Glenda Potter

Glenda Potter was found half-naked in the grounds of the Vines United Reformed Church in Crow Lane, Rochester on Tuesday 14 May 1991.

She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. She was a prostitute and worked the streets of Chatham and Rochester in Kent. She was also said to have been addicted to drink and drugs.

Shortly after her murder a man was arrested over the disposal of her body, but he was finally ruled out as a suspect by the police in 2011. Two other men were also accused of her murder, but no charges were made although the police stated that they were not ruling anybody out, other than the man arrested on suspicion of disposing of her body. The man that had been charged with the removal, retention and disposal of Glenda Potter's body had been 16 at the time of the murder and in January 2011 he was sent a letter by the police confirming that he was no longer a suspect in the case and had been ruled out. The man had been living in Gillingham with his family at the time.

The area around the back of the Vines United Reformed Church was said to have been a regular meeting place for local schoolboys who would go there to smoke, and it was heard that at about 8.20am, three schoolboys had been smoking behind the church in their usual manner but had noticed nothing suspicious whilst there or when they left at about 8.30am. However, four hours later, Glenda Potter's body was found there. However, the police noted that the schoolboys might have been mistaken about their times in which case Glenda Potter's body could have been put there much earlier.

A gardener was noted as having started working in nearby grounds at about 9.30am and said that he also saw nothing suspicious there all morning.

As such, the police said that they thought that Glenda Potter's body had been dumped there between 8.30am and 9.30am on Tuesday 14 May 1991.

Glenda Potter was described as being well known in Chatham where she had lived all her life and had recently been living in an area there known as bedsit land.

A friend said that he called round to see Glenda Potter on Friday 10 May 1991 and told her that he was going camping in Cornwall for the weekend and asked her if she wanted to go, but said that she didn't.

Later that night Glenda Potter was seen in The Kings Arms public house in Rochester, one of her regular haunts, at about 9.30pm. A friend that was there and who had bought her a drink said that whilst they were there she noticed that an older man with grey hair and who was left handed had been paying a lot of attention to Glenda Potter. She said that she noticed that he had a wedding ring on. She said that when Glenda Potter left shortly after, the man left at the same time, about 9.45pm, which the woman said seemed odd.

However, Glenda Potter was later seen over the weekend soliciting in her usual places and on the night of Saturday 11 May 1991 at about 9.45pm she was seen in Rochester High Street.

A taxi-driver said that he saw Glenda Potter on the Saturday night at the railway station. He said he then saw a car come from behind him and then turn back out towards the High Street and then stop where Glenda Potter was standing and saw Glenda Potter get in his car. He said that by that time he had a passenger on board and that as he drove off he was following the car that had picked up Glenda Potter and that as he drove along he had to stop as he passed the car and that as he did so, he turned to look and got to see the man that was driving the car almost full on. When the taxi-driver later gave a description of the man, it was found to be very similar to the description of the man that was seen to have been in The Kings Arms the night before and who had left at about the same time as her. However, it was later noted that the taxi-driver was not certain as to whether it had been the Saturday or the Friday that he had seen Glenda Potter get in the man's car.

However, Glenda Potter was later seen on the corner of Rochester High Street and Gundolph Road at about 9.45pm on the Saturday outside St Bartholomew’s Chapel.

It was noted that over the weekend, several people had called at Glenda Potter's bedsit because she had left her television on continuously, but that they had not got an answer. As such, the police determined that Glenda Potter had not been home over the weekend, and said that they wanted to find out who she had spent the nights with.

Glenda Potter was later seen on Sunday 12 May 1991 at about 10.05am coming out of a shop by a male friend. However, it was said that that was the last time that she was seen alive.

It was noted that that Sunday night she didn't return to her bedsit. However, the police said that they thought that by Sunday night Glenda Potter was already dead.

Glenda Potter's body was found two days later on Tuesday 14 May 1991 at about 12.15pm by a woman in the church grounds.

The police said that they were interested to find out how Glenda Potter's body came to be dumped in the grounds of the church.

The police noted that there were two other incidents in the church yard in the days before Glenda Potter's body was found, the first being at about 4.15pm when a schoolboy said that he went to the rear of the church looking for his friends and said that he didn’t see them, but did say that he saw a person’s leg, but that he just went away. The police said that the schoolboy described the leg as having worn a white training shoe with a black pattern on it and also as having been wearing a white sock with a coloured band at the top of it. However, the police said that they didn't think that that was Glenda Potter as she had been wearing white socks with black ankle boots.

The police noted that the second incident was about two hours later when a man that was coming back home from a day out saw two people in the car park adjoining the church at about 6.30pm, saying that they were a man and a woman, the man being described as having sandy hair and the woman short with dark hair. The police said that they wanted to know who those people were so that they could eliminate them from their enquiries.

The police noted that they were also interested in identifying the grey-haired man that had been seen with Glenda Potter in The Kings Arms on the Friday and possibly later in the car near the station on the Saturday.

The man was described as being aged about 60 years, 6ft tall, having grey hair and balding. He was said to have had a smart appearance, wearing a suit, a collar and a tie. The police said that man, who the taxi-driver said he saw on the Saturday or possibly Friday night, and who might have been the same man that had been seen in the pub, had been driving a red estate car which was either a G or H registration and possibly a Volvo car.

The police said that they didn't think that robbery was a motive in her murder. However, they noted that she was both a prostitute and a drug user, both of which they said made her vulnerable.

Glenda Potter had four children.