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

[Rookie D]

AA practiced a ritual dubbed "Internal Ministry" whereby a crucifix soaked in communion wine is inserted into the vagina; the vagina also soaked in communion wine to consecrate the genitals, and then the physical making of the sign of the cross inside the woman with the crucifix.
This sequence was repeated multiple times.

The question is; if there's any evidence of this same ritual having taken place for the murder of Joy Hewer; but AA's DNA didn't match, then could the killer have been someone else who was familiar with the ritual of "internal ministry" and who had possibly used the timing of AA's leaving the LHM as a ruse to try and push the blame onto AA, and thus divert attention away from the real killer?
Was the killer an "Internal Ministry" copycat, trying to shine the spotlight on AA?

Food for thought.

 

[tes1984]

There were quite a few other 'senior' church figures committing similar offences under the guise of religious healing.

IIRC a helpline was set up in the 90s and thirty victims called in.

 

[Rookie D]

Incidentally, Andrew Arbuthnot was 6ft 3" tall and clearly doesn't fit the physical description of the unidentified man caught on the CCTV footage at 22.31pm entering the block of flats in which Joy was murdered.

 

[Rookie D]

Here's a little bit of trivia...

The late actress, June Brown; who played Dot Cotton in Eastenders, worked as an unpaid healer at the London Healing Mission during the late 1980's, at the exact same time Andrew Arbuthnot (and his wife Audrey) ran the London Healing Mission.

In 1987, there was a newspaper article in which June Brown talks more in-depth about her role at the London Healing Mission and her belief in spiritualism.

It doesn't relate to the Joy Hewer case, but it does highlight the influence that Arbuthnot's practices had over the mainstream church at the time; ergo, he even convinced famous actresses that he was a virtuous man.

How wrong they were.

 

[tes1984]

could the killer have been someone else who was familiar with the ritual of "internal ministry"

I think there's a very good chance the killer was associated with the Mission. A random maniac is a less likely IMO, but who knows for sure.

 

[Konstantin]

I think there's a very good chance the killer was associated with the Mission. A random maniac is a less likely IMO, but who knows for sure.

For Joy to have admitted the killer to her home at such a late hour for her, when it seemed she had been planning to settle down for the night, does suggest she knew him from somewhere and felt compelled in some way to let him in. Why? It seems reasonable that the killer crossed paths with Joy at the mission as that was somewhere she frequented a lot, and had a spiritual and emotional connection to.

Did he come to her with a problem he wanted help with or did he come to her because he thought he could help HER with a (spiritual? physical?) problem?

 

[tes1984]

Did the killer trick his way into the flat? Or was he invited in?

And did he start the fires before or after the murder?

 

[GTB72]

It reads "Wess Fehlt Mir?" which is German for "Who's missing me?"

Then below is a list of loved ones, or those that have been lost.

I believe it is a list of loved ones close to Joy.


On that basis, her killer's name could well be one of those names listed underneath that phrase.


Food for thought

It actually reads "Was fehlt mir?

It means literally " What is missing to me? Or What am I missing?

I never looked closely enough at the list below the phrase and decided it had some spiritual and religious meaning. It's actually a list of ingredients for cooking such as Butter, Milch and flour.



Edited by me. Totally wrong interpretation.

 

[Rookie D]

Did the killer trick his way into the flat? Or was he invited in?

And did he start the fires before or after the murder?

With an external security door, her flat door with an internal chain latch, and a peep hole in the door to see anyone outside, and no signs of forced entry, it would be virtually certain that Joy willingly let the killer into her flat.

A killer wouldn't have picked a random victim who happened to live up on a 6th floor flat.

Joy let her killer in, and did so willingly whilst wearing her nightdress; ergo, she was comfortable enough to not feel the need to get changed into some clothes.

In terms of the fires; the 999 call was made at 23.18pm. The actual FULL length 999 call is much longer than what was released to the mainstream media, and in the full version, the black male making the call spends approximately 3 minutes on the phone. This version makes it seem less likely that he was the killer.

However, as has already been highlighted, the caller knew the name of the flats; St David's Court, and yet couldn't name any of the streets without assistance. This suggests he knew the building, but didn't know the area; at least not at face value.

Note that the 999 call was made at 23.18pm.

The unidentified male seen on CCTV at 22.31pm, is almost certainly the real killer.

Considering that the man who made the 999 call was a black male, and the man caught on CCTV was a white male, it confirms that unless the man who made the call was an accomplice, then he was an innocent party who just happened to spot a fire up on a 6th floor flat as he drove past.

While that may seem like an unlikely scenario, it's possible that the man was travelling east along Forest road and just after he past the flats, he then had to stop his car briefly at the traffic lights at the junction with Forest Road and Fulbourne Road/ Wood Street. If the lights were indeed red, he then had some time (between 30 to 45 seconds) to look to his right and glance up to see the flames at the 6th floor window.

The phone box from which he then makes a 999 call, was located to the driver's left (on Fulbourne Road) i.e. the opposite direction to the location of the flats.
It's most likely that he was driving east, because the name of the flats "St David's Court" was written on the building facing Forest Road. In other words, for him to have known the name of the flats, and not know the road names, then the man had to have driven past the front of the flats in order to have seen the name "St David's Court."

The name of the flats is not visible from the man's line of sight from the phone box, so that when he makes the 999 call, he can't see the name of the flats from his position in the phone box.

Also important to note that Joy's flat windows were closed, hence why the 999 caller says he sees "FLAMES" and not "Smoke."

If there was any smoke seen, then more people would have called 999.

Note that there is no evidence to support the idea that the man who made the 999 call was anywhere near the flats at the time of the murder, but at the same time, he had to have known the name of the flats before he made the 999 call.

If the man calls in at 23.18pm, then the fire must have been alight by 23.15pm. This is because it would have taken the man a few minutes to park his car, walk to the phone box on Fulbourne Rd, and then make the call to emergency services.

And considering that the entire flat wasn't gutted out, then the fire had to have been started very close to 23.15pm.

The fire service didn't get into the flat until around 23.30pm, and it's practically impossible for multiple flat fires to have burned for too long before the entire flat is engulfed. But this wasn't the case.

If coffee cups, paperwork and a plant can all be among the items to not be incinerated, then the fire had to have been started not long before 23.15pm.

Based on the man caught on CCTV having been the killer; he reaches Joy's flat at 22.34pm, and has the time to share a coffee with his victim before killing her. To make a coffee, let it cool and then drink it, would take around 15 to 20 minutes.

It suggests that the murder happened sometime just before 23.00pm, possibly 22.55pm. An impulse killer wouldn't normally spend more than a few minutes with a victim, and so the because the timing of the fires seem to suggest that there was a time period between the murder and the fires being started, it implies that the killer knew he wouldn't be disturbed and therefore wasn't in a particular hurry in that sense. It seems the killer spends around 10 to 15 minutes with Joy, and then deliberately starts the fires around 23.10pm just before he leaves and exits via the rear door of the flats which runs out into the quiet side road, and conveniently had no operational CCTV cameras.

If the fires were started at 23.10pm, and the fire crew enter the property around 23.30pm, is means that the fire had been alight for around 20 minutes.
But if the fires were started any earlier, then why wasn't the entire flat engulfed and destroyed by fire?

Lots to ponder.

 

[Rookie D]

It actually reads "Was fehlt mir?

It means literally " What is missing to me? Or "What am I missing?

Missing in the sense of spiritual and emotional well-being. The list below the phrase is, imo, a list of spiritual and mental qualities that Joy would maybe use as a sort of checklist in how to live her life with regards to her Christian beliefs, although why it's in German rather than English I'm not sure.

Perhaps Joy was Jewish originally and brought up speaking the Yiddish language which is very close to German and may give a clue as to why it's in German rather than English.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the killers name is on the list but nonetheless a very thoughtful couple of posts.

Edited by me to improve clarity.

Thanks for clarifying the correct phrasing of the text.

It now makers sense, as it seems that the list includes things like "sugar" and "coffee."

So it's not a list of names, it's a list of items or ingredients; perhaps things that Joy liked, but was missing.

A red herring, but worth flushing out to be sure.

 

[GTB72]

Thanks for clarifying the correct phrasing of the text.

It now makers sense, as it seems that the list includes things like "sugar" and "coffee."

So it's not a list of names, it's a list of items or ingredients; perhaps things that Joy liked, but was missing.

A red herring, but worth flushing out to be sure.

It was a good shout and worth exploring.

 

[dotr]

2015

Family appeals to find Joy Hewer's killer 20 years on

The family of a primary school teacher killed at her home have made a fresh appeal for information, 20 years after her murder.

www.bbc.com

'He is white, in his 30s, with short hair and wearing a light-coloured jacket'
'Officers believe that those close to the man would still be able to recognise him.'

Police release man’s 999 call after ‘gentle’ school teacher murdered 30 years ago

Devout Christian Joy Hewer - ‘who hurt no one’ - sexually assaulted and stabbed six times before her Walthamstow flat torched in October 1995

www.standard.co.uk

“A full DNA profile was recovered from the scene.''
rbbm

 

[Rookie D]

The entire unedited duration of the 999 phone call made at 23.18pm from the phone box in Fulbourne Road, was 2 minutes and 33 seconds.
If the man who made the call saw the fire around 23.15pm, he then needed to park up, get out his car, and then go into the phone box to call 999.
At just over 2 and a half minutes, it means that he then left the phone box at around 23.21pm, went back to his car and drove off; presumably to continue his onward journey.
Interestingly, during the FULL version of the 999 call, the man specifically mentions "Chingford"
If he drove past St David's Court and stopped in the left hand lane to turn left at the traffic lights, stopped on red, looked to his right and saw the flames up on the 6th floor, and then turned left into Fulbourne Rd, he would then have seen the phone box on his right; ergo, the opposite side of the road. He would then have parked his car somewhere on the left, crossed the road and then entered the phone box.
The reason why this is particularly significant, is that by turning left into Fulbourne Rd from Forest Road, he would have been heading directly towards Chingford (via Highams Park)
The man also mentions the town hall, which is located on the opposite side of the road to the flats in Forest road. If he was driving east, the man would likely have driven past Walthamstow town hall on his left, just before he got to the flats on his right.

It seems viable that the man could have been from Chingford, and was heading home. There is little other reason for him to have mentioned Chingford unless his thought process had made a mental connection to the location itself.

By editing the full 999 call and omitting some of the context, it paints a very different picture of what was actually being said.

The initial prime suspect was undoubtedly the 6ft 4" black male seen running from the steps of the flats around 22.30pm, and almost being hit by a car that had to take "evasive action."
It seems that the police believed that the black male who made the 999 call was one and the same person, and that the killer was therefore the black male seen running across the road.

It is rather telling however, that when the cold case was looked at again in 2014 by a different detective team, that there was no mention of the man seen running from the building whatsoever, and instead a CCTV still image of a white male subsequently appears form nowhere, and then this new individual becomes the primary person of interest.

It's almost as though the entire story of the car nearly hitting a black man who was seen running from the building and across the street, was entirely made up.

It does make one question why that seems to have been the case.

 

[Rookie D]

At approximately 764 square feet, Joys flat would and should have taken around 5 minutes to be completely engulfed.

But seeing as there was a plant that survived and some paperwork on the table, then it seems that a critical flashpoint; whereby everything combusts through the intense heat and pressure, and thus without the need for direct contact from the flames, was seemingly never reached, then I find it absolutely astonishing that when a 999 call is made at 23.18pm, which then lasts over 2 and half minutes, and then a fire crew are dispatched, who then arrive around 23.30pm, and then need time to reach the 6th floor, that there were still flammable and combustible objects that remained untouched by the fire.

Even if we treble the time from 5 minutes to 15 minutes, that still leaves a fire start time of around 23.15pm; based on when the fire crew arrive and begin to tackle the fire in the flat.

And yet the caller states that he sees "flames" coming out of one of the floors.

The 999 caller would have seen the fire no sooner than 23.16pm, because he had to cross the junction, park up and then go into the phone box.

So either the man genuinely saw a fire around 23.15pm, but the fire took 15 minutes to do relatively little damage for a small contained flat fire, or he was the only person who knew about the fire ahead of time.

If he set the fire himself at 23.15pm, it would have taken around 3 minutes to run down the stairs and out into the side street at the rear, before doubling back on himself and walking briefly north along Wood Street and around the perimeter of the building, to then walk directly across the junction and observe the phone box directly ahead of him on Fulbourne Road.

He would then reach the phone box just 3 minutes after having left the flat.

The elephant in the room of course, is why didn't the internal smoke alarm not go off, and why didn't the smoke filling the communal hall on the 6th floor not set off the building's communal smoke alarms?

How can a fire rage for 15 minutes and no alarms be raised apart from a man seeing flames on a 6th floor flat as he drove past?

Is it possible that the man who made the call was an accomplice, and as he was making the call at 23.18pm, the killer was still inside the flat and had just started the fires?

The accomplice could then call 999 knowing that a response time would ensure that help wouldn't arrive before 23.30pm, and thus give the killer ample chance to start 2 fires at 23.20pm, and then casually leave via the stairwell and then out into the quiet side street at the back of the building?

This would then mean that the fires only lasted around 10 minutes, instead of 15 minutes or longer.

To say that Joy was murdered as early as 22.35pm and then the killer starts 2 fires before leaving, is literally impossible from a scientific point of view.
If the fires were started at 22.35pm and the fire service didn't get to the flats until 23.30pm, then the fires had to have been raging for a staggering 55 minutes!

Not possible.

 

[dotr]

rbbm

'Gentle, caring' teacher murdered in her own flat had spent the day volunteering

Joy Hewer was sexually assaulted and stabbed in the chest multiple times in the chest 30 years ago

www.mylondon.news

''At 23:18hrs on 17 October 1995 a phone call was made from a public telephone box along Fulbourne Road, Walthamstow. The male caller was requesting assistance from the London Fire Brigade, having seen smoke coming from Joy's flat. Police made numerous appeals to trace this caller, previously releasing his 999 call in an effort to locate him. He is still being sought as part of the investigation as he could hold vital clues.''

 

[Rookie D]

rbbm

'Gentle, caring' teacher murdered in her own flat had spent the day volunteering

Joy Hewer was sexually assaulted and stabbed in the chest multiple times in the chest 30 years ago

www.mylondon.news

''At 23:18hrs on 17 October 1995 a phone call was made from a public telephone box along Fulbourne Road, Walthamstow. The male caller was requesting assistance from the London Fire Brigade, having seen smoke coming from Joy's flat. Police made numerous appeals to trace this caller, previously releasing his 999 call in an effort to locate him. He is still being sought as part of the investigation as he could hold vital clues.''

An excellent point to highlight.

The use of the term "smoke," is factually incorrect.

Note that the 999 caller never says anything about seeing smoke.

He says "flames, coming from one of the floors."


The subsequent press reports misquote what was actually said, and seeing as the man never came forward, then the use of the term "smoke" is purely an uncorroborated invention by the press.

Shoddy reporting from the press, who generalized the data and assumed the 999 caller said "smoke."

That is factually incorrect and the idea that smoke was seen, changes the entire dynamic of the call.

The windows were closed, otherwise smoke would have bellowed out and the smoke seen by multiple witnesses. That never happened, and therefore there is no evidence to support that the caller meant to say "smoke" instead of what he actually said; ergo, "flames."

A man seeing flames up in a 6th floor window, as he was driving past in his car, is an excellent achievement in itself. Extremely observant from a man who knew the name of the flats, and says in the call "St David's Court" as a statement and not a question, confirming that he knew the name of the building from just driving past, although he clearly struggles with virtually all the street names.

 

[dotr]

An excellent point to highlight.

The use of the term "smoke," is factually incorrect.

Note that the 999 caller never says anything about seeing smoke.

He says "flames, coming from one of the floors."


The subsequent press reports misquote what was actually said, and seeing as the man never came forward, then the use of the term "smoke" is purely an uncorroborated invention by the press.

Shoddy reporting from the press, who generalized the data and assumed the 999 caller said "smoke."

That is factually incorrect and the idea that smoke was seen, changes the entire dynamic of the call.

The windows were closed, otherwise smoke would have bellowed out and the smoke seen by multiple witnesses. That never happened, and therefore there is no evidence to support that the caller meant to say "smoke" instead of what he actually said; ergo, "flames."

A man seeing flames up in a 6th floor window, as he was driving past in his car, is an excellent achievement in itself. Extremely observant from a man who knew the name of the flats, and says in the call "St David's Court" as a statement and not a question, confirming that he knew the name of the building from just driving past, although he clearly struggles with virtually all the street names.

It would not surprise me at all if the caller was also the perp., imo, speculation.

 

[Konstantin]

It seems that the police believed that the black male who made the 999 call was one and the same person, and that the killer was therefore the black male seen running across the road.

Maybe this man did make the call and he was running because of the urgency of wanting to report a fire. If I saw flames in a flat, I would call it in. There are very good reasons for Black men not to want to hang around and give their full details to the police, given the police's and particularly the Met's history of institutional racism.

 

[GTB72]

It would not surprise me at all if the caller was also the perp., imo, speculation.

If Joy was murdered at say 22.50, that would mean the killer would have to hang around for almost half an hour then make the call to the Police. If you had just killed someone you would have to be a very cool customer to do that.

Your natural instinct would be to get as far away from the scene of the crime as quickly as possible,imo,but it certainly can't be ruled out.

 

[GTB72]

Maybe this man did make the call and he was running because of the urgency of wanting to report a fire. If I saw flames in a flat, I would call it in. There are very good reasons for Black men not to want to hang around and give their full details to the police, given the police's and particularly the Met's history of institutional racism.

Indeed. Stephen Lawrence had been murdered earlier that same year.