We’ve had hearts ripped out, say allotment murder victim’s family
THe family of a grandmother who was strangled on an allotment spoke of their agony yesterday as an Iranian man appeared in court charged with her murder.
lea adri-Soejoko, 80, was found dead in a lock-up belonging to an allotment association of which she was secretary.
The Belgian-born pensioner was strangled yards from her home in Colindale, north-west london last Monday.
Yesterday her devastated son Mark said: ‘everything in our family’s lives pretty much revolved around her. We’ve had the heart ripped out of our family.’
The IT analyst added: ‘She was a wonderful, funny, feisty, active woman and she was getting younger by the day. She may have been 80 but she lived like she was 30.
‘She just loved her life and now that has been cruelly taken away from her. It’s the worst thing in the world to lose her, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.’
His sister Tessa, who works as a landscape gardener, first introduced her mother to the nearby allotments several years ago. She said: ‘Mum loved working at the allotments, she was the kind of person who would do anything for anyone. This event affected not just our family but the whole community. We need truth and justice.’
officers are appealing for information about Mrs adri-Soejoko’s final hours. She was last heard from at 2.30pm last Monday.
She was reported missing at 8pm that evening after failing to turn up to a garden meeting and police later found her body at 2am the next day.
last night the Iranian murder suspect, Rahim Mohammadi, 40, was revealed to be living in a homeless shelter in east london.
Mohammadi, of Hackney, spoke through a Farsi interpreter only to confirm his name and address when he appeared at Wimbledon magistrates’ court. He was remanded in custody to appear at the old Bailey tomorrow.