Killing of Jean Bradley

Jean Bradley, a 47-year-old businesswoman who lived in Crowthorne, Berkshire, was murdered in Acton, west London, on the evening of Thursday 25 March 1993. Bradley commuted daily from Berkshire, parking her car near Acton Town tube station and travelling into central London by Underground. On the day of her death she returned to Acton Town station at around 7:20pm and walked to her car, parked in Carbery Avenue, stopping briefly to buy drinks on the way. As she was about to get into her car, she was suddenly attacked by a man who stabbed her eight times with a knife believed to be a butcher's or carving knife. She sustained defensive wounds to her hands.

A passing carpenter witnessed the struggle and stopped his vehicle to confront the attacker, coming face-to-face with him before the man fled. The carpenter pursued him for over a mile through several streets and the South Acton Estate, with the chase witnessed by multiple other people along the route. The attacker was described as tall, gaunt, in his late thirties or early forties, wearing a distinctive black sou'wester hat apparently made from a bin liner, and a cream three-quarter-length parka coat. He was last seen walking towards Acton High Street.

No motive for the killing was established. Nothing was stolen from Bradley and she had not been sexually assaulted; her handbag was found in the back seat of her car. Police appealed for information on the BBC's Crimewatch programme three weeks after the murder and offered a £20,000 reward. A distinctive piece of plastic bag material recovered from the scene, bearing the brand name "Narcissus," was traced to a manufacturer in Ayrshire but did not lead to an identification of the killer.

On 28 August 1993, five months after the murder, 39-year-old Francis "Frank" Marnell, an unemployed man from Northolt with a history of mental illness, was charged with Bradley's murder. He was identified by the carpenter and other witnesses in identification parades, though he denied the killing while acknowledging he could not remember his movements. At a magistrates' hearing on 11 November 1993, the case against Marnell was dismissed after the magistrate found the evidence insufficient, partly because other witnesses had identified different individuals and two acquaintances of Marnell claimed he had an alibi. No further suspects have been arrested or charged.

The case resurfaced in later years, including in 2000 coverage of the Metropolitan Police's murder clear-up rate, a 2001 forensic review, and 2008 speculation linking the killing to Robert Napper following his conviction for the murder of Rachel Nickell; investigators found no connection, and Napper did not match witness descriptions of Bradley's killer. The murder remains unsolved.