Mark Yendell

Mark Yendell was beaten over the head, strangled and then thrown into the docks at Bristol on 10 September 1984.

He had been a rail steward with British Rail and had just returned on a train from London on which he was working when he was attacked in the car park of the station and then taken in his own car to Welsh Back at the Bristol Docks and thrown into the water.

His body was found two days later. he had died from blows to the head with a blunt instrument.

Mark Yendell's wife's 43-year-old ex-lover was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, but later discharged on teh advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Seven men were initially arrested in relation to that line of enquiry, with six of them being released soon after without charge.

Mark Yendell's wife had previously separated from Mark Yendell and gone to live with her lover and help him run the Smugglers pub in Bouremouth, but had continued to visit him at weekends. However, they later got back together on their daughter's second birthday.

She said:

She added that the publicity Mark Yendell's murder had attracted had forced her to move away from Bristol, and that she had gone to live in the south-east.

It was also heard that there was a connection between his murder and two suspicious men that had been seen on an earlier train apparently watching the stewards on that journey and referring to a man with a moustache and it was thought that one of the stewards they had looked at had look like Mark Yendell and it was thought that they had been looking for him on the earlier train.

The two men had been on a Cardiff to London train, which it was noted was a route that Mark Yendell had previously worked on. It had been the 3.18pm express train from Cardiff to London.

Two buffet stewards that had been on the train had been sitting in some passenger seats. When one of them, a steward with a moustache left to start work, the other, a chief steward, heard one of two men sitting near them say:

The chief steward thought that the remark was suspicious, thinking that they might have been intenting to rob the buffet. It was later thought that the men might have been looking for Mark Yendell, thinking that he might have been working on that train, and had misteken the steward with the moustache as Mark Yendell.

The chief steward told the other steward what he had heard and the steward went to look at the men to see if he recognised either of them, but he didn't. However, he was able to give a description of the two men from which drawings were made, and he recalled that one of them had a northern accent. he said they were both scruffily dressed.

Their descriptions were:

Man 1

• Spotty complexion
• Over 6ft tall, about 6ft 2in to 6ft 3in.
• Big man.
• Slim build.
• Hair which was curly on top.
• Wearing a fawn lumber jacket with dirty white collar.

Man 2

• Slim
• With moustache.
• Early 20s.
• About 5ft 6in tall.
• Dark brown hair, cut very short.
• Wearing a burgendy body warmer with black stripe around waistband.

The two men got off the train at Bristol Parkway. When they got up to leave they walked to the back of the train, possibly because it was nearer the sttion exit, and on their way bpassed the buffet car and were said to have looked closely at the stewards there. It was thought that they might have got off at Bristol Parway at 3.50pm because they had realised the person they were looking for wasn't on that train.

Later the same day, at Paddington Station in London, Mark Yendell started his last shift of the day on the 7.30pm train to Temple Meads in Bristol. Mark Yendell had been the chief steward.

The train arrived at Temple Meads at 9.10pm, aty which time Mark Yendell finished work and went to his red Lancia Beta car in the car park at the station. He had left via the main exit and gone round to the adjoining car park.

however, he was attacked in the car park and then put in his car and taken to Welsh Back at the Bristol Docks and thrown into the water. It was thought that he had been attacked by at least two men.

It was thought that whoever killed him must have had some local knowledge because of the location of Welsh Back between the Bristol and Redcliffe bridges and conveniently close to the waters edge.

His car, which was illegally parked, was found by a policeman two days later on 12 September 1984 at about 1.25am. when the policeman examined the car he noticed blood on the windscreen and then saw a trail of blood leading to the water.

Mark Yendell's body was then soon after recovered by frogmen in 14ft of water.

It was noted that Mark Yendell had not been robbed.

A large pool of blood was found in the car park and Mark Yendell's car was also bloodstained.

THe police said:

Witnesses said that they saw a white For Cortina with a T numberplate driving slowly into the car park at about 8.30pm on 10 September 1984, as though it had been looking for somewhere to park. The witness said that the car then stopped near an entrance to the station and then saw a large man, whoc was very heavily built and wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up go up to the car and speak to the driver.

It was noted that the station car park would have been very busy at that time of night and that it was strange that no one saw anything. It was also noted that Welsh Back was also very busy part of the city, and yet no one saw anything there either.

The car park at Welsh Bakc was described as an open-air carp park with capacity for 200 cars. It was also bnote dthat there had been a number of houseboats nearby.

Mark Yendell was reported missing after he failed to return to his home in Gatehouse Avenue, Withywood, Bristol.

It was noted that whilst Mark Yendell's car had been parked in the car park that it had been causing an obstruction and that other motorists had bumped it along to make way for their own cars. However, no one reported seeing any blood.

The keys had still been in the ignition.

The police denied that £4,000 had been found in the car, stating that there had only been a small amount of cash. However, it was later noted that £100 in cash was found in a briefcase in the back of his car.

Mark Yendell was described as:

• 5ft 11in tall.
• Medium brown, collar length hair.
• Fair complexion.

He had been working fro British Rail for the previous two years.

He was noted as having been a regularcustomer at the Rising Sun public house in Queen's Road near his home. An acquaintance said:

It was noted that he often seemed depressed.

THe police also searched his home for clues.