Kenneth Whitney

Kenneth Whitney was found in the boot of a car at Heathrow Airport.

He was found in the boot of a red Y-reg Rover 3500SE Saloon in car park 3 at the airport on level 4 after staff realised that the car had not been moved in five weeks.

It was thought that he had been dumped there on 28 September 1987, but he was reported missing by his mother, with whom he was living, on 5 October 1987.

He had been beaten to death. A police detective said:

They added that they thought that he had been killed before his body was put in the car.

He had been a used car dealer from Carshalton in south London and was described as a small time criminal and it was thought that he might have been murdered as part of a criminal underworld feud in a gangland killing.

The police appealed for associates of his in Carshalton to get in touch, but said that they believed that some of them might have been on the edge of the criminal fraternity.

A confidential hotline was set up for anonymous underworld callers to call with information.

It was later revealed that he had been a police informant. It was also revealed that a drug-dealer connected with his murder was allowed bail after the police were bribed.

The police said that they were considering checking on the names of thousands of air travellers relating to passengers that had left the country from Terminal 3 on 20 September 1987, noting that there were about 20,000 names. Terminal 3 was noted for serving mainly long haul flights with foreign airlines.