The murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, two young women from London, England, occurred in separate, sexually motivated attacks by the same unidentified individual during 1975.[2] Stratford was a bunny girl, and Weedon, who had just left school, was killed almost six months later, on the other side of London. After Weedon’s cold case was re-opened in 2004, new DNA techniques revealed that she and Stratford had been murdered by the same person. Stratford’s case was re-opened in 2007, but neither case has been solved.[2] A £40,000 reward for information leading to the killer remains on offer.[3]
Stratford’s and Weedon’s murders have been linked to other cases, in particular, the murder of Elizabeth Parravincina in September 1977, which occurred only one mile (1.6 km) away from the site of the attack on Weedon and almost exactly two years to the day after. The murder occurred in almost identical circumstances, and police themselves linked the killings. The perpetrator is, therefore, likely to be an uncaught serial killer, a term usually used to describe repeat killers who have killed at least three victims.[a]
Eve Stratford
Elizabeth Eve Stratford was born in Dortmund, West Germany[9] on 28 December 1953 to Albert and Liza Stratford.[10] Her mother was German, and met her father, an English medic in the Royal Army Medical Corps, in the 1940s. He was serving as part of the British Army of Occupation on the Rhine in the aftermath of the Second World War.[11] As a youth, Stratford won three beauty contests in Germany.[11] The family moved around the world during Stratford’s childhood, eventually settling in Aldershot, Hampshire.[10]
In 1972, she moved with her boyfriend Tony Priest, the lead singer of Onyx (later Vineyard), to Leyton, east London.[10][12] Two other members of the band also shared the flat.[13] At the time of her death, Stratford was a Playboy Club Bunny in Park Lane.[3] She had started work at the club in 1973, recommended by a friend.[12][14] She lived a glamorous lifestyle and regularly socialised with others, including famous figures such as Sid James and Eric Morecambe, and knew many other high-profile individuals.[1][3] As a model she sometimes referred to herself as “Eva Von Bock” and was also known as “Bunny Ava”.[15][16]
In March 1975, only a few days before she was killed, Stratford appeared on the front cover of Mayfair magazine, an adult magazine for men, as “girl of the month”.[10][12][17] She was suspended for breach of contract by her club since she had posed for a rival publication.[16] The magazine was said to be “on the top shelf of every newsagent in March that year”.[1] Police would later conclude that the magazine cover had likely enticed her killer.[10]
Murders
Stratford
On Tuesday 18 March 1975, Stratford was found dead by her partner at their flat at 61a Lyndhurst Drive, Leyton.[3][18][19] Her throat had been cut between eight and twelve times from ear to ear, while her neck and face were extensively mutilated, with detectives stating it was one of the most horrific murder scenes they had ever seen.[3][18][20]
She was found partially unclothed with a nylon stocking tied around one ankle, and her hands were bound with a scarf.[1][13][21] She was dressed only in a flimsy pink bra and panties and a flimsy blue nylon negligee open at the front.[20] There was a strong suggestion she had been sexually assaulted, and semen was found on vaginal swabs.[2][22] There was no sign of forced entry to the property, nor were there any signs of a struggle.[20][23] A peculiar cloying scent was left by her attacker in the room where she was found.[24]
Police found that on the day of her death, Stratford had visited Camden to see her agent and then went to a promotions consultancy in Bayswater.[3] As far as detectives could tell, she had made the journey home on her own and was not seen with anybody else.[1] She began to travel home at 3:30 p.m. and walked from Leytonstone tube station to her flat, last being seen by a neighbour walking towards her residence while wearing a floppy hat and holding some dried flowers.[3] At 4:30 p.m., the women living below her flat heard a male and female voice talking, apparently calmly, followed by a thud and then the sound of footsteps.[12][23] It was 5:20 p.m. when her boyfriend returned to find her dead. Stratford’s murder was featured prominently in the press, in part due to her “glamorous” occupation and public profile.[1][3]
Weedon
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Lynne Weedon
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Weedon in 1975
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The killer struck again later that year. Sixteen-year-old Lynne Weedon was hit over the head with a blunt object and raped on 3 September 1975, six months after Stratford’s murder and on the other side of London.[3][21] That night she had gone out to celebrate her O-level results with friends at the Elm Tree pub on New Heston Road in Hounslow, near to where she lived in Lampton Road.[3][25]
Weedon began to travel home at 11:00 p.m., parting company with her friends on the Great West Road before crossing over and continuing her journey home on her own through an alleyway named Short Hedges (now ‘School Walk’, it is used by pupils walking to the adjacent Lampton School).[3] Weedon had previously vowed never to use the alleyway after dark as it was frequented by prowlers, but on the night she decided to take the shortcut.[25] In this alleyway, at approximately 11:20 p.m., she was struck over the head with a heavy object similar to a piece of lead pipe, fracturing her skull. Her attacker then lifted her over gates and into the grounds of a power substation, before dragging her out of sight and raping her. She was discovered the next morning by the caretaker of the neighbouring school, Victor Voice, and despite her injuries, was still alive; she died a week later in hospital without regaining consciousness.[23][25]
Around the time of the murder, a man out walking his dog had seen a white male walking down the alleyway. Other witnesses described seeing a man, believed to be the same individual, running across the Great West Road into the alleyway. It is believed that this man was Weedon’s attacker.[1]
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