Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be
looking into the murder of Lorna Hales in nineteen eighty six in Clapham, Southwest
London. Lorna was well liked and popular, and her murder took everyone that
knew her by surprise. Despite extensive inquiries, Lorna's murder remains unsolved almost forty
years later. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find distressing, so
listener discretion is advised. Tasmin Road is located in Clapham, but is close
to both Clapham North and the bustling multicultural district of Bricks. It's a residential
street made up of pretty terrace houses on both sides. It's a well located
place to live and is now a very sore after area. Tasmin Road is
where Lorna Hales had made her home in nineteen eighty six. She was a
well liked and happy neighbor to many of the residents of Tasmin Road and many
people knew her to pass in the street but also to speak to. She
was outgoing, happy and would go out of her way to say hello to
whomever she came across in her day to day life. For this reason,
her neighbors noticed when at the end of August nineteen eighty six, they had
not seen Lorna for a while. They calculated that it must have been weeks
that they hadn't seen her far, and they were worried about her whereabouts.
There was something else that caught their attention at her home. When they looked
closely at her window, they noticed swarm of flies had begun to congregate there,
which seemed odd to them given Lorna's disappearance. Her neighbors decided to report
this to the police, along with their concerns about where Lorna was. Police
came out to the home at number five Tasmin Road and managed to get inside
Lorna's residence. It was at this point that they realized that something was wrong.
There were flies all over, but particularly in the back bedroom of the
home. This is where they discovered Lorna's lifeless body. It was evident that
Lorna had been murdered, and this was clear due to the fact that police
found a large carving knife in the back of her neck. This was such
an alarming sight, and given the number of flies that were found in the
house, it was clear that Lorna's body had been there for a while.
This matched with the account that Nye had given of not seeing her for a
few weeks. When they heard about Lorna's death, they were shocked and horrified.
When police spoke to them and other people that knew Lorna, they all
talked about her positively. She was sociable, outgoing and wanted to help people.
They couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt her, or worse,
murder her. Everyone that knew Laurna were very cooperative and all of them wanted
to try and help the police figure out what happened. Their first job was
trying to figure out Larna's movements in the weeks before her murder. It was
hoped that this would give them some clues as to what happened. It was
later established that Lorna had probably been killed on Friday, the first of August,
around twenty eight days before her body's discovery. It would turn out that
her movements had actually been quite well documented in the period leading up to her
murder, and these movements would later be shown on Crime Watch. Police discovered
that Lorna had traveled to work as usual On Thursday, the twenty fourth of
July. Lorna worked at Call Quick Printers on Cammermiles Street in the City of
London. She was her usual talkative self, as described by her colleagues,
and nothing seemed amiss. One of her colleagues later said that she told them
that she was organizing a fundraising barbecue for her local labour party. This seemed
exactly like Lorna and did not surprise her colleague. Something happened that day,
though, that did surprise people that knew her. Lorna decided to quit her
job at Call Quick Printers. This was certainly out of character and struck those
people that knew her as odd. She was known as a responsible, hard
working person and so why she wanted to just quit her job was unclear.
Lorna did have more than one job, though, and it was at this
other job On Friday, the twenty fifth of July that she was next spotted.
Lorna worked at Brixton town Hall Social Club, and it was described that
she enjoyed doing this as she could earn some extra money but also make some
friends and socialize. Witnesses told police that she was working on the night of
the twenty fifth, and again nothing struck out to them as off that evening.
The next day, on Saturday, the twenty sixth of July, Lorna
was spotted again. This time she was at Young's Court in Battersea. Young's
Court is a set of flats which is located around three miles from where Lorna
now lived in Tasmin Road. Lorna did used to live at Young's Court,
and at that point she subletted the flat that she used to live in to
another tenant whose name was Albert. It was Albert that would later explain to
police that Lorna still popped around from time to time, and that day she
came around to pick up some stuff. One of these things was a dress.
She told Albert that she was going to a fashion party and she tried
the dress on in the flat. Albert stated it was gold shiny and was
quite distinctive. A photo of Lorna wearing the stress would later be shown on
Crime Watch. This was an interesting lead, However, Albert didn't know where
this party was taking place, and police struggled to find out this information.
The next day, on Sunday, the twenty seventh of July, was the
day that Lorna was organizing the fundraising barbecue that she had told her colleague about
earlier in the week. She had put a lot of effort into arranging this
barbecue, and she clearly wanted it to go well, despite being a large
part of it. Just before it was about to start, Lorna asked one
of her fellow Labor Party workers to give her a lift. The friend gave
her a lift to Clapham Road and she told them that she had to go
to Putney. It wasn't known why she would be going to Putney, or
even if she did. She headed to the Stockwell tube station, which it
was noted, could take Lorna anywhere using the Northern or Victoria lines. Police
didn't know where she went that day or why. Considering she'd spent a long
time planning the barbecue, why had she left to make a trip to Putney.
Later that evening, at around nine pm, the barbecue was nearly over,
and it was known that two people turned up late to Lorna's house.
The people that were already there didn't know who these people were, but Lorna
obviously did know them. Police were eager to try and track them down in
the hope that they may have some important information. Lorna wasn't then seen by
any witnesses until Wednesday, the thirtieth of July. This time she was spotted
at a video rental shop on Clapham Common. She was there to hire some
videos, and once again nothing seemed out of the ordinary about this. Police,
however, are unsure what she was spending her time doing that week.
They knew she hadn't been at work given that she had quit her job,
and so they didn't know what else she was doing during that Monday or Tuesday.
Before this point, they appealed on the Crimewatch program for anyone that knew
anything about her movements during those two days to come forward. They knew from
other people that they spoke to that Laurna always kept herself busy even when she
wasn't in work. The next day, on Thursday, the thirty first of
July, she was seen in the lawndrette on land Or Road. She knew
some of the women in the lawnderette and often went in to speak to them.
That morning, Lorna spoke to them about a salesman that was coming to
her home that evening. This salesman was showing some cleaning products that Larna and
other people that she invited could buy. Lorna asked the workers at the lawndrette
if they wanted to come to her house that night. They said they couldn't
make it, but they asked her if she could order them some products anyway.
She agreed and left the lawndrette that night. It was known that the
salesman did go around with the cleaning products and the brochures, but that no
one else that Lorna had invited could go. The salesman later stated that Larna
seemed relaxed and there appeared nothing wrong with her that evening. He said he
left her home at about nine to fifteen pm. Lorna was not seen again
that night, and it looked as though she stayed at home for the rest
of the evening. The next morning, it was known that Lorna had her
papers delivered, and then the last sighting of her was again at the laundrette
later on that morning. The workers at the laundrett would later state that she
was her usual bubbly and positive self, and she informed them that she had
ordered the cleaning products for them the previous night. She also told them something
interesting. She stated that she had an interview with a writer in North London
and the job was to be a traveling nanny. She seemed excited and optimistic
about this opportunity while discussing this with them. This was the last time that
Lorna was seen alive, and it was thought that she must have been murdered
at some point after this interaction. This last piece of information was interesting,
as Detective Superintendent Paul Richards, who was leading the investigation at the time,
would clarify on the Crime Watch program. He said that Lorna had actually already
been for the interview at the time that she spoke to the workers about and
at that point she already knew she hadn't got the job. It seems of
interest that she would act as though she didn't know this information when she spoke
to the women. Detective Superintendent Richard stated that he believed that Lorna was someone
who didn't want to fail and believed in success, and this may have been
why she didn't tell the whole truth about the situation that day. It does
beg the question, though, why did she bring it up in the first
place. Detective Superintendent Richards discussed possible theories as to what happened to Laurna that
day and explained that the main line of inquiry was that this was someone who
knew her. He theorized this as most people are killed by someone who they
know, but also for another reason. He said that Lorna was very cautious
and didn't just let anyone in. She was known to always keep her door
locked and peep around the curtains before letting anyone into her home. This implied
that whoever did come to her home that day was someone who she knew.
The police stated that they had spoken to two hundred people about Lorna and everyone
had been very cooperative. They said, despite this, no one had come
forward about the party that Lorna went to wearing the gold dress she had got
from Young's Court. They said this was very distinctive and someone would have recognized
it. Police theorized that the party was happening on the Doddington estate where Young's
Court was located, but as of that time nobody had confirmed this. On
the program, they also had a calendar and an address book that had belonged
to Lorna and was found in her home. The calendar had been hung up
in her living room and they were interested in one date that was on there.
It said wedding on August the ninth, and police wanted to know whose
wedding this was and who had invited her to it. They also had her
diary which had a note written in pencil on the second of August. The
note just said party, and police also wanted to know where this was and
who had also invited her there. At the end of the program, Detective
Superintendent Richard stated that the person who committed this murder may not have meant to
murder Horna that night, and that this could have just been an accident due
to the one stab wound they found. They stressed that they were open minded
about this. Since this segment on Crime Watch, however, it is as
though Conna's case has been forgotten about by many. There are very few mentions
of her case, and despite some attention nationally due to the program, this
did not transfer into solid leads about who committed this murder. Lorna was clearly
a very popular young woman who was well known to neighbors and had a group
of friends. Nobody could give police even one reason why someone would have harmed
her. So what exactly would have been the motive for the murder? If
this was someone who knew her, which seemed likely given that Lorna did not
let people in without knowing them, then why did they harmer? Had this
really been an accident as suggested by police. It has been stated by one
source that I read that Lorna was divorced with a twelve year old son.
However, this was not mentioned on the Crime Watch program, and so I
am unclear if this is true or whether it wasn't mentioned as it wasn't relevant
to the case. If it is true, then I really feel for Lorna's
son, who doesn't know what happened to his mother. What struck me when
I heard Lorna's story was that there was a lot about her life we don't
know. As much as everyone talked about her as popular and always being seen
around, there were questions unanswered about her life. Why had she quit her
job so suddenly, Why had she abruptly traveled to Putney despite having plans.
Why had she told the workers of the lawn Drett she had an interview when
she already had it and hadn't got the job. Lorna's life is shrouded in
quite a lot of mystery, and this must be part of the reason why
her murder has still not been solved. It's tragic that there is so little
out there about Lorna's case, and she deserves better. I believe someone out
there knows what happened to Lorna, and it would just take the right person
to come forward and do the right thing. If you know anything about Lorna
Hale murder, then please contact police on one oh one. Thank you for
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been unseen b