The Murder of Claire Tiltman
Claire Tiltman was a 16-year-old school student. She was an only child who lived with her parents in Greenhithe, UK. Claire was described as lively and popular with a wide circle of friends.
On 18th January 1993, Claire took a shortcut down an alleyway on her way to meet a friend. She was about 100 steps away from a busy main road when she was stabbed 49 times in an apparently random attack. There were no leads on the seemingly random attack. For years the details of Claire's murder remained a mystery and the case went cold.
On 12th December 2014, 21 years later, Colin Ash-Smith was charged with Claire's murder and sentenced to life. Ash-Smith had been questioned about Claire's murder in 1995 but his mother had provided a false alibi. He was currently serving time for other stabbing attacks on women and was described as having a 'hatred' of women who bragged about his attacks in diaries. Ash-Smith had also stabbed one of his victims just metres from where Claire had been murdered. Chillingly he had attended Claire's funeral wearing the same jacket he wore when he murdered her.