Murder:
London's unsolved killings
by
Lucy Lawrence
As Scotland Yard
announces plans to recruit retired detectives to
re-examine London murder cases which have gone
unsolved for more than two years, the number of
killings on the streets of the capital continues
to rise. Last year there were an estimated 200
murders in London - a dramatic increase on 1998,
when 132 people were killed. Everyone remembers
the Jill Dando case, but in 1999 there were 40
other murders in London which have yet to be
solved. We look back at the disturbing backlog of
unsolved killings from a violent year in London
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Maria
Wodianitzky and Tahir Butt: Families
still awaiting justice
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1. 26 January: Theatre
Royal stage hand Gideon Tsagane, 30, found shot
dead in a garage in Islip Road, Kentish Town. His
death is believed to be linked to the Yardie
killings around London this year.
2. 21 February: Sheldon
Bobb, 21, found dead with head injuries near his
home in Saxton Close, Lewisham. The young black
lifeguard, known to friends as Anton, was
discovered lying in a pool of blood in the road
outside his home.
3. 6 March: Mervyn
Sills, 36, shot dead in Rushcroft Road, Brixton.
Man arrested after police ambushed car in Brixton
Road. Bailed to return in September, but failed
to turn up. A warrant for his arrest has been
issued.
4. 8 March: Quemal
Rama, 28, a Kosovan, of Hammersmith, was stabbed
to death in the Whiteleys Shopping Centre,
Queensway.
5. 17 March: Restaurateur
Tahir Butt, 49, from Wembley, strangled and set
alight in his Mitsubishi Shogun in Bushey. Motive
unknown, though one theory is that he was killed
in a "curry wars" feud after he planned
to open a new Indian restaurant.
6. 23 March: Robert
Woods, 83, of Corbett Grove, Wood Green, kicked
to death as he arrived in the communal hallway of
his flat. Motive believed to be robbery.
7. 30 March: Maria
Wodianitzky, a 49-year-old Swedish tourist, died
in hospital after being attacked on a bus in
Kensington Gore. The computer clerk from
Stockholm was only two hours into a week-long
holiday with her ex-husband and son when she was
dragged from the platform of a moving
double-decker No10 bus near the Albert Hall by a
man trying to snatch her handbag. She hit her
head on the kerb and died three days after the
attack. A £2,000 reward has been offered.
8. 13 April: Keith
Balfour, known as Little Andy, 32, of Avon Road,
Brockley, shot dead by two men at the Big Ballers
ticket agency which he ran in Brockley Cross. He
died in a hail of bullets from a Mac 10
sub-machinegun. A man has been arrested and
bailed to return to police on 11 January pending
further inquiries.
9. 26 April: Jill
Dando, the 37-year-old TV presenter, was shot
dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham. At
least 45 officers have been investigating the
murder full-time and remain in the Dando incident
room based at Kensington police station. A
£250,000 reward has been offered for information
leading to the conviction of her killer.
10. 5 May: Richard
Smith, 35, of Tottenham, stabbed to death in a
flat at Oakfield House, Albert Road, Tottenham.
11. 22 May: Mary
Lazenby, 80, who was disabled and 4ft 8in tall,
murdered at her flat in Rochester Court, Wilmott
Street, Bethnal Green, possibly by a man posing
as a water board official. Once a successful
restaurateur in South Shields, she eventually
lost her fortune and her business. She had
settled in Bethnal Green with her son and
grandchildren.
12. 2 June: Body
of 24-year-old Michelle Folan, thought to have
been murdered 25 years ago, uncovered at a
building site in Manor Gardens, Holloway. Man
arrested and re-bailed to return to police in
December.
13. 2 June: Mother-of-two
Valerie Curtis, 52, found stabbed to death at
Lander Court, Lyonsdown Road, Barnet. The body of
the main suspect, her boyfriend, a 47-year-old
police clerk, was found next to her with stab
wounds. He later died.
14. 14 June: Patrick
Sloan, 20, of Walworth, died after being stabbed
following an argument with another man in
Carisbrooke Gardens, Jovett Street, Peckham.
15. 17 June: Barrington
Page, 44, a minicab driver from Hoxton, found
dead in River Lea under Harbet Road, Edmonton.
After he was killed he was decapitated and his
hands sawn off. His remains were sealed in a
metal box and heaved into the Thames by his
killers. He was identified by a birthmark and a
ticket for shoe repairs which the killers had
left in his clothes.
16. 20 June: Stephen
Decambre, 27, found dead at Academy Gardens,
Croydon, after being pushed from a building.
17. 23 June: Kosovan
national Bledar Mone, 23, found stabbed and
battered to death at his flat in Fernbank Avenue,
Sudbury.
18. 2 July: Mohammed
Sabir Raja, 63, a property developer, shot dead
in the doorway of his home in Mulgrave Road,
Sutton.
19. 5 July: Drug
dealer Dean Roberts, 20, shot dead in Furness
Road, Harlesden, by two male Yardie gangsters
armed with Mac 10 sub-machineguns.
20. 16 July: Behixhe
Begoli, a 22-year-old Kosovan Albanian, found
strangled at a house in Harlington Road East,
Feltham. Police seeking a man, Daniel Collins, in
connection with the murder.
21. 17 July: Body
of 22-year-old Fatima Kama, of Portsea Place,
Bayswater, found in a suitcase at Heathrow
Airport. A member of Heathrow's security staff
discovered Miss Kama's corpse after forcing open
the black suitcase in the boot of a car in a car
park near Terminal 3.
22. 15 August: Anthony
Taberer, 47, stabbed to death at his home in St
Paul's Way, Bow. A man in his thirties has been
arrested and bailed to report to police in
January.
23. 15 August: John
Neale, 63, and his 57-year-old wife, Pauline,
stabbed to death at their home in Blythe Close,
Catford. Mr Neale, 63, was a convicted drugs
dealer. He drove a light blue Rolls-Royce and
lived in a former council flat.
24. 24 August: David
Scott, 30, of Warren Court, Tottenham, stabbed to
death in Monument Way, Tottenham.
25. 25 August: Mohamud
Ibrahim, 25, found murdered at his home in
Dolphin Tower, Abinger Grove, Deptford.
26. 13 September: Somalian
Abdul Osman, 18, stabbed to death near Southgate
Tube station. Mr Osman, from Southgate College,
was having lunch with friends when they became
involved in a confrontation. Three teenagers have
been bailed to return to police.
27. 24 September: Steven
Devaney, 34, of Levita House, Charlton Street,
Camden Town, stabbed to death in a park area near
Purchese Street, Camden Town.
28. 29 September: George
Collins, 35, shot dead at a Rastafarian temple in
St Agnes Place, Kennington - the 16th black
person killed in drug-related violence in the
capital in 1999. Three men seen running from the
temple after the shooting.
29. 3 October: Darren
Pearman, 27, of Waltham Abbey, stabbed to death
at Epping Forest Country Club. Mr Pearman, of
Waltham Abbey, died from multiple wounds after
what is believed to have been a fight.
30. 14 October: Claudio
Annunciacao, 32, of Stockwell, found dead in a
rubbish chute at Wayland House, Sidney Road,
Brixton.
31. 21 October: Kevin
Hector, 27, of Willesden, shot dead in a Ford
Focus in Golders Green Road, Golders Green, in a
drive-by shooting. He was self-employed in the IT
industry.
32. 23 October: Vincent
Shaw, 29, stabbed to death at his home in Reigate
Road, Bromley.
33. 3 November: Henry
Majambere, 24, from Clapham, died after being
found with head injuries at a house in Dacre
Road, Plaistow.
34. 3 November: Michael
Wheatley, 47, of Norbiton Road, Poplar, found
dead in Limehouse Basin. It is thought his house
may have been burgled. His Ford Fiesta car was
found abandoned in Maroon Street, Poplar.
35. 5 November: Peter
Clarke, 25, of Ravensworth Road, Kilburn, shot
dead in a Ford Escort in Peploe Road, Kilburn.
36. 19 November: Ashley
Smith, 21, of east London, found stabbed to death
in the street in Disraeli Road, Forest Gate.
37. 29 November: Graham
James, 26, of Priestlands Park Road, Sidcup, shot
dead at The Point nightclub in Stoke Newington
High Street.
38. 29 November: Abdul
Rehman Raja, 43, shot dead at greengrocer's shop
in Mitcham Lane, Streatham. He was shot twice at
point-blank range. The body of the father-of-four
was found in a back room at Maureen's Fruit and
Veg. A man has been charged with conspiracy to
murder but killer remains at large.
39. 5 December: Tommy
Hole, 57, and Joey "The Crow" Evans,
55, shot dead by two masked gunmen in the Beckton
Arms, Beckton Road, Canning Town, in what police
believe was a classic contract killing. Both were
well known in the area and had reputations as
troublemakers.
40. 9 December: Zac
Stewart stabbed to death following an argument in
the JJ Moons pub in Tooting High Street.
41. 23 December: Unnamed
black man stabbed to death in Plaistow Road, West
Ham.
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