The 1991 murders of Claire Acocks and Margaret Penny at The Old London Coiffure has been the region’s most enduring murder mystery.

Yesterday, news that police had charged Margaret’s husband Robert Penny, 83, sent shockwaves through the harbour town.

Some people walking the streets around the former hairdressing salon paused to reflect on the case outside its old front door. One woman took a photograph of the building with her mobile phone. 

Others chatted outside the shopping strip and recalled where they were that fateful day as they speculated about what might happen next.

For Portland businessman Rob Menzel the case has personal significance, given he knew the slain hairdresser and had a momentary encounter with her potential murderer.

The electrician was driving along Julia Street that afternoon in May 1991 when a man dashed across the street in an erratic manner.

He remembers clearly how the mystery figure ran from one footpath to the other in an unco-ordinated manner, narrowly missing a street sign.

“Portland was on a knife edge in the days that followed the murder,” Mr Menzel said. 

“People just couldn’t believe it could happen here.”

Part-time hairdresser Mrs Acocks, the mother of a Portland policeman, and her 58-year-old customer Margaret Penny were stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances. To this day, it is not known at what precise time the women were killed as their screams were mistaken for the high jinks of children playing in the street.

Mr Menzel provided the information to police shortly after the incident and his sighting was one of the key pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that has led to the cold case being re-examined.

“I thought the bloke running across the street was odd at the time,” he said. 

“He wasn’t behaving in a manner that you would consider normal. Those hours after the incident really stick in my memory.”

People walking along Bentinck Street yesterday remembered Mrs Acocks and Mrs Penny with affection — two popular grandmothers whose lives were inexplicably cut short.

Portland businesswoman Karen Corbett spoke to Mrs Acocks over the phone to make a hair appointment on the day of her murder.

“I remember it clearly. Claire said ‘don’t come today, come tomorrow’,” Mrs Corbett said. “Later that day, she was killed. 

“Claire was a beautiful lady who loved her family, loved gardening and just doted on her two sons and daughter. Those families didn’t deserve what happened to them, no one does.”

Police were baffled in 1991 as to the murder motive and, although some money was taken from the women’s purses, the salon was unlikely to have had more than $100 in the cash register. 

The murder scene was discovered some time after the incident when the salon’s owner received a call from a concerned friend of Mrs Penny.

Portland businessman Shaun Smith has followed the incident closely over the past 24 years and knew the Acocks family. Like many Portlanders, he has been longing for answers about a cold case that has been a stain on the city’s reputation for decades.

“Whenever I’ve travelled somewhere and told them I’m from Portland, you get the same reaction,” the Barkly Street Milk Bar owner said. 

“They say ‘isn’t that where those two ladies were murdered in the hairdressing salon?’ People right around Australia know about the case. It’s still shocking about what happened to those two ladies, even when you think about it today.”

Mr Smith has previously provided important information which led to the re-investigation into the 1991 salon murders. For legal reasons, The Standard cannot disclose those details.

The businessman, who owns the milk bar as well as Showcase Jewellers in the town centre, said Portland was abuzz yesterday.

“Everybody is talking about it and my phone has been ringing constantly,” Mr Smith said. 

“The fact that it’s been a cold case for so long yet people still talk about it shows just how shocking it was.

“In a small place like Portland, people were worried about a killer out there and whether he’d strike again.”

The Old London Coiffure closed down shortly after the murders and remained as an empty shopfront for two decades. A shipping-related business has operated from the site for the past few years, with the facade being renovated in recent times.

Mr Menzel said the impact was far-reaching but most Portlanders were satisfied the case was back in the limelight.

“You talk to anyone around Portland, people want to get to the bottom of the case,” the former Portland mayor said.