Just before Christmas 1988, 22-year-old photographer Lorraine Benson vanished after leaving her work party in South London. The next morning, her body was found near Raynes Park station - beaten and strangled.
As police raced to catch a killer, they uncovered chilling links to a string of sexual assaults along the same commuter line. What followed would make history: Lorraine’s murder became the first ever solved by DNA profiling in the Metropolitan Police.
In this Dee-Brief, Dee revisits the case that changed forensic science forever - from the night Lorraine disappeared to the evidence that finally trapped her killer, 17-year-old John Dunne.
We explore the investigation, the impact on Lorraine’s family, and how one brutal crime reshaped policing in Britain.
💀 About Dee-Brief:Your weekly bite-size dose of dark history and true crime from Switchblade Sisters Social Club - smaller stories, same creepy-cute energy.
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📚 Sources
The Times (Feb 1989): Full text via Archive.org
Mirror Online – Devastated dad of murdered photographer warns her killer will strike again if he is moved to open prison https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/devastated-dad-murdered-photographer-warns-8528418
Office of Justice Programs – Murder in South London: A Novel Use of DNA Profiling https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/murder-south-london-novel-use-dna-profiling
They Walk Among Us podcast (2023): Season 8, Episode 34
Crime+Investigation UK – When Missing Turns to Murder https://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/videos/devastating-moment-they-realised-their-daughter-was-dead-when-missing-turns-murder
History by the Yard – DNA https://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/dna.htm
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