|
Kill Total: |
2 |
Kill place: |
London |
|
Kill date: |
March 2003
August 2004 |
Victim(s): |
Marsha McDonnell
Amelie Delagrange |
|
Date of Birth: |
17 May 1968 |
Marital Status: |
|
|
AKA: |
Bus stalker |
Occupation: |
Wheel Clamper |
On Tuesday 4th February 2003 Marsha McDonnell had been to the cinema with friend's, taking the bus home that night. She took a number 111 bus at 12:07am from Kingston, London, arriving at 12:17am in Percy Road, Hampton. As she walked home along Priory Road she was attacked, struck on the head at least three times, with what police believe may be a hammer, she died later in hospital on Wednesday night 5th February.
Thursday 13th March 2003
Police released an electronic photo-fit of
a man seen near the scene of an attack being linked to the
murder of Marsha McDonnell. It was drawn-up with the help
of a witness who saw the man near a 17-year-old girl who
was left with head injuries after being attacked on 8th
January 2003.
Monday 28th April 2003
Detectives investigating the murder of Marsha McDonnell say another incident took place in the same area only an hour before her death. Scotland Yard detectives say at about 11:15pm on 3rd February an 18-year-old woman was stalked by a man after she got off a bus in West Molesey - about two miles away from where Miss McDonnell was attacked.
November 5th 2003, accounts clerk Dawn Brunton, 36, had left a bus station and was walking down a footpath to the Hatton Cross tube station in Feltham Middlesex, London, when an unknown assailant attacked her from behind with what authorities believe was a sledgehammer. Dawn suffered severe injuries, including a fractured skull, cheekbone and eye socket, "several stab wounds to the back of her head, as well as severe bruising to her stomach area, possibly from kicking. Investigators believed that whoever attacked her was likely to be the same person who murdered Marsha and attacked the 17-year old girl in the previous January.
18 April 2004, yet another young woman was attacked. While walking on Trafalgar Road near Twickenham Green in west London after an evening out with friends, Edel Harbison, aged 34, was bludgeoned with a hammer-like instrument from behind. Even though she suffered severe injures, she was lucky enough to survive the horrific experience.
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Amelie Delagrange
After an evening out with a friend at the Cristalz Winebar, French national Amelie Delagrange, 22, said her goodbyes and left for home. Shortly before 10pm. , she got on the bus alone and traveled towards Hampton , but accidentally missed her stop. Slightly anxious, she asked the bus driver for directions and then began the long walk back home. On her way, she passed through Twickenham Green, where she was attacked and killed.
Half an hour later, a passerby found Amelie's body by the cricket pitch and flagged down police. She was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, but her injuries were beyond treatment. Amelie died shortly after midnight from head wounds believed to have been caused by a hammer-like tool or crowbar.
Investigators working on Amelie's case quickly realized that her murder was likely committed by the same person who had killed Marsha and committed the other three attacks. Amelie's physical description closely resembled the other victims, and all of the attacks occurred at night within a five-mile radius of one another. Moreover, the weapon used in the attack left marks that were similar to the ones left on the other victims, indicating that the murderer probably used the same or similar instrument in all the attacks.
Although Amelie's murder bore marked similarities to the other attacks, there was an important difference: This time, the killer stole some of his victim's personal belongings. Missing from the crime scene were Amelie's Sony Ericsson T300 mobile phone, her purse, house keys and CD Sony Walkman. Burglary is not expected to have been a motive for the killing; the killer had probably taken the items as "trophies."
Just days after the murder, there was a significant breakthrough in the case when some of Amelie's missing belongings were recovered, including her mustard-colored purse, Walkman and house keys. The items were found by police divers in the River Thames close to a bridge in Walton Surrey, five miles from where she was attacked, according to the BBC. The police tracked her mobile phone signal to the location, which enabled them to find the objects. However, although they were able to pick up the phone signal, they could not find the mobile itself.
In the meantime, detectives released CCTV photos of Amelie in the hopes that they might trigger someone's memory. The images depicted Amelie on the bus approximately 20 minutes before she was brutally murdered. Investigators believe that the killer might have spotted Amelie after she got off the bus and waited for her between two cricket sight-screens on Twickenham Green. Jonathan Brown reported in The Independent that the screens were "dismantled and removed" by police for forensic examination.
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Not long after the release of the CCTV footage, reports were released suggesting that minutes before Amelie was murdered, a young blond schoolgirl was stalked as she crossed Twickenham Green after getting off a bus. Justin Davenport of The Evening Standard stated in his article that a short man in his thirties "with a side parting" followed Emily Dillon, 16, as she tried to catch up with her sister and two friends walking further ahead of her. In the report, Emily was quoted as saying, "It's very scary to think what might have happened." It is likely that she, instead of Amelie, could have been the killer's next victim. The fact that she was not completely alone might have deterred the murderer and saved her life.
A hammer-wielding maniac attacked another blond woman, just days after Amelie was murdered. The 28-year-old victim was hit from behind on the head with a blunt instrument on Hounslow Road in Feltham between 10:15pm and 10:45pm on 23rd August 2004 . It was claimed that the woman had no memory of the event, but after regaining consciousness she went home. Two days later, she sought treatment at the hospital for her wounds.
Days later, not far from the most recent attack, a suspicious hammer was found at a recreation ground on Bear Road in Hounslow. Forensic experts examined the tool for fingerprints and any other evidence that might link it to the latest victim, Amelie's death or any of the other attacks. Experts didn't know for sure whether the actual instrument used in the attacks was indeed a hammer, but if it was, it would likely be a flat hammer weighing up to four pounds. The weapon could also have been a bat, crowbar, pipe or some other kind of blunt tool.
August 2004, police were seeking out other leads in connection with Amelie's murder, which included a three-bedroom bungalow called St. Moritz located in Walton-on-Thames. The search was prompted after someone called into the police with new information. 60 officers spent three days searching the bungalow, believing that the suspect might have been "hiding out in the unused property by sleeping rough."
Forensic experts helped search the property, which had been recently broken into. They looked for fingerprints, dredged the drains and used dogs to sniff out any evidence possibly related to the murder, the report said. "It remains unclear whether anything important was found."
Trial starts October
2007.
16th February 2008 - Jury retires to
consider the verdict.
25 February 2008
Jury finds him guilty of 2 murders, and one count of
attempted murder they could not agree
on 4 other charges.
Levi Bellfield, aged 39, was found
guilty of being the bus stalker murderer who, murdered Amelie
Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old
Marsha
McDonnell.
Bellfield
denied the charge and also charges of attempted murder of
two other women and the kidnap of a third.
The former bouncer is also
suspected of carrying out 20 other attacks on women
including six attempted date rapes involving drugs .And he
is due to be questioned over the murder of
Milly Dowler,
who went missing on her way home from school in
Walton-on-Thames in Surrey on 21 March 2002.
26 February 2008.
Bellfield was given three life sentences for the murders
of Amélie Delagrange, and Marsha McDonnell, and for
leaving Kate Sheedy, then 18, for dead after running over
her twice
There were loud
cries of “yes” from friends and family in the public
gallery as the judge ruled that Bellfield would never be
considered for parole and would die in jail. He is one of
35 people to be on as Home office list of those NEVER to
be released.
Mrs Justice Rafferty
said that he had “reduced three families to unimagined
grief”. Ms Sheedy, now 21, had endured “indignity after
indignity” after he forced her to take the witness box,
she said.
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