Who Murdered Eve Stratford & Lynne Weedon

Way back in the mid 70`s I remember the news headlines about the murder of a bunny girl in London.  Back then, a number of murders were real national headlines, but unfortunately today, they would only rate local coverage unless they were truly awful.  Six months later, a young girl was savagely attacked but she died a week later.  It was many years later, in 2007, that DNA technology provided evidence that both women were murdered by the same man.  As of now, the cases remain open with the wait for a match to emerge on the national database.

    Eve Stratford was born in 1953 to an English father and German mother, who moved around until they settled in Aldershot.  It was 1973 and Eve moved to Leyton with her boyfriend, then getting a job as a bunny girl at the Playboy Club in Park Lane.  She had just been photographed as the March centrefold in Playboy magazine.  On  18th March 1975, her boyfriend returned to their flat in Lyndhurst Drive, to a shocking scene.  Eve was dead, partially undressed, stocking wrapped around one ankle and her hands bound by a scarf.  Her throat had been slashed between 8 & 12 times.  Detectives traced her movements for that day, in that she visited Camden & Bayswater.  It was 4.30pm that the occupant of the flat below, heard a male & female voice, then a loud bump.  The killer was never found.

    3rd September 1975, 16 year old Lynne Weedon was taking a shortcut home when she ran into her killer.  She was raped, and then severely beaten with a blunt instrument.  She was found the next morning, miraculously still alive, but a week later, she died without regaining consciousness.  Her killer too, was never found.

    Reviews of unsolved murders take place every couple of years, and the murder of Lynne was reopened in 2004.  With the continuing advances in forensics, this is relied on heavily to hopefully provide evidence, and in 2007, an announcement was made.  The killer of Eve & Lynne was the same man.  BBC programme Crimewatch ran the story, hoping to unearth fresh leads, with an update on the cases provided by DCI Andy Mortimer.  As of now, they are still looking into both cases, hoping that a man`s DNA comes onto the database and closes the cases.  No matter how old the assailant is.