Age: 32
Sex: female
Date: 26 Mar 1993
Place: Sharpness Canal, Sharpness Docks, Berkeley
Carol Clark was found dumped on the side of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal at Sharpness Dock in south Gloucestershire.
It was initially reported that she had died from a heart attack following a blow to her throat.
However, the police said that although they initially thought that Carol Clark had been battered to death, further analysis indicated that she died by other means, but they were not stating how, although it was later reported that she also had a broken neck.
When she was found she was half naked. She was found by a dog walker amongst some reeds and undergrowth by the side of the canal.
It was noted that the weekend that she was murdered had been the 200th anniversary celebrations of the British Waterways and that the Severn Way, which the docks overlooked, would have been very busy at the time and the police appealed for anyone involved with information to come forward.
Carol Clark had been working as a prostitute and was last seen on the streets of Montpelier in Bristol on 26 March 1993 at about 11.30pm getting into a car. Her body was found two days later by the canal on 28 March 1993 at 4pm, 30 miles away.
When she was last seen she had been wearing a brown leather jacket, black polo neck sweater, denim mini-skirt, blue shirt and a baseball cap. However, her clothes were never found.
She had been living in a flat in Picton Street, Bristol at the time.
Before she went out she left a note for her boyfriend saying that she had gone out to find work and would be back by 2pm if she had not found any, or 2.30pm if she did.
However, she never returned.
The police said that they thought that she had been murdered either on the Saturday night or early on the Sunday morning.
The police said that they thought that she had had a meal a couple of hours before she was murdered, something like a pasty, but it was not known with who or where.
They said that they didn't know why she was taken to Sharpness Dock.
She was known to have used heroin and crack.
The police took over 500 statements and made several arrested during their investigation. they later noted that Carol Clark had worked in a very close-knit community and that it was thought that people in it might know more than they had divulged.
In March 2023 it was announced that the police had received new information about her murder and on 4 April 2023 it was announced that the police had arrested a 66-year-old man from Gloucestershire.
Another man from Newcastle was arrest on 25 March 2024.