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Joanna Yeates murder: relatives of 1974 victim say killer could be same

The family of a student who was murdered close to where Joanna Yeates was strangled said they believe both women could have been victims of the same killer.

Detectives are investigating the possibility that Miss Yeates’s killer could also have throttled Glenis Carruthers, 20, who was murdered in 1974 after leaving a party just 350 yards from where Miss Yeates lived.

A cold case review team set up last year to reinvestigate Miss Carruthers’ murder is liaising closely with officers in the Joanna Yeates inquiry after identifying a series of striking similarities between the two killings.

Both women had been strangled, were found fully-clothed and had not been sexually assaulted. Both women also appeared to have died quickly without being able to put up a struggle, and in both cases the victims were found without shoes on.

In each case the crime appeared to be motiveless, the victims were a similar age and were attacked at a similar time of night.

Last night Helena Carruthers, the stepmother of Glenis Carruthers, said: “It could well be that the same person who killed Glenis murdered this other young girl as well but it’s impossible to know....
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)