PONTYPOOL could be turned into a life-size version of Cluedo with participants trying solve a real murder.

The idea is the brainchild of three photographic art students, Lauren Clithero, Rebekka Gill and Jodi Westmacott, who study at Newport University.

They submitted their idea for review, after 43 students were commissioned by Torfaen County Borough Council to create artwork as part of the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

Miss Clithero, 21, and her two class mates thought about using the murder mystery game, after hearing of the unsolved Pontypool murder of William Alfred Lewis in 1939.

Miss Clithero said: “Author Monty Dart wrote a book last year called Who Killed Dripping Lewis?

“After reading the book and speaking to her, we thought participants in our version of Cluedo could try and work out which one of them killed him.”

In the girls’ game, eight participants would sign up and be given clues that will lead them around the town, where Mr Lewis had been seen before his murder.

Actors would be in place to hand out clue cards and objects found at the murder scene to the players at key locations, and slowly the team would work out which one of them could have been the murderer.

Miss Gill said: “We’re all fascinated by the famous Pontypool story but didn’t want to tell it in a dark, morbid way – instead we want it to be interactive so that the community can get involved.”

Back in 1939, Mr Lewis’s body was discovered by builder Thomas Brimble, who had been carrying out building work for Mr Lewis.

The blood-soaked body, which had received repeated blows to the head, was laying across the bed in his house.

He was a rich bachelor who owned approximately 200 houses in the Pontypool area.

Initial investigations led no where and four detectives from Scotland Yard were called in. Despite interviewing hundreds of people the police got nowhere.

The students have pitched their ideas to a panel of judges who will decide which projects to take forward later this month.