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
discussing the awful murder of Jenny Ronaldson in nineteen eighty. Her death came as
a shock to everyone and it was so out of the blue that no one
could understand it. As the years passed, there will be much speculation as
to whether some suspects already known to police had been involved with it. However,
Jenny's murder remains unsolved. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find
distressing, including discussion about sexual assault and rape, so listener discretion is advised.
The Isle of Dogs is a large pininchia below which is located in East
London and is surrounded on three sides by different districts, including Canary Wharf,
which is the heart of the capital's business district. The Isle of Dogs is
located in a meander in the River Thames, and there is debate as to
where it gained its distinctive name. However, mentions of it do date back
hundreds of years. The area itself is very diverse and there's a severe amount
of social inequality that can be seen there. There are many very wealthy areas
and people due to the business district, but it's also at one time had
the highest concentration of social housing in England. On the twenty fourth of November
nineteen eighty something else occurred in the Isle of Dogs which caused a certain amount
of shock and intrigue. That day, something was spotted floating in the river
and the scene didn't look right. It was found to be the body of
a woman, and when the body was later retrieved, it was clear that
this woman had been the victim of a vicious and brutal attack. She was
found to have been gagged, bound and it looked as though she had been
beaten. This was a horrendous recovery and there was an immediate murder investigation launched.
It was clear that whatever had happened to this woman, she had been
killed in some horrendous circumstances. Police began investigating the scene and trying to work
out who this victim could be. Without an identity, trying to figure out
what had happened to her and who did it would be difficult. This is
often the case with unidentified person cases, and many of these people are found
in bodies of water. Therefore, it's crucial that this woman be identified.
The police did have some clues, however, as when they scoured missing person
reports from the area in the time before the discovery, they noticed a woman
who fit a similar description to the woman that had been found. Nineteen year
old Jenny Ronaldson had disappeared sometime after the twenty sixth of October nineteen eighty,
around a month before the body had been recovered. She had still not been
located, and so police began to look into whether this could be her.
After further investigation and analysis, a positive identification was made. The woman was
Jenny Ronaldson. This discovery was shocking as she'd been viciously attacked and when she
was found she had a gag in her mouth and was wearing just a bra.
Police suspected that the attack had been sexually motivated. This was later confirmed
as it was found that Jenny had been raped. Following a post mortem,
the coroner reported on her death certificate that her cause of death was due to
asphyxia, gagging, and construction of the neck. How had this happened though,
and why? The brutality of the tax seemed incongruent with the victim.
Jenny was an unlikely victim, which is why when she went missing at the
end of October, her friends and family were immediately worried. Jenny has been
described as a reliable, quiet and unassuming person. According to those that knew
her, She was also hard working and was building a career for herself in
the Capitol. She worked as a nurse at Guy's Hospital, a well known
hospital located in southok in central London. It's been widely known as a teaching
hospital and has history dating back to seventeen twenty one. Many well esteemed people
have worked at Guy's Hospital at one time or another, and by all accounts,
Jenny was happy to be working there. She has been described as being
devoted to her job and despite her young age, was dedicated to her profession.
It was that Guy's Hospital that she'd last been seen by anyone. Jenny's
colleagues later reported that she was last seen in the staff canteen at the hospital
on Sunday, the twenty sixth of October, around two pm. She was
in there having a cup of tea and told her colleagues that she planned on
going for a sightseeing trip to Petticoat Lane now that she had finished work.
Petticoat Lane is located in the east end of London, in the Spittlefield area,
and has long been known for its market stalls. It's the location of
the oldest and most famous market stalls in London, and they sell many different
types of objects, from clothes to fruit and vegetables. It's thought that the
name may have come from the fact that during the sixteen hundreds, many street
names were named after what was sold there, which in this case was petticoats.
The area therefore has a historical attraction for many people, and this still
continues to day. While Petticoat Lane itself doesn't now exist, the Petticoat Lane
market does, and many people still visit the markets there, as well as
the Spittlefield Markets and Brick Lane nearby. It would not have been seen as
unusual then when Jenny explained that she wanted to visit the markets that Sunday,
and so her colleagues didn't think much about it. Having left work that day,
her colleagues never saw her again. There didn't appear to be anything to
suggest that there was anything unusual about that day, and this was the thing
that seemed so strange what had happened after Jenny had left work. A forty
man detective squad, which was led by Chief Superintendent William Humphreys, was put
on the case and they immediately began to try and track down anyone that knew
anything about Jenny or what had happened that day. The police appealed for anyone
that may have noticed Jenny on the twenty sixth of October when she disappeared.
Particularly, they were interested in finding anyone that had seen her after two thirty
pm, when it was known that she had left the hospital. The police
were also interested in any information that they could get about how Jenny's purse and
glasses had ended up in the Thames close to Whopping water front nine days after
her disappearance. Before Jenny's body had been recovered, these items had been found,
the police wanted to know how exactly they got there and the circumstances surrounding
their discovery. Whopping is located around three miles from the Aisle of Dogs,
where Jenny's body had eventually been found. Where had Jenny's body been put into
the river and how exactly had this been done? Where had Jenny encountered her
killer. Police decided to employ a strategy which had been done in other cases,
usually with the help of a female police officer. In this case,
they were able to ask Jenny's twin sister, Linda, to take part in
a reconstruction of events and retrace Jenny's steps that day that she had left work.
Linda was at University and Hull and she agreed to be part of the
reconstruction and walked with police tracing the same journey. They came out of Guy's
Hospital entrance and then went down Saint Thomas's Street. Jenny's journey route wasn't exactly
known, however, it's clear that if Jenny was planning on heading to Petticoat
Lane Market, then she would have headed across London Bridge and cross the Thames
into Whitechapel and the Spittlefields area. This would have placed her on the same
side of the Thames that her glasses, purse and body were eventually found.
The walk to the market taken around half an hour, and the location would
suggest that she did make it to the market that day. There is little
that has been published about what was known to police, or even if Jenny
did walk the entire distance that day. There has been nothing published to suggest
if she got on a tube or if she traveled there in any other way.
The lack of concrete evidence in this case, no doubt, hindered progress
early on. Jenny's twin sister wanted to be involved with the reconstruction and stated
at the time, I felt this had to be done. I think you've
got to try and switch yourself after in the reconstruction, otherwise it could become
too distressing. She added, she would be happy to see whoever did this
locked away so he can't do any more damage. Hopefully seeing me today may
have jogged someone's memory. It was hoped that this retracing of Jenny's steps would
indeed jog someone's memory, and that someone may remember seeing her that day.
Jenny's family were devastated by what had happened to her, and they, like
everyone else, couldn't understand why anyone would have wanted to kill her. Jenny's
parents, Peter and Margaret, were living in Kenya at the time that Jenny
was murdered, and they immediately traveled over to London. They also appealed to
the public for their help to try and figure out what had happened. Peter
said, any member of the public who saw or recall anything should come forward.
At the time, it might not have meant anything, but in retrospect
it might come back. Margaret echoed this, saying anyone who has any ideas
at all who think that they may have seen something suspicious that Sunday should please
please contact police. The issue that police had was that there didn't appear to
be anyone that saw anything suspicious that day and information was not as far coming
as they hoped it would be. Jenny had left work in the middle of
the day in the busiest city in the UK, and it seemed that someone
had murdered her and dumped her body in the River Thames without anyone noticing anything.
This must have been a source of frustration for everyone involved. The other
frustrating thing for police was that this case seemed to be a stranger murder,
which it was known, was one of the most difficult to solve. Any
progress on the case seemed to slow as nineteen eighty turned into nineteen eighty one,
and the detectives were still at a loss for what could have happened.
The lines of inquiry didn't seem to be leading anywhere. In April nineteen eighty
one, at Thames Report on the TV discussed Jenny's case and explained that at
that time there had been a series of other unreported attacks on women in the
area, with these attacks linked to Jenny's. This wasn't known, however,
it was a line of inquiry that detectives were looking into at the time.
The brutality of the crime was a concern, and it was clear from the
outset that police were worried about this perpetrator possibly striking again, or that this
person had already attacked women before. Detective Chief Superintendent William Humphreys said at the
time, the danger is that someone who commits this savage type of murder may
strike again. This was the concern. However, months passed and then this
turned into years, and Jenny's murder remained unsolved. Whoever had committed this murder
seemed to have got away with it. Jenny's murder was left to the occasional
case review and the hope that some one would come forward with information that would
finally answer what happened to her. It wasn't until two thousand and one that
newspapers once again began reporting on Jenny's case. This time the headlines read the
thriller killers was Nurse in River murder number four. This was a startling headline
and emerging from the uncertainty of Jenny's case came some possible suspects, David mulcay
and John Duffy. During nineteen eighty two and eighty three, nineteen women were
attacked and sexually assaulted in and around North London. These women were attacked at
night and close to railway stations. These rapes continued in nineteen eighty four,
and its reported that three women were raped on the same night in nineteen eighty
five in Hendon, Northeast London. These attacks were taken very seriously by the
Metropolitan Police. An Operation Heart was launched to try track down who could be
committing these attacks. The women were all describing very similar circumstances. They had
been attacked by two men. One of these men were shot with ginger hair
and the other man was larger. It appeared that these attacks were linked and
that these two men were working together to commit many of these crimes. The
police were extremely interested in tracking down these two men, and they did have
some evidence from the attacks. The evidence was subject to blood grouping analysis.
However, this analysis was not as precise as later DNA technology and could only
allocate the blood group of the suspect. The issue with this was that this
blood group could apply to many different people in the population, and so could
not be used to accurately discover who these perpetrators were. On the twenty ninth
of December nineteen eighty five, the murder of Alison Day brought the rape investigation
and now a murder investigation together. Allison's case was later featured on Crime Watch,
and the reconstruction shows the eerie events surrounding her initial disappearance and later the
discovery of her body. Alison had been traveling from her home in Romford in
East London to hackney Wick, also in East London. The area was relatively
industrial, and Allison's fiance worked at a printer's in the area. Many of
the businesses were shut down for the Christmas period, but Alison's fiance was working
that day and he'd phoned her to see whether she wanted to come and give
him some company that night. She agreed and set out, catching the tube
and the train to get there. The journey was relatively short, However,
when Alison got to Hackney Wick, she may have found herself a little confused
as to how to get to the Printers from the station. Allison hadn't visited
her fiance at work before. The crimewatch reconstruction stated that Allison may have used
a phone box to ring a taxi company. However, this is unclear.
A woman did ring a taxi company from that location, but never identified herself
as Alison Day. Whatever the circumstances were, Alison never arrived at the Printers
to see her fiance. She simply disappeared until seventeen days later her body was
found in the nearby River Lee. She had been weighed down with stones in
her pockets and her blouse had been ripped into three pieces and it was used
to gag and bind her. The third piece was then used to strangle her.
It was unclear who had committed this at the time, and crimewatch was
used as a way to try and appeal for more information. The proximity to
a train station and the evidence of a brutal sexual assault, however, made
police believe that this murder could be in some way related to the other sexual
assaults that had been happening in other areas of London. There was no evidence
presented for this at the time. However, the newspapers began to change the
name of the Railway Rapist, which they had given to the perpetrators of the
previous assaults, to the railway Killers. On April the seventeenth, nineteen eighty
six, another shocking murder was committed, this time close to West Harsley Station
in Surrey. Fifteen year old march of Tambosa's body was found in some woods
and it was badly charred. It was clear that she had also been raped
and strangled, and then an attempt had been made to burn her body.
Marcher had been riding her bike to buy some sweets from a shop near West
Harsley Station when she was attacked. Her watch had stopped at five thirty five
pm, and this gave police an indication of and this had occurred. The
location of her murder close to another station was again a possible link to the
same perpetrators. There was also something else that linked the murders of Alison Day
and Marcher Tambosa. A fact that wasn't released to the public, but there
was kept back. Was the way in which both women had been strangled,
a tornaquet had been fashioned, and in Marcher's case, a piece of wood
had been left at the scene next to the body. This led police to
believe that the same killer had murdered Marcher, Unlike Alison's murder, though there
was forensic evidence recovered from her body. Police had a sample of DNA from
the killer, and it was revealed that the man responsible was blood group A
and that he was a secret meaning that he biologically secreted blood into other bodily
fluids like saliva and in this case, seamen. Despite only having the blood
group, it would help to narrow down a list of suspects, and police
set about trying to find out he was responsible for this by using an early
version of the Homes Database, the Home Office Large Major Inquiry System, which
was set up to cross reference information from across the country. This eventually linked
the forensic profile to a rape in central London which was unsolved. Through tracking
down as many of these suspects as possible, they finally managed to narrow it
down to one name, John Duffy. John Duffy was known to police for
being violent towards his wife and he'd been arresting in nineteen eighty six for following
a woman in a park. When he was arrested, items related to march
As murder were discovered and other victims of rape began to come forward. In
nineteen eighty eight, he was charged with three murders and several rapes. The
third murder charge came from the murder of Anne Lock in May nineteen eighty six.
Anne had been at work as a secretary at London Weekend Television on May
eighteenth, nineteen eighty six, and had traveled from King's Cross station to Brookman's
Park station in Hertfordshire around nine forty five pm. This was a well known
commuter train which Anne got on regularly. When she didn't return home, her
newly red husband called police to report her missing. A large scale search began,
but they couldn't seem to locate Anne. Her family began to fear the
worst, and it wasn't until nine weeks later that her body was found.
Despite large scale searches done in the area around Brookman's Park station. Railway workers
found her body on an embankment, with her hands tied behind her back and
a sock in her mouth to gag her. It was clear that she had
been murdered and believed to be strangled, but police couldn't get any more forensic
evidence from her body due to the severe decomposition and weeks out in the open.
There were similarities to the previous murders, however, and particularly her proximity
to a train station. John Duffy was charged with Anne's murder as well as
Allison and Marchers. John Duffy was eventually convicted of two murders and four rapes.
He was convicted of Allison and Marchers, but not Anne's. This was
due to the lack of forensic evidence that had been recovered from Anne's body given
the amount of time that had elapsed between her disappearance and her body's discovery.
This was no doubt disappointing for both the police and Anne's family, who believed
that John Duffy was responsible for her murder. John Duffy was sent to prison,
and this is the way that the cases stayed. However, police were
sure that John Duffy had not acted alone. Many of the rape victims had
described two men involved with the attacks, and given the circumstances surrounding the murders,
they knew that John Duffy could not have committed them alone. While in
prison, Duffy began to speak to a forensic psychologist, and he eventually began
to admit there was someone else involved with the attacks. He didn't explain who
this other person was to begin with, but then eventually gave them a name,
David Mulkayhey. Duffy and Mulkayhe were childhood friends, having attended Havelock School
in North London together from an early age. They were committing crimes together,
and Duffy explained to police that he and Mulkayhy began what they called hunting together,
looking for women to attack. This eventually escalated into murdering some of the
women that they had attacked. The pair had a ruse where one man would
approach the woman and the other man would then grab her. They became very
skilled at it, as John Duffy would explain. He also explained in detail
about Annlocke's murder, saying that he and mulkay He had committed it. Duffy
could now not be tried for her murder due to double jeopardy laws, However,
he could be for her rape. Mulkay was now in the police sights
and he could be charged with all three murders and the rapes based on Duffy's
testimony. They did end up connecting Mulkaye to the crimes in other ways too.
He was put under police surveillance for several months before being arrested in nineteen
ninety nine. Mulkay was a married father of four at that time, and
police got a conclusive conclusion when DNA linked him to the evidence that they already
had. Mulkaye denied all charge as at trial and said he was innocent.
However, he was eventually convicted of all three murders seven rapes and was given
a whole life sentence. John Duffy was subsequently convicted of the seven rapes that
he had confessed to, and he received an additional twelve years added on to
his life sentence. The news of the two men's arrests and the crimes that
they had committed over the years caused shock waves across the country. The way
in which the men had worked together to hunt down women to sexually assault,
attack and murder was sickening and terrifying, and the callous way in which they
left their victims was unnerving. Their arrests finally meant that Annlocke's family got some
justice for her, even if one of the perpetrators was convicted of the crime.
The arrest caused many people to wonder whether John Duffy and David Mulcahey could
have been responsible for more unsolved murders across the country, but particularly and around
London, whether two men were known to have attacked other women. Immediately after
Mulkay's conviction, police began looking to see if any other murders or rapes could
be linked to the two men. They appealed for any women who may have
been attacked by them to come forward. This must have been a difficult thing
for some survivors to do, given how difficult it is to report something like
this. When police looked into other murders that the men could possibly have committed,
one of the names that came up was that of Jenny Ronaldson. Jenny's
murder had occurred earlier than their other murders. However, the way in which
she had been attacked and killed was very similar to the other Duffy and mukay
He victims. She had been bound, gagged, beaten, and was found
just wearing her bra She had also been raped. She was also found in
water, which is how they found Alison Dave five years later. Nothing appears
to have been discovered, however, to definitively link Jenny Ronaldson to Duffy and
Mulkahe, and many of the articles that exist about the police reinvestigating it come
from two thousand and one. If Jenny's murder could be linked to them,
it would bring up an alarming suggestion that Duffy and Mulkahey were actively attacking and
murdering women five years before it was thought that they committed their first murder.
It has to be said that despite being linked to Duffy and mulkahere, there
is no definitive proof to say it was them, and every other theory for
what happens also remains. It's unclear what exactly did happen to Jenny Ronaldson,
but what is clear is that she was attacked and killed at some point after
she left Guy's Hospital and traveled in the direction of Petticoat Lane. Had she
reached her destination and had this happened afterwards, or had it happened along the
way. Jenny was just a normal young woman and drying her time in London
and making the most of her time sightseeing. She was a devoted nurse who
was helping people and she did not deserve to be brutally murdered in this way.
Her family also do not deserve the pain that they'd fell all these years
not knowing what happened to her and who did it. If you know anything
about the murder of Jenny Ronaldson in nineteen eighty, then please contact police on
one or one and tell them what you know. Any little detail could help
solve a crime, no matter how long has passed. Thank you for listening
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the show notes, as always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen