Killer of schoolgirl, 16, who was raped and left for dead while walking home in Hounslow remains on
For the family of schoolgirl Lynne Weedon, the last 47 years have been ones of torment and agony after she was brutally murdered with her killer evading justice for nearly half a century. The 16-year-old girl had been celebrating with friends in Hounslow but was attacked on her way home, before being raped and left for dead.
After the killer left her body in the grounds of a power substation, she was discovered in a critical condition by the caretaker of the neighbouring school. Despite her serious injuries, she was still alive and was rushed to hospital but she sadly succumbed to her injuries one week later.
Despite an extensive police investigation, including a renewed appeal on the 50th anniversary of her death, the murderer has never been caught. In a shocking twist, a review of her case in 2004 found that a DNA profile matched the killer of another young woman, Eve Stratford, who had been killed earlier that year.
While forensic technology has significantly advanced since the 1970s, and the Met Police issued a statement calling for witnesses to come forward, Lynne’s mum Margaret has never discovered what happened to her beloved teenage daughter.
What happened to Lynne?
A schoolgirl from West London, Lynne had spent the evening of September 3, 1975, with her friends at an early evening disco. Having recently celebrated the results of their O-Levels, she and her two friends had spent the night at The Elm Tree pub in Hounslow, before deciding to walk home shortly before 11pm.
After separating from her school friends at a junction, she walked through an alleyway named Short Hedges, which was close to the home she shared with her family. As she reached the middle of the darkened shortcut, she was brutally attacked by an unknown stranger, who detectives believed had followed her from the Great West Road.
She was struck over the head with a blunt instrument similar to a lead pipe and was then lifted over the gates to a nearby power station and dragged out of sight. Lynne was then raped before her attacker fled the scene and left her for dead.
At around 7.30am the following day, she was found by a school caretaker and his teenage daughter, whose house connected to the substation. Despite suffering a fractured skull and serious injuries, she was still alive and was rushed by the emergency services to West Middlesex Hospital. She died a week later on September 10, 1975, from a brain haemorrhage having never regained consciousness.
The Metropolitan Police launched a murder investigation and a number of enquiries were pursued, but her killer was never identified. A man who was out walking his dog had seen a white male walking down the alleyway, while other individuals had described seeing a man, believed to be seeing the same individual, running down the Great West Road.
However, after nearly 30 years, detectives from the Met Police’s Murder Review Group made a major breakthrough after an examination of DNA made a match with the profile of another murder. Just months before Lynne was killed, a 21-year-old woman had been viciously killed at her flat in Leyton, with her throat cut between eight and twelve times from ear to ear. Model Eve Stratford was found by her boyfriend on March 18 in what was described as one of the most horrific murder scenes seen by investigation officers.
Her face and neck had been extensively mutilated while she was partially unclothed with her hands bound with a scarf. It was believed that she had been sexually assaulted, as semen had been found on vaginal swaps and she was discovered in her bra and pants. The case had baffled police as there was no sign of forced entry and there were no signs of a struggle, with her neighbour stating that she had heard a man and woman talking calmly at around the time it is believed she was killed.
As she was known as a glamourous Playboy Bunny girl who had posed for adult magazines, her case received a significant amount of press attention. Detectives later said that they believed that her killer had spotted her recent pictures in a magazine and that had led him to her address.
Both cases featured in a BBC Crimewatch episode in 2007, where FCI Andy Mortimer said that “without a shadow of a doubt” both cases were sexually motivated. It was also said that given the nature and brutality of both murders, it was very unlikely that the killer had never committed another crime.
While a police operation, named Operation Stealth, was granted more funding to continue investigating both cases, it has failed to yield any results. In 2015, a fresh appeal was issued to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Stratford, with a new appeal on Crimewatch as well as a £40,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the killer.
Speaking in 2015, Lynne’s mum Margaret said: “1975 seems so long ago and it is. We have missed out on so much; she missed out on life, no relationship or marriage, no career or children or even just travelling the world, all taken from her. We are left wondering what it would have been like. A true life sentence.
"We are well aware that whoever murdered Lynne also murdered Eve Stratford. That young lady also had her life snubbed out. Her family have died now. Another true life sentence. The hurt eases but the pain still sits deep somewhere inside. There are so many questions. So many thoughts. So much heartache.
"I will make a mother’s plea for anyone who can tell us some information about the person who took my daughter and Eve Stratford’s lives to come forward. Please, please give us some sort of closure."
DCI Noel McHugh, the lead detective from the Met Police told Crimewatch: “The important thing for everyone to appreciate is that up until 1995 we weren't actually taking DNA from suspects, from people who went to prison, so it's quite possible that the suspect may have been arrested or gone to prison for other matters and we may not have his DNA. So if someone has that name or suspicion then we would encourage them to make the call and not assume that we know their name.
"What we do know is that the killer had a link to the Leytonstone area in March 1975 and the Hounslow area in September, and in particular to the Hounslow area he would have been familiar to the alleyway called the Short Hedges. He would have been a white male aged between 17 and 30 at the time of the murders. In both cases the murder weapons were removed from the scene.
"In the case of Eve it was a knife, and in Lynne's murder it was a blunt instrument similar to a lead pipe. We feel that the answer could come from professionals: from psychiatrists, from probation and even prison officers. 40 years ago someone may have made admissions to you or a disclosure that you didn't think was relevant at the time but looking at all this information now you may have a different view, we would ask you to make that call. And equally a cell mate, may have received a disclosure from a fellow criminal."
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