The Unsolved Murder of Patsy Morris
Patricia ‘Patsy’ Morris was a 14 year old school girl from London. She had one sister and two brothers and lived with her family in Feltham.
On 16th June 1980, Patsy was seen leaving school during her lunch break after telling her friends she was going home to change her clothes which had got wet in the rain. A witness saw Patsy just after noon near her home. Conflicting reports also stated Patsy may have been bunking off school as she had a double history scheduled for the afternoon, which was a class he did not like. The last sighting of Patsy was a witness report placing her at a bus stop near Hounslow Heath between 12.20pm and 12.40pm, this was the last time she was seen alive. Hounslow Heath was known to be dangerous and attacks on women were known to have happened in the area, though these were rapes and not murders.
Two days later, Patsy’s body was found on Hounslow Heath just a five minute walk from her home. Patsy’s clothing was disheveled, her underwear removed and tights were knotted around her neck. There were no signs of sexual assault but due to the way Patsy’s body was found the motive for her murder was likely sexual. A detective on the case told the media they felt another schoolchild playing truant may have key information. Shortly after the discovery of Patsy’s body, her father received a phoned death threat from a local caller with a local sounding accent, the caller was an unidentified teenage boy. At the time of the killing, police made no arrests and could not find any evidence for who had killed Patsy, the case grew cold.
In February 2008, police investigated a possible confession by serial killer Levi Bellfield who was said to have bragged about the murder to a cellmate while in prison for murder. Bellfield would have been 12 at the time, and attended the same school as Patsy, the two knew each other and he was her childhood boyfriend. Patsy’s murder occurred a year before his first conviction for burglary however Bellfield’s first known murder was not until he murdered schoolgirl MIlly Dowler in 2002, it has been speculated but not proven that Bellfield began killing earlier. Bellfield frequently played truant from school and was known to visit Hounslow Heath, where Patsy’s body was discovered. Former partners of Bellfield also told police that Bellfield hated blonde women and he targeted them in his attacks, some say that Patsy may have rejected him resulting in him murdering her and the start of his violent obsession with blondes. In the days following Patsy’s murder her family received a death threat from an unidentified teenage boy, Patsy’s father states he believes this was Bellfield. Police issued a statement in 2016 that they had exhausted all lines of inquiry and no evidence linked Bellfield to any other unsolved crimes.
Patsy’s death was also linked to other unsolved murders in the area including 16-year-old school girl Lynne Weedon in 1975, Elizabeth Parravincina in 1977, these two girls and Patsy were all murdered within 5 years of each other in the same area. The unsolved murder of 21-year-old Eve Stratford has also been linked as DNA had proven Eve was murdered by the same person who killed Lynne. According to a publication in 2015, Patsy was tied up in a similar fashion to Evem with tights being used to tie her hands behind her back.
Patsy’s murder remains unsolved.