The Cromwell Street Murders by John Bennett

Author:John Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective’s Story
ISBN: 9780752471297
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2011-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-ONE

At last there was encouraging news on the identity of some of the remains. Dr Whittaker was confident he knew who four of the victims were and was able to give the approximate age of four of the others. Professor Knight had sent him the skulls from the eight sets of remains, which, in the absence of any other means of identification, were still referred to as Remains 1–8. Whittaker’s analysis showed the skull from Remains 1 was that of Heather West, Remains 3 Shirley Robinson, Remains 6 Lucy Partington and Remains 8 Lynda Gough.

As for the others, Remains 2 was a girl approximately 17–18 years old, Remains 4 a woman in her early twenties – but not Juanita Mott – Remains 5 were not those of Carol Cooper but a girl aged about 16, and Remains 7 a girl aged approximately 17–18 who might be Juanita Mott. Then again, either Juanita or Carol could have been Remains 9. He would consider both possibilities in due course – there was no room for guesswork.

Dr Whittaker’s research was based on a combination of the information supplied by Professor Knight and available dental records. If there were no dental records or only old or partial ones then he would use his photographic imaging comparison system, though that too depended on the strict criteria he had previously outlined. For him to commit himself to giving a name to a set of remains, or at least a skull, he had to be 100 per cent sure and he updated the police as the percentages changed and identification drew nearer. He had explained all this to Bennett and Moore, who, with tongue in cheek, asked when, percentagewise, they could feel a victim would ultimately be identified to his satisfaction and that of the Gloucester coroner and the courts.

‘When I say I am comfortable, 60 per cent or more,’ was his reply. It was a real breakthrough.

The police had a lot of information about Juanita Mott and Carol Cooper, including dental records, but still very little was known about Alison Chambers and virtually nothing of Shirley Hubbard that would take their identification further.

As for the ‘Dutch girl’, ‘Tulip’, or ‘Truck’ as West was now calling the hitch-hiker he had picked up near Monmouth, there was even a possibility he was referring to two girls rather than one. Either way, there were already over 130 possibles, all of them foreign nationals whose details had come from various sources including Interpol, other police forces, direct from families, the Metropolitan Police Missing Persons Bureau, the National Missing Persons Helpline charity, Salvation Army and the media. The number had been whittled down from more than 500 simply by removing males and others who were outside the age ranges given by Professor Knight or Dr Whittaker, but the search was no longer restricted to Holland as it was now evident West had no real idea what language this victim spoke. He thought it was Dutch so he called her the ‘Dutch girl’.

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