Murders of Playboy bunny and girl, 16, still unsolved

Half a century after 22-year-old model Eve Stratford was murdered, her friends have never forgotten her - and the police have not identified her killer.

Miss Stratford, a Playboy bunny, was discovered dead in her flat in Leyton in March 1975. Her neck had been slashed.

The case has also not been closed into a schoolgirl found dead six months afterwards - Lynne Weedon, 16, who was attacked and raped in an alleyway near her home in Hounslow, west London.

The murders were linked in 2004 after matching DNA was found on the victims.

Singer - and former Playboy bunny - Sheen Doran, now 75, was one of Miss Stratfords closest friends.

She used to stay overnight at the Leyton flat with the model.

"Her boyfriend was a singer and we used to go the Royal Standard in Walthamstow to support him."

The Playboy club opened on Park Lane, Mayfair, in 1966, and many of the girls who worked there were singers or aspiring actresses or models.

Miss Stratford had started work at the club in 1973, and Ms Doran in 1974.

"It was very good money, but very hard work.

"You are a glorified waitress. You had to stand for 10 hours in heels. But we felt safe on the job.

"We had room managers and no one was allowed to touch us.

"We even had families there in the daytime. I used to sit with the children and draw. We were a lovely bunch of girls, we stuck by each other and we all got on."

In March 1975 Miss Stratford had been Girl of the Month on the front cover of Mayfair magazine, an adult magazine for men.

Police later concluded that the magazine cover had likely enticed her killer.

Ms Doran was on Oxford Street when she found out Miss Stratford had been murdered.

"I was with another bunny friend when we saw the Evening Standard poster saying Bunny Girl Dead.

"We ran straight from Oxford Circus to the Playboy Club and into the bunny mothers office."

Miss Stratford had been murdered after walking home from Leytonstone Tube station at about 15:30 after a meeting with her agent.

At 16:30, neighbours heard a male and female voice and then a loud thud.

At 17:20 her boyfriend returned - to find her dead.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed to the BBC that Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedons murder are still live investigations.

Det Ch Insp Ali Foxwell, of the Specialist Crime Command, is leading the investigation.

The force said since this is a live investigation, "it would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary" and the Met "does not identify any person who may, or may not be, subject to an investigation".

There is no evidence to link the two murders to any other historic case.

Ms Doran and three other former "bunnies" have sent flowers to Miss Stratfords grave on the anniversary of her death - and plan to commemorate her memory together.

She left Playboy after her friends murder. She said it was "too much" for her.

Fifty years on, she added, "It still is".

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