Eve Stratford grave (28th December 1953 to 18th March 1975)

 

Unusually a Playboy bunny who lived the high life in London is buried in a pretty churchyard east of Warrington. I'm not sure why her body was brought north for burial. Eve was a vivacious, dazzling 21-year-old model when she was murdered in her flat in 1975. Her murderer has not been caught. In 2007 a DNA tracing showed the killer had also raped and murdered a schoolgirl in the same year.

 

Eve was living with her boyfriend in Leyton and working as a Playboy bunny and model. People who knew her were confounded by her death as she was earthy, popular, harmless and naive - with no obvious enemies. On her final day detectives deduced she'd arrived at Leytonstone Underground rail station in East London at 3.45pm and walked nearly a mile to her apartment in a light shower. Once home she'd taken off her wet clothes and put on a negligee and underwear. That afternoon she let someone she knew into the flat and was raped and murdered. Later her boyfriend arrived home to silence and a sickening bloodbath. Eve was wearing a pink bra and knickers under a blue transparent negligee open at the front. Her hands were tied behind her back. Her throat had been cut so violently that her head was almost severed.



No forced entry at the door suggested she knew her killer and her neighbours heard no screams. Her killer probably clamped his hand over her mouth while he cut her throat. Police concluded she'd probably met her killer on the way home. A neighbour remembered hearing Eve and a man talking and - later on - a thud.


Motives are still guessed at: she'd a appeared nude in Mayfair magazine and may have inflamed jealousy. In the magazine she'd said "I like to be dominated," she said. "Not whipped or tied up or things like that. Just kept in my place." These fictional comments meant accompany the photos may have encouraged a maniac. Perhaps one of the wealthy Arabs who frequented the Playboy Club had become infatuated with her. Forensic evidence showed she's had sex before her death. She may have been forced to have intercourse at knife-point but the fact that she put her underwear back on afterwards suggested a relaxed atmosphere with no hint of the violence that was to follow.

 

Her partner Tony Priest lived with Eve for three years and told police that in the days before her death Eve had received telephone calls where the caller simply hung up. Also she'd noticed a man following her.

 

One Sunday afternoon I soon found the grave in a pretty churchyard. I'm not sure why she's buried in the north west of England. Eve's mum was from Germany (Eve was born there) where she’d met her dad who was serving in the British Army. The family had returned to Britain four years before her murder so perhaps they lived locally. There's no headstone as its been vandalised and either smashed up or removed. There were red roses and a Valentine card on the grave.

 

What a sad tale. The pathologist said that even though Eve had been suffered numerous deep wounds to her neck and jaw her death probably came from shock before blood loss.

 

For more information please click here:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Eve_Stratford_and_Lynne_Weedon

 

 

The apartment where Eve was murdered...