A MAN was being questioned by police yesterday over the murder of a French student who was battered to death while walking across a cricket pitch in southwest London.
The 22-year-old man was interviewed in a West London police station in connection with the death of Amélie Delagrange. He was arrested in Whitechapel, East London, on Saturday night and later released on police bail.
Mlle Delagrange, 22, was bludgeoned over the head while taking a short cut home across Twickenham Green 11 days ago. She was found severely injured and died later in hospital.
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The arrest came after detectives found items dumped from her handbag in the Thames. They believe the keys, purse and personal CD player were thrown in the river at Walton-on-Thames, which is seven miles away, within 20 minutes of the attack.
The distance also led them to speculate that the killer may have been waiting in a vehicle for a victim to wander across the green. Forensic experts are examining the dried-out belongings for DNA or fingerprint clues.
Police are still searching the river for the shop worker’s mobile phone. It is thought they were led to Walton-on-Thames after experts tracked the phone’s signals.
Mlle Delagrange’s boyfriend, Olivier Lenfant, has said that he had spoken to his girlfriend on the phone just hours before she died.
M Lenfant, 25, said she had asked him to visit that evening but that he had been too tired. “If I had agreed to meet her, she might not have even gone to a wine bar to meet her friends . . . not have been taking the bus . . . walking home alone,” he told The Mail on Sunday.
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“All our friends say I can not blame myself. But maybe.”
M Lenfant described the Spanish and English graduate from Hanvoile, 60 miles from Paris, as a sensible girl who was not careless about her safety.
He said police rang him late on the night Mlle Delagrange was murdered, after finding his phone number on her.