Two French Students Murdered In London

[Guest Byron]

https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaki.../breaking29.htm

Two French research students were tied up, repeatedly stabbed and left in a burning flat in London, police said today.

One senior detective investigating the double murder described the attack as the most shocking he had ever seen.

The bodies of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23, were found in a house in southeast London after neighbours heard an explosion and saw a man running from the scene.

The Metropolitan Police said the biochemistry students working on a DNA project were covered with stab wounds all over their bodies.

The friends were dead before the fire started at Mr Bonomo's rented flat in New Cross late on Sunday.

"The extent of their injuries was horrific," said Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie. "Everyone working on this case has been deeply shocked by what they've seen. I've never seen injuries like this throughout my career.

"The level of violence used on these two victims was excessive, it's horrendous".

Officers have not established a motive for the attack and have appealed for anyone who knew them to come forward. They had no criminal links or contact with the police in France or England, Det Duthie added.

"They are of good character. We cannot understand why these two young men were targeted," he said. No weapon has been found.

Police are looking at the possibility that they were the victims of mistaken identity. Someone had broken into the flat six days before the fire and stolen a laptop computer.

The pair were on a three-month research project at Imperial College London, one of the world's leading science universities.

They had arrived in London in May to study DNA at Imperial and were due to return to France later this month. Media reports said they had come from Clermont-Ferrand, central France.

Their families travelled from France to identify their bodies today.

This is just an hours flight across the sea from me so thats why it piqued my interest along with the sheer brutality of it. I also suspect something larger is afoot due to the fact they were both working on the same project and that a laptop was stolen from the apartment 6 days before. But maybe i'm just paranoid.....

[Raven Wolf]

Byron....

What stands out to me in this story is a similarity to a case of a female college student who was murdered a couple of years ago (more or less) about 20 minutes from me at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. I don't remember how she was murdered, but she was found in her burning house in a respectable area of town, dead, and her laptop was the only thing stolen.

I'll have to look up more details about this, but it just struck me as odd. She was a law student....VERY bright and well liked.

[Orodromeus]

I hesitated to post this Milleniumistic piece of news because...it would have been very revealing of myself

Though not French, I'm actually in exactly the same position as these two students: I did an engineering school in France before coming for one year to Imperial College, London. One of them was from Aix-en-Provence, which is where I lived for a while. This really freaked me out.

London keeps its reputation of the violent European capital very well.

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/c...icle4260737.ece

Edited July 4, 2008 by Orodromeus

[ethsnafu]

I know our leanings will evidently mean that we tend to look for conspiracy in acts that appear senseless but I think, until we know otherwise, their nationality, educational status and so forth are arbitrary given that twenty one teenagers have been stabbed in the Capital so far this year. They are, sadly, yet another example of a shocking trend in modern Britain and a trend that we are continually reminded does not exist nor should we be unduly worried that our young are stabbing each other on a weekly basis.

As far as I am aware twenty five people have approached the police with regards to this and I pray for a swift and just outcome not only for the boys but for their family and friends.

Actress Brooke Kinsella asked three days ago, after the death of her brother in a similar incident, how many more teenagers need to die by the knife before we act. Sadly, Brooke, it seems there have been three more and counting...

Best wishes,

Eth

If you do find any info on the case you mention Erin please share it. I would love to know if the individual(s) responsible for it were ever brought to justice :)

[Guest Byron]

Some more information about the case,

Laurent Bonomo, of Velaux, and Gabriel Ferez, of Prouzel, both 23, were found lying in the living area of the ground-floor bedsit. Bonomo had been stabbed 196 times with up to 100 injuries inflicted after he was already dead, police said. Ferez had 47 wounds.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie, of the Metropolitan police, today described their injuries as the worst he had seen in his policing career. "These were two young French students who were visitors to our country and had been in London for only a matter of weeks. They were talented students working on a dream project.

"The level of violence used on these two victims was excessive - it was horrendous. The extent of the injuries are horrific. Everyone working on this case, including myself, has been deeply shocked by what we have seen. I have never seen injuries like this throughout my career.''

The pair arrived in London in May to study bioengineering and DNA at Imperial College under an exchange programme with the Polytech Clermont-Ferrand in central France. Their three-month placement had been due to finish at the end of this month.

Detectives said they believed a burglary at the rented flat six days earlier, in which a laptop was stolen, could be linked to the case.

Police were called to the fire in Sterling Gardens, a residential cul de sac in New Cross, at about 10pm on Sunday.

The fire started with an explosion, police said; the property was severely damaged and there was a smell of flammable liquid. It was extinguished quickly but the men were dead before it took hold.

A white male was seen running from the block shortly after the explosion. No weapon has been recovered, and forensic examinations at the scene are said to be ''extremely complex''. Duthie said: "I do not know why these boys were killed or who killed them. I do believe, however, that whoever is responsible must have been bloodstained when they left.

"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."

Bonomo had spoken to his girlfriend in the early hours of Sunday morning. He and Ferez were thought to have been playing computer games together when attacked. Police said there was no evidence of forced entry and keys may have been used, allowing an attacker to surprise them.

A neighbour, Christina Ramires, 32, from Brazil, said she arrived home five minutes after the bang. She said a Spanish friend, also a neighbour, told her she saw two men banging on the window of the flat prior to a "very strong sound" that she took for an explosion.

Ramires said that when she arrived she could see through the open door of the flat, which was blackened and greasy. It had also been broken into three or four months ago, before the students moved in, she said. Another neighbour, who did not want to be named, was told by police after the burglary six days ago that one of the students had been in the shower and disturbed the intruder, who ran off.

Duthie said it may have been 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. They were here as students."

A college spokesman said Bonomo had been studying a parasite that can spread from cats to human foetuses. Ferez's research was on using bacteria to create ethanol for use as fuel.

[ethsnafu]

The latest on this, via Sky News, seems to be asserting that the current thinking is that these men were killed for two Playstations that were removed from the scene of the crime. Does anyone think this highly implausible? Would it not be easier to steal two Playstations from an electrical store than to break and enter a home, overpower and bind two, strong young men, savage them in a knife attack of such brutality that some of the Police were deeply affected by the scene in order to get your hands on a some second hand games stations.

It so happens that a man has been arrested over this but surely there are two suspects to be found? One man would find it extremely difficult to overpower and subsequently bind two opponents I would have thought?

Best wishes,

Eth

[Guest Byron]

The latest on this, via Sky News, seems to be asserting that the current thinking is that these men were killed for two Playstations that were removed from the scene of the crime. Does anyone think this highly implausible? Would it not be easier to steal two Playstations from an electrical store than to break and enter a home, overpower and bind two, strong young men, savage them in a knife attack of such brutality that some of the Police were deeply affected by the scene in order to get your hands on a some second hand games stations.

It so happens that a man has been arrested over this but surely there are two suspects to be found? One man would find it extremely difficult to overpower and subsequently bind two opponents I would have thought?

Best wishes,

Eth

And also have the foresight to bring an accelerant with which to start the fire with. There has to be more to this case than the police are letting the media know.