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?