UK police mull Delagrange-Dowler murder link

LONDON, March 15 (AFP) – Investigators are studying a possible link between the unsolved murders of English girl Milly Dowler in March 2002 and that of French student Amelie Delagrange in August 2004.

Police in Surrey, southern England have been hunting for Dowler’s killer for three years. The 13-year-old was kidnapped March 21, 2002 on her way home from school and her body was found in the forest of Yateley Heath, Hampshire six months later.

The murder inquiry is the biggest ever launched by Surrey police.

Delegrange, a 22-year-old student from Hanvoile, north of Paris, was battered to death August 19 last year on her way home from a night out in London. Some of her belongings were found in the River Thames nearby Dowler’s home.

“We are liaising closely with the Metropolitan Police team (on Delagrange’s case) and we will keep an open mind about any possible links, although the offences are not formally linked,” said Detective Chief Inspector Brian Marjoram, who is leading the search for Dowler’s killer.

Police hunting Dowler’s killer have interviewed more than 4,000 witnesses, while operation Yeaddiss investigating Delegrange’s murder has so far focussed on a series of attacks from behind on blonde women.

Delagrange was murdered in the southwest London neighbourhood of Twickenham Green. She suffered severe head wounds and died later in the hospital. The attack resembled similar ones in the area and police suspect the student’s killer could be a serial attacker.

Police have previously linked the murder to that of 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell. The two murders have also been linked to other similar attacks in southwest London stretching back to the beginning of 2003.

In each case the attacker pounced from behind on women with blonde or light brown shoulder-length hair who were walking alone in the evening.

© AFP

Subject: French News