Since then, a man from Christchurch in Dorset contacted the Beds & Herts major crime unit’s cold case review unit.
He told detectives he recognised the facial reconstruction of the Lady in the Afghan Coat and that she had been wearing the coat when he first came across her hitch-hiking in the Stotfold area in the early 1970s.
At the time, hitch-hiking was a very common means of getting around. The young woman told him her name was Odile Ludic and she was either from north Paris or north of Paris.
She was studying English at a language school in Cambridge and needed accommodation so was offered a room at his family home.
She only stayed with the family for around six months but spoke often about her mother and sister, though never mentioned her father. She had friends in the Newquay area of Cornwall and would often hitch-hike to visit them. She also had a job at a packaging company on the Henlow Trading Estate.
Odile had a boyfriend, who has since passed away, and would spend evenings drinking with him in a social club in Stotfold that has since been demolished.
She liked to drink cider and was said to be a big Gary Glitter fan. When she moved out of the family home, Odile went to stay in Cambridge.
