Allotment chief, 80, strangled after meeting
THE president of an allotment association has been found strangled hours after the group’s annual meeting.
Lea Adri-Soejoko, 80, was discovered in a shed at the Colindale allotments, in north-west London, in the early hours of Tuesday.
Police refused to confirm reports from neighbours that Mrs Adri-Soejoko, who was also known by her maiden name of Hulselman, had been found with a rope tied around her neck.
Zak Gulle, 68, who lives nearby, said he had been told she was “strangled with a rope in a shed near hers; her clothes were pulled over her head”.
Mr Gulle said there had been thefts from the allotments, and police said they wanted to track down homeless people who had been bedding down in the sheds.
Det Chief Insp Noel McHugh said: “We’ve been told the allotments may have been used by rough sleepers and we are keen to trace them.” Mrs AdriSoejoko moved to Britain from Belgium in 1966. DCI McHugh said she was “very active and very well-known in the area, always at her allotment. A pillar of the community, she was a mother and grandmother”. Officers said that she had been due to attend a “gardening and horticulture” meeting on Monday evening but that she had failed to turn up.
DCI McHugh added: “Her family became concerned and made their own inquiries before visiting the police station, which led officers to the allotments. Her family are devastated.”
In an earlier statement, he confirmed that police did “not have a motive for Lea’s murder” and said she had died in “the most tragic way possible”.
He said that she had access to the building in which she was found, but would not confirm reports about how she died.
The officer added: “There are a number of buildings ranging from sheds to garages. It is best described as a garage, it had two wooden doors. She had access to it.”