Hair fetish links murders in Italy and Britain - November 18, 2007
Police in Italy have re-opened the hunt for a killer who is believed to have murdered an Italian schoolgirl and a British mother.
Detectives have linked the murder of Heather Barnett, 48, in Bournemouth in 2002 and the disappearance in 1993 of Elisa Claps, then 16, in the town of Potenza, southern Italy, because of a bizarre hair-cutting fetish.
A lock of another woman's hair was found in Miss Barnett's hand when her mutilated body was found by her two children in her home, while 10 other women in Bournemouth told police some of their hair had been snipped off on buses.
About 14 Italian women also said a man had snipped their hair on buses near Potenza. A detective from Dorset is to appear on the Italian version of BBC1's Crimewatch programme tomorrow night.
Police have a suspect. The man lived in Potenza in 1993 and then Bournemouth at the time of Miss Barnett's death. Although he has since been arrested in connection with Miss Barnett's murder, he has never been charged.
Miss Barnett was hit over the head with a hammer-like object and stabbed several times. Her breasts were cut off and placed next to her body.
Miss Claps's body was never found, but a police spokesman in Italy said: "We are using cutting edge technology to re-examine the areas that Elisa was believed to have been in last."
Source - Telegraph Co Uk