DHF-039 — Eleanor O'Dell: Charged After the Llandudno Death
Case No. DHF-039 | Subject: Eleanor O'Dell | Date: 31 October 2026 (found dead); 3 November 2026 (charged); 4 November 2026 (Crown Court appearance) | Location: Llandudno, Conwy, North Wales, UK | Status: CHARGED
Posted: 4 November 2026
Status stamp: CHARGED
Image note for readers: All images in this file are original illustrations created for Dark History Files. They are atmospheric artwork, not photographs and not real evidence. No image in this file depicts Eleanor O'Dell, Christopher Thomas Ellis, any member of any family, any investigator, any official, or any real person, and no image depicts any act of violence or any death.
Caption: Case card for DHF-039 — Eleanor O'Dell case, Llandudno, North Wales. Status: CHARGED.
THE FILE CARD
| Case File No. | DHF-039 |
| Subject | Eleanor O'Dell, 33, of Llandudno, Conwy, North Wales, UK |
| Date | Saturday 31 October 2026 (found dead, shortly after 8pm); 3 November 2026 (charged with murder); 4 November 2026 (appearance at Caernarfon Crown Court) |
| Location | A property on St Seiriol's Road, Llandudno, Conwy, North Wales, UK |
| Status | CHARGED |
| Court | Caernarfon Crown Court (appearance 4 November 2026); trial listed for Mold Crown Court |
| Charged person | Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, of no fixed address — charged with murder; presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty at trial |
| Charge | Murder (charge only; no plea is reported in the sources relied on here, and no verdict has been reached) |
| Court dates set | Pre-trial review hearing, 15 January; trial date, 19 April, at Mold Crown Court, expected to last up to two weeks (the year is not spelled out in the sources relied on here; the sequence places both dates after November 2026) |
| Investigating authority | North Wales Police; Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Rob Mahoney |
| Police reference | O178285 — for anyone with information, via 101 or the force's online webchat |
| One-line summary | Eleanor O'Dell, 33, was found dead at a property on St Seiriol's Road in Llandudno on Halloween night, 31 October 2026, after police were called to reports of a disturbance; Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, has been charged with her murder and appeared at Caernarfon Crown Court on 4 November 2026, with a trial listed for April at Mold Crown Court. |
Why this file is stamped CHARGED: The stamp records only the legal position as it stands on 4 November 2026. A man has been charged with murder and has appeared in court, but he has not been tried, no plea is reported in the sources relied on here, and no verdict has been reached. He is presumed innocent. If the case is tried, or if the charge changes, this file will be updated, dated, and re-stamped — never quietly rewritten.
THE CASE
A Halloween evening in Llandudno
Saturday 31 October 2026 was Halloween night, and that ordinary fact matters to this case in a practical way, not a dramatic one. North Wales Police, in appealing for witnesses, specifically asked for people who had been out in the area that evening — people trick-or-treating with children, or celebrating Halloween — to come forward. The police window is narrow and exact: between 7pm and 8.30pm on Saturday 31 October, in the vicinity of St Seiriol's Road in Llandudno. Anyone who was there in that hour and a half, who saw or heard something, or who holds dashcam or mobile-phone footage from it, is asked to contact the force, quoting reference O178285.
That appeal tells a reader two things about where the investigation stands. First, the police believe there may be witnesses who do not yet know they are witnesses: people whose Halloween evening took them past a street in Llandudno and who may have noticed something without realising its significance at the time. Second, the investigation is still gathering its basic material. A charge has been brought and a trial date has been set, but the Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Rob Mahoney, is still asking the public for help. A case file published at this stage is therefore a record of a case in motion, not a finished story.
Llandudno is a seaside town in Conwy, North Wales, and St Seiriol's Road is a residential street in the town. What happened there on Halloween night is, at present, known only in outline, and the outline is what follows.
The call, shortly after 8pm
Shortly after 8pm on Saturday 31 October 2026, North Wales Police officers were called to an address on St Seiriol's Road following reports of a disturbance. Inside the property, officers found a 33-year-old woman deceased. She has since been named as Eleanor O'Dell.
This file states that finding in those words and no more detail, for two reasons. The first is restraint: the detail of how a person died is not needed to understand that a murder charge has followed, and a case file about a woman who died on Halloween night should not linger on the manner of her death beyond what the public record requires. The second is accuracy: the sources relied on here do not publish a cause of death, and this file does not invent one. No cause of death is stated anywhere in this file, because none has been publicly confirmed in the reporting relied on here. Readers who see a cause of death claimed elsewhere for this case should treat it as unconfirmed unless it comes from North Wales Police or from the court.
What happened between the disturbance that prompted the call and the arrival of officers is not described in the sources relied on here, and this file does not reconstruct it. No account of an argument, no sequence of events inside the property, and no description of what officers found beyond the fact of a death has been made public in the reporting used here. That absence is itself a fact about this case at this stage: the public record contains a time, a place, a call, and a death, and then moves to what happened next — an arrest nearby.
An arrest nearby, and a charge
After the death was discovered, a man was sighted close to Trinity Avenue in Llandudno and arrested on suspicion of murder. Trinity Avenue is in the same town, a short distance from St Seiriol's Road. The reporting relied on here does not say how much time passed between the call and the arrest, or what led officers to the man at that location, and this file does not fill those gaps. The arrest is recorded as an arrest on suspicion — the step police take when they have grounds to suspect a person of an offence and need to question them — not as a finding of guilt. Nothing in an arrest, by itself, proves anything about what happened inside a property.
The man arrested was Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, of no fixed address. He was subsequently charged with murder. The charge was reported on 3 November 2026, when Ellis appeared at Llandudno Magistrates' Court and was remanded into custody, with a Crown Court appearance to follow the next day. That magistrates' appearance is reported by one source relied on here, and it is stated here with that attribution in the fact log; the Crown Court appearance the following day is confirmed by several sources and is the firmer anchor of this file's timeline.
A charge is a formal accusation, not a verdict. In the criminal courts of England and Wales, a person charged with murder is presumed innocent until proved guilty, and it is for the prosecution to prove the charge at trial. This file names Ellis because he is an adult who has been formally charged and named in police and court reporting, and it names him only in that capacity: as a man charged with murder, whose case has not yet been tried. No motive is stated in this file, because no motive appears in the court record as reported so far. No account of any relationship between Ellis and Eleanor O'Dell is stated either, because none is given in the sources relied on here. Where reporting elsewhere fills those gaps with suggestion, this file leaves them empty until the court supplies them.
The Crown Court appearance on 4 November
On the morning of 4 November 2026, Christopher Thomas Ellis appeared by videolink at Caernarfon Crown Court. Reporting of the hearing agrees on its brevity: Ellis spoke only to confirm his name. No plea is reported in the sources relied on here, and this file records no plea. A defendant at a first Crown Court appearance in a murder case is not necessarily asked to enter a plea at that stage, and the absence of a reported plea here should not be read as a plea of any kind.
Judge Thomas set the course of the case. A pre-trial review hearing will take place on 15 January, and a trial date of 19 April has been set at Mold Crown Court, with the trial expected to last up to two weeks. The year of those dates is not spelled out in the sources relied on here, but the sequence — a January review followed by an April trial, both set at a November hearing — places them after November 2026, and this file states them in that form rather than attaching a year the sources do not print. The move of the trial to Mold Crown Court, a different court from the one where Ellis appeared on 4 November, is a listing matter; it does not change the charge, and this file does not treat it as significant beyond the fact of the venue.
What the trial will decide, when it takes place, is the charge itself: whether the prosecution can prove, to the criminal standard, that Ellis murdered Eleanor O'Dell. A trial of up to two weeks suggests a case with evidence to be heard and tested, but this file does not guess at what that evidence is. No forensic findings, no witness accounts, and no account of the prosecution's case beyond the charge have been made public in the sources relied on here. The defence case, likewise, is not yet known. A reader opening this file before the trial should therefore expect the fullest version of this case to be the one written after the trial, when both sides have been heard in open court. Until then, the honest record is short, and this file keeps it short rather than padding it with speculation.
A family tribute, released through the police
On the morning of 4 November 2026, the same day as the Crown Court appearance, Eleanor O'Dell's family released a tribute through North Wales Police. In it, they described her as gentle by nature and a ray of sunshine to all, said their worlds had been crushed by the loss of their beautiful girl, that she had been taken from them and their hearts were truly broken, and thanked people for the love she had received and the words of support.
This file quotes those short phrases because they are the family's own published words, released through the police, and because they are the only public account of who Eleanor O'Dell was as a person. They are quoted briefly and left to stand on their own. A tribute is not evidence, and this file does not use it as evidence of anything about the death or the charge. It is included because a case file that recorded only times, streets, and court dates would lose the person at its centre, and because the family's decision to speak publicly, through the police, is itself part of the public record of this case. Beyond the tribute, the sources relied on here give no biographical detail about Eleanor O'Dell — no occupation, no family detail beyond the tribute itself, no account of her life in Llandudno — and this file invents none. Her age, 33, and the town she lived in are the only personal facts the reporting supplies, and they are stated as such.
Detective Inspector Mahoney, in the same police statement, offered condolences to Eleanor's friends and loved ones following her tragic death, and repeated the appeal for witnesses from the Halloween evening. The condolence and the appeal sit together in the police statement, and they sit together here for the same reason: this is a case in which grief and investigation are happening at the same time, and the investigation still needs the public's help.
What this file does not claim
It is worth stating plainly what this file does not claim, because a short public record invites readers to fill its gaps, and the gaps here should stay empty until the court fills them. This file does not claim a cause of death, because none has been publicly confirmed in the sources relied on here. It does not claim a motive, because none appears in the court record as reported. It does not claim any relationship between the charged man and Eleanor O'Dell, because none is given in the sources relied on here. It does not claim what happened inside the property on St Seiriol's Road beyond the fact that police were called to a disturbance and found Eleanor O'Dell deceased there. It does not claim what the prosecution's evidence is, or what the defence will say, because neither has been made public yet. And it does not claim a plea, because none is reported.
What this file does claim is narrower, and it is fully sourced: that on Halloween night 2026, police were called to a property on St Seiriol's Road in Llandudno shortly after 8pm and found Eleanor O'Dell, 33, deceased; that Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, was sighted nearby, arrested on suspicion of murder, and charged with her murder; that he appeared at Caernarfon Crown Court by videolink on 4 November 2026, speaking only to confirm his name; that a pre-trial review is listed for 15 January and a trial for 19 April at Mold Crown Court, expected to last up to two weeks; that Eleanor O'Dell's family have paid tribute to her through North Wales Police; and that police are appealing for anyone in the vicinity of St Seiriol's Road between 7pm and 8.30pm on 31 October, or holding dashcam or mobile-phone footage from that period, to contact them quoting reference O178285. That is the case as it stands on 4 November 2026, and the stamp on this file — CHARGED — says exactly that, and no more.
TIMELINE
- 31 October 2026, 7pm–8.30pm — The window North Wales Police later ask witnesses about: anyone in the vicinity of St Seiriol's Road, Llandudno, including people trick-or-treating or celebrating Halloween, is asked to come forward. (North Wales Police, via Greatest Hits Radio and BritBrief, 4 November 2026.)
- 31 October 2026, shortly after 8pm — Officers are called to an address on St Seiriol's Road following reports of a disturbance. A 33-year-old woman is found deceased inside the property. She is later named as Eleanor O'Dell. (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026; The Sun, 4 November 2026.)
- 31 October 2026 (after the discovery) — A man is sighted close to Trinity Avenue, Llandudno, and arrested on suspicion of murder. (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026.)
- 3 November 2026 — Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, of no fixed address, is charged with murder. He appears at Llandudno Magistrates' Court and is remanded into custody, with a Crown Court appearance to follow. (Greatest Hits Radio, 3 November 2026 — single source for the magistrates' step; see fact log.)
- 4 November 2026 (morning) — Ellis appears by videolink at Caernarfon Crown Court, speaking only to confirm his name. Judge Thomas sets a pre-trial review hearing for 15 January and a trial date of 19 April at Mold Crown Court, expected to last up to two weeks. No plea is reported. (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026; The Sun, 4 November 2026.)
- 4 November 2026 (morning) — Eleanor O'Dell's family release a tribute through North Wales Police, describing her as gentle by nature and a ray of sunshine to all, and thanking people for their support. (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026.)
- 4 November 2026 — This file is published, recording the position as of 4 November 2026. No plea, cause of death, motive, or trial evidence is reported in any source relied on here.
EVIDENCE & LEADS
- The call (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026): Officers attended an address on St Seiriol's Road, Llandudno, shortly after 8pm on Saturday 31 October 2026, following reports of a disturbance. A 33-year-old woman was found deceased inside the property.
- The identification (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026; The Sun, 4 November 2026): The woman found dead has been named as Eleanor O'Dell, 33.
- The arrest (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026): A man was subsequently sighted close to Trinity Avenue, Llandudno, and arrested on suspicion of murder.
- The charge (Greatest Hits Radio, 3–4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026): Christopher Thomas Ellis, 36, of no fixed address, has been charged with murder. He is presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty at trial.
- The Crown Court appearance (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026): Ellis appeared by videolink at Caernarfon Crown Court on 4 November 2026 and spoke only to confirm his name. Judge Thomas set a pre-trial review for 15 January and a trial date of 19 April at Mold Crown Court, expected to last up to two weeks.
- The family tribute (Greatest Hits Radio, 4 November 2026; BritBrief, 4 November 2026): Eleanor O'Dell's family, through North Wales Police, described her as gentle by nature and a ray of sunshine to all, said their worlds had been crushed by the loss of their beautiful girl, and thanked people for the love and words of support.
- The police appeal (North Wales Police, via Greatest Hits Radio and BritBrief, 4 November 2026): Detective Inspector Rob Mahoney appeals for anyone in the vicinity of St Seiriol's Road between 7pm and 8.30pm on Saturday 31 October — including people out trick-or-treating or celebrating Halloween — to contact police, including anyone with dashcam or mobile-phone footage. Contact via 101 or the force's online webchat, quoting reference O178285.
- What is NOT evidence in this file: any cause of death; any motive; any relationship between Ellis and Eleanor O'Dell; any account of what happened inside the property beyond the disturbance call and the discovery; any plea; any prosecution or defence evidence; and any biographical detail about Eleanor O'Dell beyond her age, her town, and her family's tribute.
Caption: Illustration of an empty court building exterior at dawn — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of Caernarfon or Mold Crown Court and not evidence.
STILL UNKNOWN
- What was the cause of death? No cause of death has been publicly confirmed in the sources relied on here. This file states none.
- What happened inside the property? Beyond the disturbance call and the discovery of Eleanor O'Dell deceased, no account of events inside the property has been made public in the sources relied on here.
- What is the prosecution's case? Only the charge itself is public so far. The evidence the prosecution will rely on at trial has not been set out in the sources relied on here.
- What will the defence say? No plea is reported, and no defence account has been made public. Nothing about a defence case is claimed in this file.
- What was the relationship, if any, between Ellis and Eleanor O'Dell? None is given in the sources relied on here, and none is claimed.
- What was the motive? None appears in the court record as reported, and none is claimed.
- Will the trial dates hold? A pre-trial review is listed for 15 January and a trial for 19 April at Mold Crown Court, expected to last up to two weeks. Court dates can change; this file will be updated if they do.
What would change this file: if a plea is entered, this file will record it, dated and sourced. If the trial takes place, the stamp will change to reflect the verdict — CONVICTED or the appropriate outcome — with the trial evidence and the verdict reported from court reporting. If North Wales Police confirm a cause of death or issue a further appeal, that will be added as an official update. If the court dates change, the timeline will change with them. Until one of those things happens, the stamp stays CHARGED, and this file will not be quietly rewritten.
WATCH THE FULL STORY
No companion video yet. If Dark History Files' sister channel Curiozoid publishes a video on this case, it will be linked here.
SOURCES
- Greatest Hits Radio (Rayo), 4 November 2026 — “Man appears in court charged with murder of woman, 33, in Llandudno” — Caernarfon Crown Court appearance by videolink, Ellis spoke only to confirm his name; disturbance call shortly after 8pm on 31 October, woman found deceased inside, later named Eleanor O'Dell; sighted close to Trinity Avenue and arrested on suspicion of murder, then charged; Judge Thomas, trial date 19 April at Mold Crown Court up to two weeks, pre-trial review 15 January; family tribute; Detective Inspector Rob Mahoney's appeal (7pm–8.30pm window, dashcam/mobile footage, 101/webchat, ref O178285).
- Greatest Hits Radio (Rayo), 3 November 2026 — “Man charged with murder after woman found dead in Llandudno” — charge reported; appearance at Llandudno Magistrates' Court, remanded into custody, Crown Court appearance to follow. Single source for the magistrates' step; see fact log.
- BritBrief, 4 November 2026 — “Man charged with murder of woman found dead in Llandudno on Halloween” and “Family tribute to 'ray of sunshine' Eleanor O'Dell as murder probe launched” — charge, trial next April, family tribute, Mahoney appeal with reference O178285.
- The Sun, 4 November 2026 — “Woman, 33, found dead at home on Halloween night is pictured as family pay tribute – after man, 36, charged with murder” — corroborates the charge, the St Seiriol's Road address, the shortly-after-8pm call, the Trinity Avenue sighting, the family tribute, and the Mahoney appeal. No photograph from this article is used in this file, under the tiered real-photo rule (illustrations only).
- North Wales Police statements as carried in the reporting above — Detective Inspector Rob Mahoney, Senior Investigating Officer: condolences to Eleanor's friends and loved ones; appeal for witnesses in the vicinity of St Seiriol's Road between 7pm and 8.30pm on 31 October, including dashcam or mobile-phone footage; contact via 101 or online webchat quoting ref O178285. No direct North Wales Police release page was returned by the searches used here; the force's statements are therefore cited as carried by the outlets above, and the fact log records this honestly.
- No competitor article text or image is reproduced in this file. Facts are stated in Dark History Files' own words. No source beyond those listed above was relied on for facts in the draft. No search-volume numbers are stated, because no tool returned any. dyerbolical.com was not used.
Caption: Illustration of an empty seaside town street at dusk — atmospheric artwork, not a photograph of St Seiriol's Road and not evidence.
Reader question: When a murder charge is brought within days of a death but the trial is months away, what should a careful public record hold back — and what does a reader gain from a file that names what it does not yet know instead of filling the gap?
RELATED FILES
Previous file: DHF-038 — Amber O'Brien: Murder Verdict in Blackley — https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/2026/11/amber-obrien-blackley-murder-verdict.html
Next file: DHF-040 — Adrian Brown: Three Arrests, Six Months After Moss Side
This file is based on public reporting and official statements available as of 4 November 2026. Read how every file is built on the About page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/about.html), or request a file via the Contact page (https://thedarkhistoryfiles.blogspot.com/p/contact.html).
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