British murder victims
The murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, two young women from London, England, occurred in separate, sexually motivated attacks by the same unidentified individual during 1975. Stratford was a bunny girl and Weedon was a schoolgirl who was killed almost six months later, on the other side of London. After Weedon's cold case was re-opened in 2004, new DNA techniques revealed that she and Stratford had been murdered by the same person. Stratford's case was re-opened in 2007, but neither case has been solved. A £40,000 reward for information leading to the killer remains on offer.
Stratford's and Weedon's murders have been linked to other cases, in particular the murder of Elizabeth Parravincina in September 1977, which occurred only away from the site of the attack on Weedon and almost exactly two years to the day after. The murder occurred in almost identical circumstances, and police themselves linked the killings. The perpetrator is, therefore, likely to be an uncaught serial killer, a term usually used to describe repeat killers who have killed at least three victims.
Eve Stratford.
Elizabeth Eve Stratford was born in Dortmund, West Germany on 28 December 1953 to Albert and Liza Stratford. Her mother was German, and met her father, an English medic in the Royal Army Medical Corps, in the 1940s. He was serving as part of the British Army of Occupation on the Rhine in the aftermath of the Second World War. As a youth Stratford won three beauty contests in Germany. The family moved around the world during Stratford's childhood, eventually settling in Aldershot, Hampshire. 
In 1972, she moved with her boyfriend Tony Priest, the lead singer of Onyx (later Vineyard), to Leyton, east London. Two other members of the band also shared the flat. At the time of her death, Stratford was a Playboy Club Bunny in Park Lane. She had started work at the club in 1973, recommended by a friend. She lived a glamorous lifestyle and regularly socialised with others, including famous figures such as Sid James and Eric Morecambe, and knew many other high-profile individuals. As a model she sometimes referred to herself as "Eva Von Bock" and was also known as "Bunny Ava".
In March 1975, only a few days before she was killed, Stratford appeared on the front cover of "Mayfair" magazine, an adult magazine for men, as "girl of the month". She was suspended for breach of contract by her club since she had posed for a rival publication. The magazine was said to be "on the top shelf of every newsagent in March that year". Police would later conclude that the magazine cover had likely enticed her killer.
Murders.
Stratford.
On Tuesday 18 March 1975, Stratford was found dead by her partner at their flat at 61a Lyndhurst Drive, Leyton. Her throat had been cut between eight and twelve times from ear to ear, while her neck and face were extensively mutilated, with detectives stating it was one of the most horrific murder scenes they had ever seen. 
She was found partially unclothed with a nylon stocking tied around one ankle and her hands were bound with a scarf. She was dressed only in a flimsy pink bra and panties and a flimsy blue nylon negligee open at the front. There was a strong suggestion she had been sexually assaulted, and semen was found on vaginal swabs. There was no sign of forced entry to the property, nor were there any signs of a struggle. A peculiar cloying scent was left by her attacker in the room where she was found.
Police found that on the day of her death, Stratford had visited Camden to see her agent and then went to a promotions consultancy in Bayswater. As far as detectives could tell, she had made the journey home on her own and was not seen with anybody else. She began to travel home at 3:30 p.m. and walked from Leytonstone tube station to her flat, last being seen by a neighbour walking towards her residence while wearing a floppy hat and holding some dried flowers. At 4:30 p.m., the women living below her flat heard a male and female voice talking, apparently calmly, followed by a thud and then the sound of footsteps. It was 5:20 p.m. when her boyfriend returned to find her dead. Stratford's murder was featured prominently in the press, in part due to her "glamorous" occupation and public profile.
Weedon.
The killer struck again later that year. Sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Lynne Weedon was hit over the head with a blunt object and raped on 3 September 1975, six months after Stratford's murder and on the other side of London. That night she had gone out to celebrate her O-level results with friends at the Elm Tree pub on New Heston Road in Hounslow, near to where she lived in Lampton Road. 
Weedon began to travel home at 11:00 p.m., parting company with her friends on the Great West Road before crossing over and continuing her journey home on her own through an alleyway named Short Hedges (now 'School Walk', it is used by pupils walking to the adjacent Lampton School). Weedon had previously vowed never to use the alleyway after dark as it was frequented by prowlers, but on the night she decided to take the shortcut. In this alleyway, at approximately 11:20 p.m., she was struck over the head with a heavy object similar to a piece of lead pipe, fracturing her skull. Her attacker then lifted her over gates and into the grounds of a power substation, before dragging her out of sight and raping her. She was discovered the next morning by the caretaker of the neighbouring school, Victor Voice, and despite her injuries was still alive; she died a week later in hospital without regaining consciousness.
Around the time of the murder, a man out walking his dog had seen a white male walking down the alleyway. Other witnesses described seeing a man, believed to be the same individual, running across the Great West road into the alleyway. It is believed that this man was Weedon's attacker.
Initial investigations.
Police were convinced that the magazine piece Stratford had appeared in the same month she died had lured Stratford's sexually motivated killer to her. They believed that the killer had traced her address and then attacked her. That month's magazine featured naked photoshoots of her alongside an interview in which she concluded that she liked to be submissive sexually, stating:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;If a man is truly a man and not effeminate in any way, he'll know how to handle me. I like to be dominated. Not whipped and tied up, or things like that. But just kept in my place. I get very bored with straight sex. I like playing little games with my lovers to turn us both on."
She further commented that she found it "quite easy to turn men on" and "I do tend to flirt and tease rather a lot, I just get a kick out of turning men on". Her colleagues reportedly were shocked at her 'outspoken' comments about her sexual life. Police also noted that, although she had three housemates, she said in the article that she lived alone with her cat. Detectives believed she may have been spotted by her killer and followed home to her flat before being murdered. Stratford was said to have been upset about the "Mayfair" cover, believing it made her sound lesbian. Stratford was bisexual and stated in the article that she liked men and women.
The facts that there were no defence wounds and that no-one had heard any screams or shouts suggested Stratford knew her killer, but it was also considered that she could have been terrified enough to simply comply with the attacker's demands. The bouquet of flowers she was seen carrying home was found discarded in the hallway of the apartment ground-floor entrance and not up in her first-floor rooms, suggesting that she was confronted by her killer almost immediately after entering the house. It was also observed that the bouquet of dried flowers and grasses were similar to those Stratford had posed with in the "Mayfair" magazine cover.
Detectives considered the possibility that her killer was a secret lover she had invited round, but considered this unlikely, as she would have known that her boyfriend could have returned home at any time. However, there was also no sign of a forced entry. An alternative theory considered was that the attacker was a friend or acquaintance she may have let in.
Other bunny girls at Stratford's club were interviewed and it emerged that some had received obscene phone calls in the lead up to the murder. One girl, Marilyn Looms, had received death threats following her own nude centrefold in "Mayfair". Detectives found that Stratford had herself received a number of intrusive phone calls in the days leading up to her death, in which the caller had either hung up without speaking or had whispered obscenities over the line. It was also discovered that she had received three mysterious phone calls on the very day she died. Each time she had answered the phone the caller said nothing and then cut the line dead.
Searches of nearby gardens, dust bins and drains following Stratford's murder failed to find the murder weapon, but did uncover a badly torn copy of the magazine which had featured Stratford days before her death (although other pornographic magazines were also found there). Two photofit pictures were released by detectives of two men seen in the vicinity of the murder site that day which officers wished to speak to. One was described as being in his late 30s or early 40s, of medium height with a peculiar limping gait and ruddy complexion. The other was about the same age but taller and with thick, black wavy hair. Nothing came of these photofit appeals.
Stratford had previously complained about a man who lurked near her house and followed her, but nothing was known of him other than her description of him as having a peculiarly strained and stiff walk. There were claims that an aggrieved Arab associate had tried to run Stratford down as she left her Park Lane club one night some months before her death, suggesting the man may have had a vendetta against her, but nothing came of this.
In October 1975, police in Liverpool found newspaper reports of Stratford's brutal killing smeared with lipstick in an empty bedsit. Also at the scene were magazine photos of the model, which appeared to have been stabbed with a dart. The landlord had discovered the items after cleaning up the flat after it was vacated by two male tenants. By 1976, all leads had been exhausted by the original Stratford investigative team and the murder inquiry was wound down. The murder weapon was never found.
Cold case investigations.
In 2004, the Weedon investigation was re-opened. In 2007, new DNA technology unexpectedly showed that the murders of Stratford and Weedon were committed by the same person. As a result of the link, Stratford's case was re-opened. Sixteen of the main suspects in the murders had their DNA taken, but none matched the killer's sample. Both cases were featured in September 2007 on the BBC "Crimewatch" programme, where DCI Andy Mortimer stated that "without a shadow of a doubt" both murders were sexually motivated. It was noted that the attacker had, on both occasions, taken the weapon to the scene before taking it away with him, clearly indicating that they were premeditated attacks for sexual motivation. 
Mortimer stated that he was sure that the man seen going in to the alleyway in which Weedon was murdered was her attacker, and investigators believed that the man had stalked her as she walked from the Great West Road to the alleyway. Mortimer said that it was very unlikely that the killer had only committed these two murders and never committed another crime ever again, stating that the attacker probably committed offences both before and after the attacks. Operation Stealth, the police operation which has been investigating unsolved murders since 2008, received funding to continue work until the end of 2011.
On 25 March 2015, police issued a fresh appeal to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the murder of Stratford. One month later, in April, the murders were again featured on "Crimewatch",