THE murder of a woman and her child could be linked to the killing of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992.

Samantha Bisset, 28, was stabbed to death and brutally assaulted in her Heathfield Terrace flat, in Plumstead, alongside her 2 year old daughter Jazmine in 1993.

Plumstead High Street resident Robert Napper, aged 38, was arrested a year later and charged with their murders.

He has spent the last nine years in Broadmoor maximum security mental hospital for the killings.

Such was the brutality of Napper's attack the police photographer who recorded the scene was off sick for two years and Samantha Bisset's mother died shortly afterwards of a heart attack.

Although warehouse man Napper was considered a suspect at the time of Miss Nickell's murder, the line of inquiry was not pursued because Colin Stagg was awaiting trial, although he was later cleared.

New DNA techniques have been developed which have enabled officers to collect formerly unobtainable samples from the clothes of Miss Nickell.

Although some DNA was recovered at the time, work continues on building a profile of the killer although officers have not officially confirmed they plan to interview Napper.

Described as a loner, Napper was also found to have raped and battered an Eltham woman in May 1992 and was a serial Peeping Tom.

On November 3 he managed to gain access into Samantha Bisset's flat after watching her and her boyfriend having sex.

He stabbed her eight times before sexually abusing her and her daughter and then mutilating her body.