JODIE’S FAMILY: WE’RE LIVING A NIGHTMARE
As police admit they still don’t know why teenage girl was stabbed in back...
THE family of stab victim Jodie Chesney yesterday said they were caught in a ‘nightmare’.
The 17-year-old Explorer Scout was murdered in a random and unprovoked attack as she sat with her boyfriend and three other friends in a park.
Police say the teenage killer and an accomplice were spotted watching the five friends, who were socialising on Friday evening in a playground in Harold Hill, east London.
The duo left but returned at 9.30pm wearing balaclavas and one of them stabbed Jodie once in the back, all without saying a word.
The apparently motiveless nature of the killing has led to speculation that it might have been a gang initiation rite.
Friends from Havering Sixth Form College said Jodie had no enemies and suggested she could be the victim of mistaken identity.
Eddie Coyle, her 18-year-old boyfriend, screamed for help as his girlfriend lay bleeding with the knife lodged in her back. She was pronounced dead an hour later.
The Metropolitan Police Service has not yet issued a detailed description of the killer, who was a black youth. ‘We don’t have any idea who killed Jodie,’ said Detective Superintendent Shabnam Chaudhri, who is leading the inquiry. ‘At this stage what we have is two males. There are no descriptions at all.’
She refused to comment on the gang initiation theory and said that investigators were ‘focusing totally’ on trying to appeal for information from witnesses.
Forensics officers were seen removing a bench from the playground, apparently in the hope of recovering DNA evidence.
Jodie’s grandmother Debbie Chesney wrote on Facebook yesterday: ‘This is a nightmare as you can imagine. I just hope that they catch the boy who did it. We are all still trying to
come to terms with it. Please share the post in the hope that the boy who did this or his friends or family have the decency to tell the police who he is.’
One Harold Hill resident said: ‘Nothing said by the perpetrators? Sounds like gang initiation.’ Jodie appeared on the BBC in her Scouts uniform at a Festival of Remembrance in November.
She marched on the stage in front of the Queen and Prince William and earlier in the day posted on social media a photo of herself in Downing Street.
Jodie’s father Peter, 39, viewed the murder scene yesterday before visiting the home of Teresa Farenden, a 49year-old first aider who tried to help his daughter. Anyone with information is urged to contact police or call Crimestoppers on 0800 111.