Severed Limbs

The severed limbs of her woman were found in East London on the morning of Saturday 12 March 1988.

Her identity was unknown although the woman was described as being a white adult aged in her late 20s or early 30s. The police said that due to the size of the limbs that they thought that she had been a fairly well built woman and at least ten or eleven stone in weight, of medium build. They also estimated her height to be about 5ft 7in, give or take an inch either way.

She had been dead for between 24 and 48 hours. The remains were found off the East India Dock Road, A13 near a women’s refuge in Sturry Street. The remains were left buy some bins at the refuge wrapped up in black plastic packages. It was thought that the packages had been left there sometime between 6.30pm on the Friday 11 March 1988 and 10am Saturday 13 March 1988. The dustbins were up the stairs at the refuge off the street. The packages were said to have been neatly wrapped.

The packages contained two arms and two legs.

The nails of the hands were found to have been bitten right back which it was said suggested that the woman had lived on her nerves and was very nervous and had chewed them.

Red nail varnish was found on her big toe. There was no sign of nail polish on her fingers.

It was also noted that her left leg was slightly longer than the right, but the police said that that would not have produced a noticeable limp.

It was noted that there was some scaring on her left wrist, which the home office pathologist said suggested that she had previously attempted suicide. It was also noted that she had a small fracture to her ankle in one of her long bones suggesting that she might have fallen sometime before her death, but it was noted that she might not have noticed. The home office pathologist said that the limbs suggested that she had been very active and that she might have done a lot of dancing. The pathologist also said that they thought that she had also frequently wore high heels due to the crowding of her toes. It was also noted that she had a joining of two toes on both feet which was described as a congenital abnormality. It was said that her joining toes, whilst not giving her a lot of trouble, would have been quite noticeable.

The police said that an indentation on the middle finger of her right hand indicated that she had worn a ring there.

Her blood group was found to be Group B, which they said was a fairly unusual group.

The Home Office pathologist said that when they checked the libs for drugs, they found traces of benzodiazepine which indicated that she had taken tranquilisers such as Valium or Librium.

The police said that after considering the evidence that they thought that she might have at some time suffered from depression and once been suicidal.

It was also noted that a man was seen sitting in a dark blue Cortina car parked just off the East India Dock Road near the refuge at about 9.30pm on Friday 11 March 1988, the night before the packages were found. The man that was seen sitting in the car had been wearing glasses and smoking a cigarette and was described as being of Mediterranean appearance.