Unsolved: Alan Holmes Camden 1996

 It was Boxing day evening in 1996 when Alan Holmes, a 53 year old garage mechanic from Camden returned home to his flat in Parkway London after enjoying a festive celebration with friends Cathy Horgan and her family. He had lived for 30 years in this flat above a clothing shop (nowadays Starbucks).

His neighbours in the other flats were all away for christmas so the place was quiet and peaceful. Alan got in through the front door ( right of starbucks) and was expecting perhaps a night infront of the TV. But either as he entered the building or just after, he was viciously robbed by unknown person or persons who took his credit cards and cash from him,his passport, driving license and a silver picture frame and demanded to know his pin numbers. This information Alan probably gave willingly, just wanting these criminals out of his flat as asap. But these were a particularily evil sort of criminals who wanted to make sure their victim was not able to raise the alarm as they fled. They tied Alan to his bed by his wrists and ankles face down, the knots tied so tightly as to cause horrific pain.

Alan laid there on his bed fully clothed and unable to move for the next 10 days. He cried out for help incase any of his neighbours had arrived back after christmas but must have become weaker with the lack of food and water, whilst trying to cope with the pain of the tightly knotted ties around his hands. It is beyond dreadful to try and imagine how he felt as the days turned to nights and no help arrived to cut him free.

On January 2nd 1997 colleagues at Alans place of employment grew concerned when he never arrived after several days. Once the police had got into the flat he was found barely clinging to life and was quickly taken to hospital where he managed to tell the police a little of what had happened to him. Sadly Alan died soon after reaching hospital of sever dehydration and blood clots caused by his restraints and his immobilisation. His sister Mavis described his condition as being " A dreadful state".

CCTV was obtained of the assailants using Alans credit cards at a local cashpoint but unfortunately the images were not clear enough to be identifiable. Five men were subsequently arrested but none were ever charged with Alans' murder.

Alans friends and family described him as a kind and caring man who would help anyone. I wonder if the persons responsible ever pass by the flat or even have a coffee in Starbucks below. They cannot really be described as human at all.

                                                                                

Unsolved:Lorna St Theresa Hayles Clapham 1986

Death was a cruel, lonely place for Jamaican born Lorna St Theresa Hayles aka Black. At just 28 years old, the mother-of-one was living alone in Clapham in the summer of 1986 and reaching out to others for friendship and company. She certainly had many friends; but did one or more of her friends turn on her and commit murder?

Lorna worked for Kall Kwik Commercial Printers in Chamomile Street E2 and also had various part time jobs such as a barmaid and product party demonstrator. She filled her life as fully as possible perhaps because she didn't like to be alone. Police traced through the last month of her life and discovered she had quit her job at Kall Kwik on 24th July for reasons unknown. She apparently had no other job lined up and left without any explanation.

 

Lorna had sublet her old flat in Youngs Court Battersea and called round to see the male tenant living there. She seemed happy and changed into a gold dress telling him she was going to a fashion party. Police could not trace any such party amongst her friends. She did hold a barbecue at her own flat in the same month with most of her guests leaving by nine pm. Two couples arrived soon after who seemed to know Lorna well, but other remaining guests did not know who these people were.

A couple of days later Lorna returned to the laundrette on 31st July to invite the two friends to a product demonstration party, which has been identified by other websites as being for the company Amway. A salesman arrived at Lorna's flat but no one else attended that night and he left at approximately 9.15pm

Friends working in the local laundrette said she had called in to tell them about a nanny job she was going for which involved travel. The odd thing was that it was already known that she had been turned down for the job so what was her reason for telling people this?

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 Lorna was seen for the last time a few days later around the local shops in the area.

Almost a month later 29th August a neighbour was startled to see hundreds of flies congregating on the downstairs window of  Lorna's flat. She called the police who arrived to discover her decomposing body lying in her bedroom with a carving fork sticking out of her neck .She had been sexually assaulted.

Crimewatch UK television programme released a reconstruction appeal that received a good response from the public but there were gaps in the story they just could not fill. The mystery guests at the party were never identified.

A man was taken into custody when finger prints were found at the flat and then released through lack of evidence. The case remains unsolved but personally I have a hunch that the killer was female.

A carving fork is a strange weapon for a man to use on this petit lady who could easily be overpowered by a mans bare hands. It seems more likely that a woman attacked her with the fork, maybe because of jealousy over a man. It could be that the gaps in her life were kept secret as she was having a liaison with a married man?

Introduction 2019 UPDATE!!

This will be hopefully an informative and interesting site for enthusiasts of true crime


. What I am doing here is build a collection of photographs of present day sites where well known murders have been committed in the past using google street view and on site photography. I hope to cover sites from the murders of serial killers such as Peter Sutcliffe The Yorkshire Ripper; Trevor Hardy The beast of Manchester, Peter Moore and other less well-known cases solved and unsolved.

 My fascination for the subject has probably always been there but in recent years thanks to the internet I am able to research and go on a journey where time cannot wipe away the evil stain of these murders. Many places have changed; been built over or demolished but they are still worth collecting and exploring. Wherever I can I use original press photographs to compare the sites as well as to help me find them.

On visiting some locations ( and sometimes by looking at a location photo) I often get impressions and pictures in my mind of a psychic nature as I try to reach out to the victims and in return send them love and light. I share my experiences with some of these times.

  IMPORTANT INFORMATION - It is the case that many of the houses shown here are currently peoples homes. Please be respectful of peoples privacy if you do go and physically have a look and I am not suggesting for one moment that anyone should attempt to knock on doors and/or trespass illegally. I welcome original photos from blog readers but please do not be a nuisance to other people. Any person caught trespassing or causing offence are strictly not the responsibility of this site or owners. In short, please show respect at all times.

Unsolved : Malcolm Bolt Bristol 1982

One of the more modest houses in affluent Clifton in Bristol saw an horrific murder take place of businessman Malcolm Bolt in 1982. Bolt was a man who had fingers in many pies - nightclubs and unlicensed money lending were the least of them as it was claimed that he dealt in drugs and child pornography as part of his money making empire.

Despite this 1982 saw Bolt 200k in debt and in fear. His life was chaotic as he juggled shady underworld dealings with various affairs and had began to take extra precautions with security. He had many enemies and few real friends preferring the company of money and excitement. A business partner David Lovett may or may not have known that Bolt had been having an affair with his wife, but he was the first to be accused by police of the murder after Bolt was found with six hammer blows to the head breaking his skull from forehead to the nape of his neck.

Lovett was tried for the murder and found not guilty. He admitted to visiting Bolt on that day and an argument had ensued but convinced the jury that he was not Malcolm Bolts Killer. A picture was painted as Bolt as a lowlife, willing to do anything for money. The killer remains at large and the case is unsolved.

Unsolved :Lionel Webb Hackney 1993

Lionel Webb was an ambitious young man at 38 years old he had built up his business as an estate agent and property developer from his office in Evering Road trading as Greenvale Estate Agents. His plan was to buy up properties in the Evering Road to rent out or sell at a later date. He was a hard working and popular guy and was well respected in the area.

 Friends and associates noticed that he was not his usual self at the start of November 1993, seeming to be distracted and worried. His secretary said he had mentioned mounting debts quite recently, so was ambition driving him hard enough to resort to illegal activities?

On Sunday 12th November at around 5.30pm he was found by a passerby shot dead in the shop. At first no motive could be found but on a search of the premises and also his home it was discovered that he had a large amount of cannabis and amphetamine hidden away. It seemed that Lionel had taken a dangerous route into the world of drug dealing which cost him his life ultimately. Police had the theory that he had undercut local dealers or dealt on their patch which causing anger towards him. Or was he holding the drugs for someone else? Was he persuaded to store the drugs in return for a cut of the profits? Whatever the reason his murder has never been solved and the murderer(s) remain at large.
Interestingly down the road at 97 Evering Road is where Reg Kray stabbed Jack Macvitie on 28th October 1967 26 years before.

The shop where Lionel was murdered as it looks today

My brush with a serial killer

It was a dark afternoon in 1985 with rain lashing down in torrents. Here I was, 15 years old standing in the shop doorway of what used to be Plastic Wax Records in Old Market Street Bristol. The shop closed sometime after and moved to another location in the street and the old shop became The Sofa Project furniture warehouse as it is today. I pushed myself further back into the door way umbrella in hand, checking the time and looking out to see where my consistently late boyfriend was. He lived above one of the shops opposite and did not have a doorbell and this was long before mobile phones. He was already half an hour late.

There was a bus stop where I was standing and a woman in her twenties stopped to check the bus times then squeezed into the doorway beside me. Just then a car pulled up and to my surprise a woman opened the window and called me over.

"Do you need a lift,love?" She asked smiling as though she had known me for years. Someone else was driving but I could not see them at all. I refused at first thinking she was talking to the older woman but when I turned to look she was not taking any notice.

"No thanks, its ok Im waiting for someone,"I replied. She had a round plain looking face, short dark hair and huge glasses. I thought she could be a middle aged school teacher.

"Its ok come on where do you want to go?"

I shook my head. Perhaps the woman in the doorway needed a life? It seemed she was not being offered.

The car sped off to join the traffic. I stood there a bit puzzled and it was well into the 1990s that I saw that face again. This time it was the lunchtime news.

 I remembered the plain looking woman with big glasses and short brown hair from back then in '85 and realised I,d had a close shave with Rosemary and Fred West, probably out and about the streets of Bristol looking for a victim as I found out they were apt to do.

 I still get the shivers now, and think about those poor victims and how it could have been my bones being carried away from Cromwell Street Gloucester in a black box.

Wanda Skala Manchester 1975

 Trevor Hardy was named the beast of Manchester after he brutally raped and mutilated three teenage girls between 1974 and 1976. Before he started to kill he was known locally as a dangerous man to meet as he dealt out violent attacks on anyone he didn't like .Even members of his own family suffered violence at Hardys' hands.

Wanda Skala just 17 was Hardys' second victim in July 1975. She was a hard working young woman who had finished her shift at a local pub and started on her journey on foot towards her home on Lightbowne Road, Moston Manchester where she lived with her parents. Hardy followed her from the pub and attacked: dragging her into a building site. She was sexually assaulted and suffered fatal head injuries from a brick that Hardy used to hit her. He also bit off one nipple which became he went on to repeat  with his third known victim Sharon Mosoph.

A passerby noticed poor Wandas' body and called the police who attended the scene horrified at the way in which the killer had destroyed her head. Wandas' eyes were missing and were found shoved into her abdomen.

Finding the exact location of this dreadful murder is tricky as Lightbowne Road is very long and has changed beyond recognition with the erection of new housing over the years so it is by looking for clues from the crime scene photos we can try to find the murder site.

From the above photo we can see a building site which is fenced off with a petrol station sign behind it and what looks like a tower block in the distance and just a peek of a building on the left surrounded by trees. From another photo I saw a sign for George Wimpey the construction company so by this I assume that the site was about to be redeveloped.

Wanda Skala 

Taking a google street view journey along Lightbowne Road we come across a car wash that had been a petrol station in previous years with an address given as number 65. The area behind is green space and to the left set back from the road is an estate of relatively modern housing and directly across the road is another modern estate. There is no sign of a tower block in the horizon but this may have been demolished to make way for new housing.

Wandas' place of work is sometimes described as a pub and sometimes a hotel. We have information that she had been working at The Lightbowne Pub now demolished previously at number 276 which is currently a care home. We have to assume that this car wash/petrol station was the site of the murder. If anyone knows anything more please let me know.

Patricia Atkinson Bradford 1977

Patricia, also known as Tina Atkinson aged 32 had the grave misfortune to meet Peter Sutcliffe the Yorkshire Ripper one night on the 23rd April 1977 after an evening at the Carlisle Pub. Originally thought to have been Sutcliffes third victim it is now up for debate since many more murders have been linked to him reaching back to the 1960s.

Tina invited him back to flat 3 at 9 Oaks Avenue Bradford where Sutcliffe hung up his coat and delivered four fatal blows with a claw hammer.After rearranging the body on the bed and covering her with a light sheet he left her barely alive to die overnight.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              An original view of the flats where Tina was murdered.

  

                                                                          

     The flats today: derelict and boarded up.

  

Father Anthony Crean Kent 1975

Patrick Mckay was a psychopathic killer from London who killed three people before he was caught.
From his teens Mckay was a bully and a animal torturer doing unspeakable things with innocent helpless beings. He was from a mixed race background and his father was a violent alcoholic who made life hell for his wife and children.



After the murders of Isabella Griffiths in 1974 and Adele Price in 1975 Mckay targeted a Priest living in Shorne in Kent Fr Anthony Crean who had previously tried to show kindness to Mckay, which was repaid by Mckay stealing and forging a cheque.

On 21st March 1975 Mckay brutally murdered Crean with an axe, first giving him head injuries and dumping him in the bath tub and filling it with water. Crean was still conscious and begging for his life when Mckay began to study the damage he had done, prodding and exploring Creans shattered skull with part of his brain exposed.

Father Anthony Crean 

      

Fr Crean lived and died at the house adjacent the church of St Peter and St Paul in Malthouse Lane, Shorne, Kent. Immediately above is a picture taken some time after the murder. Notice the boarded up door in the front. Top is a picture of the site today.

Lesley Molseed Manchester 1975

Stiups Lane Rochdale

1975 was a horrific year for the innocent victims of serial killers. The north of England seemed to be rife with sick and twisted individuals.

5th October Rochdale - Lesley Molseed was a small and delicate child for her 11 years. She often went on errands for her Mum and this day was no different as she went off along Stiups Lane to buy a loaf of bread.

She was snatched from here and taken to a remote place on the west Yorkshire Moors and was found stabbed to death three days later on the 8th October.

Civil servant Stefan Kiszko was wrongly accused and jailed for 17 years being eventually released only to die six months later of a heart attack. His mother had fought tirelessly to have the evidence reviewed and he was declared innocent through DNA analysis.

The real killer was discovered (thanks again to DNA samples) to be Ronald Castree from Manchester - a previously convicted paedophile.

The house of Leslie Moleseed