THE last hour of Amélie Delagrange, the young Frenchwoman murdered as she took a short cut home across a cricket field, was documented in a series of blurry CCTV images.
Detectives investigating her murder — which may be linked to the killing of Marsha McDonnell, a student, 18 months ago — said that footage released yesterday pieced together Mlle Delagrange’s movements before she was attacked on Twickenham Green, southwest London, last Thursday night.
The indistinct pictures show Mlle Delagrange, 22, in Cristalz wine bar, Twickenham, where she had a drink with some French friends on the night she died. Others show her on board a 267 bus, which she caught at 9.39pm to go home. Later images place Mlle Delagrange at Fulwell bus garage, where she disembarked after missing her stop.
Another camera places her, at 9.45pm, passing a fish restaurant as she walks back towards Twickenham Green. Detectives are still reviewing images from the last camera to capture Mlle Delagrange. Mounted on a moving London bus, it filmed her as she approached the Green from Hampton Road.
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Officers are studying the film from the moving camera — used to monitor traffic offences in bus lanes — to determine whether anyone followed Mlle Delagrange before she left the brightly lit streets to walk across the park. If the killer was not following Mlle Delagrange, he is likely to have been hiding in the dark for a random victim. Her body was found at 10.30pm.
The cricket sightscreens were taken away yesterday for analysis. They will be subjected to light-sourcing techniques to determine if an attacker may have been hiding behind one or snagged clothing as he made his escape. No weapon has been found at the scene, but Mlle Delagrange — like Miss McDonnell, 19, who was killed in nearby Hampton in February 2003 — died from severe head injuries.
Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Murphy, heading the investigation, said: “There has been a lot of talk of a hammer, but it could have been a bar, or a pole or a brick.”
Miss McDonnell’s mother said that Mlle Delagrange’s murder had reawakened her fears that her daughter’s killer was still at large. Ute McDonnell said: “When I first saw the picture of Amélie, I thought: ‘Oh my God, that’s Marsha.’ They looked so alike, both young, blonde and very pretty.”
The victim of another attack that could be linked to the murders said that she would assist the police. Edel Harbison, 34, a City accountant, was attacked on Twickenham Green in April.