Posted on 07/03/2008 10:34:39 PM PDT by csvset
Students stabbed and set alight
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Two French research students found stabbed to death following a flat fire had been tied up and suffered horrific, excessive injuries, police have said.
The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in a ground-floor flat in New Cross, south-east London, on Sunday night.
They had suffered a total of 243 stab wounds to the head, neck and chest before being set alight.
The biochemistry students had been studying at Imperial College, London.
Det Ch Insp Mick Duthie said he had no idea why the students were killed.
Fiancee's tribute
Speaking at a news conference at Scotland Yard, he said the flat had been broken into six days before and a laptop had been stolen.
He also said a white male was seen running from the scene of the fire, but police have not ruled out the possibility others might have been involved in the murders.
Police said they were shocked by the crime
Mr Bonomo's fiancee, Mary Bertez, wrote a tribute to him on the social networking website facebook.
She said: "I will never stop thinking about you for a second. I had 10 months of a happiness I had never experienced until then.
"Today you are gone. I will try to be as good as you always wanted.
"I will give all the required information to the investigation, my dear, so you can be avenged."
Mr Duthie said one line of inquiry was that the attack was a case of mistaken identity.
"We cannot find anything in these two young men's background to suggest they were involved in any criminality, that they had done anything wrong," he said.
'Frenzied, horrific attack'
The BBC's crime correspondent Ben Ando said Mr Bonomo had 196 stab wounds, including 100 to his back, and Mr Ferez had been stabbed 47 times.
He added a chemical was used as an accelerant in the fire.
Mr Duthie said: "The extent of the injuries are horrific. I have never seen injuries like this throughout my career.
"I would not say this was a professional attack. I would say it was a frenzied, horrible, horrific attack.
"I imagine it would take some considerable amount of time to inflict the nature of the injuries."
The detective said no weapon had been recovered during extensive searches in the area and police were studying some "limited" CCTV footage.
Mr Duthie said the postgraduate students had been in London since the beginning of May and were due to return to France at the end of July.
Imperial College's Rector, Sir Roy Anderson, said the students had "bright futures ahead of them".
The emergency services were called after residents reported an explosion in Sterling Gardens on Sunday night.
Mr Ferez, who lived at another south London address, was visiting his friend when the attack took place.
Mr Duthie said Mr Bonomo was known to be alive in the early hours of Sunday morning because he spoke to his girlfriend in France.
The parents of the two men are in the UK and have had to identify their sons, police said.
Police said Mr Bonomo, of Velaux, and Mr Ferez, of Prouzel, studied in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, and had been chosen to take part in a research project into chains of protein within DNA at Imperial College, which was due to last up to four months.
That’s just bazaar. Sounds like a message is being sent IMO.
You don’t stab people like that without wanting to scare someone else very bad. And once the people are dead, what’s the fire for? It’s not going to cover the crime. It just places you at the scene longer.
Seems more likely they were randomly selected by a sadist.
Ok, who the hell counted all of those?
Most likely jealousy; crime of passion. Usually women use knives or poison, men use guns.
Wonder how many months the murderers will serve? BTW, aren’t knives outlawed in England? How could this happen, then?
Maybe the killer had some radical notions against biological research? But if they weren't random victims of sadism (my own pet theory at this point) it seems that there must be some kind of history that has not yet been forthcoming.
What doesn’t make sense to me about this is that, as the article says, it would take a while to stab several hundred times. It would be difficult for one person (presumably) to control two young guys at once armed with a knife, not a gun. Could they have been killed separately or were they immobilized? Unless he managed to incapacitate both of them right away... Very, very evil and sad.
History or motive unknown... I think you’re right that another shoe is sure to drop on this one.
Horrible. Thanks for the post. I saw this earlier and was going to search here on FR
Cherchez le islamist.
Unless the perp is someone who gains sexual gratification from the act of stabbing human flesh.
“They had suffered a total of 243 stab wounds to the head, neck and chest before being set alight.
Ok, who the hell counted all of those?”
In America the Medical Examiner, or Coroner, would have counted the number of wounds.
I am not sure of the English title for that job.
This was in the UK. No firearms. Not sure if the girlfriend has an alibi but seems it would be someone of that nature. There was a lot of emotion tied up in these killings.
“excessive injuries...”
As opposed to just the right amount of injuries.
200+ stab wounds is not about a property crime. It’s a frenzied attack. Either the attacker knew the one with the most wounds or he represented something the attacker hated.
At least, that’s what the television tells me.
Considering it is London, the amount of injury and the total disregard for the community with setting a fire... I would start investigating the homosexual angle.
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