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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

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looking into the murder of Lorna Hales
in nineteen eighty six in Clapham, Southwest

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London. Lorna was well liked and
popular, and her murder took everyone that

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knew her by surprise. Despite extensive
inquiries, Lorna's murder remains unsolved almost forty

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years later. This episode contains descriptions
that some listeners may find distressing, so

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listener discretion is advised. Tasmin Road
is located in Clapham, but is close

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to both Clapham North and the bustling
multicultural district of Bricks. It's a residential

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street made up of pretty terrace houses
on both sides. It's a well located

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place to live and is now a
very sore after area. Tasmin Road is

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where Lorna Hales had made her home
in nineteen eighty six. She was a

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well liked and happy neighbor to many
of the residents of Tasmin Road and many

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people knew her to pass in the
street but also to speak to. She

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was outgoing, happy and would go
out of her way to say hello to

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whomever she came across in her day
to day life. For this reason,

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her neighbors noticed when at the end
of August nineteen eighty six, they had

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not seen Lorna for a while.
They calculated that it must have been weeks

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that they hadn't seen her far,
and they were worried about her whereabouts.

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There was something else that caught their
attention at her home. When they looked

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closely at her window, they noticed
swarm of flies had begun to congregate there,

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which seemed odd to them given Lorna's
disappearance. Her neighbors decided to report

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this to the police, along with
their concerns about where Lorna was. Police

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came out to the home at number
five Tasmin Road and managed to get inside

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Lorna's residence. It was at this
point that they realized that something was wrong.

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There were flies all over, but
particularly in the back bedroom of the

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home. This is where they discovered
Lorna's lifeless body. It was evident that

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Lorna had been murdered, and this
was clear due to the fact that police

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found a large carving knife in the
back of her neck. This was such

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an alarming sight, and given the
number of flies that were found in the

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house, it was clear that Lorna's
body had been there for a while.

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This matched with the account that Nye
had given of not seeing her for a

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few weeks. When they heard about
Lorna's death, they were shocked and horrified.

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When police spoke to them and other
people that knew Lorna, they all

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talked about her positively. She was
sociable, outgoing and wanted to help people.

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They couldn't understand why anyone would want
to hurt her, or worse,

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murder her. Everyone that knew Laurna
were very cooperative and all of them wanted

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to try and help the police figure
out what happened. Their first job was

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trying to figure out Larna's movements in
the weeks before her murder. It was

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hoped that this would give them some
clues as to what happened. It was

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later established that Lorna had probably been
killed on Friday, the first of August,

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around twenty eight days before her body's
discovery. It would turn out that

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her movements had actually been quite well
documented in the period leading up to her

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murder, and these movements would later
be shown on Crime Watch. Police discovered

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that Lorna had traveled to work as
usual On Thursday, the twenty fourth of

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July. Lorna worked at Call Quick
Printers on Cammermiles Street in the City of

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London. She was her usual talkative
self, as described by her colleagues,

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and nothing seemed amiss. One of
her colleagues later said that she told them

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that she was organizing a fundraising barbecue
for her local labour party. This seemed

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exactly like Lorna and did not surprise
her colleague. Something happened that day,

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though, that did surprise people that
knew her. Lorna decided to quit her

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job at Call Quick Printers. This
was certainly out of character and struck those

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people that knew her as odd.
She was known as a responsible, hard

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working person and so why she wanted
to just quit her job was unclear.

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Lorna did have more than one job, though, and it was at this

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other job On Friday, the twenty
fifth of July that she was next spotted.

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Lorna worked at Brixton town Hall Social
Club, and it was described that

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she enjoyed doing this as she could
earn some extra money but also make some

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friends and socialize. Witnesses told police
that she was working on the night of

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the twenty fifth, and again nothing
struck out to them as off that evening.

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The next day, on Saturday,
the twenty sixth of July, Lorna

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was spotted again. This time she
was at Young's Court in Battersea. Young's

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Court is a set of flats which
is located around three miles from where Lorna

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now lived in Tasmin Road. Lorna
did used to live at Young's Court,

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and at that point she subletted the
flat that she used to live in to

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another tenant whose name was Albert.
It was Albert that would later explain to

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police that Lorna still popped around from
time to time, and that day she

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came around to pick up some stuff. One of these things was a dress.

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She told Albert that she was going
to a fashion party and she tried

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the dress on in the flat.
Albert stated it was gold shiny and was

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quite distinctive. A photo of Lorna
wearing the stress would later be shown on

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Crime Watch. This was an interesting
lead, However, Albert didn't know where

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this party was taking place, and
police struggled to find out this information.

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The next day, on Sunday,
the twenty seventh of July, was the

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day that Lorna was organizing the fundraising
barbecue that she had told her colleague about

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earlier in the week. She had
put a lot of effort into arranging this

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barbecue, and she clearly wanted it
to go well, despite being a large

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part of it. Just before it
was about to start, Lorna asked one

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of her fellow Labor Party workers to
give her a lift. The friend gave

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her a lift to Clapham Road and
she told them that she had to go

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to Putney. It wasn't known why
she would be going to Putney, or

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even if she did. She headed
to the Stockwell tube station, which it

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was noted, could take Lorna anywhere
using the Northern or Victoria lines. Police

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didn't know where she went that day
or why. Considering she'd spent a long

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time planning the barbecue, why had
she left to make a trip to Putney.

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Later that evening, at around nine
pm, the barbecue was nearly over,

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and it was known that two people
turned up late to Lorna's house.

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The people that were already there didn't
know who these people were, but Lorna

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obviously did know them. Police were
eager to try and track them down in

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the hope that they may have some
important information. Lorna wasn't then seen by

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any witnesses until Wednesday, the thirtieth
of July. This time she was spotted

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at a video rental shop on Clapham
Common. She was there to hire some

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videos, and once again nothing seemed
out of the ordinary about this. Police,

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however, are unsure what she was
spending her time doing that week.

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They knew she hadn't been at work
given that she had quit her job,

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and so they didn't know what else
she was doing during that Monday or Tuesday.

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Before this point, they appealed on
the Crimewatch program for anyone that knew

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anything about her movements during those two
days to come forward. They knew from

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other people that they spoke to that
Laurna always kept herself busy even when she

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wasn't in work. The next day, on Thursday, the thirty first of

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July, she was seen in the
lawndrette on land Or Road. She knew

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some of the women in the lawnderette
and often went in to speak to them.

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That morning, Lorna spoke to them
about a salesman that was coming to

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her home that evening. This salesman
was showing some cleaning products that Larna and

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other people that she invited could buy. Lorna asked the workers at the lawndrette

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if they wanted to come to her
house that night. They said they couldn't

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make it, but they asked her
if she could order them some products anyway.

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She agreed and left the lawndrette that
night. It was known that the

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salesman did go around with the cleaning
products and the brochures, but that no

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one else that Lorna had invited could
go. The salesman later stated that Larna

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seemed relaxed and there appeared nothing wrong
with her that evening. He said he

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left her home at about nine to
fifteen pm. Lorna was not seen again

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that night, and it looked as
though she stayed at home for the rest

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of the evening. The next morning, it was known that Lorna had her

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papers delivered, and then the last
sighting of her was again at the laundrette

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later on that morning. The workers
at the laundrett would later state that she

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was her usual bubbly and positive self, and she informed them that she had

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ordered the cleaning products for them the
previous night. She also told them something

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interesting. She stated that she had
an interview with a writer in North London

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and the job was to be a
traveling nanny. She seemed excited and optimistic

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about this opportunity while discussing this with
them. This was the last time that

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Lorna was seen alive, and it
was thought that she must have been murdered

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at some point after this interaction.
This last piece of information was interesting,

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as Detective Superintendent Paul Richards, who
was leading the investigation at the time,

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would clarify on the Crime Watch program. He said that Lorna had actually already

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been for the interview at the time
that she spoke to the workers about and

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at that point she already knew she
hadn't got the job. It seems of

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interest that she would act as though
she didn't know this information when she spoke

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to the women. Detective Superintendent Richard
stated that he believed that Lorna was someone

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who didn't want to fail and believed
in success, and this may have been

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why she didn't tell the whole truth
about the situation that day. It does

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beg the question, though, why
did she bring it up in the first

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place. Detective Superintendent Richards discussed possible
theories as to what happened to Laurna that

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day and explained that the main line
of inquiry was that this was someone who

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knew her. He theorized this as
most people are killed by someone who they

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know, but also for another reason. He said that Lorna was very cautious

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and didn't just let anyone in.
She was known to always keep her door

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locked and peep around the curtains before
letting anyone into her home. This implied

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that whoever did come to her home
that day was someone who she knew.

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The police stated that they had spoken
to two hundred people about Lorna and everyone

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had been very cooperative. They said, despite this, no one had come

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forward about the party that Lorna went
to wearing the gold dress she had got

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from Young's Court. They said this
was very distinctive and someone would have recognized

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it. Police theorized that the party
was happening on the Doddington estate where Young's

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Court was located, but as of
that time nobody had confirmed this. On

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the program, they also had a
calendar and an address book that had belonged

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to Lorna and was found in her
home. The calendar had been hung up

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in her living room and they were
interested in one date that was on there.

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It said wedding on August the ninth, and police wanted to know whose

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wedding this was and who had invited
her to it. They also had her

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diary which had a note written in
pencil on the second of August. The

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note just said party, and police
also wanted to know where this was and

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who had also invited her there.
At the end of the program, Detective

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Superintendent Richard stated that the person who
committed this murder may not have meant to

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murder Horna that night, and that
this could have just been an accident due

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to the one stab wound they found. They stressed that they were open minded

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about this. Since this segment on
Crime Watch, however, it is as

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though Conna's case has been forgotten about
by many. There are very few mentions

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of her case, and despite some
attention nationally due to the program, this

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did not transfer into solid leads about
who committed this murder. Lorna was clearly

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a very popular young woman who was
well known to neighbors and had a group

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of friends. Nobody could give police
even one reason why someone would have harmed

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her. So what exactly would have
been the motive for the murder? If

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this was someone who knew her,
which seemed likely given that Lorna did not

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let people in without knowing them,
then why did they harmer? Had this

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really been an accident as suggested by
police. It has been stated by one

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source that I read that Lorna was
divorced with a twelve year old son.

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However, this was not mentioned on
the Crime Watch program, and so I

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am unclear if this is true or
whether it wasn't mentioned as it wasn't relevant

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to the case. If it is
true, then I really feel for Lorna's

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son, who doesn't know what happened
to his mother. What struck me when

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I heard Lorna's story was that there
was a lot about her life we don't

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know. As much as everyone talked
about her as popular and always being seen

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around, there were questions unanswered about
her life. Why had she quit her

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job so suddenly, Why had she
abruptly traveled to Putney despite having plans.

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Why had she told the workers of
the lawn Drett she had an interview when

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she already had it and hadn't got
the job. Lorna's life is shrouded in

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quite a lot of mystery, and
this must be part of the reason why

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her murder has still not been solved. It's tragic that there is so little

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out there about Lorna's case, and
she deserves better. I believe someone out

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there knows what happened to Lorna,
and it would just take the right person

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to come forward and do the right
thing. If you know anything about Lorna

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Hale murder, then please contact police
on one oh one. Thank you for

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listening to today's episode. If you'd
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our ways. I'm Caprice and this has

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been unseen b