Lorna St Theresa Hayles

Lorna St Theresa Hayles was found dead in her flat at 5 Tasman Road, Clapham, on Friday 29 August 1986 after flies were seen at the window.

She had been lying there for nearly a month before being discovered by which time she had badly decomposed and her body become infested with insects. She had died from stab wounds to the neck having been stabbed to death with a carving fork. The fork had been forcefully driven down into her neck and it was thought that there had been a sexual motive behind her murder, although it was noted that there had been no evidence of an actual sexual assault.

However, it was also said that the police had considered that it might have been an accidental killing or done in the heat of a row.

She was last seen a month before she was found. It was thought that she had been murdered on Friday 1 August 1987.

She was also known as Lorna Black. She was from Jamaica and had been a print worker and a bar maid but at the time had been unemployed. She also had a 12 year old son, but he had been adopted and it was noted that she had seemed upset that his adopted parents had been taking him to live abroad.

She was noted as having been only 5ft tall and had been single and had lived alone.

The police broke her door in on 29 August 1987 after neighbours became worried after not seeing her for some time and noticing a swarm of blow flies at her window.

She was found dead lying on her bedroom floor dressed only in her underclothes and forensic tests showed that she had been there since about the beginning of the month.

She had two puncture wounds to the front of her neck 0.5 inches wide and 1 inch apart. She also had two long cuts in her right palm that were probably caused whilst she tried to defend herself.

A man was charged with her murder in December 1986 after his fingerprints were found in her flat but he was released when the case against him was dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Her inquest returned a verdict that she had been unlawfully killed.

During the investigation the police looked into the events prior to her death.

On Thursday 24 July 1986 Lorna Hayles arrived for work as usual at Kall-Kwik printers in Camomile Street, City, London, however, she then suddenly packed in her job. However, it was noted that before she left that day that she had been her normal talkative self and that she had told a co-worker that she had been planning a fund-raising BBQ for her local Labour Party.

She was also known to help out at the Brixton Town Hall Social Club, working behind the bar, and was last seen there on the evening of Friday 25 July 1986.

She was known to go to Young's Court the following day, Saturday 26 July 1986, a block of flats in Battersea  where she still had the keys to her old flat which she had sub-let, but would still call round from time to time. She met her tenant who she told she had just come round to pick up some things. He said that Lorna Hayles had told him that she had been planning on going out that afternoon and had called round for a special dress.

She told him that she was going to a fashion party. The dress had been a gold one and a photo was found of her wearing it, however, the police said that they didn't know whose party or fashion parade she had been going to that day.

It was further noted, that whilst the dress had been very distinctive, no one had come forward to say that they had seen her wearing it. It was further thought that she probably didn't go very far from Battersea in it, and that she might have gone somewhere on the Doddington Estate in it, where she used to live, and the police appealed for anyone that had seen her in the dress at the party she had mentioned to come forward.

The following day, 27 July 1986 had been the day of her Labour Party BBQ. However, it was noted that shortly before that, at 2.30pm, just before it was due to start, she asked one of the helpers to give her a lift to Stockwell Tube Station in Clapham Road, and then after being dropped off, thanked him and told him he would see her later, telling him that she had to go to Putney. However, it wasn't known where she went and the police said they were interested in knowing where she had gone and who she had seen.

By 9pm that evening her BBQ was almost over, except for two couples who arrived late. It was noted that they apparently knew Lorna Hayles, but apparently, no one else knew them, and the police said they were trying to trace them and appealed for them to come forward.

On Wednesday 30 July 1986 Lorna Hayles was known to have gone to Clapham Common to hire some video tapes from a shop.

However, it was known that she had had no work that week, and the police said that they were trying to determine how else she had filled her time.

She was next known to have gone to a laundrette in Landor Road on Thursday lunchtime, 31 July 1986 where she asked two women whether they were free for an Amway sales demonstration at her home that evening. They said no, but asked her still to order some bleach floor cleaner for them.

The Amway sales man later called at her house to demonstrate the products, however, it was noted that although she had invited others, no one else turned up for the demonstration. The salesman later stated that Lorna Hayles had appeared quite relaxed when he had seen her. He left by 9.15pm.

No one else was known to have called on her that evening and as far as was known, Lorna Hayles didn't go out.

The following day Lorna Hayles's newspapers were delivered in the morning, and there was one last sighting of her when she popped into the laundrette again and told the two women that she met the day before that she had an interview in North London with a writer as a travelling nanny, which she said would mean travelling all over the place. She also told them that she had ordered their cleaning stuff.

However, it was noted that although she had told the girls about getting the job as a travelling nanny, she had already known that she hadn't got the job and the police said that they thought that Lorna Hayles had been the sort of person that had found it very difficult to admit failure as she wanted success and friends.

The police later stated that they thought that it had been one of Lorna Hayles's friends that had killed her. The police noted that in most murder cases people were killed by a friend or someone that they knew, but they added that they knew that Lorna Hayles had been cautious and didn't open her door to anyone and would either peep round the curtain before letting anyone in and that they didn't think that she would have let anyone into her home at night unless she knew them well.

During their investigation, the police said that they spoke to more than 200 people, but noted that there were some that they hadn't and that they were sure that there were some people that didn't even know the police were carrying out their investigation.

In particular, the police noted that Lorna Hayles had marked on her calendar for Saturday 9 August 1986 a wedding, but they didn't know who had invited her, it being added that by then she was dead.

It was also noted that Lorna Hayles had had an address book in her handbag that had included notes about a party  on 2 August 1986, but it was not known who had invited her, and police appealed for anyone that knew anything about it to come forward.