UK UK- Eve Stratford, 21, Bunny @ Playboy Club, posed for mag. cover, later her mutilated & grotesquely staged body found @ home, London 18/03/75 *DNA*

[tes1984]

it should be the other way around. the killers DNA on the bindings, but its not the semen found at the scene. very confusing.

It's very confusing. I may be misremembering, but IIRC Eve's boyfriend TP said his DNA was compared to the semen sample.

 

[dotr]

Would anyone consider Honeysuckle to have a 'cloying smell"?

Murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

''A peculiar cloying scent was left by her attacker in the room where she was found''

 

[tes1984]

i think he is wrong. farrow was being watched by her husband gangster friends, so to think a sex predator was also watching farrow does not add up. car full of gangsters and a sex maniac both watching farrow, but they dont see each other sounds nuts in my opinion.

The police thought a gang may have been planning to rob the house. In this scenario Lynda is killed because she fights back, or refuses to reveal where the valuables are.

 

[lee sumner]

I am now starting to understand better where you're coming from. You watched West End Murders? Because while watching it I started to get bits and bobs of what you were saying.
They're trying to tie Abdul Khawaja, the Arab who frequented the club so often and was over friendly with Eve. They are linking him to Linda.
After their mother was killed and they went to live with their father, a frequent visitor, who Linda's girls, knew of as foreign, probably Arab, well dressed, smelt nice, short man with curly hair that would give them £50 each, every time he came, to go buy something nice, he was referred to as Monty. Linda's daughters, each separately said yes that's him, that's Monty, to a photo of Abdul, without being told who he was.
Part of me thinking yes he is often suspected, but his son gave DNA when that science became available, and it ruled him out.
I am pretty sure it being said the DNA found on Eva and Lynne is Northern European too.
But Abdul was a Mr Fixer who arranged things for people and used ex policemen doormen to do his dirty work. That he probably worked across various casinos, like the one Linda and her husband worked in, doing the same networking and business, some possibly shady.
In other words they're trying to say there were 2 involved with Eve, but Abdul didn't get his hands dirty. Their reasons for her being killed are pretty weak so far.
They're also using the two photofits to say the shorter one could be Abdul, present to make sure she opens the door and the taller one the killer. So would that mean both going in? So the lady downstairs who mentioned nothing about Eve coming back downstairs, now wouldn't hear her go back downstairs and 3 people going back up? Or that Abdul stayed outside after she opened the door? Thing is I remember reading the accounts and it was two separate witnesses that didn't put them as being together. One was following Eve said one witness, the one describes as having out-turned feet like a penguin and having a coat too big for him, the one described as shorter, wavy dark hair. The other is described as standing outside Eve's flat and taller. However people can misjudge heights and not remember features or take in details accurately.

Everyone saying she must have known the person to open the door seems to forget, there was one front door to a hallway and stairs leading to the downstairs flats, and the upstairs flat . The lady describing the talking, loud thump upstairs and someone leaving, when people arrived like Eve's bf etc never mentions a knock on the door, never mentions Eve coming back downstairs again to take someone upstairs. The dried flowers (more like leafy stems) weren't by her body as was often misreported, they were still on the stairs and it was deduced that she hadn't even properly gone upstairs when the man who killed her arrived, she may not have even closed the door.

Oh and it's become clear that it was mis-reported that Eve was a croupier, she was a waitress and preferred the afternoon shift to be able to go be with her bf when he came home from work.

There used to be a lot of pictures of the inside of Eve's flat online before, now I can only find one and it's lacking pixels.

West End Murders (2024) ⭐ 7.1 | Crime

West End Murders: Directed by Sacha Bennett. With Sarah Alexandra Marks, Colin Sutton, Kieran Chalker, Ruby Bennett. In West End Murders, former Metropolitan Police DCI Colin Sutton gathers a team of detectives and uses first-hand knowledge to re-open and re-investigate three troubling cold case...

m.imdb.com

DCI

Verifying Device

Abdul Khawaja at the Bunny Girl Playboy Club. The fixer, was welcomed at the club as he helped business, he helped attract rich Arabs to spend money and translate for them. Something he may have done at different clubs. Lynda Farrow's daughters recognised him from this photo as a friend who visited their father, who must have known their mother.
It was Abdul who first took a copy of Eve's Mayfair magazine shoot to the Playboy Club showing it off to everyone, saying look at my girlfriend, isn't she pretty. Therefore the management finding out early and suspending Eve.
It's uncertain how close Eve and Abdul were, but it seems he made more of it than she did. The Bunnies seemed to find him a nuisance. Someone to be avoided by those with more street smart, someone charming and nice by the naive.

the theory Abdul took the killer to her flat that day is madness. DCI sutton thinks Abdul hired killer to kill farrow 4 yrs later, and in between stratford and farrow sutton says the killer acted on his own when he raped and killed weedon. Abdul did not hire killer to hit weedon, so the perp raped and killed weedon for his own sexual gratification. total madness.

 

[lee sumner]

The police thought a gang may have been planning to rob the house. In this scenario Lynda is killed because she fights back, or refuses to reveal where the valuables are.

DCI sutton thinks abdul hired killer to take out stratford and farrow, but the rape/murder of weedon was commited by the same perp for his own sexual gratification. how nuts does this sound.

 

[lee sumner]

It's very confusing. I may be misremembering, but IIRC Eve's boyfriend TP said his DNA was compared to the semen sample.

i believe eve also had her underwear on. which is why detectives on the case thought the sex was consensual. he did seem odd after the rape he allowed her to put her underwear back on.

 

[dotr]

Would anyone consider Honeysuckle to have a 'cloying smell"?

Murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

''A peculiar cloying scent was left by her attacker in the room where she was found''

Probably unrelated, but noting just in case, fwiw..
Unfortunately atm, cannot find a link appropriate to post here, but apparently many do find Honeysuckle can be a cloying scent.
The reason it was on my mind is because of a detail revealed in a different cold case..

'Michelle Bettles Norfolk murder case'​

rbbm.

'Poor Michelle did affect me' - Expert still haunted by unsolved Norfolk murder

The unsolved murder of Norwich's Michelle Bettles, who was found in Scarning, near Dereham, still haunts one of the UK's top forensic scientists.

www.edp24.co.uk

''Prof Wiltshire said Ms Bettles' body was found in "very pretty woodland" but there was an "incredible" forensic profile of "somewhere else" - a place that "involved a pond and big honeysuckle".
She said police had found a place with a "big pond" and a "huge honeysuckle" some miles away''.

 

[Eastend Eagle]

abdul was cleared years ago. DCI sutton is wrong in my opinion thinking stratford and farrow were killed by same perp. stratford murder was clearly a sex crime, but farrow murder looks like a domestic style murder. i believe farrow was killed by henchman working for her husband. his health was failing so he had others do his dirty work.

Maybe they weren't killed by the same person but the evidence that Khawaja was known to both suggests that the crimes may be linked in some way IMO

 

[tes1984]

Maybe they weren't killed by the same person but the evidence that Khawaja was known to both suggests that the crimes may be linked in some way IMO

It's not certain he was known to the Farrows, although it seems highly likely that, as croupiers, PF and LF would have been aware of Abdul, who chaperoned huge betting Arab gamblers.

I would have preferred it if Abdul aka Monty had been picked out of a photo line up in the documentary.

 

[lee sumner]

Maybe they weren't killed by the same person but the evidence that Khawaja was known to both suggests that the crimes may be linked in some way IMO

DCI sutton said abdul DNA does not match, but he is clearly involved in both murders. stratford/farrow.

 

[lee sumner]

I'm on the fence about the Farrow murder being linked, but DCI Sutton will have had access to material not in the public domain.

yes, DCI sutton must know other details. it does seem weird abdul hires a killer and takes him to stratford flat. 4yrs later he hires same man to kill farrow, but weedon was raped and killed by the perp acting on his own.

 

[lee sumner]

Great post and very interesting questions about the DNA. The DNA from the binding could potentially be from an unconnected third party. There's clearly never been a match to the 'second' profile. I wonder if it's a full profile.

Khawaja was definitely a pimp type character. I could see Abdul introducing Eve to a client, but I can't see her flat being the venue. Her boyfriend was due home soonish and she lived with other people, who could have returned home at any time too.

However, there were rumours of fingerprint matches from Eve's flat to men from the Playboy Club. One match may have been to her agent, but not sure about the other possible matches. Maybe high rollers, who were alibied and cleared (and able to keep things out of the press etc).

it was said eve had taken men back to flat on previous occasions.

 

[tes1984]

it was said eve had taken men back to flat on previous occasions.

What's the source of that please?

 

[lee sumner]

What's the source of that please?

i read it somewhere. i will try and find source.