Elena Dimitri

Elena Dimitri was stabbed to death in her home.

She had suffered two stab wounds to her neck and a third stab wound just above her left breast.

An unemployed man was tried for her murder but found not guilty.

Her boyfriend, a 21-year-old postman, said that he went to her flat to take her out on a date and that when he let himself in he saw a man standing near her body with a knife who then fled. He later identified the man as the man that was tried, but the man that was tried said that he had been playing tennis with his brother at the time.

Elena Dimitri's boyfriend said that he had seen her about two hours earlier when he had dropped her off at her flat and made plans to pick her up later that evening.

When Elena Dimitri was found she was slumped in a chair with stab wounds. She had been wearing only her underclothes, a boob tube and a dressing gown and it was thought that she had let her murderer into her flat willingly.

Elena Dimitri's boyfriend said that the man that fled the flat was black, about 6ft 2in tall, aged about 25, with a small beard and had been wearing sunglasses. He said that when he went into her flat, he saw the shadow of a man in the hallway standing with his back to the sink and with a knife in his right hand. Elena Dimitri's boyfriend said that he then asked the man why he was there and also asked where Elena Dimitri was and said that the man made some sort of reply and then swung the knife at him. Elena Dimitri's boyfriend said that he then yelled, 'Don't stab me, please don't stab me' and that the man then pushed past him with the knife in his right hand and a small clutch bag in his left hand and ran out of the flat.

Elena Dimitri's boyfriend said that he then ran through Elena Dimitri's flat looking for her an found her slumped in a chair and that he then called for an ambulance, but she was already dead.

It was heard that there was no sign of any forced entry and that nothing in the flat had been stolen. It was also noted that Elena Dimitri had not been sexually assaulted and that there was no sign of a struggle. The trial heard that it was thought that Elena Dimitri had known her murderer and that she had let him in willingly whilst dressed in her dressing gown.

The court heard that Elena Dimitri was a drug user and took heroin. It was also noted that her previous boyfriend and the father of her two-year-old daughter who was himself a heroin addict was in prison at the time of her murder. The police noted that many of her friends were either unable or unwilling to give evidence in the investigation.

The man tried was arrested on 20 October 1988. He had been living with Elena Dimitri's previous boyfriend's sister in her flat in Hackney. When he was searched, he was found to be in possession of a knife that he was said to have taken from Elena Dimitri's flat after her brother left it there on a previous occasion. When the knife was examined by forensic scientists it was determined that it could have been the knife used to murder Elena Dimitri.

The man admitted knowing Elena Dimitri but denied murdering her.