The Unsolved Murder Of Penny Bell
Mother of two stabbed to death in her car.
Mother of two and wife, Penny Bell was found stabbed to death in her jaguar in the car park of Gumell leisure Centre, Greenford, Middlesex on the 6th of June 1991. Her killer was seen by other drivers, yet, he has never been caught and charged with the brutal crime.
On the morning of the 6th of June 1991, Penny’s husband Alistair had left the family home at 8:30 am to head to work as an estate agent. Alistair described his wife to have been “bright” and “chirpy” that morning but noted that she didn’t wave him off as she usually did. He had assumed that it was die to disruption of the renovations that were taking place in the home in Barker’s Wood, a hamlet two miles from Denham, Buckinghamshire.
At 9:40 am, Penny left at her usual time but rather than heading to her catering employment agency, she told the builders at her home that she was late for an appointment at 9:50 am. The appointment she had mentioned wasn’t found in her business diary and her husband Alistair also wasn’t aware of it. After being informed of the appointment, he presumed that she must have received a last-minute phone call, however, the builders reported that Penny hadn’t received any calls that morning.
A van driver had seen Penny’s car at around 10 am and had overtaken her due to driving slow and her hazard lights were flashing. The driver stated that as he was overtaking Penny, he noticed a male passenger who appeared to be wrestling with her over the steering wheel. He reported that it appeared that Penny had wanted to steer the car to the side of the road whereas the passenger was ensuring the car stayed within the lane. It is suspected that Penny was going at 10–20 mph at this stage, thus allowing the van driver to see the male passenger and be able to provide a description. The description puts the male passenger at around forty years old with brown hair, possibly a beard, and that he wore a bracelet on his right wrist and was either wearing a dark blazer or jacket. A composite sketch was drawn up and released to the public.
Six months later, another witness would come forward to report that they had also seen Penny and that she had mouthed “help me”, the witness however carried on with what they were doing.
At 11 am, two women who were heading to the leisure Centre for a swim had seen Penny inside her car sitting upright, her hazard lights were still flashing, and her window wipers were scrapping against the windscreen, despite no rain that day. They had presumed that Penny was asleep and went for their swim. It wasn’t until the two women had exited the leisure Centre and made their way back in the same direction that they noticed blood splatter and raised the alert that a woman had been violently attacked in her car and that she may be dead.
When police had arrived on the scene, they had found that Penny had been stabbed to death. It would later be revealed that she was in fact stabbed 50 times in the chest and arms. The latter was suspected to be defensive wounds as forensics suggested that Penny had attempted to fight off her attacker. Given the van driver’s statement that Penny was wrestling for the wheel, it strengthens the claim that Penny did everything she could to survive. Robbery was ruled out as a motive once her handbag was noticed on the backseat and appeared to be untouched as all contents believed to have been in the bag, were still present.
With a composite sketch, forensic evidence such as skin under Penny’s nails that she would have retrieved from fighting for her life, and possible hair DNA from inside of the car; it seemed impossible for the killer to remain unknown and unconvicted. However, almost thirty years later, Penny Bell’s killer remains unknown and free, and it appears that it will sadly remain that way unless the killer confesses or new evidence is found.
Shortly after the news of the murder had broken out and the Bell family became the center of the British press, there were on average of 250 calls sent to the information department with possible tips on who the killer may be or to fill in any gaps that were present. None of the tips had advanced the investigation and when Alistair had agreed to have his previous relationships revealed, the public refused to help.
Alistair Bell had been in a relationship prior to Penny for eleven years with a man. The press went on to say that the general public no longer felt sympathetic to the family as they believed that it could have been a disgruntled ex of Alistair’s.
Despite the public no longer willing to be of any assistance, the police were able to conduct 8,000 interviews and write 2,500 statements regarding the case. However, none of these statements or interviews led anywhere. There has also been no DNA link despite Penny fighting back with her attacker. That doesn’t mean however, that there was never any DNA from the perpetrator.
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Penny’s daughter Lauren who was nine years old at the time of her mother’s untimely and horrific death, told reporters that the police had lost her mother’s finger nails which may have had the killer’s DNA on them. She went on to say that her mother’s nails had been missing for seventeen years and when they were found, they could not be used as evidence due to contamination. Not only did the police lose vital evidence that could later lead them to the killer, but at the time of the initial investigation, officers had left Penny’s car unprotected. Key evidence lost at the hands of officers not following protocol.
In 2000, nine years after Penny’s death, forensics tested the blood splatter but that too led them nowhere. Lauren who is now in her thirties, was told by police that unless the killer confesses, they won’t be able to identify, locate and charge the man who took her mother from her and her brother.
Penny Bell’s case still remains open and police hope to capture the man who committed such a brutal crime and stole a mother from her children.
Sources
Holden, W. (1991) ‘Mystery of murdered wife’s appointment’, Daily Telegraph, 10 Jun, 3, available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/IO0701015560/GDCS?u=rdg&sid=GDCS&xid=54d2f733 [accessed 19 Jan 2021]. “Alistair believing his wife held no secrets from him, his description of his wife, the time that the two women found the car and the car park being close to the route she normally took to work and the estimation of the time it took her to get to the car park.”
Dalrymple, James. “Murder agony haunts the village of the stars.” Sunday Times, 16 June 1991, p. 7. The Sunday Times Digital Archive, http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/8Cb7n0 . [Accessed 19 Jan 2021]
McMahon, James. The inside story of Britain’s most notorious cold case murder, Vice, 15 November 2018. Available: https://www.vice.com/en/article/ev3nyw/the-inside-story-of-britains-most-notorious-cold-case-murder . [Accessed 19 Jan 2021]
Thomson, Emily. Who killed Penny Bell? Morbidology, 22 January 2019, available: https://morbidology.com/who-killed-penny-bell/ . [Accessed 19 Jan 2021]
Dunbar, Polly. My precious Penny, the baby who’s helped me reclaim my mother from her murder: Daughter of woman stabbed 50 times in horrific unsolved killing has now become a parent herself, Dailymail, 15 August 2015, available: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3199425/My-precious-Penny-baby-s-helped-reclaim-mother-murder-Daughter-woman-stabbed-50-times-horrific-unsolved-killing-parent-herself.html . [Accessed 19 January 2021]
