UK UK - Penny Bell, 43, Ealing, London, 6 June 1991

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I’ve just read through the last few posts and I can’t help but feel sorry for Penny Bell’s daughter.

The timeline in this murder is critical, if JR placed himself in Penny’s car within that 50 minutes and you work backwards from the leisure centre it just can’t really be anyone else that killed her.

From this thread poor crime scene management and what appears to be a total disregard for secure evidence storage has resulted in no chance of a conviction.

This is what’s so sad for Penny Bells family.
 
Just re-read page 1 and two things stand out.

1. Penny had been very stressed, as stressed as her family had ever seen her. She wouldn’t talk about it.
2. There’s mention of an adopted child earlier on in her life.

These two facts add up to blackmail and a spurred child could have the emotion to react as feverishly as the perpetrator did.

Has anyone else come across this line of enquiry before?
 
Terryb808 said:
Just re-read page 1 and two things stand out.

1. Penny had been very stressed, as stressed as her family had ever seen her. She wouldn’t talk about it.
2. There’s mention of an adopted child earlier on in her life.

These two facts add up to blackmail and a spurred child could have the emotion to react as feverishly as the perpetrator did.

Has anyone else come across this line of enquiry before?
Click to expand...

Penny Bell murder: 'It's been 30 years, I need to know who ...​

PressReader
https://www.pressreader.com › bella-uk
''Sep 28, 2021 — She was adopted at an early age and left to fend for herself at 16,” Lauren said. “She clearly wanted something so different for her own family,''
 
I have heard theories that the killer wasn't known to Penny, hijacked the car and then killed her, with names like Robert Napper and Colin Ash-Smith being mentioned. The money she had on her (£8K I believe, which was a large amount in 1991) was just a red herring, although the killer took it. Don't agree with that scenario personally.
Such a bizarre case in so many ways.
1) If the culprit had met Penny to get the money, and kill her, why would he have her drive down a busy main road on a week day morning. Penny was flashing her lights, driving very slowly and obviously trying to draw attention to her car. She could of deliberately crashed as well, which I find strange she didn't do, if she was in fear of her life at that point.
2) I presume the leisure Centre was the first place the killer saw which meant they could park up, but I can't believe that was pre-planned.
3) The ferocity of the attack meant that he would of been covered in blood. Did he bring a change of shirt, which might explain how he escaped with no-one noticing a thing.
 
Westchester76 said:
I have heard theories that the killer wasn't known to Penny, hijacked the car and then killed her, with names like Robert Napper and Colin Ash-Smith being mentioned. The money she had on her (£8K I believe, which was a large amount in 1991) was just a red herring, although the killer took it. Don't agree with that scenario personally.
Such a bizarre case in so many ways.
1) If the culprit had met Penny to get the money, and kill her, why would he have her drive down a busy main road on a week day morning. Penny was flashing her lights, driving very slowly and obviously trying to draw attention to her car. She could of deliberately crashed as well, which I find strange she didn't do, if she was in fear of her life at that point.
2) I presume the leisure Centre was the first place the killer saw which meant they could park up, but I can't believe that was pre-planned.
3) The ferocity of the attack meant that he would of been covered in blood. Did he bring a change of shirt, which might explain how he escaped with no-one noticing a thing.
Click to expand...
I should add...I read a few pages back that the culprit must of had an accomplice, who was in the car park at the leisure center in a vehicle, or if not an accomplice, a vehicle, so he could flee the scene without being seen. However, going back to Point 1 I made above. Why the ridiculous drive down a busy street prior to parking up at the leisure center? If he was planning to kill her at the leisure center and escape, why didn't he restrain her, and drive himself? Seems a massive risk to effectively kidnap her, and then take a journey through a busy, populated area.
 
Westchester76 said:
I should add...I read a few pages back that the culprit must of had an accomplice, who was in the car park at the leisure center in a vehicle, or if not an accomplice, a vehicle, so he could flee the scene without being seen. However, going back to Point 1 I made above. Why the ridiculous drive down a busy street prior to parking up at the leisure center? If he was planning to kill her at the leisure center and escape, why didn't he restrain her, and drive himself? Seems a massive risk to effectively kidnap her, and then take a journey through a busy, populated area.
Click to expand...
I think the accomplice idea came about because the perpetrator escaped such a busy place without anyone seeing him.

You’re right about it being an unplanned murder, one instigated out of rage. This tends to indicate someone she was involved with that just wouldn’t accept it was over.

Alternatively, it could have been one of her husbands ex partners, who likewise couldn’t accept he was now happily married.
 
Terryb808 said:
The timeline in this murder is critical, if JR placed himself in Penny’s car within that 50 minutes and you work backwards from the leisure centre it just can’t really be anyone else that killed her.
Click to expand...
JR also failed to come forward, despite supposedly being a family friend.
Not much of a friend if he just sits in silence for 10 months, before admitting that actually he was there on the day.
I don't think he actually came forward anyway. He kept quiet until the police called him in for questioning.
 
tes1984 said:
JR also failed to come forward, despite supposedly being a family friend.
Not much of a friend if he just sits in silence for 10 months, before admitting that actually he was there on the day.
I don't think he actually came forward anyway. He kept quiet until the police called him in for questioning.
Click to expand...
He has to be in the frame for this, question is, how was his finger prints not found in all the blood in the car?
Even if the police had prints and no one on record, they must have checked him when he was interviewed.
 
Sadly there are a lot of UK cold cases where the victim was stabbed to death, without the killer leaving any fingerprints.
 
tes1984 said:
Sadly there are a lot of UK cold cases where the victim was stabbed to death, without the killer leaving any fingerprints.
Click to expand...
The only prints in the car other than PB's belonged to JR who admitted being in the car that morning.
 
CSIAngus said:
The only prints in the car other than PB's belonged to JR who admitted being in the car that morning.
Click to expand...
Very true and the police would have charged him if the prints had been bloodied.
He uses plausible deniability with the police and the media.

Yes I was there, but we were having an affair, and I left before anything bad happened, and I didn't know she had 8.5k cash on her, and I know who the real target of the hit was, but I can't tell you unless you pay me.
 
tes1984 said:
Very true and the police would have charged him if the prints had been bloodied.
He uses plausible deniability with the police and the media.

Yes I was there, but we were having an affair, and I left before anything bad happened, and I didn't know she had 8.5k cash on her, and I know who the real target of the hit was, but I can't tell you unless you pay me.
Click to expand...
According to witnesses who saw Penny on the drive to the leisure centre the perpetrator wasn’t wearing gloves.
For him to say he was there, but left before anything bad happened doesn’t leave much time for anyone else.
As has been pointed out the leisure centre was a strange place to commit a planned murder, therefore, it was a random selection.
On the drive they were getting a lot of attention due to Penny trying to get help.
It would be interesting to read his statement because timing in this case (like so many others) is critical.
 
tes1984 said:
JR also failed to come forward, despite supposedly being a family friend.
Not much of a friend if he just sits in silence for 10 months, before admitting that actually he was there on the day.
I don't think he actually came forward anyway. He kept quiet until the police called him in for questioning.
Click to expand...
Actually I was wrong about this. JR was questioned earlier in the investigation and didn't mention anything about affairs or hitmen.
He seems to be playing games with the police - he says he returned home and his wife told him Penny had been killed. However Penny wasn't identified until 24 hours later, so there's no real way his wife could have told him that.
 
This 1993 case, as previously referenced, is similar to Penny Bell's murder, started thread..
www.websleuths.com

UK - UK- Jean Bradley, 47, operations manager, fatally stabbed by man with 8'' knife @ her BMW car, near Acton Town underground station, London,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jean_Bradley By Holly Evans 9 JUL 2022 rbbm https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/murder-successful-businesswoman-stabbed-8-24414130 Jean Bradley was stabbed eight times in Acton in a random stranger attack (Image: Met Police) ''Prior to her...
www.websleuths.com www.websleuths.com
 
It seems fairly obvious to me that JR was having an affair with Penny's husband, possibly a 3 way thing involving Penny if not certainly something was going on between JR & the husband. The husbands demeanor in the Crimewatch interview & subsequent abandonment of his own children put him in the frame clearly for me. I think he & JR were complicit in planning Penny's murder. The two of them came up with a scheme were JR would blackmail the husband by threatening to expose the affair, the money being withdrawn then stolen was set up so that it would look like a robbery gone wrong. I think the supposed sightings of Penny are possibly a red herring & she was being driven somewhere AFTER being stabbed & following the killer leaving the car they realised she wasn't & went back to finish the job. Then a few years later the husband ended things with JR who then threatened to reveal what happened in order to obtain more money from the husband, going to great lengths to terrify him but saying to the police/newspapers it was Penny he was in a relationship & not the husband & hes probably done this a number of times over the years to scare the husband into paying out "See I ALMOST told the truth & now you know how clever I am youd better do as I say or next time I will tell the truth". The husband banishing his own kids is because he feels guilty & maybe they were getting too close to the truth
 
JayBix said:
It seems fairly obvious to me that JR was having an affair with Penny's husband, possibly a 3 way thing involving Penny if not certainly something was going on between JR & the husband. The husbands demeanor in the Crimewatch interview & subsequent abandonment of his own children put him in the frame clearly for me. I think he & JR were complicit in planning Penny's murder. The two of them came up with a scheme were JR would blackmail the husband by threatening to expose the affair, the money being withdrawn then stolen was set up so that it would look like a robbery gone wrong. I think the supposed sightings of Penny are possibly a red herring & she was being driven somewhere AFTER being stabbed & following the killer leaving the car they realised she wasn't & went back to finish the job. Then a few years later the husband ended things with JR who then threatened to reveal what happened in order to obtain more money from the husband, going to great lengths to terrify him but saying to the police/newspapers it was Penny he was in a relationship & not the husband & hes probably done this a number of times over the years to scare the husband into paying out "See I ALMOST told the truth & now you know how clever I am youd better do as I say or next time I will tell the truth". The husband banishing his own kids is because he feels guilty & maybe they were getting too close to the truth
Click to expand...
Very interesting theory, although I'm not sure if the husband's bisexuality was such a great secret. Penny knew, as did the children, the employees of the Bells, and Penny's long term business partner.
I don't know if blackmail works in this scenario. Or would Penny's business clients leave in droves if they found it she was a swinger/having an affair/married to a bisexual?
 
tes1984 said:
Very interesting theory, although I'm not sure if the husband's bisexuality was such a great secret. Penny knew, as did the children, the employees of the Bells, and Penny's long term business partner.
I don't know if blackmail works in this scenario. Or would Penny's business clients leave in droves if they found it she was a swinger/having an affair/married to a bisexual?
Click to expand...
Just as a further twist to this, I've been told that JR was close to COLIN IRELAND. I'm not suggesting he was involved but it's a bizarre link
 
JayBix said:
Just as a further twist to this, I've been told that JR was close to COLIN IRELAND. I'm not suggesting he was involved but it's a bizarre link
Click to expand...
Had to look him up..
www.mirror.co.uk

Serial killer may have murdered to indulge sado-masochistic fantasies he denied

Colin Ireland was one of Britain's worst serial killers - torturing and murdering five men, and even calling police warning that he could kill 'one a week' if he wasn't caught
www.mirror.co.uk www.mirror.co.uk
''Former soldier Ireland became known as the 'gay slayer', reportedly posing as a homosexual to be taken to each of his victims' homes, where he tortured and murdered them in the summer of 1993.''
 
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