UK UK- Joy Hewer, 50, Teacher/church volunteer, sexually assaulted & fatally stabbed in chest, apartment set on fire, Walthamstow, 17 Oct.1995 *REWARD*

[dotr]

• BY ELLIE MCKINNELL, CALLUM CUDDEFORD

April 2022 rbbm

The unsolved murder of a Walthamstow teacher found stabbed in her burning flat

Joy Hewer was found with stab wounds by firefighters who only came because of a fire in her Walthamstow flat

www.mylondon.news

''Devout Christian Joy was found dead in her own home on October 17, 1995, after firefighters were called to a fire in her flat on the sixth floor of St David's Court, off Parkstone Road, in Walthamstow around 11:45pm. To their surprise they found a 52-year-old woman who had been stabbed and sexually assaulted.''


''After she retired in 1990, Joy dedicated much time to charity work. On the day she was murdered, she had volunteered at the London Healing Mission in Notting Hill until 3.30pm. She was next seen stopping by a chemist at 5.50pm before heading home to the Wood Street area.

After arriving home, Joy made several telephone calls to family and friends. She was very close to her family, especially her nieces and nephews, as she had never had children of her own, or married. A couple who lived directly underneath Joy described hearing 'loud banging and scraping noises' coming from Joy’s flat between 10.30pm and 11.00pm, but just as they decided to go upstairs and investigate further the noises stopped.''

''Less than an hour later, at 11.18pm a member of the public rang the emergency services from a public phone box on a nearby road to report smoke coming from the home. This caller has never been identified, despite police releasing the 999 call in an effort to find him as they believe he could hold vital clues to the murder.

A man who was caught on CCTV entering the front of St David's Court at around 10.30pm is also sought by police, and is considered a possible suspect. The Met don't think that Joy would have let a stranger into her home, a theory that's backed up by the discovery of two used coffee cups in the house, as well as no signs of forced entry.''

''Ms Barnes, said: "We've waited so long for answers but we'll never give up hope. Someone has evaded us for two decades but this latest appeal with the £20,000 reward could finally help us secure justice for Joy."

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Met on 020 7230 7963; alternatively, to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.''

 

[tedtink]

£20,000 appeal to solve mystery of woman brutally murdered 20 years ago

Joy, 52, was murdered in a savage frenzy before the killer torched her flat in October 1995 - but police still don't know who did it

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[dotr]

View attachment 405020

£20,000 appeal to solve mystery of woman brutally murdered 20 years ago

Joy, 52, was murdered in a savage frenzy before the killer torched her flat in October 1995 - but police still don't know who did it

www.mirror.co.uk

Thank you, from link..rbbm
''Appeal: Police would like to speak to speak to this man
He is white, aged between 30 to 40 years, although will now be aged between 50 and 60 years, with short hair. He was wearing a light-coloured jacket.

Although the images appear grainy, officers believe that those close to the man would still be able to recognise him.''

The unsolved murder of schoolteacher Joy Hewer - murdermap

Joy Hewer, 52, was stabbed and sexually assaulted at her own home on 17 October 1995. The retired primary school teacher was found dead after police and firefighters were called to a blaze at the sixth floor flat in St David’s Court, off Parkstone Road, Walthamstow, at around 11.45pm. Ms Hewer...

www.murdermap.co.uk

 

[jojojaja]

View attachment 405020

£20,000 appeal to solve mystery of woman brutally murdered 20 years ago

Joy, 52, was murdered in a savage frenzy before the killer torched her flat in October 1995 - but police still don't know who did it

www.mirror.co.uk

Ah thank you I was having trouble viewing the security footage they say they enhanced.

 

[jojojaja]

Listen to 999 call made on night school teacher was stabbed to death before house was torched

To mark the 20th anniversary of Joy Hewer's death her family have made a renewed appeal for information that might finally catch her killer

www.mirror.co.uk

Listen to 999 call made on night school teacher was stabbed to death before house was torched​

On October 17, 1995, firefighters were called to a sixth floor flat in St David's Court, Walthamstow, after a man reported seeing flames coming from the window.

Detectives are still tracking a man who appears in an enhanced CCTV image who enters Joy's flat in St David's Court at around 10.30pm on the night she died.

 

[jojojaja]

This is probably way off but it's what I see. It's a bit like looking at clouds of squigly plaster and trying to make into familiar shapes. To me it looks like he has a wide neck, maybe weak chin or his chin is hidden in neck fat, certainly chunky.

 

[jojojaja]

Crimewatch February 1996

35:04 mins in.

Strangely there is no mention of the man seen entering her flat on CCTV who looks white and chunky / chubby. Only a tall, over 6ft, black man seen running from the main entrance of the flats into the traffic on Forest Road.

Some of the recording of the man calling emergency services has been cut out. Weird he had trouble with the street names yet not the name of the block of flats.

 

[jojojaja]

Murdered teacher's family appeal for information 20 years after brutal attack

Joy Hewer was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her Walthamstow flat in 1995.

www.guardian-series.co.uk

I think there was another Crimewatch appeal in 2015 but I have been unable to find it on YouTube

 

[dotr]

Murdered teacher's family appeal for information 20 years after brutal attack

Joy Hewer was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her Walthamstow flat in 1995.

www.guardian-series.co.uk

View attachment 405043
I think there was another Crimewatch appeal in 2015 but I have been unable to find it on YouTube

Noting this thread with some handy (but distracting!) Crimewatch links.

UK - UK - Old Crimewatch UK cases - any information?

Serial Killer John Cooper: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

www.websleuths.com

Joy Hewer - Unsolved Murder 1995 - St Davids Court, Parkstone Road, Walthamstow, North London - Joy Hewer Unsolved Mysteries UK

Joy Hewer was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death at her flat.

www.unsolved-murders.co.uk

 

[jojojaja]

Was Joy murdered by serial killer Philip Smith?

Smith: The untold story - THE POLICE BUNGLES THAT KEPT KILLER ON THE LOOSE; MORE SHOCKING PHILIP SMITH REVELATIONS AND THE VICTIMS HE MAY HAVE MURDERED DURING HIS REIGN OF TERROR.​

Smith: The untold story - THE POLICE BUNGLES THAT KEPT KILLER ON THE LOOSE; MORE SHOCKING PHILIP SMITH REVELATIONS AND THE VICTIMS HE MAY HAVE MURDERED DURING HIS REIGN OF TERROR. - Free Online Library

Free Online Library: Smith: The untold story - THE POLICE BUNGLES THAT KEPT KILLER ON THE LOOSE; MORE SHOCKING PHILIP SMITH REVELATIONS AND THE VICTIMS HE MAY HAVE MURDERED DURING HIS REIGN OF TERROR. by "Sunday Mercury (Birmingham, England)"; General interest

www.thefreelibrary.com

Sunday Mercury
(Birmingham, England)
July 22, 2001

Photo taken from here

How Brum triple killer 'Bigfoot' was linked to fourth woman's death

Philip Smith murdered three women in killing spree, but has also been linked to unexplained death of Patricia Lynott

www.birminghammail.co.uk

It seems to be the only photo and it's a shame there isn't one taken from the same or similar angle, to the security camera footage still further up in the post.

He has a similar physique anyway.

 

[evilwise]

I was going to say there's no way in hell that's the guy on that security video but I looked at it again and it could be. Are there no more frames? Smith, in addition to being way fat also has some of the dumbest looking earlobes ever that it seems would be pretty recognizable from another angle.

 

[tedtink]

Doesn't seem to fit his MO (stomping ground/ Midlands) IMO, but ya never know.

 

[jojojaja]

I was going to say there's no way in hell that's the guy on that security video but I looked at it again and it could be. Are there no more frames? Smith, in addition to being way fat also has some of the dumbest looking earlobes ever that it seems would be pretty recognizable from another angle.

It's the only frame the police released, pretty poor quality.
The guy in the security footage is also chubby with a fat neck, which is why I said similar physique.
The police didn't give a height for the guy caught on film, I would've thought they could estimate it from measuring things he stood alongside. Smith is tall.

I posted what I found out of trying to remain objective, I don't know enough about this guy to get any strong feeling. Usually you can rule out someone fairly quickly, there's a long list of people they have there in the link, it's fairly normal with serial killers to measure up unsolved murders to the killer.

He was committing a lot of petty crimes very early on and he did travel around a good bit. The fairground he worked travelled the country, but I think that was before Joy was murdered.

The police obviously want to get an idea when he started ramping up to killing. Maybe he committed sexual offences.

Joy's murder as far as I know is with no motive.

 

[jojojaja]

Doesn't seem to fit his MO (stomping ground/ Midlands) IMO, but ya never know.

The murders that he was convicted of all happened in quick succession so I don't think location was an issue, other than he was living in the area he killed in at that particular time.

The police were looking at earlier offences or murders he may have committed leading up to suddenly starting to kill women out of the blue.

Smith had moved around, had travelled the country, obviously didn't feel tied to one area. A few times it was people's changing attitude towards him that prompted him to move away.

 

[Deadbeat]

The December 2015 reconstruction is now on YouTube, it starts at 26:38…

My belief is that the killer was known to her, possibly from the London Healing Mission or one of the other charity’s she was involved with. The motive appears to have been sexual. Perhaps it was someone she was helping/felt sorry for who had mistaken her kindness for something more?

 

[Konstantin]

Strangely there is no mention of the man seen entering her flat on CCTV who looks white and chunky / chubby. Only a tall, over 6ft, black man seen running from the main entrance of the flats into the traffic on Forest Road.

The Black man was mentioned in the original crimewatch episode but the fact that the 2015 episode did not mention him at all strongly suggests that this person was either eliminated from the enquiry or was no longer deemed a person of interest.

It seems the focus now is on the man in the CCTV -- it seems that the CCTV footage was a focus of the 2015 reinvestigation of the case as the technology had improved to make that possible. It is probable that the footage was unusable in 1995 but was kept.
A few things stand out on rewatch of the 2015 crimewatch episode.

1. The CCTV man is the ONLY person who was caught on camera that night entering the block of flats who has not been accounted for.

So he is a potential suspect or witness as he entered the building shortly before JH was killed.

Was he caught on camera LEAVING the building? If the camera covered the entrance surely it would also capture people leaving. That detail is certainly very interesting as if the man in the CCTV image was the perpetrator, one would expect him to leave the building to avoid being caught in the fires he set (even if he lived there).

Of course, the perpetrator could be a resident of the building (one can imagine a scenario in which the perpetrator lived in the building but had not left the building on the day JH was killed and so would not be on the camera).

2. The London Healing Mission had some controversy associated with it at about the time that JH became involved in it. In December 1994 there were reports that police were investigating it over claims that a priest there had carried out "exorcisms involving internal ''cleansing'' of sexually abused women."

Police investigate sexual exorcisms

POLICE are investigating allegations that an Anglican priest practised

www.heraldscotland.com

The Mission seems to be somewhat different from the church that JH regularly attended in Walthamstow and is also some distance from it. I cannot find any reporting that the police were looking into her connection with it, particularly in light of the fact that it seems most likely that her killer was someone she knew.

The priest involved is mentioned in this 1996 article:

Church warning on risks of exorcism

Cult-like healing centres see demons in women's rights and acupuncture

www.independent.co.uk

The Times ran an obituary about the priest, which talks about his "mission" of making charismatic healing of all sorts of things from deafness to depression, more mainstream. It is behind a paywall so here is a non paywalled version

https://archive.ph/CVTN0

The TImes obit says that the priest "retired" from the Mission in 1995. But I think he was pushed out because of the controversy. Did JH have a position on that controversy? Had she talked about it with others? Were there factions in the Mission, supporting the priest? Who reported him to the police for the alleged "sexual exorcisms"?

Was JH always interested in charismatic Christianity (if that is what it is called) or was this a new interest for her? Did she meet and make new friends from London Healing Mission? Was JH involved in healing? Was this part of her drive to help people? Was she being "healed" herself?

3. The other thing that stands out is that JH volunteered at the MIssion in Notting Hill on the day she was killed, until 15:30 but did not arrive back home to Walthamstow until 18:00. We know that she attended a pharmacy to pick something up. We also know (from one of the newspaper stories about the murder) that she preferred to take the overground train rather than the Tube (and didn't like taking the lift in her building--perhaps she was claustrophobic?).

What was she doing for the time between leaving the Mission and arriving home?

4. The "two cups of coffee" that were found in her flat that point toward her knowing her killer is a bit weird perhaps. It was late in the evening, so would JH really have wanted to drink coffee at that time? She was in her nightclothes so would she really have been expecting a visitor? Was her visitor perhaps someone from the Mission who wanted healing? Who JH thought she might be able to help?

 

[jojojaja]

The Black man was mentioned in the original crimewatch episode but the fact that the 2015 episode did not mention him at all strongly suggests that this person was either eliminated from the enquiry or was no longer deemed a person of interest.

It seems the focus now is on the man in the CCTV -- it seems that the CCTV footage was a focus of the 2015 reinvestigation of the case as the technology had improved to make that possible. It is probable that the footage was unusable in 1995 but was kept.
A few things stand out on rewatch of the 2015 crimewatch episode.

1. The CCTV man is the ONLY person who was caught on camera that night entering the block of flats who has not been accounted for.

So he is a potential suspect or witness as he entered the building shortly before JH was killed.

Was he caught on camera LEAVING the building? If the camera covered the entrance surely it would also capture people leaving. That detail is certainly very interesting as if the man in the CCTV image was the perpetrator, one would expect him to leave the building to avoid being caught in the fires he set (even if he lived there).

Of course, the perpetrator could be a resident of the building (one can imagine a scenario in which the perpetrator lived in the building but had not left the building on the day JH was killed and so would not be on the camera).

2. The London Healing Mission had some controversy associated with it at about the time that JH became involved in it. In December 1994 there were reports that police were investigating it over claims that a priest there had carried out "exorcisms involving internal ''cleansing'' of sexually abused women."

Police investigate sexual exorcisms

POLICE are investigating allegations that an Anglican priest practised

www.heraldscotland.com

The Mission seems to be somewhat different from the church that JH regularly attended in Walthamstow and is also some distance from it. I cannot find any reporting that the police were looking into her connection with it, particularly in light of the fact that it seems most likely that her killer was someone she knew.

The priest involved is mentioned in this 1996 article:

Church warning on risks of exorcism

Cult-like healing centres see demons in women's rights and acupuncture

www.independent.co.uk

The Times ran an obituary about the priest, which talks about his "mission" of making charismatic healing of all sorts of things from deafness to depression, more mainstream. It is behind a paywall so here is a non paywalled version

https://archive.ph/CVTN0

The TImes obit says that the priest "retired" from the Mission in 1995. But I think he was pushed out because of the controversy. Did JH have a position on that controversy? Had she talked about it with others? Were there factions in the Mission, supporting the priest? Who reported him to the police for the alleged "sexual exorcisms"?

Was JH always interested in charismatic Christianity (if that is what it is called) or was this a new interest for her? Did she meet and make new friends from London Healing Mission? Was JH involved in healing? Was this part of her drive to help people? Was she being "healed" herself?

3. The other thing that stands out is that JH volunteered at the MIssion in Notting Hill on the day she was killed, until 15:30 but did not arrive back home to Walthamstow until 18:00. We know that she attended a pharmacy to pick something up. We also know (from one of the newspaper stories about the murder) that she preferred to take the overground train rather than the Tube (and didn't like taking the lift in her building--perhaps she was claustrophobic?).

What was she doing for the time between leaving the Mission and arriving home?

4. The "two cups of coffee" that were found in her flat that point toward her knowing her killer is a bit weird perhaps. It was late in the evening, so would JH really have wanted to drink coffee at that time? She was in her nightclothes so would she really have been expecting a visitor? Was her visitor perhaps someone from the Mission who wanted healing? Who JH thought she might be able to help?

It had occurred to me that she may have been followed by someone at the mission, possibly someone with mental health issues. People with psychosis are frequently obsessive about religion. Maybe they went to the mission for support, maybe they knew her as a religious and/or charitable person.
It hadn't occurred to me that it could be someone else who lived there, it would make sense of her knowing the person, letting them in etc.
I think I would leave after setting fire to her flat, if I lived there. We all know how fast fires can spread in a tower block.
Going back to mental health, if they had psychosis, they may not have been thinking about their own safety.
The phone box call nags at my mind because they seemed to place so much importance on it.

 

[jojojaja]

One Day of Crime: 20-year mystery of teacher's murder

A post-mortem found the devout Christian had died as a result of multiple injuries, and that she had been sexually assaulted.

news.sky.com

"Joy Hewer, 52, was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her Walthamstow flat on Tuesday 17 October 1995.

Firefighters discovered Joy's body in the bedroom of her E17 flat. Two smouldering fires, deliberately started in the bedroom and another in the lounge, had to be extinguished.

A post-mortem found the devout Christian had died as a result of multiple injuries,including a number of stab wounds, and she had been sexually assaulted prior to her death."

 

[tes1984]

He is white, aged between 30 to 40 years, although will now be aged between 50 and 60 years, with short hair. He was wearing a light-coloured jacket.

Although the images appear grainy, officers believe that those close to the man would still be able to recognise him.''
View attachment 405021

The unsolved murder of schoolteacher Joy Hewer - murdermap

Joy Hewer, 52, was stabbed and sexually assaulted at her own home on 17 October 1995. The retired primary school teacher was found dead after police and firefighters were called to a blaze at the sixth floor flat in St David’s Court, off Parkstone Road, Walthamstow, at around 11.45pm. Ms Hewer...

www.murdermap.co.uk

If it's a planned murder, then why is he wearing a light coloured jacket?

Wouldn't a knife attacker wear dark clothing, to camouflage any bloodstains?

It doesn't look like a very warm jacket either. It was a cold and drizzly evening, only about 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). A local offender who hasn't had far to travel?

 

[Konstantin]

If it's a planned murder, then why is he wearing a light coloured jacket?

Wouldn't a knife attacker wear dark clothing, to camouflage any bloodstains?

It doesn't look like a very warm jacket either. It was a cold and drizzly evening, only about 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit). A local offender who hasn't had far to travel?

Really good points. Setting the fire to cover up also seems like a panic response. Maybe it was an attempt at seduction gone wrong by someone who was obsessed with Joy and very unstable.

If he was local, you'd think there would be a better chance of him being recognised perhaps. I wonder, like the poster above, if this person had followed her home from the Mission and was mentally unwell. That would fit with this being someone she knew and was perhaps helping.