There probably are some other examples, but off the top of my head I can’t think of another murder like this one - such a violent, frenzied and sustained attack in such a small, contained space. And then, for there to be so little in the way of forensic evidence to work with, it just seems unfathomable.
If this crime had taken place pretty much anywhere else I’d assume it was the work of a lunatic, similar perhaps to Jean Bradley’s (unsolved) killing. But the circumstances of Penny’s murder makes it feel personal to me.
The murder weapon has never been confirmed, has it?
This Guardian article from 2000 suggests a ‘long knife’ was used, but I’m not sure how accurate that description is. If it was indeed a knife that suggests, I’d say, whoever was in the car with Penny intended to hurt her that day. But perhaps it was a smaller knife, like one that a tradesman might have to hand.
I don’t think the killer intended to kill Penny at the leisure centre, that location was far from ideal, and a long way from where it’s believed Penny picked someone up that morning. I know witness sightings can be unreliable but we have a witness who sees a man getting into a vehicle like Penny’s, and another who sees the same kind of vehicle being driven by a woman with a man in the passenger seat. Even in a wealthy part of southern England there can’t have been too many people driving pale blue Jaguars at the time?
The time of day, too, makes me think it was a spontaneous act, a ‘crime of passion’ as they used to say.
There’s obviously a very good suspect in this case, but he also seems to have been ruled out, and quite categorically too. I’d love to know how police came to that conclusion, there’s a pretty good circumstantial case here imo but perhaps there’s something they know (an alibi, maybe, or forensics pointing towards someone else) that we don’t.
