Horrific injuries Playboy Bunny victim suffered and grim detail that links case

14 November 2023 , 19:55

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Nearly 50 years ago, Playboy Bunny Eve Stratford was the victim of an unsolved murder that sent shock waves through London's nightlife scene. The 21-year-old model, who mingled with celebrities and was popular with regulars at Mayfair's notorious Playboy Club, was horrifically mutilated in her own home in 1975.

The killer walked away without punishment and remains unidentified to this very day. Over the years, DNA evidence and inquiries have linked Eve's death to two other murders in the seventies. Tonight, the second half of ITV's two-part documentary The Playboy Bunny Murder reinvestigates the connections between the three cold cases.

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Eve Stratford was found dead at home with her throat slashed 12 times in 1975

The Playboy Bunny Murder explores the links between the three cases

Marcel Theroux, who presents the docuseries, has spent four years trying to find police files on the case and look for potential breakthroughs. "This is a story that has obsessed me for years. How could a serial killer kill multiple victims in 1970s London and remain unknown? What evidence was missed?" he said. "What clues were the police of the time unable to make use of? As witnesses reach the ends of lives and memories fail, this might be the last chance to get justice for the three victims."

On March 17, 1975, Eve was found dead by her boyfriend, musician Tony Priest, and his bandmate in her home. Her throat had been slashed around 12 times, so savagely that her head was almost severed. She had been raped and was tied up with her own stockings, one tying her arms behind her back and the other securing her ankles.

There were no signs of a break-in, leading police to believe she knew her killer. Six months after her death, schoolgirl Lynne Weedon, 16, was brutally attacked and raped in an alleyway near her home. She was found barely alive the next day and sadly died a week later in hospital on September 10, 1975. Her cause of death was a single blow to the head. The weapon was never recovered.

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Lynne Weedon was brutally attacked and raped in 1975, and DNA evidence later connected the killer to Eve's (PA)

In 2004, Metropolitan Police officers reexamined Lynne's case and recovered DNA that linked both of the murders. In 2015, Lynne's mother, Margeret Weedon, made an impassionate plea for information. She said: "It has been 40 years since our beautiful young daughter Lynne was violently taken from us. We are well aware that whoever murdered Lynne also murdered Eve Stratford. That young lady also had her life snubbed out. Her family has died now. Another true life sentence."

A third victim, mum-of-two Lynda Farrow, is believed to have been murdered by the same unknown killer. The 29-year-old croupier was four months pregnant when she was stabbed to death in her home in east London on January 19, 1979. She was found by her two daughters, aged eight and 11. Former detective chief inspector Colin Sutton carried out a review of the evidence in Lynda's case in 2002 and said he had no doubt that whoever killed Eve and Lynne also murdered Lynda.

Mum Lynda Farrow was found dead at home with her throat slit in 1979 (REX/Shutterstock)

A former chief inspector has 'no doubt' Lynda's killer is the same unknown man (Mirrorpix)

It was Lynda's grim cause of death and location - at her home in London - that had DCI Sutton convinced they were linked. "I have no doubt the same man committed all three," he said. "I was quickly struck by the similarities with that of Eve Stratford. A woman killed in her own home by having her throat slit? That is rare enough today, in the 1970s it was almost unheard of. For this to have happened twice, with identical wounds, within a few miles of each other was just too much of a coincidence."

During a 2015 interview, the inspector revealed more: "It has tantalised and burned in me ever since. With Eve Stratford, all the evidence was available, which enabled us to send items away for modern scientific analysis. In Lynda's case, it was the reverse. This was particularly disappointing, as the physical evidence in Lynda's murder has never been checked for DNA, cutting off an important detection route."

DCI Sutton explained the killer is likely alive and still undiscovered. "The fact that the Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon DNA profile remains unmatched tells us their killer has not been arrested in the past 20 years. I have no doubt the same man committed all three murders," he said. "Did he die, or move abroad? My gut feeling tells me he is still out there somewhere and still nervous about a knock on his door."