrator were responsible for all three killings, they would be an unidentified serial killer.

In the period following the murders, several incidents in the region raised concern about a possible connection to the case. In early January 1999, a man drove his car at a mother and daughter walking their dog in Netherton, near Newton Abbot, Devon, and held a knife to the daughter's throat before the pair escaped; Devon and Cornwall Police stated the similarities to the two murders were "too obvious to ignore." The suspect was described as a white man aged 35 to 40, of medium height, with short fair hair. Later that month, a woman walking her dog near Camborne, Cornwall, was attacked by a man driving a black vehicle, and police examined whether this was linked. In July 2000, a woman in Salcombe, Devon, was followed by a man carrying a six-inch knife before her dog frightened him off; detectives also investigated a potential connection to the murders.

Both cases have generated extensive investigative resources and public attention. By 2018, the Bushell investigation had cost Devon and Cornwall Police more than £1 million, and the Bryant investigation had cost £2 million. Both murders received substantial press coverage, including Crimewatch appeals, and are regarded as among the United Kingdom's most notorious unsolved murders. A possible link to the 1998 murder of Julia Webb in Sandiway, Cheshire, was considered but ruled out about one month later; that case also remains unsolved. As of 2025, the killings of Bushell and Bryant remain unsolved.